December 12, 2016
STROUDSBURG, PA—December 12, 2016
Good news from the Skyline School is that the Christmas program on Thursday night was a great success. Thanks go to the Skyline students, Mrs. Casper, Mrs. Coonts and Mrs. Downs and to the community for coming out to support our school. (Some grandparents were so excited about the program that they showed up a week early.) More good news comes from teacher Terri Ryan who posted the following: “Who was that woman with the no-bake cookie hanging out of her mouth, waving mail, and leaping wildly over to her friend Mrs. Hicks’ office? Yes, it was me and I’m still flying high. The wonderful Justin J. Watt Foundation sent a check for $3929 for our middle school archery program to get some much needed equipment! 🙂 I’m so thankful I put in the time to write the grant and that they approved it. That’s a great way to start a Monday.” Mrs. Ryan is a Skyline Champion!
Wednesday was a nice day for Ethel of Omo. It was her birthday. She had celebrated early and had rolls thrown at her at Lamberts and then went on a fine shopping spree for Pioneer Woman dinner ware complete with champagne glasses. Dawn Henson said, “Thanks for all the birthday wishes! I had a great day!” Hopes are that Amanda Mastin of the Honky Tonk Clothiers up in Springfield will have a good day on the 16th. Olivia and Leo will be sure that she does. Loretta Upshaw was busy on the 12th responding to happy birthday wishes.
The Prominent Girlfriend said, “You can quote me on this: Spring starts March 20th and it can’t be too soon.” Her friends agree. A couple of farmers share a common problem. Their farm work gets them dirty. Not just dirty, but stinky dirty. Just to pop back in the house for a moment requires a lot of disrobing and boot removal. This has to be done outside because they can stink up a house in no time. One of them has a chair in the garage where he can sit to put his boots back on, but those boots get cold out there. These gentlemen farmers have each built a new house in recent times. The houses are lovely and well appointed….each only lacking a heated mud room. A number of remedies have been suggested including a temporary heated structure on the porch. Of course, none of this would be necessary if the farmer’s wives and children could stand it. Compromise is a delicate balance and it either stinks or it does not. Before the winter is over a solution will be found or they will have learned to live with it.
A trip to town for country people this time of the year brings surprises. There are new houses stuck off in the woods and houses that we had forgotten were there are revealed to show us again that the country is more densely populated than a summertime drive would suggest. A night time arrival at the Philadelphia airport is enough to stagger the imagination with lights as far as the eye can see in every direction. By comparison, Douglas County is very dark. A trip along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the Nation’s oldest turnpike, is exciting from the back seat. In 1776, the British were in Philadelphia and the French were in Pittsburgh. The British needed to move a great number of troops, cannon, and material of war those 300 miles in order to defeat the French. They had to build a road. The turnpike pretty much follows that path. The exit for Valley Forge brought to mind the six month encampment of the Continental Army in the winter of 1777-1778. “Naked and starving as they are we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery,” said General George Washington, February 16, 1778. * Winter has descended on North Dakota. A blizzard swept through the state earlier this week, shutting down nearly 300 miles of interstate highway there. The weather does not promise to relent in the coming months. In the midst of it all, many people remain at the temporary camps on the northern edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. And now, with an eye toward the impending winter weather, they are being asked to go home. They say they are home. They are soldiers protecting water. In these amazingly tumultuous days the words of Thomas Paine seem applicable: “Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and repulse it.” The Crisis may be defined differently depending upon your point of view. There are 538 people with the fate of the election in their hands. A new project to give free legal counsel to faithless electors is being offered by a Harvard Law School professor. The Fat Lady will do her singing on December 19th.
A gracious host asks, “Have you unmet needs?” Seldom seen family in a festive mood, with much laughter and wonderful food and a comfortable bed are gifts indeed. Conversations stray from old family history to the new world order and to references to George Orwell. Children’s antics lighten the mood and everyone figures that things are going to settle down and become sensible again. Send your sensible notions to champion@championnews.us and look at www.championnews.us for a glimpse of a well ordered pleasant place in the world. David Richardson shared a video there that he made on the occasion of the Grand Opening of the Recreation of the Historic Emporium back in October, 2011. The music will lift any spirit. Find there also a stirring rendition of “America the Beautiful” as played by the U.S. Marine Band of 1953. The last verse says, “O beautiful, for patriot dream/ That sees beyond the years/ Thine alabaster cities gleam/ Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed His grace on thee/ And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!
