SUNDAY FUNDAY - JUNE 18, 2023

 FUNDAY JUNE 18, 2023

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY

The nation’s first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in the state of Washington. However, it was not until 1972—58 years after President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day official—that the day honoring fathers became a nationwide holiday in the United States.

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MEMORY THE PROFS

At Quinnipiac University, there were the standard campus intramural events.  Intramural volleyball, basketball, football, and softball.  The faculty has two teams in Intramurals - for volleyball and softball - called “The Profs”.

Sometimes I am a little naive.  When I arrived, I wanted to be involved.  Ray Foery was the Profs faculty organizer and in my first semester, I got to be friends with Ray.

The Profs were the faculty's entry into the intramural leagues. We were in the Division II Coed Intramural softball (there were two divisions - and Division II was for the lesser competitive teams).  So, when spring came, Ray talked me first into being an assistant coach for the profs, and by the end of the season, I became the coach.  (I hadn’t learned that saying NO is an okay response).  That meant that we needed to field a team of five men and five women in order to compete.  Students loved to play us - as we were old, we didn’t run very fast, we couldn’t throw much anymore, and we couldn’t hit very well.  It was slow-pitch softball - the ball had to reach a height of 10 feet after leaving the pitcher’s hand.  (a big lob pitch). 

Ray (of course) wanted to be our pitcher.  I caught or played the right field (or in an emergency - first base).  For two days before a game, I was begging professors to show up.  Now faculty are not students - they had families, they had classes and labs, and they were involved in committees, doing research and writing.  It was hard to get enough players (especially women) so we did recruit some female students who wanted to play with us and no other team wanted.  We had shirts that said “PROFS”.  

Some of the team had been softball players before and were decent, some of us (maybe) had played softball 30 years before and were giving it the old college try!!!  So I pieced together a line-up and positions and took the field.  Somehow we managed to get three outs and then got to bat.

I had to hit what amounted to a home run to get a single (not very fleet anymore).  We were a ragtag team (at best).

One of my favorite PROFS softball memories was when Thom Coe was on second base and when Jule Franklin hit a solid double, Thom decided to go for home.  There is an expression how do you stop a charging rhino, well in this case that was Thom running for home.  The catcher for the other team came out to catch the throw from left field and tag Thom out.  Thom couldn’t stop - BOOM - the sweet coed went flying.  The girl didn’t drop the ball, so Thom was out, but he apologized profusely to the student.  (Fortunately, it wasn’t one of his students so he didn’t have to see her in class!!!)

It seems like every year, we managed to win one (and generally only one) game.  I keep thinking how lousy the student team was to lose to us!!!  

We did trash talk to the students.  If the student team had one of our students, we teased them if they got a hit, they would fail our class.  

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One of the newest Federal Holidays is tomorrow - Juneteenth. At the end of the Civil War, the word that slaves were free hadn’t reached Galveston Texas.

“Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people were freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end of slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday. Juneteenth 2023 will occur on Monday, June 19.

Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House two months earlier in Virginia. Still, slavery had remained relatively unaffected in Texas—until U.S. General Gordon Granger stood on Texas soil and read General Orders No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

 

So, don’t expect mail delivery next Monday, or service at most banks.

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MOVIES

How many of these have you seen?

Movies of 1963 Tickets Sold

Cleopatra 67,000

How the West was Won 55,000

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 54,000

Tom Jones 44,000

Irma LaDouce 30,000

Movies of 1973 Tickets Sold

The Exorcist 109,000

The Sting 90,000

American Graffiti 65,000

Papillion 30,000

The Way we Were 28,000

Movies of 1983 Revenue (in millions)

Return of the Jedi $249,000

Tootsie $136,000

Flashdance $90,000

Trading Places $90,000

War Games $74,000

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SOME JOKES

What has four wheels and flies? A garbage truck!

What did the tomato say to the other tomato during a race? Ketchup.

Why shouldn’t you write with a broken pen? Because it’s pointless.

Why can't you trust the king of the jungle? Because he's always lion.

What did one wall say to the other? I'll meet you at the corner."

What do sea monsters eat?  Fish and ships.

What do you call a sad strawberry? A blue berry!

Why are pirates called pirates? They just ARRRR!

How do you organize a space party? You planet.

Why do seagulls fly over the sea? If they flew over the bay, they would be bagels.

What do cows read the most?  Cattle-logs.

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Wrap-Up

Wednesday is the summer solstice - at 9:57 a..m. - the official start of Summer - the summer solstice - the longest day of the year.  (Some European countries celebrate this as “Mid-summer” - and Shakespeare’s comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is set at Midsummer)

(And, alas, the length of daylight will start shrinking until December 20!!)

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It can be hard to get out and do much outside.  Some golfers might play at 7:00 in the morning and the same with joggers.  

The Georgetown Recreation Center is pretty fully booked with kids' activities.  The Fire Ants Granny Basketball team is finding it hard to get an hour to practice.  

For Stone Haven NEXT Thursday (June 22nd) will be the monthly potluck meal. 

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Love Wins

Karen White, June 18, 2023