You Are Never Too Old

I just read a comment by Maggy Simony on my blog Some Insights from Howard Bigot-Johnson’s Bizarre World of Bridge.  Maggy will be 90 years old this March and has just written and published a book about sociable bridge clubs that last 50 years.  The book is called Bridge Table or What’s Trump Anyway.  Her comment is quite long because … well she had a lot to say and because she types fast.  I hope I can do anything fast when I am 90.

Maggy

What a wonderful achievement.  I can just tell from her comment, her website and her book that this lady is a go getter.  Here is a bit of an excerpt of her biography from her own website  http://bridgetable.net/ which makes me wish I knew her better.  Other hobbies than writing Bridge Table, are hanging out at libraries, politics (a “junkie”), reading, cooking and cookbooks, occasional beachwalking.  Those sound like great hobbies to me and maybe when I am down in Florida we might even meet and walk along the beach and talk politics.  I too love all those things.

There is information about how to order the book or an ebook version on her website.

My mom is a bit younger than Maggy, a young bride just after the end of World War 2 in Europe who still plays bridge with her women friends.  Most like Maggy are widowed and most enjoy the companionship and intellectual stimulation bridge brings.  My mothers mother and one of her brothers and a sister had dementia but not my mother.  Is this because of her bridge playing ways?  I sat in on one or two of her games and gave a few pointers.

The refreshments and sociability was so nice.  My mother does not want to play in a bridge club and the one time I took her and we were allowed to play in the novice game (our score didn’t count of course) my member spent the whole time trembling.  She is much more in her element with her friends.

You can read this in Maggy’s comment but let me quote the latter part of it here.

Spreading sociable bridge amongst the boomer generation is the surest way that serious and competitive bridge will bloom to something of the level of interest it enjoyed in the 20s-60s. Culbertson figured that out by converting all those auction playing bridge ladies to contract. If women made contract bridge the socially “in” thing to do, serious bridge would also flourish.

The fact is — the only reason bridge was ever the frenzied fad it was back in the 30s, and through 50s and 60s is because of the sociable ladies-only bridge clubs!! We were t he ones who steered children into playing bridge — inevitably SOME will become serious players and competitive tournament players. Inevitably also–human nature being what it is–MOST won’t!

I haven’t seen the book but I am sure that Maggy can take us all back to a time where people played bridge for fun at home.  Every so often we get a few couple together for dinner and bridge.  It is a little different than Maggy’s world but as close as I am going to get.

Thank you Maggy for getting in touch with me and sharing your story with your book.  I wish you great success with it.  And I just hope that when I am 90 I am still writing bridge books too.