The public is invited to an Oktoberfest complete with German fare and a Beer Garden Saturday, September 28 from 3:30 to 7 PM at the Baby Island Saratoga Club—BISC. Proceeds from the $40 per person ticket benefit the BISC scholarship fund for South Whidbey high school students.
Gemütlichkeit (pronounced geh-moot-lick-ite) is German for the sense of well-being one gets in a welcoming social gathering, and it was reportedly present at the club’s last German dinner and Silent Auction held in 2019.
Tom Vos, BISC president, moved here with his wife Sharon 21 years ago from Michigan. They joined the BISC in 2008 or 2009, and have enjoyed the camaraderie of club members over the following years. He remembered the good time folks had at the club’s autumn dinner five years ago. “The attendees said, ‘the dinner was great–you should do that again,'” he recalled.
With two years of the COVID pandemic bringing events to a halt, it took a while for the club to ramp up again.
Prior successful fund raisers included a spring tea and raffle, in which the club’s ladies wore Victorian hats, and the club’s men dressed in black aprons—known as ‘The Men in Black’—serving tea sandwiches and cakes and pouring tea. A ‘Price is Right’ annual garage sale raises additional funds. For 2024, the club thought the time was right to host an Oktoberfest.
This year’s fare includes warm German potato salad, baked bratwurst, sauerkraut with juniper berries, cucumber salad and apple strudel prepared in the club’s commissary kitchen, whose design was updated and upgraded in 2016. Commissary kitchens are ones that are rented by multiple users.
“The original kitchen was just awful,” recalled Cathe Mueller, an interior designer and BISC member who redesigned the kitchen and club’s two bathrooms. “Several of us got together and remodeled it to not only be more useful, but it met the requirements to become a commissary kitchen. It was my first design project on the island. It’s very basic, but it works.”
The clubs’s restrooms also received a fresh look, and one is now wheelchair accessible.
The club is open to South Islanders who wish to have a place to meet at a reasonable rental rate—for instance, the Saratoga Water District board meets there the third Wednesday of the month to manage its Bells Beach district business. The clubhouse is used for family gatherings and a weekly spiritual group as well.
BISC members meet for potluck dinners second Fridays of the month from September through May. It’s a chance to catch up on one another’s lives and hear an interesting speaker. Friday, Sept.13’s speaker, for instance, represents the Orca Network, a whale sighting and marine education network which operates the Langley Whale Center.
A memorable speaker six years ago was former astronaut Heidemarie Martha Stefanyshyn-Piper.
“Heide was our speaker at the 2018 Spring Tea,” recalled Tom Vos. “A lot of the attendees brought their granddaughters for her inspiring presentation.”
Tom emailed a link to a short Vimeo film about Heidemarie. Watch it here. Heidemarie was a naval captain, awarded for a number of successful salvage operations, including destranding of an Exxon oil tanker and creating a plan to salvage a Peruvian submarine. She was an astronaut with NASA, serving aboard two Space Shuttle missions. In 2011 she was made commander of the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Maryland. She retired in 2015 after 30 years of active duty, and now lives on Whidbey Island.
The Baby Island Saratoga Club–from various articles and documents Tom has read–was founded as a social club in the 1940s. Then it was called the Saratoga Baby Island Firesiders’ Club.
He recalled the history of the neighborhood.
“South Whidbey had very few homes,” he explained. “No electric, no phone, no fire department. Saratoga Road was a gravel thoroughfare. What I found out is that Langley installed a generator, and was able to have light on First Street in 1921. In 1928, they upgraded the generator, allowing people to do their laundry on Monday and Tuesday mornings. In 1936, the precursor of PSE got a contract to start working on bringing electricity to the area. I haven’t seen any supporting documents, but it is quite likely correct to say that the Baby Island/Bells Beach area did not have electric and phone service till well into the 1940s.”
With such conditions, folks relied on each other for entertainment.
“Neighbors would get together in one another’s homes, trying not to die of boredom by playing cards and socializing,” Tom said. “It occurred to them that they needed a mission.”
The social group formed the Baby Island Saratoga Improvement Club. With power finally extended to the area, they built the fire station on Saratoga Road near Center Street.
“In 1952 they built the first version of the clubhouse where it now occupies four forested acres on Saratoga Road,” Tom explained. “The clubhouse has gone through several transformations, adding a kitchen and even inside toilets.”
Around 1956 they petitioned to get Saratoga Road paved. A little later they petitioned Washington state to increase ferry runs to two an hour.
Two ferries per hour! While the current ferry schedule might be taken for granted, we can appreciate the improvement club for its success in making that happen.
By 1980 the improvement club decided to reinvent itself.
“In 1982 they became a charitable organization, a 501(c)3,” Tom explained. “They dropped the Baby Island Saratoga Improvement Club name, and became the Baby Island Saratoga Club. The mission was twofold—to raise scholarships for deserving students, and second, to provide a public assembly hall for the community to use for its purposes—such as education and family gatherings—at an affordable cost.”
“These days, BISC, in its various embodiments, has enjoyed being a part of the community for around 75 years, but like many other local non-profit volunteer organizations, we, too, are finding it difficult maintaining a level of active members,” Tom said. “We hope people attending our events will recognize BISC as a warm and welcoming group of neighbors and choose to join us.”
Dues are $40 a year.
In the mean time the club celebrates Thanksgiving with a turkey dinner and a festive dinner for the Christmas holidays.
Baby Island, a small island offshore of the intersection at Saratoga and East Harbor roads, has a colorful history, including serving as a secret rendezvous point for acquiring alcohol during Prohibition. Read this account on the South Whidbey Historical Society webpage.
Meanwhile, contact David Stenberg, a BISC member, to purchase tickets for the Sept. 28 Oktoberfest. His number is 425-269-7999.
Besides the Bavarian food and drink, a raffle will also be held. Baby Island Saratoga Club is located at 3616 Saratoga Road, Langley WA. For more information visit the BISC webpage.