08-05 The Bridge Club

From 1952-1956 while working towards an engineering degree at the U of T, we had to work through 12 hours a week of drafting, and we were seated alphabetically. So I had Ron Ellis, Jim Floyd and Ron Garlick on my right. We became the best of friends.
We got together in the 1960s to play bridge. The Floyds lived just a block away from us near Bayview and Sheppard. One day when our Peter wandered away, and we were getting ready to call the police, he showed up out of nowhere. "Where have you been?" we asked. He said he had been playing with the Floyd girls, the twins his age. To prove we actually played bridge, we have a photo of Ron Garlick and Jim taken at a time when I was teaching at Ryerson.
Ken and Barb Morrison joined our group. Both Ron Ellis and Ken Morrison had worked together for a while after graduation, so our Bridge Club as we called it was Jim and Fran Floyd, Ron and Ruth Ellis, Ken and Barb Morrison, Ron and Marilyn Garlick and of course Mary and I. And lots of friendly guests.
The coordinator of our "get-togethers" was Fran Floyd. Love the photo of Fran and Mary on our 2000 Centennial cruise on the Dawn Princess. The cruise was organized by my brother Ian, and we had a ball. We will never forget the tour around San Juan that he arranged for us.
We played bridge for about ten years and then just got together to chat and laugh for another forty plus years. In the photo taken in the 1980s, we all look rather young and healthy.
Twenty years later, we are starting to show our age. They say you do not get older, just better. Not true. But Ron Ellis, after getting a law degree, later went on to get his doctorate. Every group needs one intellectual.