'Twas a Good Day for a Meeting...

We gathered, as we are wont to do, at venerable City Hall for victuals and fellowship and, surprise of surprises, our guest speaker was a very knowledgeable lady who talked about the NFL!  More on that later.  

 

 

The prelims:  Greeter was scheduled to be Chapman and he was actually observed handing out a badge or two to a few members for a while.  Ross MacCarty was scheduled to lead the Pledge, but Brett Schreiner got to do it because Ross wasn't here.  God Bless America was supposed to go to Bob McBee, but Bob, also a no-show, must have delegated the task to Conrade Mayer who did a pretty good job at it.

 

 

 We had one technical guest, Pat Murphy, who had invited prospective member, Marvelene Weier to the meeting and Marvelene arrived after the meeting had begun.

 

 

Grub was some delicious roast beef and several folks were observed making sandwiches out of it.  Yum.  

 

Then as we have gotten into the habit, we got to enjoy some announcements, but here are the important ones:  1. Demotion is on the 24th at 1:00 P.M. at Clarence Parkins' place in Gold River.  A signup went around but some folks haven't responded to the RSVP yet, and since it's going to be a potluck, we'd ask attendees to bring a dish.  Contact Chapman if you need guidance.  2. August 26 marks the date of our next Texas Hold 'Em tournament, called 'Cards for a Cause' and we are partnering with Community Council on this.  Don't miss it!  If you're not going to play, how about volunteering to come and work the event.

 

Since the announcing began to fade shortly due to the short tenure of the current administration, we turned to the weekly Ray Wyatt Memorial Ball Drawing and Disappointment Sweepstakes.  Even though Ray was in the crowd, it was Conrade Mayer who finally looked at his ticket and claimed the right to embarrass himself by pulling one of those dratted white balls from the can, a task at which Conrade excelled today, to the consternation of everyone except Ray.  I'm sure the $98 will multiply for next weeks event.

 

 

Wrapping up the foreplay, it was time for Sergeant Ross Johnson to come up and extract some hard-earned moolah from the throng.  The technique he used is one of the oldest in the books: he asked questions about WWII, a topic that probably held dear memories for some of our senior members.  (I wasn't talking about you, Merlin...)  The following folks failed to answer even one question about the conflict: Brud Dufficy, Chapman, Gary Spainhower, Paul Schubert, Tom Redmon, Bob Adam (or were you a WWI guy, Bob?), Chase Armer,  Conrade Mayer, and finally Sean Twilla who didn't know that WWII smelled like vomit.  Then some members remarked on their pride: Tracy McLinn for her eldest son graduating from Sac State; Sergeant Ross was proud to remind us that his son, Mark, is about to take command of the Army's 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade; Ray Wyatt paid for his wife, Kelly (Let me be clear: I don't think Ray actually paid for Kelly in that sense... I believe she did something memorable, which your reporter will not speculate on in this venue...); Sean admitted to being pinless the day prior, but not being ratted out by Paul and finally our friend and former member, Pat Murphy just threw in some happy $.  Good show.

 

 

Next and last on the agenda was our guest speaker and the weekly flailing at the audiovisual system.  She was a delightful lady, Dr. Kristine Setting Clark, whose background in athletics and her connection to NoCal professional athletics made her a unique observer of the state of sports in the 'old days' and today.  She has written several books on such diverse topics as the U.S.F. 1951 football team and the adversity they had to overcome in becoming probably the

 

best, yet unheard of, college football team in the country.  As a result of an encounter with an ex-member of the Oakland Raiders, she has written a book entitled 'Cheating is Encouraged: the Story of the Oakland Raiders'.

While President Sean took remedial A/V classes during her talk, she regaled the crowd with anecdotes about the 'take any advantage' mentality of the pro game back in the 50's, 60's and 70's.  It was very informative if you follow football and at the end, she and her husband Mark brought a few books for sale.  Good talk, good meeting. the Prez handed her a book for the library and the room then cleared as if Arianna Grande was on her way in.