Here we are, Charles in South Carolina, Charleston Hilton Hotel here.
Monday evening, 6 o'clock.
We're on our way to Sticky Fingers in a few minutes.
We're going to have to sit for a couple of hours.
We're going to Sticky Fingers here about 6.15.
I'm going to take a picture of the phone to show them next night.
Nice crowd here, all hung and ready to go.
Here's Red Crescent, here's down here's Patriot Point.
South Carolina, South Carolina.
We're here for a Monday night dinner.
We've got 46 people on our bus ride.
Reveal!
We're having some on truck food.
Okay, so company B here, the 167th, thank you for your here.
What do you say guys?
We got Norm Steely, Bert, Delman, Bill Marie, Bill Wyman, Susan, Julian, Eugene Marshall, and James Burr.
This is like the fourth or fifth year reunion here, which is? Seventh. Seventh reunion here for these guys.
I think the first was in 1990.
All company B right here. I'm in the next company too.
I went to my backyard and I didn't get there.
I'm up here on the eighth floor of the executive lounge and I'll take some breakfast this morning.
I want to go down on my own, I believe it's like, they have some kind of model over.
And my father-in-law, while his students are students, I want to go down on my own.
Did you know that Mr. Cashman's office now owners are free to add returns just to listen to your friends and neighbors?
I'm just going to hope that it's okay to do that. Mr. Cash told me I could do that. The rest is simple.
I thought there was no way to send my son to college. Mr. Cash made me a lot of money and showed me how I could take it off my back.
For me, Cash, homeowners call now. 1-800-444-CASH.
I'm going to go down on my own. I believe it's like, they have some kind of model over.
I'm up here and I have to tell you a funny story.
When I put a bus on a ferry boat, of course the bus is sitting still but the ferry boat is moving.
If you ever get in this situation, if you just stand off into the door and sit anybody in that bus driver's seat, it looks like they're driving the bus.
As always, the main fun when you get on a ferry boat is everybody gets a turn to drive the bus and it looks in the camera like they're driving the bus because everything's moving behind them.
This is Hurricane Hugo. I was down here of course the morning after the hurricane.
All these containers that you see sitting over here stacked were like so many, a child that got mad at his little building blocks.
They were tossed like they were nothing.
Of course it's not the prettiest section of town but it looks like money to us.
We nowadays have the BMW factory up in the Greenville-Spartanburg area and they are nice enough to ship all those little BMWs down here for us to send out of the port.
They send big boats in and they roll the cars on and we also have, I'll show you these places, we have another section of lot down here where they have the boats, I mean have the cars that they send to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabians love old shovels for some reason and they get them from the port of Charleston here and the big boats they send them out on are called Roros.
They roll them on and they roll them off.
All this waterfront area is under restoration right now.
We have the only passenger terminal, cruise ship passenger terminal in the country, or on these coasts at least that dumps off right into the middle of the city.
And this has been something that has not been addressed as it should have been over the past few years because we have everything including up to and including the QE2 that comes in here, the Queen Elizabeth II.
And we've got the sorriest little passenger terminal in the world.
So all this is being reworked and nowadays we have to run down railroad tracks to get where we're going but hopefully it will change.
Here's our little BMWs, Voicesters.
How about them? Jillions and jillions of them.
And that's a Roros sitting out there right now, a Wallenas.
That big ship down there? Uh huh.
Yeah the freighter ships are flat bed, more flat bed so you can see the containers stacked on them.
And this next lot, they're starting to fill up, it was empty over the weekend but they're starting to fill it back up again with cars from Saudi Arabia.
They are uh, yeah they're used cars and we try to estimate how many of them are hot.
You want to get rid of a Chevrolet just drive it right down here they'll be proud to see it.
Don't park it on the street. Yeah don't park it on the street.
And don't take it by the Hilton Hotel with all those cops there this morning.
Army planes are coming in.
I want to emphasize the customs house, if you've ever heard or seen or read the opera Porgy and Bess,
you know when Bess left and Porgy was going to follow her to New York, they came up to ask him, they said uh,
now Porgy where is New York? He says I ain't know it's somewhere north of the customs house.
Right now you're north of the customs house, so you may or may not be in New York but you are north of the customs house.
But this is the customs house and it looks the same on both sides.
Should you get turned around in the market today, just ask somebody to direct you to the customs house.
And I'll be right down here to pick you up at one o'clock, is that right?
Yeah if you get up in the market too far now, allow yourself enough time to be back down here so we can roll at one o'clock.
Ah yeah here's your happy carriage drivers.
They're real happy that the weather is cool and the, they will be cool and you will be cool but more importantly the horses will be cool.
Thank you.
Questions?
Well Rad, you should ask.
It's just the six of us here so.
I don't know if Holly's there, you'll know when the lights change.
Oh that's what I'm here for.
I have an invaluable position on this carriage right now anyway, that may change in the future.
What are the names?
This is Shrimp and Grits.
Shrimp and Grits.
A popular combination in the South.
Of course we have.
You guys have you all tried grits?
Yeah, I've tried grits.
Yeah, the shrimp, we have grits that are kind of like, anymore these days, kind of like rice or potatoes.
You know polenta, you can use it for anything so we'll mix up some shrimp.
Mrs. Sash right.
With a little background history on Charles.
Then we'll go ahead and talk about what we're looking at and I'll tell you all the peninsula.
So, Charleston is doing very well.
And then ten years later in 1692, the eight Lawrence the Priders drew up a constitution for Carolina.
And in this constitution they advocated religious freedom for everybody but the Catholics.
No Catholics in early Charleston.
And today Charleston has the oldest Catholic church in Carolina and St. Mary's Catholic Church.
Sam went on to Father Sixty.
Oh my.
They weren't looking that bad, did they?
You know you do have some beautiful cupboards.
Yeah we do.
Yeah, right there.
Oh my gosh, I see what you're doing.
Sam was right in time.
Well you know.
Yeah, that was a two horizontal red bars and a white bar.
Is there an upper left hand?
Hi, hi.
That's too close.
I didn't hear it.
You all have a really good day.
Yeah, you want to walk right through the.
I'll go pay her.
I'm here on the customs building in Charleston, South Carolina.
Yeah.
I never knew.
The.
They didn't bother to come down here and survey the coastline until 1821.
All of a sudden it dawned on them that one of the better harbors on the East Coast was down here in South Carolina called Charleston.
By 1829 they decided to build a permanent fort here in Charleston Harbor and come down here to work on it.
Look back here!
Thanks Paul.
Look this way!
That man brought light somewhere.
Like a wild cutting.
Ladies and gentlemen, give us your attention now. We are just about to get this thing on the road.
It's good to see every one of you.
And I think that Leo has done a wonderful job in organizing this reunion.
We have a little program here that we are going to try to work out for you.
We have a few yawns that we are going to get out and tell you.
And we want you to enjoy yourself.
How many of you have had a good time in this reunion?
This is one of the best and we still have to thank Leo again.
We are going to make another appearance so we can thank him again.
Please stand and we are going to play the leaders to the flag.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I think that includes you, Jay.
Now how about this God bless America. We are going to have one of them.
The Star Spangled Banner.
Was still there.
Oh, say, does that star spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Alright, now, Jack was singing bass, and he was singing alto, and I was singing outro.
And then Jack came up here and he was in the kitchen.
Let's all bow again, please.
Dear Lord, as we gather here, as friends and comrades, we come to thee, Lord, as if we aren't worthy of all our need.
We are thankful to thee for this opportunity.
Once again, have fellowship, ensure our love, and to experience what we continue to know as freedom.
We pray, heavenly Father, that thou wilt be with our families, each one that is here as representant of us.
We pray, heavenly Father, that thou wilt bless our activities and continue to be with us.
We pray for strength for our bodies as we take this good fellowship.
Forgive us when we are less than we ought to be for thee, the God of our lives,
and have us that we might be mindful of thy just before this important Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
Amen.
Look at maybe a mountain or something.
Anyway, they make music, and they get up there and they'll play music all night long.
They got an old ten-quarter.
They'll look down, galvanized paper.
And as long as they can hear some chain-shitting in that thing, they'll play it.
Of course, that means if the booze goes out, too.
Now those fellows got out there, and everybody just had the time.
Everybody enjoyed it.
Well, in the community there was one real fine, upstanding gentleman, and his name was Mr. I.P. Rainwater.
And Mr. I.P. Rainwater never missed a dance.
He always went to the dance.
He got out there. He had a nice, sparkling, shiny buggy, red wheel with the red spokes in it.
And this horse was a black, beautiful black horse.
He had his head up in the air. He had his tail up in the air.
Boy, this horse was high on both ends.
But he got up there, and he would go.
The old horse could outrun most anything. Just trot most of these old, uh, saddle horses could run.
But anyway, he would get up there every night.
Everybody'd get right out there in front of the dance hall to see Mr. I.P. Rainwater come in.
They wouldn't watch him do the hook slide.
And he'd come a-smoothing up there in that horse, and the old horse would take and cut into the right,
and the old buggy black wheel would slide over three or four feet.
And he'd get out and go in.
Well, everything was going on real fine.
He was just having all kinds of fun on Saturday night.
And he gets up there, and about twelve o'clock, he goes out to get himself a breath of fresh air.
So he gets up and he looks at his horse.
Well, that horse looked so odd.
So he said, I better get up there and get a close look.
Well, he got up there, and lo and behold, somebody had taken and painted his black horse a candy apple red.
Well, this made him mighty mad. Oh, he got the feeling.
And he went back into the dance hall.
He stopped the music, and he gets up there and he says, I want to know who painted my black horse red.
Nobody said nothing.
So then he gets up and looks around. Who painted my black horse red?
This time he was so mad he was angry.
He began to jump up and down.
He says, I demand to know who painted my black horse red.
It was about that time back in the back, this fella, about seven feet, two inches and three-quarter inches tall, and weighing 335 and a quarter pounds.
And he stood up.
He says, Mr. I.P. Rainwater, he says, I'm the one who painted your black horse red.
What are you going to do about it?
Mr. Rainwater took one look at that big old fella.
He says, I ain't going to do nothing.
I just want to let you know that he's dry and ready for the second coat.
This is something different.
Anyway, I'm sad it put me up here.
This old boy was hell-lift.
I mean he had something that a lot of us had to live with and get by.
And he got up there and he was up there in New York.
And he had a little book out of there.
And this guy was studying at Stockhawk and he had his paper all out down on the bench there by the first stop.
And he kept mumbling, kept mumbling.
So after a while this man stood in his stock.
He looked over there.
He says, Ben, what have you got there?
He says, I'll tell you what I got.
I got the name and address and telephone number of every lady in this town I have ever slept with.
The other old boy said, that's going to be a pretty good deal, lad.
So he goes on to see if he can get it.
He says, I see the book.
He got up there and he thumped, thumped, thumped out the box.
He says, hey, wait a minute.
This ratio blew from 2130 thousandths, second drive.
Did you ever sleep with a heater that needs me?
And he looked over there.
He said, yeah.
He said, right there, down in the bay, right there.
That old boy looked at him and said, look, that's my wife.
I don't like that.
The old man said, you know, I didn't like that either.
I'm going to blow the name out.
And he was going, traveling from west to east.
And he had this beautiful register, German shepherd dog.
Oh, it was a beauty.
And traveling east to west, there was another fellow.
And he had this little short-legged, ugly yellow dog.
And they found him yet down in the middle of the dog walk.
And this boy was a pretty dog.
He says, now, I'll tell you what.
He said, you better get that ugly thing off of that dog walk,
before I turn my dog loose on him and he'll ruin him and knock him over.
The old boy says, well, do you think he can?
And he says, I know he can.
He says, let's pull the leashes off.
So they got down there and pulled the leashes off.
Well, this little yellow dog, he just eat that big dog.
He told him, oh, he did everything but turn him loose.
Well, this fellow was a pretty dog.
He was finally able to retrieve his dog.
And he got out there and he pulled him and he backed off from the dog walk.
And he shook his head.
He said, my, my, just what kind of dog is that?
And the old boy says, I don't know.
But he says, before I cut his tail off and painted him, he was a crocodile.
They always told me in the coaching lessons to be careful who you follow,
because you might get beat up.
So I'm going to tell you how to do that.
And I'm going to tell you how to have a responsibility.
Is that about it there?
Thank you.
We want to give some honor to those who have gone on.
And we will go over this list.
We're not sure that some of these fellows serve with you or that some that were in other companies that didn't make contact with you.
But we're going to have a few minutes here.
And it's regrettable that we do have to have a serious time.
I'm going to read each one that is passed away at our last meeting of 1996.
Some of these men, of course, we do not have the unit.
So I'll just give you the ones who we have the information of the unit which they serve.
John Ellis was 167 in Somerville, Georgia.
John Truss was 124th beat company.
Medford, New York.
Gene Farnham, 155th beat company.
Waynefield, Virginia.
Tom Searis, 124th beat company.
Orlando, Florida.
L.H. Rowling, Anderson, North Carolina.
124th beat company.
Ralph Roars, 124th beat company.
Lake City, Florida.
Robert Turner, 124th beat company.
Miami, Florida.
Walker, New York.
John Edgefield, 124th beat company.
Leesburg, Florida.
William J. Booker, 124th beat company.
Jack Smith, Florida.
Medford, Booth, 124th beat company.
Monticello, New York.
Charles Scott, Montgomery, Alabama.
First Italian, 167th beat company.
John Edgeforth, 14th beat company.
This next fellow, any of you that have attended the convention over the years know this fellow.
Maybe not particularly by his name.
He knows him personally.
He was in service company.
He attended every reunion of, this is Henry of Lugy.
He and his wife have been a part of the reunion.
We regret that they were from Hightower, New Jersey.
That happened on February 14, 1997.
We regret that this family, Tom had his reference for recently.
Francis Cooper, 31st recon, Jackson City, Florida.
Ford, Greenville, Mississippi.
Big Porter Company, battered division.
Big Porter's, the battered.
John W. Ballard, 114th Kingsville, Archeria, Monticello, Mississippi.
Walter Moss, the headquarters, 31st, Greenville, Mississippi.
Frank Wilkerson, 31st finance, unknown.
Ward 8, Ditty, NBC, Kansas City, and W. Schmitz.
North of Alstead, Ohio.
Charles Bell, Mike.
Missouri City, Texas.
The O.C. Tubs.
Brown Point, New York, no comment, no outfit.
Willis, Malvis, 124th Longview, Texas.
Walter Johnson, East Palm Heights, Florida.
Baron Heckel, Carwell, New York.
Carol D. Williams, Queensborough, Alabama.
Dutton, Pollock, 124th.
Deacon, Nates, St. Catharine, Florida.
Thomas O'Ryke.
Bob Oak, Florida, 18th, Wells.
152nd, Five County Law, Mississippi.
College, Harris.
167th, Cunningham, Colorado.
N.K. White.
Willis, Mississippi, of course, yes.
Grandbury, Lakewood, Kansas.
Jay, no comment.
Alhassan, Florida.
O'Neill, Mike Williams, Galeray Beach, Florida.
Leonard M. O'Brien.
Donnell, Florida.
Morris, Presley.
167th, in Soto, Florida.
John L. Furtivere, Birmingham, Alabama.
No unit.
UNC, Small.
Forsyth, Georgia.
George L. Johnson, 31st Division, R.A.
David Flores, D.P. Bradley, Greensboro, North Carolina.
Arthur Bales, Jacksonville, Florida.
These men are men of our vision.
And we feel that we owe them our reverence.
Each of these individuals in this group were a very important asset to their unit and made up the greater fighting force of the first division.
And in later life, were the vital player in the daily life of their families, businesses, civil, civic, and social life of their individual city and community where they live and work.
We take this opportunity to pay homage to these men and pray God's blessings and love for their families.
For a moment, just let us review what we're all about.
Considering that the education that the B-Jawas gave when we were young for our country and the way we looked at the opportunity of service.
We should consider for a moment the subject of freedom.
The reason that you and I, the men, I have just read on this fall in the Second World War, the record of history speaks for itself.
Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of the person under protection of able sources and saints are principles that have guided our steps through the age of revolution and reformation.
This was some of the words that Bales and Jefferson left with us.
The useful definition of liberty is obtained only by seeking principles of liberty in the main business of human life.
That is to say, in the process of which man educates their responses to learn to control their environment.
This is a good word that we received from Morgan Kettner.
We are free to cross the mastery through knowledge of history, conditioning the race, the character, which makes possible a free and intelligent use of experiences for the purpose of progress.
As we apply these principles to true democracy, we continue to show our people and the world that we have not faltered from our heritage or our own responsibility to maintain the government that is a new nation that stands for liberty and justice for all.
Let us pause for a moment, then we'll have a word of prayer and this will conclude our time.
Dear God, we pray that you will accept us as we are, unworthy and imperfect.
We seek your divine guidance in all that we do, say, accomplish, and dial name. We pray that you will be very dear and dear to these buddies and comrades, families, and loved ones.
Men and associates that have gone only for us during the year has just passed.
We know, dear Father, that death has nothing terrible which life has not been made so.
If faithful believe in life, then this world is the best preparation for the next.
We praise thee, O God, for the insight that God has given us that allows us to live dedicated patriotic and acceptable lives in this world that is faked at times with stiff, materialistic souls that live destructive lives that glorify self-harm.
Fill our hearts with passion for families and for the uplifting children and the betterment of mankind in a free world.
Teach us, Lord, we pray.
We pray, dear God, because this is the beginning of wisdom. By the goodness of God that is in our country, we have conscience and improvements, but practice neither of them.
Know, Lord, that thou art in peace, and the strongest support is on earth, and as we find peace.
That's our fifteenth reunion, and I want to thank Gene and Sally Fann here. They're the only ones in here that's been to all fifteen reunions. I've got to give them a hand.
And that Kluge that passed away, that's the first one he's been to. Was he very much? No, no, no. He joined us in 89. He joined us in the color.
Oh, he joined us in 89, and he never missed them until 96, and then he passed away in February of 97. And he was a twelve reunions year. He attended them.
So, I want to thank all of my promotion to the people up here at the table for coming this year. I want to introduce those that's not been up here so far.
Sally here is a Gene fan, led by Montgomery Young family. And Aaron Hess from Inversa, Florida. And Jack Shaw and Charlize from Bridg in Florida.
And I've got a new man on the corner down here, Dick Arnes from St. Louis, Florida. He did a big help to me with unloading that van and getting us all about 1400 pounds of luggage in this hotel for this reunion.
So, and then these table decorations up here for the banquet and all these other decorations. She brought that stuff from Florida and shipped it to me by UPS.
And I'm going to rest away. And I want to thank her for that. She's not here right now. I'll tell her later. And of course, before we go any farther, we've got a bartender over here.
And I don't see anybody getting up and drinks. She's scheduled to stay here until about 9.30. So, we'd appreciate it if you'd like a drink, get over there and get one.
And because I'm going to have to pay her about $45 for listening to this tonight.
Well, oh yeah. The picture books. As you know, we've been taking a lot of pictures here. We don't have a photographer this year.
And in the past, it's gotten to the point where the company is doing it. Can't make any money because they have to pay a photographer to come here. And so they let us take our own pictures.
And they sent me a kit to follow the instructions on it for the pictures. And when I get it filled up, the way I want it and everything, I'll mail it back to them.
They said they'd make the books up for us for $14 a book. And everybody make sure that we got the correct address.
And I'll mail all the addresses. And those road checks are supposed to be made out to pay to the owner of their Reunions Incorporated.
And I get it all together and mail that. And once it's paid cash, I'll have to write a check for them with an address on it.
So when the books are ready to mail out, they'll mail them to your home.
And the way I got it figured out, we should be getting them before Christmas this year. Last year, it was about middle of February, first of March, I think, where we got pulled up.
Because of the company, American School Pictures, they do a lot of school work.
And they wait until they get all the school pictures in first. And they do everything all at one time.
And they may have a hundred different schools that they've been to.
And before they get done with that, it would be up in November before they get all the school pictures made. Because school don't open up until September sometime, most places.
And that's the reason it's so late.
And Jack Shaw here, and Charlene, I want to thank them. Jack's done a heck of a good job here as chaplain for this reunion here the last two years.
And Charlene's done a lot of work around here at the Hospitality Snack Bar back there.
Getting things ready, the coffee, getting everything out on display, and cleaning up and everything. I want to thank Charlene for all that.
I've got a man back there with a video camera.
This name is, I can't think now. Gus. Gus Merritt from Mississippi. And they've been, at one time, Gus was, well he's still in the society down there.
And those of you who got the history book, if you'll open up the front part of the book, you'll see his picture in there. Because he's the one that wrote the, the, the foreword. Right? Yeah, okay.
I want to give him a hand for that. I know that was a good job, gentlemen.
And I hope to sell some more books.
I've sold a few books, but through the, through the newsletter stuff because one day here comes a free history book for myself in the mail.
That's one of the prizes I'm going to give away tonight. It's the Dohert Prize.
And we've got 18 states present out of 50 states here this year. So I'm going to call it roll here.
If you want you to stand up and when I call you, first we'll start out with alphabetical order here. Alabama. All those in Alabama, stand up.
Yeah, that's a pretty good showing from Alabama right there. Dohert, get up there and do it.
You haven't been here in about five years, six years, or really, do.
We've got Arizona here next. Arizona.
Over there.
Florida.
Georgia.
Now we're getting out there.
Iowa.
Indiana. That's Joe Pop and Mickey.
They were here, but he had had business to take care of, and he had to leave on Wednesday.
But he was here three or four days before we even got here. So he was here two years ago.
Yeah, I got here on Sunday and he was here already on Friday and they were going around Charleston here because he knew he had to go.
When he sent his money in, he didn't know he was going to have to be out of town right in the middle of the reunion.
So that's where he could come early.
But he planned on being back next year. He told me that.
Well now we're down to Kentucky. Okay. Kentucky stand up.
German black. Elizabeth of Kentucky. He was a Korean War veteran.
And Vietnam.
So this is his first reunion. He claimed he never heard of any reunions before, so he found out about this one in the BFW magazine.
Now we've got Louisiana next.
Okay, thank you.
They've been regular attendees of the reunion here.
Maryland.
Oh yeah.
They've played record anymore.
I told my years in Roeville.
Okay.
Maine.
All right.
I think we've got somebody here from Michigan.
Except here is stand up.
I don't see ya.
I guess not.
Next one be Mississippi. Mississippi stand up.
That's over there. He's from Mississippi.
Ohio. Well I'm already up.
Oregon.
Well, I'm going to have some more time, isn't it?
Well, better.
Tickets please picked up.
Tickets here, okay.
The medal of getting into going for the ticket.
First prize.
First prize is going to be this here.
Okay.
I'll bring you down here and get one.
Julia Mark.
Well, we've got some other door prizes here.
And I'm going to let Charlene draw one over here now.
Kurt Steeler.
This is another tape of the 31st year for Dixie vision.
A presentation on it.
And Mary Newcomb.
Oh boy, oh boy.
I'm going to get them to do it here.
Sherman Black.
Give him a hand.
I think I'm going to draw one.
Dan Williams.
Oh, here we go.
Kim Williams.
Yeah.
Cecil Hughes.
Edith Deneway.
Marilyn Archie.
Kathleen Erickson.
Katherine Erickson.
I've got one more.
I'll draw one for that.
Marvin Chilry.
He what?
Oh, he did.
Yeah.
Get it on to the next person.
We had a business meeting over there this year.
I said there might be another one there too.
I think it's a good place to go.
It's a well-centered area of the country and a good drawing area from the south and the north.
And maybe we'll get some people from California.
We got some out there, but they quit coming when we got to the East Coast.
And if they have a reunion over the weekend again, like in the past, maybe we'll get some old people to fly.
And this year, the reunion was Charleston.
And that's pretty more or less like a resort area for the hotels and vacations on the East Coast this time of year.
The rates are kind of high.
And so if you come on a weekend here, it costs you $10 more a day.
So it would have been $80 a day.
We'd have been here on Friday and Saturday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
We didn't have to pay $80 for every day we were here.
And so we have next year again on Thursday, Friday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, four days.
Memphis, Tennessee, I don't think the rates are going to be as bad as it was here at Charleston.
And we'll be close to the airport.
We don't have to pay $25, $30 for a cab to get here.
So I think we're going to have a good attendance next year.
I ain't going to know who this is.
Of course, we're going to figure in who's going to be a cerebral test again.
We don't know who that's going to be.
I hope to get the same amount we've got right now.
And keeping it within 50, 60 people for a little better, that's a pretty good crowd.
And we can't expect too much more than that.
And I want to thank dear Lord for this wonderful weather we had all week this year.
No rain at all.
I had two showers on the way down here.
When I got down here to within 25 miles, Charleston roads were all dry.
So I'm hoping to hear it.
How many of you are planning on coming back next year?
Boy, boy, that's like 100% on motion.
Yeah, well I'm glad to see that.
Very encouraging.
Jack, would you get up here and have a closing prayer?
We're going to have afterwards this.
Everything we had planned, I don't have everything to have tables, but go with.
We're going to have a dance here with lights down the hall.
And you can stay here and visit.
And we're not going to have very loud.
One thing this year, don't schedule me after Jack.
I'd like to remind you all that we would really welcome donations of your souvenirs
and artifacts if you'd care to part with them for the museum.
And we encourage you to write down your experiences for the archives.
It's not hard.
You just sit down and do it like you're writing a letter.
And I know you all have experience with them.
When you're gone, they'll be lost.
We need to keep them.
And speaking of that, Al Painter has assured me that the museum is in his will.
And we will be receiving his treasured collection, which I am just delighted to have.
And if you visit the Sunshine State, try to go by the armory.
We're really very proud of it, and I think you will be too, because it's your edition.
And I hope to see you all next year in Memphis.
And at each table there's one program with a blue dot on the back.
Whoever has that one gets to take home the monument.
Thank you.
Are any of you Delta frequent flyer members?
Okay.
If you give them your number, you'll get frequent flyer files for your hotel.
Okay.
Did you find the purple?
Yes, we did.
Okay.
You can take the mines, because those saws will let the seat to stand.
But now I still say that that drawing was crooked.
They were just about out of tickets, and twice I put three extras in there.
And they never even told my name.
But we want to thank each and every one of you for coming.
We've enjoyed being with you, and as far as I can say that I am,
I was not able to spend as much time as I would have liked to.
Now, I think that last night, the two hours that we spent in the room where we could socialize,
that is one of the best things that you can do for this organization,
because when you get home and your wife says,
who was having kind with that ass-bottled head and that brown suit on with the blue belt?
And you say, I don't know, where was I sitting over there?
Well, I didn't get over that way.
Anyway, let's give Leo a big hand, another big hand.
We went for many years. I met a fellow named Joe Ball back in the early 1980s.
Some of you people don't know who Joe Ball was.
He was the person, the dynamo, he was the dedicated servant of this reunion for many years.
Up until 1995, he was a counselor.
He was a person who worked on a tremendous scale of arrest.
He was so faithful that he would come to these reunions when he didn't have anything but 40.
He didn't have to bop it. Bam.
And I feel like we owe Joe reverence because he did.
He was always on the line.
And I appreciate him. I appreciate him very much.
He was a service company. A service company, 124th, 154th,
was the reunion that originated what we call right here presently the 31st XC Division reunion.
And if we would have just one moment,
Joe was family. He was just part of us. That's just a moment of remembrance.
Dear Lord, that has made it possible for us to be together one more year.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the friends, for the friendships that we have known all these years.
We have a comradeship, dear Lord, that is different.
It has love underneath.
We thank you, Lord, for giving us this opportunity of survival.
We know that Thou knows and understandeth all things. Thou providedeth all things.
We pray for direction in our lives and lives of our families, those who are our family, or for our extended family.
We pray especially as we depart on tomorrow, Thou would give us heaven and mercy.
Thou would give us the intent of continuing upholding our union as we know it and as we look to the future.
Give us when we fail and we ask that Thou would revive us now and Thy love be extended to us and our families down forever more.
In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
America, land of our love, steady sideward and rightward, with light, with light cover,
From the fountains to the air, to the ocean, white with foam,
God bless America, land of our homes, sweet home. God bless America.