Zebulon Area Coaches/Athletes

PHANTOM FLASHBACK

To those of you who read Phantom of the Bullpen, you should remember the pages about the magic bat. I don’t really know if the bat was magic or not, but I described what occurred during the 2001 World Series just as it played out. I could never determine whether Max took my glove and replaced it with the bat, but it sure did look like that’s what happened.

I plan to ask him one day.

I didn’t use the bat during the World Series in 2003 or 2009 to try and help the Yankees. My kids were involved in other things – golf and swimming – and I just didn’t have the time or the desire to follow my old team. Max’s Magic Mauler has been occupying the back floorboard of every car I’ve had since then. I keep it there for protection or if a baseball game ever breaks out.

I’m prepared.

I’ve kept my eye on the Yanks over the past ten years, though, but not very closely. As a matter of fact, and I hate to say this, but watching the first game of the World Series against the Dodgers Friday night was the first time I’ve seen them play in, well, I really don’t know how long. So, a long time, for sure, but not in two or three years.

Talk about a heartbreaker.

And Saturday night? Another heartbreaker. And Monday night? Monday night I had a plan. I remembered what the bat may or may not have done for us – the Yankees and me – back in ’01 and I planned on using it, but only if I had to. Surely, we’ll play better at home and show these Left Coast jokers what’s what and who’s who. I doubt I’ll even need to use the bat that got us so many hits and runs 23 years ago.

Down 4-0 going into the 7th inning stretch, I went to my car.

The bat didn’t really feel good in my hands the way it did in 2001. It felt foreign, unfamiliar, and heavy. Touching it only when the Yankees were batting, I felt nothing. No spark. No tingle. Nothing. I didn’t know these guys I was trying to help. Soto? Stanton? Volpe? Verdugo? Jazz? Rizzo? Who the hell are these guys? Of course, I knew Aaron Judge. Everybody knows Aaron Judge. In 2022, Judge hit 62 home runs, breaking Roger Maris’s American League record of 61 homers in a season (1961) and he did it 62 years after Maris set it!

Bazbol have been bery, bery good to me, but it is a bery, bery strange ga’ so’times, too…

I hadn’t even touched triple-M since Don Fuller interviewed my for the East Wake TV show he did on my book called Behind the Pages. I used it that morning to hit some rocks. Back in 2001, I knew the Yankees like I knew the back of my hand. Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Scott Brosius, Tino Martinez, and Paul O’Neill were guys I’d been following as best I could for several years. I felt connected with them through that freaking bat, magic or not. But Monday night, I felt nothing. We did get some hits and got a long ball in the bottom of the 9th.

But it was too little, too late.

That wasn’t going to happen Tuesday night.

I’m still not sure if MMM is magic or not, but it does have a bit of mystique to it. At least, for me it does. I laid it gently on the couch after the game last night. At some point during the day, Jameson had taped a notice on it that said: Broken. Needs repair. Ha ha. Lol. Not! Fast forward to Tuesday night’s 'do-or-die' game. I left the bat on the couch, still wearing the sign that looked more like a big bandage than anything else. Wounded in action or wounded from inaction.

Apparently, the bat just needs to be there.

I didn’t panic when we fell behind 2-0 in the 1st inning. I cussed and kicked some furniture and maybe broke the pinky toe of my right foot, but I did not panic. I let the bat be. We got us a run back in the bottom of the 2nd and I cheered a little bit and looked over at Max’s Magic Mauler, just lying there. “I must be crazy,” I told myself. To even joke about it borders on psychotic.

But it continued to work its’ magic, no matter what I thought or what nuthouse I end up in next week.

In our half of the 3rd, we got four more runs on a grand slam by the guy who would have been chosen last if we had to guess who might hit a grand slam in this game. During the game, they showed a snapshot of Verdugo when he was eight years old at one of the Yankees’ last World Series games in 2009. He looked like a hero then, too. We added another run in the 6th and five more in the 8th. These guys who couldn’t hit a damn beach ball if someone had rolled it up to the plate for three straight games finally started playing the game like they knew what they were doing.

Did Max’s Magic Mauler have anything to do with that?

I don’t know. But I can assure you that it will still be on the couch tomorrow night for Game 5 of the 2024 World Series. If things don’t go well, I’ll pick it up and try to infuse it with, with, with something, even if it’s just bu****it.

OCTOBER ZACA MEETING NEXT WEDNESDAY

The October installment of the Zebulon Area Coaches/Athletes meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday, October 9, at McLean’s Ole Time Café in Zebulon at 12 noon. Be there or be talked about badly and unmercifully by those who do show up. It’s your call.

Just kidding.

The truth is we never talk about people behind their backs. Our MO is to get you there and talk junk about you right to your face!

I’m still kidding. Sometimes I just can’t stop. I won’t know if this is the end of it until I get, uh, well, to the end of it. Your guess is as good as mine.

We are currently riding a 16-month growth spurt, adding at least 1 new member every month for the past year and a quarter. During that stretch, it was usually 2-5 new members joining us, but in September, we had only 1, but it was a good one as we added Kevin Narron to our numbers. The ZACA roster now boasts 123 members!

Let’s add about 3-5 more next Wednesday.

There are at least 20 more folks who’ve show interest and have all intentions of joining our ranks, but have yet to materialize. Perhaps some of them will come next week. And this doesn’t include the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who are certainly welcome and eligible to attend. We are open to current or former coaches, athletes, cheerleaders, majorettes, band members, band leaders, scorekeepers, timekeepers, managers, umpires, referees, chain gang members, concession stand volunteers, announcers, sports writers, and fans.

If you’re not in that bunch, I don’t who you could be!

As always, we’re hoping for a big turnout with a ton of regulars, a lot of semi-regulars, and a smattering of newbies. I hope to see you all at McLean’s next Wednesday, October 9, sometime around high noonish.

ZACA SEPTEMBER MEETING ON 9/11 AT 12 NOON
AT MCLEAN'S OLE TIME RESTAURANT IN ZEBULON

We didn't plan it that way. It just worked out that way. Our next meeting will be on the 23rd anniversary of 9/11/2001, another day that will live in infamy.

If I were a normal person, that would be all you get because, basically, that’s all you need: the who, the what, the where, and the when.

But we’re not dealing with a normal person here. Oh, no. Far from it. I’m not even in the same ballpark-neighborhood-city-county-state-country-continent-hemisphere or planet as normal. Might even be from a different solar system. Hell, I don’t know.

Like the brain I-gor procured for Dr. Fronkenschteen’s monster in the movie Young Frankenstein, mine came off the ABnormal shelf. Probably from a leaky, half-sealed jar that was hidden behind two perfectly normal abnormal brains.

Ya get what ya pay for, I guess.

Last month, for about the 15th month in a row, ZACA’s roster grew by at least one. We are now 122 members strong, which is fairly strong, in my esteemed, yet humble opinion. The number would be more than 150 if those 28 people who are trying to get to one of our gatherings could, in fact, get there. I hope they will keep trying because we are going to try to keep this ZACA thing going and growing.

If all of us current members can keep on passing the word to others when we see them, and encourage them to join us, I think we’ll be alright. The good news is that I think we’ll be alright either way. We all WANT new folks to enjoy the fun, but we can’t MAKE them come.

Or can we?

We COULD promise newbies a bunch of stuff and then just not follow through with our promises. You know, like politicians during an election year, and all the years leading up to the election year. Naw. Too many as****es in the world already. We don’t want to be associated with THAT bunch.

All we can promise folks is some heartwarming fellowship, great food and great conversation, and maybe a nice trip down Memory Lane.

And speaking of Memory Lane…

At some point during the fall of my junior year (1971) at Zebulon High School, our football coach, Mel Braswell, took Tony Hicks and me to see Wilson Fike play football one Friday night. Perhaps we had a bye that week; I don’t recall the circumstances.

Anyway, at Zebulon, we played football on the old Wakelon High School football field. Wilson Fike played football in a stadium! We had possibly 17-18 guys on our team at any given time, but usually more like 14 or 15. Fike had a friggin’ army, with at least 60-70 guys, maybe closer to 100!

Fike’s coach at the time was Bob Paroli, who was there from 1971-1976. Look him up; he’s a legend in North Carolina high school football. Coach Paroli finished the last 15 years of his 55-year coaching career at Douglas Byrd High School in Fayetteville with an overall record of something like 400-200 with 2 ties.

Back to the Fike team. Whereas we would form a small circle of 14-18 guys to do our pregame warmups, Fike lined up across the field, five yards apart, on every line from the goal line to the forty. They did their warmups with the precision of a Swiss watch. Perfect. And they were loud. And proud.

It was at that point that I realized what we were doing, or at least what I was doing, was not football. Not like this. They were so far above our level of play and understanding of the game, that I mentally gave up on the game. Right then. Right there. Although Coach Braswell and Coach Charles Corbett tried to instill the same love, feel, and willingness to sacrifice for the game, I knew I could never measure up. I was too far behind.

I made a half-hearted attempt to get better in the summer of 1972, before my senior year. John Davis, Terry Brayboy, and I worked out a time or two with John’s cousin, Paul Miller, who had been the quarterback at Carolina a year before, but things just didn’t work out. A lot of things happened to keep me from playing football my senior year. I blame it all on me, but it was clearly a conspiracy, lol.

I was pursuing some extracurricular activities that had nothing to do with school, Coach Braswell lost his job after only one year and that was never explained satisfactorily to me, and we didn’t have a coach on the first day of practice. I saw that as a sign, or at least a halfway legitimate excuse to not play. I was hurting inside because of my decision, but I stuck to my guns and didn’t play.

That indiscretion is still in the top 10 of my 10,000 worst decisions.

So much for Memory Lane.

I hope to see everyone and some new someones next week at McLean’s in Zebulon on Wednesday, September 11th at high noon.

ZACA CHANGE: AUGUST WRINKLE

Just a heads-up that a curveball is coming. If you know what pitch is being thrown, you should be able to hit it, right?

It ain’t no big thing, but it is a change.

The August gathering will be on the 2nd Wednesday, August 14th, but we will being having dinner/supper at 6pm instead of lunch at noon. Everything is the same except the time. Once again: the next ZACA meeting is Wednesday, August 14th at 6pm.

I’ll send out another reminder a week before on August 7th.

We are honoring requests from several people who just can’t make it during the day and an evening get-together works for them. Our hope is that the change doesn’t cause any problems and that our attendance will double or triple, but we apologize in advance for any inconvenience the change may cause.

Help spread the word to the regulars and invite a friend who may be in the same situation.

IN REFERENCE TO THE PHOTO:

In November of 2022, near the end of the pandemic, we started out with these five members. As of today, our roster boasts 119 folks.

Not bad. Not bad at all...

BIG TIME AT ZACA’S TUESDAY MEET

We had fourteen folks attending ZACA’s July meeting held Tuesday at McLean’s Ole Time Café in Zebulon. In addition to the twelve members already on the roster, we added two new people. These newbies pushed our total membership up to 119! July marks the 14th straight month that we’ve added at least one new ZACAlonian. Way to go, us!

Yes, I most certainly did make up that word.

ZACA members present Tuesday were Kim Setzer, Sue Boykin, Jimmy Harris, Sherwood Driver, Larry Sorrell, Randy Pearce, Jeff Price, Glen Hinnant, Dewey Clark, Rick Rogers, Eddie Brown, and me. Eddie brought along his lovely wife Donna, who had no idea she was going to be added to the list. Sorry, Donna. There’s nothing we can do about it now. Once you're in, you’re in. Rick somehow enticed Bruce Young into coming, as well. I think he led Bruce to believe that he was getting some kind of an award or something.

I hate to admit this, but I coached Bruce in Little League baseball in the middle 70’s. I also coached his nephew Jake and worked with Bruce’s son Matt for a short spell. Damned if that don’t make me feel old, but it gives me a certain degree of pride, too.
We shouldn’t complain about getting old. I forget who coined the quote, but "getting old is a privilege that has been denied to many." Anyway, I just said it made me feel old; I didn’t say I didn’t like it.

Next month’s gathering will be back on our schedule, meeting on the second Wednesday of August, which just happens to be on the 14th, and that’s nearly five weeks away. We will gather at McLean’s at noon on August 14. I hope to see all 119 members there!

Lol. I’m kidding. I hope to see at least half of you there. If you haven’t attended a meeting yet, I’m talking to you. Yes, you. Come on.

ZACA REMINDER:

The Zebulon Area Coaches/Athletes group will meet at 12noon Wednesday, May 8th, at McLean's Ole Time Cafe in Zebulon.

ZACA membership is open to all former and current coaches and staff, athletes, cheerleaders, majorettes, managers, trainers, chain gang crew, scorekeepers, timekeepers, referees, umpires, band members, concession stand workers, and sports fans from the area.

Come on! All are welcome!

ZACA MOURNS THE DEATH OF MIKE BAILEY

We were all praying for a miracle, but ZACA member Mike Bailey passed away Tuesday, April 30. Perhaps the miracle was that Mike was granted almost four years after his diagnosis of a rare type of cancer in November of 2020.

I pray for the day when a diagnosis of any cancer is rare.

Mike and I became friends in high school, but not the same high school. I was at Zebulon High and Mike was at Smithfield-Selma Senior High. Although we never competed against each other, we played on the same American Legion baseball team and our friendship came from being teammates for a short time during the summer of 1972. I’m so thankful that Zebulon never played against SSS because Mike Bailey was an incredibly gifted pitcher, and my batting average was borderline pitiful my senior year.

He would have surely owned me.

Our encounters over the next fifty years were few and far between. It was always a heartfelt lift for me whenever I saw Mike anywhere and we got a few minutes to chat and reminisce. I can only hope it was the same for him.

I hadn’t seen Mike in more years than I can recall when he sent me a message and his cell phone number on Facebook in April of 2022. I sent him back a message and my number right away and we met for lunch a week later at McLean’s to catch up on old times, discuss where he was in his treatment for cancer, and so I could sign his copy of my book – Phantom of the Bullpen. I was both honored and put in my place to be signing a book I wrote about a guy who was possibly the best pitcher ever for a guy who was twice the pitcher I thought I was.

And I thought I was good.

I told Mike about the Zebulon Area Coaches/Athletes group and invited him to join us. He said, “but I played ball in Smithfield” and I said, “the Zebulon Area extends out 12,444.42 miles in all directions” and that settled that. Mike came for the very next meeting, had a great time, and came for a few more during that year and a few more in 2023. I know he would have attended every month if he could, but he was doing some traveling and still dealing with cancer. I can only imagine and I probably can’t really even do that. My heart and my respect goes to all those who deal with cancer and there are many.

Too many.

I’m not in any hurry for my next task. I mean, it’s just a matter of making a few keystrokes on a couple of different files, but I just don’t want to do it. I wish I could assign this to somebody else, but as I look around, I discover there is no one else. Until this moment, I’ve enjoyed everything there is about ZACA, but now I have to do something I don’t want to do.

I have to take Mike’s name off the ‘Active’ roster and add his name to the ‘Honorary’ roster. No, it’s not really that big of a deal, but that’s just because YOU don’t have to do it. It’s a big deal to me. As if you couldn’t tell, I’m avoiding it right now by just talking about it, but sooner or later I’m going to run out of words, and I’ll have to make those keystrokes.

Hopefully, one day, when the time comes, someone will move my name from the Active to the Honorary.

REMINDER: Our May meeting is next Wednesday, May 8th, at McLean’s Ole Time Café in Zebulon at 12 noon. I think we should discuss doing something in Mike’s honor, like a monetary donation in his name to the Jimmy V Foundation Victory Over Cancer. Someone needs to take the ball from me on this; I’m not good at it.

https://stricklandfuneral.com/michael-wilson-bailey/

RECORD-BREAKING 41 TURN OUT FOR APRIL ZACA MEETING!

Ok. I have a confession. I’m 15 days late with my one and only April Fool’s joke. Actually, we had 14 in attendance at last week’s monthly gathering of the Zebulon Area Coaches/Athletes group at McLean’s Ole Time Restaurant in Zebulon. It was a comparatively small number of folks, but it was a great number, as it includes 3 new members! And 11 regulars!

I could also blame the sensationalized headline on being dyslexic – 14 or 41 – but that would be a boldfaced lie. If Nixon wasn’t a crook, then I’m certainly no liar. My goal with the trumped-up number and fake news was simply an attention-getter.

S**t works, too; you’re still reading.

One more confession. As if you didn't know, I'm the worst photographer on the planet. I really stunk it up this time. I didn't take as many photos as I'd planned, and of the ones I did take, only a few of them were in the realm of 'ok' as pictures go. At least I didn't take any selfies, lol.

No, we didn’t set any records with the total attendance, but we continue to extend the record for new members added in consecutive months. Adding 3 new members this month gives us 12 months (that’s one year in layman’s terms) in a row that we’ve picked up at least 1 new ZACAlonian.

I use months because '1 year in a row' doesn’t sound all that impressive, does it?

Joining us for the first time were Kay Phillips, George Rao, and Bill Beddingfield. This brings our roster to 115. Great job, folks!

Kay is a longtime fan of Wakelon and Zebulon High School athletics and beyond. I remember Kay cheering in the stands at our football games my sophomore and junior years. Wins were hard to come by those first few years of ZHS, but we had great fans. We can thank member Sue Boykin for reeling her in.

Also climbing aboard the Good Ship ZACA is George Rao. George is from New Jersey and is working to reinstate the youth football program in Zebulon. He was a fullback in high school and college and wants to bring the Zebulon P*e Wee and Mighty Mite program back to its prominence of the 1970s and 1980s.

Bill Beddingfield, a longtime member of the Zebulon Old Farts Tennis Tour, dropped by to see us at the courts a few weeks ago and I told him about ZACA. I didn’t have to tell him twice. Bill has recently transitioned (don’t even go there!) from tennis to pickleball due to his age. He can still play tennis at 84, but he says he can play more pickleball.

Welcome to the new folks!

Most of the regular crew was on deck, but we were missing a few due to doctor’s appointments, medical procedures, etc. With us in the flesh were Jimmy Harris, Charles Corbett, Dan Gordon, Bobby Duke, Horace Tant, Sue Boykin, Rodney Farlow, Dave Bode, Milton Bryant, Dennis Wood, and me.

Our next ZACA meeting will be Wednesday, May 8th, same Bat time, same Bat channel. See you there!

NOTE: The June gathering will be on Tuesday, June 11th, to catch those folks who can’t make it on Wednesdays. Inform your SmartPhone.

ZACA MEETING NEXT WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10TH

The April installment of the Zebulon Area Coaches/Athletes group will gather at McLean’s Ole Time Restaurant in Zebulon next Wednesday, April 10th, at high noon. Need I say more?

No, but I probably will.

Beat the bushes, people, and get us some more new members. We’ve had about eleven straight months of adding at least one new member and there’s no need to stop now. If we can add at least one new member next Wednesday, that’ll be one solid year of growth. There’s no other group on the planet like us that can boast that kind of expansion.

The fact that we’re the only group on the planet like us is beside the point.

So, if you (or you know of someone who has) have been threating, promising, or even thinking about joining us, next Wednesday will be the perfect time to do it. Or, you may join us in May, if you wish.

Whenever. Just come on!

ZACA MARCH MEETING WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13

One week from today, the Zebulon Area Coaches/Athletes group will congregate at McLean’s Ole Time Restaurant in Zebulon at high noon. The March gathering should be a blast as once again, Ben Massey has rallied his troops from Zebulon High School’s first graduating class – The Class of ’71 – and they will be there en masse. And again, they have issued a challenge to all classes from all local schools to break their record for members at a meeting which stands at 12.

I’m trying to round up some more folks from the Class of ’73 so we can put some pressure on that first graduating class. Six of us (Stuart Barbour, Doug Dunn, Dennis Wood, Paula Perry, Jeff Price, and me) are ZACA members, so I only need to get six more there next week to at least make it interesting. That’s not really true. I want to beat them, you know, competitive spirit and all that. I’m sure some other classes could put the hurt on my class or Ben’s class if they tried.

Sometimes, trying is all it takes.

For anyone else who may be reading this, I hope YOU are planning to attend. Once a month, the ZACA group offers great conversation and great fellowship, while the nice folks at McLean’s offer great food. To me, this looks like a win-win-win situation. I hope everyone who can takes advantage of it.

See YOU next Wednesday – 12 noon – at McLean’s!

ZACA ADDS FIVE (5!) TO THE ROSTER AT FEBRUARY MEETING

The Zebulon Area Coaches/Athletes group added five new members to the growing roster on Valentine’s Day. Throw in fifteen others who showed up for lunch at McLean’s and that gave us a total attendance of an even twenty. Our membership is now at 108, thanks the those who joined us Wednesday.

Although I’ve developed a fear of heights in my old age, I’m going to go out on a limb and set a lofty goal of reaching 150 total members by the end of this year. I feel fairly safe, though. It’s not like anyone is going to remember this and call me out on it if we come up short.

There's nothing 'regular' about these particular folks, but they do attend the ZACA meetings on a regular basis and they were there Wednesday: Charles Corbett, Jimmy Harris, Sherwood Driver, Larry Sorrell, Rodney Farlow, Johnny Clark, Horace Tant, Randy Pearce, Kim Setzer, Chuck Griswold, Sue Boykin, Lewis Liles, Jeff Price, Bobby Duke, and me.

Please, let's keep Mike Bailey in our prayers and get him well so he can be with us again.

I’m glad to see we picked up a couple of tennis players (and a mayor!) in the new group. My good friend Glenn York, Zebulon’s mayor, joined us Wednesday. Glenn and I have been friends since high school, and we played tennis together for a few years before a hip replacement sidelined him. (Glenn, you’ve had enough time off. It’s time to come back to the court.) Doris Wilder Pearce, another good tennis player (and a topnotch chef, I might add), is also now on the roster. Doris is the wife of Randy Pearce, my former teammate on the Zebulon Pirate baseball team.

Three more good friends also chose Valentine’s Day to join ZACA. It did my heart good to see Dave Bode, Roy Brantley, and Dale Parrish in the house, er, restaurant, when I got there. Dave Bode was coaching at Zebulon Middle School when I started my teaching and coaching career and became one of my mentors, even though I’m old enough to be his grandfather. I leaned on him a lot that first year. He’s coached at Southeast Raleigh High School and a few other schools, but I don’t want to throw out the names of any wrong schools. Dave also played football at LSU.

I’ve known Roy Brantley for more than 50 years also and he’s a top-quality guy. We’ve played softball together many times and Roy has coached youth sports in the Zebulon area for quite a few years. His son, Heath, and his daughter, Hunter, swam competitively for several years with my daughter, Taylor on the swim team in Zebulon and year-round on a swim team in Raleigh.

Dale Parrish reminded me Wednesday that we’d met on the old Wakelon baseball field in the summer of 1969, just a few months after I’d moved here. I was fourteen, but Dale was just a kid. A big kid, for sure, but just a youngster. He made me feel great, telling those around us how I used to throw the baseball and make it look like an aspirin, lol. Dale, that’s because I was 14 and you were maybe 9. Thanks for the fuzzy feeling, though, brother!

Welcome aboard, all of you!

Our next gathering will be on Wednesday, March 13 at McLean’s Ole Time Café in Zebulon at high noon. A major challenge has been issued once again by Zebulon High School’s first graduating class – The Class of 71 – for any other class from any other school to break their record of 12 attendees at a meeting. I’m trying to round up some more folks from my graduating class of 73 to put some pressure on them. The challenge is for all of you reading this. Both of you, lol. I hope there’s at least 2, but you never know.

Sometimes, all it takes is asking someone to come. How hard is that? Tell them what a good time they’ll have. You’ll be surprised who might take you up on your offer.

I hope to see a huge turnout next month. See you there!

ZACA FEBRUARY MEETING NEXT WEDNESDAY – VALENTINE’S DAY!

(Don’t forget to check out our very own page on Facebook: Zebulon Area Coaches/Athletes. I’m posting everything to my page and that page, because for some reason, I can’t tag people on the new page.)

Wednesday, February 14, is the next scheduled gathering for the Zebulon Area Coaches/Athletes group. We will hook up at McLean’s Ole Time Café in Zebulon at high noon, just like we always do. Also, per usual, we’ll enjoy some great food, great conversation, and great fellowship. We are still trying to grow the roster, so invite someone new to join us. There are still hundreds of eligible people who haven’t heard about ZACA.

Be the one to tell them.

I would tell you to bring your significant other, but that’s something we can all do any time we want anyway. The whole family is welcome at all the ZACA meetings. We’ve been missing some regulars the past few months and we hope they will make their way back to us next week.

And let’s not forget that Ben Massey and his ZHS 1st graduating Class of 1971 have issued another challenge to all other graduating classes from any school. They are having a class reunion and the ZACA meeting is their first stop on the way to a fun-filled day in Z-Town. I’m going to try to bring in some more folks from my class of 1973 to dethrone them from the record book. They had 12 classmates in attendance at a meeting last year and we’re going to scramble to try and beat that.

YOU could do the same for your class.