CLUB OFFICERS PRESIDENT: Bobby Snow

VICE-PRESIDENT: Arthur Reddick, Jr

SECRETARY: Linda Porter

TREASURER: Charlie Wellborn SGT-AT-ARMS:

Joe Fowler DIRECTORS: Phillip Vaughn Genny Walker Carlos Semidey

COMMITTEE Chairpersons MEMBERSHIP:

Betty Fowler TRIP MASTER:

Arnie Seaman Photographer:

Charlie Wellborn PUBLICITY:

Carlos Semidey FOOD:

Linda Porter OCT. CAR SHOW Arthur Reddick, Jr/

Bobby Snow Scholarship

Genny Walker By Laws

Mike Walker

Editor: Charlie Wellborn

NEXT

MEETING American Legion 316 Osceola St.

Palatka, FL

September 10, 2019 SNACKS / SOCIAL

HOUR 6:00 PM MEETING 6:30 PM

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August 2019

Volume 19 Issue 08

Artuhr Reddick Vice President Bobby Snow President

and 8 days to live." Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospi-tal and have a face-lift, lipo-suction, breast implants and a tummy tuck. She even had someone come in and change her hair color and brighten her teeth! Since she had so much more time to live, she figured she might as well make the most of it. After her last operation, she was released from the hospi-tal. While crossing the street on her way home, she was killed by an ambulance. Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I thought you said I had another 33 years? Why didn't you pull me from out of the path of the ambu-lance?"

God replied: " I didn't recognize you!!!!!"

Well to say this months club meeting wasn't "on fire" or "to hot to handle" or maybe go with "inferno" might sound ridiculous but unfortunately due to a bro-ken ac unit at the Ameri-can Legion building that's exactly what we had. We still enjoyed our pizza and desserts and had a very quick abbreviated meeting. The membership also vot-ed $200 to help fix the American Legion’s ac unit. Hope members got a chance to see pictures posted on Facebook of Carlos Semidey's family trip to New York City, l also understand that Ernie Por-ter spent a few days in the hospital and we all wish him a speedy recovery. Driving home to Crescent City from our last club meeting I was reminded of something that I have to admit that I might take for granted sometimes in Po-mona Park. A young man See THOUGHTS page 2

I would like to thank every-body for their patience dur-ing our wonderfully warm meeting. So sorry that it had to be cut short, but many of us can not tolerate the ex-tremely warm temperatures. I would also like to take this opportunity to let the mem-bership know that I will not be able to continue with keeping up with the meet-ings of the club as I have been reassigned to a store in Stark and will not be able to leave work before 6PM on any night in the week, and my days off will be Wednes-days and Sundays only. I would like to thank every-body for their help during this year. A 65-year-old woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she had a near death experi-ence.. Seeing God she asked "Is my time up?" God said, "No, you have an-other 33 years, 2 months

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IN THE WORKS

The following club projects are presently in the planning stages

for 2019

Downtown Palatka Cruise Ins Dancing In The Street

900 block of St. Johns Ave Pizza Boyz Parking Lot

Every 4th Saturday 5 PM—8 PM

Free Registration Sponsored by

Pizza Boyz

Woody’s Bar-B-Q 5th Saturday months

August 31, 2019 (5-8 PM) November 30, 2019 (5-8 PM)

Trip Master

Cruise In/Car Shows See

Trip Master

SPECIAL EVENTS

Quarterly Dinners: (1 PM) 2019 Sept. 1, 2019

Annual Car Show October 5, 2019

Annual Club Christmas Party December 1, 2019

1:00 PM

THOUGHTS riding a bicycle lost his life when he pulled out into traffic. The accident had just happen moments before I had arrived and from what Highway Patrol and Sheriff's Deputy told me the driver apparently was not at fault for the accident. I have to admit that I forget that driving is a privilege not a right and with a privi-lege comes responsibilities. We all love our cars, trucks and hot rods but behind the wheel I know that I am guilty of thinking about other things in life not the responsibility of driving. Unfortunately the image of the bicy-cle in the highway is still on my mind.

“17” from page 7 government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look for-ward to …” With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black back-side, “…We have dark days ahead.” Note: Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91, but not be-fore touching the lives of hundreds of players and coaches, including mine. Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me return-ing year after year, looking for sim-ilar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches. He is the best clin-ic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach. His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players—no matter how good they are—your own children, your churches, your government, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches." And this my friends is what our country has become and what is wrong with it today, and now go out there and fix it! "Don't widen the plate."

Wine With Wellborn

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next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he man-aged to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal of it - a very slight meal for eight men. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait and the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued after 24 days at sea. Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never for-got the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull. And he never stopped saying, 'Thank you.' That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude. PS: Eddie Rickenbacker was the founder of Eastern Airlines. Before WWI he was race car driver. In WWI he was a pilot and became America 's first ace. In WWII he was an instructor and military adviser, and he flew mis-sions with the combat pilots. Eddie Rickenbacker is a true American hero. And now you know another story about the trials and sacrifices that brave men have endured for your freedom. As you can see, I chose to pass it on. It is a great story that many don't know. You've got to be careful with old guys, You just never know what they have done during their lifetime.

OLD GUY AND A BUCKET OF SHRIMP . . . Capt. Eddie This is a wonderful story and it is true. You will be pleased that you read it, and I believe you will pass it on. It is an important piece of Ameri-can history. It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean. Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now. Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts... and his bucket of shrimp. Before long, however, he is no long-er alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier. Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you lis-ten closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.' In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave. He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place. When he finally turns around and

begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home. If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to say. Or, to onlookers, he's just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp. To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unim-portant... maybe even a lot of non-sense. Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters. Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida. That's too bad. They'd do well to know him better. His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero in World War I, and then he was in WWII. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his sev-en-member crew went down. Mi-raculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft. Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger and thirst. By the eighth day their ra-tions ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were or even if they were alive. Every day across America millions wondered and prayed that Eddie Rickenbacker might somehow be found alive. The men adrift needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged on. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft. Suddenly, Eddie felt some-thing land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull! Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his

W W W

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Ellen Snow PizzaBoyz

June 22, 2019

Woody’s Bar B Q

June 29, 1920

August 2019

Barbara Bates July 2019

Joe Fowler

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Club Minutes

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August 2019

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 Happy

Birthday Dorene Stewart

2 3 Angel’s Dinner 5PM—? When-

ever Palatka, FL

Happy

Birthday Mari Coon

4 5 6 Happy 29th Anniversary

Vince & Debbie Cirigliano

7 8 Directors Meeting

7 PM

Happy

Birthday Rudy Dampier

9 10

11 Happy 5th

Anniversary Glenn & Kelly

Harris

12 Happy

Birthday Henry White

13 Club Meeting American Le-

gion Post 45

Dinner 6:00 PM Meeting 6:30

PM Happy

Birthday Carol Lawhorn

14 15 16 17 St. Augustine

Cruisers Cruise- In 5-8 PM Riv-erside Center St Augustine Happy 35th Anniversary

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Cruise-In

PizzaBoyz Palatka, FL

5 PM to 8 PM

25 26 27 28 29 Happy 12th Anniversary

Bobby & Ellen Snow

Happy

Birthday Trish Brown

30 31 Cruise-In Woody’s

Palatka, FL 5 PM to 8 P

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“17 INCHES" - you will not regret reading this. Most people won't take the time to read this all the way to the end. I hope that you will.

An excellent article to read from be-ginning to end. Twenty years ago, in Nashville, Ten-nessee, during the first week of Jan-uary, 1996, more than 4,000 base-ball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA's convention. While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers sched-uled to present during the weekend. One name kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh, man, worth every penny of my airfare.” Who is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter; I was just happy to be there. In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ova-tion, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate. Seriously, I wondered, who is this guy? After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder ex-actly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage. Then, finally … “You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck,” he said, his voice growing irascible. I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibil-ity. “I may be old, but I’m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.” Several hands went up when Sco-linos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room. “Do you

know how wide home plate is in Lit-tle League?” After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches?”, more of a question than answer. “That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth’s day? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?” Another long pause. “Seventeen inches?” a guess from another reluctant coach. “That’s right,” said Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coach-es do we have in the room?” Hun-dreds of hands shot up, as the pat-tern began to appear. “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?” “Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident. “You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?” “Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison. “Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?”............“Seventeen inches!” “RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues? “Seventeen inches!” “SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he con-firmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?” Pause. “They send him to Poca-tello !” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter. “What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jim-my. If you can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inch-es or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.'” Pause. “Coaches… what do we do when your best player shows up late to practice? or when our team rules forbid facial hair and a guy shows up unshaven? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accounta-ble? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate? " The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach’s message began to unfold. He turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something. When he turned it to-ward the crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a fresh-ly drawn door and two windows. “This is the problem in our homes

today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline. We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We just widen the plate!” Pause. Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag. “This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful, and to educate and discipline our young people. We are allowing oth-ers to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?” Silence. He replaced the flag with a Cross. “And this is the problem in the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Our church lead-ers are widening home plate for themselves! And we allow it.” And the same is true with our gov-ernment. Our so-called representa-tives make rules for us that don’t apply to themselves. They take bribes from lobbyists and foreign countries. They no longer serve us. And we allow them to widen home plate! We see our country falling into a dark abyss while we just watch.” I was amazed. At a baseball con-vention where I expected to learn something about curve balls and bunting and how to run better prac-tices, I had learned something far more valuable. From an old man with home plate strung around his neck, I had learned something about life, about myself, about my own weaknesses and about my responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our families, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path. “If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos con-cluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: "If we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools & churches & our See “17” page 2

AZALEA CITY CRUISERS MONTHLY MEETING JULY 9TH,2019 Meeting called to order at 6:30 PM Roll Call of Officers : Bobby Snow, President, present Art Reddick, Vice President, present Linda Porter, Secretary, present Charlie Wellborn, Treasurer, present Joe Fowler, Sgt at Arms, present Phil Vaughn, Director, present Genny Walker, Director, absent Carlos Semidey,Director, absent 31 Members were present Bobby Snow read the minutes from June, Charlie Wellborn made a motion to accept, it was seconded by Art Red-dick Motion passed Treasurers Report, we currently have a balance of $ 11,982.55 on hand Details are available NEW BUSINESS : Bryan Porter made mention that the Cruise In at Angel's on the first Saturday of the month is in desperate need of attending cars If more cars do not come they will probably cancel the event Charlie Wellborn made a motion that we donate $200.00 to the American Legion Hall we rent so that the AIR CON-DITIONING may get fixed, Buzz Buzzard seconded it, and the motion passed Woody's has asked us to consider doing a Monthly Cruise In there, instead of fifth Saturday Charlie Wellborn made the motion to do so, Lou Fabian seconded it Possibly we would do a Thursday night Cruise In Bobby Snow will talk to them about it We need member feedback to see if we can generate the interest and attendance Charlie made a motion at the request of Laura Black to donate $ 100.00 to Fisher House in Gainsville, Linda Porter seconded it, and the motion passed Motion was made by Charlie Wellborn and seconded by Art Reddick, that we put a donation jar at the 5th Saturday Cruise In at Woody's so that members and visitors can donate to Horse Play, a stable that provides therapy for Chil-dren They are trying to build a covered riding area so Children can continue Therapy in rain or hot weather The mo-tion passed OLD BUSINESS: Sandy Vaughn read Birthdays and Anniversaries Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary to all July babies, and those in wedded bliss Cruiser of the month for July was awarded to Joe Fowler, congratulations Joe Bobby Snow will not be at the August meeting Mike Walker said the scholarship winners pictures have been sent to the Palatka paper But have not been published yet . Charlie Wellborn asked Mike to send him the info. Lou Fabian made a motion to accept Taft and Becky Stone as new members, Phil Vaughn seconded and the motion passed They have a 1966 AMC Martin Motion to adjourn 6:55 PM It passed too hot Linda Porter Secretary

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Sunday September 1, 2019 1 PM-Dinner 2PM

American Legion Post Palatka

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The Azalea City Cruisers is an active, family oriented, non-profit organization, encouraging the preservation, restoration, and enjoyment, of the most popular and enduring activity to ever come out of America -

The American Hot Rod

A bad attitude is like a flat tire; you can’t go anywhere

until you change it.

www.azaleacitycruisers.com

Azalea City Cruisers Sponsors

1. Advance Auto Parts, East Palatka 2. Advance Auto Parts, Palatka 3. Island Ice Cream Caf'e, St. Augustine 4. Life's A Stitch, Palatka 5. Phillip's Jewelers, Palatka 6. Sonny's BBQ, Palatka 7. VFW Post 3349, Palatka 8. Bohannon Battery Dist. 10. Bob Estlund 11. Charles & Marilyn Wellborn 12. Art Reddick 13. Woody’s Bar B Q

14. Mussel White Restaurant 15. Sonny’s Bar B Q 16. Chili’s Restaurant 17. St Johns Auto Body 18. Community State Bank 19. Toby’s Alignment, Inc. 20. Classic Muscle Motor Company, Inc. 21. Hicks Dental