The Lamorindan
Photos - The Presentations -- Rich Shearer- Reporting
Guests:
Karla Garcia - courtesy of Paul Bettelheim’s sister
Steve Wulf - another sausage doc
Ryan Hanna - Steve’s son
Daniel Croak - Kevin’s son
General:
WE’RE ALMOST DONE WITH THIS ONE: John Fazel reports that we
have raised about $7,500 so far for Florida hurricane relief. Last weekend,
John, Luis "I’m Trying to Get Rid of this Red Badge" Castro, Brad Davis and
Rich Shearer cast dignity to the wind (some would argue that Brad and Rich
did that a loooong time ago) by hitting up shoppers at Diablo Foods and he
Orinda Safeway. Acalanes Interact Club members and a passel of
Lamorinda Sunrisers will do a repeat performance this weekend at the
Lafayette Safeway and Albertson’s as well as another dragnet at the Orinda
Safeway. Many thanks to all who have contributed and solicited. Special
thanks to Steve Ware for taking the laboring oar on the promotional
materials. Extra special thanks to John Fazel for spearheading this
project.
FOR THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’: It’s kind of hard to imagine
Lamorinda Sunrise meeting anywhere other than the Vet’s Hall. But since
the Vet’s Hall is going to be torn down in the near future - something about a
library and progress - it occurred to the Board that we probably ought to get
ready to do more than just imagine it. Thus, following up on a lead brought to
us by our very own John Linneman, we will meet next week at Postino.
That’s on Mt. Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette right by the Lafayette Book Store.
Now, for those of you who just skim the Lamorindan, let me repeat that a little
louder - OUR NEXT MEETING IS AT POSTINO, NOT AT THE VET’S
HALL. This is a test run, but if it works, we may be moving there permanently.
OH, THE HUMANITY: Every January, like a New Year’s hangover,
comes the Reno Train Trip. Today
was the aperitif - the film made a
few years ago about the Reno
Train Trip. Every year, it convinces
some to go and convinces others
to run for the hills, and today’s
screening was no different. On
January 23, 2005, the special
train will pull out of Martinez at
som e ridiculous hour of the
morning, full of East Bay Rotarians
on their way to Reno. The train
trip up is an absolute blast, the
evening in Reno is whatever you
make of it - and be sure you hit
Circus Circus for rousing games
of "Chicken in a Pot" with George
Chaffey. (I am not making this
The Weekly Newsletter of the Rotary Club of Lamorinda Sunrise
up. Really, I swear.) There is a big - I mean Big - Rotary lunch meeting the
next day followed by the train trip back, which will let you catch up on the
sleep you missed. We have sixteen spots reserved, and they are filling up, so
if you are interested, you’d best get a hold of Steve Ware PDQ.
Birthdays, Anniversaries & Miscellaneous:
Susan Wait’s "big year" birthday set her back $20. Paul Fillinger’s "just
another year" birthday cost him $20. Could we actually be achieving
consistency in fining? Don’t bet the ranch on it.
Upcoming Programs & Events:
11/3/04 - Yeah, it’s getting to be that time - the first planning meeting for
the 2005 Dinner & Auction, 5:30 p.m., Ken Kosich’s office. All are welcome
to attend - hell, all are begged to attend.
11/5/04 - Dr. Bruce McNabb will give a talk entitled "Have you met the
world (lately)? Preparing MBA candidates for international business."
REMEMBER- WE MEET AT POSTINO TODAY.
11/12/04 - Our speaker will be Donna Jackson, Director of the Child
Abuse Prevention Council of Contra Costa County.
11/19/04 - November’s installment of "Expose Yourself" will feature Bob
Hermann and Bruce McDougall.
11/26/04 - Day after Thanksgiving - WE WILL BE DARK.
12/15/04 - The Annual Lamorinda Sunrise Holiday Party. Orinda
Community Church, aka Fran’s Church, used to be aka Ray’s Church.
Details to follow.
12/17/04 - December’s "Expose Yourself" episode will feature Skip
McCowan and a player to be named later.
1/23-1/24/05 - The Infamous Annual Reno Train Trip - the most fun you
can have on a locomotive that isn’t grounds for divorce. Contact Steve Ware
for details.
1/29/05 - Steve W are and
George C haffey will be t his
month’s "Expose Yourself" victims
- er, program.
2/25/05 - Bob Riegg tries to
make sense of his life in this
month’s "Expose Yourself."
Program:
O k a y, I lie d la s t we e k .
To d a y’ s " E xp o s e Yo ur s e lf "
s e g m e nt s ne ve r o nc e s a id
anything about a Dance of the
Seven Veils or rum-running. But
considering it was Susan Wait
and John Fazel doing the exposing, that was at least plausible,
right? I mean, they’ve done an
unbelievable amount of stuff
between them. Take Susan, for
example. She freely admits that,
in her youth, she was part of gang
known as "The Wilde Girls." Okay,
her maiden name was Wilde and
it was her two sisters and her,
but still . . . . And what about the
long and tawdry list of her various
activities and affiliations over the
years. She grew up in Berkeley and Piedmont. She graduated from UC
Berkeley (and was a sorority member and active in the Symphony Guild to
boot, not to mention meeting husband Brad in the process). As if that wasn’t
enough, she earned a St. Mary’s College Executive MBA. Susan has worked
as a school teacher, in public relations, as Vice President of the Bank of
Walnut Creek and manager in the Orinda branch, and is now the owner of
"Avant Card" in Berkeley. As a Rotarian, she was the first woman President
of Lamorinda Sunrise and the first woman District Governor of District 5160.
She’s been to Chile on a Rotoplast trip and to Moscow as part of a Swedish
Rotary DG trip. Oh, and she’s been one of the prime shakers and movers in
making the Peace Scholar program a reality. And her Rotary work is quite
literally the tip of the iceberg in terms of her community service and
involvement - there simply is no way to list it all here. Plus she found time to
have a wonderful time with her two kids as they were growing up, the three
grandchildren she and Brad get to enjoy now, and with Brad, too, bicycling
www.lamorindasunrise.org 2004-05#18 October 29, 2004
and traveling all over creation. But the darkest secret in Susan’s closet has to
be her centerfold appearance. Okay, it was in the Saturday Evening Post, and
it was as a select student marching with a group of alumnae during a
ceremony at her all-girl’s high school ( I think I got that right - sorry if I blew it,
Susan), but hey, a centerfold is a centerfold and a scandal is a scandal. Just
as we were recovering from a collective case of the vapors from that
shocking bit of pictorial history, up came John Fazel. Now his is a life to raise
suspicion. It turns out that, as we suspected, John has spent the vast
majority of his life running. You might wonder: running from what? Good
question. Is he running from his Iowa farm-boy roots? Is he running from his
Boy Scout days or his lifeguard summers? Is he running from his educational
and cross-country exploits at Iowa State? Is he running from his old flame,
whom he seems to have ditched in favor of current squeeze, Mary Lou?
(Okay, they’ve been married for 42 years, so we may have to acknowledge
soon that this just might work out.) We know he isn’t running from his two
great kids (now grown), because John is clearly quite fond of them. It may
be awfully hard to say exactly
what John is running from, but
whatever it is, it apparently followed
him from Iowa to Om aha to
Kansas City to the Bay Area, and
through careers in veterinary
product sales, pharmaceutical
marketing and real estate. At
one point, it seem s that Jim
"Catfish" Hunter, baseball great
and amateur sleuth, sniffed John
out, but John somehow found a
way to give Catfish the slip. John
has sought to cover his tracks
through a seemingly endless
web of civic activities, including
but certainly not limited to the
Three-Quarter Century Club,
honoring Orinda’s seniors. But if we can’t be sure about what he is running
from, there can be no doubt that John has been running long and hard. He
ran as a high school and college student. As an (alleged) adult, he has run
across Iowa and California, plus other parts of the American Discovery Trail.
(He has been active for years in making this across-the-continent trial a
reality.) He has run the Western Sates 100 race/survival test five times, and
has done so many long-distance events that he stopped counting how many
marathons he has done, although he remembers that his first one was in
1980 in Napa. He has even dragged Cal Lee’s dearly beloved, Agatha Sue,
down into the depths of his degradation, somehow inducing her to run with
him and be a support person for his running. (I think we call that being an
"enabler.") We may not know what it is you are running from, John, but we
hope it never catches you and that you keep on running for a good long
time.