Naked fulfillment

It takes wits, and an appetite, to be a Naked Bridge Lady. They savor their slams and gerbers as much as retirement.

By JANET ZINK
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 31, 2003

[Times photos: Skip O'Rourke] No froufrou, thank you very much. A bare table is all this foursome needs, with comfort food between rounds, twice a month at the Ruskin Tea Room.

RUSKIN -- Now that they're retired, there's time for tea.

And bridge.

For four hours on the first and third Thursdays of every month, a rotating Sun City Center foursome convenes amid the flowers and lace of the Ruskin Tea Room for 24 hands of bridge and a highly civilized lunch.

The standing date started three years ago at the Cypress Creek Golf Course clubhouse, but the women moved their game to the tea room two years ago when proprietor Patty Wood opened her doors.

Meet the Naked Bridge Ladies.

They earned the nickname by routinely stripping a table of its delicate cloth cover to make way for cards.

The names change -- shifted by illness -- but the game goes on.

On a recent Thursday, two of the founding members play: Lorraine Acker and Norene Quinn.

Ellie Brown and Nora Wilhide sit in for Betty Hocker, who's in the hospital with complications from arthritis, and Cleone Bohnhoff, who's in hospice care with end-stage cancer.

Clockwise from left are Nora Wilhide, Lorraine Acker, Ellie Brown and Norene Quinn. Wilhide and Brown were sitting in for Betty Hocker, who's in the hospital, and Cleone Bohnhoff, who's in hospice care.

Quinn has visited both and gives the others a quick update on their status, but the conversation doesn't focus on the ailments of friends.

Instead, they talk about the game.

"There are days when you have the cards and days when you have nothing," Wilhide sighs.

Every day, they have each other.

They come from different places -- New York, Maryland and North Carolina -- and different lives.

Quinn, still married after 51 years, served on the Dade County School Board before moving to Sun City Center in 1988.

Acker, never married, retired to the area in 1987 after working as an administrative assistant to oil company executives and at the Naval Air Base in Pensacola.

Brown, widowed after 47 years of marriage, traveled the world with the military. She moved to Sun City Center in 1977.

And Wilhide, after staying home until her children were grown, last worked as an executive director for Junior Achievement. She's the newcomer, having arrived in Sun City Center less than three years ago.

Quinn has four grandchildren, Brown has two.

And Wilhide?

"No grandchildren. Just animals."

At this point in their lives, they don't lie about their ages.

Lorraine Acker, 83, watches the seniormost member of the group, Ellie Brown, 86, play a card that was not in her favor. In general, though, life is good. "I have more than I thought I would have," Acker says.

They brag about them.

Wilhide, at 75, is the baby of the group. Brown, the senior member, proudly reveals that she's 86.

"How about that?"

Brown holds the cards close to her glasses, explaining that she's as good as blind. She periodically asks her compatriots what cards have been thrown.

Is that a heart or a diamond? A six or an eight?

The game may be hard on her eyes, but she thinks it's good for her brain.

"Bridge might keep you from getting Alzheimer's," Brown postulates.

The competition is friendly, not fierce.

Then they break for lunch.

The Ruskin Tea Room menu changes weekly.

Today, guests sip peach herbal tea. The meal begins with a bowl of chicken tortellini soup, followed by Caesar salad and egg salad and chicken sandwiches on potato bread, served on a three-tiered silver tea tray. For dessert, there's chocolate cake with coffee ice cream.

The Naked Bridge Ladies dine in the pink-walled Aunt Pitty Pat's Room, named for Scarlett O'Hara's skittish Atlanta relative.

The main tea room, warmed by a fireplace, holds five tables. Flowered wallpaper, dark green velvet drapes and lots of antiques create a feminine elegance that has made the tea room a popular gathering spot for regional chapters of the Red Hat Society, an association of women over 50 who boldly face middle age by venturing into public wearing red hats and purple dresses.

Next to the Ruskin Tea Room on U.S. 41 are Morning Glori's, which sells antiques and vintage clothing, and Janny's Clothing, which carries contemporary styles. (It replaced Shell Point Clothing.)

After the last crumb of chocolate cake has been eaten and the cups have been cleared, the cards once again start flying.

Retirement, the Naked Bridge Ladies agree as they fan out the hands they've been dealt, is as sweet as a tea room dessert.

"I have more than I thought I would have," says Acker, 83.

She figured her golden years would be rich in unused hours.

There would be time, she thought, to organize all the photos piled up in her cabinets.

But between the bridge playing, the tea taking, the dog walking, the golfing and the socializing, it hasn't happened yet.

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