Monday, April 13, 2020
Dear Page Family,
So many fond memories of “Charlie”. For over a quarter of a century, mid-70’s - early 2000s, Charlie (and his dear Ginny) and about 10-12 other friends would play duplicate bridge every month. We’d only skip bridge August (for vacations) and February. In February, the whole group would go to Atlantic City. What fun! We even gave ourselves a name, The Oakland Bridge Atlantic City Organization, T.O.B.A.C.O. for short. No bridge for three days. We’d all pitch in to rent a separate party room where we all gathered at 5:30PM and indulge in a plethora of snacks brought by everyone. There’d we plan for dinner and our favorite group wagering game, Slot Machine Pull-off. For it we’d pick one player who would take an evenly pooled pot of money from all of us. That person, followed by the whole group, would then wonder the casino, finally find one slot and then proceed to put the pooled resources into it only once. Whatever remained in the payout tray was divided evenly to all. If I remember correctly, we rarely got back what we put in, except maybe once. As you might guess, our lucky player that time was.....yes, Charlie.
About 2004-5, our group had dwindled down to a trickle due to retirements, relocations and sadly some had passed away including my own spouse, Janet. Monthly bridge and AC gatherings became memories only.
In the late January of this year, I decided to be proactive and reached out to Charlie to...reconnect. Through his children I was able to track him down. We had several delightful phone calls and I was with him virtually on his birthday, 2/8/20.
I’m so proud to have known such kind and decent human being as Charlie. The world was a better place with him but the spirit of his character and heart lives on. Thank you dear Charlie for being a part of my life. Goodbye dear friend.
Roger Lippincott
