Tag Archives: story

Rene Mcmenamin – Life Master

ACBL District 4

I can’t think of my bridge life without thinking of my brother Tom, a lovely 62 year old sweet soul with Down’s syndrome. Tom came to live with my husband and me 23 years ago, 5 years before I started playing bridge. Tom was there whether I was playing locally on club teams,duplicate at the Jersey shore or taking lessons and playing duplicate at the Vero Beach bridge center.  Tom was not literally at the table with me. Rather, he was riding his bike up and down the Ocean City boardwalk (once as far as Atlantic City!) or riding his bike 12 miles to take tennis lessons in Vero Beach.

Locally, he worked in Chestnut Hill on the avenue and would spend hours with all the local business people….even being interviewed by channel 6 as the honorary mayor of Chestnut Hill!  Tom would always encourage me to play bridge… “Bridge makes you happy, Rene.”  A true sentiment but I eventually realized his ulterior motive….freedom!  So Tom was right…bridge made me happy and perhaps him even happier!

Sadly, Tom now has dementia and his blue eyes are usually clouded by confusion. I told him that I reached a new level in bridge and he just nodded.  A few minutes later he smiled and said “bridge makes you happy”.
Sweet brother.

Bill Goldman – Gold Life Master

ACBL District 4

I don’t believe that my bridge story is very special or interesting. I started to play bridge in the early 1960s when my wife and I were first married and I was in the Navy stationed in the Caribbean during the Cuban Missile crisis. We along with other military couples stationed on  a beautiful island without television or telephones started to play bridge together.

Not knowing much but with plenty of time , I started reading a bridge book by Goren. I must admit I wasn’t very good or had much time to play and when we came home we both  joined the ACBL in 1991.  My  wife continued playing and improving so that she moved up the ranks so that she now is a Diamond Life Master. I on the other hand went to college to earn my MD and Ph. D.

However I did persist and adhered to my mother-in-laws mantra that if you live long enough everything that you want will happen. Now that I am 89 years old I guess I am old enough for a Gold Life Master rank. I persisted.

Anne Pelak – Life Master

ACBL District 4

I spend a lot of time thinking about bridge and feel as if I’m slowly but surely inching closer to a deeper understanding of the game. I am not, however, a naturally gifted bridge player. I’ve been remiss in recognizing some of my weaknesses, and for sure I’ve repeated the same mistakes too often. But the positive flip side may be that I’m persistent. Every game and every post mortem helps in some way to move me along to better bridge.

I am grateful to teachers Joann Glasson, Kevin Wilson, and Beth Rosenthal and to all the people over the last several years I’ve been lucky enough to call regular partners: George Marcy, Harold Koehler, Ellen Preece, Linda Blickman, and Beth Dimler. There are so many generous and talented players who have answered my questions, given me encouragement, or recommended a resource. It takes a village to help aspiring players grow, and I’ve been helped immeasurably by the bridge communities in Unit 120 and the King of Prussia Bridge Club. I will always be especially grateful to my friends from Northeastern PA who helped get me over the LM finish line in Fairfield, NJ: Harold Koehler, Vicki Tarleton, and Jim Post. It feels very good to have met what for me has always been the first big milestone. So much more to learn, and I am super happy to be on the journey.

Frank Morgan – Gold Life Master

ACBL District 4

My goal to be an expert seems far away, but I love bridge, the beauty of the game, great people, nice partners. Ten of my favorite memories:

1. Playing with my parents, brother, and grandma.
2. Starting a high school bridge club.
3. Resuming bridge after a wonderful but all-consuming career in mathematics.
4. Teaching a Williams College bridge class and taking them to tournaments.
5. Bridge cruises with Larry Cohen, including an interesting hand against the Meckstroths, https://sites.williams.edu/Morgan/2013/01/10/royal-caribbean-bridge-with-larry-cohen/ , long before another mentioned on the Sorry Partner podcast.
6. Having my mom become a Life Master on a bridge cruise to Alaska with Billy Miller.
7. Winning in a NewTricks drawing, a partnership with Zia and making a grand slam in the tournament on IntoBridge, https://sites.williams.edu/Morgan/2022/09/27/my-game-with-zia/
8. Playing with Micheal Berkowitz, Alex Kolesnik, Stefan Skorchev, James Holtzhauer, Lisa Berkowitz, some through the ACBL Educational Foundation “Spark” charity junior fundraiser.
9. Playing in NABC+ events at Nationals.

10. Now playing the daily “Challenge the Celebrity” with post-mortem on IntoBridge.

I live in Ocean City New Jersey, where I go body surfing every day, summer and winter.

Paul Sekula – Silver Life Master

ACBL District 4

The Harrisburg Bridge Club spends inordinate amount of time training and developing beginning bridge players. We have a stable of not yet Life Masters, who play better than I do. Mike Mendelson and several others have dedicated a lot of time and effort to developing neophyte players, to get pretty good, pretty quickly. The Harrisburg Bridge Club is a great place to play bridge, with a home like atmosphere and tremendous member cohesion; it is worth driving 100 miles or more to play at our club. The members own our club, so we have a club, not just games.

I played with two advanced partners, frequently to get the number of brightly colored points that I needed. So a special thanks is extended to Mike Zeller and Midge Sobolewski.

Another special thanks is extended to Chuck Meister of the Martinsburg, WVA club; Phil Davis of the Chambersburg club; and Dennis Wick who is willing to work with very junior players, even though he is an Emerald Life Master. Not many advanced players will do that. Those three men helped me immensely when I took up the game, here in Central PA.