Bibi's Story

In 1951 the Bridge Players Co-operative of Santa Barbara was organized 
with membership limited to 80 members though all games were open to 
the public.  There was also the ACBL unit with more then 300 members, 
the Santa Barbara Bridge Club and the San Roque Bridge Center.  Groups 
were shunted around to different places such as Girl's Club, YMCA, Hope 
School and others.  Mrs. Hemar Hanewinkel, the director of the Santa 
Barbara Duplicate Bridge Club, even held games in her not so very 
large home where bridge tables were set up in all the rooms.

In 1977  Lawrence Yanover, president of Santa Barbara Bridge Foundation 
brought the four groups together with the idea of collaborating on 
establishing a permanent center with all groups under one roof.  A board 
of trustees was formed which included Thomas Evans, Lester R. Ford Jr., 
Virginia Van Dyke Reverdy, Mary Molnar, Sandra Johnston, Sally Gane, 
Barbara Nikodemski and Carol C. Smith.

A request went out for financial contributions amd twenty nine people 
came through with a $100 each.  Only a handful of those generous people 
are still alive.  One angel of a contributor, Ethel Opie, left $5000 to the 
Bridge Center in her will.

The next challenge was to find a building.  Word got around and one 
player, Reva Aronson, stepped forward and said she would ask her 
daughter to ask her husband, Michael Towbes.  We are still renting from 
him to this day.
  
Thanks to Mary Molnar, who physically went out and got the present 
bridge tables and chairs, we moved into the present 2000 sq. ft. center.  
Games started at 1:30 Mon., Wed., Sat. and Sun.;  and 7:30 Tues., 
Thurs. and Fri. each costing $1.  Smoking was in full force with ashtrays 
on every table.  There was something called a smoking room which was 
no bigger then a closet, had a sloping ceiling and held two tables.  It was 
rarely used and did little more then collect the smoke from the larger 
room.  Alcohol was not allowed on the premises.  However, a couple of 
players set up a bar on the window sill outside.  In between boards they 
would slip out for a nip.  It was quite remarkable that even with the 
amount consumed, they played excellent bridge.  There was one 
exception of a gentleman who fell off his chair, passed out and the 
Director needed to be called to finish the hand.

Directors back then had their work cut out for them as they had no 
computers and all figuring had to be done in their head.  Players were 
helpful as they were anxious for their score but their addition 
sometimes had to be corrected.  After each game the director would 
take the scores home and fill out a ACBL form for each player with 
number of tables, players ACBL number and any partial score towards  
master points.  The player would then pick it up at the next game and 
send it into ACBL.   Marion Gaylord was a director for many years 
whom everyone thought was great and in March, 1995 Larry Klimko 
came on board to help out and he later took over.

(Note:  Bibi recently became a Gold Life Master with over 2500 maste points.)