THE SENIOR MEN'S CLUB OF NEW CANAAN
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of February 19, 2010
President George Perkins opened the meeting with 107 members present. Jerry Transue, Membership Chairman, reported a membership of 488 with no recent additions and encouraged present members to invite friends and associates to attend our meetings to promote interest in joining. Don Hudson read the minutes. Bob Moylan reported Rod Keagy is resting at home (no calls for now). He also noted Tom Carroll's recent death.
ANNOUNCEMENTS. Zuhair Suidan (as coproducer) reported the Town Players will present "Weir", an Irish comedy, starting Friday, 3/26, for three weeks. Opening of the "Connecticut at War" program at the Historical Society was also announced.
ACTIVITIES: Racquetball 2-?-? Paddle and bridge as usual. Next Friday, 2/26, 4F's lunch at Roger Sherman. After a compelling presentation on how to prepare a lettuce desert, Nick Zaccagnino reannounced the 3/18 Amateur Chef's annual grilled bratwurst luncheon ($10/pp, can now handle up to 30 people!). 3/16 (tentative) for Photo Club.
COUTH: There are now six openings for the 3/10 New York Philharmonic rehearsal with lunch, $80/pp. Pete Stair acknowledged and demonstrated the remote audio system gifted by Harlan Anderson from sales of his book at a recent SMC meeting. Pete Stair also confirmed the 4/21 Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty tour ($50/pp, lunch on your own).
HUMORIST: Bob Dalury relayed the story of a thirsty foreigner's misunderstanding of blurred lettering on a desert tower. Instead of storing drinking water, the tower was storing waste water from the U.S. atomic test station. He was passing required radiation checks in New Mexico until a gastric incident blew him all the way back to Costa Rica!!
SPEAKER: Vice President Paul Stein introduced member Roger Langevin, who outlined the production and content of his memoir "The Langevin Legacy", a sharing of his life story, values, and more. His key tips on writing a memoir included defining a purpose and an audience along with setting a deadline. A local memoir writing workshop helped guide and motivate his writing process. Roger's monumental 48 chapter project was organized into 8 sections with around 76,000 words and 49 photographs. He emphasized the importance of having a third party to critique (i.e. proof and edit) the writing, his daughter taking this professional role . The book, started in 2005, was delivered by the publisher in early 2008. The major sections covered such subjects as his genealogy, early family days, college times, appearance on the TV program "Beat the Clock", growing family, and four children's and nine grandchildren's lives, community activities, professional career, extended travel, and miscellaneous experiences. Roger's ingenious researching at town halls, web sites, and other sources for information on his ancestors was quite instructive. His pictures from his Boy Scout , baseball card collecting, high school pitching, and dating days were memories to which most of the audience could relate. His college times were highlighted by his drill team activities and friendship with Colin Powell. Probably the most unusual section of the memoir was Roger's appearance with his future wife, Carolyn, as contestants on "Beat the Clock". They set a record for prize winnings, battling their way through several programs of tests and tricks, having to sell the new car they won to pay the taxes on the other prizes. Roger's close, on "advice to be handed down", included work hard, have fun, and honor right vs. wrong --- possibly a worthy section for all of us to write in our own words in our own memoirs.
Don Hudson, Assistant Secretary