With a reminder the other ….
With a reminder the other day from Karie Schmidt, saying they needed early copy for the Thanksgiving issue, best I get at it. It is a little early to talk about the weather, but I can report the loss of daylight is now down to less than two minutes a day. Then, about the 7th of December, the loss becomes less than a minute and on the 22nd we’ll see it picking up a few seconds every day. That would be a sign that not only has winter started, but spring is right behind.
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It is a little early to tell if I’ve been anywhere this week, but I did venture across the Black River at the Hemlock crossing, then came back across on double OO and took a drive down Chicago Avenue for the first time since I’ve lived here.
I do find some interesting roads and I roam around. For example, there is a Madison Avenue, up in the town of Warner, which sounds just like the perfect place to live. But I’ve told the kids I’m not moving. I don’t want to clean the basement.
Another road that caught my eye one day was Back Country Road, just south of Spencer. It would be interesting to find out what brought about that name. I’ve driven on it and it doesn’t seem that Back Country to me.
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There was plenty of celebrating going on last week at Mark and Wendy’s home in Medford.Weallgetexcitedwhenanathletic team wins a trip to state competition, be it basketball, volleyball, softball, track or any other brand of sports. Well, the occasion was the swimming team, of which their daughter Morgan, is a member. So far, I can’t tell you the difference between a back stroke and a belly whopper, but I’ll probably learn. After their win at sectional the week before, the team had the fun of changing all the school records on their bulletin board, which I heard was a lot.
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Last week I was telling you about a World War II vet who attended the Farragut Naval Training Station and that my brother had also taken his boot camp training there.
I hadn’t remembered anything about the camp so I looked it up. It is located in northwestern Idaho, between Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint. It was built in 1942, the largest naval training station, besides the Great Lakes at Chicago. It was named after Admiral Farragut, the first admiral in the Navy and who served during the Civil War.
When it opened in 1942, it had a population of 55,000, making it the largest city in Idaho at the time. When it opened, three trains a day ran to Spokane and 293,000 sailors got their training there. After the war, it was used for a prisoner of war camp for German soldiers,then closed in 1946. In 1966, it became a state park.
I’ve spent some fun time in Idaho when my sister lived there, but she lived in Idaho along the Snake River. It was an interesting place they called the Magic Valley in the Twin Falls and Buhl area. I guess it was named that as it had been desert, but by adding irrigation, the growth of crops was great. My brother-in-law only farmed 40 acres as he did everything with irrigation by hand.
Sun Valley and the Crater of the moon was to the north and the Balancing Rock and 1,000 Springs was just west of Buhl.
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The other night at our Legion meeting, Commander Dale Beyer hinted on a big celebration coming up this summer. It has been 50 years since we celebrated Loyal’s Centennial, so this would make it the 150th year.
I’m hoping for another Brothers of the Brush contest as I got a pretty good start 50 years ago but lost out in “the guy who tried the hardest” category.
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I guess you could call it an historic day, as I told Jackie the 22nd marked a special day in my life. I was half way between birthdays. No longer am I just past so and so and heading toward my ____ . Whoops! I can’t tell. Let’s just say “9 D”.
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I skipped the history portion of my column last week, so this looks like a good time to catch up. On the 17th of November in 1800, Congress held their first session in the partially completed Capitol building.
On the 18th, in 1883, the railroads in the United States, at exactly noon, adopted the four continental time zones.
President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address on the 19th in 1863. Just think, before that kids in school didn’t have to memorize it.
The 20th in 1789, saw the state of New Jersey being the first to ratify the Bill of Rights.
Thomas Edison announced a new machine on the 21th in 1877. He called it the phonograph.
Back in 1871, on the 24th, the National Rifle Association would be incorporated. I wonder if the founders ever realized all the commotion that has been created by rapid-firing weapons.
On the 25th in 2002, President George W. Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security.
In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt created the modern day Thanksgiving Day and on the 27th in 1973, the Senate confirmed Gerald Ford as Vice President.
The Grand Ole Opry began broadcasting on the 28th in 1925, and on the 29th in 1963, President Johnson appointed a commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
I was shocked to see a calendar devoted to historic events to miss Nov. 22, 1963, as the day Kennedy was assassinated. That is one of those days that I will always remember and what I was doing that day. I surprised my dentist one time when I told him exactly how old my partials were. I had just had impressions made that morning and when I got home, Florence met me at the door and said to hurry, Kennedy had just been shot.
In between that day and the funeral our television broke down and we spent the day of his funeral at the neighbors watching it all take place.
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Last week I was picking on the Congressman from Ohio who likes to bring attention to himself by going without his suit jacket. Does he think he looks tougher without it? Well, today he really blew it and showed how ignorant he is. He tried claiming the President was elected by the people. Not so, he was elected by the Electoral College. Actually, Clinton was the winner by some three million votes. But I suppose that is many as we have now gone a trillion dollars further in debt, lead there by you know who.
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Just enough space to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. I know it is the official day, but I thank the Lord for every day I’m still alive and enjoying life as anyone going on “9 D” can be.
