Nancy Melle and Greg Barishman
chat over dessert.

New Jerseyites Ilene Hirsch and
Nancy MeIle: Hunting for hunks.

Volleyball, Concord-style.

"I wasn't here to
meet Miss Right . . .
That would be great
if it had happened
but it wasn't really
on the agenda."

—Bruce Greenberg

26

FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1991

coffee shop. There they made plans to
play tennis or volleyball or an assortment
of other outdoor and indoor sports in the
morning.
Sitting with a few buddies, Silvio Tan-
credi, a 30-year-old travel agency opera-
tor from the Bronx, explained to anyone
who would listen about his plans for
harvesting the best crop of the opposite
gender staying at the .hotel.
"You've got to start your scoping be-
fore dinner so you can beat out the com-
petition and hit on the best looking wo-
men here," said Silvio, taking a drag from
his cigarette. "Some of the girls here are
really cooking. Check out that one over
there. She can't keep her eyes off me."
At a nearby booth, Sandy Filip, 26, an
elementary school teacher from Cresskill,
N.J., looked around at the men in the cof-
fee shop and shook her head.
"It seems like there are a lot less sin-
cere guys than other times that I've been
here," she said, fixing a earring. "I think
most of them are looking for one-night
stands. I'm putting in a lot of effort but I
keep meeting a lot of weirdos. I still think
it's possible to meet Mr. Right here. To
me, it's a manhunt. But it's pretty
tough."
Despite the "meat market mentality"
of some of the weekend participants,
Rachel Ornshan, a jewelry salesperson in
Highland Park, N.J., said that she pre-
ferred meeting men at singles weekends
than at dances or bars.
"If you meet a guy at a bar, he may fol-
low you or hurt you," said Rachel, 29.
"At least you have people constantly
around you here. It's a lot more safe than
a deserted parking lot."
Added Jill Bland, a 21-year-old from
Howard Beach, N.Y., who works for an
air courier service, "You're less apt to
meet someone here who's already married
and wants to have an affair than you are
at a bar. That alone makes it a good place
for singles to be."
The next morning found some singles
attending synagogue services at the Con-
cord's chapel. While a few said they came
to. the small service to pray for peace in
the Middle East, others said they had
less altruistic motives.
"I felt like repenting for some of the
things I did last night," joked one drowsy
and slightly zaftig 33-year-old woman
wearing a tight mini-skirt and enough
pancake makeup to draw squeals from
Tammy Faye Bakker. "I didn't realize so
many cute guys came to services here."
The Concord's kitchen, large enough
and equipped to feed several famine-
ridden continents, shifted into overdrive
for Saturday afternoon lunch. As raven-
ous singles shuffled into the dining room
to partake in the Concord ritual of stuff-
ing oneself with gobs of food, Laude, a
Jamaican waiter dressed in white formal
attire, took it upon himself to seat men

with women who might find each other
intriguing.
"I can usually look at people and see
who will get along, mon," Laude said in a
serious tone. "I mean, this is why people
are here, right? To meet each other and
party. So why should they all be sitting
apart? They need to mix. It's like the
`Love Boat.' "
While conversations usually focused on
their lives back home and activities at the

"We get singles
nowadays whose
parents and
grandparents
met here."

—Gordon Winarick

Concord, the singles marveled inces-
santly at the resort's non-stop culinary
service. Although the menu tended to be
limited to basic American dishes and
strayed no further than lasagna in terms
of ethnicity, patrons did not display any
inhibitions about ordering two or three
meals in one sitting to sample a taste of
everything.
"I don't say the food is great here,"
said one man, chomping on his third por-
tion of chicken cacciatore. "But the more
of it you eat the better it tastes. Then you
try to go work it off on the tennis courts
or at the swimming pool."
Ellyce Pessin, a 34-year-old office
worker from Manhattan, said the Con-
cord's food was not the reason for her in-
digestion during lunch.
"Do you know how difficult it is to eat a
salad when every man sitting at the table
has clumps of chest hair popping out of
their shirts?" she asked. "Where do they
get these guys?"
Afternoon lectures on taxes and in-
vestments and on hair replacement failed
to attract many listeners. Some singles
spent the day catching up on sleep lost
the previous night. Others devoted time
to perfecting a move some called the
"Concord Shuffle."
"You want to learn how to do the Con-