Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
July 16, 2012
The bell rang at the seemingly empty podium, and then Nancy
Dean popped up like a Prairie dog, using a stool to give her contact with the
outside world. Sensing no danger, she
called on Walt Shimasaki to lead the invocation. Walt has been a member since 1960 and is a
past president and Paul Harris Fellow.
The invocation was given by Steve Justus.
After visiting Rotarians and Guests of Rotarians,
Eric
Bergel presented our outbound exchange students, Erin Knight headed to Brazil, Austin Schmaltz going to Norway and Royce Buell on his way to Germany.
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| Erin Knight |
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| Austin Schmaltz |
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| Royce Buell |
Mike Cunningham called everyone’s attention to the Rotary
sponsored Rafting Trip on the Trinity river
August 18th. Reservations
must be in by the 10th and the cost is $81.50 a person
District Governor Michael Juric will be here in two
weeks. Nancy reminded everyone that it is not cool
to walk out on the District Governor, so plan to stay for the program.
She thanked
Bob Morse and
Carlton
Nielsen for getting
www.rotary1.org
transferred over to a new server, and promised them lands and titles once the U.S.
reverts to the feudal system.
Jason Eads was recognized for multiple Paul Harris
Fellowships.
Steve Justus wanted to endow a PHF for his son, who has just
graduated from Basic in the Marine Corps, but I think he’ll have to wait until
next week for the ceremony.
Then Nancy
donned her fining hat, a stovepipe affair with a paper sun appended.
Mike Martin was her first target.
He’s about to embark on another treasure
hunting trip to England,
so she relieved him of some coin.
Greg Pierson was next.
He had just come from Boston
where he attended his daughter’s graduation (A Masters in Economics).
Hank Pierson was also asked to stand, because
his granddaughter just got her masters. He claimed that the smarts in the
family didn’t come from him.
Both of
them received a “rain stick”, which is a section of dried cactus with the
thorns removed, then pounded back in.
It
is filled with pebbles and the ends are resealed.
When it is tilted, it makes a sound like
rain.
The rain stick was invented by the
Puritans, who had lots of left over cactus when they stopped by Spain on the way to the New
World.
In fact, if you look
at the stern of the Mayflower, you’ll find the original name of the ship,
“Cactus Flower” has been painted over.
It was also a movie with Goldie Hawn.
The Movie was too racy for the Puritans, so they spent their spare time
pounding their thorns.
Then it was time for our program.
Captain
Murl Harpham was gracious enough to
drive all the way from Trinity
Lake to fill in at the
last moment when our speaker couldn’t make it.
His topic, dear to all of our hearts, was “The History of Prostitution
in Eureka.”
Briefly, prostitutes first appeared in the
1860’s when the poulation swelled due to mining in the Trinities.
Murl said he was too young to remember that
era, but as Eureka
established itself, a red light district was created.
Prostitutes displayed their wares, and their
existence was tolerated.
This went on
until the 50’s, when then attorney General Pat Brown issued an edict to close
down the houses of ill repute.
Initially
the girls were given a choice of a bus ticket or jail, but the trade then moved
to operate out of local bars.
The ABC
put pressure on the bars to curtail their activities, and this resulted in
“Coffee Houses”
They didn’t serve booze
so they couldn’t be regulated.
Drug use
didn’t become a problem until the advent of Meth.
Now most prostitutes are addicts, and the
ravages of meth use are only too evident on their faces.
The latest trends include the use of cell phone,
the internet and Craigslist.
Nancy Dean thanked Murl for his narrative, and gave him the
book “50 Shades of Gray” to donate to the library.
Repugnantly submitted by Hank Ingham
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