Comforts of Home

With the Club set to host its annual Independence Day celebration, American Members reminisce about summer traditions from back home.

Cannonballs off the diving board. A burst of dust when the baseball smacks the mitt. Lounging in lawn chairs while fireworks crackle in the night sky overhead.

Talk of American summers conjures nostalgic discussion about burgers, family and the Fourth of July.

“When I was growing up, summer was a lot of swimming and grilling out,” says Club Member Tim McIntosh. “You can’t do Fourth of July without a grill.”

Five Members, who have collectively lived abroad for more than a century, share with INTOUCH what they love about Stateside summers.

Home for the Fourth
Growing up on a horse ranch outside Tempe, Arizona, summers for Bonnie Humphrey meant riding on quarter horses across sage-covered prairies and coming upon the occasional herd of wild mustangs.

These days, Humphrey takes her three children, all born in Tokyo, to Liberty, Utah (population: 1,257), where her father now farms, to expose them to Fourth of July traditions.

“Mutton busting,” says Humphrey. “Do you know what it is?”

The tradition sees children climb on the backs of sheep, similar to bull riding, and hold on for dear life. They also chase after greased piglets, line up for the parade and watch fireworks.

“If my kids are going to have any understanding of their home country, I feel it’s even more important to share [the holiday] with them,” says Humphrey, 41. “We get into discussions about, ‘Why do we have the Fourth of July?’ Then just from that discussion, you share a lot about our own roots.”

Last year, the Humphreys attended the Club’s Independence Day celebration, where they ate barbecue, rode a mechanical bull and Dad won the pie-eating contest.

“We feel like Japan is our home,” says Humphrey. “But when we come to TAC, we feel like the kids get a little taste of our American culture, kind of what I felt growing up.”

Red, White and Barbecue
A Texas barbecue isn’t a picnic in the park.

“In Texas, grilling out is an art,” says McIntosh, who calls Dallas his hometown. “They take this stuff very seriously.”

A barbecue grill in the Lone Star State is covered with every type of meat, slathered with spices, rubs and sauces. Trucks haul in smokers that slow-cook enough meat for 200 people.

McIntosh, who comes from a family of eight, recalls one summer reunion at Cincinnati, Ohio, where they rented an entire park to accommodate the army of aunts, uncles and cousins.

“Everybody brought a grill and a cooler,” says McIntosh, 52, who remembers filling his plate with hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob and homemade baked beans. “Everything is made from scratch. These are all made from recipes handed down for generations.”

After living more than a quarter of a century abroad, McIntosh says he misses the space to barbecue at home. Last summer, he hosted a private barbecue for company employees at the Club.

“The image of the American barbecue is a relaxing, comfortable environment with beautiful weather and really good food,” says McIntosh. “There was so much enjoyment that we are going to do it again this year.”

Home Court Advantage
“Growing up, sports was a big part of my life,” says Club Member Landon Budge, gripping a Spalding basketball in the Gymnasium. “I remember a lot of basketball in the driveway. We’d have a big Coleman cooler filled with lemonade or water, and we used to play for hours on end.”

In high school, Budge’s family moved from Atlanta, Georgia, to Tokyo. Budge started on the baseball, basketball and football teams while attending summer sports camps in the US. He remembers playing hoops at the old Club gymnasium, where an overhead air-conditioning duct blocked three-point attempts at one end of the court.

When he relocated to Tokyo with his own family, Budge discovered that basketball courts in the city are sometimes rented months in advance, public tennis courts are allotted on a lottery system and playing a quick nine holes of golf is near impossible.

“Those kinds of things are harder in Tokyo,” says Budge, 34. “Especially for a foreigner, even if you speak Japanese.”

He joined the Club’s competitive squash league and now plays pick-up basketball games every Friday morning with Members in the (obstruction-free) Gymnasium.

“Having all of that available,” says Budge, “has really changed my quality of life here in Tokyo.”

Safe Swim Spot
Humidity, mosquitoes and gators in the local swimming hole. That’s what summer was like in Augusta, Georgia, says Club Member Rangana Abdulla.

“A Georgia summer is a hot summer, not unlike Tokyo,” says Abdulla, 43, who grew up in the city known as the home of the famous Masters golf tournament. “Summers were centered around swimming and cooling off, and just being in the water with friends and family.”

For Abdulla, that meant going to Lake Strom Thurmond. According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, there are more than 200,000 alligators in Georgia. While the native reptiles prefer the state’s abundant marshland and swamps, they have been known to take a dip in lakes or swimming pools.

“It’s a real threat,” says Abdulla, sitting in a Sky Pool deck chair while three of her five children take a Mudsharks swim lesson. “But here at TAC, you don’t have to worry about that.”

She says her family is at the Sky Pool five days a week, whether for Mudsharks practice or private lessons for her youngest two. They also enjoy the Splash! burgers and fries.

“I don’t think there’s a better pool, and it’s a really well-run swim program,” says Abdulla. “So my kids are strong swimmers, but they don’t know how to run from gators!”

The Old Ball Game
Greg Dinges spent many summer afternoons parked in the sixth row behind home plate at the former Royals Stadium in Kansas City, scorecard and Cracker Jacks in hand.

As a youth growing up in Hutchinson, Kansas, his parents had season tickets to Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals. They drove three hours numerous times over the summer to watch Hall-of-Fame third baseman George Brett and shortstop Freddie Patek, who taught Dinges how to field grounders at his Little League summer camp.

During games, Dinges’ father taught him strategy and how to read a pitch. When they couldn’t make the drive to Kansas City, Dinges sat on his grandfather’s front porch listening to games on the radio.

“It’s just about family, going with my parents, especially my dad,” says Dinges, bellied up at Traders’ Bar one Friday evening. “It’s just what I
grew up with.”

Dinges, 50, moved abroad in the pre-Internet era, so finding baseball scores was a challenge. These days, he can watch any game at any time, including at Traders’ Bar with fellow Members.

“[Baseball] is more fun to watch with friends,” says Dinges, who attended the World Series three times when the Royals appeared. “Just reconnecting with that part of your heritage, that’s a nice thing.”

Words: Nick Narigon