Goddesschess' Ninth Anniversary Celebration!

Jan Newton
August, 2008

It hadn't been planned and was a rather impromptu get-together. The intent was to "save money" for next year - our Tenth Anniversary, which we intend to do up in a big way.

But in March I noticed that Midwest Airlines was having a sale on select airfares, and I notified Isis. Before we knew it, Isis and Michelle had reservations for my hometown and Don was coming too.

Don arrived on July 18th, Isis and Michelle on July 22nd.

We didn't travel far from my backyard this year. We did some local shopping, had a scrumptious dinner at Olive Garden one afternoon after visiting Southridge Mall, did some local sight-seeing, and spent a lot of time on the deck in my backyard. We cooked in and cooked out on the grill, and watched several movies on DVD. It was relaxing and refreshing. On July 26th Isis and Michelle headed to Atlanta and thence by bus to Tennessee to visit friends, and had their own separate adventures travelling to and fro on Greyhound (leave the driving to us...) Don headed back home on July 28th. (Photos: Don at Tripoli Shrine Temple; Jan, Isis and Michelle at Jan's house).

We discussed Goddesschess business. With the advent of Random Round-up and the Goddesschess Blog, our message board at Delphi died (although it had been moribund for a long time beforehand). I suggested we take it offline after saving all of the posts (like we did with the old Art Bell message board posts, creating "The Weave" at Goddesschess), but we did not reach agreement on this. I also made some suggestions about "Chesstique." We did not reach a consensus about Chesstique either. We are agreed, though, on continuing our latest efforts to support local chess events in the areas where we live, where relatively modest monetary contributions for prizes can have a big impact on local chessplayers, and to continue funding our annual prize for the U.S. Women's Chess Championship.

One beautiful morning all of us headed out to visit the Tripoli Shrine Temple near downtown Milwaukee, which is open to the public and also available for rental for special occasions.

The Temple is an architectural replica of the famous Taj Mahal in India, but it is made out of brick, not marble. The original proportions are identical to the Taj Mahal and the Temple's dome is visible from many vantage points in the city. It is a local landmark and also on the National Register of Historic Places. The dome is a masterpiece of tile mosaic work on the outside and on the inside - wait until you see our photos! I wish we could do the Temple justice. (This photo is from the Shriners website and gives an idea of its scope and scale).

We received an escorted tour of the Temple and what we had originally thought would be about a 20 minute visit lasted about 2 1/2 hours! Our tour guide was Arnie Garber, who was celebrating his 53rd wedding anniversary when we visited on July 21, 2008. Arnie was a trainer with the Milwaukee Bucks organization between 1968 to 1978, and in the early part of his career played semi-pro football with the American Football League. He is loquacious and quite knowledgeable about the Shriners Temple and gave us a comprehensive tour of the parts of the Temple that are open to the public, with a running dialogue about the history of the Temple, its construction, its early and later membership, and its many artifacts and their history. We had a great time. Thanks, Arnie! We hope you and Mrs. Garber had a wonderful anniversary celebration.

(Photo> Arnie Garber on the left, Isis against the rail, Don, and Michelle in the foreground. This photo was taken in the upstairs gallery area that has entrances to the music room, business rooms, and meeting rooms (which we did not tour. The gallery is accessible from the ground floor by a grand staircase and in addition to original wall sconces and chandeliers, the area is lit from natural light from the dome above and large windows overlooking a landing on the grand staircase).

The Shriners (who are Masons) are a great organization, supporting 22 dedicated childrens' hospitals in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Arnie told us that Shriners hospitals for children are totally free for the patients accepted for treatment, regardless of financial resources. According to the Shriners internal news magazine, Tattler (July, August 2008) [I picked up a copy at the Temple], in 2007 Shriners Hospitals for Children approved 39,454 new patient applications and cared for 125,125 patients. Over the past 86 years, their hospitals have provided medical care at no charge to more than 865,000 children with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate. Specialized medical and rehabilitative services are provided to children with congenital deformities and conditions, orthopedic injuries, and diseases of the neuromusculoskeletal system. Some of the most commonly treated disorders include clubfoot, limb deficiencies and discrepancies, scoliosis (curvature of the spine), osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease), juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, and orthopedic problems related to spina bifida, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy. The orthopedic hospitals in Chicago, Philadelphia and Sacramento, California also provide spinal cord injury rehabilitation. The hospitals in Boston, Cincinnati, Galveston, Texas and Sacramento are also woldwide leaders in burn research and treatment.

The Shriners support their hospitals through various fund-raising events around the country and through direct funding by members. You might be familiar with the Shriners through various football games (such as East-West game). This year's Midwest Shrine Game will be the Packers v. Titans on August 28, 2008! A Big Ride is set for August 23, 2008 at the Great Lakes Dragway (Union Grove, Wisconsin) to benefit Shriners' charities. The Shriners also host the annual Tripoli Shrine Circus in Milwaukee and thousands of vouchers are handed out each year to provide free admission to children accompanied by adults.

Photo galleries of thumbnail images of our summer get-together:
Photo Gallery I
Photo Gallery II