Author Dick Bourne
Photos Patsy Inouye
Get Up and Go
9/18/2020
By Dick Bourne
It’s a first! Scribing from 3100 miles away on Cape Cod, a feat only possible in this un-coveted Covid era, thanks to our Zoom format. To assure connection, I jumped on a little early (but ha, it was almost 10 AM in the east!) and thus had extra time admiring Patsy Inouye’s serene, zebra-studded, Serengeti background, which rekindled fabulous memories of camping there in the near-yesterday of 10 years ago. I truly enjoyed spectating at the sweet warmup conversations with Dick Berry in the sad aftermath of losing Judy. Dick suggested coordinating gift meals through friend Bonnie Green (756-0767) to prevent overloading his refrigerator. He very much appreciates all the support so far, and encourages porch visits. Dick urged folks to come and take away plants before his “brown thumb” has its way with them. More sadness, his son-in-law Carl Schwedler (a Charter Sunrise member) has Parkinson’s and will, with wife Marcia, be moving in with Dick.
Soon we were standing and joining Chuck Snipes in the lusty but staggered sounds of “Smile” and “America the Beautiful”. Don Morrill must have been singing the loudest, because Zoom kept flashing to his midriff sporting a “Vote” T-shirt. President Vanessa Errecarte offered both a sincere “Happy Friday” and a view of daughter Ella’s newly-crafted 2-page book with page 1 reading “Rodre (that’s us!) is the best” and page 2 “Mom is the best”. But can both be best? Which is better? After declaring a dearth of postcards, Vanessa called for visitors, but no guests or non-Sunrise Rotarians self-identified. However, Vanessa spotted and welcomed Tyson Hubbard’s youngsters Rosalie and Dash.
With OktoberFest looming, Patsy Inouye and Brodie Hamilton launched our announcements, theirs about preparations for the first virtual version of our annual fall “funraiser” set for 4-7 PM on 10/3. Attendees will pick up meals at Sudwerk, our co-sponsor. Tell all your friends to buy tickets; we hope to sell 800, with (ulp) only 50 sold so far and a 9/26 purchase deadline. Thanks to Tim Daleiden for his efforts that culminated in the large banner at the Richards entrance to Davis, and thanks to Patsy and Brodie for all their hard work in making this event happen. For more info see the excellent writeup on our home page.
Announcement #2 came from Don Winters, about the upcoming (too late now, it was Monday 9/21 at 8 AM!) Davis/Dixon Sunrise Rotary golf tournament. When confronted by Don to join the swingers, Brodie insisted he already completed his once-a-year outing on the links. Who won the prizes of beer, wine, and more? Both hard-drivers and duffers were welcome and encouraged; the group included the Davis TADS (Thursday Afternoon Duffers).
Announcement #3 from OUR Andrew Yang notified us of next week’s speaker, Professor Lisa Cook of Michigan State University on the topic “What Economics Really Tells Us About Opportunity.” Andrew will be sending out an email reminder soon, for us to circulate so friends can Zoom along with us.
With warmups out-of-the way, we moved to the main events: Sergeant and Speaker. Sarge Dennis Lindsay came fully prepared for his stage-time, with a significant slate of targets after Happy Bucks from the following five:
- David Copp- for our club’s generous support of the Kenya fundraiser to combat hunger caused by the pandemic; the pleas generated $4000 for the cause.
- Brian Sway- for the Jewish New Year, in hopes that the next year will be better than the last!
- Clay Brandow- for finally, after 16 months, being back in their now-remodeled house; and for, at last, a bike ride in breathable air! (Sergeant Dennis shared this happiness.)
- Meaghan Likes- also for the improved air quality, ending a too-long funk; and for making a key 9/15 work deadline.
- Elma Gardner- for Clay and Brooke’s return home- and noting that Clay wasn’t the one responsible for the change orders (how the contractors loved those!) that slowed the project.
Then Sergeant Dennis called on Dave Heard, who, at first, pretended he hadn’t! Dave and Becky apparently enjoyed a Labor Day weekend in Redway with Rick and Pat Stromberg. Surprisingly there was no mention of air quality; instead the focus was on wood-splitting and gin & tonics, which Dave claimed go together well. Dennis suggested otherwise, asking Dave to send money for “full fingers.” Next turning to our local politicians, Dennis asked Lucas Frerichs where he has been lately, and our soon-to-be third term councilman claimed he’s been working with east-coasters on a schedule that interferes with our Zoomeetings. Ignoring the opportunity to test the veracity of this claim, Sir Lindsay held up a leaf blower and asked both Lucas and fellow councilman Dan Carson whether they planned to curtail his right to carry. (As a downtown resident disturbed at 7 AM most mornings by these beasts, I have to ask why can’t we require electric vacuums instead of allowing these horrible 2-cycle noise and air polluters that just blow the debris around, typically into the street so the City has to pick it up?) At this point conversation digressed to the history of Murre Traverso using a leaf blower to drown out a talkative Jerry Kaneko, while Lucas made clear that the current ban under consideration is temporary and aimed at improving air quality.
Your scribe-of-the-Friday (Dick Bourne) may have missed some banter here as a result of being the next target, for our recent cross-country road trip. I was trying to summarize our nomadic joy, including an interaction with a Council Bluffs officer who issued me a warning for stirring too much air near him as he confronted another motorist, and the challenge of driving 2000 miles without a working speedometer or cruise control,. But apparently my audio malfunctioned and Dennis graciously went on to Keith Watenpaugh. Keith, it turns out, is our only currently-active UCD faculty member! He was targeted for UCD’s recent ranking (US News overall #39 university in the US:
We also learned that Keith and clan have postponed their sabbatical year in expectation of better travel conditions in 2021.
Vanessa (a former UCD “marching band-ah” member?) was next as a result of the Columbia U marching band being “disbanded” for similar misbehavior to UCD’s. Our quick-witted president had a ready response: “Give nerds some freedom, and look what happens!”
Last in the crosshairs was Larry Olsen, whose non-attendance provided a ready escape...and so, on to our speaker! Patsy introduced Mark Wong, the premier “Scout” in Davis. As leader of the upper tier scouting group “Venture 66” Mark and his team have been major assistants for our Oktoberfest events since 2009. Complementing all his scouting activities, Mark has a day job as an investment counselor. He started with the brief video “Venturing Changed Me”, and then thanked our club for past support. Mark summarized the four main aims of scouting (character development, citizenship, fitness, and leadership) and then the three levels (cubs, scouts, venturers). Formerly known as Boy Scouts of America, the umbrella organization is now known as BSA since beginning to admit the better gender two years ago; all levels are now co-ed. Venturing started in 1980 and spans the 14-20 year-old age group. All BSA units are chartered;-Davis by the Rotary Club of Davis (the nooners) and the Venture level is named “Explore Post 66”.
Venturing is unique in the scouting program in that it leverages interests of the youth group and they create their own programs; in Davis, the major focus is backpacking. Venturers advance through levels of “discovery”, “pathfinder”, and “summit.” While Mark did an excellent job of summarizing the details of Venturing, this scribe scribbled too slowly and recommends learning more at:
But important to note before leaving Mark is that service is an important aspect of the venturing program, and locally they help with the Rotating Winter Shelter program, STEAC, VFW Flags for Vets, and of course our OktoberFest.
Also noteworthy are their “Super Activities,” each planned two years in advance. Mark’s most enthusiastic example was their 2017 trip to Switzerland for backpacking and a visit to its International Scouting Center; he also showed photos of their 2019 backpacking adventure in New Mexico. They had to postpone this year’s “Super” trip to England; next year, Covid-willing, they will either rekindle the England plan or venture to Alaska. They now have 15 members, nearly evenly split between guys and gals.
As our club’s premier scouting advocate, Keith Watenpaugh observed that Davis will soon have one of the first female eagle scouts in the nation. Keith also noted that daughter Arda has now passed son Aram in the scouting program. There followed some discussion of the history of the Davis Boy Scout cabin, built of logs donated by PG&E- former utility poles laid to rest (but still delivering power to our youth, and supporting “current” events?).
Mark’s ending was perfectly timed; Vanessa warmly thanked him, led our applause, and then concluded the formal meeting with Elma’s “3 truths and a lie”. She did have a pet kangaroo, did climb to the top of Ayers Rock, and did live in a house with a dirt floor on a sheep station (talk about living “down under”!) but didn’t run a marathon; she confessed to half-success on this one. Then came Ella’s Joke of the Day. As usual, Chuck Snipes correctly guessed that a duck’s favorite snack is “quackers.” (Before Carol and I became vegans last year, I liked quackers too, especially served as Peking Duck.) The after-bell chat with Mark Wong nurtured many kind words about the local scouting program, especially from Keith, Clay, and Elma. Particularly poignant were the observations that many former scouts stay in touch with their scouting mentors long after graduating into “real life.” The discussion caused this reporter some soul-searching about dropping out of scouting soon after Webelos! I decided that, as in many endeavors, it came down to (lack of) rapport with the leadership. Kudos to Mark and the Davis Scouting program!
Here’s hoping all members enjoy the luxury of cleaner, cooler air at least until we meet again.