Miracle on Hawthorne Lane

By Ray Filz

Sometimes reading non-interesting looking articles can pay off. It paid off miraculously here in Charlotte recently. The article was related to amateur sports. In the article a man by the name of Larry Huelsman was mentioned. He labeled himself as an amateur sports enthusiast, but I will label him the “The Cartridge Man,” since from its German origins, “huele” means a cartridge, as from a bullet.

After calling Larry, I asked if he would meet with John Pahl (Charlotte TT Club President), and me. Our dilemma was this … we did not have enough places to play. Here in Charlotte you play second fiddle to basketball. And if it isn’t basketball, it’s volleyball. At the meeting with Larry, we mentioned that we only had one facility to play at on a Sunday afternoon. However, we were given a two-hour night after that, at a private recreation center in South Carolina. (For non-geography majors, Charlotte is in North Carolina.) This was arranged by a friend of John’s, who is an aquatic instructor at the facility. Larry took this information to Wayne Weston, a heavy hitter in Parks and Recreation, saying “Hey! We’ve got these table tennis guys having to go to South Carolina to play.” From that, we got a Thursday night at a rec center called Elon. So presently, we meet Sunday’s at Tuckaseegee, Monday’s in SC and Thursday’s at Elon.

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