Learning to play bridge, was one of the best things I ever did. My husband was an avid bridge player, so I had to learn. You know how the husband teaching the wife works – it doesn’t. So I went to our local YWCA and took lessons.
In 2008, after my husband died, I came to live in Delaware. I was alone & didn’t know one person. Fortunately, the community I settled in had a social bridge game. It was fun, bridge and lunch.
I met a lot of nice people, one of whom asked if I would like to play duplicate bridge. I had only played duplicate a few times in my pre-Delaware life. My new friend & I set off to Ocean View, Dini Romito’s game. Social bridge is interesting but duplicate is even more so, I thought. I liked it very much and played twice a week at Dini’s game, then at Dorothy Hand’s game and Anna Delapo’s game in Rehoboth.
Over the years I traveled to many tournaments. During Covid, I played from my couch in virtual clubs. Entering the Bridge at the Beach tournament, I had garnered enough black, red & gold points so I only needed 0.05 gold for Bronze Life Master.
Getting 0.05 gold at home, in Rehoboth Beach, just made it that much more special. My team, Bob Breen, Cindy Hoardley & Marilyn Haskins were excellent!
Thanks to Kim Holm for running a wonderful tournament and to the ACBL.
Jenny Draude Krause asked me to play in my first Duplicate Bridge match in August 2015. Jenny became my permanent bridge partner and my wife in November 2016. We played at Maple Grove with Andie as the main director. We did well until Jenny was stricken ill while we played at Maple Grove. Jenny died in December 2019.
My bridge journey is a bit unusual. In 1988, a group of engineers decided to teach ourselves bridge with Charles Goren’s book as our guide. We played at lunch for a few years until lunch hours became lunch half-hours. Then my only bridge for nearly thirty years was against early computer robots or on my smartphone.
My much older neighbor told me I should learn to play bridge when I retire. So at age 60 I took my first bridge class. I liked it right away even though I had not been a card player and had to learn how to shuffle.
At 94, I am pleased that I finally made Bronze Life Master. My late wife and I took bridge lessons many years ago when the children were quite young. It was one of the best things we ever did. Not only did we keep our minds active, but got to meet a lot of nice people (also occasionally some not so nice).
My dad taught me the basics of bridge when I was about 16. I taught my friend, Billy Ullman and together we taught two others. From there the game grew to four tables at school lunch and from there Billy and I started playing duplicate at the Roger Smith hotel in White Plains. There were some very good players there (Ron Gerard, Dorothy Hayden, Allen Truscott to name just a few) but we were too inexperienced to be petrified. Eventually we began traveling to regionals (I can remember a section top in Asbury Park) but we just loved the game. After graduating from high school, I began attending Adelphi University in Garden City, New York where I fell under the thrall of a 25 year old sophomore, with a car. We were within an hour of a dozen clubs on Long Island and I found myself playing more bridge than studying and soon began missing classes and exams. After one semester, I flunked out of college because of my bridge playing. This became even more serious when I was drafted into the army (this was 1966 and Vietnam was my probable destination). However, I lucked out and wound up in an army band in Japan. After the army, I went to Syracuse university where I managed to keep my bridge playing under check enough to graduate in 1973.