RECAP OF BAKER HIGH MARCH 18, 2013 QUARTERLY LUNCHEON

Dear Lion & Lioness:

The Baker High Quarterly luncheon was just great, just like the others.  You could just feel the Baker spirit.  We had in attendance 149 total Lions and 25 for the first time.  Some drove quite a distance and one just happened to be in town to take his father to the hospital, Marshall Burgamy ’66.  Marshall lives in California and heard of the Baker luncheon and decided to come and just had a great time.  Even I saw some folks that I had not seen in over 50 years.  Sandye and I apologize to all of you for not taking more time to speak to you and to those that I did not speak at all.  I try to greet all and it limits the time that I can spend with one person or couple and Sandye is with the registration table.  Little did I realize when we started the Baker luncheons in 2006, (I think), that it would grow to what it is now.  We even have archives on our web site THANKS to Terry (Nunnally) Gutman ‘73.  These luncheons are a group effort.  It is not just me.  I am a small part of it.  The folks responsible are many but it is all of YOU that promote it.  I try to analyze how folks who graduated in 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s would gather together and feel as one.  I feel that it is the love that we have for our school which no longer exists.  I drove by the school site yesterday on the way to Oxbow Creek and it is just so sad to see our school gone.  The pictures that Cindy (Fucci) Johns took at the luncheon have been downloaded in the web site.  Just click on “Lunch w/Lions Photos”.  I have not identified all the pictures as of yet.

Our next luncheon is June 17. 2013 at 11:00 AM at the Golden Corral, Columbus, GA.  Please make plans to attend.  To use a football analogy, we are in the fourth quarter of our lives.  Also to use a golf analogy, we are playing in the back nine holes.  We just do not know if we are in the 12^th, 13^th, 14^th, 15^th, 16^th, 17^th or 18^th hole.  Many of us have decided to finish strong.  I would like to share with you what Woody Royster ’61 feels about the luncheons:

Ish,
 
I look back at the pictures of the luncheons that we have had since 2010 and there is sadness there for me but at the same time there is joy. Having lost Brenda my wife and my brother Bill, both Baker folks, I know that we are in an era that we can be here one day and not the next. The Baker luncheons have brought so many of us Baker folks together at a time in our lives when needed.
The gravitational pull of individual friendships can have an enormous cumulative effect on the quality of our lives. With growing numbers of people living alone, either by choice or circumstance, friendships... can occupy the emotional space that other people fill with spouses or significant others. Friends can link us to broader social networks and help enrich our lives. At the end of the day, a friend can be the emotional oasis that makes all the difference.
Ish, you among others, have caused our lives to be enriched that much more and it is because we get together for lunch. We are Blessed to have you as the Head Lion. I look forward to your emails as well..take care my friend...
 
Woody Royster "61"

Woody inserted the last two sentences so I can buy him dinner.  Our activities on Wednesday and Thursday are just great and we are now dealing with folks who want to be active and the new friendships that are developing.  How about you?  Will you join us at the luncheon, golf or bowling and feel young again?  Sandye and I hope so.  Sandye and I ask that you please call in with you reservation so she can have you name tag ready.  The registration table would also like to have time to socialize.   May GOD bless us all.

Ismael (Ish) Nazario ‘61