TVCC, Old Friends, and Kidlets

On Saturday, December 1st, Diane and I attended the combined TVCC Thanksgiving & Christmas party at Finley’s Sunset Hills Mortuary.

“An odd place for a party,” you might say, “but I bet no one complains about the noise.”

Both are true. The residents do not complain one little bit, and we do tend to be a rowdy crowd. So, it’s a good place to be.

When the Tualatin Valley Cruiser Club started 10 years ago, it was a small group of friends brought together by Rick & Jody Rainwater. Our first meeting was in one of the sales rooms above a Chrysler dealership in Beaverton because one of our members, Pat, was a salesman there. We quickly graduated to larger venues, eventually winding up at Sunset Hills where another member, Steve, is a “suit” at that facility. He’s been our favorite undertaker since he joined the club.

The original membership had three Jerry’s, of which I was #2. Now, 10 years later, the Rick’s outnumber the Jerry’s, and that’s OK. Though Diane and I still pay our dues for club membership ($15 a year), we don’t make the monthly meetings like we used to, nor do we participate in the almost weekly trips in the summer. But, we attend the gala affiars that draw in the old members, just to maintain that contact.

Since this party was about Thanksgiving I had an opportunity to wear my turkey had one more time. I was relieved of that obligation as soon as Tom saw it. Tom is our friend who had a stroke and is rehabbing to get back into shape. It was really good to see him and his wife, Linda, laugh. Not only that, they had the last laugh because they took home a lion’s share of the raffle items:

In addition to Tom & Linda, at our end of the Rowdy Table, were Jerry #1, our very own Mr. Miagi …

… Jerry #3, Nelda …

Diane and me, Jerry #2 …

I didn’t get a picture of Diane because she was never sitting down. Instead, she was up running around the room trying to change her luck with the gift drawing. Regarding that, it was the oddest thing …

It used to be a White Elephant gift exchange where a person picks something, or steals something already unwrapped from someone else who opened something ahead of you. Got it? At this event each person drew a number from a container. There were 57 of us present. Once that was done, the matching numbers were drawn to see who would open the first gift. From then on it was up to the next person, whose number was drawn, to either steal, or open a new gift. This went on through 55 people with numbers being drawn by various people in the crowd. Diane was #56, and I was #57 … the last two to choose. What do you suppose the odds are of both of us being chosen last in a random drawing.

Amazing. Since there was only one gift left on the table, and we’d been doing this for a long time, I chose the gift so we could end it, passing up some really nice things. What I got was a little Darth Vader flashlight sitting atop a small container of M&M’s. That was OK, though, because Jerry #1 collects M&M memorabalia so I gave it to him. He has over 2700 unique items in his collection that includes horse racing silks (did I mention he used to be a jockey?), leather coats, to small little item he got from me. I was amazed that he didn’t already have it. Made my day.

Since I didn’t get a picture of Diane at the party, here’s one of her holding her Great Granddaughter Juliett, with Juliett’s Aunt Baylee looking over her shoulder.