Kay Ebert, Deb Daley, Deb Priesgen, Coleen Simon and Robin Reed recreate a photo they tried to take before. The five women have had a standing date during the Thanksgiving holiday for the past 31 years.

HARTFORD - Women who get together for post-Thanksgiving bonding often head out to the nearest store, but for Deb Daley, Deb Priesgen, Kay Ebert, Colleen Simon and Robin Reed, Friday was a good time to brush up on their pole-dancing techniques.

For 31 years, the five women - all friends since their days at Hartford Union High School - have repeated a few old traditions of their own, adding new twists every year.

When they started getting together, they didn’t know they were starting a tradition, Daley said.

"We were 16, we had nothing else to do so we met for punch," Daley said. "Then it got to be the next year, and the next year.

"The first year, we made a big bucket of punch and dropped it," she said. "It leaked through the floor into the basement where the parents were."

"It was so icy and snowy, but we went to get more ingredients for punch," said Ebert.

Between the basement raining sticky punch and the girls heading out for the icy drive, the tradition got off to a rocky start.

"Our parents were fuming," Ebert said.

On that day and every November get-together since, the group played a card game called spoons.

The get-togethers were originally on Thanksgiving morning, but moved to the Friday after Thanksgiving as boyfriends, marriages and visiting family took up the Thursday holiday.

Group members take turns hosting each year, dreaming up different activities, Ebert said. One year when Reed hosted, the group wrote down and sang songs from the year of their birth.

For the group’s 10th anniversary, the group spent a night at the Iron Ridge Inn, soaking in the hot tub and playing a few pranks on each other before parting Saturday morning.

This year, the group had a session at Velocity Fuel 4 Girls, an exercise studio on Main Street where the workout takes its regimen from pole dancing techniques.

"It was my husband’s idea," said Ebert, as the group relaxed afterward.

"Taking pictures (of the group) was always fun," Simon said. "We do it every year. You always have someone running to get in the photo."

One year Reed took more than a few lumps getting into position once the auto-timer on the camera was set.

"They sat on stools and I was going to lay across their laps," said Reed.

After launching herself into the air for the fourth try, she started wondering about the wisdom of the pose.

Simon once stretched out on a bar to measure it.

The group has no plans to part ways, they said. Their families socialize together and the staying power of the group is a tribute to tradition and friendship.

Preisgen had a tablecloth made that the group signs every year and survivors have made plans to display the piece on the caskets of group members as they pass away.