What an interesting meeting... First off we had Clarence greeting folks at the door and he's just about got all the names down now. As the meeting started, it was Jerry Smuts who was called on to read the 4-Way Test and Jerry's Indiana public school education served him well in that capacity.
Local male dancer arrives at the meeting
Next up was young Brud Dufficy who got us off to a roaring start with the Pledge and then, when Chase Armer was observed absent, it fell to Bob McBee to pinch hit leading the song, a task he took to like a horse to a glue factory. Nicely done.
You know this spells trouble, right?
The thought for the day came from former congressman John Doolittle, who was once apparently quoted as saying, "I never saw an election I didn't enjoy fixing..." or words to a similar effect. In short order, we introduced our two guests for the day, Faith Duncan and her husband Tyler. More on Faith later...
Nuclear physicists call this a critical mass...
Suddenly, inexplicably, the Prez kept right on going, moving right into his favorite topic: announcements. Frankly, your poor reporter could make neither heads nor tails of them and so encourages the kind reader to refer to last week's bulletin to get the full force and effect. Then, lickety-split, we headed into the weekly drawing and today it was Jerry Smuts whose number was called and Jerry did not disappoint when he pulled out a white golf ball and left the $97 pot wanting. (I never win, but I guess I could improve my odds by at least buying a ticket...)
Brud delivers the table blessing...
At this point the Prez called for the Sarge, PP Sean Twilla to come up and do some damage,but the PP procrastinated in order to call Faith Duncan up to the front of the room to present her with one of the two $1000 scholarships the Club presented to Kinney High students earlier this year. Faith, who is attending American River College is pursuing a degree in sign language and she reassured the Club that our money is well spent on her education. Nicely said.
Clarence and member-in-waiting Tom Blinn
Then as fast as a Lamborghini, the Sarge suddenly started reaming his friends in the audience, aided by bagman President Brett. President Brett was the first to contribute for an error your humble reporter didn't catch and then Ray Wyatt caught the Sarge's notice for wearing his grown-up clothes to the meeting and apparently interrupting the President, so he chipped in too. PDG Clarence was next on the 'Oh crap' list for being a felony interrupter as well. Surprisingly, the Sarge himself then threw in some of his own hard-earned money just for being able to be Sarge (and ream his friends.) Jerry Smuts was next, crowing about his annual Oregon trip and for the fact that his daughter had sold something (propriety prevents me from speculating as to what it was she was selling...) Brud donated just because we had a guest speaker who was going to talk about distilling alcohol and naturally Bob McBee wasn't far behind.. Chapman paid for the dismal record of his Fighting Illini football team, at the same time calling into question the quality of Marshall Middle School's football opponents. Ross Johnson was still rejoicing over Army's win over Air Force and he paid. Navin Naik was next on the hit parade and he paid for simply being happy (I'd pay for that too, Navin...) Merlin was ever so proud of his son for winning a trip to Holland and fattened the pot for it. "General Principles" was the excuse for Bob Adam throwing a few bucks in. The Sarge put on his humanitarian hat and went to some non-fine questions. Treasurer Tracy was first and didn't even know the year Rutherford B. Hayes (his friends all called him 'Ruth' for short) was inaugurated as President of the United States!!! What has become of our public school system? Finally (and not a moment too soon) Pat Orelli missed the date of the inaugural edition of the London Gazette by only about 250 years and that was that...
Guest speaker Greg Baughman, Gold River Distillery
Our guest speaker for the day was Greg Baughman, who founded, back in 2013, the Gold River Distillery right here in Rancho Cordiva. Greg gave a very engaging talk about how he began the enterprise and alluded to the plethora of regulations that control the distillery industry. Introduced by Brud Dufficy, Greg talked about the different ways that alcohol is produced and even brought some bottles of his firm's product for examination.
Merlin realizes too late that there is a cap on the bottle... dammit
The reams of state and federal regulations would seem to intimidate a lesser man, but Greg's Gold River Distillery has been growing since inception and we wish him all the best. A well done presentation, at the end, the Prez gave him the book and the room cleared as if Catherine O'Leary's cow had just entered the restaurant.