Saturday, July 16th, 1977 Mercersburg to DC

I snuck out last night. It all started when there was a rap on the window at 2-am, I was dead asleep and would have ignored it except for the gigles. It was Caroline the CIT, her friends Kristen and Marie along with Tom Vrana and Rick Fanning. We ran through the fields and played a game hide and seek with the security guard. I’m so amazed he didn’t catch us. We all wrapped sheets around us and we ran around like ghosts…from a distance I think the sight would have scared the hell out of anyone. By 3-am we were dog tired and snuck back into bed. I think the girls were expecting a make out session but since two of them were high schoolers; that was out of the question.

I was so tired that I slept through breakfast, Sanderson came in and woke me about 9:30 and we started packing for Washington. We started asking campers for rides, we thought Marie was going to give us ride but they didn’t have any room so asked Jonathan Bartlett, a very good junior player and his very nice family.

We said goodbye to all the campers, I must have had my photo taken a few hundred times. The kids are so great…we attended the chicken barbeque with all the parents and it was fun telling them how great the kids did over the two weeks. There were a few parents from New York City that told us all about the blackout and the scary Son of Sam night. I think they were glad the kids were in PA.

We had a scary incident at the barbeque. I was standing with Mr. B and he was eating his chicken when a bee landed in his food, I stopped him just in time from taking a bite of bee, and he tripped and fell over trying to get away. It turns out that Mr. B is very allergic to bees and had he got stung, it could have been very bad. He has the worst bruise on his elbow and leg but is fine. Ill have to remember to keep him away from bees.

Mr. B is driving all the way back to Upper Saddle River to pick up Terence for camp. He’s looking forward to the drive and seeing Mrs. B again. Hard to believe we have been here 5 weeks already! The corn just beyond the tennis courts is getting high, as Mr. B says when its as high as an elephant’s eye then it time to go home.

At 1pm we loaded up in the Bartlett car and drove to DC and it was a spectacular drive, the trees, the farm land it was amazing…but its very hot. It took us just under an hour and a half to make it to Bowie, Maryland.

The Bartletts dropped us at Mark’s Uncle’s house in a very stylish Washington suburb. The homes were all two story brick and brownstones. We hung out for a while and then Mark’s uncle took us to a club called the Foothills and played tennis from 7 to about 11 under the lights on hardcourts. We met two really cute girls and played mixed, it was fun socializing with them. It‘s a swanky nice club, with 8 indoor courts and its also part of a country club. We called Marie Reagan and she is going to meet us tomorrow at Rock Creek Park, that’s where the Washington Star is played. McEnroe and Solomon have first round matches at 1pm.
We were tired and went to bed, tomorrow should be fun!