St. John’s Memories: Contorted Filberts
The Contorted Filbert Society thrived throughout the 1990s and 2000s. I don’t recall exact dates, but we spent the New Year’s Eve weekend of Y2K at Sandscrest, and we were meeting well before and after that time. A group made up of gay men from St. John’s, with a few straight people who were close friends of ours, met each Sunday evening for dinner at someone’s house. Dick Young’s on Jackson St. and Sam Kitching and Steve Chionsini’s on Viewmont Dr. were our favorites because Dick and Steve loved to cook, and fed us with wonderful food. When we met at my house, we usually ordered Chinese from Main Kwong. I don’t cook.
Barry Bowe’s “Contorted Filbert Society” Logo
During one of our earlier years, we were gathered in Dick’s kitchen. As I sat at his round oak table, looking out the window toward his back yard, I asked, “Dick, what’s that in the hanging pot closest to us?” He said, “It’s a contorted filbert.” And I said, “Then we must be the Contorted Filbert Society!” We soon became known famously as “the Filberts,” and when we got together, we called it “contorting.”
Barry Bowe, who liked being referred to as “a recovering Baptist”, took the initiative to have a logo, based on the Episcopal shield, and had t-shirts made for every member. A drawing of St. John’s can easily be recognized in the center of the shield, while a representation of a contorted filbert tree occupies the top right quadrant.
The potted plant thrived and was eventually planted in Dick’s front yard, where it continued to become a full-grown tree. After Dick had died, his house became the new home of Joe Bolyard and his husband, Rob Hrezo. The tree still stands proudly in their yard.
As for the Filberts, several have died, some have moved away, and our weekly dinners are no longer “a thing,” but any of us who were a part of the group will forever have quite fond memories of the many good times we shared with one another.
Top row, from left: Ray Shackleford, Dick Young*, James Wells, Joe Bolyard, Stan Forrest*, David Morton, Tom Dorsey, Bob Maynard, Jim Lewis*^, John Alfano, Kris Morris, Stephen Niles. Middle row: Jerry Harper*, Barry Bowe*, Sam Kitching*, Steve Chionsini, Mike Klausing, Wayne Gorrell. Front row: Carolyn Dienst*, John Dienst and Bob Rosier.
* denotes members who have died. ^ St. John’s had two Jim Lewises.