Re: Marin Town & Country Club

08/29/11 - posted by karyn ann bosso

ah, marin town and country club...the memories...of a single mom and her preteen daughter in the freezing cold summers of the early 1960's in the outside lands. we were too poor to afford a car, but we managed to have some wonderful fun in the sun in lovely wooded and warm marin county every year anyway.

mom and i would get up very early on a cold foggy outer sunset sunday morning, bathe and put on our swimwear and then our sunday best clothes over them and head up the hill for early 7:30 mass at holy name church. after mass we would walk over to noriega street to catch the 71 bus downtown to the greyhound station on 7th and mission and get on the bus labeled san anselmo/fairfax. when we reached our destination, we would walk in trough the entrance, purchase our tickets and walk past the throngs of suntanned families sitting on blankets, chairs and chaise lounges soaking up the sun and playng lawn games - i can still smell the coconut tanning oil and coppertone - little did we know then how damaging years of tanning could be - i guess ignorance is truly bliss. i can remember swimming in the pool with all the brown-skinned kids - me with my irish burn, freckle and peel skin. then, mom would call me to get out and put a blouse on over my bathing suit so that my back and shoulders wouldn't burn too bad - it was humiliating -

i also remember playing ping pong for hours with lots of kids, the, when i was about 12 i played ping pong with an older boy named gary (he was 17) - he asked me out on a date. my mom said i was too young to date. when i protested, she said that i could invite gary to our house next saturday night for tv and popcorn in the livingroom - with her supervision, of course. my first "date" - thanks to marin town and country club and it's glorious respite from the gloomy foggy wet summertime growing up in the outer sunset