View From The Bridge 11/2/2011

“VIEW from the BRIDGE”
By Muncie
11/2/11

E.M.T.
What a proud name to be called…Emergency Medical Technician. A call is going out for community and civic-minded people to volunteer. There is a real need in our community and in Chouteau County now. Many technicians have retired these past few years after twenty and thirty years as an E.M.Ts. They deserve to retire. However, someone needs to take his or her place.

If you can function under very demanding conditions, then you are the person they need. I will not say it is at all easy. You meals are often disturbed, you are awakened in the middle of the night, and during the day while you are at your job. Your employer understands what the priority is and we are grateful for that. One E.M.T. was called away from their child’s Christmas play. That must have been a difficult one to handle.

When you arrive at the scene, you never know what you are going to find. Automobile accidents can be gruesome. Doctors and Nurses are accustomed to such sights but for a first time E.M.T., it is the turning point. It is a very self-sacrificing volunteer job and sometimes without even a thank-you. Mostly though, there are thank-you letters in the River Press.

There is a Training Session beginning next month. Sign up now to do the most important volunteering that you could ever do for your community. It is time to say again that you are really needed now. There are Angels among us and I know that they are EMT’s and Volunteer Fire Fighters. We do not know who they are unless we have an incident when they are called to help us. You never know when you might need them. Look for details in the River Press.

C.C.P.A. SUDS ‘N SUDS
Two teachers from Stevensville put this show together. Incredible. It compared with a Broadway production. What great singing voices they had and their harmony was so perfectly blended.

I did not get an opportunity to ask them the hundred questions I had. I would like to know how long it took them to put the story line together. I would like to know how many hours they spend practicing their lines and their singing? I would like to know how long they have been doing their show?

Well, I just had many of my questions answered. I went on the Inter-Net and put in Suds ‘N Suds Montana Performers. Both Cara and Beth have very interesting backgrounds. No wonder they sing as they do. It was not an amateur production. It was professional all the way.

If you would like to know more about them, go to www.Suds’NSuds and be inspired about a dream that two women had come true.

C.C.P.A.
Another performing arts show is scheduled on November 8th featuring Andre Floyd and Dave Griffith. Andre is called a truly gifted product of Montana. He not only is a popular musician but he is a renowned promoter of concerts and producer of CD’s for other artists. He is musician and businessman. I wonder what he does to keep busy.

Dave is a musician who plays the sax, keyboard, pedal steel, guitar, mandolin, and more…often at the same time. You have to see it to believe it. Perhaps you have seen him before as he played with Michael Martin Murphey, Rob Quist, and Jack Gladstone. Dave played with Jack Gladstone a couple of weeks ago at the Myrna Loy Theatre to introduce Jack’s new album. Dave was a part of that album as well as our grandson Grayson’s 4th grade class in Helena’s Jefferson School’s Honor Choir. They sang 10 songs with Jack.

When Jack introduced Dave, he told us that Dave was a 10-year cancer survivor. He is an inspiration to everyone that meets him or hears his music. I really believe that music is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, healers of mind and soul.

VETERANS PHOTOS
Next Sunday afternoon is the “Big Hanging Party.” Pam Schoonover took charge of having the gold labels made for each picture and Mary Zanto and I will be putting them on the photos on Tuesday at the Overholser Research Center.

I have plenty of “picture hangers” I hope that I am not hanging myself when I say that on Veterans Day, the 11th, you can go to the Sunrise Bluffs and view the display. There are about 175 photos.

The biographies and autobiographies are not completed. Those who volunteered and I will complete those during those long winter months when you cannot get out of your door because of the snow. (That is only a scenario Folks.) Actually, what I mean is that there is a little more time since we do not have gardens to tend and other outside work.

As much as I would rather be doing that…I have no control over the weather. The weather controls us doesn’t it? I can handle the snow but not the ice. We old timers dare not fall in fear of breaking an arm or leg bone or worse…a hip fracture. Now…how did I get from hanging photos to winter weather problems?

PARAPROSDOKION
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a workstation.

SO LONG FOR NOW
I am adding another sentence to the end of the View this week. Besides GOD BLESS AMERICA AND OUR TROOPS, I ask that you to BUY AMERICAN. Check your labels to see where everything you purchase is made. Let’s get our Americans back to work.