April 19th 2006

Last Meeting
April 19, 2006
Reporter – Stan Bugner
President Elect Molly Cousins convened the meeting, without the bell. Rod Funderburk offered the opening prayer. Harvey Hoots introduced our visitors. In addition to our regulars, Dr. Fred, Bill and Ron, we also had as guests, Marilyn Beck of Time Warner, a guest of Beetle, Tina Shaw, a scholarship applicant, and Joel’s grandson. Harvey also informed us that Governor Sanford has designated this past Saturday, April 22, as Carroll Campbell CART Fund Day. Lynn Richards provided the health and happiness by telling us some accounting jokes in honor of Tax Day, which Joel’s grandson found very amusing. In appreciation, Lynn was talking with him about a career in accounting following the meeting. Skey led us in singing Happy Birthday to Paul Harris, in honor of his April 19 birthday, 138 years ago. Blount Shepard and Jim Jeffers spoke about last weeks visit by the GSE Team from Brazil and what a wonderful experience it was. Blount explained the symbols on the Brazilian flag, which was given to him by the team member that stayed in his home during their visit.
John Adair introduced out speaker Bruce Rippeteau, from the SC Department of Archaeology. Bruce is a Rotarian and former president of the Columbia Club. Bruce provided us with miscellaneous facts about South Carolina and its archeological history. The first humans came to North America about 12 thousand years ago by using the Bearing Land Bridge, which was exposed because of a drop in the level of the oceans from an ice age. Archeologists have found items dating back 20 thousand years in the Allendale area. There were 34-35 genera in North and South America. The disappearance of these genera cannot be explained; however it coincides with the arrival of man to these continents. During the ice age, half of North America was covered by ice and upstate SC had alpine glaciers. The current climate arrived about 4,000 BC. Immense erosion has resulted because of the deforestation. In fact, the Congaree River has changed over the past 100 to 150 years. The first European visitors were the Desoto expedition, which came to Camden looking for gold. The SC Department of Archaeology owns the land under all the bodies of water in SC and the land off the coast. This allowed Bruce to get involved in the recovery of the Hundley. He discussed some of the history surrounding the Hundley and the tremendous significance that such an artifact is to SC. He was involved in testimony at the federal level about the dispute of ownership of the Hundley between the Navy and SC.
The meeting was concluded with Happy Dollar Time, during which Blount honored the GSE Team from Brazil and Skey celebrated his wife’s love for him.