Meet Carole & Ron Trainer

Ron began playing bridge in college in Pennsylvania for money which cost him his books one semester.  Thank God he improved quickly after that!!  There wasn't much interest in bridge at the University of Alabama so I didn't have that problem.

I only became interested in bridge after joining the Officers Wives Club in Wichita Falls, Texas and hearing how much my friends enjoyed their monthly bridge parties.  So I read Goren (yes, every page) and soon I was drinking wine and tossing those cards around with them.  Naturally, I became hooked (not on the wine) and after Ron retired from the Air Force we moved to Dallas and eventually began playing duplicate and taking lessons. When we discovered that Bobby Wolfe and Bob Hamman, rated the top two players in the world at that time, played in the same clubs that we did we doubled up on lessons hoping to not embarrass ourselves too much.  It was a great idea but not very successful.

For instance we played in a Calcutta (money game) at Bob Hamman’s clubhouse.  He was the opponent on my right and opened 5 diamonds.  My hand was AKQ seventh of spades and KQ sixth of hearts.  With less than 100 points and totally intimidated I finally bid 5 spades which I played.  Of course it was a lay down for 7 spades.  Bob looked at me and said “You don’t get too many two suited hands like that do you?”  Truer words were never spoken.

We’ve enjoyed many tournaments from coast to coast and several bridge cruises.  During 1995 we attended the Regional at the Arlington in Hot Springs where we heard about the beauty of the village and its huge bridge club.  Many of the players there were from the Village and they all raved about it.  We were definitely interested!

In 1997 Ron retired again from Ericcson and after we sold three homes in seven months we moved to the village in 1998. It was one of the best decisions we ever made.

Ron plays BBO once or twice a week but I haven’t played since March 2020.  I hope I haven’t forgotten how but I can’t wait to play face to face bridge again.  No matter how poorly!!

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