A dinner and euchre party for members of the Parker Community Club, new and old, was held on April 24 at the Drayton United Church.
Again this year, Shirley and Lloyd Franklin organized the event, which included a full course dinner, euchre and prizes for long-time members of the club plus others from the area and beyond.
Unofficially, over the past few years, it has become an annual affair to gather together those who once played cards on a regular basis during the winter months.
According to Lloyd Franklin, the late John Sullivan of Alma started the “Community Club” over 50 years ago. Before that, it was called the “Farm Forum.”
Couples in the area would meet at one another’s houses to play euchre monthly in the wintertime around the area of Parker and across Wellington Road 12 (more commonly known as “The Centre Sideroad”) to other concessions leading off of it, including “The 6th” past the present-day Sprucegreen.
Merna Norris, formerly of Peel Township and of what is now Mapleton Township, “drove down” from Owen Sound to see old friends for the evening of eating, talking and card-playing.
If the Community Club was the NHL, she was not a member of the “Original Six,” but she was happy to see many of those who had been important to her in the years when she was growing up in the area.
For Euchre players that night, it was common to hear the expressions: “Pass,” “I’m going alone,” “Are you ordering me up?”, “We got euchred,” or “I’m taking it up.”
Some spoke of playing bid euchre or solo while others continue to play euchre weekly at other venues.
For this evening, the players played 10 rounds of euchre in the tournament. Because of an imbalance of females and males to play euchre, the score sheets were divided into “Olive Oyl” and “Popeye.”
The following card players were recognized: Francis Mantler, high score (68), Olive Oyl; Lisa Bye, high score (71), Popeye; Joyce Wilson, ladies second high (65), Olive Oyl; Jake Van Ankum, men’s second high (70), Popeye; Eileen Downey, floating lone hand; and Hubert Ditner, most lone hands.
As everyone prepared to go into the cool April evening, a long-time participant in the Community Club, Lloyd Scott, who now spends his winters in Florida, said the older form of the club could be 70 years old.
Approximately 24 people participated in the April 24 euchre before returning to their homes, which were now not so often homes in the country as they had been when couples gathered to visit and play cards regularly on winter evenings.
The spirit of the Community Club for this evening, though, had still shone brightly in the basement of the Drayton United Church as someone over the course of the evening would have said, “Let’s make it hearts.”
Submitted by Barbara Downey
