Monday's program celebrated the fellowship of our club with a few members sharing stories about their lives that included details most of us were not unaware
The meeting started with a celebration for new Rotarian Chris Hansard; photo has Membership Chair Penny Miller presenting Chris with his Rotary badge. His sponsor is Tim Sawyer.
The program celebrated the fellowship of our club with a few members sharing stories about the lives that included details most of us were unaware of.
President Bruce Gray, DVM led off sharing that while in Mission, TX as a practicing Veterinarian, he was also a spelunker exploring caves.
Tom Key shared that he played the euphonium in high school band. He summarized a performance at the football game against Electra (which Old High lost 52 to nothing). Rain was imminent as the band took the field at halftime. Then as the weather become more foreboding, Tom thought he saw the band director signal to get off the field. Tom led the band off the field, as the rain hit. By the time the band was off the field, everyone was soaking wet.
John Key shared a couple of stories. He talked about their favorite uncle, Uncle Martin, in Beaumont who hosted his nephew for frequent visits. John shared that while attending a funeral for another uncle, he was shocked at the viewing as this uncle looked uncannily like Uncle Martin.
John is a private pilot and shared a story about flying out of Love Field, normally departing flights are routed with left turns to their desired flight paths. On this flight John shared that as he took off to the south, he absentmindedly turned to the right, the obvious direction as Wichita Falls lies NW of DFW. The tower contacted him and advised him to get to the correct flight path he needed to fly over the airport. John shared his embarrassment with the tower at this flight path. The flight controller came back, “Don’t worry, we won’t look!”
Tim Lockhart shared insights from his Air Force duty in Iraq’s green zone. He also had a tour in Saudi Arabia.
Sue Hamilton shared that she was born in Chilicothe and grew up in Vernon. Her brother owned a paper in Weatherford and Sue joined him for a while and learned everything about running a newspaper. She headed off to San Jose, CA and worked at the Mercury News selling classified ads. Then she came back to Texas, joining her mother in putting out a 24 page paper. They wrote the stories, sold the ads and made the business work.
Sue also shared that as a child, at one point her father took the family to Jerome, AZ as a uranium prospector.
Jerome is situated on the side of Cleopatra Hill and was founded in 1876. Located between Flagstaff and Prescott and about 20 miles from Sedona, Jerome was once a thriving copper mining town that also boasted silver, gold, and zinc. Today Jerome is an artistic community with a population of 474.
At one time (around 1900), the town’s mines produced a monthly load of three million pounds of copper. Once Jerome was the fourth largest town in the Arizona Territory with a rowdy population that reached over 15,000. In its heyday, owing to its large number of brothels, saloons, and opium dens, Jerome, Arizona was known as the “wickedest town in the west.”