I shook the hand that shook the hand of Geronimo. And I shook the hand that shook the hand of Adolph Hitler.Here’s how:
Margie Cate Green was born in October 1896, and was a young girl when Geronimo came to her school to visit. Margie was 109 when Beverly O’Neil, the then Mayor of Long Beach, MC’ed a luncheon honoring Margie’s life as an actress and retiree of the city’s Police force as the oldest person in the CALPERS retirement system. I was there. And!
Louie Zamparini had just won a race in the 1936 Olympics when Adolph Hitler requested Louie to come to Hitler’s booth to meet him. When Louie came to speak to our Grampaw Pettibone luncheon about his World War II ordeal of B-24 crash in the Pacific and days in a life raft, capture by the Japanese and near execution in prison camp, he shared intimate details of his life experience. That’s how I shook their hands. We used to have over a 100 attendees at our lunch programs. They met and some shook hand with outstanding people. The last few months we had about 50 to 60.
We ask good people to come speak to us, to share their news and views, and learn from them. They are often very happy to do this. But it does take an appreciative audience, and our membership of listeners is getting smaller. Our access to military people and veterans to invite is also smaller. So, look around you for your friends, co-workers, or, as I do, perfect strangers and tell them about the interesting meetings we have and invite them to come and join with us. And tell them the food is good, too!
SOMETHING NEW
We are starting a new lending library of interesting books. Take one home, read it, bring it back next month, take another, etc. (This will be a small effort because someone has to carry all the books to the meeting every month.)
