A Quick Opening
Twelve Rotarians and two guests joined President Caroline in the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and the Four Way Test.
Guests: Roger Rivard, 89 year old skier; Robert Hutchins, Kiwanian; both friends of Karl’s and fellow skiers.
Happy Dollars 5/Sad Dollars 1
Tony rose to give the first Happy Dollar as he announced that his grandson, Miles, celebrated his two weeks old birthday. He threw another in the basket because the Netflix series Love on the Spectrum made him feel good. He highly recommended it.
Robert Hutchins offered a Happy Dollar as he expressed enthusiasm for his outstanding skiing experience in Northwest Canada.
George gave several Happy Dollars, happy that is back. He is recovering from a stroke which has affected his left leg. With physical therapy he should be able to regain its full use. He also noted that a story of the Pie for Brunch event appeared in Monday’s Time Argus in the Talk of the Town section.Eddie gave a Sad Dollar because he is running for City Council again and a Happy Dollar in celebration for the return of the Masters Golf Tournament.
Bob Pope added to the coffers with a Happy Dollar with something about his handicap and the Masters. Another one for a successful Spring Fling fundraiser held here at the Aldrich last Saturday night (live).
Since Last We Met
Birthday: John Steinman April 9
Club Anniversary: Carol Dawes April 8, 1997 28 years
On this day in history: In
1865 Confederate General
Robert E. Lee and 26,765 troops surrendered at Appomattox Court House to U.S. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Civil War in Northern Virginia.
Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
Eddie announced that our Club will participate in the Annual Egg Hunt at the BOR from 9-11 on Saturday, April 19th. We will sponsor an egg-spoon-balancing-obstacle course contest with age appropriate groupings and award prizes to the winners. Anyone interested in volunteering to help should contact President Caroline.
He also announced that we are supporting the Central Vermont Home Health & Hospice’s free community workshop on Advance-Care Planning, Wednesday, April 16, 1:30 to 3:00PM here at the Aldrich. Eddie will be assisting.
Reclassification
“Without further ado,” President Caroline introduced our speaker for today, Rotarian Tom Babic to give a “Reclassification” talk. (What’s it like to be reclassified?) Tom began by talking about his grandparents: “Grandpa and Gramie came from Yugoslavia/Croatia via Ellis Island as teens. Drago was a blacksmith and worked for various plants including Rock of Ages.” Paperer and Memere came from Ham Sud Quebec after their property was destroyed by fire. Dedace worked initially as a “scab” during the 1920’s strike. When Pa started dating, Ma was not accepted at first because Dedace was “scab.”
His father, Rico, was born where St. Monica/St. Micheal school stands in 1915. He lived to be 100 and died of prostate cancer. His mother was 85 when she died.
Tom grew up in Montpelier and went to St. Michael's graded and high school. After high school he attended Champlain College and earned an associate degree and then went on to UVM and earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance, on his way to fulfilling a childhood dream of becoming an accountant. While at UVM, he enrolled in ROTC and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Infantry in December of 1969. He became a training officer at Fort Knox preparing troops for Vietnam. In December of 1970 he was sent to Korea for a year with a mechanized infantry unit with responsibility to patrol the DMZ. He was happy to get that assignment as the lifespan of a 2nd Lt. in Vietnam was very short.
After returning from Korea, Tom started looking for accounting jobs in the Montpelier, Barre and Burlington areas. He finally landed one in Burlington and worked there until
1976 when began employment with John Salvador in Barre. In 1980 he and John became partners and started Salvador and Babic and continued with the firm until 2017. Tom married Linda Tomasi, the girl whose ponytail he used to pull in grade school and the one that he serenaded with I Want to Hold Your Hand in junior high school.
They were married and honeymooned at Fort Knox. The honeymoon got off to an inauspicious start. Tom shared a trailer with another GI who was supposed to be out the trailer, but when they arrived to start their honeymoon, they found his roommate butchering a deer on the kitchen table. Not a big fan of hunting, this did go over well with Linda. One would have to assume this incident did not interfere very much with the honeymoon. Fifty-four years of marriage, four children, all living in Vermont, and seven grandchildren is clear evidence that the “deer-on-the-kitchen-table” incident didn’t have much of an impact on their marriage.
These days Tom spends his time engaged in property maintenance, following the grand kids’ sports and camping at the family camp in Chelsea. He is a member of the Barre Ski Club, the Barre Topless (sports car convertible) Club and the Tuesday Golf Group.
When they moved to the Barre Area in 1976, Tom joined the Barre JCs to meet people in the area and engage in community service. He remembers fondly of taking kids Christmas shopping for family members and wrapping gifts at a party with Santa present.
After the JCs, Jamie Milne asked Tom to join Rotary. At the time there were eighty plus members. He remembers working at the door collecting money and learning names of members. Singing was a staple at the time, usually two or three songs were sung at a meeting. He recalled one time when Governor Kunin came to a meeting and the Rotarians sang “The old gray mare ain’t what she used to be” and it became a classic. He has enjoyed Rotary very much over the years, especially for the friends that he has made and for the impact Rotary has made on the community and the world.
Tom’s talk was peppered with humor as he told stories of setting off alarms at banks that his firm was auditing, complete with law enforcement responding; investigating tax fraud and his involvement in embezzlement cases and a drug bust.
Rotarians and our guests thoroughly enjoyed Tom’s talk and showed their appreciation with a warm round of applause.
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