Totally Unauthorized

It was time for the hospitality break, so I went off to be hospitable.  Or find the men’s room.  Whatever.

But then I saw these people comparing their scores in the Swiss, and I had to stop and chat.

I’ve seen this sort of thing before, a group of people who travel and play together.  People who make this more than a game, more than just an intellectual exercise.  I remember the El Paso ladies, with their embroidered purses and matching hand-made shirts.  They were damn good, too.  It was quite an honor to be on the El Paso ladies team.

The folks above are from Calgary, Alberta.  They’ve been playing together for years, longer than they really care to admit.  The key to it all is the hats.

They didn’t always have the hats, but at some forgotten time in history they appeared.  The team has a rule: they only buy a pin representing a city if they win an event.  And there are a lot of pins in that hat.

I’ve always like the social part of bridge–when you find the thing you like to do the most, you want to hang out with other people who like it just as much.  So I love it when I see something like this–a group who travel and play together, it just makes me happy.

Unit 499 has a travelling squad–we’re off to Gatlinburg next month.  Think we all need silly hats?  Matching shirts?  Tattoos?