View From The Bridge 2/8/2012

“VIEW from the BRIDGE”
By Muncie
2-8-12

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Happy Birthday Effie Johnson. What a journey you must have had to get to your 90th birthday. I know that the whole community of Fort Benton wishes you a very wonderful day. You are now on another journey to your 100th birthday.

A CALL FROM PA
Each Sunday evening, when I sit at my computer, I think about, “What am I going to write about for this weeks View From The Bridge?” Some weeks, like the last couple of weeks, there are many events happening. Other weeks, like this past week, it was quiet and uneventful. All morning I was thinking about this weeks View, when the phone rang. The call was from Jo Sorkness who now lives in Pennsyvania. She is a former teacher in the Fort Benton Elementary School system and taught for about 35 years. She still subscribes to the River Press; however, it does not appear in her mailbox for two to three weeks after the printing date. She had just received the January 18th edition and saw the picture of the squirrels in my yard. She wanted to know if they were live squirrels or fakes. I assured her that they were very real and that they visited everyday for breakfast although I have not seen the two of them for several weeks. Just one little squirrel comes every day lately and it was so entertaining to watch their antics when they were together. One day the two of them were chasing each other around, around, and under a stone bench in the yard. I did not see them by the birdbath where Tim took the picture as it is out of eyesight from our watching window. When I lived in Michigan (but would never want to go back,) my street address was Squirrel Road and my home was on a three-acre Squirrel Lake. I actually looked at several homes but my decision was based on the street address. Back to the story…I called Fish, Wildlife, and Parks this morning (Monday,) to find out Jo’s question as to how the squirrels are now found in Fort Benton when she and several older residents have no recollection of squirrels ever being here. I was told that squirrels are trapped and then dumped off in the country the same way that cats and dogs are. I also asked the gestation time of squirrels because I have not seen one of the squirrels for several weeks. I am thinking that perhaps she has babies and daddy is bringing food to her. She told me to check the inter-net and I tried for a half an hour and could not come up with any information. I typed in Montana Squirrels and got a contest I could enter to win of a lap top computer, how to get rid of gophers, and squirrels in California. I finally gave up but perhaps one of readers of this column can come up with something. Please e-mail the link to muncie1929@itstriangle.com. I would really appreciate it. I kind of kept the “squirrel story” to myself because I know there are those of you who do not like squirrels. If you have had squirrel damage, I would also like to know about it.

CARTER METHODIST CHURCH
I “oops-ed” again when I wrote about the cookbook that was at the publishers at this time. I did not give credit to the Carter Methodist Church by name. I just said Methodist Church and although the residents of Carter knew it was their Church, the other readers of the River Press did not. I did not want anyone going to any other Methodist Church looking for the cookbook because you would not be able to find it and then I would really be in hot water. I wrote this to be humorous but seriously the cookbook will be available in the spring and the River Press and the View will let you know for the Carter Methodist Church.

DO YOU LIKE TO READ
On January 31st, there was an article in the Great Falls Tribune titled, “The movie’s great, but have you read the book?” It stated that six of the nine Academy Award nominees for 2012 best picture are based on books. (I will not list them and if you are interested to know them, please call me.) Last year, 2011, five of the ten nominees were from books. The reason I mention this is because on Wednesday is the Friends of the Library meeting. I know it is too late for this month but perhaps you would like to join us next month on the second Wednesday of the month. If you like to read and would like to be with a group of very interesting people…please join. Dues are $5.00 a year for active members and $10.00 a year for inactive, (a little joke from Cindy our mighty leader.) You can bring a bag lunch if you wish; however, there are always great treats and coffee. It is my favorite organization and I look forward to it each month. We start in September and end in May. We only read books for January, February, March, and April. We usually have an author speaker at the May meeting but this past season we have had an author every month. We do not always agree on the merit of the books we read but it is interesting to discuss the books and listen to others opinions. This past month we read, “A Thousand White Women.” It was fiction, a little history thrown in, and a book I could not put down. That is unusual for me because I am visually impaired and I try to get books on tape. I could not find the taped book and the print was very small but I managed through it. “So many books and so little time.” Do not let another day go by without reading. You deserve the time out to relax to go into another world of endless subjects to broaden your horizons.

SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN PHOTOS
Quite a few pictures have come in the last month and they have been scanned and framed. B.J. (Betty formerly Conn) and I will be hanging them soon at the Sunrise Bluffs. B.J. keeps the very best records of the names, scans, bios, ranks, war of service of any record keeper I know. I do not know what I would do without her. She is so organized and keeps me on my toes. Now we know that there were bound to be mistakes. When you visit the display and you find something that is incorrect…there is a notepad nearby for your corrections.

There is one unidentified picture that lost its’ sticky note with the name on it. Tim has printed it for us and if you can identify who it is, please contact me immediately at 899-1380.

I have typed up the bios for several veterans to get an idea how to do them all uniformly. I have had several people offer to type some of the almost 200 bios that have been turned in. Please contact my e-mail (shown in an above paragraph,) and let me know if you are still interested. I would like to have them finished by Memorial Day. I have special paper and instructions for the page set-up. We are still looking for more detailed bios. We will try to contact those that we need more information about.

RISE AND SET
DATE RISE SET
1/26/12 8:00 5:15
2/2/12 7:51 5:26

There were 20 minutes gained from last week. We are getting more light every week it seems.

SO LONG FOR NOW
We keep anticipating the cold weather to crash in on us and the forecasts just keep giving us a mild winter. It is just about six weeks until spring and then what? We just have to wait and see. In the meanwhile, enjoy every minute of every day.

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND OUR TROOPS