Guest posting by Senior Director Joanne Kates:
Once upon a time, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was young, I was Senior Girls Section Head for two summers. It was 1969 and 1970. Tonight at dinner at the picnic tables in front of my cabin, I had the pleasure and the honour of telling the Curve girls of 2026 the story of the birth of the Curve in 1970. But first they had to cook dinner.
When Leon and I set out five years ago to build ourselves a small retirement cabin in The Point, we had the usual spousal disagreements about size. He said “Small kitchen.” I said “No way.” So we built a small cabin with a big kitchen – big enough for 20 fifteen-year-old Curve girls to make a fairly complex dinner from scratch.
I’ve been doing this dinner for about 25 years – always the same menu. (Second session we do the dinner wit the Point Smalls. Same menu) The kids make pasta with pesto from scratch with fresh basil and a lot of garlic, shrimps sautéed with garlic and lemon, barbecued steak (with Leon) and Greek salad. Leon and I do not touch the food. They do it all.
The huge upside at dinner – for me – was the contact with these wonderful young women. Their enthusiasm is charming and contagious. Their joy and bonds with each other make me smile and remember the passionate friendships of adolescence. But most wonderful of all is their openness to the experience and their gratitude for it. What a gift to us!
