Estee Lauder and Egg Salad

Journal Entry 
June 24, 2014

Early this morning during my walk/jog workout in our neighborhood in North Georgia, I caught a glimpse of the 10th fairway. There was just enough sunlight piercing the grey clouds to make the dew glisten on the manicured grass. The steep slope of the fairway and the early morning sun reflecting sparkles on the wet grass was reminiscent of something I hadn't thought about in a long time. I was taken back to the time when Mom started a junior golf program in our hometown of Corry, Pennsylvania.

10th fairway. Woodmont Golf & Country Club, Canton, GA. 

Oh, it was a very sweet memory that popped in my head as I looked down the glistening fairway this morning. Memories were growing as I recalled details. As young children we'd play very early each Tuesday morning during the summer months. The grass was always dewy when we arrived at the golf course, as it was today when I looked over the fairway.

Corry Country Club Junior Golf Program was founded and managed by my Mom, Mary Gillette Brown. My sister, Julie Brown is standing front and center in this photo (circa 1961) wearing the sailor hat. Today Julie is a talented LPGA instructor. I'm pictured far left with my golf bag on my shoulder.

We lived on a family-inherited, 500+acre farm in Corry.  I can still remember Mom getting all five of us sleepy heads up early on Tuesday mornings and with extra effort got us and our little sets of golf clubs into the station wagon to head to the Corry Country Club. We had to get there earlier than everyone else because Mom established the junior golf program and she had to set everything up.

But first she had to load the car with clubs and kids and then get everything she needed for the mornings golf rounds. When she had us securely seated in the car, she'd dash back into the house for the last minute prep for our lunch. We were glad to wait for Mom because we were sleepy; but she was full of energy, doing what she loved to do!

In preparation for the morning of golf and then lunch, Mom would take an entire loaf of bread out of its bag, spread each of the slices with the egg salad she made the night before and then carefully stack the sandwiches back into the bread bag. She would seal it with a twist tie. She usually made an additional bag of sandwiches that might be bologna or peanut butter and jelly.

When Mom got in the car with the bags of sandwiches, so did the familiar scent of her favorite perfume, Estee Lauder. And then we were off to the club!

Mom was a fun-loving, competitive 2-handicap golfer. She absolutely loved to play and compete. Even though our dad walked out on all of us when I was very young and our parents divorced, Mom hid her pain from us. As a single mother she was passionate all her life, about life and about us. She consistently loved her family, loved people, and helping young people enjoy golf and much as she did. She began hosting her first junior golf program with her own five children -- three boys and two girls --in 1959 and enthusiastically gave of her time, talent, and love to youngsters all over the town of Corry. She was very successful.

Some of the 'big kids' of Mary Gillette Brown's Junior Golf Program (circa 1961) at Corry Country Club, Corry, PA. My big brothers pictured far left, first one in each row: Bill Brown, standing holding golf bag and Jeff Brown,  kneeling.

Mom was so helpful and encouraging to golfing families over the years that kids and parents wanted to pin a professional golfer status on her until she told them she wouldn't take money for golf lessons. She wanted to keep her amateur status.

Mom had a huge fan club in Corry. The boys and girls in the summer program brought her a charm bracelet inscribed, "Mom" because that's how they saw her, as a caring, fun-loving Mom to them. Every week she joyfully set the pairing of players, divided us into age groups, asked the pro shop for gift certificates for winners of each category, and posted the scores. She loved every part of Tuesday mornings all summer long; her children were with her at the golf course and she was showing kids golf can be a fun, life-long sport.

When the summers ended in Corry, Mom would load us up in the station wagon with our family dog and head to her parents' winter home in Miami, Florida. Mom was the sole driver for the three-and-a-half day road trip. Not only was the car filled with her family, but she was towing a small wooden trailer. It was built with an open top that would be covered with thick canvas after it was filled to the brim with all our things. There wasn't possibly room for all our clothes and clubs in the car! She filled that with her favorite people!

Every summer we made the same trip back to the farm and back to more junior golf at the club. The days on the road were certainly challenging for her, so much responsibility for her and so much energy from a car full of siblings and a dog! We had to wait our turn to "sit up front with Mom."

I remember she would have to pull over at a rest stop and lie down in the front seat to take a brief cat naps, so she wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel. We just stayed quiet long enough for a short rest, of course.

When we would drive deep into Florida she'd pull over at a beach and say, "Let's just stop and put our feet in the water!" She loved the beach and we grew up going to the beach often, including coastlines from Key West, Miami, and even Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Somewhere along the Florida Coast. (Our family: circa 1960 from left: Mom, Gary, Jeff, Me, Julie, Bill Brown.) This is what we looked like after a 3-day drive from Pennsylvania on our way to Miami, Florida, and Mom says, "Hey, let's just stop and put our feet in the water!" 

Mom  started all kinds of golf tournaments in Florida when we moved to Coral Gables. She established them for all ages; juniors, four-ball events for 18-30-year-olds, the Florida State Junior Golf Tournament in Lehigh Acres, the Girls' Event of the Junior Orange Bowl at Biltmore Golf Course in Coral Gables. She was often competing and winning tournaments she entered.

I am touched that God would bring all of this back to my mind in such detail today. He knows I miss Mom and to think again of the yummy egg salad sandwiches in the bread bags and the scent of Estee Lauder continues to make me smile and thank God.

I surely do serve a tenderhearted Shepherd.

💖Polly