Sunfield Area SPY's Report---10/8/09

The Fabulous 50's/60's Dance Is This Saturday!!!

It's happening this Saturday night, October 10th.! The utterly fantastic Sunfield Area SPY's 50's/60's/70's Dance returns for its thirtieth-third smash year. We've got some pretty neat stuff in store for you again this year. You won't want to miss it! The dance is being held at the American Legion Hall in Charlotte. Doors open at 7 PM. There will be a great live band---the legendary between band sets "acts" this year featuring some great new “talent”; return of the Lee Sisters; the Blues Brothers---the usual high energy special classic SPY music---and much, much more. Tickets are still just $10 per person in advance and $15 at the door. Soft drinks, mix and a munchie buffet are all furnished. There will be a cash bar available. Tickets are available from any of the following:

* Juaise Peabody 566-8547
* Janet Keefer 649-8878
* Denny or Luanne Shoemaker 566-8391
* Joel or Deb McDowell 616-374-7705
* Craig or Jackie Mulholland 566-8859
John or Sandy Fisher 566-8278

Special Note: For people traveling to the dance that will be coming from the West and going down M-50---turn South when you get to Wheaton Road, (it's a paved road), and take it until it runs into M-79, (also known as Lawrence Highway), turn left and the American Legion Hall is right there on your left. This route is much shorter and will save you the trouble of going through Charlotte.
“Nickels for Noodles”
Benefit For Neil McDiarmid Planned

Neil “Noodles” McDiarmid was in a bad accident recently. He underwent brain surgery and now has a plate in his head. He is doing very well now, but Neil was laid off and didn’t have any insurance at the time of the accident. His Hospital and Aero Med bills total more than most people make in a year! So, a benefit is being held to, hopefully, raise enough money to help put a dent in his bills.

On Saturday, October 24th, at the Farmer’s Tavern & Steakhouse in downtown Mulliken, there will be a Spaghetti Dinner from 4:00-6:00 pm - Cost per plate is by donation. Take out will be available. Other activities will include:

Silent Auction & Bake Sale ends at 7:00 pm
Euchre Tournament starts at 6:00 pm $10 per person
50/50 Drawings
Live Entertainment
Also, bring your pesky unwanted Nickels to put in the Pickle Jar….Let’s see how many we can fill!!!

Any questions please contact Shasta Wheeler at 616-299-7696, or by email wheelercs@att.net
News Briefs

* The Sunfield Area Sponsors of Programs for Youth would like to acknowledge a couple of recent contributions to the Scholarship Fund or the Youth Activities Trust Fund. They came in from the following fine folks---

+ Oren & Rosie Best made donations in memory of Ila Cheal and Kathryn Guy.

+ John & Sandra Fisher gave in memory of Linda Sandborn.

We thank you for using this means to help us help kids!

* Trivia Question-Of-The-Week: Who made George Washington’s false teeth? (Answer later in this column).

* Thought #1: When in doubt, just take the next small step.

* Congratulations go out to a couple of successful big game hunters---Dick “Dead-Eye” Fender and
Nate “Lefty-Loosie” Kovalchik on their bagging a couple of bears during an Up-North hunt recently.
(Dick’s was a 240 pounder). Dick and Nate were part of a local hunting safari led by “Bwana” Buddy
Collins with assistance from his loyal minion “The Ludington Licker”. Many, many stories have come
out of this excursion. Why Dick alone can go on for days and make you ears numb passing along
his patented tips for hunting the big ones.

* Mapes Furniture is having a fantastic Harvest Sale this month. Stop in and check it out.

* Andy Woodman’s Sports Trivia Question-Of-The-Week: Who was the only professional baseball manager to suffer All-Star game losses in both leagues-----was it Connie Mack---Jimmy Z---Sparky Anderson---Casey Stengel---or Leo Durocher? (Answer later in this column)

* The next meeting of the Sunfield Area SPY’s will be held on Tuesday, October 20th.; at the Sunfield Library; starting at 7 PM. Guests are always welcome! Pass the word and be there!

* “Honest Roy’s” Quote-Of-The-Week: “I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given
Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.”


* The “Sports Trivia Just For Ward ‘Smarty-Pants’ Mac Cready Question-Of-The-Week: Who were the Indianapolis Clowns and who was their most famous player? (Answer later in this column).

* Swede’s Groaner Corner: A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.

* HELP WANTED: We are looking for some volunteers to do a shift or two at our upcoming Texas Hold ‘Em event at Trippers in Frandor on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, October 12th. thru 14th. The tasks you will be doing involve selling chips; doing table rakes; and some light paperwork). We only need 2 people per shift to run things. Give our event chairman Sam Coan a call at 566-7182 and let him know you’d like to help.

* Thought #2: When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

* Have you heard about all of the excitement and drama that took place at the Sunfield IGA recently? It seems that a clean-out cap had come off a drain line outside of the store and somehow a kitten had crawled in. Passers-by heard the mewing and reported it to Eric Wegener, who immediately leapt into action. He was unable to reach in and extricate the kitten, but Eric was very successful at gathering a crowd of on-lookers. At one point the count was up to around 25. No one could reach into the pipe far enough to get the cat. Other strategies were explored. Village Maintenance Director Ken Merryfield was called---then it was discovered that County Animal Control was in town and a call went out---the Fire Department was called in for a consult---two Eaton County deputies happened by and were drawn in due to the size of the gathering crowd. The story does have a happy ending. The cat was rescued---Ken Merryfield traced the line---opened a manhole----one fireman climbed into the manhole while the other shot a stream of water from the open clean-out---the kitten was flushed---the fireman in the manhole caught it---all is well. Amy Patrick volunteered to adopt the little guy. She gave it the name “Storm”. It’s middle name is “Drain”. Life goes on.

* First call! The thirtieth annual Sunfield Area SPY's poker competition, officially known as "The Bill 'Moose' Fisher Memorial All World International Poker Championship", will be held on Saturday, December 5th. Here are the details for this event:

+ To be held at Fish's Card Room
+ Sign-in is from 7 to 7:30 PM
+ Entry fee is $20 (which includes raffle tickets, the special “knock-out chip”, and $10 in chips)
+ BYOB and/or pop
+ Munchies, etc are furnished

Please Note: All would-be participants in the competition must pre-register prior to the event by contacting John Fisher at 566-8278. The competitive field will be limited strictly to the first 30 to register in advance. This pre-registration requirement applies to everyone! ALSO, please be advised that, since 117 different people have participated in this competition over the years, there is a priority order applied to registrations. Slots will be filled in accordance with the following “pecking-order”. If there are any slots left open after Saturday, October 17th. at Noon, they will be filled on a first come first served basis with people on the waiting list.

“Pecking Order”

(1) Any dues paid up member of the SPY’s or Corporate or Platinum Sponsor.

(2) Any guest of a dues paid up member of the SPY’s or Corporate or Platinum Sponsor, providing the guest has played in the competition before.

(3) Anyone that has played in the competition before that is not included in 1 or 2 above.

(4) Anyone else wishing to participate.


* Louie “Trouble-Shooter” Trowbridge’s Tip-Of-The-Week: Emails claiming to be from the IRS – Beware! Over the past year, taxpayers have been receiving numerous emails of various types claiming to be from the IRS and asking for detailed personal and financial information.

Recently a number of people have received an email with the subject “Notice of Underreported Income”. These emails claim that you have unreported income and ask to review tax statement on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website by clicking on link included in email.

Please be aware that the IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through e-mail.
IRS never sends out unsolicited e-mails or asks for detailed personal and financial information via email. Never respond, do not open any attachments or click on any links in email purporting to be from the IRS!

Forward all questionable emails claiming to be from the IRS to phishing@irs.gov and after you forward the e-mail or header information to IRS, delete the message.

* Trivia Question-Of-The-Week Answer: Paul Revere

* Andy Woodman’s Sports Trivia Question-Of-The-Week Answer: Sparky Anderson

* The “Sports Trivia Question Just For ‘Smarty-Pants’ Mac Cready Question-Of-The-Week Answer: The Indianapolis Clowns were a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. They began operation in Cincinnati in 1943, and operated between Cincinnati and Indianapolis in 1944 and 1945 before officially moving in 1946. While still fielding a legitimate team, the Clowns also toured with several members known for comic acts - sort of a baseball version of the Harlem Globetrotters. After the decline of the Negro Leagues, the team continued operations on barnstorming tours into the 1960s. The Clowns' best known player was Hank Aaron, who played for them in 1952 before being sold for $10,000 to the Boston Braves organization.

The Clowns were the first professional baseball team to hire a female player. Toni Stone played second base with the team in 1953, in which she batted .243. After many years of operation as a barnstorming team, the Clowns finally disbanded around 1988.

* To find out more about the SPY’s organization, download forms or applications, or catch-up on past issues of the “Dirt Sheet”, go to the SPY’s website at www.sunfieldspys.org.

* MDLI