A Deal with Love
Story by Bonnie Macbride (BBO: bmacbride) My mother (Wen-Chao) and my aunt (Wen-...
Our bridge story begins in 1966 when I proposed to Susan. She replied” Yes, but only if you promise to learn to play bridge.” I thought she might be kidding but at that point, smitten as I was, I would have agreed to anything. Fifty-eight years later, Susan is still my best friend and my best bridge partner!
For many years we mixed social “kitchen bridge” and duplicate bridge. Later, when the kids had grown up and left home, we got hooked on tournament bridge and travelled to many venues in Western Canada and the Northwest USA. We eventually reached our goal of becoming Life Masters and decided we could live without the stress of tournament play.
Our travel plans included house exchanges in many parts of the world – England, Ireland, Spain, Netherlands – and we found that bridge clubs everywhere provided us with a real entry into the local communities. We met bridge players who shared our love of hiking and were invited to join their expeditions.
The pandemic caused our local bridge clubs to shut down but thankfully BBO opened a whole new world where we could play against distant friends and a multitude of strangers around the world. As we are slowing down from our hiking, skiing, biking days, online bridge provides us with a lot of enjoyment.
There is one downside to our bridge life. In our first year of marriage, my parents asked us to house-sit for a couple of weeks and keep an eye on my two younger brothers. To this date, my brothers, now in their seventies, break into a sweat at the mere mention of bridge – they claim we kept them up past midnight every night learning bridge – they suspect PTSD from the trauma we inflicted on them! All is not lost – five grandkids are ready for indoctrination!
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Dave neglected to mention that his younger siblings got the last laugh. Unknown to Gord and Sue,after a few days of bridge torture, we had developed an unique bidding signalling system of crying,moaning,whimpering and sobbing that resulted in us winning nearly every contract. Brother #1
What a charming story. Want to join our writers group?But wait! I'd better get Sue's permission first.
Swd4g cccd
Oui, il faut insister pour que le Bridge soit pratiqué le plus tôt possible, tout en considérant qu'il n'est jamais trop tard !
Avec l'âge, le chant des possibles se rétrécissant, il est bon de pouvoir pratiquer un sport cérébral tout en étant en société. Le bridge pour cela est parfait.
What a wonderful story. Living together for 58 years as lige and bridge partners. Long life partnership is possible but bridge partners without a quarrel? Remarkable indeed.
Your story makes me wish I’d said that to my husband when he proposed…still trying to get him to learn! Love how you’ve used the game to travel the world and meet people. Inspires me to keep pushing my husband as we enter retirement.
Wonderful story. I’m disappointed that your brothers didn’t learn bridge. However the saving grace are your grandchildren now learning bridge. What a treat.
I too told my beloved that he had to learn to play bridge and I would learn to ski, golf, and fish. I kept my end of the deal, but he swore he would rather be whipped with barbed wire after taking the lessons. I bought a bale of barbed wire, but it didn’t phase him… so now I play with whom ever will play with me and the barbed wire went to a farmer while my husband of 59 or so years (whose counting those yrs) watches football.. I never agreed to that! Tho we are the best of friends!
Sue ve Gord’u kutluyorum,uzun mutlu yıllar diliyorum.
Ben de uzun yıllar kocamla oynadım. 2015 te onu kaybetikten sonra Bridge Club gidemiyorum ,BBO da zaman geçiriyorum,zira 89 yaşındayım .🥰
Lovely love and bridge story.
Thank you.
I am looking forward for more stories.
Kind regards
Wonderful
Gord left out a few important details, including being strapped into a chair, being force-fed Mac and cheese, and one bathroom break every 4 hours. Donnie and I endured this 8 hour regimen for 14 straight days. Brother #2
Much as I enjoyed Gord's story your "clarification of the reality" is just the best!!
I LOVE your story! Thanks for sharing, and trust you have many more enjoyable bridge years together.
lovely story. Thankyou
We also travelled (in a wonderful trailer and van) through 40 of the states of America from 1977 to 1983. Whenever we stopped for more than a few days, we located the nearest bridge club and made acquaintances. We also made friends with the occupants and owners of trailer parks we stayed at for several weeks. Bridge was a great way to connect to the communities we visited. We are still in touch many of folks today. We have been living and playing bridge in Panama for nearly 17 years. I am now 88 and my wife is 92. Bridge has helped keep us active and alert (no pun intended).
Currently I am 85 years old and started back in 1962 at the Blackwood Bridge Center in Indianapolis. I even partnered with Blackwood himself. He was a great player and gentleman. I became life master in 1967 and continue to play online today.
So great, love this story 👏👏☀️😀
nice story - Thanks for sharing
My dad was a great card player, and he mentioned often that Charles Goren was an old bridge buddy of his. Card games in our home were a major entertainment, and when my future in laws were invited to visit for the first time, my dad suggested we teach them a card game rather than sit and talk. That was many, many years ago, but a forever memory.
How romantic 😍
When my daughter JoEllen was about 7-8 years old, I began to teach her a bit about bridge that I had been enjoying for nearly 20 years. I had shared that there were only 40 points in the whole deck, and that if she had 20-21 points, she could open at the 2 level.
Playing a hand, she opens 2 spades and as her partner I have 5 spades to the Q,J,10, and opening count, so I bid 7 spades and it was a lay-down.
She then said she wasn't going to play unless she had a 2 opening hand, so we had to "fix or switch" some hands for her to continue. Today, some nearly 50 years later we can play 2-3 times per week, even though she is 1300 miles away, thanks to BBO's website.