Every Saturday I’d been fighting it.
Daughters No. 2 and 3 have been taking swimming lessons every Saturday afternoon at the Pontiac YMCA pool. They’re in different classes. This means two trips to Pontiac. The Clarion office is always open on Saturday mornings, but we do take the afternoon off. After a couple of these Saturday afternoon excursions, I absolutely refused to give up my half day of freedom to serve as a chauffeur and sitting in the pool gallery watching little kids swim. Heartless me.
As usual, I made the wrong decision. The “Cindy” the girls have talked about as being their recent swimming instructor turned out to be Cynthia Jo Thomas— the new Miss Rochester. The trouble is now, the lessons are nearly over. That’s my usual run of luck.
BUT I CAN’T BE much worse off than Herb Miller, president of the Chamber of Commerce. Herb, whose normal occupation is managing the local office that disburses our electricity, had the task of presenting a bouquet of roses to the second runner- up, first runner-up and finally to Miss Rochester during Friday night’s pageant. The logical course of action for a man in that position is to plant a kiss at the same time. It would likely be the only compensation he could claim for his presentation efforts. Herb muffed all three chances. Seems as though the thought of a peck on the cheek didn’t even occur to him. Even his wife was surprised.
BUT I CAN’T BE much worse off than Herb Miller, president of the Chamber of Commerce. Herb, whose normal occupation is managing the local office that disburses our electricity, had the task of presenting a bouquet of roses to the second runner- up, first runner-up and finally to Miss Rochester during Friday night’s pageant. The logical course of action for a man in that position is to plant a kiss at the same time. It would likely be the only compensation he could claim for his presentation efforts. Herb muffed all three chances. Seems as though the thought of a peck on the cheek didn’t even occur to him. Even his wife was surprised.
Rumor is that Herb will be willing to run for re-election as president next year so he can make up for fumbling the ball this year.
Friday night’s pageant had just preceded past the point where the lovely young girls had appeared in their strapless gowns when white smoke billowed from the judges’ table. I naturally assumed that it was George Puscas, the bombastic sports editor of the Free Press getting over-heated again. George was one of the five judges. Turned out to be a high-intensity lamp used to give judges some light to make notes had shorted out. Mrs. David Bloomfield, assistant to the judges, bravely fought her way to the center of the cloud and removed the lamp. Judges finished out the evening with flashlights.
WHILE ON THE SUBJECT of the Chamber of Commerce, they were also sponsors of the Michigan Week Banquet Monday night honoring the visiting mayor from Gladstone, Mich. UAW President Walter Reuther was the speaker. I didn’t have a chance to investigate, but this could well have been among the rare times that the union president has appeared before a business organization such as the Chamber of Commerce. It just shows you how far this ecumenical business has gone.
A few shop owners said they were interested in hearing Mr. Reuther in hopes of getting in on this guaranteed annual wage thing he is promoting. Walter and Mae Reuther have been residents of our community for a number of years now. Mrs. Reuther is quite active in many of the community’s activities. Walter Reuther, of course, spreads himself all over the world. Except for some speaking engagements at Oakland University, this was his first public address in Rochester.
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A LOCAL MINISTER dropped into the office the other day and when the conversation somehow got around to people sleeping in church, he shared this sage observation: “If all the people who sleep in church were laid end to end, they would be more comfortable.”
