Years have been golden for 'Friendship Club'

In 1960, a group of women organized into what was called a home demonstration club with the help of Lillian Tubb, an extension agent with the Montana Extension Service. They recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of their enduring club at a party at Jagz.

“We still have some of the same girls who started with the club,” Patty Slack, president, said. “A lot of us started out friends in high school. We’ve been friends forever.”

Over the years, about 70 women have come and gone through the club. They now have 17 members who meet on the second Tuesday evening of each month and often have a lunch outing as well.

“In the early days we had to set a limit on members at 20,” Slack said. “Back then, no one had a big enough house for more than that.”

The club invites speakers several times a year. Most recently, they had a speaker from an emergency shelter for children. The women presented the organization with a check for $100.

“We’ve always done worthy causes,” she said.

They volunteered to run fair booths, helped with school vision screenings, gathered food for the hungry and put together “Neighbors in Need” luncheons. At Christmas, the women buy baby clothes for Hope Pregnancy Center instead of buying each other gifts.

“Several years ago, one of us had a nephew in Iraq so we sent phone cards,” she said. “We also help the vets pantry.”

According to Slack, the concept of home demonstration clubs started about 100 years ago with the goal of teaching women homemaking skills such as canning and baking. She compared it to extension service work teaching men to farm.

Programs were organized both for country and town women.

“We called ours ‘Young Mothers’ because we had 45 preschool children among us,” Slack said.

Through this program, the Montana Extension Service offered classes on homemaking, childcare, business and service skills. Women attended the classes then brought back information to share with their club members.

Some members of the clubs, including Slack, served as officers on the Flathead County Extension Homemakers Council which at times had several hundred members.

“I was president of the county-wide extension homemakers,” she said. “There were like 32 clubs when I was president.”

Slack said all the women were about the same age when they organized “Young Mothers” which the agent cautioned against, saying the club would never last without a diversity of ages. The club proved her wrong as the women maintained a close bond from the start.

“In 1960, we had our first meeting in January or February,” she said. “Originally, 11 of us started it. A lot of them have died. Many have lost their husbands. But we still have fun together.”

In the early years, Slack said the evening club meetings gave members a chance to get out of the house and let their husbands take care of the children. They had many good times together going on picnics, going out to dinner and to the Bigfork Playhouse.

If a death occurred in one of their families, club members made food. They shared the joys and tragedies of life together as sisters.

“It just evolved over the years to be this great group of women,” Slack said. “It’s still a time to get out and be social.”

The name of the club evolved along with the members. When they decided they were no longer young, they changed the name of the club to “The Domestic Engineers Extension Homemakers.”

“That was P.C. for housewives,” Slack said with a laugh.

When dues climbed too high, the club decided to drop their affiliation with the extension service. About five or six years ago, they changed the club name to “The Friendship Club” which best describes the benefit they all receive.

“There isn’t one I couldn’t call if I needed something,” Slack said. “They help each other and they help the community.”

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com