We all met again at Bill and Earline's house and drove to the RR Donnelley printing plant in Salem to tour the facility. Bill worked for the company for 28 years and was our window of opportunity into this fascinating industry. The plant is high tech and state of the art and fully focussed on efficiency; yet we were shown around by two senior staff members as if they had nothing else in the world to do. We followed the printing of a hard-cover book from stock paper to coffee table, so to speak, and, from now on, we have all agreed that we will have a deeper appreciation for the work and craftmanship that went into producing it.
We presented to the Rotary Club of Salem at noon, and were warmly received. The club is the second largest in the district, and has a very active membership.
After lunch, we were taken to the Taubman Museum of Art. The architecture is futuristic and 'divisive', in that you either love it or hate it. (We were impressed!) The museum currently hosts several collections and the works range from classic in style to what appears to be the hallusonogenic scribblings of psychiatric patients during therapy sessions. Of course, art is a matter of opinion, and even in the wrtings of the Spanish poet, Miguel De Cervantes, we read: "Good painters imitate, bad ones regurgitate."
The evening was spent at the Rotary Club of Roanoke, one of the oldest in the district, and quite "posh" to say the least. Dinner was delicious and the guest speaker (not us) addressed the issues around the financial bank crisis in America and concluded by saying that economists are positive because the majority of the financial institutions in America are "just too big to fail". Funny how familiar that sounds: from David and Goliath to the Titanic, we hear echoes...
We presented to the Rotary Club of Salem at noon, and were warmly received. The club is the second largest in the district, and has a very active membership.
After lunch, we were taken to the Taubman Museum of Art. The architecture is futuristic and 'divisive', in that you either love it or hate it. (We were impressed!) The museum currently hosts several collections and the works range from classic in style to what appears to be the hallusonogenic scribblings of psychiatric patients during therapy sessions. Of course, art is a matter of opinion, and even in the wrtings of the Spanish poet, Miguel De Cervantes, we read: "Good painters imitate, bad ones regurgitate."
The evening was spent at the Rotary Club of Roanoke, one of the oldest in the district, and quite "posh" to say the least. Dinner was delicious and the guest speaker (not us) addressed the issues around the financial bank crisis in America and concluded by saying that economists are positive because the majority of the financial institutions in America are "just too big to fail". Funny how familiar that sounds: from David and Goliath to the Titanic, we hear echoes...
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