Open Day an Overwhelming Success

(By “That Same Old Joker Again”)
Wow! An unexpectedly high turnout of 54 or more. Massively under-catered for on a grand scale but no-one went hungry or thirsty. 

To all those who attended – a huge thank you! It was wonderful to see so many happy, smiling, animated faces – there seemed to be a buzz in the air that bordered on something like excitement, but I might have imagined that. 

To see everybody chatting, interacting, co-mingling, going from one group to another made the day a resounding success for Senior Citizens Club members and guests alike. Congratulate yourselves on making the afternoon all the more pleasurable for each other.

Anniversary
Make no mistake this was secretary, Mary Archbold’s show, and all credit to her.

Mary’s personal touch was on everything – it was her idea to celebrate the Club’s 65 years from the very beginning and she was the driving force throughout.

Pam Pendlebury had the thankless task of greeting and collating attendee numbers, yet here I am thanking her! The gender breakdown was 34 female/20 male – the male contingent no doubt boosted by wives dragging them along and some who may have snuck out without telling anybody. Come on guys, time to get out of those man-caves and join in the fun.

The indoor bowlers have never played so well – all that Sue Walker, Noelene Reid, Sharon Morgan et al needed was an audience to bring out their best. 

Mary Herben displayed the dubious benefits of a misspent youth. With billiard cue in hand she looked right at home making the transition to a full-sized billiard table. It’s a long way from one end of that table to the other, isn’t it Mary?

Ting Warren taught a throng of keen wannabe Mahjong players to an imperfect understanding of the game and then battled Fanny Cinaglia for bragging rights. I predict a huge future for Mahjong at the Club – thank you for the time and effort taken to impart just some of your expertise, Ting!

Meanwhile Fanny’s lesser half, Frank, provided musical background on what sounded like a perfectly tuned piano to my untrained ears. Frank has promised to don his white tux for subsequent recitals – sure to be a treat.

There were 2,000 tables simultaneously playing in the Card Lounge (that’s 4 x 500). Competition must have been keen and scores close – several calls had to be made before they were dragged screaming and kicking to the Main Hall for afternoon tea.  

The Cake
The cutting of the celebration cake was performed by everybody’s favourite senior – Joan Wood. At age 95 Joan is the poster girl for Senior Citizenry. Joan epitomises the very best traits of ageing by staying incredibly active in both mind and body – active in her church, competitive 500 and Bridge player, an avid reader, keen gardener, great cook, solver of jigsaw puzzles and accomplished lawn bowler (Pennant no less!) to name just some of her current pursuits. We should all be aspiring to emulate Joan’s example on our personal voyages toward 95.

Afternoon tea was served and the meagre rations held up surprisingly well, in fact we had left-overs, tons in fact! The lucky door prizes were drawn and at one point it almost degenerated into a baton passing exercise going from one Harvey to another Harvey but fair play prevailed and numerous non-Harveys were duly rewarded.

With so much going on what would have been the highlight for me, the automatic Bridge dealing machine demonstration, got second, third and even fourth billing and went largely unnoticed. A highlight for another day.

Funding
The Open Day was made possible with funding from the Victorian Seniors Festival and co-sponsorship by the Buloke Shire Council for which we are most grateful. We continue to receive great support from Council, which enables us to keep membership fees and afternoon tea contributions artificially low. Council encourages the use of the Senior Citizens’ Centre and consequently encourages increased participation by all seniors. The 40-year-old building is architecturally pleasing and in fine condition providing a great space for all our activities.

A big thank you to the crew of ladies who threw themselves into plating up, serving and finally cleaning up (too many to name individually) and to the Brasiers who took it upon themselves to pack up the tables and chairs.

Come and Join!
Now that you’ve witnessed the vibrant nature of today’s Senior Citizens Club and seen us in action why not come and join us? We want to see you again and OFTEN. We truly enjoyed sharing what we have with you. We’ve never harboured any doubt that we have something quite special here – we could simply have left it at that but we fully subscribe to the mantra “the more the merrier”. 

We all had a lovely day and we’ll continue to have many more fun days so get out and about and drop in whenever you can. And for those who were unable to attend for whatever reason there is a standing open invitation for you to join us at any time. You know where to find us.