Promise Yourself!
Lance MasseyJack Larison,
Optimist Club of Coronado
Post Office Box 180251
Coronado, CA 92178-0251
January 1125, 2007
Meetings at 7AM on Thursdays at
Coronado Yacht Club
This morning sixty of us showed up for
our Thursday morning feast. The breakfast
comment sheet at the front table has disap-
peared so I guess we are all happy. Or maybe
we are just tired.
BJ and his fellow Glorietta Bay traffic
monitor Bill Jepson 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 edit-
or by using a recent page two as a prayer. It
was pretty good. Then Jerry Thummel lead the
pledge,
We introduced Carl Boyd as a guest,
but really he said he was with us in memory of
his good friend (and ours) Ted Stearns. Toni
McCabe came with Marilyn Schaefer, but she
is member although an infrequent attender.
She has found a better breakfast somewhere.
Stu Powell got to tell the joke of the day,
and it was a reminder to be polite to the
counter people at the airport, because they
hold the fate of your luggage in their power.
Joe Petrucci had a double treat for
birthday kids Leslie Crawford and Roy Mantz,
but only Roy was here to enjoy the harmonica
and the singing. Joe has figured us out. The
smaller part the club has in the production the
better things sound. That is something that
former songmeister Fred Hauck. Speaking of
Fred, he returned his Greensheet to me com-
plaining that the flag postage stamp was af-
fixed upside down indicating either trouble in
the club or carelessness. Would it be appropri-
ate to ask Fred to forget the mistakes of the
past.
And speaking of those mistakes of the
past, the Dingmaster was back from foreign
shores and ready to help us make our Optim-
ism come true. First he got Jack Couture for
wandering into the meeting after the bell. Then
Lee saw a resemblance to Gooch in an ad for
a new play at the Old Globe about old aviators.
When he propose fining Gooch John Freeman
upped the ante and suggested that all old avi-
ators be fined. That seemed ok with Mr. Car-
gill, and so they all stood up and gave back
some of that flight pay. Lee wasn’t through yet
because he he fined Chris Massy for being a
realator and Paul Dudley for playing golf with
someone who dragged him into the winner’s
circle.
Jerry Thummel won $47 in the 50-50
drawing, and he gave it all to the Youth Fund.
Jerry is making it hard on those whose chil-
dren need new shoes if we ever win.
We had significant Optimist Anniversar-
ies this morning. Leading the pack was Jake
Sloan who has 34 years in the club this week.
Next was Barry Mitchell with thirty years. Then
President
Jack LarisonDiana Drummey,
Pres. 20007-086-07
Joan Gillem Art Jones, Extern-
al VP
Ledge HakesLeslie Crawford,
Internal VP
<www.sportsfiesta.net> Jack DavisStu Powell, Secret-
ary
John Freeman, Treas.
comes Roy Mantz Rosania, Sloan & Mc-
with 26 years. Al Ae- Clure,USNA ’45 Publishers
gerter has 13 years, McCrary and Gowan
and Ann Boyd has Bob Sheridan, Editor
eleven. Let’s see. In that group we have one
District Secretary Treasurer, one Governor,
one Lt. Governor, three past presidents (one
distinguished). Of particular note was the col-
lection of over 9,000 aluminum can pull tabs
during the “Yes We Can” effort to help provide
a dialysis machine to a young man in Vallejo.
That was Jake Sloan’s work. Ah, remember
the day of correcting dumpsters full of alumin-
um. The smell of stale beer and deciding which
Optimist got to climb up on top to keep the
cans moving to the back of the container.
Someday we should have a program on that
old program. Does anyone have slides?
Did you know that if you can’t change
the batteries in your smoke detector the
Coronado Fire Department will dispatch some-
body to do it for you? Talk about service. In
2005 the fire department responded to 1085
calls in medical emergencies. There were 170
structural fires or desmoking calls. The depart-
ment responded to 158 vehicle accidents.
There were 306 “other” type responses. I
guess the cat in the tree is in this category.
Our Fire Chief Kim Raddatz told us all about
his department including the good fact that the
goal is to get a first unit to the scene in under 6
minutes 90% of the time. They do it.
A definite nip was in the air this morn-
ing. Hallelujah!! Food again and
Sixty-One of us filed by Buck Rogers
and Dick Madouse reading the guest list, tak-
ing our badges, and looking over the breakfast
comment sheet. Someone, remembering the
mistakes of the past had written, “You call this
a breakfast!”. Yes, Virginia, the mean-spirited
do live among us.
President Jack invited Carla Fargo to
lead us in prayer, and she did so in rhyme.
Captain Stark led the pledge. Our lone guest
was Mark Rogers, son of Buck.
Immediate Past President Lance Mas-
sey told a joke about men’s underthings that
will in the interest of taste be omitted. I thought
that I only had to omit one item per meeting to
pass the censors, but then, later in the meet-
ing, our program speaker finished that hope off
with a tale of bestiality in colonial America.
Does anyone know where I can find a bleep on
my keyboard?
Joe Petrucci redeemed this part of the
meeting by playing a foot stomping version of
“Sugar Blues” or “Azul Asucar” in our new na-
tional language. Joe is our star on these cold
winter mornings when he unwraps his harmon-
ica to get our blood moving. We had birthdays
of Joe Huber, Wynn Fester, and Ann Eades to
celebrate and the “Sugar Blues” was just the
number.
Jim Cooper celebrates thirty-one glori-
ous years as an Optimist this week, and Bill
Parry, who we don’t see too much of these
days, has nineteen years with us.
Jack Larison reminded us to keep the
evening of December 21 free for our Christmas
party. It will be at the Yacht Club at 7PM.
The traveling midshipmen choral group
gathered as they do each year at this time to
salute the Army Mule. Yes, it is that time of
year when the Black Knights of the Hudson un-
der our own Bobby Ross face off against the
Midship-persons in their white hats. Saturday
is the 107th rematch of the game and the res-
ults have been an amazing 50-49 edge for
Navy with seven tied games. Barry Mitchell (or
someone posing as Colonel Mitchell) called
the editor to say that he and Bruce Williams
are covering all bets and giving no points.
They want all the Navy money that you can
wager.
Speaking of money, Stu Powell won the
50-50 drawing with a white ticket.
The Dingmaster was disappointed that
Charlie Ahern was not with us. But he took
money from his own wife who contributes to
Lamb’s Players. Jim Cartwright left before pay-
ing his fine, and Ledge had to give a dingpass
back for a letter to the editor in the spirit of
dear departed Carol Cahill.
Lance Massey recovered from his joke
to announce that the Silver Strand will be
picked up and restored to its beautiful 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 out cookies and cider to those who mill
around Christmas in Coronado. Come see
John McKechnie and Chris Massey with their
cute little pointy elf shoes.
Frank Osgood found out when in his
fifties that he had roots on the Mayflower. One
great- great -…-great grandfather was a
church elder while another was a non-pilgrim
member of the party with a troubled, but ad-
venture-heavy past. Frank told us about his re-
search into the lives of these two men and of
their roles in the first English settlement in the
New World that had self government.
Frank’s tale was fascinating. The hard-
ships of the first year, when the little band of
102 people lost 47 to death, tried the hearts of
all. They sailed in a leaky “Mayflower” in
September 1620 and arrived on Cape Cod in
December in the dead of Winter. After explor-
ing the area by small boat the group came
ashore at Plymouth on Christmas Day, kneel-
ing to give thanks.
Franks told us about William Brewster,
his church leader ancestor who, even when
the people were dying from starvation,
preached with power of God’s gift of new Jeru-
salem they had come to. Franks other ancestor
was Steven Hopkins, A “stranger’ recruited by
the London company managing the colony for
his savvy and experience. He had been in
Jamestown earlier and been shipwrecked in
Bermuda. Hopkins came with wife and several
children.
The talk was quite fascinating and
brought to our minds the hardships that were
overcome by those who settled this wonderful
land for us. I think we could have listened to
Frank for hours, but his story about the unfor-
tunate Thomas Granger 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.
Next week you can get See’s Candy
from Mrs. Gooch. The program will be from the
Virtual Reality Medical Center of San Diego.
We will hear about using virtual reality techno-
logy to treat phobias and post traumatic stress
disorders. Would this have helped poor
Thomas Granger back in Plymouth? I am
happy to report that YES, once upon a time
there was a big, bad python in the Orange Av-
enue display window eating little ducks on a
regular basis. If you don’t know what this is
about then you haven’t been reading your bul-
letin. But this confirmation should make you
feel that you can believe most of what you
read in the Greensheet.
Believable: Tom Golden and Tom Mead-
ows checked in 60 members of the club.
Unbelievable: The coffee was a hearty
dark roast in abundant supply.
Believable: Our nice yellow 2007 Direct-
ory was handed out. Thanks to Stu Powell and
Roy Mantz.
We started the meeting with a short
prayer (for the benefit of John McKechnie) by
Len Rausch impersonating Ann Boyd. Len re-
minded us of the service for Del Cummins this
Saturday at one in the afternoon at Sacred
Heart Church. He also passed on news of our
much admired charter member Dave Nash.
Dave has moved to an assisted living home in
San Diego. You can send mail to him at Care
Center at Home, 7057 Brookhaven Road, SD
92114.
Jack Larison led the pledge himself and
then turned to Bob McCrary to tell a funny
story. Bob had a howler about the inability of
naval aviators to do anything without a check-
list.
Bob Harshberger led us through the dif-
ficult notes of HBTY for the benefit of Sue Car-
gill, Len Rausch, and Jim Organ. Did anybody
know that Len was one of those native Hawaii-
ans who are beneficiaries of the Queen
Lili‘uokalani Trust? My hand is out, Len.
We had a delegation of young people
from Amnesty International with their hands
out. They want to go to Africa and stop viol-
ence against women. They need your help to
do it. John Farala, Haley McKenzie, and
Kirsten Egreen told us about the projects they
plan for the high school.
 Amnesty International has an interesting
website. If you go to it the first thing that you
see is news about an opportunity to “Sail, Fly,
or Windsurf with the Close Guantanamo Flo-
tilla”. How about an Optimist Cruise to take it
in?
The Dingmaster arrived on schedule
with his little messages of congratulations.
Ledge Hakes keeps writing and speaking
about the fire department. (I would like to see
a map of Coronado showing all the places that
a 100 foot ladder truck would not reach. And
then one that a 200 foot ladder would leave
out. The length of the ladder is not the only is-
sue.) Charlie Ahern paid for his color picture
on the front page. Linda Stanton will receive a
nice, well deserved award and get to pay twice
for it. And then there was the usual bickering
about what the Dingmaster missed. Lee asked
for job applicants. That quieted us.
Art Jones won the fifty-fifty drawing, and
Lance Massey told us to show up at 8AM on
Saturday to pick up trash along the Silver
Strand. He said that he has enough mediocre
men and needs a few good women.
We tried to refill our coffee cups, only to
find that we only had a coffeemaker full of hot
water. I thought that John Bowen had solved
this problem.
Dick Beh introduced his friend, retired
USA Colonel Dan Layton. Dan has been in-
volved in cleaning up the residue of war
around the world for the State Department and
various non governmental organizations.
While we usually think of land mines, the prob-
lem also includes a great deal of unexploded
ordinance. This terrible stuff affects people in
over sixty countries and causes tens of thou-
sands of casualties each year. The NGO that
Dan works for has a telling slogan: To Walk the
Earth in Safety. Imagine if you could not let
your children run in a field in your village or let
your animals graze in your pastureland. That is
the situation in many of these places.
He told us that in Cambodia 1 in 230
people have been victims of Explosive
Remnents of War or ERWs. This means loss
of limbs and loss of lives. What a legacy for
the world’s children.
Dan said that there are thousands of
minefields in Iraq that make large areas of the
land unusable. He has been working to train
local people and governments in many of the
countries to catalogue these evil spots and to
remove the ERW in a safe manner. It isn’t suf-
ficient to have us do the work, because we will
leave and the problem will stay. The people
must be able to restore their land with our sup-
port.
Dan told anecdotes about his involve-
ment with the government of Iraq setting up a
National Mine Action Authority to deal with the
issue. This is a situation that will be with us for
a long, long time. There are bad people still
putting this stuff out in the world, and still
plenty of it unfound.
Next week : Karen Franz on San
Diego’s Watershed.