Good Afternoon All & Happy Saturday! Only six shopping days left until Valentine’s Day…
Speaking of the celebration of love, today I received word of the death of my beloved friend and fellow Kiwanis Club member, Lee Wynne. He was truly a Cupid here on earth…spreading lots of love and good cheer to everyone with whom he came in contact…and he had the best looking handlebar mustache of anyone I ever knew! I think Lee was at least 95 years old, if memory serves me correctly. Lee had a distinguished career with the Spokane Police Department, spending a number of years as a motorcycle police officer. There wasn’t a finer man than Lee, in my book. I had the pleasure of knowing him after he had retired from the police force and was dedicating his “retirement” years to service to others, whether it be fixing places up using his carpentry skills or working on various projects to benefit children in our community through his many years of service as a Kiwanian. Lee was the inspiration behind the immensely successful “Paint-A-Helmet” program that provided free bike & skateboard safety helmets to kids up to the age of 16. Each year, over 600 kids were provided a helmet and properly fitted for it. The “Paint-A-Helmet” event had a huge following, thanks in large measure to Lee’s efforts. Not only was Lee an outstanding human being, he was a great singer too! He would lead our Kiwanis Club every meeting in singing The National Anthem and “Our Country ‘Tis Of Thee”. What a remarkable man and our world will never be the same without him in it. Truly, our loss is Heaven’s gain! Rest in God’s presence my friend…
As I join with Lee’s family and numerous friends in celebrating his life, let’s also celebrate the life of my friend Ellen, Blood Center employee extraordinaire, who turns 66 years old today! Here’s to you, Ellen! Have fun on your special day! Happy Birthday wishes also go to one of my all-time favorite newscasters and commentators, Ted Koppel, who is 80 years old today; to actor Nick Nolte, who turns 79 today; to actress Mary Steenburgen (who can ever forget her role in the movie “One Magic Christmas…a must see Christmas movie, for sure!), who is 67 today; and one of my favorite basketball players, former WSU Cougar and now Golden State Warrior, Klay Thompson, who is 30 today (who can ever forget his picture perfect jump shot!)…here’s to all of you!
My mom, Chris, and I were out shopping today and stopped by the Union Gospel Mission Thrift Store looking for some values and hoping to contribute to all of the good work that the Mission does in our community with displaced people and folks looking to turn their lives around. I found the coolest glitter globe/music box of Dorothy’s ruby red shoes from “The Wizard Of Oz” and it still plays “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” perfectly….all for $5.00. How about that? It’s in terrific working condition! I can hardly wait to give it to my granddaughter Isabel for her upcoming birthday, since she recently played Dorothy in her school’s production of “The Wizard Of OZ.” It just goes to show that if you look long & hard enough, you’ll find some screaming deals at a place like Union Gospel Mission Thrift Store on East Sprague Ave. in the Spokane Valley. Check it out!
Speaking of my mom, she and I had a sweet conversation the other day about how we should react when people want to do a good turn for us or pay for something on our behalf…like my mom’s dentist did for my mom the other day by forgiving the amount she owed for some dental work she had done. This gift from her dentist took her completely by surprise. At first she wanted to protest and suggest that it would have been better if her dentist forgave the bill for someone who could least afford it, rather than forgive it for her. But then she remembered something her mother (my grandmother Tempa Cleora Testerman (don’t you just love her name?) said to her one time: “You should always accept the gift in the spirit in which it is given.” How true is that? When someone does something nice for us, they want to be able to enjoy that their gift was so welcomed and appreciated by the person or persons to which they gave their gift. To do otherwise is to rob them of this joy. Wow! A life lesson to take to heart, wouldn’t you say? I hope I remember this the next time someone does something nice for me!
I came across the 1969 Topps Football Card for George Sauer, Jr. of New York Jets fame the other day. He was born in 1943 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He was a football wide receiver who played six seasons for the American Football League’s New York Jets, and later played in the World Football League. He played college football for the Texas Longhorns. His father, George Henry Sauer, Sr. played for the Green Bay Packers from 1935 through 1937 and was later in management with the New York Jets. George was a member of the undefeated 1963 Texas Longhorns, and of the 1964 Texas Longhorns that defeated previously unbeaten Alabama in the 1965 Orange Bowl. George skipped his last year of college eligibility and signed with the New York Jets, where his father was the player personnel director. During his career with the Jets, George led the AFL in receptions in the 1967 season. In 1968, he started and caught eight passes for the Jets from iconic quarterback Joe Namath in the third AFL-NFL World Championship Game, playing a stunning role in the Jets victory over the NFL’s heavily favored Baltimore Colts. Sauer stepped up after the Jet’s star receiver, Don Maynard, went down with an injury. He lacked great speed, but ran textbook pass patterns that day. George retired at the peak of his career following the 1970 NFL season at age 27 because he considered professional football dehumanizing. In a 1971 interview with the Institute for the Study of Sport and Society, George said, “When you get to the college and professional levels, the coaches still treat you as an adolescent. They know damn well that you were never given a chance to become responsible or self-disciplined. Even in the pros, you were told when to go to bed, when to turn your lights off, when to wake up, and when to eat and what to eat. You even have to live and eat together like you were in a boys’ camp.” Sauer’s father, on the subject of his son’s retirement, stated, “He definitely does not like to be regimented.” In spite of his disillusionment about playing professional football, Sauer returned to play for the New York Stars of the World Football League in 1974. That season, Sauer caught 38 passes for 547 yards, good for 14.4 yards per catch and three touchdowns. After retiring, George pursued writing and completed a novel. He also coached a minor league football team in the late 1970s. In 1981, George remained just as disillusioned about football, calling professional football “a grotesque business” designed to “mold you into someone easy to manipulate” in a New York Times interview. As of 1994, the same year as his father’s death, George was a textbook graphics specialist in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He died on May 7, 2013 in Westerville, Ohio, of congestive heart failure, having suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease for some time. One of his Jets teammates, John Dockery, once said that George “didn’t want to be anything but a poet and a writer…but he was given skills he didn’t want. He wanted something else. He walked away from the money, from everything, because it was too painful for him.” George expressed his misgivings about the football life in an article in The New York Times in 1983: “My passion for the game was not sufficient,” he wrote. “Football is an ambiguous sport, depending both on grace and violence. It both glorifies and destroys bodies. At the time, I could not reconcile the apparent inconsistency. I care even less about being a public person. You stick out too much, the world enlarges around you to dangerous proportions, and you are too evident to too many others. There is a vulnerability in this and, oddly enough, some guilt involved in standing out.” Here’s to George Sauer, Jr. and the great New York Jets team of 1968…Super Bowl champions!
Here are some thoughts for the day:
“I’m not scared of very much. I’ve been hit by lightning and been in the Marine Corps for four years.”
—Lee Trevino, PGA golding great
What patience would wait as we constantly roam?
What Father, so tender, is calling us home?
He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor.
Our sins, they are many; His mercy is more.
Praise the Lord….His mercy is more…
Stronger than darkness…new every morn.
Our sins, they are many; His mercy is more.
What riches of kindness He lavished on us.
His blood was the payment; His life was the cost.
We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford.
Our sins they are many; His mercy is more.”
—Matt Papa & Matt Boswell, “His Mercy Is More” (2016)
Here’s to a great Saturday and GO GONZAGA BULLDOGS!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)