By Richard Weinstein, President & COO
Ocean Reef Community Foundation

Weinstein – after that, it is just the X, Y, and Z’s.

So, growing up, I was always last whenever they were doing anything alphabetical. And back “in those days” there were no participation trophies. They never bothered to just read the list in reverse order. (I suppose that if they do that today to be “fair” then the M’s are always in the middle.) I was never any good at alphabetizing. In fact, aside from hand-written long division, there wasn’t anything much worse. Even today, with the exception of LMNOP, where I can start in the middle of the alphabet, I pretty much have to start from A every time to figure out which letter is in front of, or just after. But I find that odd because the alphabet doesn’t change order, it has been the same for quite some time. Yet without reciting (hopefully not out loud) LMNOP to figure out if the M is before the O, I am lost. Keep in mind, I am not the kind of grown adult that needs to sing the alphabet, so at least I have that going for me.

Reading musical notes seems a bit similar to the alphabet. They even have the same letters and they are in the same order…but not really. The piano seems to start with middle C so that scale of C Major is CDEFGABC – all white keys. But it doesn’t start with A. The Key of A Major does start with A but then they throw in a few sharps to make it more complicated – some black keys. If that is not confusing enough, A Minor is exactly the same – all white keys – as C Major, just in a different order that does start with A, ABCDEFGA. Looking at the musical notes on paper, I am once again relegated to start from the one note I recognize and count up or down from there.

At the same time, I don’t seem to have any similar challenge with numbers. I immediately know that 834 comes before 896 and I don’t have to start counting from 1,2,3 all the way there to figure that out. Likewise, the days of the week, which have names, not numbers, don’t require me to start at Monday to figure out that if today is Friday, tomorrow is a day that may not require so much work. The months function like that, too – unless you have to count them backwards – then that requires starting in January and counting forward over and over until you have what 90 days in advance really means. (I hear that the waitlist for Social Members at Ocean Reef is 800 strong. I bet every one of those members in waiting know exactly where their place is in that line.)

November marks the time where most Members begin returning to Ocean Reef. Here we have a different order of things that starts with the Club’s Equity Welcome Back (The Gathering) and quickly follows with Canadian Weekend, Member Guest Golf, Vintage Weekend, and the Holiday Concert. Reef Cup changed their dates from January to later in the year for better fishing odds, but soon after the New Year’s celebration, every February is our Ocean Reef Community Foundation’s All Charities Weekend Gala. In almost no time at all, great events and experiences will be up for auction February 10-12, 2023. This is a terrific time to provide an auction item or experience, a special bottle of wine or spirits, or perhaps a beautiful work of art that you just don’t have room for anymore.

The order of events at Ocean Reef may present its own challenges to remember, so be sure to stay close to your calendar and mark those dates for All Charities this February, starting with the silent auction Friday Night, February 10th. The silent auction and wine tasting is a fun preview of all the auction items and a marvelous opportunity to join your fellow members in this charitable weekend. To make it even easier, we provide the auction book a week prior, so you don’t have to memorize the order of anything!

We look forward to seeing you at all the events this coming season!