Tennis anyone…1970’s memories…how to catch a catch…

This one is from my Memories Trunk…

The picture above was of a friend of mine and myself making an attempt to pretend to play tennis.  To my friend my apologies for cutting you off the picture, but I didn’t have your consent to use your image.  Copyrights issues.  To continue…Why were we making an attempt to pretend to play tennis?  In the 70’s, as it is today, we women would do anything to try to get a qualified candidate to notice us.  St. Croix, U.S.Virgin Islands is a very small island.  Everybody knew everybody and we knew that the “qualified” guys we wanted to meet would be members of the Tennis Club.  Doctors, lawyers…yes, I know…la creme of qualified snakes to make your life a bit more miserable than the regular “qualified” Joe- the-woman-wrecker.  But we wanted to give ourselves an opportunity to meet educated, good mannered, financially established kind of guys.  And that was the place alright.

 We became members, bought the cute outfits you see there, spent a small fortune getting the equipment and there we went.  To get money, you have to spend money.  Logic.

We sat at the open space clubhouse and of course, there they came.  We were totally surrounded by “the candidates.”  Finally we settled on two guys, two doctors, and full of panic, because the truth was going to be exposed that we didn’t know how to play tennis (I must admit, I had played a bit before, so I had an idea how to hit the ball).  But the goddesses of good fortune were with us that day.  The two doctors were not good at tennis at all.  Probably they had the same plan we did.  Made for each other.  My friend and I laughed all the way back home, because in many instances instead of us hitting the ball, the balls were hitting us.  We were making the rules as we went and all in all, it was just a sad situation.  The four of us didn’t know what to do to save face, so we left them with “we’ll see you again, sometime.”

What a fiasco.  Needless to say, our membership became an issue we would not discuss and the tennis outfits and equipment were tucked in the darkest corner of our closets.

The things I used to do in conjunction with my best partner in crime to try to meet interesting guys.  At least I can have a great laugh right now.  Later in life, I took tennis again, but this time was for the pleasure of playing the game and burning calories.  I still would love to play tennis…anyone?  Not looking at all for any kind of guy here.  Hope that is totally understood.

So it was today…11th May, 2011…a day to reminisce about tennis and catching “qualified” bachelors.

Your Happy Contessa

 “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”  William James, American psychologist and philosopher.  January 11, 1842-August 26, 1910.  Ralph Waldo Emerson was his Godfather.