MY DAY

My Day
Yesterday morning, after a fast breakfast, I played Bocce Ball. Our team 12, beat Team 4, 12 to 7. We had the early shift - 8:45.(There is also a 10:00 o’clock game.) I am glad that we were scheduled early, It was to be a hot day. At this time, it was probably a pleasant 70 degrees - on it’s way to a hot 90 degrees. (“But, it is a dry heat“, as they say in Phoenix).
Two of the players on the other team were women, Charlotte and Ginny, and quite skilled “rollers.” I first met them at the Laurel Creek Health Center, where Marie lives. They are “Volunteers”, and bring around drinks and snacks to the residents (and me.) Charlotte’s husband is also on the team (Charlotte has a twin sister who lives in Carmel). Ginny is the team Captain. I assume that her husband was also on their team, before he died, about a year ago. The two families live next to each other, in a duplex on campus. I see Ginny at church every Sunday.
In the afternoon, I played bridge with Virginia (Charlotte’s older sister), MJ and Bud. Mj had a stroke a few years ago, and her doctor recommended that she play bridge for mental therapy. Bud lost his wife a year ago, and he also had a stroke six months ago. That is why they call this an “assisted living facility.”
AN ASIDE:
It is a small world! In talking to MJ, she mentioned that her husband was in the Air Force during WWII. I asked her where he was stationed. She said that his last assignment was on Ie Shima. (This is the first time that I have ever heard any one, since the war, mention that tiny island a few miles off Okinawa.) I told her that I was stationed there too. too. I learned that we were both there at the same time -the latter part of 1945 - in the Fifth Air Force. He was flying B-24’s and I was flying B-25‘s. I never knew him. Because of this coincidence, I get he feeling that MJ feels a “closeness” to me.
Ernie Pyle, the famous war correspondent, was killed on Ie Shima by Japanese machine gun fire on April 18, 1945 They placed a monument at the site where Ernie was killed. It reads, ”At this spot, the 77th Infantry Division lost a buddy.” He was originally buried on Ie Shima, but reburied, after the war, in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, on the Island of Oahu in Hawaii.



None of us had played bridge in quite some time, so it was a case of “the blind leading the blind”. Bud was my partner. Talk about being rusty, I not only reneged once, (MJ challenged me - a two-trick penalty), but I threw my king on my partner’s ace!
Marie and I used to play a lot of bridge. through the years. She belonged to the St. Basil Bridge Club for many years. The original group was composed of 32 ladies from St. basil’s Parish. Two tables of players would rotate around to each others’ homes - each player taking a turn at hosting. Marie was in the Group for 30 years. Substitutes were merged into the Group as players died or dropped out.
Marie and I played bridge with our long time - friends, Pat and Mac Macdonald. We would rotate alternately between each others’ homes. We started out serving dinner first, and then playing bridge afterwards. But, as we aged, we didn’t feel up to the late- ending of the evening, so we eliminated eating dinner first.
We also played round robin- bridge with three other couples for many years. We started out with serving dinner first, and when that got to be too much work, we ate out. When it made too long an evening, we just met at each others’ homes to play bridge.
RCL - 7/1/09