Imagine working with a largely volunteer group of 16 committee members in deciding details of an annual dinner for more than 300 at which various organizations would be assembling 36 different items for a live auction and more than that number of items for a silent auction. How many planning meetings would that take?

    If you were involved in last Friday’s 11th annual Delaware 4-H Foundation dinner at the Felton Volunteer Fire House, that answer would be zero. No meetings at all in the usual sense were held by the two 4-H staff members and 14 4-H volunteers.

    How could that be?

    Doug Crouse, whose position is that of a 4-H educator, explained to the 16 who attended the Friday night dinner that a one-hour telephone conference call did it all. And I have never seen a dinner and auction organized better.

    As Doug said later when I asked him about it, over the years the dinner procedures have been refined to the point where it is possible to spare busy people from having to attend a series of planning sessions.

    “It’s like a fine-tuned engine now,” he said, adding that “the committee members look on it as a fun event.”

    Even accepting Doug’s modest explanation of how the dinner and auction operate, it still is a record I would guess many other organizations in the county and elsewhere would be glad to emulate.

    This is not forgetting, of course, the hundreds of 4-H people, families and members, plus businesses and interested citizens, who help in making the event a success.

    The only sad note of the evening was recognizing the deaths during the past year of two outstanding 4-H leaders, Marion MacDonald and Joy Sparks. Bouquets of flowers were placed in the chairs where these two women would have sat.

    Again the members of the Felton Fire Company’s Ladies Auxiliary, assisted by the men, turned out a terrific meal featuring fried oysters as only they can prepare them. The dinner always starts on time, the food is distributed on the long tables in two or three minutes family style, and everyone concentrates on eating. All the foods — dumplings and mashed potatoes and beans and rolls and more — are delicious.

    The 10 dinners previous to Friday’s meal and auction had raised $140,000 for the 4-H Foundation and the total for this 11th evening added another $18,000 to that number.

    In Kent County the 4-H clubs involve nearly 1,000 young people, and their many programs and events affect the lives of many more.

    The auctioneering was fast, professional and entertaining, with Herb Kenton and Bruce Betts again doing the honors as they have in the past.

*****

    Although the New York Times has its detractors, there is certainly something special about being on the front page of that famous newspaper. And on Sunday Delaware’s former senator and now the nation’s vice president, Joe Biden, was the subject not only of a favorable story but was in three photos “above the fold,” the prime location for whatever news the paper carries.

    The caption for Joe’s three poses was: “The influence Vice President Biden has wielded in the debate on Afghan war policy is a signal of his stature in the administration.”

    The headline itself was: “Speaking Freely, Sometimes, Biden Finds Influential Role.”

    It appears that Biden is making his position as vice president just what he hoped it would be. He certainly must be pleased.

*****

    The Kent County Theatre Guild’s current production, “Social Security,” is funny. We enjoyed it and so did the rest of the full audience at the Patchwork Playhouse.

    Two performances remain, Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m.

*****

    We were in a hotel dining room the other day and I ordered a cup of tea with my meal. The waiter brought an attractive container with little boxes holding one teabag each. I picked an Earl Grey box and made the tea with a small pitcher of hot water brought to the table.

    The tea was fine but when the bill came I did a double take at the price. It was $4. Needless to say, I won’t be having tea there again.

    That brings to mind the prices of various coffees in today’s economy. A cup at one of the best-known purveyors of fine coffee is up to the $3 or $4 range. Those coffees aren’t selling quite as well now.

    Going back to my high school years of working at an A&P, once the biggest grocery chain in the nation, I can remember when there were three brands of coffee sold. These were coffees ground to your order. The least expensive, Eight O’Clock, was two pounds for 27 cents; the middle brand, Red Circle, was two pounds for 29 cents; and the premium brand, Bokar, was two pounds for 31 cents.

    Times have changed.

*****

    Twelve tenors and a baritone were climbing Mount Everest and they fell into a deep crevasse. All of them managed to hold on to the rope but it was clear the rope would not be able to hold all 13 of them.

    They decided that one man would have to let go of the rope.

    So the baritone said, “Okay, I’m only a baritone. There are so many baritones but only a few tenors. The music world cannot afford to lose you, so I’ll sacrifice myself to save your lives.”

    And all the tenors then applauded and fell to their deaths!