View From The Bridge 5/8/13

“VIEW from the BRIDGE”
BY Muncie
5/8/13

MOTHER’S DAY
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all you Mother’s, Stepmother’s, Grandmother’s, and Great Grandmother’s.  I am sure that it is a day that you readers cannot forget, however I am reminding you just in case it slips your mind.  You say, no way.  Good for you and as a mother I will say that even a phone call is precious to all mentioned above.

Here is a quote from the bible that makes me feel as though God has given women equal rights.  “And God promised men that good and obedient wives would be found in all corners of the earth.  Then He made the earth round.”  (I am sure that when a man wrote that quote, the world was not thought to be round.)

I am sharing the quote that came to me in my High School Alumni newsletter this past week.  It is a very informative paper with approximately 16 pages.  The school opened in 1939 and closed in 1970 due to the lack of students and teachers, (much like today.).  Alumni write to the editor who prints their letters.  Many thank her for her work and all agree that it is a huge undertaking.  Most letters are about class reunions now over or in the planning.  Letters come from all over the country.  It is much like our own River Press.  (See River Press article below.)

RECYCLE
There will be a Recycle Day next Saturday the 11th and then again on the 25th.  Even though the Pilot Program is over, the Recycle Committee decided that they would continue until the Dedman property is ready for the drop-offs.

The Committee appreciates all the effort that has been put into this project.  There are a couple of reminders that we would like you to consider.  Please tie your newspapers and magazines.  A new suggestion is to put your newspapers into a cardboard box and do not use plastic bags.  It is more work to take them out of the plastic bags. It would also be very helpful if you would break down your cardboard boxes.  The loading into the trailer or trucks would be much more efficient.

A few facts about the program are that the last drop-off day on April 27th, 90+ people came to the Fair Grounds with 1,920 lbs. of cardboard and 3,200 lbs. of newspaper.  That amounted to $128.00 and $73.60 was what was saved by not sending to the landfill.  The total to date is 4 tons of cardboard and 5 tons of newspaper for which we have received $343.00 toward expenses.  Go green!    
Montana is one of a few states that do not have a recycling project handled by the state.  That may be a project for the future.  Keep it in mind and offer any suggestions that you might have to the committee members.  Think green!

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
In the December 2012/January 2013 issue of the National Geographic Traveler magazine named the “Best of the World, Our 20 Must-See Places for 2013,” the Missouri River Breaks appeared as one of the 20.  The Breaks were listed with places like Crimea Russia, Marseille France, Great Bear Rainforest Canada, Cape Breton Nova Scotia, Bodo Norway, Kyoto Japan, St. Augustine Florida, Tessaloniki Greece, Quito Ecuador, Bagan Myanmar, Valparaiso Chile, Ravenna Italy, Malawi Africa, Hudson Valley New York, Raja Ampat Indonesia, Grenada Caribbean, Memphis Tennessee, Jarash Jordan, and Uganda Africa   As far as I could tell, each place was written by a different journalist. 

David Swanson researched the Missouri River Breaks.  The following is what he had to say about the Breaks.  “Big sky, bigger adventures in Montana.  Today Lewis and Clark wouldn’t recognize most of their route from St. Louis to the Pacific.  But there’s one place they’d know in a heartbeat:  a 149-mile stretch of the Missouri River in north-central Montana.  It still contains the “scenes of visionary enchantment,” where the explorers found in 1805, where rugged sandstone canyons meet the river, then climb to what seems limitless prairie full of life.  Bighorn sheep and elk sip from the river while antelope scamper.  Eagles scream, coyotes sing, and prairie dogs do their funky dance.  Even the bison are back, thanks to the American Prairie Reserve, a group stitching together three million acres of public and private land for wildlife.”

(See next week’s River Press for the next installment of the article.  I do not want you to get bored with this piece.  Although how one could get bored reading about what other people will be reading and what we take for granted.  This installment thing reminds me of my younger days when Good Housekeeping magazine would continue stories from month to month.  I literally would wait for the mail carrier to get to my house with the next month’s issue. Do you remember The Incredible Journey”?)  Tell me when I see you out and about around town. 

RIVER PRESS
For the longest time I have wanted to spend time at the River Press, watching them put together the weekly issue.  I talked to Lindsey Kraus and she said that a Wednesday could possibly be the day to poke my nose into the behind the scenes procedure. 

I was afforded a peek into what goes into putting a paper together last week.  I took Wally’s birthday invitation to the Press in person instead of sending it by e-mail.  I was able to pester Lindsey by looking over her shoulder at what she was designing for the next edition.  Wow!  It is just like a putting a puzzle together.  She moves those articles and ads around the computer screen so quickly I could not keep up. 

I think that I have newspaper ink in my blood because that is something I would love to do if I had the knowledge.  The whole procedure did confirm why without knowing, I read everything from first to last page.  I mark every article and ad with a red pen to be sure that I have not missed anything.  All I can pass on is, “Love your River Press.”

QUESTION OF THE WEEK
What happened to the back panel window at the Post Office?  I have been wondering about it but found that many others were asking too.  I spoke to our acting Postmistress, Dora, and asked what happened.  We still will not know the answer because she does not know.  It just happened.  There were not any signs of someone trying to break it.  Our Police Department checked it out.  My theory is that there was a leak between the panes and when we had a cold snap, it snapped.  Actually, it looks rather interesting in the pattern that resulted.  If anyone actually saw someone breaking it, please call Crime-Stoppers.

GOD BLESS AMERICA, OUR TROOPS and WEAR RED ON FRIDAYS.