It is a year of celebration for the Study Club as it celebrates 90 years of existence.

Celebrations kicked off in Muizenberg on Tuesday last week at the home of the club’s chairperson, Jenna Monk.

Ms Monk said the Study Club was founded in 1934 by Adeline Turner, the wife of an American businessman, as a regular get-together for the wives of diplomats.

The purpose of the club was for intellectual discussions and was later opened to university graduates looking for stimulation through study other than their field of discipline.

Members are given a year to prepare a white paper to present to the club.

In its early days, each member had to put forward two topics and the most popular topic became the following year’s subject.

Nowadays, Ms Monk said, members can choose their topics, and there have been many interesting topics of which one of late was the “history of trousers”.

Ten of the club's 15 members attended the meeting last week where they wore white gloves and enjoyed a glass of sparkling wine.

Ms Monk had decorated her home with balloons and had put out old memorabilia on the coffee table, and one of the club’s newer members, Margaret du Toit, presented a paper on “A change is as good as a holiday - a look at the past 75 years”.

Ms Monk said celebrations would take place throughout the year at the club’s various meetings.

In the early days, she said, the wearing of hats, gloves, and stockings at meetings was compulsory, and unexcused absence terminated membership.

These were two of the club’s five rules that have since been discontinued, but the other three rules remain to this day: No talks of domestics or bridge are allowed; every member has to read one paper a year; and only two items, one sweet and one savoury, are allowed at afternoon teas, which each member must host.

The club meets twice a month on a Tuesday from 2pm to 4pm and members are from Mowbray, Llandudno, Pinelands, and Muizenberg.

In 1984 the club celebrated its golden anniversary and in 2009, it celebrated its 75th anniversary with a break from tradition.

It relaxed its “no husband” tradition and spouses were invited to the November celebrations held at the home of Peter and Lynn Watkins in Hout Bay (“Gregarious grannies celebrate 75 years of study,” Sentinel News, December 4, 2009).

Club secretary Bridget Stephens, 80, said she had been a member since 2009. She had heard about the club through a friend who had been a member at the time.

She said she was working on a paper but could not reveal its title just yet.

Asked what her main source for research is, she said “Anything and everything,” adding that she had read six books for one of her papers, “Mountaineering”, which she had done many years ago.

She said the topics chosen by members “tells you a lot about them” and she loves learning new things like “there was a mini ice-age in the 16th century”.

For more information about the Study Club email trinidad@polka.co.za

Members of the Study Club wearing their white gloves as Margaret du Toit reads her paper. Looking on, from left, are, Ursula Walker, Hilde Poulter, and Mary-Beth de Lisle.

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