The meeting was called to order by President John Pruitt at 6:30 PM

Bob Webb led us in the Pledge of Allegiance

 

Rich Bergdahl gave an inspiring account of how a Rotarian in Sacramento California where Rich worked as a waiter for five years while on a break from college influenced his life.  The Rotarian he met encouraged him  to finish college and go to law school after he discovered Rich liked to read.   The gentleman offered to pay all of Rich’s college and law school expenses and while tempting, Rich went ahead on his own with the continual encouragement of this older Rotarian friend..  Rich’s parting comment was that you as club members are PR men and women for this club every day.

 

President John thanked Rich Bergdahl for being the greeter and yours truly for acting as scribe.

 

Our guests included spouses of Ben Premack , Dan Bartel, Bill Taylor, Jim Going, John Pruitt, Jim Feek (Kathy recently ending a year as Chamber of Commerce President),Rick Ostrander, Dave Aubry,, Rick Walter,  Mike Hunter, Steve Shinstrom and their son Alex (soon to be leaving home); and Jason Overleese’s  spouse and two kids. Tim Platt, Librarian  and  Jeff Degallier, Principal for John Muir Elementary; Kirk Rogers and spouse; Nancy Bennett Evans, Rotarian from the International district Rotary in Seattle, classification as architect; soon to be re-united as members Megan Nakananishi and Patti Sims;  Kyle and Becky (last name not heard); and last but not least Denny Delling from King County Metro.

 

Announcements:

Rotary Hockey night 3/14; Curling event was last Thursday, well attended but according to Dave DeBois, his team had a bad night; Gratitude Sailing fundraising auction 3/21; Joanne Primavera announced that in two weeks come to The Woodmark as always for dinner on meeting night but then travel to the Performance Center for a special film, tickets included in dinner priced as usual; Past presidents meeting to be held 3/17 with President Elect Rich Bergdahl presiding, place not announced.

Former and now new members Megan Nakanishi and Patti Sims were inducted to their rightful places as Kirkland Rotarians.

 

Special Presentation:

Rick Ostrander introduced Tim Platt, Librarian and Jeff Degallier, Principal of John Muir Elementary School for a special presentation for the school library fund. The Kirkland Rotary “Reading Buddies” program  was the stimulus for a $3,000 grant for books for the John Muir Elementary Library. The kids at John Muir are really helped by the volunteers from the Club who give their time to see the little guys blossom into beautiful displays of interest, growth and appreciation.  Pat Swenson got a special thanks for coordinating this program from the Kirkland Rotary end.

  

Jason Overleese introduced our speaker Jerry Miner, comedian extraordinaire:

The jokes flowed like milk and honey  with laughter echoing throughout the room.  Jerry had practical advice for a traveling man, to never look under a hotel bed for you can never tell what you might find, especially at places where the slogans are silly, such as “we leave the lights on for you” (are you lost?) and watch out for those “Presidential Suites” that would never attract President Obama or any president except maybe the president of the stoics club;  He said he was a conservative liberal in favor of feeding the hungry one at a time.  As a smoker or maybe as one sympathetic of smokers  when he advised those who are free to do it but try to find a place where they will allow it, is the reality today.  Fat chance, that!  He said there ought to be smoker’s vacation places like “Come to Smoke World”. He said names seem to change as we age from Richie at five, Rick in high school, Richard at fifty, Dick at 75 and when they call you Walter, it’s over!  He says parents sometimes seem to pick the most obscure names so they can explain it to you.  He had jokes about our dogs, jokes about his and our kids, and one really funny one that a man came into a bar and introduced his wife obliquely “Mule face”.  The poor bartender later apologized to the lady but she blew it off saying in a mule like sound for sure I cannot put into words, gifted as I am at that, “Oh its nothing He’s always like that”.  The Irish joke in honor of St. Patrick’s day something about an Irish lad, O’Leary,  applying for a job as an intern and a parking space but it came so fast I can’t read my notes for the punch line but like all Irish, Polish or Norwegian jokes (Jim Feek why were you silent?), the formerly disfavored immigrants and now successful business men, academics or professionals of one kind or the other, we are supposed to laugh at making the memory of where we came from sound stupid.  As an Englishman of course, I don’t see how anything has changed.  He had practical advice too on taking kids to Disney theme parks, drop them off at the lost child stand and gain two child free hours until they call the police.  When you get back tell the kids how scared you were about them on your fourth trip to the Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain  or Pirates of the Caribbean.  He also had fun things to say about marriage finding insightfullness in the words of the ceremony, “Until death do we part” and “In sickness and in health”.   It’s a competition of sorts, he said, staying in it to win.  He said marriage is a 24 hour struggle between good and evil and the key to success is “let the little things go”.  He asked yours truly, the longest married one present (52 years), what was my secret and I replied with some of  his own advice and thought later about more, “We let the little things go, the kids when they were grown, the temptations all the while and learning how to sleep without snoring( CPAP machines are a good substitute for physical phenomena you can’t manage no matter how hard you try).”  The last part to that answer I added in creative editing.  He said reading was a good thing as one person told him, “read this book it will change your life; then read it again and see how it will change you again”.  Maybe one of those times you will find your true self and it better be a good one.  I’ll add the famous words of the Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, a comedian of sorts in a special way in his day, “By all means marry. If you get a good wife you will be happy; if you get a bad one, you will become a philosopher.”  Then they charged him with corrupting the Athenian youth or not believing in their gods  and gave him the hemlock.  Plato said he took it like a man and died.  However his words or Plato’s anyway, have lived on.  I will stay married until I die.

President John Pruitt closed with the thought of the week something about a 1937 commemoration to women which quite frankly I didn’t capture it well enough to repeat.  Next week we have The Kirkland City manager so bring all your questions and a special short presentation by yours truly (is that an oxymoron) announcing the start of  his latest career as a published fiction writer.  The room emptied at approximately 8:00PM and much fun was had by all.

 

John E. Woodbery, Scribe