View From The Bridge 12/3/14

VIEW from the BRIDGE
By Muncie
12/3/14

COOKIE SALE & PIE DAY
There will be a whole lot of baking going on this month for the women of the Golden Age Senior Center. Please pay attention to the change of Pie Day from the second Friday of the month to the third. The HOLIDAY COOKIE SALE will be on WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The PIE DAY will be changed to the THIRD FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19th at the usual 2:00 p.m. Obviously it had to be divided because all the baking could not be done for one day.

I purchased about 2 lbs. of cookies last year and put them in the freezer. I had a “cookie-a-day” for a long while. I am just sorry that it is only once a year but also realize how much work that is. The Senior Center does not have many fund raisers so please support this one.  It will be very satisfactory to your tummy.

I simply do not know how these women can do all this baking. Part of the reason I no longer bake is that I cannot organize my time very well lately. The second reason is why I should when I am supplied with Christmas cookies once a year and awesome pies once a month? I now think that I will buy 4lbs. of cookies this year so they might last until next Christmas.   Enough of that dessert already.

FOOTBALL
You Griz fans must be excited with their win on Saturday. I, on the other hand, will not be going to Dayton Beach, FL as the Saints lost their games. To add to my disappointment was the fact that I could not watch it on the computer nor could I hear it on the radio. Neither the Griz nor the Bobcats games were on TV. What is going on in Montana? Other sates big college games are nationally televised. It’s time to get on the phone to complain but who do you call to complain to?

Oh well, I will be able to spend the entire day this coming Saturday at the Chouteau County Christmas celebrations. I have checked my schedule list twice and again and I even can foresee by the reports that the weather will be decent.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS
I have always wanted the Christmas lights along Front St. lit before Thanksgiving. Perhaps I have not paid much attention the last few years but this year as I looked out my kitchen window, I could see the lights were on the Monday before Thanksgiving. It cheered up my whole week. Thanks Skip and crew. I do not know how much Santa pays you but it isn’t enough as far as I am concerned.

WEATHER
I will not even discuss it. The worry was about those traveling over passes and through the canyons to grandmother’s house. It is a great relief to know that they are all back safely to their homes. The reports kept me from going to Helena on Saturday and it was a good decision early last week when we learned from weather reports what Saturday would be like.  I have a cross-stitched framed sampler in my house that reads, “I wonder what it was I worried about a year ago.”

MONTANA
13. The earthquake in 1959 left Hebgen Lake in Gallatin County, Montana to recede 22 ft. leaving a wide gravel beach along its lakefront.

14. In 1903 the library in Bozeman, Montana was intentionally built across the street from the red light district and opium deans.

15. Montana is the only state in the United States that does not have a ban on texting. (I checked this and as of 6/12/14 No. 15 is a fact.  It is time for all of you readers to call your Congressman/women and Senators.)

SUNDAY EVE
I faced the cold on Sunday evening to attend a poetry reading of Margie Bernstein’s “The Poet & the Wolf.”

Ross Rettig, who plays a mean guitar but would not give it to me, provided the audience with music between each poem.

A bonus was the Bernstein’s youngest daughter, who is a professional ballet dancer and did a ballet dance routine to modern music. She came from Chicago to spend the holiday with her parents in rural Fort Benton. Awesome! Again I felt, when I closed my eyes, as though I was in a Broadway theatre.

The finale was homemade apple cake and blueberry bars for dessert baked by Margie. A great time was had by all.

When I left a suburb near Detroit 22 years ago on December 7th, detractors said that I would miss people and culture. How wrong they were. I found Fort Benton, my extended family, and more historic culture than anywhere else in Montana. I have all of you that I am thankful for.

SO LONG VERNA
I returned a few minutes ago from the funeral of one of my most faithful readers. I did not know her well until my stay for therapy after my knee replacement. I learned from her daughter that Verna wanted to know when I was going to write the View again. I visited her and did not have to learn to love her. She was so warm heated and so interested in what I wrote on the board because she was hard of hearing. One had to communicate with her by writing.

Verna was very active at the Golden Age Senior Center and many other organizations. She retired from the Senior Center in 1992 when I moved here. I did not hang out at the Center as I do now. I am happy that I knew her and she wall live on in many people’s hearts. So long for now Verna.

NATIVITY COLLECTIONS
I made a trip to the library today to add my collection of Nativity sets to their display.  Please make a trip to see the display but especially to see mine. (How do you like that for advertising?) It is a very good project since we cannot have our outdoor Nativity set up by the Information Center any longer. I just do not understand why this is happening.  I would think that more people want it than do not want it. Oh well, Marry Christmas and think about the meaning of that day.

VETERANS DAY SONG
I said that I would have printed the words to the song that Butch Hankins sang at the dedication on Veteran’s Day. It was titled, “Soldiers Last Letter.” It is too long to put in the View and after the holidays I will make arrangements for the words in a separate column. In the meanwhile…

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