Pillars of the Community

In our never ending pursuit of the American dream, Grumpy and I are now now endeavouring to become pillars of the community. Our efforts seemed to gather momentum this evening, when I went directly from a Rotary meeting to a Masonic one.
The two organisations seem to have a lot in common. They both encourage good works. They both have regular meetings with food involved. They have guest speakers. They both have a long history.They both have strange little rituals. The main difference, of course, is that both men and women are able to become Rotarians.
These Rotarians are turning out to be very strict. You are strongly encouraged to attend a meeting every week, so when I couldn't make my regular one last Thursday, I had to find another one as a 'make-up' meeting. Which is how I came to rub shoulders with another little group of movers and shakers, including Darlene Senger, the Republican nominee for the Illinois House of Representatives and member of Naperville City Council.
Darlene gave an interesting talk about the threat Naperville finds itself under from a proposal to run a new freight railroad through the town. It was a cross between some of the meetings I used to attend as a young newspaper reporter in England 100 years ago and an old western movie set 100 years ago.
But the strangest thing happened at the start of the meeting, when chairman Rod Boyajian
suggested a little warm up around the table. He asked everyone to recall their first wrist watch. This was odd enough in itself, but not as odd as the guest who claimed hers was bought on with a special off from a pack of sanitary towels!
"Couldn't you have at least changed it to a box of cornflakes?" asked the red faced man opposite.
"I could, but it wouldn't have been as funny!" she proclaimed.