Second Decade and Beyond

The second decade saw Len T. at the helm, at the end of his long term as president since 1994. He was succeeded by Lewis F. in 1999, followed by Don Moreland in 2000, Bob McQ. in 2002, Charlie F. in 2004 and Kent H. in 2007. Kent led Mature Friends into the Third Decade, before handing the presidency off to Mark J. in July 2010.

Many of the activities begun earlier still continue:

The potluck, held on the last Friday of the month, still draws a large number of members and guests, with often more than seventy attending.

The Bridge group, one of the earliest special interest groups, continues today with as many as six tables of avid players weekly. The Bridge group was headed for many years by C. Henry H. and later by Paul S.

Not to be outdone, a Pinochle group, under Walter J. and others, was started in 2006 and attracts twelve to fifteen participants in their twice a month meetings.

Mature Friends are not entirely sedentary. An exercise group meets weekly, followed by a walk around Green Lake. It has not been unusual for non-members to join the exercise group, and subsequently learn about and join the club.

For the more adventurously inclined, a monthly hike, sometimes in local parks and sometimes farther afield in the Cascades, is held, first under the capable leadership of John K. and more lately under Dale J.

In addition, the garden tour group has visited many public and private gardens in the region, initially under the joint leadership of Lloyd Herman and Dr. John Wott, and lately under Dr. Wott alone. We are fortunate in having Dr. John, professor emeritus of Urban Horticulture at the University of Washington, with his extensive knowledge of and connections with the area gardeners and horticulturists, leading the garden tours.

If the garden tours are a legacy of late member and Mature Friends founder Glen H., so too are the dining-out groups, collectively the Knife-and-Fork Club, which comprises the lunch group, meeting semi-monthly, and the dinner group, meeting once a month. The dining out groups has been kept going by many volunteer coordinators, notably, Harry W., Mel H., Walter J., and currently by Don S. and Bob McQ. In addition to the lunch and dinner groups, the club coordinates the Dinner for Six groupings, an intimate dining occasion for six (three couples, not necessarily partnered couples), the dinner host rotating among the three ‘couples’. The groupings are then reassigned each quarter. Group members demonstrate their culinary expertise at these gatherings. Thanks are due to the juggling talents of Dick N. and Jim Y. in arranging these groups. Mature Friends have always enjoyed good food and drink.

Apropos good food and drink, the Annual Banquet to celebrate the anniversary of the club is an anticipated social event of the year. The event was moved from February, which was more appropriately the founding month of the club, to late spring in May or June. The banquet has been held at various venues, such as the Yankee Diner (later the Yankee Grill) in Ballard, Anthony’s Homeport at Shilshole, the College Club downtown, and the Best Western Executive Inn in lower Queen Anne, and now at the Women’s University Club.

Starting in 2005, the Board instituted an Annual Volunteer of the Year award, a feature during the Annual Banquet, to recognize the importance of volunteers’ contributions to the club. The award, by nomination from the membership, acknowledges a member who has put forward an extra effort in his/her service to the club. The recipients have been Harry W. in 2005, Don K. in 2006, C. Henry H. in 2007, Dan L. in 2008, Curt Johnson in 2009, and Gordon L. in 2010, Bil B. in 2011, Paul S. in 2012, Kent H. in 2013, Len T. in 2014, Bruce T. in 2015, and our Garden Tour guru, Dr. John Wott in 2016. Who will we give the coveted plaque to this year? Gosh, I hope they don’t mirror the Academy Awards Best Picture Oscar and give it to the wrong person!

In addition to the Annual Dinner, the Annual Picnic takes place in August. The picnic has been held at various Seattle park locations through the years, from Lincoln Park, Seward Park, to the present location at Woodland Park. The club provides hot dogs and burgers with the trimmings and members are asked to bring potluck picnic dishes to accompany the hotdogs and burgers. Larry W. organized the picnic for several years, until he passed the leadership over to John K. Then Brian W. took over for two years, and now Bruce T. secures the shelter house each year for Annual Picnic. Bruce also makes sure we have plenty of soft drinks, hotdogs, and bratwursts, and he also grills them.

Add to this the annual Christmas holiday brunch organized by Harry W., complete with a white elephant gift exchange for a good time. In 2014, Jim W. took over the brunch, and with the consent of members, stopped the white elephants gifts in exchange for bringing Toys for Tots.

Mature Friends are also cerebral. An ongoing Book Club with eight to fifteen members meets monthly to discuss a book assigned at each meeting. This is done with the cooperation of the Seattle Public Library, which supplies copies of the books to club members. All this effort was coordinated by John L. Later, Dick N. took over the reins of the club and has since passed them on to Bruce B.

Cerebral may not describe the Investment Club, but perhaps “crystal-ball gazing” might be appropriate. The Investment Club began meeting late in 2000 under the leadership of Ed Estes to provide a fun, informative and collegial means for Mature Friends to manage their money and stay current on economic issues. Members contribute a specified amount and study the stock market to decide how to invest their collective funds. The Investment Club has attracted a number of members, but to keep it functioning so that all members have opportunity for input, membership must be kept small. As a result a second investment club dubbed A Better Club for Investing was started in 2008 to accommodate this growing interest. After eight years leading the Investment Club, Ed stepped down, and the leadership of the investment clubs fell to Don C. Currently, Ray B. has combined the two investment clubs into one, A Better Club for Investing, meeting once a month at a local restaurant.

Although Mature Friends was chosen as the group’s name initially to avoid an overtly gay name, the club has not been hesitant about participation in the larger gay-lesbian community. From the beginning, active members staffed a booth at the annual Gay Pride festival to publicize the club within the community and the club has been a contingent in the Pride parade. In the past year, the Board has decided to forgo a booth at the Pride Festival, feeling that the booth has been of marginal value in membership recruitment relative to the investment in time and money. The upcoming older generation is increasingly computer literate, and the Mature Friends’ web site, by webmasters Curt Johnson and Gordon Lovell, has been an important source of information to the community. Prospective members also learn about club activities through various media, such as the Seattle Gay News.

Travel has been a part of the club from its inception, and continues through the second decade. Trips are organized by the Travel Committee, under the current leadership of Bruce T., from short one-day or weekend trips to near-by points, to longer across-country and overseas trips. They are too numerous to detail, but of the former, fun trips have been made to Vancouver, British Columbia, and Portland, Oregon, as well as wine tours in eastern Washington and in Oregon. Local trips include visits to the Glass Museum in Tacoma and the LeMay Car Museum also in Tacoma, where members waxed nostalgically at cars they might have driven or wished they had driven. Trips farther afield include some fondly remembered ones, such as the trip to Montreal, to Eastern Europe, to the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, China, and most recently Spain and southern France. Now with Bruce T. as leader of the travel group, we extend our thanks to Jerry J. and Don Moreland as well as Marlyce B. and Gary H. for their expertise and experience in organizing these trips.

Summing Up

The club continues to grow in membership. By the end of the second decade, paid members number more than 260. To highlight some of our members, members’ profiles were a regular feature in the newsletter. Members were interviewed and their stories were capably compiled by Scott W., Kyle B., and John L. These profiles provided a glimpse into the lives and the varied backgrounds of our members. Unfortunately, after John stepped down, nobody else has volunteered to continue interviewing the members.

Finally, as the club moved toward the end of the second decade, it became clear that Mature Friends did not have a recorded history. There was concern individuals with knowledge of our history would vanish through relocation, attrition, and death. Gay studies are increasingly becoming a legitimate academic pursuit, so for an organization to be included in the development of gay culture, it is incumbent to leave behind documentation of its activities in a form and place that will be accessible to future historians, scholars and laymen. The board established a History Committee and allocated funding to gather and document the early history of Mature Friends.

The list of our organizations members involved in this project from start to finish is huge. A report covering the founding of the club and the events leading to its founding was to be the centerpiece of the project. Ten persons who were founding members or were members at at early stage of the club’s development were interviewed. It was apparent at this stage that memories were a little hazy. Fortunately, the club has an extensive archive of materials which was an invaluable resource to supplement the interviews and help in the preparation of this report. Newsletters, Board meeting minutes and agendas, President’s summaries, internet website printout and club by-laws were also gathered and assembled after an extensive search. The completed project is now at the Special Collections division of the library at the University of Washington.

The success of Mature Friends since its beginning in 1989 is best summed up by club president Charlie F. in 2006, “Our Club members, retired or not, possess extensive work history that they put to good use for the benefit of us all. Those qualities also make for exciting and stimulating association...I urge all members new and old to contribute to our many activities and projects...I’m confident that you will find your association with Mature Friends enjoyable and rewarding.”

— Dan L.

What’s Related

On this page, you’ll find links to other gay and Lesbian web sites.

• Three Dollar Bill Cinema
  Three Dollar Bill Cinema provides access to films by, for, and about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their families, and a forum for LGBT filmmakers to share and discuss their work with audiences. They curate themed screenings throughout the year and produce programs in partnership with other arts, cultural, and service delivery organizations in the Greater Seattle area.
  
  
• Seattle Gay News
  An LGBT Newspaper — proudly serving Seattle and the Pacific Northwest for over 37 years.
  
  
• Seattle Men’s Chorus
  This site gives the concert schedules as well as other information about the chorus.
  
  
• Lambert House
  A safe environment for gay kids to meet and socialize.
  
  
• OUT 4 Sustainability
  A community-based organization committed to advancing the status of lesbians by combating oppression and by promoting empowerment, visibility, and social change.
  
  
• Greater Seattle Business Association (GSBA)
  A “Chamber of Choice” organization of Seattle area businesses owned and operated by gays and Lesbians.
  
  
• Seattle Frontrunners
  Our local gay and Lesbian running group.
  
  
• Arts West
  A non-profit, multi-disciplinary arts organization located in West Seattle with programs in music, theater, visual art, education, play-writing, and late night entertainment.