Anyone out there want to donate their old golf clubs to my youth golf team? I’ll pay the Fed-Ex charges. Just e-mail me (dave@backwoodshome.com) with your mailing address and I’ll ship you a pre-paid mailing label so you can FedEx the items to us.

I’ve been trying to think of an easier way to raise funds for the youth golf club, and it occurred to me that a lot of people probably have old, but good, golf clubs stuffed away in their attic. I do — or did — until I brought them into the team room, which is part of the BHM office building. If some of you have golf clubs you no longer use, we would put them to good use.

A pertinent story: A high school freshman member of our team loves to Tee-off with my TaylorMade R7, L-flex driver. He, like me, has a fairly slow swing (he because he is young and I because I am old) so the L-flex suits his swing. I’ve been letting him work a few hours here and there at the magazine stacking boxes and sweeping floors so he can save up and buy the club, which probably costs $75-$100 at a golf shop because the club is a couple of years old.

But it occurred to me that once he gets that club, he’s going to realize that now he needs some good wedges, maybe a good 3-wood he can hit. The proper clubs are important to an aspiring young golfer. Crummy clubs often lead to crummy performance and a loss of interest in the game. So I thought I’d solicit clubs, beginning here.

An abundance of clubs would serve two purposes:

(1) The kids could try the various clubs every Wednesday when we play at the local course and see which ones fit their swing.
(2) We could sell some of the clubs to raise funds, probably taking other clubs in on trade and resell them.

We’d make the kids pay for the clubs they like, giving them a steep discount and letting them work at the magazine or a couple of other businesses in town that have decided this youth golf club is a good idea. Simply giving free stuff to kids does not foster self-reliance.

Anyway, if you’ve got clubs, I’ll take them and I’ll pay the freight. If they’re real good clubs, you could probably talk me into giving you a free subscription or renewal to the magazine. I’m easy!

Share or Bookmark

Notice the government cancelled the social security “cost of living adjustment” for next year.  I said they would do this in my Issue No. 117 editorial. The government says cancellation of the automatic increase, which is the first time they’ve done so in 34 years, is justified because of falling consumer prices. I doubt old folks will agree that their costs have gone down. They spend a disproportionate amount of their limited incomes on food and medicine.

Old folks are going to be in for a rough decade or two or three with social security. There’s not enough money! I’ve been saying it for 40 years. This is how it will be payed for: Cut the social security cost of living increases and let inflation (it might be a year off) do its work.

“Screw the old folks,” a lot of people will say. “They set the social security system up for eventual failure and now they will reap what they have sown.”

It’s a cruel world!

Share or Bookmark

Whether or not we get a swine flu vaccine shot in Oregon may become a moot point real soon. Swine flu is overrunning my area of southern Oregon, yet local health officials say they think the swine flu vaccine shots are still several weeks off. In about a week, county health officials will begin administering the nasal spray for kids.

Much of the local youth population has already begun building antibodies to the swine flu by having contracted the mild version of it. I believe all my kids and grandkids may have already had it, since all have had flu-like symptoms and doctors here say at least 99% of the flu locally is swine flu. About a quarter of the local grammar school population was home sick just a few days ago. Swine flu has come on much more rapidly than anyone expected. We’re fortunate most cases have been mild so far.

My pregnant daughter, Annie, the managing editor of BHM, has still not gotten swine flu, and she is in the highest risk category for complications from it. So that is still a worry. Yesterday she and I got our regular flu shots. Regular flu season is still about a month away.

Share or Bookmark