Carry Me BACK
Sky High With a Mellon Martini
I
By Jimmy Hatcher
had been out of my native Richmond for about seven years and living in the Middleburg area, in the real estate business and properties were selling well. I had two horses who both hunted and showed. And so, I decided to have a three-piece suit made when H. Huntsman and Sons of Savile Row came to town. The Piedmont Hunt met on Friday back then. We had a meet at the Mellons and had a good run. I had to pull out early so I could hunt the same horse back on Saturday because I wanted to show my other horse in a hunter trial on Sunday. As I was leaving the field near Mr. Mellon’s airstrip, Jackie Eldridge sidled up to me and asked if I’d like to go to the Colonial Cup in South Carolina the next day. “Oh Jackie,” I replied, “that’s eight hours down there and the same coming back. Of course I suppose it’s only 15 minutes to this airstrip.” Enough said. Saturday morning, I was at the Mellon runway dressed in all three pieces of my new Huntsman suit, the better to hop on a plane and fly down to Camden. The group heading south included Erskine and Lily Bedford, Margaret Watters and her son Rick,
Photo by Hyphen-Inc.
Betty Vickers, Jackie Eldridge and a very contented Jimmy Hatcher. The Mellon Gulfstream shot into the clouds like a rocket. We hardly had time to eat the hors d’oeuvres supplied by the Mellon kitchen and the watercress and asparagus sandwiches made by Mary White. Mary’s marmalade tarts were consumed just as we
arrived in Columbia, South Carolina. Mary and her husband, Ridgley White, the Mellon’s trainer, whisked us off to the Camden Springdale course. Once we got there, Mr. Mellon went off to do something official and our group was left to greet friends and be invited to after race parties once they found out how we had flown to the races. The group had a little meeting and it was decided that we all had plans for that evening and I, for one, wanted to get back to Middleburg to tell people where I had been and how I had traveled there. Once back on the plane, even before we leveled, off Mr. Mellon was making his special gin and vodka martinis. So I arrived in The Plains at Molly Wiley’s dinner dance in great cheer. Her Gordonsdale home had a back-door eentrance. But when I arrived somewhat late, I went to the front door, still in my three-piece suit with my tuxedo over my shoulder. The door was locked and I rang or knocked several times, then waited and waited some more. Finally the door sprung open and the man who greeted me was none other than Bill Perry, who said, “Where have you been?’ I immediately shot back, ‘I thought you’d never ask.’”
Country ZEST & Style | Spring 2021
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