A Bigot's Nightmare

I just finished reading all the notes on the backs of the scoresheets for 1992 and corrected a couple of errors in 'Under the Cover of Darkness.' I also played over several of the more interesting games. I have yet to resurrect an old Apple II and try to read 1992. My impression of that year based on (shaky) memory and the notes, is that the basic harrassment motif (meeting blacks everywhere) was also evident at the DCC. Also, the tactic of entering the locked car and turning on the wipers or tweaking the mirror, was evident from time to time but not every night. The butt-flashing was a new phenomenon, and I noticed another new phenomenon, the 'angry Jew.'

This was an old guy who showed up at the games but never played. He only spectated, rudely, it seemed to me. On one occasion he stood behind my opponent's vacant chair and sucked his teeth loudly as I was hunched over the board, thinking. When I looked up he was glowering at me. On another occasion I overheard him saying that he had lost most of his family in the Holocaust, and hoped that the (Irish) master would lose the game he was playing. On yet another occasion when I was playing the same master he stood near us glowering yet again. Very creepy fellow. He never explained what line of reasoning he used to conclude that the Irish were to blame for the Holocaust. I suspect that his real problem was penis envy and that he was completely unaware of that.

At the end of the year the club elected a new prez and a new treas and me as vice-prez. I am still in the dark about why THAT happened, because the club hardly needed a vice prez. To sum up the year, it was queers, Jews, and blacks at the DCC, a veritable American hodge-podge and a bigot's nightmare.