In 2007 Dale and I were invited to join a social club, the Peachtree Racket Club. Note it is RACKET, not racquet. The club was created back in the 1950s by Atlantans who liked to dress up and party. We were part of a pledge class of twenty couples, about half in their 60s and half in their 40s. The membership at that time was about 400 individuals. Each year’s pledge class had to create and perform a 45 minute musical/comedic review. We had to attend rehearsals every Sunday night from January to April. We were guided by a well known Atlanta cabaret performer, Robert Ray. He produced the review and assigned roles to everyone after determining the best voices in the group. We were introduced to the membership at a New Years Eve Gala, and then performed the review in April. At the April event, each pledge class group from previous years crafted a parade troop based on that year’s theme, which was “Tis the Season” in 2008. There were valuable prizes for the various costume categories, which were collected from merchants by the pledge class. I cannot sing and therefore wasn’t going to get a prominent part in the show. Then Robert suggested maybe someone would like to do the part of Miz Chamblee Tukah in drag, and I stepped forward. Sort of revealed how much I like to dress up and act out. The Great Recession led to massive defections from the Club, but enough remained to do themed events for several years afterwards. We are still good friends with many of our pledge class.
