Lena & Kathy Elliott - Welcome Home on the Full Circle Podcast with The Christi Reece Group

Christi Reece sits down with Lena and Kathy Elliott, a family well known in the Grand Valley for their deep involvement in the local tennis community and higher education. Christi learns how they got to Grand Junction, their start in the tennis community, their involvement with initiatives for Colorado Mesa University and the City of Grand Junction, and their hopes for the future of tennis in the Grand Valley. 

The Full Circle Podcast - compelling interviews and incredible tales from Colorado's Western Slope.

The Christi Reece Group provides ReFreshing Real Estate services in Grand Junction, Fruita, Palisade and surrounding areas of Mesa County. Contact us at marketing@christireece.com, 970-589-7700, or visit us at our offices at 1601 Riverfront Dr, Suite 103 in Grand Junction, CO.

Transcript

Christi 0:05

The Full Circle Podcast. Compelling interviews and incredible tales from Colorado's Western Slope, from the mountains to the desert. Christy Reese and her team hear from the movers, shakers, and characters of the Grand Valley and surrounding mountain towns that make the Western Slope the place we all love. You'll learn, you'll laugh, you'll love with the Full Circle. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Full Circle Podcast. I'm your host, Christy Reese, and today I'm really excited to have some members of our community that have just done so much, and their family name is just woven into the fabric of Grand Junction and the whole valley. And we are going to talk to Lena and Kathy Elliott today. Welcome.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Thank you.

Christi 0:45

Thank you, Christy. I'm so glad you're here. Um I I have taken up tennis just in the last few years, and I'm enjoying the sport so much, and I've just read so much about you and heard so much about you, and I appreciate everything you've done for the tennis community. It's been really fun reading about the other things you've done in the community as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Thank you.

Christi 1:06

You came here in 1957, is that right? That's right. And where did you move from?

SPEAKER_02 1:11

We moved here from California. We had been in the service in Dover, Delaware for four years. And when we got out, we went back to California, but decided that um it wasn't we didn't want to raise a family. Southern Cal had changed a lot. So we came out to California to Colorado. The family had a ranch up at Quebec.

Christi 1:36

Oh, okay. I was wondering how you found Grand Jensen.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

We found Grand Jensen. Carter's dad many years ago came through Colorado and bought a lot of mineral leases and um drilled for oil up in the Quebec area. Interesting. And they didn't get oil, but they had a lot of minerals and a lot of property. So we came out here and ran the ranch. Oh wow. And you had uh four kids? We had four kids.

Christi 2:04

And one on the way when you arrived. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

We did.

Christi 2:08

And your husband was a tennis player already. But you were not yet, is that right?

SPEAKER_02 2:14

No, I didn't learn to play tennis till I was pregnant with Tish with one of the girls, just so that we could play doubles together. So we he tried to teach me. I think we were on the court about five minutes, and then he called it a tennis pro.

Christi 2:31

I was gonna say who got frustrated first, you or him.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

I can't remember. Thank God.

Christi 2:36

I can't remember. So um but uh so what was the tennis scene like here when you got here?

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Well, you know, it was interesting. Carter never played tennis in school, he was a big football star. Oh. And a small football star. But when we came out, we didn't know a soul here, and we actually picked Grand Junge over at Glenwood Springs because we had never gone to a Catholic school and we wanted our children to, and they had a Catholic school here.

Christi 3:09

What was the name of that? St.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Joseph's was a Catholic school. So we moved here because of the Catholic school. And then Carter was gonna finish his education. He wanted to be a school teacher and a coach. But we were here about a year when his dad passed away. We were at a young age and left a lot of businesses and the responsibility of four sisters. So Carter didn't ever finish college, he kind of took over. And so while we were here, we didn't know anybody when we moved here. And there was a little clip in the paper about a tennis tournament. So Carter said, Oh, I'll go and we'll meet people. So he went, of course, he doesn't want us to tell you this, but he won the tournament. So he was a big star. And all of a sudden we made a lot of friends through the tennis, yes.

Christi 4:02

And at the time there were courts at Lincoln Park, is that right?

SPEAKER_02 4:04

There were about four courts at Lincoln Park, and there were two courts at the college where Robinson Theater is, that's where there were two tennis courts.

Christi 4:14

And you got heavily involved with the college as well.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Oh, yes. I was very involved with higher ed over the year. I never went to college, I was married out of high school.

Christi 4:24

But um And you have eleven children? 11 children. And Kathy, where are you in that lineup?

SPEAKER_00 4:30

I am the oldest girl and the second oldest. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Christi 4:33

So you were uh on the scene in Grand Junction early.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Very early. Uh-huh.

Christi 4:39

So, Kathy, what was it like growing up in your family? Tell us a little bit about growing up in early Grand Junction.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

You know, we are all so close. But when you're that young, you're not so close. So we were all fighting for whatever we could get, because that's a lot of kids. But I did learn responsibility right away, taking care of the younger ones, changing diapers, probably.

Christi 5:04

A lot of shared bedrooms.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

A lot of shared bedrooms. Um, but I'll tell you what, we are so blessed, and it was a wonderful growing up experience. Wonderful.

Christi 5:14

Um, you've seen a lot of changes in Grand Junction.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Oh. You know, I left for about 27 years and was teaching over in Greeley, Colorado. And I have been back now for about 12 years. And uh just even in this 12 years, Chris, yeah, I can't believe the growth it's changed so much. But what has improved is the facilities for tennis because we really are invested in tennis. And if it weren't for Lena busting down doors and hammering people to get things done, we probably wouldn't have the facilities that we have.

Christi 5:50

So when you arrived on the scene and there was this tournament, what was it called at the time?

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Yeah, I don't even remember. It was just a little grand junction. But we made some of our closest friends that and then it kind of grew into um a bigger tennis community, and we needed more courts. And in nineteen sixty we went to the Lions Club and asked them to build four tennis courts at the high school. And they did. And they did. But you know, four courts in nineteen sixty, you can build for fifty thousand dollars.

Christi 6:30

I can't even imagine what it costs today.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Oh, a hundred and fifty in front.

Christi 6:35

A court?

SPEAKER_02 6:36

And and then uh Harold Elif, Elif Construction, was a very good friend of tennis, and he built four more tennis courts at Lake Park. And then eventually built four more tennis courts at the college.

Christi 6:55

Wonderful. And so then this tennis tournament that your husband won, is that the tournament that you kind of then took over organizing?

SPEAKER_02 7:05

No, we started that tournament in 58, and Clint Smith, who was an insurance agent here, had a passion for tennis. And he came out to our house one day and he said, Elliot, you're gonna start a tennis club. And I said, Clint, look at me. I have four kids and I'm pregnant. I'm not starting a tennis club. Yes, you are, he said. And so we did. We started a tennis club and dejoined it cost two dollars. Uh anyway, it kind of grew, and then suddenly uh Dijkstra, who owned Coca-Cola, went to a big convention in Phoenix, and they had a big tennis tournament. So he came back to town and said, I want to hire you to run a tennis tournament. And I said, Well, I don't want the money, but would you give it to the tennis cup? And that's what got us started. That thousand dollars that we got from Nike. Wow was something we're able to build on, and this community is incredible. I mean, there, you know, one thing about our community, and we're so happy that we moved here and raised our family here, is how everybody helps everybody.

Christi 8:23

I agree.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

You know, so when we were out begging for money, you know, the person next to me was begging for money also, and we shared, you know, but we were very um very successful and we had a lot of tennis players.

Christi 8:41

And this little tournament grew and grew and grew.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

This is our 68th year.

Christi 8:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

68 years.

Christi 8:48

Now, how is the so this is the uh the name of the tournament is Western Slope.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Western Slope Open. Yeah, it used to be Western Slope, and then we called it Coca-Cola, you know, when uh Dijkstra gave us $1,000. You know, back in those days, $1,000 was a million dollars.

Christi 9:06

It was a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

And then he sold Coke, and his son went to work for Realty World.

Christi 9:14

I read that that Realty World was one of your big sponsors.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

And uh Jib Kennedy, who moved to grad junction and bought the Daily Settle, was a tennis player. And so we became very close. And I Jib said, I don't like the way they treat you. They don't give you enough money, they don't do this. He says, Why don't you let the Sentinel take over? And so the Sentinel was gonna sponsor it. And then Jib called me one day and said, I want you to meet this guy. And he introduced me to John Moss. And for 20 years, and he said, John wants Taco Bell to do the tournament, but if he doesn't treat you good, Sentinel take it. Well, John treated his very good for 20 years. He gave us 10 to 12,000 just to run the tournament, just to make sure you had the base money to run it every year.

Christi 10:12

Now um, and what you started playing tennis at what age, Kathy?

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Mom and dad started every one of us at six years of age. Wow. And we were fortunate enough to have a tennis court on our property, and at six years of age we all got started, and some of us certainly were much better than others, and Sandra is one of them. She actually gave it a go on the pro circuit, she was that good, yeah, and uh has suffered the consequences of many surgeries because of it, but she was the real player, and the rest of us are imposters, but we we fake it pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

But they went to school, most of our children went to school on tennis or basketball scholarships. That's great. Yeah, yeah.

Christi 10:58

So you did you play in the Western Slope Open every year?

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Oh, every year, or else I was helping with it because it got to takes a lot of volunteers. Takes a lot of volunteers, so well Kathy coached Greeley for years. Seventeen years in Greeley coaching at the high school level, yeah. That's wonderful. So we've all it means a lot to us. It really does.

Christi 11:20

Well, and I I want to thank you for continuing, you know, just to make sure that tennis is a part of this community and other communities because I think um some people think maybe it's a sport that's not accessible to them. Yeah, but it really is for anybody.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

It is, and I'll tell you, I've been around a lot of communities, especially on the eastern slope, and they don't take care of their courts like we do. And it is so nice to see people come here from out of town and they'll play here and they'll go, we haven't played on such nice facilities. Well, thanks to us and Lena especially, we we keep these courts looking good.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Everything we do, all the tournaments and the programs we run, we take that money and we put it back into the facilities.

Christi 12:06

So nice.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Yeah, very fortunate. We are very fortunate, and that is where this parks and rec has worked very well with Lena. And we we keep the money for leagues, but we give it back to them in the form of we buy the windscreens, we buy the nets, we buy the net straps, we buy the benches, we do whatever. Because if we turn that money over to them with no guidelines, it would not go back into tennis, I don't believe.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Well, I tried it the first year. I gave them a check, and then I I see the nets still had holes. I said, That's it. We'll buy everything. So we we do it for all the courts at Denver. That's amazing.

Christi 12:52

The city, the college, it's and you know, my um my son and my daughter have played with me a little bit, and my son and I were going to Denver, and I said, Let's take our rackets, we can go find a court and and hit. But you know, we are so spoiled with Canyon View. You can go out there almost any time and get on a court and it's in great condition. And we drove around Denver looking for a place to play, and it was not easy, sketchy. And and yeah, not very good conditions. You kind of have to belong to a club there to be able to play on a nice court. So we're very fortunate here, and I I I like sharing that, but I also like we don't want everybody in the world coming here, and then we won't be able to play our t as much tennis as we want. The courts will be full of.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

We'll just build more tennis on tennis.

Christi 13:38

Yep. Now, um the the Western Slope Open got to be so big at one point, and it was sponsored by Taco Bell, right? And a lot of people thought it was it was they called it the Taco Bell. Yeah, they still talk about they still write checks out to the Taco Bell.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

We have to go sell you in the bank. We can't help, we can help.

Christi 13:58

But it just got to be a little too much, didn't it?

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Well, I'll tell you what we did. We we wanted our kids here to be exposed to other players. So Marie and Wayne Nelson, Wayne was the pr uh the coach at college, said, let's invite people from other states. So we invited new, they had a contact in New Mexico, and so we said, bring a bunch of kids up here, we'll house them. Well, the first year it was nice, they brought about 20 kids and they loved it so much. And next year they brought two busloads. So we were all over town begging people to house these kids. And I really thought we were gonna be right out of town. So we finally went back to the drawing table and say, and it was so big, we used every court in town, people were all over the and it wasn't a quality, we couldn't run a quality tournament and have everybody have fun because they were looking for a court, where do I stay? It was ugly. And so we decided let's just take care of our own. So that's what we became the Western Slope. So we really just cater to the Western Slope, and it's something we can manage and it's everybody has a great time.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Back there when it all started, Christy, USTA was not big. People weren't joining leagues, people were looking for tournaments to go have fun, and that brought in a lot of people. USTA has gotten so out of hand that they're offering seven, eight leagues a summer, and our folks in the whole state are not going and playing tournaments. They're already playing too much.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Well, I'll tell you, what I don't like about leagues, although leagues are they feed us, so we wouldn't be able to do what we do without the league fees, but they have destroyed social tennis. They have. You know, when we were here, we pick up a phone and say, let's go hit tonight. You you never see people just going out to hit for fun. It's all competitive.

Christi 16:10

Interesting perspective. I hadn't thought about that. Because for me, um my league is super social and I love it. I love all the ladies. And in fact, we all talk about well, we want to get better, but we don't want to move up because we don't want to change teams. We like the people we play with so much. That's a common theme. Well, like that.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

We like to hear.

Christi 16:32

Yeah. So how many people uh will participate in the open this year?

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Hopefully around 200, 250.

Christi 16:40

That's a great size.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Which is a just a perfect number for us, yes.

Christi 16:43

That's wonderful. Well, I want to um circle back around to your um involvement in higher education, Lena. Um what what inspired you to get involved with well, you know, it's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Um when we came here, Mason was just a little junior college.

Christi 17:04

And a good one.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

And very the best. In fact, I was one of the people who battled the chamber and the community. I did not want us to go to a four-year school because we were one of the best two-year schools anywhere.

Christi 17:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

But, you know, progress and the chamber, uh anyway, we became four-year. Um, and I was real close friends with Sam Saplesio and her bacon, and they were on the Junior College board. So naturally, they had an idea, and then and I was the one scrambling around. So that was my introduction to high red. And then a few years later, Bill Foster was a legislator, and he was fed up with CCHE, the the committee that uh controls all the colleges. So he and Sam decided that I should get on this board and shape these guys up. So they put my name in, and I have to go. I said, I never spent a day in college, and I'm gonna be on the CCHE board. You gotta be kidding me. So he, Jim Robb, all these guys said, Lita, Tilly Bishop, we're all gonna be there holding your hand when they question you. And so then flying colors, you'll be appointed. So I go for my hearing, and the person ahead of me didn't show up. Oh. So my hearing was 15 minutes. Got moved up. So I walk in this room, all these old men who look like they should have a cigar in their mouth, talking about. Looking down at you, who is this lady? You know? And they said, Who are you? I was petrified. I said, Well, my name is Lita Elliott, and I and at the time I think we had eight or nine kids, you know. I said, My name is Lita Elliott, and I'm a mother of nine. And they all looked at me and they said, What? And I said, but it's okay, I married. Well, they did exactly what you did, and they just loved me. They never asked me a question. So that's how I got home. I said, You're in. So I started on CCHE for years, and then I loved the junior college, and I went to the Junior College board for nine years because they really help. Not everybody needs a four-year education.

Christi 19:45

Right. It's really nice to have different opportunities here and officers.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

And so then I went there, and then Tib, when Tib took over Mesa, he says, you got to get off the junior college and come on Mesa.

Christi 19:58

And was that when you joined the foundation? No.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

I did the the foundation at the college years before I went on the board. I actually, me and Hart Chirp took the foundation away from the college and did it separate because we didn't like the way the college was spending our money. So I yeah, so but anyway, Tim came back, he says, You've got to come on the board, you know. So I left the Junior College and came out.

Christi 20:29

I I was really interested to read how um there was such a brew haha over Tim Foster. Uh I I didn't know this story because you know, when I came to town and he was doing, I I don't know if he I have to look at the years that he was president, but I 17.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Look at what he I mean, we would not have what we have today.

Christi 20:50

What an amazing campus.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

It was just that faculty really feel they should pick their president. And in in fairness to the faculty, usually you bring two or three candidates. That are already in the and then they look at everybody and tell you what they think. Well, when we interviewed, you know, I was chair at the time, I said, let's let's vote and see where we are. Everybody on our board voted Tib number one. And Charlie Mafort, who owns Rockies, Charlie said, Why are we wasting our time? We want to hire Tib. Let's do it. So we only took Tib to the campus. Oh my god, the faculty went crazy. Absolutely crazy. Oh, they keyed our my car. That's what I called. They were vicious. But you know what? About three years later, the faculty called me one day to come down. It was an emergency, and I went down there and they had the roof filled with faculty flowers. And they were so happy that we had Tim gave them all a raise.

Christi 22:06

That helps. But you know, um when you realize good work is being done, you Oh.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Nobody could have accomplished. When we took over that college, we didn't know how we were going to pay the faculty their wages.

Christi 22:21

Honestly, I don't know how you all did what you did.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

I'll tell you. Thank goodness we had Charlie Balford and Steve Meyer from Shaw Construction. And they took our budget and all the finances and just magic, I'll tell you.

Christi 22:39

Amazing.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

But it's it's so important to our community. And look where we are today.

Christi 22:44

Unbelievable, isn't it? Yeah, so proud of that university in our town.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Oh, we're lucky to have a university. So enough about me.

Christi 22:54

No, no, I want this to be all about her. Well, I was gonna ask you, Kathy. Um what's it been what's it been like growing up with Lena? I mean, she's a force of nature, your mom.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

No pressure at all. But she is she really is quite amazing. And uh we are all very blessed, and uh we still have her at 93 and my dad at 95, and I don't it is a blessing, it really is. But it's been fun, and our whole family's very close, and we are all invested in continuing this for however long we can.

Christi 23:29

What do you think are the qualities that your mom has that has made her able to handle and do all the things that she's done in her life? And I I you know I read uh yeah, I don't know if it was that you didn't take no for an answer, or when you when you knew what you wanted, you knew how to get it.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

I have to tell you what they if I'm gonna do something, I don't know, I always go right to the top. I started the top. What could they do? Hang up the photo, shut the door. But I'm not gonna work my way up.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

That's what's so amazing, and this is for all those people out there that don't want to go to college. You don't have to go to college to to do amazing things. You don't. You just have to be driven and you have to have a mission, and she's always had that.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

You know, Christy, another thing that was easy for me, when you volunteer, if I if this was my job to be a fundraiser, it's a whole different environment than somebody who volunteers. When you know, when I go in and say I want money, I I finally have everybody trained, they just say how much, you know. But it's easier when you don't none of that money is it's all used to go back to help somebody. So it it wasn't as hard as it may sound to people. Raising money was pretty easy for me. Yeah, it still is. So, you know.

Christi 24:58

I I you have a lot of energy. Well thank goodness, yes. Um all right. Well, I I do want to talk about Kathy because um you you've been quite honored um in the tennis community, and and I I read that you were adamant that this was not gonna happen, that you didn't want to be honored.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Yeah, yeah. I uh I'm we all work together, and I I think of what Carla Coles is doing running our USTA right now, because that is a thankless job. And uh I got out of it because it was too hard running Grand Junction Tennis Club with my mom. And so Carla and I work very closely together, and she does a great job. But it takes everybody, it really does, and I it's not one person, except for Lena. But other than that, it is the rest of us working together to try to to make tennis grow and that to make sure people enjoy it, and that our facilities are top-notch.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

Well, I you know, the the politicians in town are proud of our facilities, yes, and they appreciate um what our uh city council person um stopped last year. She said when we dedicated the courts, she said, you know, a lot of people come to the city council and ask us for things all the time. But when the tennis players and the pickleball players came, they brought money to the table. And it really for me, I thought they really do appreciate when you go and say, I've got this money. See, let's be partners.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

I look back on the foresight she had when I was still in Greeley. And and even in 1957, 58, she started this club, and right away she told Parks and Rec, you know, I watched what you did that one time with our check. From now on, the money comes to us and we make sure it's used for tennis. And that has been a great partnership with the Parks and Rec because they they would probably be getting anywhere from 15,000 higher from the fees for USTA, but it would not go back to tennis. And that's the disappointment.

Christi 27:20

And if they don't play tennis, they may not understand the priorities and what's important to put the money into.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Well, you know, I was on Parks and Rec when we did Caddy View, and we were supposed to have 12 courts. And we finished Caddy View with six courts. They never finished the other six. And I kept locking at the door in the city manager. And so finally I ignored them. I invited all the city council out to a luncheon, and I set up a lunch on six tennis courts. And I said, see that ground? You owe me six more tennis courts. But it worked. I mean, that was the fitting sheet touch for a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

You we're getting those 12 courts resurfaced right now out there. Oh, they're prepared. It's taken Lena literally three years of hammering them to get it in the budget. And every year we're there at those city councils. When is it gonna be on the budget? When? And we are way past due. So it happened because she wouldn't let it go. And we are gonna have 12 new courts. Thank you. Well, this we couldn't do it without Kathy's energy.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

She's running all over the place making sure the courts are here.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

And having the Grand Junction High School courts, that was gonna be four courts only. Lena wouldn't have that. She went to them and said, Are you gonna build half a baseball field? Are you gonna build half of a football field? No, we need six courts. And we got those six courts, and it's helped our community greatly. So, how do you feel about pickleball?

SPEAKER_02 28:56

Oh, I think it's great. But you know, most of the pickleball players are old tennis players who can't move anymore. I think it's wonderful that they're out on the courts playing, you know.

Christi 29:05

I do too. And I I remember when Lincoln Park started to get crowded, and it was like, oh, this is gonna be trouble.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

But thank goodness we just we have worked very closely with the pickleball people, and they've been uh actually they had me throw the first ball out at one of their new courts. Wonderful. Because we work real closely with it, but Kathy spends a lot of time with them, yeah, and uh we have a great relationship, so it's good.

Christi 29:30

So just recently the um Elliott Tennis Center was dedicated, and what does that mean to you and your family?

SPEAKER_02 29:38

Well, for me and Carter, we were so pleased that they included the whole family, you know, because I'm out there ranting and raving, but it's my family who does all the work, you know. And so it was it was what a great honor it was.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

Emily told me about it in December of last year, and it had to be a secret. And we waited until they got everything organized, and then we finally told mom and dad about it. But it that is a wonderful thing because mom and dad are still here to enjoy that, and we're we're just very excited about it.

Christi 30:13

It's such a legacy, and I'm I'm very proud to be part of the tennis community, and I know how much you all have put into it and made it easy for the rest of us who just get to enjoy it now.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

Yeah, well, that's the enjoyment we get when we drive around. We always drive by the tennis courts, and I want to see people on that tennis court. It's a great sport, and you meet incredible people. Yes I mean our family has traveled the world by playing tennis and and met wonderful, wonderful people.

Christi 30:43

Do you like going to other tennis tournaments? Do you like going to play together? We used to.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

Carter and I, I finally learned how to play after five or six children. And Carter and I played a lot, and we competed in a lot of tournaments in Denver.

Christi 30:57

But have you ever been to like the US Open or Dakota?

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Carter, uh Carter at Soldier played at the U.S. Open. Oh wow. He also played at the US Open with Julie, and I played at the U.S. Open with Soldier.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

And this is way back when they did these um Equitable Insurance. Equitable insurance went out and found people and you could put in your name and you get invited.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

We you you had to you run locally and then you had to win the state, and then you had to win the regional. So we had to it took weeks to get there. But we won it on and and uh went back to New York and they won the tightness. My gosh, we were at the Waldorf Astoria, and when you got to your room, they had hundred dollar bills on the bed.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

What?

SPEAKER_02 31:48

Yeah, yeah, isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_00 31:50

It was spending money, and they don't do it anymore because it's too expensive. But back then that was wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

So we got to play at the U.S. Open and it was incredible. Yeah, that's wonderful. Yeah. Well, I guess I want to say as good as as what we've given to tennis, we have gotten much more than what we've given. Trust me.

Christi 32:10

Well, Grand Junction's a wonderful place to live, and I know that uh people see the good work that you've done and they appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

Well, thank you. Thank you.

Christi 32:18

I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

We appreciate you listening to us. Thank you.

Christi 32:24

I um I got into tennis because I was looking for a sport for my daughter. Uh huh. And I said, Let's go take a tennis lesson. And so we hired a young man from CMU who was on the team at the time and took a couple lessons. And my daughter said, I don't think I'm gonna continue. I said, Really? I love it. Can't stop. It didn't take very long. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

How many gals do you have on your team?

Christi 32:47

Um, I'm I think eight right now, but I'm I'm playing in the 55 and over and the uh 40 and over the 20s. 40 and over, yeah. And then Twilight start soon.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

So I tell you, they sit up nights thinking of more things to do. Well, that's such a moneymaker for them.

Christi 33:05

Well, and I it took me a while to get into the league play because it's hot. Playing in the evenings around here, and I like to play in the mornings when it's cool. Um, so they the girls had to talk me into league play, but I do like the social aspect of it, so I get out there and just learn how to manage the heat. Oh. But Grand Junction's got such a good climate year-round, and this past winter boy, we played all winter long in our shorts. And we we don't want that to happen again. We want the snow, but um, it was it was a good tennis winter.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Well, thank you for having us.

Christi 33:38

Yes, thank you for being here. I really appreciate it. And um, keep on doing what you're doing, enjoying tennis and enjoying life.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

Well, and meeting so many wonderful people. I'm glad to meet you.

Christi 33:50

Thank you, you too. Um, all right, everyone. This is Christy Reese with Kathy and Lena Elliott. Thank you so much for being here today. Uh, we'll see you next time on the Full Circle Podcast.

unknown 34:01

Bye.

Christi 34:02

Thanks for listening. This is Christy Reese signing out from the Full Circle Podcast.