LE CLUB

The people who know us well know that we belong to a club where we eat dinner and go to parties occasionally. But probably most people don’t know the history of this club.

When we were living away from home somewhere (I don’t remember where at the time), the genius’s mother wrote to tell us that she was in a musical made up of some Vanderbilt faculty members. She was very excited about the show and mentioned it was for the purpose of raising money for a club. And that’s about all I remember about it until we moved back here. Then she began inviting us family members to the club for special occasions, like birthdays, etc. It was a nice building erected right in the middle of the campus, and inside it had a big dining room plus other rooms for private affairs. There was also a very attractive lounge in which to meet for a drink and snacks. It was just for the purpose of eating (no golfing, swimming, etc.) and every weekday there was a hot lunch buffet for the members and their guests.

In order to belong, originally, a person had to teach or work at either Vanderbilt or Fisk University, and one other college, I can’t remember which one. Then it was expanded to include other college faculties, and eventually, for a higher fee, graduates of any of the universities in the Middle Tennessee area could join. Now even the higher fee has been eliminated, and everyone may become a member for the same fairly low cost. The genius joined when he was a faculty loan professor at Fisk while still working for IBM, so we have been members for many years. He has served a stint on the board and was even president for a year.

It has been a very nice experience belonging to the University Club of Nashville. The services have expanded to include a very reasonably priced bar menu or a more elaborate dinner in a private room set up for that purpose. There are many special affairs from parties at Christmas, Valentine’s, Easter, etc. to buffets before Vanderbilt athletic events. And any of the numerous rooms may be rented for private occasions, such as wedding receptions or rehearsal dinners. We have used the club for both.

We still attend quite a few of the special fetes, but what we enjoy the most is going to the bar and having a sandwich or an appetizer and visiting with other members. Sometimes we arrange to meet other couples, or we do as we did last night and just go to eat and talk to others. There were quite a few people there last night to watch the Vandy-UT basketball game on the big screen. They would have done better to go the women’s game a block away --- they won handily, while the men lost their away game.

Whatever the outcome, we just the enjoy the food and companionship and hope to continue for many years.