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 Ever
since 8th grade and probably before that time, my summer months consisted
of rising prior to 6 AM and reporting to work for my father at the
distributing company at 6:30 AM. The old, dimly-lit, brick building was
cool in the summer months as well as the winter.The fact that the sun and most residents were still sleeping offered a brief moment of solitude and time to mentally prepare oneself for the physical day ahead. The very first job in the mornings after turning on the lights was to descend to the cool basement area with a pallet jack, select 16 cold kegs of beer and load them onto an elevator for loading onto the trucks. Each keg weighed about 165 lbs. I weighed in at 155. Prior to stainless steel, the kegs were aluminum, which left a black residue on any piece of clothing that was touched. In 45 minutes time, my clean uniform for the day usually appeared to be left over from the previous day’s workout. This was only the beginning to a 12- hour day of loading, driving, unloading, delivering and returning to repeat the same process over and over and over, day after day after day. To some this may appear to be a life of purgatory. However, to others it was a much-desired position of employment. The enjoyment and tremendous satisfaction from the job came in various forms. Most obvious, it was physical. It required strength, stamina, determination, dexterity and physical aptitude. Take a look around the next time you notice a beer truck pulled alongside your favorite supermarket. When you find its owner, you’ll notice that he is most likely slender and strong or beefy and burly; quite capable of handling the daily physical abuse that his body takes. However, there was another element of satisfaction that came with the day’s workout. Leaving each morning with a truckload of kegs and cases and watching as they slowly dissipated following each stop, one could visually see the progress that he was making as the day progressed. Arriving back at the warehouse, empty and tired and dirty gave one a sense of satisfaction as well as relief. It must have as I did this for 40 years. Development work required just a little adjustment; quite a bit to be exact. Here the function is much less physical (my 60-year old body could hardly handle it anyway). My attempt to demonstrate to people how charitable giving is able to provide a deep satisfaction in their lives is mostly without measure. For all I know, my efforts to explain a few intricacies of Planned Gifts might just as well be cast aside like one of those empty kegs of beer that I used to retrieve. Unlike an empty truck, there is some degree of frustration as I wonder if we are making any headway in this regard. Recently, I received two phone calls; one being from an insurance agent, another from an attorney. Both individuals were non-Catholic, dealing with Catholic clients. Each wished to know our charitable identification numbers in order to process a Planned Gift being offered by their clients. Both wished to remain anonymous and the amounts unknown. It is from these two calls that I suspect we are being heard; that some individuals are considering a gift at the end of their lives. Some, like me, must recognize that they have been blessed indeed and wish to acknowledge these blessings by gifting a portion to their community, charity, church and/or school. And, it now seems to me that this is just about as much satisfaction as the Good Lord will allow me to have as I ask for these considerations on behalf of our churches and schools. --Roy DeMars |
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BLUE
HAWK ALUMNI WATCH BIG RED
family of Phoenix. The occasion was son Ryan’s 30th birthday. Pictured
from left to right; Dan, daughter-inlaw Nicole and son, Ryan of San
Francisco; Dan’s wife Lynn Cosgrove ’63 Crowley and Fr. Liam Barr.