Los Banos Rotary Club History
Talk Fest At Rotary Dinner

Continuing a series of home talent programs by club members, Rotary program chairman R. Lindemann Tuesday noon gave Rotarians another oratorical treat with a parade of stars that included Newt Olson, C. G. Hultgren, B. A. Wilson, R. L. Puccinelli, Sheriff N. L. Corneil and County Assessor J. Emmett McNamara.

In addition, Lindemann doublecrossed his neighbor and friend, Frank Arburua, into a hot spot on the speaker’s stand, after a descriptive introduction in which he introduced the “sage of Ortiagalita Creek” as an old Indian fighter who had spent all of his life in the hills and was more or less unaccustomed to the civilized ways of a metropolitan center such as Los Banos.

And Bob Reis, Methodist church pastor, fared but little better as the program chairman conducted a one-man inquisition as to his prowess as a duck hunter. Reis ended up wearing the club’s official liar’s badge which heretofore has been worn with distinction by the program chairman himself.
Olson, as lead-off man, took the role of court jester, and his several stories offered brought hearty laughter from the crowd.

The sheriff seemingly cheered by the fact that steps are now being considered by the supervisors to replace his antiquated and overcrowded jail, said merely that he and his men manage
County Assessor McNamara took the floor for only a few moments, to say that to the average person the subject of tax assessment is just as distasteful as is the crime wave, and that he was happy to be on the west side to say Happy New Year to his friends here.

By request of the chairman, Carl Hultgren reviewed briefly his trip last summer to his native Sweden, told highlights of his experiences overseas and pictorially described the country and its people. His trip also included a journey through several of the war-torn countries to Paris, where black market conditions were at their worst. While in Sweden, Hultgren said he attended five Rotary Club meetings, with an average attendance of 125 to 150 persons, many of whom were visitors from England.

Postmaster Wilson surprised his listeners with the statement that the local post office has grown to a point where gross receipts are just under the requirements for establishment of a first class office. Receipts for the year, he said, were $5,000 more than in 1945, and almost double the total of 1940. stamp sales for Christmas cards has increased in the same proportion, with 99,000 1 ½ and 3 cent stamps being sold this year. Money order business, with $219,145.01 written during the year, surprised his listeners and rather dismayed local retailers as the postmaster explained that well over 50 per cent of this amount was sent to four national mail order houses with orders for merchandise. The local post office was established on November 10, 1873. By 1914 gross receipts were still under $8,000 a year, with three people on the payroll. Last year there were 12 regular employees, with a payroll of $30,612.16. Wilson said the reduction in rate for air mail has resulted in a 41 per cent increase in this department. Today, Wilson concluded, Los Banos has better mail service than any time previous, with 13 mails in and out of the city every day.

Robert Puccinelli, in a peppery address that was noted particularly for its fine delivery, gave expert statistical information on many subjects, including his experiences as host of the Canal Farm Inn, as a connoisseur of fine liquors, and as an authority on the olive business. It was on the latter subject that his oratory reached its height, as he boasted that his 411-tree olive orchard was the largest and oldest in this area, with a production that not only supplied his hotel with its annual requirements for stuffed, cured and processed olives and hundreds of gallons of olive oil, but also kept one of the valley’s larger olive oil mills busy for a good part of the season. During his discourse, Puccinelli liberally distributed fine samples of the foremost varieties of olives among the crowd.

December 31, 1947

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