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Volume 12, No. 4: January 2008 ICE CREAM TREATMENT U.S. AIR FORCE TO THE RESCUE
The yellow eyes stand out, kinda like bright headlights on an oncoming car at night, but the black cat doesn’t move. He just sits and watches… the only thing moving is the tip of his tale… twitching once in awhile. Dennis Johnson, the guy who is running the sound system, relates that just after he wandered into the park this past fall he visited the Community Center and the first thing that caught his eye was the sound system. He just had to look it over, so he went up the stairs and was admiring it, when a voice boomed from the front of the room, “Don’t touch my sound equipment!!” Dennis stepped back, looked up and saw “Catfish” Jack Mitchell, all dressed in black, heading his direction. “Don’t worry, my hands are in my pockets.” “Oh,” Jack responded, “you must know something about sound equipment or you would have been pushing buttons and pulling levers.” After he and Jack had an opportunity to talk, Dennis had signed on to be Jack’s #1 (and only) “relief “ man on the equipment. He is now running the equipment for the worship service on Sundays, which makes Jack’s wife, Maggie, very happy because she and Jack can now sit together for the service. Dennis and his wife, Lynn, are both retired from the Air Force. After their retirement, Dennis went to work for General Electric and Lynn went to college and became a Dental Tech.
Not long after that, Dennis reported, she caught the “Travel Bug,” which is a germ that causes a person to constantly ask, “Just what is over that next horizon?” He challenged her to determine if they could afford to live on the road, she proved to him they could, and then many things just fell in place for them. They decided to purchase a motor home and try living in it for a year while they continued to work at their jobs in the Greater Seattle Area. They wanted to see if they could actually live in a motor home for a year without killing one another; and if so, they just might make it. That was ten years ago and they are both still alive. And Maggie is thankful they are. And the black cat is still sitting… watching… the tip of his tail still twitching…once in awhile.
Hi! It has been a good year, and it is going by too fast. We hope everyone had a safe and great holiday. We regret the fact that Gene Curry resigned from the BOD. We want to express our thanks to him for the job he did and for the countless hours he spent for the park. I am the current president and Hugh Warner has moved into the spot as vice president. We came a long way last year with our progress, but we have more goals to meet.
Let’s all work together and “Get’er done.” Gene Wallace, BOD President
Desert Oasis . . . Here Am I As I write this “devotional thought,” there are two scriptures that are dominant. In chapter 6, Isaiah says, “Here am I, send me,” And in Matthew 25, Jesus words are, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my children, ye have done it unto Me.” “To you Jesus Christ, I offer my life for you to live in me, and through me.” Here is my face – shine through it. Here are my ears – hear the cry of hurting persons through them. Here are my eyes – see the faces of those who need your blessing, and bless them with the healing look. Here is my tongue – speak words of encouragement and affirmation. Here are my hands – use them to touch, hold, and lift another human being. Here are my feet – walk where you want me to go and may those who follow me be following Jesus Christ. Love ya, G. H.
Dear Sunny, With election time drawing near, do you have any words of wisdom? An Interested Voter
Dear Voter, You forgot to say if you meant national or park elections. Doesn’t matter, I have lots of “words of wisdom”, but my editor keeps breaking my fingers when I try to pass them on to you fine people! Just one reminder (maybe she’ll let this slip through). Vote!!! Vote!!! Vote!!! Ole Sunny
(Poor Sunny! I don’t see how he continues to write with all those broken fingers. Editor)
SHUFFLIN’ ALONG “We sometimes have in excess of 30 players,” said Ray Walker, the Shuffle Board “guy” in Sunscape. “The main problem,” he continued, “is we have only two lanes, which allows only 4 people to play at a time.” Ray’s summer home is in Ryderwood, Washington, located in the Southwestern part of the state. He was born in Burns, Oregon, schooled at Oregon State and the University Oregon, coached football, basketball, baseball and most of the other high school sports, including wrestling. He met his wife in The Dalles, Oregon while he was teaching. “I’d sure like to see 4 or 5 Shuffle Board Courts in the park,” he said. “We have the room, it’s just a question of priority use of space.” If the park could find space for more courts his vision is to have tournaments in the park, as well as challenging other parks to Shuffle Board matches. “Park competition in Shuffleboard could get as big as the Pool players” he said. “We might be able to take a page out of their book and start a Shuffle Board League, if one doesn’t already exist.” The Billiards League, which includes most of the parks in Casa Grande and Coolidge hold two weekly matches. As an example, Sunscape has a team of 16 players, 8 of the players goes to a park to play that park’s home team and that park sends a team of 8 to Sunscape to challenge the 8 players who compose the home team. That means there are a total of 32 players each week who get to compete in the tournaments. “That would really help our players learn the game and learn how to compete in a friendly and comfortable environment,” he said. If anyone is interested in learning to play, or is interested in playing, the group meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. at the Shuffle Board court.
From the Sunscape Safety Committee: Kindly consider placing “Reflective Tape” on your golf cart, bicycle and clothing so that you are more visible while moving about in the park during dark hours. (You reckon that means me?)
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