WRANGLER
Winter Ranch Newsletter
January 2012
Vol. 1, Edition 2
December was
a month filled with activity, but you ain't seen nothing yet! Hope
everyone had a blessed Christmas and ate just enough to keep up your
strength; you're going to need it now.
The
Tuesday social hours at the pool have been a great success, with a
variety of entertainment, some live and some not so live. You
decide which was which. Elvis even showed up one Tuesday. Thanks to
Donna & Dave Lewis, along with JD Murray, for the snacks that are
available during the social hour. The nachos are delicious, and the
hot dogs have been dinner for Jack more than once. For you folks
just arriving, social hour is every Tuesday around the pool from 3:30
to 5 PM. When the weather is bad it will be moved into Friendship
Hall from 3 PM to 4:30 PM to accommodate the square dancers. Bring
your lawn chairs (when it's outdoors) and your favorite adult
beverage. Wear your name badge so everyone can get to know you.
As
usual, our residents gave 'til it hurt to benefit the local community
for Christmas. There were 300 names on the Angel Tree, 235 stockings
were stuffed and donated, three valley families received gifts and
food, three boxes of new toys were donated, AND we gave gloves,
scarves and hats for admission into the Christmas
Matachine show. Oh, and don't forget the donations for the
Good Samaritan fund and the employees' Christmas bonus. Multiply
that by the 600 plus RV parks in the Valley and you can see the
impact we all have on the local economy! Thank you, Winter Ranch.
Our
population is increasing daily and stands at 660 as of Dec. 28. Be
nice to one another; we're almost bigger than the towns a lot of us
grew up in. One big difference is that this
“town” runs on volunteerism. For every activity that occurs,
there are a multitude of volunteers who make it happen. You enjoy
the Craft Fair? See where you can give an hour of time to help make
it happen. Don't make the same few people carry the whole load.
It's fun, and you widen
your circle of friends, which is always a good thing.
BLOODLESS BULLFIGHTS is on the bus agenda for January
8th. We went a few years ago and it was quite a spectacular. The
costumes and pageantry were exactly like Spain, and no bulls were
injured. They were younger bulls, and a small bouquet of flowers is
somehow attached between their shoulder blades (where the sword would
go). The matador puts his life at risk to retrieve that bouquet,
which signals the end of the match. The bleachers are a bit
uncomfortable (take a little pillow) but it's well worth a little
discomfort to see this event. Hope there's room so I can go again.
BUS TRIPS Mr. Wilder provides these buses for our
benefit. He has spent thousands of dollars the past few years to
make sure they are in tip top condition. He wants to see them on the
road. The seven Wilder parks in the Valley share three buses. We
share trips with Trophy Gardens which gives each of us more trips.
The other parks only have the bus twice a week, while we have it four
days a week. Bob French and Jack Hulsey share driving duties. They
too are volunteers – fully licensed with all their certifications
in order. Unfortunately, the down-side of sharing trips with TG is
that each park is only allotted half the bus, 22 seats, which means
that if you see a trip you are interested in, don't dally! You are
going to need to check the trip board in the big hall daily to make
sure you are first in line to sign up. If you snooze, you lose!
What can be nicer than to be delivered to the front door of the
event, and then picked up there afterward. No parking worries, no
gas used, no traffic to fight. Check it out.
WEDNESDAY MEETINGS start at 9 AM. JD is selling sweet
rolls so get there early and do some visiting. The meetings are
where you learn what is going on around the park and the local
community, plus get a heads up on new rules or local laws. (For
instance, no cell phone use in school zones, and no texting while
driving!) 50/50 sales are a way for the various groups in the park
to earn money, and you have a chance to win some too. Be sure to
attend when you get that hole-in-one on our little golf course,
because you will get your trophy and certificate. Sometime in
January or February we will have “flag day” at the meeting. This
is where all the states and Canadian provinces which are represented
in the park are honored with a little parade of state flags. If
you'd like to carry your state's flag, see Cathy in the office. It
is an awesome sight and one we look forward to every year.
CHRISTMAS REGATTA was something new for us this year.
The bus took us to Port Isabel to the White Sands Restaurant, right
on the water, to watch the decorated boats go by. The food was
pretty good and we had front row seats for the parade. I hope we
will do this one again next year.
(Black and white pictures don't do the lights and
decorations justice.)
CHRISTMAS
is over and I hope you all had a joyous one. Can you remember the
best Christmas gift you ever received? How about the worst? I
looked around and found a few folks who did.
First
we have Judy Johnson. She's from Redwood Falls, MN. She and hubby
Jim are newcomers to the park this year. Her best gift was diamond
earrings. Worst – pink flamingos for the yard from her daughter,
who was old enough to know better. On the right is Dwain Steward
from Eldorado Springs, MO. He gallantly pointed to his wife, Donna,
when I asked for best gift. They were married on Dec. 29. For his
worst, he pointed to her again! (So much for gallantry!) Then he
chuckled and said he never had a bad Christmas present.
Carol
Schierholtz was our next victim. She and hubby Russ are from
Lindsay, Ont. Someone gave her a lottery ticket one year. It cost
$100 and she won $10,000! That was in 2002. She giggled and said
Russ gave her a pantsuit back in the 60's and that was the worst.
She only wore it once. Roy Darby (right) and wife Virginia are
full-timers here now, by way of north Texas. Roy's best gift was a
hunting knife from his dad when he was 10. His worst was that same
year, when his sister gave him a jar of peanut butter cuz she knew he
didn't like peanut butter. He says he fixed her, though. He ate the
whole jar himself and wouldn't share with anyone. Believe it or not,
he likes peanut butter now.
TUESDAY
SOCIAL HOURS are still a big hit. Need more people to come out and
join the fun.
These
pictures were taken on a Tuesday when we were inside and The Horns
were playing. They were excellent and gave us a hint of what to
expect when they played for that Friday night dance. (Hope you made
it that Friday; they were great.) Social hour starts at 3:30 and
only lasts until 5. Make it a point to attend the next one.
FIRST
CRAFT FAIR of the season happened December 13th. Again,
volunteers are the heart and soul of the park. It wasn't too busy,
but everyone has so much to do this time of the year. Hopefully
there will be new vendors and bigger crowds for the next one in
January. Here we have volunteers Maggie and Ralph Olson from WI,
enjoying a laugh with some customers. I TOLD you it was fun! If we
don't have volunteers, many of the events around the park just aren't
going to happen. Remember, the pay is poor, but the rewards are
great. Be nice to the volunteers when you see them slaving away.
MATACHINE
Dancers entertained us on December 22nd. Admission was a
hat, gloves or scarf for the dancers. The performance reminded me of
our Native American powwows. The costumes were very colorful (wish
we had a color copier!) and the dancers ranged in age from about 5
to 30. My only complaint is that it would have been nice to have had
an explanation about what the dancing represented. There were two
people in masks who were finally “caught” and hauled away by the
dancers.
COMING
IN JANUARY
SWEDISH
WEAVING classes start January 4th in the craft room.
ZOO
AND SAS SHOES is January 5th. The zoo is in Brownsville
and is a neat little zoo and easy to walk around.
SWIMSUIT
show/sale on Thursday, January 5th in the big hall from 9
to noon. They usually have some very nice suits at reasonable prices
to fit our “mature” bodies.
LIFE
AFTER LOSS workshop was a big success and a followup one will be on
January 9th in the loft.
See
Rita Heuther for more information.
COMPUTER
CLASSES start January 9th. There will be classes for
Vista and Windows 7, and a day for just answering questions about
specific problems. See Leo Doershug for details.
WINGS
FLYING MUSEUM is January 13th for you airplane fans.
BASS
PRO SHOP in Harlingen bus trip on January 18th.
WINKS
SALOON on January 19th. There will be calf roping there.
I've been there and it's a rustic saloon with pretty good food.
Should be fun.
Look
for all of the regular events to get started back up the first week
in January.
CIRQUE
DE SOLEIL bus is full, but Lynn has 150 tickets blocked off, so if
you want to follow the bus in your car, see Lynn for tickets. That
is March 14th and tickets are $48.00.
LADIES
LUNCHEON is January 16th in the hall. Tickets will be
sold Monday through Friday in the small hall from 10 to 11 A.M.
Tickets are $7.50.
NOTICES:
PARK
IN YOUR OWN SPOT. People start pouring in here after Christmas, so
you never know when the site next to you will be taken. You don't
want to get off on the wrong foot with your neighbor by making them
wait to pull in their site.
WATER
RESTRICTIONS are still on, even though we've had some rain. If we
can't follow the policy I'm afraid we will end up being charged for
water, and we sure don't want that, do we?
VETERANS'
ADVOCATE is HB Hulsey. He has a lot of good information for vets.
612-203-5194 is his phone number.
YARD
SALES at your RV or park model have been discontinued by Mr. Wilder,
for security reasons. Each park will have one sale a year in their
hall. This will permit management to keep better control of visitors
to the park. Winter Ranch had their one sale already.
TAP
DANCING, beginners and advanced is being offered again by Penny
Vollrath.
SPOTLIGHT
ON PICKLEBALL
If you've
ever passed through the big hall and seen a bunch of people batting
an orange whiffle ball back and forth across a net, and wondered what
it was, this article is for you.
The mini-tennis game called Pickleball was created
during the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island - a short ferry ride
from Seattle, WA. The original purpose of the game was to provide a
sport for the entire family, according to co-inventors U.S.
Congressman Joel Pritchard, William Bell, and Barney McCallum.
Pickles was the family
dog that would chase after the errant balls and then hide in the
bushes, thus Pickle's ball which was later shortened to the namesake
of Pickleball. Initially, families played Pickle-ball in their
backyards on a hard surface, on driveways, and on residential
dead-end streets. Since the mid-1970's, Pickle-ball has grown and
expanded from a family activity game to a paddle court sport with
formalized rules. Now, over 45 years later Pickle-ball is played in
thousands of school P.E. programs, parks and recreation centers,
correctional facilities, camps, YMCA's and retirement communities.
This sport is becoming very popular among active senior adults at
community centers.
There is even a
national organization for Pickleball that holds tournaments all over
the country. You can check it out online – just google it. There
is a site that tells state by state where it is played so you can
play in the summer and keep your skills honed.
Pickleball was
introduced to Winter Ranch by Bill Howell several years ago. When we
first came to this park in 2007, it was a struggle to get 4 players
and a scorekeeper together. Now, during January, February and most
of March, both courts are full with players waiting to play. Baby
boomers are coming south and looking for activities to keep them
active and this is the perfect game for them. It's great exercise.
Players are there for the fun of the game and the camaraderie of the
players.
Wednesday is designated
“new player” day, but newbies are welcome any day that we are
playing. The thing we most encourage is that each player should know
their own limitations. Don't rush after those balls you can't reach
safely. Easier said than done, I know. Our oldest player is over
80, and our youngest hasn't hit 60 yet. Come and join the fun. One
of our players likes to say we only keep score so we know when the
game is over. There is a community center in Mission where it is
played 5 days a week. They are pretty competitive over there and
welcome experienced players.
