506 - Ann Denison           Back to Book 3

Fifty years – where did they go? Fifty years at the Blue Bell. Oh what fun times we’ve had. If these walls could talk, the tales they’d tell. Mostly laughter and a few tears. My kids loved it the second they got here!
 
Off and running to meet new friends, who are still friends today. I made new friends too and we are like sisters – so close – so many memories…George McKay got Barbie C and me to help write the Cabaret.
I think we wrote 20 or more, mostly on the Blue Bell porch where we laughed ourselves sick because Barbie thought she was so clever and so funny. Speaking of the Blue Bell porch – Barbie and I played backgammon  and one time when I ran out of dollar bills (yes, we gambled) I bet her the Blue Bell and I lost. She still believes she owns this cottage.
 
All of us also played backgammon and rummy cube on the beach, (too windy for bridge) almost every afternoon. Now we are older we’ve moved to the Casino. So much fun to come back every year and know I’ll be with all my lady friends for whatever the occasion.
 
Let’s talk about the GG. After the beach and feeding the kids – off we’d go to Grey Gables to sing with Breezie and Tink until the wee small hours then run to Boggs Bakery for hot out of the grease donuts… We acted like kids ourselves. Birthday parties aren’t only for children…Often we gathered at the Blue Bell to celebrate someone’s birthday and have a few drinks and have a nice dinner and a large sheet cake with many candles. Any sheet cake leftover showed up at the Parkside restaurant for breakfast the next morning, when we would all gather to celebrate the next birthday, only to find last nights’ recipients name crossed off, and the new birthday persons’ name there. More laughs!
 
Hat parties at the Blue Bell was another favorite. Everyone would come to dinner and had to go into the hat room / bar and chose a hat to wear to dinner. When all were seated I would tap my glass with my spoon, then all the hats go one person to the left, which means all the men were wearing women’s hats. Very funny! …. The group loved it! We even did this at Arrgonee Restaurant and I drew a bunch of people who wanted to join the hat club, including the staff… who wore bread basket on their head with live flowers for hats.
 
So many memories. As the years pass all the grand kids arrived one by one and are carrying on all the traditions of the Blue Bell including adding names to the doors and windows of the birch room. Now the grandkids are getting married and the years roll on. Life has been very special because Charlevoix and the grand old lady The Blue Bell.