AH, NOSTALGIA!

For us "old" Rotarians, entering the meeting today was a quick trip down memory lane. Laid out on the welcome table were memorabilia of past demotion nights, photographs of club members from years ago, and some wonderfully wacky Rotary-themed cartoons by our late great Official Club Humorist, Jack Hayes. It turns out that the theme of today's meeting was to be a lecture on the History and the Legacy of Fullerton Rotary, to be delivered by none other than Professor Jim Williams who has himself lived a lot of that history since he joined our club back in 1978 when he was a young lad of 27. But I'm getting ahead of the story. Click for Text of Jimmy's Outstanding Program

MENU:

First we filled our plates at the generous buffet. The succulent, servings of Roast Beef were a welcome change. The Oreo-Cookie Cream Pie was good too.

CALL TO ORDER:

After a decent interval to scarf our meals, acting "Prez-4-a-Day" Tom Meyer rang the bell and called us to some sort of order. He noted that he was the first male type to be in the presidential pipeline for a couple of years. He said that even if the club seems to prefer lady presidents (they have soothing voices and are nicer to look at) he still preferred to be a guy. And to show why, he read a few items from a list of things that make men's lives easier than women's, such as: "A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase," and "Three pairs of shoes is more than enough." A longer 99-item list can be found in the attachment, "Why it's good to be a guy."

PLEDGE:

Somebody in the crowd was appointed to lead the pledge, but everyone just said it in unison without anybody seeming to be in charge.

SONG:

The same was true for the song. When Howard Wood came up to lead the song he said that in honor of Labor Day, he'd chosen a song about "work": I've Been Workin' On The Railroad. The lyrics he'd handed out before the meeting only went as far as "Dinah Blow Your Horn." But since everybody knew the whole song anyway, we just kept on singing all the way through to "... Strummin' on the Old Banjo!" After that, we sang the traditional Smile!

INVOCATION:

We all quieted down enough after that to allow Rev. John Derry to give a proper invocation.

VISITORS AND GUESTS:

Next, long-time member Bob Bean, Esq. undertook to introduce Visiting Rotarians and Guests. There weren't many visiting Rotarians in evidence (if so, they were traveling incognito) but lots of members brought guests.

Waltah Bahnes was accompanied by his lovely better half, Adrienne.
Past-President Jim Williams brought along wife Sally and long-time neighbor, Blake Smith. Since Jim had to sit at the head table with Prez-4-a-Day Tom Meyer, your reporter was privileged to sit next to the vivacious Mrs. Williams.
Diane Masseth-Jones of the YWCA brought a couple of guests, Chad Porter and Jessie Diaz.
Club Secretary, Webmeister, and Past-President Bob Jahncke introduced his cousin Tom Jahncke.
Retired tax attorney Lee Brockett presented Rebekah Havard who, despite being female, is in charge of the Boy Scouts.
Two other visitors, Carly Waterfield and Christopher Tany seem to have just come in on their own. (Is that allowed?)
Past-President Ray Ashcroft stood up and introduced wife Mary, a frequent and welcome addition to our meeting scene.
Someone introduced Past-President Allan Bridgford who hasn't been seen at a meeting in a while. Welcome all!

ANNOUNCEMENT: 

Wednesday, October 4th will be "Bow Tie Day." The program about Bow Ties will be chaired by Real-Estate Tycoon and Bow-Tie-Wearer-in-Chief, Joe Lins, who has assumed the mantle since the departure of University Executive Jim Blackburn. Anyone who wants to be admitted to the October 4th meeting must be wearing a bow tie. Anyone who does not have one of his/her own will be given an opportunity to rent one for the meeting, courtesy of the Fullerton Civic Light Opera Costume Department. The object is to qualify our club as the very first "One-Hundred-Percent Bow-Tie Club" in the District. Someone asked if a plaque or a banner would be issued, and the answer is "Yes --- IF we qualify." An important District Official will be in attendance to monitor the results.

FINEMASTER:

Bill Schenk, seemed to enjoy his turn as Master of Recognitions and made the most of it. He informed Past-President Wally Bartelt that the Astronomical Union had changed the status of his head from Planet to Dwarf Planet. (Why?) He also informed your humble reporter that due to his "extreme cranial girth" his head would remain a planet. (Is he saying that I've got a "big head"? My hat size is only 7½; down an eighth from a few years ago.) Wally was fined $12.50, but your reporter got off with a warning.

ANNIVERSARIES, etc.:

There were plenty of important days to celebrate.
Celebrating wedding anniversaries during the past or coming week.

• Sally and Jim Williams
• Barbara and Art Levine
• Jean and Bill Klinghoffer
• Paulette and Al Triay

Sally Williams said that she celebrated her anniversary by going white-water rafting on a wild river somewhere. Art Levine admitted that, even though he was a native Orange County boy, he had to go all the way to New York City to find a bride. Turns out his wife was a classmate of a well-known politician named Rev. Al Sharpton. (Small world, isn't it?)

RAFFLE:

Your reporter was assured by the raffle-ticket vendeuse at the welcome table that at least one of the tickets he had purchased was the winning one. Sadly, it was not to be. My three numbers, ending in -059 -060 & -061 did not make the draw. Winning ticket 495054 had already been sold to John Phelps. To win the pot he had to answer one of the following: "What country is represented on the cover of the ROTARIAN magazine this month?" and/or "What is the theme of the cover article?" John drew a blank, claiming that mail took a lot longer to make it all the way to Lido Isle. (It is evidently delivered by longboat.) The answers were "Nigeria" and "Hunger" both of which were represented by a photograph of a young Nigerian child on the cover.

PROGRAM (at last!):

Click for Text of Jimmy's Outstanding Program

Prez-4-a-Day Tom Meyer introduced former boy-evangelist Jim Williams who began his talk with a reading from Genesis 5:3 which introduces the generations of Adam and his descendants, and is the beginning of a long series of "begats." Jim then shifted his focus to the story of an orphan boy named Hiram Smith who grew up, moved to Fullerton, and joined Rotary. He became such an enthusiastic Rotarian that he recruited ("begat") 59 new members into our club, and founded the Placentia Rotary Club. Jim expanded on this theme, tracing the provenance of numerous valuable members of our club from "Hi" Smith, who was a personal friend of Paul Harris (the original one) right down to the newest nine. His intent was to show how one man or woman acting through Rotary can beneficially impact an entire community. He asked each of us to consider our own contributions to the community through Rotary. Jim's inspirational story held everyone's rapt attention. Tom Meyer noted that nobody had dozed off. The full text of Jim's presentation can be found in the attachment entitled: The Legacy of the Rotary Club of Fullerton. It is well worth rereading.

The program ended with a call for any members who have old Rotary memorabilia to consider making a donation to the Rotary Room to at the Cal State Fullerton Library. Definitely a worthwhile cause. After the meeting, some folks milled around looking at the displays of Club memorabilia.

Keith Mills