P

resident Harold Graves brought the meeting to order and we all sang the America the Beautiful followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. The invocation was by John Arnold. President Graves noted that this the Jewish Holiday of Chanukah and offered best wishes toall.

Editor’s Note: Since our distinguished President seems to like America the Beautiful, I thought I would bring it to the members’ attention that the third line of the song refers to the “purple mountain majesties” NOT, “purple mountain’s majesty”!! For the edification of all interested parties, I am reproducing the first stanza of the song here:

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

As reported in Wikipedia, "America the Beautiful" is an Americanpatriotic song. The lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and the music composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward.

Bates originally wrote the words as a poem, Pikes Peak, first published in the Fourth of July edition of the church periodical The Congregationalist in 1895. At that time, the poem was titled America for publication.

Ward had originally written the music, Materna, for the 17th century hymn O Mother dear, Jerusalem in 1882. Ward's music combined with the Bates poem was first published in 1910 and titled America the Beautiful.

The song is one of the most beloved and popular of the many American patriotic songs.[1] From time to time it has been proposed as a replacement for The Star-Spangled Banner as the National Anthem.

Visitors and Guests: Judge Schultz’s wife, Sybil joined us for lunch.

Announcements:

  • This past weekend we again provided and served the noon meal at the SamaritanCenter. All that were there to assist were greatly appreciated.
  • Remember this Friday and Saturday, December 10th and 11th are Old Newsboys Day. If you have not yet signed up to help sell papers at one of our several locations, please contact Mark Strodel for available times, locations, etc.
  • We will be doing bell-ringing for the Salvation Army on December 17th and 18th in Shoppingtown Mall. Call Dave Ziemba to check on available times and to sign up.
  • Larry Schunk is collecting bicycles for the annual give-away for children. If you would like to donate a bicycle, please contact Larry so that he can arrange its donation.
  • CORRECTION: The memorial service for Glen Glassford will be Saturday, December 18th(not the 14th as previously reported) at 4 PM at DewittCommunityChurch.

PROGRAM

In his annual paean to the memory of Pearl Harbor Day, December seventh, Judge Jack Schultz reminisced about where he was when he first heard the news of the bombing. (At a football game.) Subsequent information that has become available in the intervening years has suggested that an alert could have been sounded if the two enlisted men on their stations with the new fangled radar equipment had trusted the equipment more and not dismissed the data on the screens suggesting an attack was imminent.

On that day, 2,400 Americans and 55 Japanese died. No courts marshal resulted from the attack, and the commander of the Pearl Harbor base was in fact forced into early retirement.

Happy Dollars were served up by Jim, Leo, Ed and Holly.

50:50 was again won by Helen Kessler.

The meeting adjourned with the recitation of the 4 way test.

Respectfully submitted,

Ed Glassberg and Michael Miller.

All requests for inclusions in the newsletter and all complaints, worthwhile and otherwise, should be sent to: