Joan Oelschlager

“Where oh where has my traveling hat gone, oh where oh where could it be?”

The traveling hat started out as a fanciful idea at Intersectionals in Phoenix and ended up being a road trip warrior. Too bad these hats couldn’t get airline miles for all their travels!

One year ago, in LaJolla CA at the 40’s Level 1, Rainy Miller started it all when she handed the West Coast hat to Mariko Fritz-Krokow. Mariko proceeded to take the hat on a long-distance trip to Tasmania, Australia where it was passed to Angela Hendy. Angela carried it east to Houston where she passed it to Brandi Bratek who then passed it to Shelly Works. Shelly proceeded to the World Championships in Mexico City (another long ride) where Maria Nunez took it back to California, where it was passed to Yodie Therrien, again in LaJolla, in May. Yodie carried that hat on two long plane rides, first to Wimbledon center court from Oregon, then to Maryland from Oregon in October for the Evens Indoor Level 1. Here, Carol Wood became the final recipient, who took it the last leg back to Intersectionals in Florida. Whew, what a year!! Good thing that hat didn’t get motion sickness.

Meanwhile, on the East Coast, I took the hat to Florida in January for the Level 2 tournament in Palm Beach Gardens (ahh, sunshine). Here Catherine Morgan became the next protector of the hat. The hat liked the sunshine, so they went further south to Ft. Lauderdale, where Anne Frautschi became the proud bearer. Journeying further north and west, Anne met up with Brenda Carter at the Houston Racquet Club. This hat also went on a long-distance trip, traveling to Turkey for the 75’s Cup Team competition. While there, Brenda passed it to Judy Dixon who took it back to Massachusetts with her. From New England, the hat went south again to the Odds Indoor Level 1 in Lexington, KY in May where Kim Dean took ownership. Kim took it north again, this time to the Odds Grass Courts in Philly in July where she passed it to Darcy Rabenda. Darcy had wanted to take it to the Hard courts at Mission Hills but wasn’t able to go so she passed the East Coast hat to Vincenzo Massaro from Middle States who brought it back to Intersectionals in Plantation, FL. It finally came full circle.

We hope you have enjoyed the adventures of the Traveling Hat this year. It was a fantastic way to celebrate our 50th anniversary!