It’s been a difficult couple of weeks for pickleball articles. First there was the silly brouhaha regarding court construction, followed by Hurricane Helene and the resulting five-day power outage that delayed TWATL publication. Then, before power was restored, we left our house, and Charlie and Buster, in the capable hands of a dog whisperer par excellence and flew to Paris. Paris, the City of Lights, Musée d’Orsay, croissants, baguettes and wine. The last thing one thinks about when in Paris, unless of course one is obsessed, is pickleball.
Paris is a wonderful city. It is a city for walkers. It is a city in which one visits familiar sites, explores and discovers new adventures. Despite a Dink article stating pickleball was becoming popular in France, we didn’t see a single court in Paris or Bernes sur Oise, our other destination. Bernes, is a blink of an eye town forty kilometers north of Paris. It is there that the 386th Bomb Group, which flew B-26 Marauders, landed on October 2, 1944. The town had previously been occupied by the Luftwaffe and was heavily damaged by allied raids, including those led by the 386 Bomb Group . My mother was the director of the Red Cross club on the base, which, before moving to France, was stationed in Great Dunmow in East Anglia. There was not much left of the town when the 386th arrived.
Ellen and I traveled there on Saturday, October 5th and went to the exhibition hall which displayed all types of American, British and German weapons, vehicles and other detritus of war. Copies of my book, When I Think Back: The War Letters of Fitje Pitts, as well as several pictures of my mother were on display. The following day we attended a ceremony at a monument dedicated to the 386th crews who lost their lives while stationed on the base. Sixty names were on a plaque. Sixty American boys who died so we could vacation in France eighty years later. Sixty boys my mother would have known. It was all very emotional.
While we were in France, life at The Landings was getting back to normal. On the pickleball scene, several of our stalwart players won medals at a Savannah Golf Club sponsored tournament. Congratulations to Amy Paderewski and Kristen Berger who defeated Sara Sink and Laura Webster to win the Gold Medal in the (barely) over 19, 4.5 category. Amy, teamed with Scott McKessy took Silver in the 19 plus, 4.5 category. Karen Inglese and her partner won gold in the 4.0, 50 plus mix doubles and, finally, Johnny Moran and his partner took silver in the men’s 4.0, 50 plus category. All in all, the results add up to more bragging rights for The Landings Club.
Pickleball super-fans take note – Ben Stiller is reportedly producing, directing and starring in a new movie called The Kitchen. I have no idea when the movie will be released but if it is anything like Dodgeball, you might want to consider mind altering drugs before viewing!