September 3, 2010
By Bonni Brodnick
The beautiful weather of summer 2010 just continues to go on and on and on. When Ellen Best, my “Talk of the Town” co-columnist flagged me that it was my turn at bat for September columns (since we alternate months), I thought, “But it’s still August. It’s been August for a nice long time.” I’m one of the crazillion who wants summer to go on forever. But September is here, and with it the town awakens. Good luck to all students — from the Pre-Kindergarteners just starting school up to the college students, many of who are leaving home for the first time. For those of us long-graduated, we will give a wink to September as we travel down our beautiful roads and notice some of the trees just slightly-kissed with a new autumn. If you take a hike in Halle’s Ravine, you’ll see touches of yellow or red on upper branches as small splashes of color gently signify summer’s end. (So do the nightmares about not being able to find my locker or being late for class. I can’t be the only one who has these annual panics that set in once the Staples commercials hit the airwaves.) I suppose it’s time to shut down Tangueray and Tonic Time. But it’s still 90-degrees outside. That means it’s still summer, doesn’t it?
One thing it’s never too late for is love. Pound Ridge Tennis Club (PRTC), which has seven impeccably maintained Har-Tru tennis courts and three paddle courts, is seeking new members and will host an open house and BBQ on Saturday, September 11 from 12 noon to 4 p.m. In my book, “Pound Ridge Past: Remembrances of Our Townsfolk,” George Bria, one of the Club’s charter members and former president, said, “The nucleus of Pound Ridge Tennis Club started with Joan Silbersher, and Paul and Maisie Kohnstamm, who had a beautiful court on Lower Shad Road that they made available to people who wanted to play, including Joan, me, and about ten others. This became the seed, but Joan was really the power behind the club. Tom Ratliffe was one of the early members. (Former Town Supervisor) Jim Trippe, Vuko Tashkovich, John Gallagher and Jim Kenyon are just few of the past presidents. We even had some celebrities play on our courts, including actor Art Carney and Senator Jacob Javits.”
Today, PRTC offers both tennis and platform tennis; an accommodating schedule of private, semi-private and group lessons (days, nights or weekends); and seasonal championships for juniors and adults, member/member, member/guest and mixers. For the more competitive members, the club fields three women's MITL (Metropolitan Interclub Tennis League) teams, and one women's and one men's Westchester Interclub team. Located off of Route 172 on Major Lockwood Road, PRTC is one of Westchester’s best kept secrets (and you don’t even have to be a Pound Ridge resident to join). For more information, please contact Tom Mulligan, president, at 764-5960 or Carol Bouyoucos, board member in charge of memberships, at 234-2489.
And there is no way on earth we could talk about tennis in Pound Ridge without mentioning the inimitable Charlotte Lyman, who just celebrated her 90th birthday and continues to play doubles several times a week with her many friends. According to one long-time partner, she can still hit the heck out of the ball. Charlotte, the so-called “Charismatic Matriarch of League Tennis,” first played during the Great Depression when her father would save half his lunch money to buy tennis balls. She played through high school, married Brooks Lyman in 1942, and took time off from tennis to raise her three children: Candace (of Rancho Bernardo, Calif.); Douglas (of Weymouth, Mass.) and Dick (who serves on the Town Board). Charlotte picked up tennis again when she was 45, and has been swinging a racquet ever since. From all of us in the Record-Review newsroom, we send very best wishes for many happy returns.
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