For most of the year, socializing takes a back seat to learning for the Reading Club of Durango.
But three times a year, members have a chance to catch up on news, share travel stories and generally strengthen friendships. One of those is the annual Holiday Luncheon and Social, which was held this year Dec. 12 in the Oak Room at the Strater Hotel.
The description of the event as a social harkens back to the early days of the club, which was founded when Durango itself was still an infant in 1882. Twelve women from the East and Midwest found themselves in a rough-and-ready frontier town and were determined to bring civilization to the Wild West.
Most members lived on East Third Avenue, and all were among the movers and shakers of many of the town’s philanthropic endeavors, including, most notably, the founding of the Durango Public Library.
But I digress.
The Strater played a part in the club’s early days. It was pretty expensive to heat those drafty Victorian houses in the late 1880s and 1890s, so many residents closed up their houses and moved to the Strater for the winter. Who wouldn’t want a nice woodstove in their bedroom in the winter? So that’s where some of the ladies were living when it came their time to host meetings.
Many meetings held at the Strater were chronicled in the club’s minutes and in the newspapers of the day, including The Durango Herald. (It was the height of “society,” after all.)
Catering guru (that’s what I call her – I don’t know what’s actually on her card) Emily Spencer, banquet manager Danica Tarkington and the crew at the Strater welcomed the club with a brightly decorated room and lots of hospitality. The ladies lunched on a chicken Gorgonzola salad with red grapes and red onions dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette, with a vanilla-raspberry cake for dessert.
When a club has 131 years under its belt, it has a lot of traditions to honor. The tradition at the Holiday Luncheon is to collect money for a local cause. The group used to designate a new cause each year, but since the Center of Southwest Studies began taking care of its archives, the group has designated it as the beneficiary for this donation. Monies raised in 2013 came in just less than $590.
(Members also make a donation to the Durango Public Library every year, but that happens during National Library Week, which will take place this year from April 13-19.)
This is the time to make a disclaimer. When I got this Neighbors gig in 2000, I resigned my membership from all the groups and boards where I was involved.
But I refused to step down from Reading Club of Durango for several reasons, including the fact that I enjoy it so much. And, practically nonstop since its founding, someone from The Durango Herald has been a member, including my predecessor, Sally Morrissey; our late publisher and editor-in-chief Morley Ballantine; Bessie McDevitt, who owned the paper with her husband, Harry, from 1924 to 1952; Laura Marsh, a founding member of the club, whose father and brother, Jerome L. and George Marsh, founded the newspaper in 1881 (I guess they were a founding kind of family); and another charter member, Maggie Krumpanitsky, married Solomon Raymond, who, with his brother, purchased the Herald from the Marshes.
It’s a proud history of newspaperwomen members, and I am delighted to carry the mantle today.
HHH
Starting the New Year on a high note (but hopefully not too high in the actual singing) are Gordon Cheesewright, Pati Sandhaus, Anna Cheesewright, Elizabeth Helms, Barbara Lewis, Daniel McElwain, Nick Jernigan, Kathryn Paul, Ted Carr, Jon Geer, Kelli Stanley, Justin McBrayer, Sue Mooney, Jeff Branson, Madison Hening, Angie Halverstadt and Carol Halverstadt.
Belated greetings go to Amos Cordova – I guess the calendar gremlins made me miss that one.
HHH
There’s confetti and champagne for the anniversaries of Bob and Judy Yearout, Kimberly and Sean Darnall, Dave and Lynn Mitzlaff, Peter and Judith Olson, John and Pat Mikelson, Kenny and Shannon Bassett, Charlie Hakes and Lynn Partridge, Jim and Donna Aubrey, Brian and Shana Zink, Rickey and Melissa Cooksey, Earl and Karlaine Caudill, Bryan and Joyce Hondru, Bryan and Marcia Welker, Ted and Nancy Wiedemann, Dick and Jane Pearson, Jim and Susanne Sutherland and Paul and Joyce Boyer.
HHH
Here’s how to reach me: neighbors@durangoherald.com; phone 375-4584; mail items to the Herald; or drop them off at the front desk. Please include contact names and phone numbers for all items.
I am happy to consider photos for Neighbors, but they must be high quality, high-resolution photos (at least 1 MB of memory) and include no more than three to five people.
