Bill Russ: Happy 86th birthday from your friends at New Community Church

We got a tip that the members of New Community Church in Menlo Park were planning a drive-by birthday parade in celebration of parishioner Bill Russ’s 86th birthday today. And what fun it was!

Bill has contributed rainfall reports for InMenlo since the very beginning and it’s been fun to get to know Bill and wife Sally through not only the email about latest percipitation but also on various walks around Menlo Park over the years.

Bill has called Menlo home since 1952, and he and his wife Sally have lived in their current home, where the rainfall gauge is located, for 54 years. He started measuring rainfall because, he says, “It’s something old guys do.” Initially he had a network of buddies that he compared recordings with but with the passage of time, that group has shrunk, largely due to inevitable transitions.

For those who are not liturgically minded, today is Pentecost, the Christian festival celebrating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus after his Ascension, held on the seventh Sunday after Easter. It seems a fitting day to celebrate the spirit of people’s good hearts!

Photos by Linda Hubbard (c) 2020