Great in-person/zoom meeting this week. It was so good that we are going to do the in-person/zoom meeting for the rest of my Presidency. No more zoom only. We will have them at my shop until restaurants open up inside. See you at Skyline on Wednesday!!
Being flowing and flexible with our ever-changing plans as to where to have our meetings is recommended during these unprecedented times. With a yearning to meet in person over ZOOM, about 40 members gathered for our Wednesday morning Breakfast Rotary meeting at President David Spalinger’s Skyline Cabinet Shop located at 800 South Mt. Vernon Avenue. A “masked” Pat Thompson along with Sally Selby greeted us at the side door of the shop where they gleefully offered raffle tickets at a bargain price. In exchange, we received our Rotary badges which have again, been rearranged in the “badge box” making it a little harder to find.
Dennis Scott provided us with our morning Invocation and Past President Denise Haynes got our spirits up by asking us to join her in singing God Bless America.
Visitors included Char Johnson who is Dan Johnson’s better as well as best half, and Wayne Baker owner of 3-D Imaging office copiers/printers. Speaking of Dan, he and Wayne worked together years ago in the business of selling office copiers/printers, setting sales records along the way. President Dave had failed to recognize his guest Wayne, who also is a Foothill High Alum, and rightfully fined himself $10 for the oversight. Dan, who has been a member of Breakfast Rotary since 2005, was spotlighted by The Prez when he held up a, well let’s say, an unrecognizable 10” by 10” ancient picture of Dan when Dan began his career at 3-D Imaging. Ah, Dan was such a cute boy…
The time was set for the appearance of Pistol Pete Leveroni who announced our Featured Speaker. Well, you might have guessed, it was none other than Dan Johnson. Pete told us that Dan’s club sponsor was Mary Jo Pasek, and that since he became a member, the club has meant very much to him. In addition to his former role at 3-D, Dan was known as The Margarita Man. Dan actually had a side business providing margarita services at various social events. With Dan’s wife in the audience, Pete shared that both recently passed their California State Real Estate License exams and have joined Frontier Real EstateServices Inc.
But we all know Dan as this fun-loving gregarious, inquisitive fellow who “shreds” a mean Les Gibson guitar. For Past President Michael O’Doherty the term "shredding" is applied to a guitarist who commands control of a rapid transition up and down the neck of the guitar using various chords and pentatonic scales with the quickness of Wile E. Coyote. Thank you very much.
Given Dan’s love for guitar mastery, he wanted to share with us his very personal journey into what led him to playing music and where it has gotten him. On February 9th, 1964 the Ed Sullivan Show featured a band by the name of The Beatles that changed how we embraced music and also got the attention of little boy Dan. Dancing in his living room to the rhythm of John Lennon’s guitar as they played “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, Dan just thought he was part of the big show, or was it a Big Shoe. Coupled with Dan’s Uncle Larry who was a guitarist with surfer band The Safaris, Dan was so drawn to music, he listened in when his uncle’s band practiced in their garage. This led to performances where Dan was present and could listen to The Safaris perform before live audiences. Dan tells us, during an upstate New York county fair performance by the band, a 13-year-old Dan was actually invited by the band to play a couple sets on stage. Enamored by the crowds, enthusiasm, pretty girls and music, not necessarily in that order, Dan experienced his first kiss with fame.
Years later Dan found himself in Kern County, specifically Taft. It was somewhere during this time that a band named KISS became instantly popular by their uniquely indistinguishable make-up. Again, Dan’s attention was captured by yet another guitarist, this one being Paul Stanley, the KISS lead man. It would be some years later that Dan would actually come face to face with Mr. Stanley.
Crafty (or not so crafty) BBRC'ers joined with Brush and Blush fanatics to paint and glue little wooden gnomes. The vast majority of the BBRC creativity, wine and snacks was concentrated at Past Pres Denise Haynes home with Rotarians Past Pres Jackie Maxwell and Jacque Alexander. Jacque's daughter also joined the merriment. Rumor has it past first gentleman Scott Haynes, was in charge of making sure the wine was flowing. Well done Scott (if the rumor is true!) Past Pres Kay Pitts also enjoyed a wonderful experience at her own home. Her dogs and past first laddie Brian proved to be very positive influences on the process. Pres Dave Spalinger secured a kit, (it is wood after all) the status of the kit is unknown at this time.
Each participant took plain wood cutouts and made three adorable Valentine gnomes. Unfortunately, there were not enough BBRC gnomes to bring joy to seniors at Rosewood, but they are brightening up a few BBRC homes.
rs gathered for our Wednesday morning Breakfast Rotary meeting at President David Spalinger’s Skyline Cabinet Shop located at 800 South Mt. Vernon Avenue. A “masked” Pat Thompson along with Sally Selby greeted us at the side door of the shop where they gleefully offered raffle tickets at a bargain price. In exchange, we received our Rotary badges which have again, been rearranged in the “badge box” making it a little harder to find.
meant very much to him. In addition to his former role at 3-D, Dan was known as The Margarita Man. Dan actually had a side business providing margarita services at various social events. With Dan’s wife in the audience, Pete shared that both recently passed their California State Real Estate License exams and have joined Frontier Real Estate Services Inc.
Dan as this fun-loving gregarious, inquisitive fellow who “shreds” a mean Les Gibson guitar. For Past President Michael O’Doherty the term "shredding" is applied to a guitarist who commands control of a rapid transition up and down the neck of the guitar using various chords and pentatonic scales with the quickness of Wile E. Coyote. Thank you very much.
was concentrated at Past Pres Denise Haynes home with Rotarians Past Pres Jackie Maxwell and Jacque Alexander. Jacque's daughter also joined the merriment. Rumor has it past first gentleman Scott Haynes, was in charge of making sure the wine was flowing. Well done Scott (if the rumor is true!) Past Pres Kay Pitts also enjoyed a wonderful experience at her own home. Her dogs and past first laddie Brian proved to be very positive influences on the process. Pres Dave Spalinger secured a kit, (it is wood after all) the status of the kit is unknown at this time.
gnomes to bring joy to 
seniors at Rosewood, but they are brightening up a few BBRC homes.
