At our next meeting, on Nov. 21, the subject will be “Experiencing Blindness.” Speaker will be either Lion Marshall Flax, or Karen Al-Ashkar, wife of Pres. SAL. Lions are “Knights of the Blind” since Helen Keller asked us to be years ago and we help in lots of ways, but thanks in part to Lion-assisted re-search, most of us won’t have to find out what it’s like. This program will show how much good we do.

TaleTwister's Jackpot
$770

Our last meeting was, as usual for this time of year, at Temple Beth El. A landslide was brewing at the polls, but inside the Temple all was serene, and we had our usual delicious lunch. A goodly crowd of Lions was present, including OTTO FESTGE, who not only made it to the meeting but brought Evelyn with him. MANNY VOELTZ managed a break from his retirement occupation of vertical transit engineer for Camp Randall to be with us, and GLENN SCHAEFER made it in from the revolving poker game in Oregon as well. Hope we’ll see those Lions often.

Pres. SAL opened the meeting, and served as the flagpole for the Pledge of Allegiance, JIM SCHUTZ led the song, and ROSS ROYSTER offered the invocation. BOB BOHN followed up by thanking us for the “Archbishop’s Plate” that he got at the Awards Night, but said he didn’t want any more ecclesiastical promotions — he didn’t want to move to Rome. (Don’'t know how he’d feel about Canterbury.) He also said the BULLetin had referred to him as an English warship, displaying a well-read sense of naval history. Or maybe he reads the “Horatio Hornblower” series. (“Indefatigable” was originally a Royal Navy ship-of-the-line in the 1800s, and recently an aircraft carrier. There were five others in between.)

LINDA BERGREN reported that the Holiday Goodies had been ordered, and hopefully will be available at the next meeting. Because we must buy product in case lots, there will be some surplus items available for sale, so we need to be ready to help out with these. More later on which ones.

JIM SCHUTZ said that the Beaver Dam Lions were once again selling oranges and grapefruit — $14 per box of grapefruit, $16 per box of oranges, or half-and-half for $15. Let JIM know how many you’d like — delivery the first meeting in December. He’ll take orders next week. He said we’d be doing our part in the Dane County Scurvy Prevention Program — no reported cases the past three years. But you should really buy them because they’re good, and because you’re helping out another Lions Club.

Pres. SAL noted that our Club received a Diabetes Awareness award and banner patch from WLF. We got it for staging a Diabetes Awareness workshop, participating in the Walk For Diabetes, donating books about it to the library, and volunteering on Diabetes Day to distribute information.

Our speaker, David Mollenhoff, a Madison writer and historian, was introduced by JIM BRADLEY, and told us much about the city’s early days. In 1856 there were about 1200 buildings in Madison, but only 12 remain today. Much of what is now city, particularly east of the Square, was swamp, and the city was more compact. The University was open, with a projected maximum enrollment of 250. There was no hospital and few doctors. The lakes were clean, but the streets were dirt (or mud.) There were eagles nesting in Eagle Heights. Between 1846, when it was a village, and 1856 when it became a city, the population boom took it from 250 to 9,000. Much is owed to Leonard J. Farwell, who in 1847 bought up all available land and set about developing the city, including (in 1848) building a mill where Tenney Park now is. In the process he raised the level of Lake Mendota with a dam to provide water power to drive the mill.

Mollenhoff said Madison’s “personality” in 1856 was political, beauty conscious, brainy, multi-talented, exemplary, visionary, contrary and civically active. He argued that today, it was much the same, plus, he said, “progressive”, meaning more government rules and regulations. It would be hard to argue with that thesis, particularly the “contrary” and “political” parts, and the talk was both entertaining and informative. Your Editor has lived through about half of the City’s history, and it’s always fun to hear about the first half. It seems as though there was more change in the first 75 years, but maybe not. As in so many things, those of us who live here today stand on foundations laid by those who came before us, and it seems that they built pretty well.

Yes. there's still some opportunities to volunteer to serve at the Men's Basketball Games at the Lions Concession Stand in the Kohl Center. Check the volunteer schedule to find the open date of your choice, and then use the handy volunteer form to add your name to the list. This is an excellent way to be able to work with Lions from other clubs, all serving a common goal.