La Pétanque Marinière is a pétanque club, but equally important it is also a social club. A loose association of people sharing a common interest.
The main reason for the club’s existence is obviously to play pétanque, but it also serves as a gathering place where you can meet new people, forge lifetime friendships and incidentally, find romance.
You often join a club for the same reasons that you join a gang: to evade loneliness. And regardless how happy you are with your mate, you cannot live in a vacuum. You need to leave your lair once in a while and rub elbows with unfamiliar people.
In the old days, places of worship served as clubhouses, but these places can be dull and stale. Before exchanging gossips, pleasantries, and confidences, churchgoers have to listen to a sermon, and many individuals would rather do without that.
In a social club, you don’t have to pretend to be pious or reverent. You can gossip to your heart’s content and use a great deal of profanity to let loose your emotions.
But besides exchanging gossips and risqué jokes, the club also has a more serious function. It is a place where you can find friendship and comfort, especially after the loss of a dear one.
Even though club members might not know you that well, you are still part of a brotherhood, an extended family that will rally around when life gets rough.
So even if you don’t (yet) play pétanque, it would not hurt to join such a social club.
But not any club. Look before you jump!
“I wouldn’t want to belong to a club that would have me as a member.” Groucho Marx
Alain ?
“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt