DATELINE: Tuesday, September 9, 2003. Michel Listenberger gave the invocation and led us in the pledge of allegiance.

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: Andrew Plym introduced his guest Nancy Kulesia who has completed her application for membership. President Kirtdoll introduced Mike Robinson from American Express and who is also an Optimist Soccer coach and prospective new member. Welcome to the Niles Noon Optimist Club!

BIRTHDAYS/ANNIVERSARIES: Mike Listenberger celebrated his birthday yesterday, September 8^th. Dana Trowbridge will celebrate his birthday on September 22^nd. Happy Birthday Folks! Renae Harrison and President Kirtdoll and husband Tim are celebrating their wedding anniversaries today. Dennis Middleton and his wife Donna will celebrate their wedding anniversary tomorrow. Happy Anniversary to Renae, Erika and Dennis!

BRAGS: Mike Listenberger bragged that his son got married two weeks ago in California. Congratulations young Mr. Listenberger! John Willis bragged that although they had a little mix up with the T-Shirts for the Labor Day Triathlon, things turned out well. John said that he had to drive to Battle Creek to pick the T-shirts up the day before the event. He said that the company finished them just in time and that the boxes of shirts were still hot. Thanks for taking the drive for us John! President Kirtdoll bragged that her tennis team beat out Constantine with a score of 5 to 3. YEAH TEAM!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Dennis Middleton announced that there is a timing race this weekend in Mishawaka. The race begins at 8:00 a.m. Indiana time and volunteers should be there by 7:30 a.m. Indiana time. It is the Cancer Relay Run and will be held at Edison Lakes. Come out to help with this endeavor. Past President Tom Majerek announced that MikeFest will be held this Sunday in Riverfront Park. There will be nine bands throughout the day. The event starts at noon and continues until 10 p.m. A $10 donation is being asked. President Kirtdoll announced that the annual Banquet has been rescheduled for Tuesday, October 7^th. There will be no lunch meeting on that day. There will be a buffet dinner of beef tips over noodles or lemon pepper fish. Please plan on attending and bring the family out too. Tickets for the dinner are $16.

50/50 RAFFLE DRAWING: Osceola Skinner conducted the 50/50 raffle. Lyle McMullen took home the pot! Congratulations Lyle!

PRESENTATION: President Kirtdoll presented Carol Milburn with a check for Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Big Brothers/Big Sisters is a more than worthwhile group to receive some of the dollars we raise for the youth of our community. We would like to thank Carol Milburn and Susan Armstrong for the great job that they do in helping the organization to thrive.

GUEST SPEAKER: Robert Todd introduced our guest speaker today as Ron Taylor from the City of David. Ron showed us great slides of the House of David commune. He explained how the House of David began in England and has some combined roots with the Shakers of 1650. He said there were seven messengers who had a major influence in beginning settlements in the United States and that some of these messengers planted the roots of other religions such as the Seventh Day Adventist and the Church of the Later Day Saints. The House of David became an international ministry in 1840 and is America’s third oldest Christian community. Ron told us that the Israelite House of David was organized in 1903 and was reorganized in 1930 under the leadership of Mary Purnell. It is located in Benton Harbor, Michigan. He explained how the City of David was a self-sustaining commune. They grew their own food, opened their own schools to teach their children, and basically created or made almost everything that they used. Even today you can take a tour to see their 1930 print shop which houses its own 1891 printing press that is still used today. You can see a real working carpenter shop with its collection of vintage tools. There is also the Power House where once the Israelite community generated its own electricity. The Power House is currently in restoration. There is also the 1935 greenhouse and agricultural exhibit building and many more things to see at the House of David. The House/City of David boasts a lot of accomplishments: They invented the automatic pin-set for bowling in 1909-1910; They played the first night baseball game in history at Independence, Kansas; The first automobile was built at the City of David in Benton Harbor; Women could vote and hold office in 1903 more than 17 years before the 19^th Amendment; Walt Disney bought one of their miniature steam locomotives in 1950 and many more accomplishments. Ron had so much information and different stories to tell us that he could not get it all told in a short amount of time. He stopped his stories around 1920 and plans to return to our meeting in October to finish telling us more wonderful things about the House of David. Our thanks to Ron Taylor for visiting with us and telling us about the City of David.

CLOSING CREED: Lyle McMullen led the group in reciting the Closing Creed at the end of the meeting.

"Words can destroy. What we call each other ultimately becomes what we think of each other, and it matters." Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Diplomat

"I believe that love produces a certain flowering of the whole personality which nothing else can achieve." Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818 – 1883) Novelist

"Love stretches your heart and makes you big inside." Margaret Walker from Jubilee

TODAY IN HISTORY: September 9

1846: American inventor Elias Howe patents his sewing machine.
1963: Twenty African American schoolchildren enter public high schools in Birmingham, Mobile, and Tuskegee, Alabama, after Governor George Wallace yields to federal pressure to desegregate.
1608: The colony of Jamestown in Virginia, after a troubled first year, elects John Smith as its president.
1981: The mural Guernica (1937), painted by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in reaction to the German bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, returns to Spain for the first time.
1935: Two days after being wounded by an assassin, U.S. senator Huey Long, the dominant political figure in Louisiana during the Depression, dies in Baton Rouge.
1988: German tennis player Steffi Graf completes the sport's first Grand Slam since 1970 by winning her fourth major title of the year, the U.S. Open.

Charles Sanders Peirce, philosopher (1839)
Roger Maris, baseball player (1934)
Arnold Palmer, golfer (1929)
Arthur Holly Compton, physicist (1892)
Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist (1941)
Mungo Park, explorer (1771)

Doctor: I have good news and bad news.

Patient: Go with the good news first.

Doctor: You have 24 hours to live.

Patient: What!?! How about the bad news?

Doctor: Um... I forgot to tell you yesterday.

I was born on this day in 1886. My pen name, using my initials, was given to me by fellow poet Ezra Pound.

American poet Hilda Doolittle’s early verse was influenced by her friendships with American poets Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, whom she met in college. She belonged to a group of imagist writers whose work was characterized by the use of poetic imagery, colloquial language, and free verse. Among Doolittle’s publications are Sea Garden (1916), Heliodora and Other Poems (1924), Palimpsest (1926), and the autobiographical Tribute to Freud (1956).