Some thing's amiss, Lads! I do believe we have over one hundred and twenty (give or take a couple of bodies laying around someplace) active members of this chapter and yet is seems we are having less and less participation by our group. The last meeting netted about thirty-eight (or maybe forty) courageous souls, but this time we barely pushed twenty-five. At this rate, the only people showing up will be the Chapter Officers and the die-hard beer drinkers.

At any rate, those of us that did show up for this gala event were wowed by the continuous war stories (there will always be war stories), an evening at the American Legion and the great dinner created by none other than "Le Chef de Kitchen", Carlos Shepherd, who cooked a fantastic, as Jim Hash put it, "Long Chicken". Of course, most of us have never heard of "Long Chicken" but that's okay, we survived. If you need clarification on the "Long Chicken" you'll have to get with Jim.

But the most interesting and captivating part of the evening was the Auction. Since the Chief Auctioneer was AWOL, the President made the decision to send in the backup, direct from Auctioneer School. This charismatic and talented School Trained Auctioneer was none other than your humble Web Master, Chuck James. I usually disdain using bravado, but I did give an outstanding performance and wheeled and dealed the items away. I auctioned the stuff and Ken took in the money. If there's a discrepancy between what was auctioned and was collected, you know who to see.

Sunday morning was a day of departure from the Château and beautiful downtown Cleveland, Tennessee. Not to be seen again for another three months.

I must apologize for not having pictures to present with this narrative. Pictures were taken, but they were delivered to National and our assistant cameraman failed to make backup copies for me. You're mad! What about me? I'll never be in the auctioneer limelight again…