Bridge, Baby, and Bonus

Yesterday was our weekly bridge club. There are four of us in the group. Two have lived in this little town a very long time (one, all her life). Another and I came here five years ago. This is a very easy-going group. We play for the fun of the game and the camaraderie. We rotate between our homes. We start at 9:30 and end around lunchtime. This is something we all look forward to. We are each a different personality type with varied interests but we each enjoy the others' company. We each put in a quarter at the beginning of the session. At the end, the player with the highest score gets 75 cents and the low scorer gets a quarter. High rollers!
The girl next door had her baby Monday and they came home from the hospital yesterday. She kindly brought him over for us to see. Adorable, of course. It was a special treat for my mother who is 91 and loves to see babies and children.
Yesterday being Halloween, Mother was able to see lots of children. We usually have around 100 trick-or-treaters but this year we only had 60. I put an armchair in the foyer so my mother can sit there comfortably and see all the children at the front door. It was a happy evening. All the children were polite and enjoying their trek. So many princesses! When I was in grammar school, my mother made my costumes. She was an excellent seamstress and I had some outstanding costumes.
In fact, she made the dress for my prom when I was in high school. It was three layers: pink satin, covered by pink organza, covered by pink organza with small white polka dots. It was strapless and had to be boned. An amazing feat. We could not find a dress in town that was attractive on me. Not because of limited supply, we had many nice stores including I. Magnin's, but none looked right on me. It was a bonus to have had such a talented mother. Otherwise I would have gone to the dance looking like a child dressed in an adult's clothes. Not a good way to start the evening!