CLUB SOCIETY: We continue today to excerpt an article by Del Crockett about the Valley Hunt Club, which was the equestrian center of the region from the 1930s until declining membership and rising costs spelled its demise in the late 1980s.

“There was an active social committee which planned at least one activity a month, usually a dinner dance with a live orchestra. There were often theme parties with appropriate decorations.

“We ordered orchids from Hawaii for a luau. When we had pig roasts, several fellows spent the entire day tending a whole pig on a spit (with sauerkraut stuffing).”

During Sunday afternoon horse shows throughout the year — there was an inside ring for inclement weather — “observers sat in the Tally Ho Room and watched through big plate glass windows,” Del wrote.

“Winter offered its own joys. Besides the inside riding, there were toboggan and sledding parties.” The outdoor riding ring was flooded and turned into a skating rink.

The club was occasionally rented out for weddings and community events, Del wrote. He recounts one ball that was held at the club around 1963.

“The Bradford Hospital Auxiliary sponsored a gala fundraising ball at the club. A fabulous Big Band was hired and the decorations planned. It was a circus theme. The dining room was not spacious enough … so the inside ring was swept and polished; a wooden dance floor was constructed; tables and chairs were on three sides of the dance floor,” Del’s essay continued.

Toward the end of the evening, Del wrote, “an uninvited visitor arrived: a black and white ‘woods pussy’ sauntered in through an open door at the north end of the riding ring. The few people who saw it stood transfixed” as they watched the animal slip under the raised dance floor.

“Collective breaths were held until he reappeared and headed for the open door,” Del wrote.

“It has been a secret ever since,” Del’s essay concluded. “The night a skunk went dancing at the Valley Hunt.”