GOOD TIMES... Summer (Part 70j)

The ”glow“ of the previous evening carried over into the early morning where we reprised our activities from the night before. I was truly tempted to skip the sailing club opening activities. However, conscience (and the fear of an assessment for not showing up) won out and I, reluctantly, headed for the club. Elle promised to follow a little later in the morning. It was a good turn out. It certainly made the work easier. Only two of the regular sailors failed to appear. By lunch time we were ahead of the schedule that Rex had prepared.

Elle had showed up right before we broke for lunch and promptly caught up with Carol, my friend Buddy’s wife. Ruthie showed up about then and the three of them found something to keep themselves busy and out of the way. By 3pm everything on the schedule had been completed and the activities shifted focus to the sailboats themselves. The ”tune-up“ race didn’t count for anything other than a chance to get out on the water. Some of the guys had brought their boats and started rigging them for the next day. My boat was still over in my parent’s garage. I’d ordered a new set of sails but they weren’t ready. When I told Elle I was going to get the boat she informed me that she wasn’t going to sail the next day. I wasn’t expecting that. I don’t really remember why but that news didn’t make me very happy.

Another thing that didn’t make me happy was when Elle informed me that she’d agreed for us to play tennis with Buddy and Carol on the 4th of July. When Elle told Carol she’d ”discovered“ tennis Carol thought it’d be great for us all to play together. She told Elle that she would make a reservation at the country club. I was ill at ease playing at the local high school courts where the chances of someone I knew would see me was about zero. Over two thirds of the sailing group were members or, like Buddy, their parents were. Initially I told Elle ”No way!“. Then, with this smug look on her face she told me that Buddy didn’t know how to play either. But it wasn’t just Buddy that I was concerned about seeing me make a fool of myself.

That night, after she’d put the kids to bed, Elle came out into the living room wearing this unbelievably short dress. It was all white and as she walked across the floor I could see just a peek of her panties. It certainly caught my attention. Then she said that the country club required ”whites“ on their tennis courts and Carol was loaning her one of her tennis dresses. My first thoughts went right to what Carol would be wearing. All of a sudden tennis didn’t seem all that bad.

I went to the club on Sunday hoping to find someone to crew for me. There were some people that I didn’t recognize. There was one who’s face seemed somewhat familiar but I couldn’t put a name to it. He, eventually, made his way over to my boat and introduced himself. Once he did I remembered that he was one of my sailing instructors when I’d first started sailing some fifteen years earlier. He wasn’t dressed for sailing as he said he was in the area to visit with his parents. When I asked if he wanted to go sailing he declined. After making more attempts to find a crew I was about to give up and derig the boat when he came back and asked if the offer was still open. Of course I said ”yes“ and he waved to a woman who was on the porch of the club to come down by the boat. He introduced me to his wife, a petite blond with a definite southern accent, and proceeded to give her his wallet, watch and belt. I could readily see that his dress pants were definitely not geared for sailing but he waded right in and we were off.

From a racing perspective it was not a good combination. He called himself Willy and he probably weighed 175 pounds or more. That was 35 pound more than what was considered to be the optimum combined weight of 300 pounds. I knew the extra weight was really going to hurt in that the winds were fairly light but I really wanted to sail. All in all, we enjoyed our time together if not the results of the race. I found him to be a very interesting person. He worked for his father who made a career of buying small, distressed companies and trying to salvage something from them. Being an Economics major in college it was something that seemed exciting to me. On our way back in I asked what his current project was. I laughed when he told me and I’m smiling as I write this as well. It was a parachute company. We were almost ashore when he told me. I could see his wife was anxious for them to leave and as soon I dropped the sails he was on his way. He did say he might be back the following weekend. I really enjoyed talking with him and his parachute business intrigued me enough to want to hear more.

To be continued...