Twenty residents from Grand Horizons went to a Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees game in Tampa at Steinbrenner field on March 23. The stadium was really nice, and the game was exciting.
There is something special in seeing a live game. It started out as a pitching duel, as there were no hits or runs the first several innings but, eventually, Boston broke loose and scored a few runs. It was still a close game, but Boston won.
Our thanks go out to Tom Carter who arranged the game outing and the transportation that picked us up at the community center. He did a fine job, and we thank him for it.
The following night, on March 24, 92 Grand Horizon residents and visitors enjoyed a comedy- magic show. Terry Gardner was the host and arranged for the show. A few minutes before the show started, Terry Gardner told us several cute jokes to prepare us for the show.
Ron Gamache then introduced Elliott Smith with a few words about where he has performed. Smith came on stage to a loud applause.
He asked if anyone in the audience could spare $50. After several moments had expired, Joan Lawrence produced the $50. When she loaned it to him, Elliott started to fold it in half to double her money. At one point in the performance, he actually did double it to $100 and was going to hand it to Joan, (but she wasn’t fast enough to accept) so he withdrew it, and it eventually turned back to the original amount. He had Joan read the serial number on the bill, while he wrote it down on a blackboard. Elliott then performed some type of skit with the money, and eventually it disappeared into thin air.
That was the end of the skit until sometime later in the show, he had Joan retrieve a box that was sealed. She brought the box up to him, and inside was a smaller box that he gave to her. She opened the box and found her bill with the same serial number that he had written on the board. How it was done was beyond me!
Next, he brought Joyce Bell up to the stage. With her, he did some type of magic skit that involved red and green handkerchiefs. It was interesting and had everyone in the audience wondering how it was done.
He also called up Eugene Martin to do a rope trick. It involved three pieces of rope, and one was longer than the other. It left people scratching their heads in wonderment.
Several more people were called up to the stage, but there was one real cute performance that involved Rachel Gamache. It was a mind-reading game or body language demonstration and was hilarious.
Rachel pulled a card with the word ‘eat’ written on it. Elliott then asked if the letter “e” was in the word. Of course Rachel said “yes,” and now the fun starts.
Elliott wrote down “sex” for the audience to see. At this time, the audience was thinking that the word was “sex.” Elliott proceed to ask Rachel leading questions, and she responded with the truth as she really had the word “eat,” but the audience thought it was “sex” and laughed a lot. Questions like, ”Do you do it several times a day?”
At the end of the game, Elliott asked Rachel what the word was and when she responded with “eat,” we all laughed.
Bill Donlon also went on the stage to help Elliott with a cut-and-restore tissue paper trick. This had us all in stitches with the antics that Bill performed with Elliott. After several movements and dance steps, Elliott pulled the paper from his throat. Everyone was laughing, including Bill.
There were several more magic tricks, but the last one was very cute. It involved having Tim Holton helping Elliott with the “how to vanish water” trick.
Elliott and Tim went through the entire segment and had everyone laughing. How the trick ended was, when each cup was filled with water and placed on top of the head, now the cup is turned over and with “trust and belief” it should be empty and, you know what? It was empty!
We all left the community center full of laughter and questions on how each trick was performed.
We thank Terry for the entertainment and look forward to December, when more shows will be announced.
By Helene Rubenstein, Grand Horizons