Elvis has left this building!

Folks, that's nifty 50's all the way. Many bathrooms in Baltimore including my parents still have plumbing fixtures that look like this but not nearly as clean.

This is where I met my ex-wife back on Memorial Day in 1991!

Back in '88 a friend twisted my arm and I went to my first of five Jewish singles weekends in the Catskills. Three were at the Pines and the other 2 were at a smaller resort called the Tamarack Lodge. I had such a great time that I went to five of these shindigs. The girls from New York, and north New Jersey were hot, loved to wear short miniskirts and got a kick out of this Southern gentleman. Baltimore being south of the Mason Dixon Line. Though we are considered Mid Atlantic many still consider Baltimore to be a Southern city at heart. Meaning the New York Girls got a kick out of the way I TALKED! And it didn't hurt that I gave many massages. LOL I met my ex-wife at the Pines on my last trip Memorial Day Weekend 1991. We are still friends. Back to the Pines. The place was quirky cool. There was that aura of a place that was once great but fading. The food was fantastic and plenty of it. I believe the family that always owned the Pines owed too much in back taxes and had to close down the show. A shame, those weekends enabled singles who would never know each other existed had they not had the experience at the Pines and other Catskills resorts. This was at the cusp of the Internet age and just think if the Pines and these other places could have stayed alive. As nothing lives forever on the same token things come back and have at least another shot in the limelight. Generations of singles and others will never get a chance to share in this experience. I for one am thankful I had the opportunity. BTW, the "exercise room" and "health club," were reminants of the 1950's idea of health and fitness. They actually had two vintage "reducing belts!"

The Pines was one of the grande old resorts in the Catskills. From the 30's until the early 60's resorts such as the Pines were all inclusive and were the number one vacation choice for folks from the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland areas. These resorts featured the current popular entertainment of the day. Up and coming comics cut their teeth in the Catskills. The Catskill's audiences were the toughest critics. The Pines is/was located in the small Catskills town of South Fallsburg, N.Y. Approx. a 2.5 hour drive from Gotham (without traffic) and approx 5 hours from the Baltimore Washington area. Changing tastes, culture and the icreasing popularity of commercial air travel were the death knell for the classic Catskill's resorts . Why sit in a car for 2.5 hours when you could hop a jet plane and be in Miami , Fl. in a little less time? The Pines hung on through the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. Charter groups, senior citizens and singles weekends enabled this resort and others like the Concorde to limp along until the inevitble. The fate of these resorts demonstrate that nothing lives forever. :-(