Bound to Last: The Avalon Book Club Turns 50
Cindy O’Connor, Sarah Burns, Joyce Johnson, Jane Weaver, Jean Nazarow, and Cheryl O’Hara at the Book Club’s 50th Anniversary Tea Party at the Avalon History Center.
There used to be a waiting list to get in.
That is how sought-after a spot in the Avalon Book Club was at one time. Today, there is no longer a waiting list, but the book club is no less esteemed as it celebrates its 50th anniversary on the island.
With such a storied history, it’s ironic that founder Cindy O’Connor’s original inspiration was quite humble.
“It was 1974. My late husband and I had just moved into our summer house in Avalon with a plan to stay year-round,” she explains. “And I thought I would be bored out of my gourd living here in the dead of winter.
“So, I invited my friends from the Philadelphia East Falls Book Club to come down to my house on 40th Street in Avalon to discuss how to start a book club. That was the first meeting. I invited everyone I knew in Avalon, which wasn’t that many people, and we modeled it after the East Falls Book Club.”
At the first meeting, the group drew up preliminary by-laws and procedures. The members decided that the club would meet for lunch on the second Monday of each month and that meetings would be hosted in members’ homes on a rotating basis. Each meeting also included two co-hostesses to assist.
The structure of membership was also quickly set. “At the beginning the idea was to have a mix of members,” O’Connor says. “We limited it to 27 members: 50 percent older, in their 50s, and 50 percent younger, in their late 20s.” For the record, O’Connor was part of the younger crew.
Following the model of the East Falls Book Club, the Avalon Book Club functioned in a unique way. The original design was for members to purchase a new fiction or nonfiction book that would be rotated through the group on a biweekly basis. Monthly meetings featured a speaker who discussed a topic of interest, rather than a free-flowing conversation about one book.
“The format didn’t change for a long time,” says O’Connor. “We served wine, tea, coffee, and Mrs. Oakes’ tea sandwiches. The hostess would provide dessert each month. In the beginning we always had the same speaker from Philadelphia, and she would talk about what was coming up on PBS, what shows were playing in Philadelphia, or concerts by the Philadelphia Orchestra. As the club evolved, we had different speakers each month. The president’s job was to find a speaker, and we had a real variety. Some played piano, others talked about recipes, or shared their expertise.”
Even the books that were passed had a few rules attached. “The books couldn’t be more than 400 pages because most people couldn’t read more than that in two weeks,” explains O’Connor. “They also had to be recently published, within the last year, and you could choose to read them or not.”
Today, books are passed once a month at meetings, instead of delivered to members’ houses on a biweekly rotation. And there is still an officer in charge of book circulation. When you do a little math, it’s staggering to realize that the Avalon Book Club has likely circulated close to 1,000 books in its 50-year history.
Over time, the book club also branched out to include field trips and charitable initiatives.
“We’ve supported various causes over the years, like an orphanage in Kenya, and we’ve donated books to schools,” says O’Connor. “We have different projects that we like to support.” Most recently, the book club is working on a project that would provide books to first-graders at a Wildwood elementary school on their birthdays.
Current book club secretary Cheryl O’Hara enjoys these service projects along with many other aspects of the club, including sharing the experience with her mom, Irene McCullough, who is 95 and still an active member.
“My mother has been in the book club for 40 years,” says O’Hara, who has been in the club for 12 years. “I remember the waiting list when my mother wanted to join. She was so thrilled when her name finally came off the list and she got in. In those days, you needed references to join.”
O’Hara also vividly recalls the days of the formal luncheons. “When it was your turn to have the book club at your house, you called Mrs. Oakes and ordered the tea sandwiches,” she says. “I can still remember my father picking up the tea sandwiches for my mom. This was when there was silver tea service and everything.”
Like so many things today, the rules and structure of the Avalon Book Club have relaxed.
“Now everyone brings their own brown-bag lunch, but the hostess still provides drinks and dessert,” says O’Hara. “We typically meet at someone’s house, have wine or juice, and catch up, eat lunch, and have a short business meeting. It’s harder to find speakers, but we try to have one or two each year, then twice a year we all read the same book and have a discussion together.”
Even with changes, many things about the book club have stayed constant. There are still annual elections for president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. And the sense of community among the members remains.
“Even if you don’t know everyone well, there’s a camaraderie,” says O’Hara. “We support each other, send cards if someone’s sick, and stay connected. A lot of us now go to exercise classes together at the community center, so we often touch base there.”
In October, the club celebrated its 50th anniversary with, what else? A tea party. The event, held in the Avalon History Center, was spearheaded by current club president Marianne Roberts. “It was beautiful,” says O’Connor. “Marianne and her team made everything look gorgeous, and there was a nice turnout. Everyone had a great time.”
Fifty years later, O’Connor remains active in the club, still attending meetings and recruiting new members. She is both proud and in awe of the book club that is now one of Avalon’s longest-running institutions. “I never thought it would still be going 50 years later,” she says.
When asked she was ever “bored out of her gourd” on the island, as she feared she would be in 1974, O’Connor’s response is quick and emphatic.
“Nope! I made sure of that!”
She sure did.
