The Procrastinators Club existed just for laughs. It made a virtue of the human foible of putting things off as long as possible. It was the brainchild of advertising man Les Waas.
Formed in 1956 with Waas as president, the club postponed putting off election of new officers forever. “We haven’t gotten around to holding our 1957 election yet,” Waas explained in 1974.
Perhaps, the most amusing project of the Procrastinators was a trip to London to picket the Whitechapel Bell Foundry to protest a defective bell sold to Philadelphia in 1752 – the Liberty Bell.
About 40 members. took the 1976 trip. Naturally, one member missed, the flight and forgot his passport. The firm which cast the bell more than 224 years earlier blamed the defective bell on “careless handling by the colonials after its arrival in Philadelphia.”.
The club sponsored a bus trip to New York’s World Fair the year after it closed. Only two buildings were open to the public. "We avoided the long lines,” boasted Waas.
They ate lunch at 6 p.m.
They marched against the War of 1812 while others were marching against the war in Vietnam.
The winter ski trip to the Poconos was held in August.
And its 4th of July picnic was held in January, indoors at the Latin Casino night club.
Picnickers arrived in shorts and bathing suits, sat on artificial turf while waiters served cold hot dogs and hamburgers.
A free club membership was awarded in 1974 to a Penn student for returning a book to the library that had been taken out by someone in 1905.