“A Day in Pompeii” – Day Trip, March 22, 2012

March 22, 2012, the Young at Heart group met a church for an early lunch before driving down to the Cincinnati Museum Center to see the special display of “A Day in Pompeii”. We had a good group of 34 people. This exceeded the capacity of our bus but didn’t justify the use of another mini-bus, so I drove our SUV to bring four of us. It was a nice time together. Bob Turner drove the bus. Thank you Bob.

I thought it would be interesting to note a bit of history regarding Pompeii. There is evidence of civilizations living at this site since the 8th to 6th century BC. Prior the destruction of Pompeii when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in the year 79, Pompeii had been seriously damaged by an earthquake in the year 62AD. Some of the damage from that earthquake still had not been repaired when the eruption of Vesuvius occurred. Pompeii was often a vacation spot for other Romans and was a place where many prosperous people had summer homes, etc. At the time of the eruption, there were probably about 20,000 inhabitants. I was pleasantly surprised to learn via the exhibits that the homes were somewhat modern, even by today’s standards. Many homes even had running water.

We know a lot about Pompeii because of the way it was preserved after being locked in time under many feet of ash. There was even artwork that portrayed what life was like in Pompeii at that time.

Think of this – at the time of the destruction of Pompeii, one or two of the Christ’s Apostles were still alive! Perhaps, one or more of them may have even visited there.

Pompeii is in Italy near what is now Naples.  Remember as you see images below, you can click on them to get a larger view.

The following pictures show what the city and homes would look like at the time of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

The following panel shows the city during the Earthquake in 62.

Then, it 79 the eruption began!

I doctored this image to provide a little modesty

After the volcano, the ash covered everything, including the bodies of humans and animals. Excavation of the site uncovered many human and animal remains. Of course, many other articles were also recovered. Most wooden articles were destroyed by the fire and heat but metal furnishing and decorations were intact.

On the left we see what may be a husband attempting to protect his wife, center is a dog (even with a collar), and on the right are people attempting to escape at the bay.

Let’s take an additional look around the displays with some of our people!

This is a wall relief depicting Vulcan the God of Fire and Metalwork.

And, another god who I didn’t take note of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture in the middle shows the leg protection worn by Roman soldiers, and on the right we see Arthur examining the Wine Decanters.

Left – Scale, Center- Serving Dish, Right – Millstone (grinder)

Looking up the street toward Mt. Vesuvius, today!

We hope you enjoyed our little travelogue to Pompeii and all the way back to 79AD, in history.

YAH Volunteers Luncheon

Today, we had a special group of our volunteers join us for lunch at Buca di Beppo in Cincinnati.

Every spring we take our volunteers somewhere special for a nice meal. Normally, we keep it a mystery until arrival. This year they did not guess it was Buca di Beppo until we arrived. Even then, many didn’t have a clue what they were in for!

We have over 40 volunteers and there were 23 of us together at Buca where we enjoyed a very nice Italian meal with lots of memorabilia around. I this case, our room was the Sinatra room with lots of photos and artifacts representing both Frank and Nancy. We had a couple of very good salads and a pasta and Chicken Parmigana, followed by a home made cheese cake. Everything was delicious, but the company of our volunteers was really special.

Please be sure to thank them for all they do. Our Newsletter this month pays special attention to them, so you will know who they are.

Enjoy a few photos of the people who work so hard to make our YAH program so successful. Without their help, the things we do would not be possible.

Buca has a very interesting interior design. Each room has a theme. You can see the one on the left for the Pope. While the one on the right is more about the nuns. In this case, she appears to be enjoying the old TV Game show “Wheel of Fortune” (I think).

Young at Heart Luncheon–David Cain, “Juggler for Jesus”

This month we had a great program to go along with some awesome weather!

As we normally do, we warmed up and brought people in from our foyer with a few jokes. Some of these were more yucks that jokes, perhaps. I used a theme about Jugglers. I have to be honest, I couldn’t find a good selection of jokes about this. Perhaps, because they ARE the jokes. You can hear what I said HERE and judge for yourselves!

Of course we followed this with our normal acknowledgements and we had a very good number of birthdays. I wasn’t aware there were such a large number born that month of the year! Of course, that is Nancy’s birth month, so I should have known. Now, let’s hope that I don’t forget the actual date. One of you please remind me!

Don’t forget, you can click on the images to see a larger version

David Cain is much more than a mere Juggler! He also plays the piano and sings. Today, he sang a song that he wrote. You can listen HERE.

After making our announcements about upcoming trips, we’d cover the trip for “A Day in Pompeii” next week, we had David Cain come up and perform his Juggling act for us. David is a very good juggler with a fantastic twist. As I said he is called “The Juggler for Jesus” and he combines his juggling skills with Bible illustrations. This is a very effective way to minister. In addition to our photos, you can watch a YouTube video promotion of his act. He did some of the same things for us as shown in THIS VIDEO.

A Juggling act wouldn’t seem right without him doing the 10-Pins would it! Here he is. He balanced one on his nose and did a good job of tossing them around without dropping anything. Maybe he could even be a successful Chain Saw Juggler!

 

Next, he did what every juggler does and tossed around some balls. However, he did his with a really neat twist and brought in the Story of the Crucifixion and Resurrection. I think this was really appropriate for this season when we will be celebrating Easter in a few more weeks. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough to get any good photos!

David did a nice performance of balancing and spinning a couple of large balls but then also brought Ted Jones up on the platform to show everyone how easy it is to balance at least ONE!

Ted was great, wasn’t he!

I really enjoyed the performance with the Boomerangs. I never saw this type before and it looks like it could be something to play around with and enjoy with the Grand-Kids! His had a hole in it and he was able to throw it out and get his finger right through the hole when it returned.

Pretty cool, isn’t it. I gotta get one of these!

 

 

 

As we’ve been able to see, David can do much more than Juggle. He is a bit of an Indiana Jones act with a whip, too. This time he brought Paul Sensenbaugh up on the platform to risk his life! He had Paul hold an uncooked spaghetti out with something on the end, so he could cut it with the whip! Don’t do this one at home, unless you use someone you really do not like!!!!

Fortunately, for Paul, David is pretty good with the whip, too!

One of my jokes was about David transporting the swords in the back of his car. I guess he didn’t need a concealed sword permit for that. So, he did some juggling with the swords. As with the whip, don’t try this one at home. You can also forget doing the trick with the chainsaws!

Another item that he used that may be something fun to play around with in your backyard was the Chinese YaYa. At least that is what I think he called it. This seems to work like a huge YoYo but can be flipped, etc.

After the excellent performance, we moved back into the dining area for a very good meal prepared by Lisa and her able staff of helpers. Everything we had was made from scratch. I am not sure what that means but to me in means it was good wholesome healthy food that didn’t come out of a box or the freezer section of the grocery store. We had meatloaf, mashed potatoes and coleslaw. This was followed by a very nice green dessert. The food was delicious! I know you will be asking for the recipes, so I am asking Lisa to provide them and we will publish them in one of the newsletters. Then you can impress your families, too!

The tables were decorated with a good old St. Patrick’s Irish theme, complete with green hats. I couldn’t resist putting them on a couple of our people and taking fun photos.

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, we were very well served by the people from Fifth/Third Bank, including their manager, Greg Poe (Lisa’s husband). I hope everyone is thanking them for the fantastic service they are providing.