The Badminton Gang

By BETSY R. ROSENTHAL Special to the Palisadian-Post When I wrote about the badminton ladies of Pacific Palisades in 2005, it was with a heavy heart because we had just lost two of our most active racquet-wielding women: Dorothy Perry and Mary Arlen. This time I can report life-affirming news. Just before Thanksgiving last year, the badminton bunch (we can no longer go by the appellation ‘badminton sisterhood,’ since several men have joined us), ate and drank at a festive party celebrating our oldest player, Bertha Lucas on her 90th birthday. Although she is no stranger to badminton, Lucas is a relatively recent addition to our group at the Recreation Center. She shows up every week and whacks that birdie like a woman half her age. When she strategically taps the shuttlecock ever so slightly over the net, into the Siberia of her opponent’s court, you can rest assured that that birdie isn’t coming back. There’s no stopping this great-grandmother sixteen times over. Back in 2005, we played in the old gym at the park, where boundary and service lines for doubles and singles were painted on the floor. In the new gym where we play now, there are no badminton courts outlined on the floor and every Wednesday morning, a couple of the players arrive before our official start time to lug the equipment from the storage closet, and then mark the essential boundaries and lines with green tape. Marianne Lu, a stalwart, sometimes returns from her visits to Taiwan bearing cheap tape for us. There have been other changes, as well. I no longer dive for the birdie’my bad knees can’t take it. I’m no longer the youngest player, competing against women my mother’s age. Now I’m my mother’s age, or at least I feel like it when these younger, more agile men and women join us. Fortunately, we still laugh at ourselves, particularly when we’re poised for the perfect slam and all we hit is air. And we still curse that darn net that keeps us from getting the birdie to the other side. In addition, other things have gone unchanged. We still have two Barbaras. Former PE instructor Barbara Vatcher still directs us which court to go to, who to partner with and when to sit out. If she misses a day, we wander around like bewildered kindergarteners on the first day of school. The other Barb [Yuki] still brings me pencils from every distant land she visits. My pencil cup overfloweth with the kiwi-adorned one from New Zealand, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame pencil from Cleveland, and even one with black-eyed egg-headed aliens from the International UFO Museum in Roswell, New Mexico. Coach Vatcher’s husband, Don, offers to sit out whenever possible so he can sneak off to the library. And Mary Elsom never fails to remind us of her height by perpetually sending the birdie sailing over our heads. The philosophy of our play has remained consistent’have fun, get the blood pumping and never play with the same partner twice in a row. As long as Bertha Lucas keeps coming to the gym, toting her badminton racquet and hitting the impossible shots, none of the rest of us can ever use age as an excuse for inactivity. I say, hit it up and let’s see who serves.   Rosenthal and husband David have lived in the Palisades for 19 years and have three children. The badminton group meets every Wednesday from 10 a.m. to noon, year-round. Anyone is welcome to join.