Social Club

Members of the Arch Social Club, at North and Pennsylvania avenues, are about to have a party. And the reason they're partying is that the city's oldest African-American social club is about to celebrate its centenary. An anniversary church service in recognition of its 100th birthday gets under way at 11 a.m. Sunday at Fulton Baptist Church, at 1630 W. North Ave. At its conclusion, revelers can cross the street to the club, and beginning at 1:30 p.m. take in a dinner and a jazz show featuring the Arch Social Club Big Band under the direction of Phil Butts.

It's a sun-splashed morning in rolling southern Anne Arundel County, and a cluster of old oaks and maples make a fine canopy for the 25 gentlemen gathered at the cottage they see as a shrine. Some wear seersucker blazers and boating shoes. Many sport neckties with their club's logo - a British flag and an American flag, their staffs crossed. Their laughter echoes off the clubhouse, a bungalow built 34 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. "We have an ancient tradition - it never rains on meeting day at the Old South River Club," says Chris Wilson, a longtime member of the tiny Harwood society that calls itself "the oldest continuously operating social club in the English-speaking world.

A social club has teamed up with the Annapolis Police Department to truck food, clothing, water and construction materials to victims of Hurricane Andrew in southern Florida.The Ebonites Social Club in Annapolis teamed up with city police officers to collect donations to help the hurricane victims rebuild.A moving van that has been set up at the police station is already partially filled with goods, said Debra Colbert, a parking enforcement officer who organized the relief effort.More than 2,000 Florida police officers were left homeless by the storm, considered one of the worst in American history.

Members of the Arch Social Club, at North and Pennsylvania avenues, are about to have a party. And the reason they're partying is that the city's oldest African-American social club is about to celebrate its centenary. An anniversary church service in recognition of its 100th birthday gets under way at 11 a.m. Sunday at Fulton Baptist Church, at 1630 W. North Ave. At its conclusion, revelers can cross the street to the club, and beginning at 1:30 p.m. take in a dinner and a jazz show featuring the Arch Social Club Big Band under the direction of Phil Butts.

The county liquor board has OK'd a proposal from the owners of Joby's in Union Bridge to convert the restaurant and bar into a private social club.William F. Dixon and Larry C. Smith, both of Westminster, testified at a hearing before the board last month that they wanted to open a non-profit club for 150 members.Membership will be open to anyone older than 21, but the club will be owned and operated by blacks and will be run primarily for blacks, said Dixon, 49.Last spring, when Joby's liquor license was downgraded because food sales were not the state-required 41 percent of gross sales, people in the black community worried that the establishment would close, he said.

Naomi Rosa Thompson, a retired waitress, died of an infection Sunday at her West Baltimore home. She was 88. Born Naomi Gaines in Baltimore and raised on Division Street, she was a 1935 graduate of Frederick Douglass High School. She became a waitress and worked at downtown hotels, including the old Emerson at Calvert and Baltimore streets. She also assisted at parties in the home of U.S. Rep. Edward A. Garmatz, for whom Baltimore's federal courthouse is named, and later worked for local caterers.

The Lo-Fi Social Club's reopening party had a promising start and an unfortunate finish. Hundreds of hipsters, artists, local musicians and music lovers streamed into the club's new location on North Charles Street last Friday. Bands played while patrons swilled Natty Bohs and sweat through their shirts. Because the venue didn't have a liquor license, there was no charge for drinks or admission. No one was keeping count of how many people showed up, either. City police arrived just before midnight, and suspected the club was exceeding its legal capacity of about 200. As a result, founder Neil Freebairn decided to shut down for the night.

For more than half a century, the Arbutus Social Club in southwestern Baltimore County has hosted bull roasts, baby showers and weddings. The brickfront building on Stevens Avenue is often booked throughout weekends, with sometimes two events a night. But the head of the club says there's never been an event like the birthday party that carried into yesterday morning. That gathering ended abruptly in gunfire, with two men dead and three people injured - and police imploring witnesses to break their silence.

Arguing that the city could find better things to do with its money, mayoral candidate Clarence H. "Du" Burns yesterday attacked Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke for approving a $103,000 city loan to an East Baltimore social club that plans to use the money to build bars and lounges in a renovated row house."

You don't have to be a fan of Minnie Mouse to join Arundel's Swinging Minnie Mouse Club, but a sense of humor is a must, and knowing the words to that famous mouse song doesn't hurt."

Harry Robert "Bob" Jones, a retired regional sales manager for a metal products company, died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 79. Born in Baltimore and raised in Parkville, he was a graduate of Parkville High School. During the mid-1950s, he served two years with the Maryland National Guard's 175th Infantry, which was followed by two years in the Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Jones earned his bachelor's degree in 1963 from the University of Baltimore.

Sunday, Aug. 7 Baysox The Bowie Baysox will hold a "Un-Birthday Bash" as the team takes on the New Hampshire Fisher Cats at 7:05 p.m. Event serves as a birthday celebration for everyone whose birthday falls outside of the baseball season and features a ticket offer that includes an ice cream buffet. Tickets for bash are $17, $13 for Baysox season ticket holders. Every ticket includes admission to the Bud Light Picnic Pavilion for a one-hour sundae bar, beginning in the top of the fourth inning.

Like good parents everywhere, Jim and Jean Slingluff drive their son to doctors' appointments, social outings and anywhere else he needs to go. But unlike most couples, they're pulling a second round of "chauffeur duty" more than 40 years after their son gained independence with his driver's license, ever since Alzheimer's disease struck Jim Slingluff Jr. as an adult and made him wary of getting behind the wheel. Now 58 and divorced, he not only surrendered his driver's license in September, he has moved back in with his parents, who are both 83, so that they can be his caregivers.

Charles A. Ray Jr., a retired produce manager and Navy veteran, died Sunday from complications following open heart surgery at Union Memorial Hospital. The Hamilton resident was 70. Mr. Ray was born in Baltimore and raised in the 10th Ward, the lower Greenmount Avenue neighborhood. He was a 1957 graduate of Calvert Hall College High School. He served in the Navy as a radioman aboard the destroyer USS Borie from 1957 until being discharged in 1961. Mr. Ray worked as a produce manager for several Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. supermarkets before going to work in 1980 for Eddie's on St. Paul Street in Charles Village.

Jerry J. Ditzel Jr., co-owner of a hazardous waste removal company and an avid golfer, died Nov. 7 from a brain tumor at his Severna Park home. He was 66. Mr. Ditzel was born in Baltimore and raised in the Lakeland neighborhood in Southwest Baltimore. He was a 1961 graduate of the old St. Martin's High School and earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Baltimore in 1972. Mr. Ditzel held accounting and marketing positions before becoming a co-owner and president in 2001 of Environmental Technologies Inc., a hazardous waste removal company, based in Severna Park.

It used to be that some evenings were less than enchanted for Suzi Woolford. Whenever the 33-year-old senior data specialist gazed acrossa crowded room, she would discover only two or three strangers at her eye level -- the rest of the crowd usually stood beneath her 5-foot, 11-inch frame.Columbia resident Susan Pfeifer, who also measures 5-11, understands what it feels like to stand out in a crowd."People fear you, or are awed by you," said the 30-year-old chemist.And although both women believe tall men face fewer stigmas, Mark Elrod, 26, who is 6 feet, 7 3/4 inches tall, speaks of other problems.