North Fresno Rotary

Meeting Recap 11/12/2009

by lou on 16/11/09 at 6:31 pm

The brother of L² ran around the room attached to a mike. The mike did a great job, but NICK had a hard time keeping up with it.

DEBRA Mc. gave thanks and GORDON K. lead us in our salute to the good old USA. One of our newbees, RICK LARGE, did an excellent job of reading names of visitors and enticing members to introduce their guests…. Tom Marsella, Janice Marsella, Liz, and Kim Smaldino.

L² invited all the veterans to stand, for us to show our appreciation for their service to retain our freedom. I was unable to record all the vets and their service time and place but I will do my best. ROGER A. Korea, PAT B. couldn’t hear, J.J. DALE forgot, ROGER J. South Pacific, CHARLEY W. Japan and Korea, SKIP C. state side, TED M. state side, PAUL R. Europe, SCOTT L. state side with DALES. I apologize for the Iceland and Hospital and any other duty locations and PERSONS I did not pick up. At one meeting many years ago, the President invited the vets to give a short picture of their experiences. I personally would like a series of meetings where these individuals relate their times to us, if they would not mind doing so. Both RODERS, CHARLEY and PAUL, because of their theater of action, could be first.

Joke one:

A man owned a small ranch in Montana.  The Montana Work Force Department claimed he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to interview him. “I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them,” demanded the agent. “Well,” replied the farmer, “there’s my farm hand who’s been with me for 3 years. I pay him $200 a week plus free room and board. The cook has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $150 per week plus free room and board. Then there’s the half-wit. He works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night. He also sleeps with my wife occasionally.” “That’s the guy I want to talk to … the half-wit,” says the agent.
“That would be me,” replied the Rancher

The happy travelers were:

ROGER A. was not sucked into a vortex in Sedona but did make up at a Rotary Club. That is a must visit for everyone in the fall. DO IT. He also gifted L² with a coffee cup from the Grand Canyon. HAGOP B. and GORDON K. attached themselves to a Fresno Chamber Group and traveled to China. HAGOP gave two vibrating massage balls to L² and GORDON handed over a Chairman Mao Commi red alarm clock. PAUL R., with 53 years of perfect attendance, brought back a coffee mug from his visit to the Avenal Club with the District Governor. CLIFF S. loped form New Mexico to Texas to deposit some white sand from the National Monument, with said name, on L^2’s podium. He did attend a meeting in Alamogordo and presented a pamphlet to prove it. His visit to San Antonio Texas produced a jar of peach and pecan jam. Did he go to Roswell? He didn’t mention any other cities in between. Maybe he was transported. No one was fined.

Change in Chairmanships:

SHERIAN E. is now Senior Chair for Club Service. CHRIS W. is now Junior Chair for Vocational Services.

The ringing of the bells:

Eighteen years of support for the Salvation Army by ringing bells in front of Food World, Longs Drug and now CVS Drug in the Village will start November 30^th. Please contact ROGER A. to fit you into the time slot needed.

Rotary Storyland:

Yes we did do much, much work out there on Saturday the 14^th. CLIFF got to cut down trees and the STEVENS’, CARLSTROM and N. SMALDINO with ANDERSON broke out handrails, rocks, plants etc. Go on line to see pictures. http://northfresnorotary.org/2009/11/photos-from-storyland-playland-11142009/ Real brute work.

Madera Sunrise Club:

Call JANET P. about the fundraiser. Pre-decorated Christmas trees auctioned off on December 5^th. Donation is $50 per person.

Raffle:

Number 777026 was the looser. There were six marbles for $146 and DICK E. only walked off with the book ‘The Traitor’ by Coonts.

The Speaker:

Darin Marsella thanked all the Rotarians for their support through letters and security clearance references. Darin was stationed, for eighteen months, at Bahrain on the Persian Gulf. It is about a half inch south of Kuwait on my map. He presented some 60 pictures with explanation. All I can do is say click, click, click. You needed to be there. The eighteen months went fast but it took him three months to reacclimatize to US life style. His feeling is that there is too much emphasis on materialism in US and it is very fast paced. The climate was 120 degrees with 90% humidity. The water was 80 degrees. Darin visited a Rotary Club while there. The Rotarians didn’t quite know what to make of him, but were friendly. The lunch cost $24. Most want the US to be the super power that they will support. He did mention that the format of the Bulletin is similar to ours, but with jokes, and the basic meeting is the same. So I have added two jokes to this bulletin to more unify the world of Rotary.

Joke two:

 

“Mike the farmer was in the fertilized egg business.  He had several hundred young layers (hens), called ‘pullets’, and ten roosters, whose job it was to fertilize the eggs. The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn’t perform went into the soup pot and was replaced. This took an awful lot of his time, so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so John could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill-out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells. The farmer’s favorite rooster was Old Butch, and a very fine specimen he was, too. But on this particular morning Mike noticed old Butch’s bell hadn’t rung at all! John went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. But to Farmer Mike’s amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn’t ring. He would sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.
John was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the County Fair and he became an overnight sensation among the judges. The result…The judges not only awarded Old Butch the No-Bell Piece Prize but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well. Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making.

 

Good Night and God Bless.