Holiday Party Enjoyed - Dec 11, 2011
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Holiday Party Enjoyed
For the first time the JCSA held their Christmas/Holiday party at a restaurant instead of having a pot luck dinner at a member’s home. It appears that many club members liked this idea, as, according to Lois Bloom, we had a better turn out than last year. Lois, who volunteered her home for last year’s Holiday Pot Luck Party, said that we had more people come this year and that the food selection was better. Those in attendance at the dinner all seemed to agree that it was a lot of fun and the food was good.
It started out with all of us meeting at the Doghouse Saloon for cocktails and conversation. Although most of us have been to the Tanque Verde Guest Ranch many times in the past, for meals, none of us even new that the Doghouse Saloon existed. It is about 100 feet from the restaurant and is very rustic inside and when we arrived there was a nice wood fire burning in the fireplace to take the evening chill out of the air. The bar tender/manager, Lisa, dressed in western costume, including a six-shooter and a big knife in holsters, greeted us first arrivers at the door. She is a very friendly and vivacious person and after a bit of conversation she let Fred Kaefer check out her six-shooter. While looking real, it was not. She let us early arrivals taste all of the beers on tap, which included a couple of really potent brews. One was around eleven percent alcohol by volume and another around eight percent. It was a full bar and so you could get any mixed drinks as well as beer and wine. As the main crowd arrived she got really busy and probably could have used a little help serving us, but eventually everyone got their drinks.
Before adjourning to dinner in the restaurant we held the club business meeting and elected the new club officers for the coming year of 2012. You will read about them elsewhere in this newsletter. The club members also passed, with a few dissenting votes, a dues increase from Sixty dollars a year to Sixty-five dollars a year. Fred Secker told the club that we could bring additional income to the club by raising the price of advertising in our newsletter and by having the printed version of the newsletter done by Royal Jaguar.
At dinner we had about eight or so choices from the special Holiday menu to choose from, but everyone at our table except Dolores Z. had the prime rib, which I thought was excellent, as usual, at the Tanque Verde Guest Ranch. Dolores had some sort of stuff pepper that she said was very good too. Our dinner companions were very convivial and it was a lot of fun.
Overheard at the dinner was the new incoming club president, Doug Dechant, getting some ideas from his table companion, Marianne Fortunato about new restaurants for the club to explore going to in the coming year. You can be sure that your new board will take the new ideas to heart and try to implement at least some of them. A lot of the surveys that were pasted out at First Wednesday and e-mailed out were returned, as well. The board appreciates the input of our members and hopes that the rest of the club, that didn’t come to dinner, will take the time to fill out the survey and get it to Doug, so that the board can respond to the clubs desires and put on events that appeal to the membership.
The dinner ended about eight-thirty and most left for home well satiated and in good spirits. A few of us decided to return to the Doghouse Saloon for an after dinner libation, where we found Santa’s helper Chuck Z. and Lisa, the bar tender, loading the XKR sleigh with all the gifts that club members brought for the underprivileged children of the Tohono O’odham Indian Tribe. That car left the dinner with the trunk jammed and the cockpit packed to the gunnels with gifts. If any club members that didn’t attend want to contribute to club’s donations to the children, they can contact Dolores Zimmerman and she will be more than glad to assist with any member’s donations. Thank-you to all the club members that generously donated to help make Christmas better for those children.
Herbie Hampton