July, 2014 Newsletter

Haddonfield
65 Club

      The Retired Men’s Club of Haddonfield

         Web address: http://haddon65club.blogspot.com/ 

110 Rhoads Ave                     

Haddonfield, NJ 08033                                              July 1, 2014

Thought for the Month

Thomas Jefferson: author of the Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, second Vice President of the United States            , first Secretary of State, Governor of Virginia, lawyer…. slave owner.

His was an outstanding life of service and dedication to his country. Non-the-less, his contradictory and controversial view on race and slavery remains a topic of concern to this day.  He owned slaves until his death in spite of his claim to “abhor” slavery as a violation of the “natural rights of man.” While holding these views he, according to most scholars, fathered six children with a slave, Sally Hemings.

Do these facts negate Jefferson’s great contributions to our country?

Most would say no.  His legacy includes The Louisiana Purchase from France, which doubled the size of the country for $15 million. The ending of the Barbary Pirates war, making shipping safe in the Mediterranean, and contributed to the growth of safe commerce with the rest of the world.

Jefferson died on July 4^th 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Why consider these facts at all? Mainly to recall that flawed people can accomplish much.

Benjamin Franklin adroitly noted that the Declaration of Independence states that we are guaranteed the “Pursuit of Happiness”, but he said we must go get it ourselves. Some have unrestricted ability to pursue happiness, a good life for their families: others are stymied by our society because of prejudice and the inability to receive a good education; pay inequality is among other restricting factors in our society.

This Independence Day, let us all give thanks for our great country even as we struggle with its many flaws. One day we hope we can celebrate “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” for all.

  – – Frank Gaudiano

President’s Message

July is here, which brings us the Fourth of July Parade here in Haddonfield.

For years Bill Hitchens has been the coordinator of our entry in the parade. He has done a great job recruiting members to strut their stuff down Kings Highway representing the 65 Club. Bill has taken the year off.  To match his skills and experience we had to form a committee of six or seven to match his efforts. We hope Bill will be riding in the first auto entry we will have in the parade. It is a 55 Buick, owned by Joe Ade. The car will be followed by a school bus transporting some of our members. Others will be walking and passing out fact sheets urging local male citizens to join.

Joe Ade is finalizing the schedule for our tournament of champions, which will begin after Labor Day. Team captains have been selected and the drafting of players will take place over the summer. It is not too late to sign up, contact Joe at one of our meetings, or by phone. Remember, today is the youngest that you will ever be, so get involved.

Bridge and pinochle are still played; bowling on Friday mornings; golf continues with a good crowd on Wednesdays. Consider getting involved. Do not just sit there, do something. Please do not forget our weekly meeting with interesting guest speakers. 

Last month we had a very interesting and informative trip to Girard College in Philly. After the tour of Founder's Hall and the Chapel, we motored down to Chickie's and Pete's in South Philly for lunch. More trips will be coming up soon. Keep your eyes on our newsletter, or come to the meetings. If you have ideas for trips, contact Jack Aharon or myself.

The coals on the grill should be hot so I can throw on some steaks; OK it is just hamburgers really. There is nothing like cooking on the grill.

– – Bill Brown

4^th of July Parade – You Can Ride This Year

Come join us for the 4^th of July parade. Participants must show up at the corner of Kings Highway and Chestnut Street by 9:45AM on July 4th. If you want to ride, you may ride in a bus with a 65 Club banner on the side. The bus will return after the parade to the High Speed Line parking lot. This provides an opportunity for members who are unable to walk the parade route to still participate.

Flea Market – September 20^th

Our Club will participate again this year in the Lions Club Flea Market on September 20^th. Here is the chance for our members to clean out some of that “stuff” you have been accumulating in your house for years, thinking that someday it would be useful. Well, it can be useful as donated items for sale at the Flea Market.

Please bring the items you are contributing to the regular meeting on Thursday, September 11^th or on Thursday, September 18^th. You may also bring your items to the Clubhouse on Friday, September 19^th between 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM. The pricing of items and the preparation of other details will take place during this time.

If you have something to contribute and are physically unable to deliver it, please call the Committee Chairman Bernie Schaming at 428-0932. He will arrange to have someone pick it up. The plan for September 20^th is to have our SET UP at Centennial One Parking Lot on Euclid Avenue completed by 8:00 AM. The public hours run from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

On behalf of the membership, please support the Flea Market project by donating marketable items since this is the only fundraiser held by the Club. Please exercise good judgment when making donations by not including: propane tanks; large grills, partially used chemicals/oil; rusty pots and pans (or those used for paint), chipped or cracked glassware, or, large furniture. Help us help you by contributing items that are clean and marketable.

Interested in Learning to Play Bridge?

For the past three years the club has held bridge lessons for those interested in improving their game. The participants all played bridge before and wanted to get back into playing the game or update their skills to a more modern approach to bidding.  These sessions have evolved into critiquing the participants bidding and play of the hands and are expected to continue in September.

However, we are considering starting a new activity in September to teach the game to those who never played it before but are interested in learning.  Couples are encouraged, but if you play and your spouse (or friend) is interested in learning (or vice-versa), this is an opportunity to have your spouse (or friend) learn the game. Spouses are welcome with or without their mate. This new activity will commence only if we have a minimum of four people interested. Multiples of four people are highly desirable but not necessary. If you are interested or know of someone interested in learning the game, please contact Bernie Schaming at 428-0932 or bschaming@comcast.net. Bernie is an accredited American Contract Bridge League teacher.

60^th Anniversary

Dave Eynon and Carol Irwin met on a double date. He was with another girl and she was with another boy. But, during the date the proverbial “boy-girl” spark must have occurred between Dave and Carol. Because, the next day he called her, and they have been a couple ever since. They were married July 31, 1954 at the Ben Avon Presbyterian Church near Pittsburgh, Pa. Dave graduated from Muhlenberg and later from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Dave formed the Farrell – Eynon Law Partnership. This was followed by appointment as a Judge in the New Jersey Superior Court, from which he is retired.

Dave and Carol have two daughters, Linda and Nancy. There are two grandchildren.

They celebrated their anniversary with a family stay at Duck on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. 

50^th Anniversary

William Hoeberg and Carol Foulkes met when Haddonfield’s churches combined their Youth Groups. He was Baptist and she was Presbyterian. They married on July 18, 1964, in the First Baptist Church of Haddonfield. Bill worked as a Grain Merchant for about 25 years. This involved buying grains such as corn, soy beans and wheat from growers and selling the grain to exporters, mills, etc.

Bill and Carol have two daughters; Pam and Jennifer. There are three grandchildren.

New Member

DeForest (Butch) Brees lives at 135 West End Ave., Haddonfield with his wife Linda. The telephone number is 856-428-8059. Before retirement, Butch was an Architectural Consultant for Suburban Lumber Co.  His hobbies are golf, cycling, hiking and back-packing.

Glad to have you as a member Butch. We hope you enjoy the 65 Club.

Thoughts of a Harvard Freshman

One of the hardest decisions a college student faces is choosing his or her major. It is a decision that I will be making in eight months along with thousands of other students across the country. Will I choose the humanities, the sciences, or the social sciences? Do I want to major or minor in Spanish? Is it worth pursuing English these days? Am I capable of completing a degree in computer science? The problem with choosing a college major is that you’re stuck with it until graduation. Needless to say, it might make or break your four years.

Next year I will be a sophomore at Harvard College up north in Massachusetts. Harvard, like other liberal arts colleges in the United States, allows students to declare their “concentrations” (majors) at the end of their first semester of sophomore year. Said a different way, Harvard provides students with three semesters to discover what intrigues them and what they find worth studying. For some it is more than enough time, but for others it can be stressful.

I will likely be an Economics major, a fact that hasn’t changed since I arrived at Harvard. My mother is an economist, and I have always found the field fascinating. It is a practical major (the largest at Harvard), an interesting cross between mathematics and the humanities, and a subject I find relevant throughout our day-to-day lives. However, I could easily choose English or History over Economics. I love to read and write, and I am not particularly gifted in mathematics. Moreover, I have a very solid foundation in the humanities, which I have continued to fortify in college. Even though I know I should be an economics concentrator, sometimes I question whether I want to be one.

In recent years, there has been outcry at colleges across the country against the so-called “decline of the humanities.” That is, academics fear that more and more college students are shying away from the humanities (languages, English, history, art history, film studies, visual arts, music, philosophy, religion) to pursue supposedly more “practical” degrees. I am one such student.

But in many cases, students are right to be wary of the humanities. If you go to law school, no one cares what your college major was. But if you do not wish to pursue a degree beyond a bachelor’s, finding work as an art history or philosophy major is difficult. Yet ask any computer science major and he or she will tell you that it won’t be too challenging to find a job. The humanities are losing their appeal, and everyone is noticing. 

I’m not going to tout the importance of the humanities. If you have access to Google, I suggest you try searching for articles; there is some interesting literature out there. I’m merely writing this to show that conditions have changed in recent years. Students face a pressure unbeknownst to previous generations because the pool of college graduates has increased dramatically. Going to college 50 years ago may not have been necessary to find success. Each year, however, that image grows hazier. I will end up choosing Economics, and I probably won’t regret it. But part of me will always wonder, what happened to English?

Phone Change

Fred Chorpita – new number is 856 905-8338.

Clubhouse Programs

Thursday	July 3	Directors meeting	10:00 AM
Thursday	July 3	MUSICAL PRESENTATION (to get us in the mood for the 4th ……Jack Poupard	1:30 PM
Thursday	July 10	Business meeting	1:30 PM
Thursday	July 17	HISTORY MAKING PRODUCTION…………….Amy Cohan & Andrew Ferrett	1:30 PM
Thursday	July 24	UNCLAIMED PROPERTY……………………………………..Linda Henderson	1:30 PM
Thursday	July 31	PASS, PUNT AND KICK………………………………………...Madison Mason	1:30 PM
Thursday	Aug 7	Directors meeting	10:00 AM
Thursday	Aug 7	ZOUNDS, HEARING LOSS………………………………………...Jim Kennedy	1:30 PM
Thursday	Aug 14	Business Meeting	1:30 PM
Thursday	Aug 21	THE HARP………………………………………………………..Megan Landfair	1:30 PM
Thursday	Aug 28	RECENT TRIP…………………………….Haddonfield Japan Exchange Students	1:30 PM

NOTE: We have an insatiable appetite for presenters. We rely on the vast experience of our members to satisfy this need by suggesting speakers. So, be on the alert and notify Bill Brown (429-4368) if you have any suggestions for speakers.

July Birthdays

1  Charles Legge	4  Robert P. Ball	20  Robert B. Warner	28  Gordon W. Krauss
3  William H. Griffith	6  Donald McCallum	21  Anthony E. Nocella	30  John C. Drew
3  George McConville	14  Charles E. Hurd	25  Dennis G. Kille

August Birthdays

6  Alexander A. Colalillo	9  Robert Teitelbaum	19  Arthur L. Merker	27  Anthony J. Mascena
6  Daniel J. Colombi	13  Fred Chorpita	22  Robert Metrione	28  Charles D. Tourtellotte
9  Carl Alexoff	14  Wm. Carson McCullough

Activities

Bowling, Bridge and Pinochle

Official cumulative scoring for the year for the above activities will begin again in September. However, all are being played weekly and scores are recorded. There is still competition and there is a lot of interest in the outcome each day.

· Bowling takes place every Friday morning at 9:00, at Laurel Lanes, Rt. 73 in Maple Shade.

· Duplicate Bridge is played each Monday at 1:00 PM at the Clubhouse.

· Pinochle is played Wednesdays at 12:30 PM at the Clubhouse.

Please arrive 10 - 15 minutes early for these activities so they can begin on time.

Reflections from the seat of an old tractor

· "Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong."

· "Keep skunks and bankers at a distance."

· "Life is simpler when you plow around the stump."

· "A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor."

· "Words that soak into your ears are whispered.......not yelled."

· "Meanness don't just happen overnight."

· "Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads."

· "It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge."

· "You cannot unsay a cruel word."

· "When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty."

· "The best sermons are lived, not preached."

· "Most of the stuff people worry about, ain't never gonna happen anyway."

· "Don't judge folks by their relatives.

· "Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer."

· "Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance."

· "Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.”

· "The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'."

· "Always drink upstream from the herd."

· "Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment."

· "Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in."

· "If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."

For the Golfers

During her physical examination, a doctor asked a retired woman about her physical activity level.

She said she spent 3 days a week in the outdoors. "Yesterday afternoon was typical; I took a five hour walk about 7 miles through some pretty rough terrain. I waded along the edge of a lake. I pushed my way through 2 miles of brambles. I got sand in my shoes and my eyes. I barely avoided stepping on a snake. I climbed several rocky hills. I went to the bathroom behind some big trees. I ran away from an irate mother bear and then ran away from one angry bull elk. The mental stress of it all left me shattered. So at the end of it all I drank a scotch and three glasses of wine."

Amazed by the story, the doctor said, "You are one outstanding outdoor woman!"

"No," the woman replied, "I'm just a really, really bad golfer."

REMINDER:  There will be no newsletter in August. The next newsletter will be in September.

Bill Hitchens                  Editors              Frank Gaudiano

      Composing Editor Bernie Schaming