Q: What do you call it when it rains chickens and ducks? A: Foul (fowl) weather
No rain today and there is a strange right light in the sky which seems to be warm! I looked in the recent history books and they apparently call it the Sun!
Before doing anything else, I gazed at the iPhone and read the late night messages. Excellent news…The MRI on Kathy… “No sign of new tumor growth and swelling is decreasing.” Fantastic news…we were all praying this would be the case!
Taking my life in my own hands, I peered into the weather report and the prediction is dry all day but rain is returning for a few hours this evening…probably in the middle of the Topper’s Dance in Long Beach…but that’s OK, it’s being held inside!
In the afternoon, we did chores. Sue read her book and I messed here and there…picking twenty blood oranges for juice tomorrow morning! I took out the trash cans as the trash man was coming this afternoon and I managed to fill them up with new contributions…it is amazing how much fruit falls form the trees during a bad storm!
Around 4:00 PM we got cleaned up and put on our finer bib n’ tucker, heading to the Petroleum Club one more time. As we got off the freeway it began to mist and bu the time we drove the three blocks, it was pouring! I dropped Sue off under the portal and I brought in the wine, camera, clipboard, etc. After reaching into my pocket to lock the car…I determined the keys were in the car…naturally, one more trip into the rain! I was sopped!
We got the bad news, although we have known about it for several months. The Petroleum Club us to be no more. We have danced there for twenty-five years and are really going to miss it. We had such a deal. Usually about $78/couple for the dinner dance…our dues paid the bands. It was not beatable as our other clubs range from $125-$150/couple. We have one more dance there and then it is history!
Gone But Not Forgotten: The Long Beach Petroleum Club, once an elite gathering spot for local oilmen when nearby Signal Hill was still bristling with oil derricks, is in its first week of escrow, according to Peter Allen, president of the club’s board of directors.
Allen, who owns AllenCo, an oil company based in Long Beach, would not disclose the potential buyers, noting that the escrow could go as long as 200 days, nor would he say what future plans for the 57,114 square-foot lot might be.
Although the 60-year-old club facility at 3636 Linden Ave. in Bixby Knolls, was not listed for sale, it has fallen into hard times, its membership dwindling along with the oil business in town, giving rise to rumors of its impending sale along with social-media pleadings for the club’s survival.
“We had several offers, about five altogether,” Allen said. “We didn’t solicit any offers, they just showed up.”
Background conversations with people close to the sale indicate that the buyers might have an eye toward razing the club for development.
By the time we departed, the sky was blue dotted with white puffy clouds and the moon was visible…it was an easy drive home!
