8/20/2019        Back to Book 3
 
Just came home from a night out with “the girls”. It’s 10:27, very very late!
But thinking about what makes the Belvedere great, there is only one answer - the friendships!! It’s great knowing that your friends will ALWAYS be there for you. Sometimes we remember the sad times, but we mainly laugh and reminisce about the wild and crazy fun we’ve all had together. I’m quite sure that every generation thinks that their “gang” had the most fun, but I bet that every generation has had an equal amount of fun. I challenge my friends to tell some wild stories before we forget them, and challenge Potter and Chris to publish them.
 
Happily, our gang missed out on the serious drug years (ok, maybe just a little pot) but booze was our drug of choice. One day Stella, Carol, Sissy, Amy and I were making raspberry daiquiris at #220.  We kept blending and tasting and blending and tasting, but something was wrong. We discovered that our kids had replaced our rum with water. After severely punishing those kids, the next time we started blending, they had replaced our rum with gin - such great thinking!
 
The kids thought they were having the MOST fun, but trust me, their parents always had a ball. We short sheeted each other, sent Eddie Mannion to DQ to buy ice cream for hummers every night, marched around the resort singing “The Bridge on the River Kwai” - who knows why? Only Jeffrey Buntin.  We wore raincoats and tried to drown everyone - especially Em and George - thank you Cathy Howe!  We often marched home from the GG singing Eeny Meeny Miny ——Mo, and Uncle Bud would yell out his window words that I cannot repeat in this family book. We sang with Breezy night after night, drank vodka stingers with a shot of vodka on the side, played Cardinal Puff with the Alexander boys, and  I had to borrow money from my kids’ piggy banks to pay my bar bill. No surprise, those darling kids were able to open a GG charge account in my name, and paid me back big time.
 
Sissy Chamberlain could talk us all into anything. If she wanted to go to The Argonne to hear her favorite one-legged guitarist, Tusco Heath, we went. The Crooks would plan dinner outings to far away restaurants and would have a full bar in the back of their car so we could reload. Ann Denison was famous for her Hat Parties. We would all dress up at the drop of one of those hats. We are still convinced that we “made” Josie and Bill Connett’s anniversary party by restaging their wedding. And at Josie’s first funeral, we all dressed in black mantillas. Em rented a horse and put a Jack Rogers sandal upside down in the stirrups. It was a fabulous party. Josie flew  Irene Allen’s band in, Bill and Lilly Connett played their violins, Max played the bagpipes and William learned to play the banjo for the party - what a family!!  So happy I’ve gotten to know my wonderful Judith.
 
Bill Connett was a great President, a great friend and made super biscuits, but for me, Josie was the heart of The Belvedere - the best bridge player ever (according to her) and truly someone who cared deeply about her kids and grandkids, and always shared her wisdom with her friends who ranged in age from 6 to 86. We all adored her, and she and Bill were the perfect example of how your age just doesn’t matter on The Belvedere.
 
I want to take credit for some stuff I did for the club in case you think I was just partying all the time. When on the Golf Board, ALL my pals and I revived the Member-Guest golf tournament. I promised the warden that we would “break even” so I had to sell the extra plastic cups out of the #15 garage. The next year we (and you know who you are) made chocolate chess pie for 120 people and the chef (Banar - enough said) never served them. Potter and Sandy and Ted and Liz Orr ran a chipping event that made enough money to finally tip our wonderful bag boys.
 
When my Billy was President, he asked me to help him find someone to run “Games in the Park”. When I asked around, I discovered that all the young mothers were going to a cocktail party. What?! So Sheila and Rick Tomkinson and Bill and I gave a “Games” party down at Moerland Park. It was nothing like today’s extravaganza , but we rented a helium machine for balloons, served nothing but hot dogs and persuaded Sandy and Potter to run the games. Since the entire resort was invited, no surprise, they ALL came. We are very proud to have restarted this tradition, and those who followed us have been magnificent.
 
As long as I’m bragging, I have to say that Erik (40 year tennis pro) and I came up with the idea for The Venetian Tennis.  Erik seeded the men, and we drew the lady partners out of a hat - you have no idea how annoyed I was that it took 5 years before I drew a partner who could carry me to a victory. Thank you John Crawford.
 
OMG - blah blah blah and I haven’t even discussed our Cabaret years. Ann Denison, my darling precious genius friend, Billy and I had a ball!!  Don Kelley would write lyrics while driving up from Grand Rapids on Friday nights. No one could star like Em, George, Dan, Susan Reese, Sheila, John and Louise - the list is way too long. Everyone pitched in! And if we heard Bud’s laugh, we knew we were funny.
 
I love this place. i miss those who are in heaven, and I thank Stella Alexander, Ann and Don Kelley, Betty B. and Missie McDonnell for being the dearest friends ever.
  
Barbie Claggett   happily ensconced in #49 with my dearest Billy