Perhaps the last hand
JEFFERSON TWP — For 73 years almost every Saturday night, you knew where to find Lillian “Lil” Bachman, 91, of Saxonburg. She would be at the Jefferson Grange, 211 Bullcreek Road, for card night.
Through wars, weather and social upheaval, Bachman would take her place at a table at 7 p.m. Saturday and for the next three hours play 500.
“I started playing with my husband Herbert on Jan. 17, 1947,” she said. “We got married Oct. 18, 1946. Then, we had an apartment on Saxonburg Road.
“The people we rented off brought us here for a card party,” she said.
She remembers the date because she used to keep a diary, and she recently cleaned out a drawer and found hers.
“That's how I knew the exact date. Once in a while we would miss one, but generally on Saturday night we were always at the grange,” Bachman said.
That fondness for cards has apparently been passed down to another generation.
Bachman said her son, Robert, joined her three times at card parties when he was visiting from his home in Durham, N.C.
But now Bachman's streak is in danger of being interrupted.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions are threatening to do what the Vietnam War, the Arab oil embargo and the Great Recession of 2008 couldn't — shut down the grange's card game.
Nettie Martsolf, the Jefferson Grange master, said attendance at the Saturday card games has been way down since they resumed Sept. 5.“Well, with this virus thing, our clientele are elderly people and the elderly don't want to go out,” Martsolf said.This Saturday could cause the grange to throw in its hand as far as its card parties go.“If we don't have three or more tables, we might have to end it,” she said, saying the cost of maintenance, utilities and insurance doesn't make it worth the grange opening the building if enough players don't show up and pay the $5 entry fee.On Wednesday afternoon, there was a good turnout to play cards, but that's because the players were both from the grange and American Legion Post 683, 754 N. Pike Road, which hosted the event.The Legion post has been closed since March, said Jill Cavalero, the Legion's unit and district president.Cavalero said the auxiliary members moved to the grange, renting it for twice monthly lunches and card parties and using its kitchen to make apple pies to deliver to the Butler VA Health Care System.“We decided to do lunch and cards on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month,” she said. “People are waiting to see how it shakes out.”She said the Legion-sponsored card parties have an advantage over the grange parties because they take place in the daylight (noon to 3 or 3:30 p.m.), and there is a meal included in the $7 entry fee.Bachman plans to be at the grange hall Saturday night from 7 to 10:30 p.m.And it's not just for the chance to play 500 and maybe win the first prize of $3, she said.“It's just the social part, and you just meet so many people and make a lot of friends out of it,” she said.One of her friends, Connie Collier, has made the 40-minute drive from Chicora for the past eight years “because I love playing cards.”“I will absolutely be here Saturday night,' Collier said. “I hope we get enough people.”But if they don't and Saturday's card party is the last one, Bachman said, “That would be a shame because this has been going on so long.“I will miss it because I have been coming so long. I don't know what I will do on Saturday nights. I am not a TV person. There is no place to go now,” she said.
