When Connie Nelson, our fabulous St. Cloud reporter, sent me her June article, we were "only" dealing with covid-19.
Now, with the terrible events of the last 10 days, Connie's stories are appreciated even more than ever.
Thanks, Connie, for your lovely stories and for "cookies and caring". We need them more than ever!
A daughter of one of our St Cloud players recently sent her Mother a “care package” because she knew her Mom was missing the bridge table during this time of quarantine. The daughter sent the “cheer-up” cookies above. Wonderful, right?
Who was the Mom in question? None other than longtime St. Cloud Club member Charlene Thul. Char is a frequent player at the Club and Gold Life Master with almost 3000 points. Many MN Bridge Blog readers may have met her at various tournaments.
When I called Char to interview her, she was playing bridge online. She answered the phone saying, “I am playing with a robot, and he doesn’t understand my bids.” I almost laughed in her ear, because there’d be many a St Cloud partner who has felt the same as that robot! Char is an unconventional bidder, who intuitively - and notoriously – is aggressive in her bids. Once, a friend included a green “Pass” card inside Char’s birthday card. The friend wrote, “I wasn’t sure if you knew this bid exists!” But, one thing is for certain… if there is a slam or game to be made, Char will be in it!
I asked Char when she started playing bridge. She said that she remembers her Mother sitting at the kitchen table, dealing out four hands of bridge face up and practicing play of the hands. But, Char didn’t learn bridge there. Char learned at the snack bar in Mitchell Hall while attending St. Cloud State University. She said there was always a bridge game going. You could play, leave to go to class and someone would take your place. When you returned, you could sit in again. There was a game around the clock. (And Char’s job while in college was giving away “starter packs” of cigarettes, so hanging around the snack bar was perfect.)
Char said the partner who got her “hooked” on bridge was partner Helen McDonnell. Char lived in Grand Rapids from 1997-2003. Helen came to Grand Rapids each summer. Char and Helen would drive to Duluth, to Fargo, and all over the state to attend tournaments. On each drive home, Helen would take out the hand records. Reminding Char of the hand she held, Helen would ask for Char’s reasoning for each bid. Char recalled, “We would fight a lot about bids. It was fantastic! If it weren’t for Helen and her post-analyses of every hand, I would not have succeeded at duplicate.”
Char has a very caring soul. While I wanted this article to be about her, she morphed most of our call into a conversation about another of her playing partners, Rose Phelps.
Prior to Grand Rapids, when Char was a young wife and mother in the 1960s, she and her husband lived in Cold Spring MN. There, the bridge games were held in the basement of the Cold Spring Brewery and were accompanied with free beer! She says she met many great bridge players there. Two of the people she met were Rose Phelps and her husband Don.
When the game at the brewery closed down, the Phelps would pick Char up and they’d drive together to the duplicate game held at the Labor Home in St. Cloud. Char said Rose’s husband was a good player, and he could get “hot under the collar” with Rose about her bidding or play. However, the couple had one rule --- “once in the car, he was not allowed to bring up any hand.” Char says that Don always abided by that rule.
After Rose’s husband died, Char and Rose started playing together. Rose is now 94 years old, and they still play together once a month. They have played off and on for almost 60 years! Char says Rose always praises her and comments that Char has taught her so much. Char said, “I love Rose, because she loved me first. She has always made me feel like a hero.”
Based on her daughter Corie’s cookies, Rose’s admiration, and my knowledge of how St. Cloud players care about Char, I’d say she’s earned that love coming her way.