President Kevin, in the waning days of his reign, called the meeting to order and the 25ish members turned their attention to the dais.  The opening song was discordant and the pledge hardly an improvement. Thankfully Bob Wood’s invocation was thoughtful and measured, somewhat saving the day. The buffet was baked chicken, salad and mashed potatoes with the newly traditional cookie plate passed around by Gentleman Ned. The fare rated comments of “good, delicious” at our table.

Old timers in the Club who observed today’s pitiful rendition of the Opening Song were called to remember the late Roger Driggs, a member of the Club from 1935 to 1987, who used to start each meeting with a rousing “Let’s sing it, boys” (in those days it was all boys) and a high stepping romp up and down the aisle waving an imaginary baton to keep the seventy-five to eighty of us in tune while we sang. Along with the piano accompaniment of Don Hallquist, each Rotary meeting started with a flourish. Today, those memories of Roger and Don recall the lyrics of a song from Les Misérables, “drink with me to days gone by, sing with me the songs we knew.”

Another reminder of “days gone by” was a note from long time Rotarian Roger Nicholson, club president in 1965, thanking us for adding him to our snail mail High Gear list, since he is no longer using his computer and no longer driving to his local Rotary club. Roger recently celebrated his 91^st birthday. Should you wish to send Roger your regards, his address is: 207 ALC Drive, Verona, PA 15147. Greeting from your old singing buddies, Roger.

The good news today is that Steve Jacoby came through his plumbing repairs in fine fashion, is already at home and could very well be gracing our assemblage with his presence next week, a few minutes late, of course. No pacemaker inserted, you see.  

The District Induction Dinner is still scheduled for June 20 but if you have not yet signed up, don’t bother. It’s sold out with 224 District Rotarians signed up to go. The Club passing of the medallion will be on June 26^th at the Gallery and Ceil is on the hunt for more attendees and more importantly more checks from those who have already signed up. There will be no meeting on July 3, so newly minted President Bob Buettner will have to do an extra week in 2020 to complete his full term. 

Next week is a BBQ, (hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.) and our scholarship winners will be here to accept their checks. We will also be drawing the winners of our non-duck race raffle so let’s have a good showing in the attendance department.

George Schoen represented us at the Hartford Youth Scholarship Graduation last week and commented on the quality of this worthwhile program. We donated a thousand dollars to this cause and George reported it was money well spent. Kevin is still collecting unused Yard Goats tickets for another week.

Sergeant At Arms Marc Glass took the podium to report on sundry violations, most notably the bemoaning of the Boston sports scene, thanks for Steve’s coming through his surgery, Dan Firestone’s grand-daughter’s soccer prowess, Ned Lynch’s son’s Lacrosse exploits, and Bill Saunders’s phone ringing in the middle of the report. Marc noted that once Bill paid the fine for this, he was tempted to continue to call Bill to see how much he could collect before Bill caught on to the ploy. However, Marc’s phone was dozens of feet away and the venture came to naught. A rousing rendition of the birthday song for our Ruthie was the highlight of the report.

Ceil won the raffle this week while Ned took the floral arrangement, which he promptly bestowed on the lovely Diane Willett, our sole guest today. I told her she could consider it  a belated Mother’s Day gift. Lacking a program today, we adjourned at 1:08 p.m.

Until next week at the BBQ,

Doug Willett