Young at Heart Day Trip–Carillon Park & Patterson Homestead

We had a small, but fun, group of people going with us on this day trip. It will be interesting to see if this is a trend. Maybe we should consider every other month day trips for 2013!

First, we went to the Carillon Park. This is what I consider one of the finest historical parks in the world and certainly the best in the Dayton area. We are fortunate to have places like this in our area, and so much more. We spent most of our time in the main building because of the new exhibits that have been added when they brought the Deed Barn inside from Moraine.

REMEMBER: CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO SEE THE FULL SIZE VERSION!

We also gave everyone a ride on the carousel. This was made specifically for the park and features a number of items from our history.

We also spent some time in the outside buildings with emphasis on a couple of the newest additions. One that I really enjoyed was the Newcom Tavern. The were roasting a turkey at the fireplace. Fortunately, this was not a hot day or it would have been really bad around that fireplace.

Next, we went into the Culp’s Café for lunch. We were doing the Pick 2 with an option for the Daily Special which was Cabbage Roll. All but two of us chose to do the Cabbage! We followed this up with Ice Cream.

After eating we spent a few more minutes in the main building to allow for shopping or further browsing the exhibits. Fortunately, I found a back hall with more exhibits that I had entirely missed before. This included an exhibit from NCR that included what the guide said was the first NCR ATM. That wasn’t true. It was a second generation NCR 1780 which I helped design. It was preceded by the NCR 770 and also the NCR 1770. This were the first Through the Wall and Lobby ATMs but were not shown here. The 770 was much larger than the one shown.

The photo on the left is the NCR 1780. I had a dual role with this product and provided Technical Support for a couple of years and then was a product manager for further development. This was the first ATM to gain significant sales and was purchased by bankers. Later we designed a version of this one that could be easily used from your car.  The photo on the right is one of the first NCR Electronic Cash Registers. I also provided support for this but was only involved in the development when it concerned the servicing of the terminal. A lot of department stores ordered these.

Finally, we finished our day at the Patterson Homestead. This home was the residence of Col.William Patterson, the father of John H Patterson, the founder of NCR. The home is almost 200 years old. It featured furnishings and also letters from the sons who served in the Civil War.

I recommend either of these sites for a  great family visit. Great places to take visitors!

Young at Heart Mystery Luncheon- July 10, 2012

Well, everyone finally discovered what the mystery was all about. We had our own “Snakes Alive” Show. This month we had a program by Rick Teepen who is a Herpetologist with a ministry that uses live non-venomous snakes and other reptiles to demonstrate God’s love for us, His existence, and presence in our world. Rick has combined his experience with reptiles, and his passion for spreading the good news about Jesus, into a unique, fascinating program that connects his audience with the wonders of God, through live reptiles, and biblical facts.

Before we brought Rick up with his friends, our grand-daughter, Elizabeth Koerber, played the piano for our prelude Early Bird entertainment as we had time to fellowship with each other and check on old friends. Elizabeth is 16 years old and is taught by her parents in a Home School environment along with her siblings. She is also an accomplished artist and is active in 4H with Art, Chickens and Rabbits.

Rick takes his program all over Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and West Virginia. He regularly does his programs at the Creation Museum and can be found there most weekends. That is where I discovered him.

Initially, we figured people would be reluctant to come to a “Snake Program”. So, that is the reason that I used it as a Mystery Luncheon. I will be planning other Mystery Luncheons as well as Trips but I promise not to do it quite like this one or for the same reason. Anyway, my idea worked pretty well because we had a very good turnout and most of the people admitted they would not  have come if they knew it was going to be something like this. However, they then readily admitted that they enjoyed the program. I knew it would be kind of like children who don’t like something only because they’ve never tried it before! But, even I was surprised by some of the people who asked to hold the snakes and get their photo taken with one. One of our ladies even stated that she will use the photo for her Christmas Cards! One of the gals from the retirement homes also plans to suggest this program for use at their location!

Rick and his wife were happy to share their knowledge of reptiles with us. We also had one of our own ladies’ husband (Stan Vandiver) assist Rick. Stan works at the Creation Museum and regularly assists Rick down there.

Yup, that is me with the “Snake-lace” around my neck. The next photo is proof that even Esther Tan enjoyed wearing one. And on the right Rick has a Gecko on his shoulder. I guess he wasn’t selling insurance at that moment!

This is a friendly Python but I was watching him look at my girth. I think he had something like a big “bear-hug” on his mind. This guy was big and HEAVY. But, it wasn’t just the guys who were anxious to hold this snake. Look below!

Remember: You can double click any image to see a larger version!

Many of our people were anxious to get photos taken with the Python but even Irene was excited about the whole thing.

Lou Caldwell (many of you know him as one of our Luncheon Drivers) is on the left. The other three are our grandchildren from Blanchester, Ohio. Abegael is 9, Nathanael is 13 and you’ve already met Elizabeth who is 16. They all have plenty of experience with animals and were anxious to join us for this event. Several of you asked me about bringing your grandchildren for something like this. I have been thinking about doing this and will announce an opportunity to do so in the future.

I want to give a very special thank you to Rick Teepen for an excellent program.

Next month, we will have another old friend of YAH with us. Gary Lare will join us to present his Ventriloquist friends! This is a change from our original plans to have Dave Darkow speak with us. He traded positions on our schedule with Gary and will do his program and hopefully tell us what to expect from ObamaCare at our October meeting!

We have some other very exciting plans for Young at Heart in the future. Be sure to watch for our upcoming plans in the Young at Heart Newsletter.

American Sign Museum and Grand Finale Day Trip

Thursday, June 28, 25 or us took a leisurely trip down to the Camp Washington area of Cincinnati. We visited the newly opened American Sign Museum. Of course many of you remember that we visited the museum a couple of years ago. However, they just opened in a new location of their with very nice facilities. They have many more exhibits and also feature an operating Neon Sign Shop in the back. Tod Swormstedt the founder of this museum was kind enough to give us a very good tour.

Some of the oldest signs are over 100 years old with newer ones being from the 50s & 60s. I enjoy the neon signs and learned that not all of these really use neon gas. The gas is what give the color and other gases can be used for different colors. Colored glass tubes are also used. Of course not all of the signs are neon. Many are bulbs, back lighted or even just hand painted.

I think my favorite area of the museum was the store front areas. These were made to look like actual store fronts with signs that you would see on the stores or inside. One store was an actual disassembled storefront that was brought into the museum and reconstructed.

After Tod finished explaining the signs to us they took us into the working Neon Shop where two of the employees were making and repairing neon signs. They actually did part of a project with us and talked us through the process. This was extremely informative and interesting.

I received nothing but rave comments about this part of the trip. If you are interested in visiting this museum on your own or with a group, check out their website American Sign Museum. NOTE: Be sure to go to the new location. This site still lists the old address!

Following the Sign Museum tour, we advance back up I-75 to Glendale and the Grand Finale for our lunch. Lisa and I chose an abbreviated menu with several lunch selections and also dessert. Wow, everything was delicious. This place is noted for their romantic atmosphere and also their desserts (finale)! So, if you are looking for a great location for a special occasion, you will definitely want to consider the Grand Finale.

I think many of our Young at Heart came on this trip primarily to enjoy a good lunch at Grand Finale but in the end, everyone really enjoyed the museum tour, too, and were happy to have done both. I hope you enjoyed this little tour via the blog with us!

REMEMBER, YOU CAN EASILY SEE THE PHOTOS IN FULL SIZE BY DOUBLE CLICKING!

Young at Heart Luncheon Program–June 5, 2012

I think we had a very good luncheon program for everyone this month. It started with a couple of problems. We discovered that our planned speaker was going to be out of town that day so I had to do some juggling with the schedule and Stan Goode readily agreed to trade his original date and this worked very well for us. Also, this program is a week earlier than our normal second Tuesday of each month because Vacation Bible School is going to run the second week. That meant that some of our people had other things scheduled and we anticipated a lower than normal participation. Initially, our caller information confirmed this would be the case. Normally, we have a significant number of people not show after telling the callers that they planned to be here. This time our number of “no shows” was low and we had a good number of people show up who had not responded. So, the end result is that we had more people than anticipated. They were rewarded with a very good program and meal.

Grace Averitt played the grand piano as our musical prelude while people had a chance to visit prior to our program.

You can hear Grace’s Piano Prelude HERE.

Following this piano music, I opened the program with a few jokes and acknowledged Birthdays and Anniversaries. Then, we had a very nice musical solo by Christina Comer.

You can hear her solo, HERE.

Of course, our primary program included being entertained by “Stan the Magic Man”. Stan is a retired Sheriff’s Deputy and has been entertaining in programs like ours and with children for many years. He has a large number of tricks and illusions that he can do and I’ve never seen him do the same ones in the three years that he has been performing for us.

 

Stan talked about the church above being empty but we found people from all over the world just as we learned when we were children, “Jesus Loves the Children - Red and Yellow, Black, and White; they are Precious in HIS Sight!”

Stan fooled with our minds on the rabbit trick and let something slip, so that we “thought” we knew the secret. Of course we were wrong and this didn’t turn out the way we thought.

Stan’s mother, Doris Goode, is one of our regular members. It is always good to see her but I know it is special for her to see her own son perform.

Following Stan’s performance, I did a short talk about Fathers and our Heavenly Father. You can hear what I had to say, HERE.

Next month, we are going to do something very different. You will not want to miss our July 10th program. I won’t tell what it is but will say that we’ve never had this kind of program before. It will definitely be something to tell your children and grandkids about. If you miss the July program, you won’t have any “Bragging Rights”.    Bring your cameras, and enjoy our “Mystery Program” on July 10!

We will also plan some special music.

Next, I hope to cover our Day Trip to the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati and to the Grand Finale Restaurant.

YAH Luncheon–May 8, 2012

We enjoyed a terrific program today by Resounding Joy from the Dayton Christian High School. For those that are not aware, Dayton Christian Schools is one of the largest Christian school systems in the USA with campuses in Miamisburg (south of the Dayton Mall) and Xenia (on the Legacy Ministries Campus). The system provides education for K-12. All three of our daughters graduated from Dayton Christian.

These young men and women recently performed in Washington DC. Since we are taking our Young at Heart there this fall, we’re hoping they impacted the community so they will be prepared for us! More importantly, maybe they had a positive impact on our leadership in Washington! After all, these are our future leaders!

The music was fantastic and I really enjoyed every bit of it. We also had very good comments from our audience. One of our homes is also interested in having them perform for them. Unfortunately, I believe these students will be finishing school very soon, so this will need to wait. Anyway, we are sure to have them return again. We bring in one or two DCS groups every year.

The group also included their own instrumentalists (guitars, keyboard and drums) and a young lady doing signing.

Of course, it is all about the singing! The choir, led by Tracy Miller, did an awesome job.

You can listen to Resounding Joy HERE!

Following the program, we moved into our big dining room (the gym) for a very nice Cinco de Mayo luncheon! As always, our kitchen staff and dining room staff, did a great job!

Next month on June 5th (note normally our luncheons are the second Tuesday but this one is the first) we will have another of our Young at Heart favorites. Stan the Magic Man will return to our platform. I keep threatening to have him saw someone in two. The teens thought this would be cool! Any volunteers?

Stan the Magic Man – June 5th