While he is in Florida, Bill will be joing the fine folks in the Tampa area at their club meeting Monday evening, August 7th. For anyone able to attend, club meetings are a great way to meet Bill and learn about lighthouses and Harbour Lights.

Ryan's Family Restaurant in Northwest Tampa not far from the airport. Start gathering about 6:30pm and dinner is $10 per person. The exact location is the southeast corner of Waters Ave and Hanley Road in Town'n Country. This is next door to Johnston's Hallmark store which is one of their sponsors.

For more info:
Wayne Hawes
Tampa Bay Harbour Lights Collectors Club
16807 Ashwood Dr
Tampa, FL 33624
(813) 968-5640
whawes1@tampabay.rr.com

I know it is only 2 weeks before your Orlando Regional, but this is too good an opportunity to pass up. All you Floridians need to plan on joining Bill and the Tampa Bay Club!

Dave

I drove two hours to get there, two hours back (30 minutes through a monsoon with thunder and lightning)and it was worth it! What a great group of people. Especially Rip, all I can say is Rip one of the funniest guys you'd ever meet. He was in charge of making sure that Bill's cup of coffee was always filled and always hot.

That's a clue for you folks who ever have an opportunity to have Bill Younger attend an event - always have hot, black coffee available. No vanilla honey-nut mocha java stuff for Bill, plain coffee.

Joanne

This was a great gathering of some fine folks. There were probably better that 80 people at the dinner. My daughter Heather and I were in attendance, and later on fellow Hoosiers Stephen, Cheryl & Paul Sostaric joined us. As soon as Bill arrived he went right to work signing HLs for those that brought them.

Dinner was great. Wayne had a brief meeting, announcing that the club had adopted the Anclote Key Light. He had also taken Bill out to the light that afternoon. Suppose he was doing a little lobbying for a new HL? The group also accepted the result of the bylaws committee's efforts, so they are off and running. The real scary thing I learned is that this group is chartering a bus to go to the Orlando Regional event. (Just a word of warning to those more sane people who plan to attend.)

As Joanne noted, Bill spoke for better than 90 minutes. As always, very interesting. He did review the now infamous Nancy/ Cruise/ Gigilo story for those in attendance. I think this may be this year's HL folk story.

As always, Bill was very impassioned on the subject of preserving our lighthouse history for future generations. He highlighted the efforts of our own KepperJJ, Jim Johnston, at the Potawatome Light. (Forgive me if I didn't spell it correctly - its late.) He stressed the difference just one person could make in preserving a light.

Bill also recognized Stephen and displayed his Split Rock cover for all to appreciate. He also picked on Heather a little and told the group of her gift to him when he was in Indianapolis. Heather had to explain that a hippocampus was a sea horse.

Harbour Lights had sent a wonderful box of goodies to give away. Bill made sure everyone had a drawing ticket, even the two servers that had been helping with dinner. During his talk, a niece and her boyfriend had showed up, and Bill put them to work passing out prizes. I even won a prize, one of the Sentinels of the South pictures by Mark Sherman. Yes, I had to go all the way to Tampa to break the curse and actually win something! Of course, Jakers & Derith both won a GLOW light (Alcatraz & Cape Canaveral).

The club also raffled off an East Quoddy piece donated by their sponsor (Johnston's Hallmark) with the proceeds going to Anclote Key Light.

As noted in other places, Joanne & her mother were in attendance as was JohnL of the forums. Weasel got sent out of town for work - major bummer. A very nice Wacko mini-reunion.

This has been just an overview of the evening - perhaps Derith will add more or fill in what I have missed. I would like to thank all the Tampa Bay folks for their wonderful hospitality, especially Wayne Hawes and Derith Bennett. We had a really great time with you all. I hope Orlando can survive your participation!

Dave

[This message has been edited by Dave H (edited 08-11-2000).]

It certainly was a great event. My girlfriend Amy and I had a wondefrul time and it was very nice to meet Joanne, Dave, Derith and friends . Bill was an excellant speaker and he certainly got me excited for my trip to New England in the fall.
I won the $25 gift certificate from Johnston's Hallmark toward the purchase of a Harbour Lights and the East Quoddy piece from the raffle. The proceeds certianly went to a great cause and I look forward to going to Anclote Key to work on the lighthouse.
See some of you in Orlando next weekend.

John