Saturday Night at the Club

This is going to be brief. I don’t have it in me to do much more than that. - - jam

*****

I just discovered that Howard County has a country club. I really had no idea. I can add that to the list of things I hadn’t known. They’re in Glenwood, which is in Western Howard. You probably knew that.

Cattail Creek Country Club

How did I find out? The Howard County Fire and Rescue Services Facebook page shared a notice yesterday about an upcoming fireworks display.

Reminder: TONIGHT (6/25), at approximately 9:30 pm, there will be a private fireworks display in the 3600 block of Cattail Creek Drive. Residents might hear loud noises/see smoke in the area.

This event is permitted through the Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal and will have HCDFRS fire marshals present during the display.

So Howard County has at least one country club (are there any more I don’t know about?) and they had their very own fireworks display last night. CORRECTION: A kind reader has pointed out that Turf Valley is a country club and this is why I should not have attempted to write today. My apologies. - - jam

Country clubs mean money and exclusivity to me. I will admit I carry preconceived notions very likely rooted in the country clubs of yesteryear. Frankly it just feels creepy to me.

Of course Columbia has the Columbia Association with multiple pools and tennis courts and other amenities. You have to live on assessed property and choose to pay a membership fee on top of that, but it’s meant to be a more egalitarian concept. The Columbia model was meant to be inclusive from the start.

Country clubs certainly haven’t always been that way. I don’t know anything about membership at Cattail Creek Country Club but I suspect any barriers to admission are probably financial in nature. You can’t legally exclude people for being Black or Jewish anymore, can you?

For now.

Some folks might say that Columbia has all those amenities, so, why shouldn’t Glenwood have a country club? It just doesn’t feel the same to me.

Feel free to share your thoughts.

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