August 24, 2007

It was High School Football Coaches Day at Asheboro Rotary, and all four local teams were represented this year in the annual Race to Lower Expectations.

At the Scribe Table were two of our guests. Jesse Gneiting was the guest of Jim Foster, and is a young man of mixed heritage- a smattering of Italian and German, hailing from the Midwest and now here in Asheboro with the Wachovia Financial Advisors program. “Gneiting,” according to the Oxford Dictionary of American Family Names, means ‘eagerness’, ‘envy’ or ‘hatred’ in Middle High German, and originated as a nickname for a person with a hostile, resentful disposition. Jesse’s disposition, however, was rather friendly, putting the lie to another name just as Mike Miller doesn’t grind flour, Talmadge Baker doesn’t bake for a living, Stan Beck doesn’t live beside a stream, Rob Reese is not a giant, and Mac Whatley is not the Son of Kay and doesn’t tend a wheat field.

On the other side of the table, as guest of her new boss Phil Shore, was Nancy Newman, formerly of Canada and now the new Program Director at Randolph Arts Guild. Nancy has been in the area for a year or so, and has a lot of experience back in Our Neighbor to the North working with museums and nonprofit groups. Let’s hope she makes it through her first Fall Festival with a minimum of bruising! There were lots of other guests today, scattered around the room. Joe Weaver was back with Phil Koonce, appropriately enough at the Presbyterian Table, since his wife Connie is the new pastor there. Joe is a Clemson grad shopping around for a CPA job. Madison Cox was back, visiting again with Grandma Lib. Roma Cheek, local dentist, was with George Bain; Kathy Carter was with Linda Cranford; Kent Beck was with dad Stan; and Reynolds Lisk, insurance conglomerateur, was with Steve Eblin. Last but certainly not least, Vickie Gallimore and Archie O’Dell were making up from the Randolph Club.

We Shook and Tested and Pledged and Prayed: Phil Shore thanked God for rain and fresh water in general. President HR offered sympathy to the wives of Gene Johnson and Harold Holmes on the loss of their brother Ronnie Hunt; Mike Freeland’s wife Sherri is in Duke Medical Center, he informed us. Anniversaries: tomorrow is Mary Joan’s 12th in Asheboro Rotary; August 27th is Archie Smith’s 61st; and Allen Holt has been with us 24 years, today.

Tar Wheel in history, August 29, 1973, was about former AHS coach Max Morgan and a blind football player. Speaking of football, Foster Hughes says that his Graham High football team played Eastern Randolph one year, and he went home with 13 stitches. HR says last year’s ERHS/AHS game was the best he’s ever seen; and resulted in a new “Media Line” rule- spectators must stay at least six feet away off the field. (Since Your Scribe stood up in the scrum on the sidelines that whole game, he understands how that rule arose.)

Sam Whitley was the first to speak, he’s in his second year as AHS head coach and enjoyed at 12/1 season last year and won the regular season conference title. He is proud of their academic record, too: every 9th, 10th and 11th grader was promoted and eligible to play; and they’ll need them all since 22 seniors graduated. they have 5 walk-ons this year, and he has volunteers who coach on academics and make sure the kids all attend class. They lost 10-3 last Friday night, so this year he says they’re just working toward practicing somewhere on Thanksgiving Day. He thanked the community for behaving well last year at the ERHS game, and asked for our support in their game tonight.

The very Big and Tall Mike Lotzenheiser was up next; he’s brand new at Southwest Randolph. He’s an Arizona State basketball player, coaching football. He started coaching at Tempe when he was a junior in college.He says the move to Randolph County was a leap of faith, and he has loved it. News flash: Southwest, he says, is not yet a football powerhouse. they played Jordan Matthews from Siler City last week and lost 34-0; the improvement, however, is that last year they lost to the same guys 54-0. He has 2 starters returning on offense and 3 on defense, so it will be a young team. But he says they are dedicated, work hard, and won’t quit.

This was veteran head coach Burton Cates’ 24th year at Asheboro Rotary; he has been at Eastern Randolph even longer than that, and has a 224/68 record. One of those losses was to Asheboro last year, and another came in the preseason last week (a helpful member reminded him that “this was the first time you’ve been here with a loss.” Just remember, he says, that other team was #8 in the state). Tonight they play #4 (Greensboro Dudley)- and he just hopes to get his kids home in one piece. Call 1-800-Dial A Prayer, he says. (Future news flash: they won!).

For all the gloom, Burton was flashing a shiny new state championship ring up on stage. Eastern lost seniors, too, he says. Nine players went on to play college football. One got a Morehead to UNC; one got a Parke scholarship to NCSU. He has one starter back on defense and 2 very inexperienced guys left on offense. After the loss last October 13th, he says he told the team, “If we have faith in each other, we didn’t lose to Asheboro, they helped us win.” And he’s convinced that if the loss to Asheboro hadn’t happened, that they probably would never have won the state championship in Raleigh. Why didn’t you leave when your seniors left, asked Mike Miller. After the 1983 championship Donnie Baxter became an administrator and Burton got the head coach’s job, he replied. They went 7/2 with a very special group that year, and rebuilding the program is a fond memory to him. They’ll lose Liberty and northeast Randolph next year, when the freshmen and sophomores go to Providence High. Juniors can choose to stay or not; seniors will stay at Eastern. He doesn’t agree with that administrative decision- doesn’t think it’s safe to play at the varsity level with just juniors- Eastern will be at a disadvantage, playing a 3A schedule with 2A size people, but Providence will be playing a 2A schedule with 1A people. We need to give kids a chance to grow into the new schools, he says. Burton ended with his traditional closing mantra, “We just hope we can win a football game this year.”

Eddie Williamson mowed through last year’s lunch, but his staff made sure he made it this time- they took his John Deere away from him. He’s in his 4th year at Randleman and has a 12/22 record.  Eddie has been around these parts all his life: Carl Phillips’ brother delivered him in 1948- the first baby he ever delivered.  A hefty baby, I am sure.

He has 9 starters returning on defense; 6 on offense.  This year’s team will have 10 seniors on defense, and 35 freshmen.  His son Heath is an assistant coach running offense this year; he’s lost some hair in the job but Eddie still calls him “Curly”  His wife also teaches at Randleman, so it is becoming the House of Williamson.  He’d love to have a fairy tale finish like Asheboro did last year, but realizes that “some of the best games we ever played, we lost.”  Right now he’s enjoying this present moment, when “we’re the only undefeated team in Randolph County.”

August 17, 2007

At the appointed time for Rotary it was actually misting a little rain-like moisture outside, at least enough to remind the younger members of what pre-global warming rain used to be like… But by the time the meeting was over, we emerged to find: no rain, but a whopping increase in humidity. Just what we needed!

Post POA and 4WT, Ed Clayton even thanked God for the rain (perhaps prematurely). Ed also thanked God “for folks I don’t even like.” That’s following the 4WT, Ed!

Mini Singh welcomed guests, starting with the ever-lovely Pat Allred, keeper of PDG Don Allred; Joe Weaver, guest of Mike Freeland (moving to Town and checking out the club); and Madison Cox, attending with Grandma Elizabeth Cox. I’m only sorry we haven’t had photos in the Tar Wheel long enough to show how much Madison has grown since she first visited with Grandma and Daddy Jeff about 5 years ago.

Maybe not wedding bells, but something is breaking up that Old Gang of His at John Toledano’s table. Go eat with him, folks; he’s OK, really.
President HR announced that we’ve heard from former member Kimberly Williams, who transferred to the Goodyear plant in Chile: she weathered their earthquake without damage. HR applauded Jaci Betts’ club anniversary: 17 years a member as of today! He offered our sympathy to Jim Finison, on the death of his 91-year old mother; and to Bill Neely, on the death of Worth Hager, his 51-year-old neice. Foster Hughes announced Coming Attractions at the Sunset Theater: Friday Night Bluegrass, tonight at 7PM; Sunset Classic Films presents “Dirty Dancing”; and Concerts in the Park presents the Randolph Jazz Band this Sunday.

Tar Wheel History: HR read from the issue of Wednesday, April 10, 1974, where Sam Cranford and his “Rotary Ann” Linda Cranford welcomed the birth of their first child, daughter Katherine Russell Cranford. Her arrival coincided with Hank Aaron’s breaking of Babe Ruth’s home run record; as this reading coincided with Barry Bonds breaking the Hank Aaron record. Linda also hit a home run that day, says HR.

Elizabeth Mitchell introduced Dandy Don Allred, who presented our program on Rotary Information. Elizabeth had done WAY too much research on Don’s life and career, waving around 9 pages of life highlights from zoom.info.com, as well as filling us in on part of the 42,100 citations available on Google for Don Allreds of all ages, sizes, shapes and colors.

Don said it was time for a Rotary Refresher Course, and he started us off with a short film, produced by he and Pat, on Polio Plus. It was a nifty little film, complete with Chuck Bown as narrator, which included trivia tidbits such as FDR being put on the dime in 1946 to honor his contributions to the March of Dimes campaign. Since 1985 RI has generated more than $600 million in contributions from US Rotarians, with more than $1.5 million of that coming from us in District 7690.The Salk vaccine became available to prevent polio in 1955, and the USA was declared polio Free in 1979. But still we have in this country more than 600,000 citizens who were paralyzed in whole or in part by the disease. One of those was Martha Andrews Merriman, sister of Pat Allred, who we saw in a number of touching photographs on the video. To honor Martha, Pat and Don gave $1,000 to the RI Foundation, and Pat received a special Paul Harris pin in return.

Then it was time for Rotary Trivia. Don flashed questions on the screen, and we screamed answers back at him.  When did Rotary start?  (February 23, 1905).  What was Paul Harris’ middle name? (Percy).  How many original members were there? (4, and 2 dropped out the first year).  Why was it called “Rotary Club”? (Because the meeting place rotated from office to office).  When did Paul Harris die? (1947)  What was the first Rotary project? (An outhouse, or “comfort station.”)  Where was the 2nd club (San Francisco).  When did the Rotary Foundation begin?  (1917- the first contribution was $26.50 from the Kansas City, Missouri, club)  When was the Four Way Test written? (1943).

When were women admitted?  (in 1978 a woman was admitted to the Duarte, California club, and RI pulled their charter.  The club sued, and on May 4, 1987, the US Supreme Court ruled against Rotary, saying that the club provided a business advantage to members that was protected from gender discrimination).  When did Interact (high school clubs) start? (1962, in Florida).  When did Rotaract (18-30 year olds) start?   (1968, in Charlotte).  In how many countries are there Rotary clubs? (166 out of the 200 in the world).  What do our annual dues ($6/week for 52 weeks) go for?  ($65.48 to RI; $30 to District 7690; $216.52  to the Club; not including the $10 per week for the meal).

Afterwards, there was a board meeting.  Here’s the evidence: 

Instructions For the Proper Sounding of the Gong to Open Rotary Club Meetings

by Allen F. Holt

Past President of Asheboro Rotary and Editor Emeritus of the Tar Wheel

Amazingly, one of the subjects not covered in the PETS conferences for incoming Rotary Club presidents is the proper procedure for sounding the gong for opening and closing of a meeting. This deficiency has gone on long enough. From this day forward, it is decreed that these instructions be passed from the outgoing president to the incoming president far enough in advance for the new president to master the art.

1. Prior to the meeting, the president should engage in a regimen of stretching and warming up. Care should be given to make sure that all major muscle groups are properly toned.
2. At the appropriate time, the president should address the gong. (No, not, “Hello, Gong.”) The presider should position himself facing the gong.
3. The proper stance is achieved by placing the feet at approximately shoulder width in a line parallel with the edge of the table.
4. The knees should be slightly bent.
5. The gavel should be grasped firmly in the right hand. (Lefties may want to move the gong to the left of the podium. If so, simply reverse the instructions herein.) The president must decide whether he or she will use the thumb under or thumb on top grip. Once this is decided, he or she should stick with the choice and not go back and forth between the types of grip.
6. The back swing must be smooth and even.
7. The actual stroke must be firm and solid. If the gong is struck at too high a position on the surface, the gavel might glance off the surface causing a very weak sound. If the gong is struck too low, the resulting contact may be sufficient to break the wrist of the president.
8. Only when this routine is perfected may the president experiment with more exotic methods such as: behind the back and the backhand.
9. Happy gonging.

August 10, 2007

The pressures of business had your scribe scrambling to get to Rotary, just as scheduling pressures were leading President H.R. to start early so many club members could attend the funeral of Bill Trollinger, former member of Asheboro Rotary and father of club member Henry Trollinger.

Joy may have been playing piano beautifully, but I can’t prove it, as H.R. was already in full sway by the time I got to the food line, so I not only missed that, but the Pledge, the Prayer, and the Test, as well as all the hand-shaking. (Just gotta take it on faith that standard operating procedures were followed, for once.) Guests: Tom Barton, Bob Wright and Philip Smith were all making up from the Randolph Club; Lee Malpass brought Jonathan Davis, brother of local attorney Andrew Davis who ran in the top 10% of the participants in this year’s Boston Marathon (By the way, has any member other than Mary Joan Pugh ever run in a Boston Marathon?). Last but not least, Maxton McDowell brought his new employees Heather Ayers and Shandy Woodle, who both said they knew what they were getting into when they signed up with the far-flung McDowell Conglomerate. Birds of a feather evidently do flock together in this club, as those young ladies (I’m sure Maxton was not the draw) attracted a whole table of CPAs to them.

President H.R. offered the club’s condolences to Tom White, on the death of his father. Then he read a passage from yesterday’s Tar Wheel on the Day Lightning Struck First Methodist Church, and how parishioners made sure to appease an angry God with a soothing increase in collection plate contributions.

April Thornton, Chair of the – Committee, with the assistance of Jason Skeen of Randolph Hospital’s IT staff, and Elizabeth Mitchell, Club Executive Secretary, had our program on the District web site and our club Directory.  76% of club members now have email, says April, and she gave every member a sealed envelope with all the information needed to log into the district website and update your personal information (if you haven’t already done so, and They Know Who You Are. As Elizabeth said, “Don’t you be fiddle-faddling with your information– I get an email every time you do!”)

Past President Prithi asked about uploading photographs of members who didn’t have their pictures taken, and April showed how a member can load his or her own, or Elizabeth volunteered to load them if anyone sends them to her. Just one caution: they must be small to medium-sized files; some photo files can be huge, and these would take too much time to load in anyone’s computer.

The internet mavens also demonstrated that our club page on the District Website also includes a handy link to this very page, and President HR allowed as how it’s possible to create a desktop icon by right-clicking on the appropriate button on the WordPress page.

H.R. ended the formal meeting by remembering a quote from Jim Culberson about “I’ve seen a lot of change and I was against every bit of it” but nowadays it seems most people recognize the value of the internet to creating our online community. April continued to offer one on one instruction to those who requested it, while Elizabeth and Jason supervised a free-for-all on the special computer lab, so members could check their personal information on the district site.

Summer Vacation Special #1

Postcard from Taiwan, by Owen George:

Hi Mac,

 

 

I am in Taiwan -and had the opportunity to visit a Rotary club meeting Friday.

The club meeting was held onsite at a foundation that serves children with sspecial needs -one of the agencies that the club supports annually.

Attached are photos of my visit to the Taichung Rotary Club: – with 2006-2007 DG “Music” , presenting the Asheboro Rotary banner to the President of the club , and the children performing a song for the club .

Best Wishes,

Owen

August 3, 2007

AVS was full of Copperheads today; the baseball variety, that is. We hosted our local college-level team thanks to the generosity of Jaci Betts, and used the entire AVS ball room for the first time in a while to house at least several dozen strapping young men. At the scribe table, we interviewed Chris Powell, who happened to be from Randleman (actually, Johnstonville, as he lives just a rock throw from our original county seat). He’s a pitcher for the Copperheads, graduated from AHS, attends ECU, and wants to be a writer and a lawyer. (Hmm. What a great combination!)

Most of the scribe table actually was taken up with babies and proud parents. Phil Shore brought his oldest, Seth, who is finishing up an advanced degree and looking for gainful employment. And Kathy and Phil Homiller were introducing Li Li to the club, soon to be five months old, but only about one month of that has been in the USA. She was passed from hand to hand, and appeared to revel in all the attention, so Your Scribe suggested to both Phils that perhaps she ought to stage a walk-on role in The King and I… After all, the play calls for lots of children, and she’s perfect for the part!

HR got us going early, because we had a full schedule. There were lots of newbies to greet, for starters; then Archie Smith led us in the Four Way Test; HR in the POA; and Maisie Fleetwood in the invocation, asking God to guide us in improving the quality of life for all people.

Rebecca Redding introduced the guests, most of whom were somehow connected to Jaci Betts: Mary Moore of the Courier-Tribune, Add Penfield (making that Duke connection with Jonathan Foreman, the Copperhead who lives with Jaci), Lynn Jones (former president of the Kiwanis Club) and wife Kathy Jones (who are hosting a team member for the first time), David Smith (Asheboro Mayor pro-Tem, past printer/mailer of our Tar Wheels, another Kiwanian and food coordinator for Copperhead games) Tommy McDonald (of Randleman, the game announcer), and Dusty Blake, Coach of the Copperheads. We don’t have a list of the team members in attendance, but the whole team was invited, which would make about 27 The Homillers and the Shores you’ve already met; Patrick Osteen, Lisa Johnson and Stephanie Vaughn you’ll meet in a minute; and Derek Grantham was the sole representative of the Randolph Club. Whew.

While recognizing Copperheads, President HR made special mention of Jordan Nicklebury, who formerly lived with Steve Schmidley and his family until last Tuesday, when Jordan came home, found the house on fire, and rousted the whole family. Thanks to him they were all able to escape before tragedy occured, except to the house, which will take several months to put back into shape.

HR recognized the August birthdays and club anniversaries, which I’ll edit in if Elizabeth sends them to me. But some highlights: Ken Gobel, Shiv Harsh, and Wayne Thomas have birthdays (Wayne’s is tomorrow, so we went ahead and sang happy birthday). Wilbert Hancock has been a club member 35 years this month; Allen Holt, 36 years; and Archie Smith, 61 years!

HR read us the Tar Wheel of September 19, 1945, which recounted VK Day: Asheboro Rotary’s famous softball game victory over the Asheboro Kiwanis and Lion’s Clubs (sorry David and Lyn!). Tar Wheel editor Red Underwood was “Hind Catcher” and another team member was “Death Valley Croom.” The game raised money for the Asheboro High School athletic fund.

John Grey’s membership committee had the program, which started out with member talks from Lynn Dodge (relatively new member) and Allen Holt (surprisingly old member). Lynn spoke about her move from upstate New York, land of snow and ice, to Hanover Court, a/k/a Divorce Court. She was hired to come to Randolph County by Maisie Fleetwood, but knew no one within 500 miles. She and her husband Fred Dodge, an attorney down Sunset Avenue from Yr.Scr., were eventually made to feel very welcome despite numerous trials and tribulations. One reason Lynn joined the club is to give back to the community.

Allen Holt, Editor of the Tar Wheel from 1976 to 2002, next took us back to The Days when Pearl Humble and Omie Kilpatrick were the only female members of the Club (and Honorary members at that; Allen says Pat Kilpatrick was just an Ornery Member). Memorable characters were Tar Wheel Founding Editor Red Underwood (“I feel just like an 18 year old boy,” he said, “With something wrong with him.” J.D. “Joe” Ross, a/k/a “Mr. Rotary,” who once came home from work because he “forgot to take my Rotary pin off my pajamas and put it on my jacket.” Henry Armfield, “who lived life to the fullest, and then settled down.” Allen ended by reading us the manual which HR has so desperately needed: “Instructions for the Proper Sounding of the Gong for Opening and Closing Rotary Meetings.” It was great, and if he emails me a copy, I’ll put the whole thing on the website. Memorable excerpt: “Address the Gong. (Hello, Gong!)”

HR then bravely handed off control of the meeting to Alan Pugh,  who introduced us to certain cast members of the RSVP production of The King and I, opening tonight and running through next weekend. Alan, as if he needed more power around these parts, plays the autocratic King of Siam in that production, and was featured on the front page of today’s Courier-Tribune. With Alan were:

Lisa Johnson, a K-8 teacher at Bonlee school and organist at Church of the Good Shepherd, was introduced as the accompanist whose magic fingers on the piano always make the cast sound good;

Patrick Osteen, he of the “24-pack” (he has the whole case and not just the 6 pack, Y.S. was informed by both Phils, Shore and Homiller), plays Lun Tha – an Emissary from the Court of Burma who has fallen hopelessly in love with Tuptim, a Gift to the King from the ruler of   Burma;

Stephanie Vaughn, a CPA/ internal auditor with United Guaranty Greensboro, playing Anna, the English governessa nd schoolteacher to the children of the King.

The Rogers and Hammerstein musical is set in the 1860s, but opened on Broadway in 1951. It ran for 1,246 productions, and won the Tony for Best Musical. It was made into a film in 1956 with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr in the lead parts. To wet our whistles, Patrick sang “We Kiss in a Shadow,” part of his duet with Tuptim. (Alan says Patrick has a dynamite dance number, too.) Then Stephanie sang part of “Hello, Young Lovers,” then joined Alan in part of “Shall We Dance?”

Alan  evidently has been asked whether it is morally-correct for him to star in an amateur theatrical production. (One might that Religious Right conservatives would recall that the English Puritans tore down Shakespeare’s Globe and banned the unholy Theatre in 1642. (They also banned Wrestling, Bear-baiting, Cockfighting, Horse-racing and Ale-houses, while they were at it). Not at all, says Alan. “My participation is merely an attempt by the Chairman of the Randolph County Republican Party to reach out to traditionally Democratic interest groups.” (An answer that would play well on Fox News!)

As Randolph County Democratic Party Chairman, Your Scribe certainly feels the need to support my base, so I’ve already got my ticket, in fact, to the Sunday matinee.

July 27, 2007

Sorry this has been a busy week, and I haven’t been able to write up the full Tar Wheel treatment for last Friday’s meeting.

Jaci Betts brought Gerber daisies for all our female members in honor of the 20th anniversary of Women in Rotary. Bill Batten informed us that the first female Director of Rotary International was a French doctor who is on the cover of this month’s Rotarian. It all started in Asheboro when Sandy Grey sponsored Carole Matney for membership in our club.

Guests: Rachel Hayes, with Lib Cox; Robin Breedlove with Owen George; and Anna Baylor, sitting at the front table with her Grandpa Ed Clayton and her friend Nichole Gandel.

Ed Clayton introducted Patrick O’Hara, who delivered a program about his specialty, the YMCA. Patrick had staff members Jimmy Walker and Joyce Deaton along to support him on the technical side with their new laptop and digital projector.

The YMCA website is at this link: www.randolphasheboroymca.com — which, however, wasn’t working when I tried it.

Remember: District Governor McCoy visits the club on August 31st.

More later!!