Occasionally the staid and sophisticated members of Boulder cut loose and have a little fun. Sometimes this involves alcohol, sometimes not. A notice in the RiB recently asking for recent such anecdotes evoked no response. I guess they will have to wait for the next historian. We’ll turn to the days of old Rotary for some examples.
Some years ago a club member, who shall remain nameless, was scheduled to speak. When Don Beeson arrived at the man’s office to pick him up, he found the man too drunk to get out of his chair. Don left him there and on his way to the meeing frantically tried come up with a substitute talk on his specialty, the insurance business. Entering Wayne’s Café, he encountered Father Pat Patterson, who had just attended one of the early Estes Park meetings of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Father Pat agreed to talk to the club about it, and no one was ever the wiser. And Don’s wisdom on the insurance business remains hidden in the mists of time. No word on whether the recalcitrant speaker ever came back.
At a Roast & Toast program conducted by BRC’s first 10 women members, Virginia Patterson remarked, “Now, we’ve been nice long enough. We’ve proved we know how to be ladies, now we’re going to prove we can be Rotarians.”
Bob Stuenkel reports that during his presidential year, 1994-95, the club realized that the collection of banners was missing only one state, Arkansas. As Bob recalls it, when they learned how close we were to completing the set, Norris Hermsmeyer and Jim Swaeby thought “road trip” and drove straight through to a meeting of the Fort Smith, Arkansas, Rotary Club, just across the border from Oklahoma. They proudly presented the ultimate banner to the Club immediately upon their return.
Bruce Ekstrand often took a cue from David Letterman’s top 10 lists. From “Top 10 Unsafe Toys for Christmas:
- Oooh, you’re blue, a hold your breath game from David Gehant and the ER staff at BCH.
- The Junior Oral Surgeon kit, assembled by Pete Steinhauer and Lonnie Sibley.
- The Junior Electrician Outlet Patrol, from McGuckin’s Hardware.
My favorite actually came from former RI President Cliff Dochterman. I’ve mentioned it before but it is a good one to finish up our centennial year. It’s the Three-Way Test:
- Will it be fun?
- Will anybody get hurt?
- Will anybody find out?
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