October 26, 2007

Asheboro Rotary Goes on a Field Trip!

This was a special day for Asheboro Rotary- for only the second or third time Your Scribe can remember, we all went on a Field Trip. A Grown-Up Field Trip, for sure: No buses, no permission slips from home, and the cook-out van from ever-faithful AVS followed us for comfort’s sake.

Dale Lambert and Randolph Electric Membership Corporation were our off-site hosts for the day, and they even made the rainy weather interesting. It was hard to complain, what with the third day of rain in the current drought being our first real rain in about four months. But REMC put on a show that made the rain look like it was part of the demonstration.

We started out inside, in the company break room, or cafeteria , where hot dogs and hamburgers cooked outside on the AVS grill were the order of the day . Long-time REMC employees like Dave Rowe and Fred Smith guided us to our seats. Helpful party favors were at each place : an REMC rain guage, a necessity for this day, but a practical joke gift in prior weeks.

Allen Holt, retired CEO of REMC (if you don’t like acronyms, go away today) led us in the Four Way Test (though Alan Pugh was ready, willing and able). The Democrat Allen, however, held the floor and reminded us that the 4WT was written in 1932 and adopted by RI in 1943. He also led us in the Pledge of Allegiance, and reminded us that it was “to the REPUBLIC for which it stands,” not “to the RepubliCANS.”

One Guest: Chris Yow, Randolph Club and Asheboro City School board member, here for an obvious reason to follow. Student guests from AHS: Rebecca Yow, daughter of Chris andJennifer Newton Yow, who is involved in a lot of stuff and intends to go to college and major in Physical Therapy (Your Scribe didn’t get the info sheets, so my notes didn’t catch all their good works). On the distaff side was Drew Brisley, son of Klaussner’s Peter Brisley, who’s into tennis and snowboarding and plans to attend NCSU to study industrial design.

Phil Shore rose to remind us of the current local theater production, “Mornings At Seven,” which begins this weekend at the Sunset Theater and stars Himself with our own Jerry Hill, and has Elizabeth Mitchell working offstage. It’s at 7:30 Friday and Saturday, with a 2:30 matinee on Sunday. Phil asserted that the 1939 play is a “gentle comedy… continuously amusing but you don’t know why.” Sounds like our brand of humor.

Phil also claimed that he was missing the batteries for his free rain guage, but the inscrutible yet continuously amusing Allen Holt saved the day by reminding us that REMC rain guages are all “solar powered.”

President HR read a joke from the Tar Wheel of December 16, 1954, where a teacher demanded that her kindergarten class “hold up two fingers if you need to go to the rest room” and one of her future Rotary members asked “how does that help?”

Then Dale Lambert officially welcomed us to REMC, gave away some buckets of door prizes such as mums, pens, flashlights, and tee shirts (one of which is modeled in the official photo by Jaci Betts). Dale thanked some of his 145 employees such as Revonda Hayes and Fred Cole for their help in putting the lunch together, and showed a short video about the arcing that happens when a substation switch opens improperly… or, “How NOT to Do It.” REMC was founded in 1938 (not far from its 60th anniversary), and is a utility owned by its 31,534 members in five counties (Randolph, Moore, Montgomery, Chatham and Davidson). Dale then adjourned us all to the rear loading dock of the REMC building, entered through their impressive warehouse , for a special demonstration.

We collected under the dock shelter and looked out at their storage yard, where Dale announced that some of their service men were going to exhibit a Pole Rescue, which they practice regularly even in the rain. (He noted that, for obvious reasons like power outages usually being caused by bad weather, service guys operate in the rain or snow more often than not.) The guys had erected a pole in the storage yard, to demonstrate what happens if a lineman gets into trouble, is knocked unconscious at the top of a pole, and needs to be rescued. Rodney Haithcock, Steve and Ed set up in trucks around the pole, and Danny Lee (a strapping young man with biceps that hint that he has seen the inside of a gym) was the pole climber whose task was to rescue “Mr. Cool,” a dummy in trouble up in the air. Dale said if anyone is in trouble their goal is to get him to the ground and have him receiving first aid within 5 minutes of the event.

When trouble happens, the first step is that the guys on the ground make a 911 call, and get their climbing gear out of the truck. Then they must put on their climbing spikes, get their lines hooked up, put on their (THICK!) rubber gloves, and climb the pole to the unconscious man. Then they hammer a big screwdriver into the pole and hook their belaying line around it for fall prevention. Then they hook to the victim and drop him quickly but safely to the ground. Then they climb down, take off their gear, check vital signs, and begin CPR.

Linemen have competitions to do all this, and their best time in competition is 2 minutes, 20 seconds. Today, given the rain and the fact that they actually wanted us to see what they were doing, Danny did it in a comparatively leisurely 3 minutes.

Dale called our attention to the other side of the yard where REMC emergency equipment was parked like their big mobile substation (it cost $900,000, and is the largest of two), and a new tank-tracked vehicle used to service off-road poles. Dale also showed a collection of items which they had found over the years which had been the cause (or the sobering melted result) of power outages. This led to a discussion of what squirrels do to transformers (they unintentionally bridge the spark gap and arrestor, which fries the squirrel and causes the fuses to blow). “Squirrels are a major problem for us,” said Dale.

(If that’s their worst problem, then I think the demonstration showed that they’ve got us very well covered!)

Friday, September 21, 2007

Your Scribe Mac Whatley is posting this from Lowell, Massachusetts, where he’s been at a Board of Trustees meeting for the American Textile History Museum. Covering for me while I’m away is Tar Wheel Editor Hall of Famer, Phil Shore:

A beautiful gray day in honor of which Joy Menius played a series of rain songs. Everett Thomas gave an invocation of thanks for where we live and the bounty of having meaningful work to do.

Rebecca Redding introduced our guests. Shawn Poe, guest of Jaci Betts, Elizabeth Hussey and Melba Reynolds, guests of John and Joy Menius, Roma Cheek, guest of George Bain, and Roy Kirkman, guest of Prithvi Hanspal. The lone Randolph Rotarian was Bob Shackelford. Welcome to you all!

Mini Singh introduced student guests from Asheboro High School. Greg Egerton is varsity soccer captain and a member of the Spanish Club. He plans to attend UNC-Chapel Hill or Furman to pursue a major in science with the intent of following a career in research or becoming a professor. Samantha Lovin is in the National Honor Society and participates in Mock Trial and Park Street Players. She plans to attend UNC-CH with the goal of becoming a lawyer.

Next week’s meeting will feature the Greensboro Symphony Music Director Dmitry Sitkovetsky. Russ Williams and John O.H. Toledano have provided this program. Please make plans to attend.

There will be a joint meeting with the Randolph Club on Wednesday, October 10. The speaker will be Senator Richard Burr—another fine program.

District Governor Dave McCoy will visit us on Friday, October 19. Be sure to wear your name tag, your Rotary pin, and give the Gov. a standing O when he is introduced.

The program today was introduced by Owen George. Tim Womick, well-known to the community on several scores, has worked closely with Owen in Trees Asheboro since they founded it. Tim described in excited style the depth of the work that Trees Asheboro has done. Simple acts that have changed living patterns for young people at the Boys and Girls Club in the East Side area.

 We learned that Tim is overseeing the rehabbing of an abandoned greenhouse. A new greenhouse is opening on the campus of South Asheboro Middle School. We also learned that Asheboro Pride is not simply an anti-litter campaign but also a tool for change in Asheboro. He offered a hundred bucks to anyone who could say when Arbor Day North Carolina was in 2008. He goes home with a hundred bucks. Third Friday in March is the perpetual date. Kemp Foster won one of Tim’s silver acorns by describing the plantings at railroad crossing in downtown Asheboro as one of the most beautiful jobs in the United States.

The Club very much enjoyed Tim’s presentation.

September 14, 2007

Joy was doing her best to coax rain from the skies today, playing convincing stuff like “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head,” and “Singing in the Rain.” But though it was grey above, the real rain didn’t fall until about 4PM on Friday. It was short, but sweet, and the first rain we’ve seen in more than a month. And the forecasts don’t promise much chance of more anytime soon. But maybe Joy and Ed did encourage the rain gods. It has happened before.

When I moved to Franklinville in 1978 and started talking with old-timers about life in the mill village, one of the stories everyone remembered was about the Reverend Joe Dan Hackney “Calling the Rain.” Joe Dan Hackney was an elderly and retired “foot-washing” Baptist preacher who lived south of Deep River in a white frame house with a two-story porch. Back then- I’m not sure when this was– perhaps that summer of 1933 which is what our TV weathermen are comparing our current drought to– but there hadn’t been rain in Franklinville in weeks and weeks. And it was not only drying up the gardens, like today; this was when they still used water wheels to generate power for the mills. So they needed rain to keep the jobs going, too.

They had a prayer meeting just to pray for rain, which they did, but that didn’t have any effect. Somehow the community turned to Joe Dan Hackney, who knew not just how to pray but how to “call the rain.” And one Saturday night he got out on his second story porch and blew a few big blasts on an old trumpet, which was the signal for everyone in town to beat on their dishpans and tubs and buckets and make a big racket. Which continued for a good few minutes. Then Joe Dan Hackney shot off several impressive blasts from his black powder rifle. Whereafter, nothing evident was seen to occur. Then Joe Dan Hackney up on his porch bellowed out a loud, yet prayerful appeal to the Almighty to “lift us out of this dry spell and into your favor.” Still nothing. People drifted away, grumbling. “Just wait on the Lord,” said Preacher Hackney. “There will be rain within a day.” The next morning there was not a cloud in the sky, but people saw Joe Dan Hackney walking to church with an umbrella on his arm. “Goin’ to need this in just a little bit,” he said. “You bring yours, too.” Huh! they said, and left their umbrellas at home. Of course, during the 11:00 service, the sky turned black and it began to thunder; soon there was a deluge…. and only Joe Dan Hackney was able to walk home dry.

Past President Ed Clayton, our own version of Joe Dan Hackney, was in the cockpit today, and opened with with a remembrance of Carole Gilliam and the victims of 9/11, which also had rain in there somewhere. He was determined to shake up things, and set us off to shake hands “with someone who don’t like.” [There was some hugging going to to get around that instruction, I saw]. Then Jaci Betts led the Four-Way Test, but Ed bade us “Say it Backwards.” Then Bob Morrison led us in the Pledge (thankfully, front-wards), and Everett Thomas invoked thanks with something about “earth and sea and sky” from the Book of Common Prayer.

Rebecca Redding welcomed guests Randy Batten (son of Bill), and a table-full from the Randolph Club: Tom Barton, Bob Wright, Archie Odell, Michael Trogdon, and Aaryn Slafky. Mini Singh introduced our first student guests of the new year, from AHS. Rebekah Siddiqui, daughter of Sid Siddiqui, has lived in Asheboro 6 years. She has 3 brothers and 3 sisters, is on the student council, volunteers a lot, and wants to attend UNC, Wake or Duke in premed. Adam Glass is the son of Pat and the late Tim Glass, and has one younger brother. He runs cross country, plays basketball, and plans to attend UNC and be a teacher.

Announcments: Next Saturday is the Rotary football game at WFU; $35 per ticket. Foster Hughes reminded us that the last chance Sunday in the Park is this weekend, when “West End Mambo” will play at 6:30. Past-Prez Ed announced that Community One Bank Prez. Mike Miller was absent because he had gone to South Bend, Indiana, to watch Michigan play Notre Dame. Says Ed, one must wonder about his judgment with numbers when Mike can’t find a better game than two team whose combined record is 0/4.

Proceeding with his Backwards to the Future theme, Ed declared himself to be anti-anti-litter; a fan, nay even an advocate of littering, and to drive the point home to the club and our speaker, he threw trash from the podium into the audience. Past President Mary Joan Pugh, close at hand to introduce our speaker, took a gavel to the ex-prexy’s head for that. She also asked the question, “Is Ed Clayton more litter-ate than a 5th Grader?” Maybe.

MJP finally got Bob Langston safely to the speaker’s podium. Bob, one of the Zoo’s Media and Marketing people, has been with us before, but this time is here as the 2007 Randolph County Big Sweep Coordinator. Bob has two degrees, from Chapel Hill in communications, and for safety, from UNC-W in Parks and Recreation. His topic and power point show was to remind us of the upcoming Big Sweep litter awareness and prevention action day which is set for Saturday September 29th.

This is the 20th anniversary Big Sweep, which began as the “Beach Sweep” to get plastic off the beaches before it could be eaten or otherwise harm sea turtles. In 1989 it expanded to all 100 counties, and in 2002, to all state watersheds.

Over the 20 years volunteers have gathered up 8 million pounds of garbage– that is 2,000 football fields covered with trash 10 feet high! Founders Andy Wood and Lundy Spence actually found a 16-pound Brazilian bowling ball on Wrightsville Beach that first year, but the prizes since then have been more like the tires and mattresses that Bob helped pull out of the Randleman drinking water reservoir. (No wonder they’re buying their water from Asheboro…)

The top ten things found by Big Sweep volunteers:

10: Appliances

9: Car parts

8: Old Tires

7: Used Disposable Diapers

6: Building Supplies

5: Cigarette wrappers and lighters

4: Plastic Grocery Bags

3: Food Packaging

2: Beverage Containers

And the #1 item found by Big Sweepers: Cigarette Butts!

Most of these items are NOT biodegradable, Ed Clayton. Monofilament fishing line (which is 100% recyclable) takes 600 years to degrade in the open environment. Plastic beverage bottles will take 450 years. Aluminum cans will take 80 to 200 years. Last year Randolph County had 815 Big Sweep Volunteers, who cleaned 19.25 miles of stream, and bagged 297 garbage bags with 9,605 pounds of litter.

If you want to volunteer Saturday 9-29, pick-up sites will be published in the paper, or to Adopt A Spot, call Bob at the Zoo. There will be two special events on 9-24-07; one at Balfour Elementary School at 1:15 PM; another meeting at Northgate Shopping Center at 4PM.  Also, MJP calls our attention to the “special waste day” at the County Landfill on Sept. 20th– they’ll accept pesticides, paint, batteries, white goods, and other hard-to-hide things.

In closing questions, Jim Culberson initiated a big discussion about “getting cupped,” an advertising scheme by a local pizza place which throws plastic cups full of coupons out in people’s yards. While Your Scribe can’t say this has been any problem in Franklinville (our litter runs more toward the odd dented Chevy bumper and decomposing upholstered sofa), it is evidently a sore point in on Dave’s Mountain, where Chief Jim is “really teed off.”

Oh, and we were blessed with precipitation before the end of the day, so based on results Past President Ed ranks up there with Joe Dan Hackney in his ability to Call The Rain.

Your Scribe will be in Boston next Friday, so The Mayor of Sunset Avenue will be noodling here. You are warned.

Friday, May 18, 2007

I (Mac Whatley) confess to being absent from Asheboro, present in greater Beantown, during our regular meeting; I was attending my first meeting as a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Textile History Museum in Lowell. Saturday (a wet, cold day), Roman and I saw Daisuke Matsuzaka pitch a great game at Fenway against the Braves; Sunday we hiked around Nantucket; Monday afternoon we ate Italian in the North End. More on my blog, with pictures, when I find the time!

Guest Scribe: Phil Shore, who deserves high marks for perseverance as he worked hard to figure out the wordpress software. Here, as he writes, is attempt#5: “Home Work with Dog Teeth Marks”:

Guests: Jerry Earnhardt guests of Mazie Fleetwood—George was present but was not introduced as a guest?—Jerry is new director of the Asheboro Unit of the Sandhills Mental Health Center.

Randolph Club—Archie O’Dell, Ed Bunch, Susan Milner, Charles Allen

No student guests.

Newsletter Committee has the program for June 1. President Prithvi said he had been told that there WOULD BE a program.

(Yes, says Mac: Benjamin Briggs, Executive Director of Preservation Greensboro and the Chairman of the Guilford County Historic Properties Commission, will speak on how historic preservation works in Guilford County.)

Announcement of Carole Gilliams’s passing with information about her memorial service. Family requests memorial gifts be made to Rotary Foundation (several received already). (For her obituary, see a subsequent post on this blog).

On behalf of Dale Lambert who invited our speaker, Bonnie Renfro introduced Jeff Brooks, the Marketing and Communications officer of ncGreenPower. With him was Martha Gettys.

Jeff began by saying that when we turn on a light switch we make a choice to have illumination and we make a choice to expend resources to make the power for the light. In North Carolina the resource most called upon to make power is coal. Coal has to be brought into the state from West Virginia or Pennsylvania. So it is expensive as well as troublesome from an ecological point of view.

Jeff’s topic is renewable fuel sources already in North Carolina. He listed: solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power, methane recovered from landfills or hog waste, biomass (including woodwaste and biodiesel). These newer resources, although local and abundant, are more expensive to produce because development has not caught up with practicality. ncGreenPower is a nonprofit that provides power companies with a supplemental payment for the use of these more expensive technologies. This is done in an effort to get the producers at least up to the break-even point.

He said that every dollar donated to ncGreenPower stays in North Carolina; every dollar helps to make cleaner fuel options more practical.

Besides donating to ncGreenPower (which can be done monthly through the electric power bill) individuals can make big differences in their power use and environmental concerns by switching to compact fluorescent lightbulbs, purchasing Energy Star appliances, checking homes for air leakage, be wise users of electricity, and encourage renewable sources of energy.

For further information see http://www.ncgreenpower.org/