Bridge Blog 969-A: Unit picnic

Not at the Erie County Fairgrounds like in recent years – this is the last day of the fair – but at another favorite unit venue, the Rescue Fire Hall social hall in North Tonawanda, which has a huge parking lot and the additional virtue of windows, so that those of us facing that direction can see the sunshine on the trees next door.

The picnic is my favorite unit event. Picnic food is the reason. Paul Zittel is in charge and he gets sweet corn picked from his farm that morning. Super fresh. Super tender. There’s also Weidner’s barbecued chicken, which is always good. And there’s corn salsa, which I originally thought that Paul or his wife Linda concocted, but which actually is made by folks down in southeastern Pennsylvania. They sell it at their farm stand.

There are only two empty places left in the rear of the parking lot when I arrive with a couple minutes to spare just before 11 a.m. Not only is it a big crowd, but it’s record-breaking, Betty Metz announces. 33 tables, split into three sections. A lot of Lockport players on hand.

Among the players are youngsters from the Unit’s summer bridge lessons and in-school lessons at Transit Middle School in Amherst. They’re introduced before the game and seem a little shy. I’m told later that some of the girls were a bit tentative in their bidding, but not those two Transit Middle School boys we play in the final round of the morning session. They hold their own against us and finish far better than we do.

Jim Gullo, left, introduces the young student bridge players at the beginning of the morning game.

Betty also puts out the call for candidates for the unit board. Three vacancies coming up and only one person running. If there isn’t a full nine-member board to share the work, she says, they’ll have to cut back on unit functions, like the picnic. Her announcement works. By the end of the afternoon, she has candidates.