View From The Bridge 3/30/16

VIEW from the BRIDGE

By Muncie

3/30/16

LONG DISTANCE

I received three phone calls last week from Arizona, Utah, and Ohio. They were readers of the River Press and I want to say hello to David and Kelly, Debbie, and Deb. I am happy that you love your River Press so that you can read about old friends and what is going on around town.

BUTTS

A visitor to Fort Benton contacted me last week because she thought I could do something about what she saw. She had walked the Levee Walking Trail and on both sides of the Old Bridge were cigarette butts in the grass. 

When I checked it out, it looked as though someone had emptied their ashtray directly in front of the bridge planter. Perhaps the wind blew the butts into the grass or else someone is taking a smoking break there often. They are disposing of their butts in the grass. I suspect that might be the case because there are many butts on the other side of the Fire House also. It is very unsightly and with our Visitor season almost upon us it is not a pretty sight.

I remember a few years ago when the 6^th Graders from the Elementary School picked up butts along the sidewalk on Front St. I do not expect any children to do that gross job and neither would you parents. Perhaps when the grass cutting begins, the mower will chop those butts up.

So please, if you are the culprit, do not spoil the landscape by throwing butts anywhere along the Levee Walking Trail. Please do not empty your ashtrays by the curbs.  Do it at your own home so you are the only one who can see them.

C.C.P.A.

After you return home from Loma Days, you can get ready to go to the Ag Center for a very entertaining Pub night. Check the River Press for details. There will be one more C.C.P.A. evening for the season at the end of April. Where does the time go?

LOMA DAYS

Next Saturday is the time to make a trip to Loma. Bring along all of your family and friends. I hope the weather cooperates and have your selves a great time. See you there.

T-SHIRTS

There have been several knocks on my door with t-shirts in hand and I have all but two of the t-shirts that are needed for the Summer Celebration quilt to be raffled off. It was especially exciting to get the “River Runs Through It,” shirt because it was from 1995. The only shirt we still need is 1993 WILD WILD WEST and 2014 THE YEAR OF THE MT WOMAN. There must be one out there that someone would give up for this worthy cause.

I was never able to find if there were t-shirts before that time 1993. I appreciate all those who donated t-shirts and I would like to say thank you to Toots, Joanne, Dr. Bylund and Vi at Sadie’s Thrift Shop. You can be proud to look at the quilt and know that your shirt is on it. To my thinking, that is very special.

??????

A couple of weeks ago I received a phone call from a woman who asks if I needed a certain t-shirt. I told her that I would check the list and call her back. That was the time when my land phones decided that were not going to service me any longer. It took me a couple of weeks to get new ones. I do not remember who she was and I lost her phone number when the land phones no longer worked. I apologize and hopefully you read this notice and call me back. 

ORGANIZATIONS

I have contacted all the organizations and the schools to ask them to write articles about what events are going on. Once a month reports from organizations would be welcomed. 

I am so enthused to see so many of the reports and I started to name them. There are too many and it would be easier to name those who do not report.  However, I do not want to do that (remember I am in enough hot water,) and perhaps this request may have them rethink their reasons. The only way I know what is going about town is by reading our local newspaper. Go River Press!

Encourage your organization to participate and let us know what is being planned and when. If you let me know I would be happy to put it in the View. It doesn’t hurt to be in two places.

NOTEBOOKS

At the Visitor’s Information Center there is a notebook that I keep with clippings from the River Press. It is sponsored by Pioneer Insurance and is old pictures of Fort Benton High School sport teams and other groups the students belonged to.

I am starting two new notebooks with the Business of the Week and the Student of the Week that are in the River Press weekly. It is sponsored by Jim Taylor. I will have the notebooks at the Visitors Center to see if there is an interest of people looking at them. If there is not an interest I will keep adding to them and give them to the F.B.H.S. and the Chamber of Commerce. Come to the opening of the Center at the end of May, the books will be there. Let me know what you think.

VETS PHOTO PROGRAM

I have had no response to this new project. I need some volunteer carpenters and I know I did not explain exactly what I had planned. 

The photos on the walls at the Sunrise Bluffs are crooked. People complain to Karla and to me about that situation. Karla tells those who mention it that if they would like to straighten them, they are welcome. 

My solution to that problem would be to build picture shelves. I have them in my home and the design eliminates nails. The frames are placed on shelves so they are straight. Another advantage would be the photos would be in alphabetical order.  People also complain that they cannot find their loved ones photo and the shelves would be the answer.

So I will ask one more time for some volunteers and if I do not hear from anyone, I will forget about it. Joellyn is still working on scanning and typing bios to finalize the program. I am making phone calls and framing. It is slow going because I made a dozen phone calls for bios and only had two calls back. 

I love this project because it has been such a great time seeing all the photos and reading the bios. For almost my entire long lifetime our country has been at war. I truly appreciate all of those Service men and women. Those of us who went through those years must pass our knowledge to the younger generation. This was my way of doing that and I could not have done it with all the help I got. Bless you all.

OBSERVATION

You can survive without eating for weeks, but you will only live 11 days without sleep.

GOD BLESS AMERICA, OUR TROOPS, and THOSE WHO KEEP US SAFE.