Rotary Club of Sackville Bulletin May 26, 2016

 

   Tim was in the Chair today.  Opting to bypass his bio, he chose to update us on his recent family trip to Toronto.  The trip was centred around visiting his father-in-law who was turning 80. The whole family (10 persons) went to the CN Tower.  After paying the $80 each admission fee, the group was whisked to the top, much to the chagrin of Tim.  Like some of us, he doesn't like heights. Putting on the "brave" face he managed to look outside the windows.  Jaw dropping (or is stomach dropping) views through the glass sidewalk almost did him in.  Time for dinner, they went to the revolving restaurant, where it turns 360 degrees every 70 minutes, to reveal the city.  "Hey!!  Where did the washrooms go?"  Seems they are in the centre fixed section and appear to move. This experience won't appear again on his bucket list.

 

There were no visiting Rotarians today and only one guest - Karen Bamford, our guest speaker.  Make ups accrued from the Gold Mine and Club Admin committee meetings.  Pin Pal stories are always interesting.  This week, Bill and Edna were in a car when another pulled alongside and indicated they wanted to drag race. The other "racer" was none other than out own Dave.

 

  Dianne now has another "Bill" to share the weekly birthday with, the other being the late Bill Swift.  Bill was celebrating his birthday today while Dianne does so on the 1st.

 

 

Edna's ticket was drawn and she unfortunately drew the seven of    spades.  She was looking for the nine of    and missed out on a lottery approaching amount of $13.  If you missed it, George won the pot a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

Happiness abounded this week.  Dave was happy to return following an operation to replace his knee.  He was very appreciative of the support he received, especially to Sue who had her patience tested pre and post op..........This was the day of returns as Ove is also coming off of major surgery to his abdomen.  He considers himself very lucky when he looks back at his issues.  Others also agree............Gayle was happy to be back from her mini-vacation in Ontario and "la Belle Province".  During it, she visited former club members Bruno and Joanne Ganasi.  On a walk, Joanne suffered a heart attack.  Now back to normal, the wake-up call is now front and center.  Bruno will be retiring in the next few weeks.  Wouldn't it be nice if they moved back to Sackville?...........Sue was happy that Dave is back home.  Banned from driving a car for a while, he can at least drive the tractor and cut the grass.............Pam was happy that she participated in the Bluenose Race.  She is also excited to visit Winnipeg shortly where she will visit the new Human Rights Museum, an idea fostered by the late Issy Asper (Global TV etc.).  Pam shared a taxi with him years ago where he initially talked about this idea..........John thought he was happy that Wayne foisted the minutes from the last Club Admin meeting on him, claiming he had to do a lot of things at today's meeting..............Wynn was happy that he was in court yesterday when the deluge of rain hit Moncton (50 ml in 60 minutes)..........And finally, Edna was happy to have both Dave and Ove back in town after successful operations.

 

 

Committee reports were short this week.  John reminded members of the Annual BBQ and Service Awards evening on June 23rd.  The event is at Gayle's house (Station Road) at 5:30 pm.  Cost is $10 each (Kids are free) and members are asked to bring a dessert or salad.  Pork tenderloin will be the main dish.  RSVP by June 9th.  There is no morning meeting that day.

June 8th is the date of the next Board Meeting, moved from June 1st as it is Dianne's birthday.

 

  This weeks winner of the May 23rd draw was present to collect his winnings.  Sid baker is shown with Rotarian Tim Jones receiving a cheque for $965.

 

   Dale introduced our speaker - Karen Bamford, a English professor at Mount Allison University.  Karen sought to compare the violence of the Shakespearian era with today, as we celebrate the 400th anniversary of his death.  The Elizabethan the 1st era in Stratford England was surprising similar to today.  In modern times, the world has to deal with groups and individual terrorists who would seek to spread their views through very violent behavior.  Surprising, 400 years ago, similar individuals existed.  Of note was the so called Gun Powder Plot, a plan to blow up the the houses of Parliment.  An anonymous letter foiled the plot that would have seen 36 barrels of gunpowder blow up the buildings.  The plotters were found within 3 days and a trial sent them to unspeakable public tortures.  The leader was one Guy Fox.  The anniversary, November 5th, is now a national holiday in Britain.  

     

 November 5th in modern times is also the anniversary of the breakout on the Ebola Epidemic.  Back in 1603, it also began an epidemic, known as the plague.  It would go on for centuries with over 100,000 people killed during the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.  In the worst of times,  the populace could gage how bad things were based on whether the theatres were open or not.  It appears life was just a complicate 400 years ago as it is today.  Today we have terrorism and massive flu's, the same as in Shakespeare's time.

 

  Karen was thanked by George who presented her with a certificate and pen and a book which will be donated to a local library.

Time closed the meeting with the 4-way-test.