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Meetings at 7AM on Thursdays atCoronado Yacht Club

morning sixty of us showed up for our Thursdaymorning feast. The breakfast comment sheet at the front tablehas disappeared so I guess we are all happy. Or maybe weare just tired.

BJ and his fellow Glorietta Bay traffic monitor BillJepson counted all the money. Jack struck the bell at 7AM.Off again into the adventure of another Optimist meeting.Carla Fargo tickled the heart of the Greensheet editor by us-ing a recent page two as a prayer. It was pretty good. ThenJerry Thummel lead the pledge,

We introduced Carl Boyd as a guest, but really hesaid he was with us in memory of his good friend (and ours)Ted Stearns. Toni McCabe came with Marilyn Schaefer, butshe is member although an infrequent attender. She hasfound a better breakfast somewhere.

Stu Powell got to tell the joke of the day, and it was areminder to be polite to the counter people at the airport, be-cause they hold the fate of your luggage in their power.

Joe Petrucci had a double treat for birthday kidsLeslie Crawford and Roy Mantz, but only Roy was here to en-

joy the harmonica and the singing. Joe has figured us out.The smaller part the club has in the production the betterthings sound. That is something that former songmeister FredHauck. Speaking of Fred, he returned his Greensheet to mecomplaining that the flag postage stamp was affixed upsidedown indicating either trouble in the club or carelessness.Would it be appropriate to ask Fred to forget the mistakes ofthe past.

And speaking of those mistakes of the past, theDingmaster was back from foreign shores and ready to helpus make our Optimism come true. First he got Jack Couturefor wandering into the meeting after the bell. Then Lee saw aresemblance to Gooch in an ad for a new play at the OldGlobe about old aviators. When he propose fining GoochJohn Freeman upped the ante and suggested that all old avi-ators be fined. That seemed ok with Mr. Cargill, and so theyall stood up and gave back some of that flight pay. Lee wasntthrough yet because he he fined Chris Massy for being a real-ator and Paul Dudley for playing golf with someone whodragged him into the winners circle.

Jerry Thummel won $47 in the 50-50 drawing, andhe gave it all to the Youth Fund. Jerry is making it hard onthose whose children need new shoes if we ever win.

We had significant Optimist Anniversaries this morn-ing. Leading the pack was Jake Sloan who has 34 years inthe club this week. Next was Barry Mitchell with thirty years.Then comes Roy Mantz with 26 years. Al Aegerter has 13years, and Ann Boyd has eleven. Lets see. In that group wehave one District Secretary Treasurer, one Governor, one Lt.Governor, three past presidents (one distinguished). Of partic-ular note was the collection of over 9,000 aluminum can pulltabs during the Yes We Can effort to help provide a dialysismachine to a young man in Vallejo. That was Jake Sloanswork. Ah, remember the day of correcting dumpsters full ofaluminum. The smell of stale beer and deciding which Optimistgot to climb up on top to keep the cans moving to the back ofthe container. Someday we should have a program on that old

program. Does anyone have slides?Did you know that if you cant change the batteries

in your smoke detector the Coronado Fire Department will dis-patch somebody to do it for you? Talk about service. In 2005

the fire department responded to 1085 calls in medical emer-gencies. There were 170 structural fires or desmoking calls.The department responded to 158 vehicle accidents. Therewere 306 other type responses. I guess the cat in the tree isin this category. Our Fire Chief Kim Raddatz told us all abouthis department including the good fact that the goal is to get afirst unit to the scene in under 6 minutes 90% of the time.They do it.

A definite nip was in the air this morning. Hallelujah!!Food again and

Sixty-One of us filed by Buck Rogers and DickMadouse reading the guest list, taking our badges, and look-ing over the breakfast comment sheet. Someone, remember-ing the mistakes of the past had written, You call this a break-

fast!. Yes, Virginia, the mean-spirited do live among us.President Jack invited Carla Fargo to lead us in pray-

er, and she did so in rhyme. Captain Stark led the pledge. Ourlone guest was Mark Rogers, son of Buck.

Immediate PastPresident Lance Masseytold a joke about mens un-derthings that will in the in-terest of taste be omitted. Ithought that I only had toomit one item per meeting to pass the censors, but then, laterin the meeting

, our program speaker finished that hope offwith a tale of bestiality in colonial America. Does anyone knowwhere I can find a bleep on my keyboard?

Joe Petrucci redeemed this part of the meeting byplaying a foot stomping version of Sugar Blues or Azul Asu-car in our new national language. Joe is our star on thesecold winter mornings when he unwraps his harmonica to getour blood moving. We had birthdays of Joe Huber, Wynn

Fester, and Ann Eades to celebrate and the Sugar Blueswas just the number.Jim Cooper celebrates thirty-one glorious years as an

Optimist this week, and Bill Parry, who we dont see too muchof these days, has nineteen years with us.

Jack Larison reminded us to keep the evening ofDecember 21 free for our Christmas party. It will be at theYacht Club at 7PM.

The traveling midshipmen choral group gathered asthey do each year at this time to salute the Army Mule. Yes, itis that time of year when the Black Knights of the Hudson un-der our own Bobby Ross face off against the Midship-

personsin their white hats. Saturday is the 107th rematch of the gameand the results have been an amazing 50-49 edge for Navywith seven tied games. Barry Mitchell (or someone posing asColonel Mitchell) called the editor to say that he and BruceWilliams are covering all bets and giving no points. They wantall the Navy money that you can wager.

Speaking of money, Stu Powell won the 50-50 draw-ing with a white ticket.

The Dingmaster was disappointed that Charlie Ahernwas not with us. But he took money from his own wife whocontributes to Lambs Players. Jim Cartwright left before pay-ing his fine, and Ledge had to give a dingpass back for a letterto the editor in the spirit of dear departed Carol Cahill.

Lance Massey recovered from his joke to announcethat the Silver Strand will be picked up and restored to itsbeautiful pristine state by the Optimist Club on Saturday,December 9. He needs a few more pickers.

Tomorrow night the elves of the club will hand outcookies and cider to those who mill around Christmas inCoronado. Come see John McKechnie and Chris Massey withtheir cute little point

y elf shoes.Frank Osgood found out when in his fifties that he

had roots on the Mayflower. One great- great --great grand-father was a church elder while another was a non-pilgrimmember of the party with a troubled, but adventure-heavy

past. Frank told us about his research into the lives of thesetwo men and of their roles in the first English settlement in theNew World that had self government.

Franks tale was fascinating. The hardships of thefirst year

, when the little band of 102 people lost 47 to death

,tried the hearts of all. They sailed in a leaky Mayflower inSeptember 1620 and arrived on Cape Cod in December in thedead of Winter. After exploring the area by small boat thegroup came ashore at Plymouth on Christmas Day, kneeling

to give thanks.Franks told us about William Brewster, his church

leader ancestor who, even when the people were dying fromstarvation, preached with power of Gods gift of new Jerus-alem they had come to. Franks other ancestor was StevenHopkins, A stranger recruited by the London company man-aging the colony for his savvy and experience. He had been inJamestown earlier and been shipwrecked in Bermuda. Hop-kins came with wife and several children.

The talk was quite fascinating and brought to ourminds the hardships that were overcome by those who settledthis wonderful land for us. I think we could have listened toFrank for hours, but his story about the unfortunate ThomasGranger who was discovered to be engaging in unhealthy

practices with a wide range of farm animal needs a special fil-

ter.Frank promised help for any folks who are interested

in

genealogy. Sounds like a great offer.

Promise Yourself!Optimist Club of Coronado

Post Office Box 180251Coronado, CA 92178-0251

January 11February 22, 2007

Lance MasseyJack Larison,PresidentJack LarisonDiana Drummey,Pres. 20007-086-07Joan Gillem Art Jones, Extern-al VPLedge HakesLeslie Crawford,Internal VPJack DavisStu Powell, Secret-aryJohn Freeman, Treas.Rosania, Sloan & Mc-Clure,USNA 45 PublishersMcCrary and GowanBob Sheridan, Editor

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Next week you can get Sees Candy from Mrs.Gooch. The program will be from the Virtual RealityMedical Center of San Diego. We will hear about us-ing virtual reality technology to treat phobias and posttraumatic stress disorders. Would this have helped

poor Thomas Granger back in Plymouth? MIDWAYupon the journey of our lifeI found myself within a forest dark,For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

,So begins Dante s INFERNO a meditation

on life that we all were introduced to in high

.school Stu Powell began our meeting with a

reminder of a similar mediation on life with

the beginning of Lent. Stus prayer had a

little bit for everybody including our city

leaders and so forth which I took to mean

. .Sgt Drummey who was with us in uniform

-We had about fifty five on hand including.past member and current friend Bill Zedbek

,Tim Cusick was with us to pick up a check

and .Sally Leland was with Doug

In addition to being the Birthday of

,George Washington this date is also the

-sixty third anniversary of the WWII battle

.known as the Marianas Turkeyshoot We had

on hand a participantof that crushing de-

feat .of the Japanese Navy Jack Chilton was

6 25,000flying an F F at feet smoking cigar-

, ,ettes breathing oxygen and using the relief

tube .as he awaited the enemy He told us

that the enemy was well below getting their

6,000tail kicked at about feet where the

fighters didnt need oxygen and didnt have

time for the relief tube or .smokes Jack was

sent off to engage a target over Guam

.which turned out to be lightning

Being vectored back to the fray at a

lower altitude Jack orbited our own battle-

ship formation and the sky turned black

as our nervous shipboard gunnerstried to

shoot Jack and his friends .down As we

know, the story ends happily for Jack,

Peggy, ,the Democratic Party and for all us

Optimist .s

Jack reported that the Japanese lost

300 .aircraft that day Our valiant naval avi-

400.ators claimed ( Jack told me that he has

a fine .film made with his gun cameras All

hands should u rge him to turn that decaying

film into aCD.)

Irish Flynn briefed us on the visit by.the senior foreign officers next week These

officers are participants in the Senior Officer

Planning Course run at the Amphibious Base

.each year They come from all over the

.world to see how America works Theof-

ficerscome to the Optimiststo see a civic

.club in action So shave and wear

something that your mother would approve

.of And let .s have a big turnout This is al-

ways a fun meeting as we listen to our in-

troducers struggle with the names of the of-

.ficers from Thailand Where is Ted Stearns

when we really need him?

Helen Thummel 35won $ in the draw-

. ing That ll get Jerry and hera great break-

.fast at Clayton s after the meetingTim Cusick told us all about the Boys

Lacrosse program at the high school and

.middle school He thanks us for all the help

that our club has provided over .the years

The program is very successful both in

terms of winning games and winning schol-

.arships for Coronado students We have sev-

eral coaches who play in the professional

.lacrosse league Tim said this is like having

San Diego Chargers coaching the Coronado

.High Football team The coaches stress good

.behavior and good grades Our board of dir-

.ectors gave the boys some money The

lacrosse people will be back later to ask for

our time .at the scoring table

Carla Fargo had some fine pictures of

our Junior Optimist Club at the Middle

.School Maybe you saw the story about the

memorial wristbands at CMS on the front

.page of the Eagle Journal this week Our ju-

nior Optimists .were featured They showoff

all that enthusiasmand energy ofyouth in

the positive . !!activities of the club Press On

The Dingmaster did his worst against

our best, taking money from Coronado Hos-

pital Board member BJ Adelson, Presbyterian

,Board member John Freeman nostalgic

,postcard writer Charlie Ahern and Jim Alley

who says the fishing is great on the good

.ship Daily Double

Doug Leland provided another splen-

did . - -program His father in law was a young

.lieutenant commander before WWII He fer-1941ried a plane to Great Britain in April of

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and was involved in the search for and sink-

ing of the German Battleship BISMARK in

.May of that year LCDR Jim Johnson is Sally

Leland .s father One of the treasures that he

left to Sally was his journalof those days,

.which Doug shared with us this morning

His 3000 mile trip across the Atlantic

with a PBY took 24 ,hours and completion

was celebrated with a drink of rumaboard

the planeand several glasses of scotch at

the British aeroport. The journal tells a lively

story of a Yank loose in the British Isles dur-

ing the blitz and the dark days of the war

when Englands lifeline was the line of con-

.voys from America ,Jim Johnson traveled escorted , ,Rita Marjorie and Patricia to clubs

,and plays and .watched England fight Hitler

Before the USA was officially in the war the

USN was escorting convoys, 26,and May

1941, LCDR Jim Johnson found himself

laun ching at 0425 to look for the BISMARK

which was about to break out into the North

.Atlantic and create havoc with the convoys

It is a fascinating storythat you will have to

. ,get Doug or Sally to retell Oh and Johnson

returned to England after the war to marry

. ?Rita Isn t that a storybook ending

Doug Leland s larger message is that

.all of us have some stories to tell We may

feel that no body wants or needs to hear

, .them but that is not true We have genera-

,tions that need to know what their fathers

, ,grandfathers mothers and grandmothers

.did Too many of these stories go to the

.grave with us Dougs plea is not to let that

.happen

Thu cydides told us that A collision at

sea can spoil your .entire day But the story

of the incident would probably be just as

enlightening or entertaining for others as a

.more heroic event might be I think that Ill

drag out that old engineering log that tells

abou t the daywhen I almostpumped Navy

Special Fuel Oil over the Skylab Astronauts

in their capsulewhile TICONDEROGA was

plucking them from the Pacific. That would

.make a good story