Thursday -- July 2, 1998 -- The Club is OPEN
Tryon Wells has come down to help with the replacement of the lights on the path. One was burned out but the other appeared to have been broken by a thrown rock. This is possibly another ramification of the frequent appearances of drinking teenagers on the towpath after dark. Next time you come down the path, give a glance at the location of these lights and imagine how Tryon got in position to change them.

Friday -- July 3, 1998 -- The Club is OPEN
Visitors to the Island will notice bark from the Sycamore trees lying about everywhere. Ann Kipp, a great fan of collecting and using this bark for craft type things, has made a point to track these occurrences, and notes that it has been three years since this last happened. We have noticed stranger, new, loud, popping/cracking sounds that we think are the bark popping off of the trunk before falling.

Saturday -- July 4, 1998 -- The Club is OPEN
Yesterday was a busy day on the Island, with over 110 people logged onto the Island. Today the weather threatened to rain in the late afternoon, so there were only 58 people logged in.

Monday -- July 6, 1998 -- The Club is OPEN
This morning I spoke to Lt. Watts, commander at the Glen Echo Park Police station, about our visit last night by late night rowdies. While they were probably harmless teenagers, at about 2300 hrs a large group of loud, drunken sounding youths gathered at the ferry landing steps on the towpath. This was not alarming, but after about ten minutes they started ringing the bell and shouting at the island. The lights were on around the Island and on the path down the hill as visiting relatives had recently returned from downtown. I turned off all the lights and marched down the walk to speak to them, but by the time I arrived at the ferry they had been quieted by the sudden darkness, so I sat and listened. Before long I could hear them struggling up the hill in the dark, much subdued. As I told Lt. Watts, I was calling not because of a Sunday night party but because it was in fact the second night in a row, that this morning there was evidence of much cheap wine being consumed on the ferry steps, and because it is starting to become more frequent than once a week.

Friday -- July 10, 1998 -- The Club is OPEN
The new green plastic table for the deck arrived at 0830 hrs. this morning thanks to Susan Garbini and Tryon Wells. It is five feet long and should survive the harsh elements for a long time. Otherwise, the river level is dropping to summer levels and the water is finally clearing up, so come on down for a refreshing swim.

Monday -- July 13, 1998 -- The Club is OPEN
Last Saturday on the Island there were again two uninvited and unauthorized visitors. The Caretaker's Wife was sitting out at the end of a long day, after all Members had gone, thinking she was alone on the Island, when strange voices were heard. Two teenage boys were walking down the wooden walkway. When challenged by the Caretaker's Wife as to just who they were and how they had gotten to the Island, they confessed that they had swum over from the towpath side near the swinging rope. After being informed about the private nature of the Club, the boys jumped on the ferry as though to take it to the other side by themselves without so much as a "by your leave."

"And just where are you going with the Island's ferry," said the Caretaker's Wife. "You got here by swimming and you can leave the same way," and at her prodding they had to jump in the river and swim to the other side.