La Societe des Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux Grande Voiture du Texas OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE GRAND du TEXAS WINNER OF THE ARTHUR MCDOWELL AWARD 1991 – 1992 – 1993 – 1994 – 1995 – 1996 - 2019 BEST GRAND VOITURE PUBLICATION IN THE NATION WITHOUT ADVERTISING AND WINNER OF THE ROBERT KASEMAN AWARD 2018
Oct - Dec 2020
Volume 63 Issue 4
FROM THE GRAND CHEF DE GARE Hello to All. Let me first introduce myself: My name is John Rodgers and I am the newly elected Grand Chef de Gare for Grand du Texas. Being installed as your new Grand Chef de Gare was a very special and emotional time for me as I wished my father and my mentor Ronnie Wheeler could have been there as well. Some of you might know me as the guy who pestered you about membership last year. We did very well last year with membership and I’m hoping for the same if not better this year. I have looked over the Grand roster. I know many got 100% goal. That was 8 out of the 13 locales. What I also saw was locales with Voyageurs with 20+ years only. This shows me that that locales are not recruiting. We need to look to the future or we will fade away and die. What I expect from all is to do their very best. I have had some said I don't think I can do as last year. If you got 100% or better last year you should be able to do it this year. As the saying goes I don't want excuses I want results. We all need to show Voiture Nationale that this past year was not just another ordinary year. In recent years we have had to close locales like lake Dallas. If you have a locale with less than 10 Voyageurs you need to start recruiting. I know recruiting is hard but it’s vital to the existence of your locale. If you need help don’t be afraid to ask. The reason for me saying this is a few WW II Veterans have told me Texas Voitures will not be around for very long. I have lost many friends and fellow veterans like my father, James P Rodgers Sr. He was a WW ll Veteran and like some of his comrades was a 43-
year member of the American Legion. I will tell you this as long as I’m on God’s green earth TEXAS WILL SURVIVE AND THRIVE. My plan this year is to visit each and every locale and not only show my face but to help each and every locale in any way I can. Not long ago I couldn't get in touch with a WWll veteran so I called to have a welfare check on him thankfully he was ok and had a problem with his phone. These are the things we need to do. Last year I sent out a resolution to James Fowler’s widow and she sent me a beautiful note of thanks. Remember we have these such things on the emblem sales webpage at www.fortyandeight.org
WISHING EVERYONE A GREAT NEW YEAR TO COME AND HOPE TO SEE YOU AT MERCI BOXCAR 2021! Well in closing all I can say is LET’S GET R DONE!
THE TEXAS VOYAGEUR NEWS IS ALSO AVAILABLE AT WWW.TEXASBOXCAR.ORG VIA OUR FACEBOOK PAGE “GRANDE VOITURE DU TEXAS” AND AT HTTP://ISSUU.COM/GRANDEVOITUREDUTEXAS
John Rodgers Grand Chef de Gare