Saratoga News

Cover Story

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Eighty-year-old Muriel Mahrer swims with a mask and a snorkel at Brookside. She is one of the few remaining charter members at the club and swims 80 laps, one for each year sheÕs lived.

Net Work

Members can work on their tennis or their networking at Saratoga's Brookside Club

By Michele Tjin

Rita Gujral is a model of good habits. Each morning, she bikes four miles and swims 12 laps. Sometimes, she even manages to squeeze in some tennis.

"Nothing too aggressive," she said. "I love it. It's part of my morning routine."

Gujral's morning activities revolve around the Brookside Club of Saratoga, a tennis and swimming facility in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Members call it a hidden gem and like that it's nestled behind several homes and a long driveway. Club officials don't go out of their way to advertise; most of the members first hear about it through word of mouth.

The club offers tennis courts and a heated pool, but for many of the individuals who use the amenities, Brookside is more than a place to improve technical skills. It's where they get together to share ideas, gossip or simply hang out with their friends.

"The social aspect--that's what draws a lot of people here," she said.

Gujral has been using the club facilities since the early 1990s, when she and her husband returned to the United States after eight years in Hong Kong, where she learned to play tennis. Through the people she's met at Brookside, she's been a part of various book clubs, bridge circles and hiking groups.

"This is my second home," Gujral said. "This is a place to go where I enjoy."

Brookside is turning 50 this year, and members say while interest in the club has ebbed and flowed over the years, it has endured as a meeting place for adults and children. Brookside serves 250 families and has competitive tennis for men, women and juniors who want to participate in U.S. Tennis Association tournaments. For adults who want something less than competitive tennis, there are friendly matches. In the summer, there is a swim program for children, with meets against competing local swim clubs.

If the walls at Brookside could talk, they would say many local families grew up together at Brookside. Chuck Holmquist and Bob Elliott are part of a large group of members who joined in the 1970s so their children could have a pool to enjoy in the summers. They remember how there were a lot more fruit trees surrounding the club and how young swimmers learning to float in the pool would eventually graduate to become Brookside lifeguards.

But these days, with their children grown, it's the parents who make use of the club. For Holmquist and Elliott, that means playing with a men's tennis group every Wednesday and Saturday morning. After many of those sessions, they follow it up with a game of gin rummy in the clubhouse.

"He's winning, and I'm mad," Holmquist said of his friend.

This morning, it's just the two of them playing, and they banter on about everything that's going on in the news--politics, the stock market, world affairs. They have an opinion on everything and are vociferous about their views.

"We never agree," Holmquist said.

"No, I agreed with you earlier for the first time in a month," Elliott replied.

The women are just as likely to use Brookside as a home away from home. Many say they like the unpretentiousness and laid-back feel of the club. There is no dress code, but "men sometimes like to see how fluorescent they can be," said Jeanne Calhoun of Saratoga.

Calhoun joined Brookside six years ago to get back into the swing of tennis after a 20-year absence from the sport. She plays at least four times a week. Her mornings aren't right until she's had her tennis.

"It's the first thing I do after I walk the dog," she said.

Playing as often as she does, Calhoun knows practically everybody. If someone disappeared for a while, she said the group would be plenty worried.

"We know what's going on, if people are on vacation or if someone has a sick mother," she said. "We know what goes on in people's lives. You keep track of things."

On this morning, she and about a dozen women took part in a non-competitive match against a tennis club from Los Altos. The women invite the Los Altos guests to share a potluck lunch, and as soon as they sit down, the Brookside hosts catch up among themselves. Some of the younger women talk about teachers their children have, while the older ones discuss life, as they have been for the past 30 years.

"It has a family feel," said Saratoga resident Chris Curry. "It's an extension of my house. I come here to relax."

Curry, who organizes the summer swim program, likes Brookside because it's a safe environment for her children. The location is ideal for her them, she said, because they can walk over or ride their bikes to Brookside.

"We draw from all over the Saratoga district, and the kids get to play with different kids," she said.

Barbara O'Malley and Nancy Daniher found lifelong friends in each other at Brookside. They and their families moved from the East Coast to California during the 1970s, and they didn't know a single person. But they weren't alone for long.

"The basis of our friendship was tennis," Daniher said. "We're still dear old friends."

The Brookside experience has been such a good one for the O'Malley family that Helen O'Malley, Barbara's daughter is the club manager.

"I grew up here," Helen said. "I had an opportunity to come back here."

After lunch is over, some of the women clean up, while others linger and talk some more.

"I spend my whole morning here," Daniher said.

Because of the cooler autumn days, the water in the pool is calmer but not still. Muriel Mahrer of Saratoga is one of those hardy souls who will swim for as long as the pool is open. She remembers when the pool was nothing but a hole in the ground 50 years ago. While there may only be a few active charter members left, Mahrer she swims 80 laps, one for each year that she's lived, six days a week,

Her trademark is her snorkel, which she relies on because of neck surgery. She won't win any speed contests, but methodically and gracefully she glides along the length of the pool, with her feet making the smallest ripple behind her. She repeats this for 80 minutes.

Swimming has been a part of her life for a long time.

"When I worked, I kept a suit in the car," she said. "If I was tired and I didn't swim, I'd feel even worse."

But it's not just the adults who benefit from the club. Aubyn Miller of Saratoga is sitting on the bleachers, watching her children Alaina and Raleigh hit balls across the net during a tennis lesson with eight other children. Miller said Brookside appealed to her because it offered competitive tennis for younger children.

"I'm competitive," she said. "If you do something, you should do it all the way. I think winning is fun."

Even though there are no lights on the tennis courts or fancy amenities, Miller says she feels at home here. In the summer, when her children use the pool, she is bound to run into someone she knows.

"It's an everybody's club," she said.

She has also taken up tennis herself and is trying to stay one step ahead of her children. Her goal for them is to learn sports skills they can use their whole lives. She's learned from her own experience, she said. Track and volleyball don't lend themselves to casual pick-up games.

She credits her children's development to Tex Swain, the head tennis instructor. Swain spends 12 hours a day, six days a week, giving lessons and clinics.

"It's more boring when I don't work," he said. "That's when I get tired."

Swain is just as comfortable working with adults as he is coaching children. His clinics are popular, and parents say he knows how to motivate their children.

"There's a good mix of young families and older retirees, and cultures and ages," Swain said.

While there are no frills at Brookside, members still like what they have in their family club. It's a place where all the regulars know each other's names and are always welcome in their communal home away from home.