Duplicate Bridge

Six and a half tables played on May 21. First place, Loren Cleland and Dave Ring, second place; John Leisen and Rick Stroup; third place, Gail and Ray Schmidt; fourth place, Theresa Baldus and Harriet Oldenberg; fifth place, Larry Crowe and Bill Momsen; six place, Edna Knobbe and Kathy Leisen.

Five tables played on May 22. First place, Julie Prochnow and Lorraine Quinlivan; second place, Larry Crowe and Jim Fisher; third place, Tom Flaherty and Stan Schultz; fourth place, Gail and Ray Schmidt.The game was so tight that three teams all tied for fourth, fifth and sixth place. 

Both sessions are played at the Mower County Senior Center in Austin.

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Brownsdale Study Club

The Brownsdale Study Club met May 15, at the home of Ida Foster. Jane Hartson brought the meeting to order with the reading of the Collect. The minutes and treasurer’s reports were approved as read.

Eleven members answered roll call to a “memorable May basket. There was no new or old business. “Happy Birthday” was sung to Fern Paschke and Sharon Willis. A motion was made, seconded and passed to adjourn the meeting.

For the outside reading, Jane read from, “The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel.” To stop a car with no brakes, there were such tips as pumping the brake pedal, don’t panic, shift the car into lowest gear, pull the emergency brake with even constant pressure, or try a bootleggers’ turn. To survive a mugging, do not engage with the mugger. If you must fight, use a weapon or strike them in a vital area. How to foil a UFO abduction: Do not panic. The extraterrestrial biological entity (EBE) may sense your fear. Control your thoughts and resist verbally and mentally. EBEs may be telepathic. As a last resort, resist physically by going for the eyes; you won’t know what its other, more sensitive areas are.

Mary Moritz presented the main topic on the Milton Bradley Company.

After visiting a friend, George Tapley, and engaging in an old English game, Milton Bradley conceived the idea of creating a board game.  He wanted to design a purely American game, which soon became the Checkered Game of Life. This was the introduction of the spinner, a new alternative to dice, which had a negative connection to gambling. From this game, the two formed the Milton Bradley Company.

After the war erupted in 1861, they introduced smaller travel versions of games. The company capitalized on fads in the 1870s, jigsaw puzzles in the 1880s and later, educational toys. Before being sold to Hasbro in 1984, Milton Bradley had brought us such favorites as “Chutes & Ladders,” “Candyland” and “Twister,” as well as TV’s “Concentration,” “Password” and “Jeopardy.”

Ida served a delicious pineapple cake.