And A Good Time Was Had By All

My Conasta group played cards last night. I think we had a better time last night than we have had in quite some time.

All but one of our group are grandmothers. We've got one late bloomer in the bunch. I'm going to tell you about our group. First and foremost we are all Christian women. We have two Methodist, two Church of Christ, and the rest are Baptist. Some of us have been playing for 24 years. We've lost some and we've picked up others along the way.

Mary has two children and four grandchildren. She works part time at several jobs. In the fall of the year she works at the gin, and she also keeps books for her son's farming operation and one of the law firms in town.

Pam has two boys and three grandchildren. She's been a farmer's wife all her married life and also now works at the Dr's office in town.

Carolyn has two girls and four grandchildren. She lost her husband about two years ago, and recently retired from the State Revenue Office.

Karen has two children, but no grandchildren yet. Her son is still in high school and her daughter is in college. She works at the bank in town.

Jennifer has three children and four grandchildren. She works for the University near where we live.

Janet has three children and four grandchildren. She works in a drug store in the next town near where we live.

Diane has one daughter and three grandchildren. She is a bookkeeper for a fellow who has several businesses in the next town near where we live.

Margaret has three children and three grandchildren. She works for the University near where we live.

Ellen has one daughter and two grandchildren. She is retired from the Social Security Administration.

Pat has two children and her daughter is expecting twins any minute. She is retired from a bank in the next town near where we live.

Finally there's me, who most of you have already heard enough about my children know I have three children and six grandchildren. I work for the University near where we live.

Back to card club last night. We played at Ellen's. She had her house beautifully decorated for fall and we enjoyed pork loin, potato casserolle, rolls and layered salad. For desert, we had fried chocolate pies, peanut butter fudge and decadent chocolate brownies. Let me tell you, it was great. In fact, I think we scrapped up every bite. We're old ok, not ladylike and delicate any more. We eat until we're miserable.

Then we played cards. Now to some people(who will not be named in this post and are unimportant since they don't play with us any more anyway)playing cards is a very serious game and they are 'out for blood'. You'd think the $25 prize was what they were going to have to live on for the next month. Honey, that ain't us. We laugh, we play, we talk, we even giggle. One thing for sure...we have fun.

You also have to remember that for some of us, this is the only time we see each other. Now all those Baptist gals see each other three times a week, but we Methodist and Church of Christ may not see some of them from one month to the next, so we have a lot of catching up to do.

What I'm trying to get across here is that playing cards is the pretext for us to get together and have a good time. We've grown up with each other over the years. We've raised our kids together and now we are raising our grandchildren. We compare notes, tell funny stories, and get to know this next generation through the eyes of someone who loves them unconditionally.

I wish all of you could have been there.

What pretext do you use to get a bunch of friends together? It could be a card group, maybe bunko, maybe Tuesday quilting, Thursday lunch for the retirees you worked with, ladies night at the local bingo parlor(do they still have those?) or a ladies Bible class/luncheon at church.

It is important that we do some of these type of things. Even though all the gals I listed above have families, there are people who don't have family near enough or mayby just don't have any family that need to be involved in activities outside the home.

Hope you are having a gorgeous fall Friday. Love one another and remember to pray for our country during these dire times.