Meeting opened shortly after 08:00.

Pledge: Bill Lewis

Invocation: Laura Brecht

Songs: This Land is Your Land, and You are my Sunshine - with

• Haddon Salt on violin
• Bill Lewis on guitar
• Garret Westover on guitar

Happy $:

1. Kathy Johnson - has family in NY (Manhattan, Long Island) all are safe, with worst being one cousin has no power for 7 to 10 days.
2. Bill Lewis - had multiple B-days, in from SD party & scavenger hunt on golf carts, had a great time
3. Conrad Kramer - picture in paper
4. Chuck Bennett - 3 camps in Palm Canyon Resort to be replaced
5. Lorry - Apologizes for being late secondary to having a phone call from a friend with cancer - has lymphoma and is doing well. Had possible secondary cancer, but it was benign.
6. Louise - Grateful $. Sister in law lives in New Jersey on a farm. Has 2 barns. Only 1 barn was destroyed that had tools in it. The barn with the horses and the house was not touched.

Guests:

1. Anny Wondolosky - Escondido Rotary, has moved over here recently, and wants to move her membership position to Borrego Springs
2. Kelly Kidd - 3rd visit, will become a member this next week
3. Amos Jones - speaker for today is a "painter extraordinaire"
   ANNOUNCEMENTS

   Rotary Breakfast

   Thanks to Jim and Cathy for putting on the breakfast. There was a little shortage on coffee. Thanks to Dan and Andy for helping with tables and Jef Johnson for helping his wife Kathy, altho he is not a member. Thanks also to Kendalls for the food and De Anza Country Club for the tables. Before the breakfast, $1040 was collected in tickets and $975 was collected during the breakast along with $187 in the raffle. Total income was $2302 which will lead to a net of about $1500. Next year we will need more forks, knives, spoons & coffee.

   Parade Float

   A big thanks to Andrew, Diana, Haddon, Martha & Kaye for their help with the float.

   Soon there will be a work day on the float because the floor will need to be replaced. The floor is rotten and another piece of plywood over the old should do it.

   Thanksgiving Events

   Give away boxes for Thanksgiving has not yet started. Turkeys were ordered from Sysco last year. There will be a meeting after Rotary today.

   Kaye sent around a sign up list for the Tamale Festival for those who want to participate.

   Toys for Kids Give Away

   Sylvana - Rotary took on Toys for Kids. Does the club still want to do this? Timing is the 2nd week in December. There is a lot of work involved. It was voted on and unanimously decided that the Toys for Kids giveaway will take place, but Sylvana will need a considerable amount of help.

   Amos Jones, painter extraordinaire, gave a brief history of his life

   He was born in Mississippi in the late '40s. His family were farmers, but quit farming and moved to Detroit. His family decided they didn't want to raise the 3 kids, so they were sent back to "the farm".

   It was all manual labor. We were up at 5am milking the cows and using a mule to pull hte plow.

   Because of being black, going to town was difficult. Kids were only allowed in town on Sunday. Black people were only allowed to go in back of the store and black people had to drink out of different fountains. Black people were drug thru town behind a truck "just for fun". We couldn't go to school with the white kids. I had to hold my head down while speaking to white men and women.

   There was a black man who whistled at a white woman. His testicles where cut off and put in his mouth.

   He later moved to Detroit and began taking drugs, including heroin and cocaine, and would steal for a living. His father was a carpenter, so he learned carpentry, but he had to sleep outside as a result of his drug problem. Later he found himself on trial for drugs. He would be sent to the hooskow if he returned to court on another drug related infraction. He had another drug related incident, so he knew he had to get out of town. He stole a TV, gave it to another drug dealer for $7.20. He bought a bus ticket and went to Cleveland OH. He called his mom at the bus station, who didn't recognize him. She brought him home and he didn't leave the house for a year. He went cold turkey off the drugs, but he was paranoid to come out of the house fearing the police would come for him. He survived and lived in the suburbs of Cleveland. Later he moved to the Ohio suburbs.

   He then turned to marijuana. He would buy it by the pound and his friends would come over and they would party. On July 4, he was on Lake Erie fishing. A tornado came. There were 20' waves and he was on a 10' aluminum boat and there were 40' yaghts around him that didn't survive. He survived and the others didn't. 4 months later bodys washed up on shore in NY. This changed his life. Thru-out his life he had many jobs, but he always came back to painting.

   For anyone interested in having Amos paint, please call 626-394-1970. He has 48 years of experience as a painter.

   CLUB BOARD MEETING

   The board meeting will be next Wednesday, November 7, 2012