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Snow Pants

By Mary Ellen Pollock-Raneri for Hometown magazine now pants: Some people may think that these dreaded winter accessories only existed in the fictional film, A Christmas Story, set in 1940 in the northern Indiana town of Hohman; however, as a child growing up in the ’60s in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, I was forced to wear them. “Put them on!” Mom stood there in the dull light of our yellow kitchen that morning with the dreaded creatures dangling from her arm – the enemy of all enemies, the evilness of all evil, the bane of my existence: my snow pants. There they stood, in their entire steel gray splendor, thick and heavy, itchy and stiff: snow pants – pants that I had to stuff myself into, not to mention, stuffing in all of my clothes. I had to waddle to the school bus stop in those pants – pants that would only make me the laughingstock of the whole school bus. Those callous snow pants blinked at me with a cold stone stare, a diabolical stare that seemed to say, “Who’s the alpha dog today?” “Mom, do I have to?” I begged. I pleaded. I cried. I flung myself on the floor and offered her my first-born son. It was an empty promise anyway; she would have had him in her clutches as Nonna and would have dressed him in snow pants too. But Mom remained unmoved. She was

the cigar store Indian, Mount Rushmore, a woman mesmerized by the evil spell of the snow pants. And, to her, they were the most beautiful, precious objects in the world, because when I wore the snow pants, I was safe from cold weather, immune to all diseases, including flu, viruses, polio, and cerebral hemorrhages. I was invincible. Saddened, I knew I was beat. I had to give in. Reluctantly, I squiggled into the heavy, woolen dungeon and dragged my tiny feet to the school bus stop. I wobbled through the thick snow across our front lawn to board the bus, my insulated legs apart like I had the biggest wedgie of the century. “Whew!” I puffed in the frosty air, beleaguered from the weight of my little legs and the extra ten pounds of clothing.

Lumbering up the steps of the school bus (with its red seats) that headed to my firstgrade classroom at Saints Cosmas and Damian Elementary School, I still stewed about wearing those pants. The sweat on my forehead evaporated momentarily as the bus chugged down East Mahoning Street past the Quaker Market, Kurtz Lumber Company, Joe Haag’s store, Mary A. Wilson, and continued over the bridge. So far, so good. None of the other sleepy kids on the bus giggled at my winter wear. They were either too tired or didn’t really care. When the bus made a final stop on Findley Street beside “The Children’s Shop,” I figured I was safe from getting teased on the bus that morning. But, my short-lived relief was always shadowed by the snowpants cloud. I was the only one on the bus that day with those horrible overcoats on my legs. Fuming and scheming to rid myself of the most evil invention of the century, I settled into a red seat and tried to relax – as best as one could relax when wrapped in swaddling clothes – as the bus rooted and tooted down West Mahoning Street to the Catholic School. Grasping my metal farmhouse-shaped lunch box, I plotted to take the pants off before any of the other students got a good gander at them. After slipping the snow pants off and rolling them in a big ball, I jammed them in one of the wooden cubicles on the wall in the cloakroom that was attached to the first-grade classroom, slipped off my winter coat and hung it on a big metal hook. Reading, writing, ’rithmetic, and my little wooden desk awaited me. Luckily, no kids had noticed my outer armor, and the school day was pretty routine. At the end of the school that afternoon, I retired to the cloakroom to gather my belongings: coat, hat, mitten clips, mittens, helmet, field pack, K rations, walkie-talkie, and rifle. Mom always made sure I was protected from all the elements I might encounter during a school day. Of course, my snow pants were in that cloakroom too, waiting for me – the final touch on my suit of armor. They smiled at me, a great big woolen heavy smile, and their gray lips - Continued on page 4

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Around Town

By the staff of Hometown magazine and the Chamber of Commerce rom staff of Hometown magazine and the Chamber of Commerce and the Community Calendar at Punxsutawney.com, here is a list of events and happenings coming up in our area: n Dec. 18: PAHS Band Concert, 7:30 p.m. PAHS auditorium, featuring Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble. Free & open to the public. n Support the Punx’y Area Chamber of Commerce by buying a collectable crystal ornament featuring an etching of an Indian and a groundhog. Only 250 available. n Dec. 18-20: Make A Wish 20th Annual Light Up A Child’s Life Campaign continues. Broadcasts on WPXZ from different locations every morning, then moves to Miller Bros. Furniture each day. Dec. 20 is the live auction from 3 to 4 p.m. at Miller Bros. Make A Wish provides wishes for children with lifethreatening illnesses. Call 938-8888 for more information. n Dec. 19: Marcellus Shale webinar on drilling and pipeline cutting reclamation, given by Penn State, 1-2 p.m. Contact Punx’y Chamber of Commerce for information. n Dec. 21: Punx’y Weather Discovery Center, Snow Day Saturday. 10 a.m. to noon for children grades kindergarten through sixth. Pre-registration is necessary. $6 per child. Call 938-1000. n Snow Month, Punx’y Weather Discovery Center, until Jan. 4. Snow crystal photography exhibit. Free make & take activities. Snow exhibit and winter weather lore. Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and until 8 p.m. Fridays. $4 per person. www.weatherdiscovery.org or call 938-1000 for more information. n Dec. 24: Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, First Church of God, 7 p.m. Dec. 24: Family Christmas Eve Gathering, Punx’y First United Methodist Church, featuring caroling and candle lighting, 7 p.m. n Dec. 24: Traditional Candlelight Worship Gathering, Punx’y First United Methodist Church, 11 p.m. 301 W. Mahoning St. n Dec. 24: Christmas Eve Service, Cross Town United Methodist Ministries, at Woodland Ave. UM Church, 201 Woodland Ave., 7 p.m. n Family Caregiver Support Group, last Wednesday of the month, 2 to 3 p.m., Aging Services, Inc., 1055 Oak St., Indiana. For information, call (724) 3494500 or e-mail rtyger@agingservicesinc.com. n Jan. 6: Groundhog Day Storefront & Window Decorating Contest deadline. Businesses must be located within the Punx’y School District. Decorating must be done by Jan. 19. Voting is open to the public. Contact The Groundhog Club for more information, 618-5591 or e-mail director@ghogclub.com. n Jan. 6: Epiphany of our Lord worship service, First English Lutheran Church, Punx’y, 6:30 p.m. n Jan. 7: First Tuesday Community Meal, Punx’y Presbyterian Church, 5 to 7 p.m. Free and open to the public.

n Jan. 31: Big Blast! Concert of coal mining songs, 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Punx’y Area Community Center. Admission by donation, with proceeds going to the local museum. n Volunteers needed to visit and advocate for senior citizens. Contact Aging Services Inc., 1055 Oak St., Indiana. For information, call (724) 349-4500. n “Go Digital or Go Dark” fundraising campaign for a new digital projector for the Jackson Theater at the Punxsutawney Area Community Center is still seeking donations. The cost of a digital projector is $70,000. Call 938-1008 for

information about how to donate. n Congratulations Butler County Community College on opening a branch campus in Brockway. BC3 is a needed addition to the Jefferson County area and will make college classes more affordable and accessible to the region. Punx’y area native Jill Martin Rend, BC3 director, and her staff are to be commended for their efforts to bring more options for higher education to the area. We welcome your news! Non-profit organizations are welcome to send their events for Around Town to: wgiavedoni123@gmail.com. For-profit events can be listed in Around Town, six lines for $25 • • •

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Snow Pants Continued from page 2 drew back in a perfect snow pant sneer. The cloakroom itself was a long, narrow room that ran lengthwise on one side of the classroom. It was filled with hooks lined up in a row for coats, shelves for lunchboxes, little cubby holes for assorted belongings, and students putting on or taking off their wraps (as the nun referred to outerwear). Now, the cloakroom was almost empty; most of the first-graders filed out to get on the bus. My eyes narrowed and fixed upon one last object in the cloakroom – the solution to my problem. It was to be my salvation. The knight on his steed. The metal handle on the garbage chute had its cold arms outstretched, beckoning me to … to … to throw my snow pants down the shaft to the incinerator. “How clever I am!” I thought as I considered my spectacular brainstorm. “What a perfectly wonderful plot! ‘Free at last, free at last. I’m free at last!’” And, I was finally free as I shoveled my snow pants down the gaping mouth that led to the incinerator chute. Pushing the big glass doors open, I pranced out to Chestnut Street and waited for my dad to pick me up that day. No snow pants and no school bus. I mean, how lucky can a kid be? “Ready to go, ol’ buddy?” Dad grinned when he picked me up, and I hopped in the car. Quickly, we made a left turn down Chestnut and sailed to Joe Strano’s store on West Mahoning. Dad had a small errand there at our old family friend’s little butcher shop. Happy to see Joe and happy Daddy didn’t say anything about the snow pants, I skipped beside my father as we entered the shop. Dad, who was busy shooting the breeze with Joe, never noticed my missing friend – that pesky little buddy that usually clung to my legs in a desperate attempt to protect me from all evil. Confident that my scheme had succeeded, I breathed a big sigh of relief. Yes, I was truly free at last. Unfortunately, I was not free for long. Mom immediately noticed that something was rotten in Denmark when Dad and I walked into the house for dinner. Quick as a six-year-old stuffing snow pants into a garbage chute, she and Dad joined forces; they put me under heavy FBI interrogation. “Where are your snow pants?” my parents demanded, grilling me mercilessly under the bright light suspended about the kitchen table. I played dumb. I looked in-

Merry

nocent. I lied. I picked at the green peas on my plate and pretended not to hear them. “Where are your snow pants?” they insisted. Over and over again, they relentlessly pursued an answer to their question. Finally, they forced a confession from me. I could take no more. “In the garbage! In the garbage!” I blubbered between gasping sobs. “I threw them in the garbage chute at school!” and related the whole sordid plan. The jig was up. Mom and Dad immediately phoned the kindly old custodian at my school – that janitor, my friend, the nice elderly gentleman who cleared the snow, waxed the floors, dusted the bookshelves, helped us to the buses, and just squealed on me. Mr. Custodian had found the snow pants in the garbage, as he prowled around the basement of the Catholic elementary school that day. “Thanks, Mr. Custodian, rat-fink, traitor!” I couldn’t believe he sold me down the river. Soon we all arrived at the school, and I came face to face with my nemesis, my prodigal son, the neighbor who would never go home – my snow pants. They were hanging on the custodian’s arm in all their splendor, wagging their tail and waiting eagerly to hop in the car for a ride home. Mom and Dad mumbled some “thank you’s” that sounded awfully much like “sorry my kid is a bonehead.” Then all four of us left, Mom, Dad, me, and the snow pants. I never saw the snow pants again after that trip home. I guess they realized that they were the unwanted guests in our house. Mom never invited them in again. I think they were cast into our garbage that night, or, maybe, the pants were just retired to a box in the attic for a more honorable burial than the one I had planned for them. Nowadays, I have to chuckle every time I see A Christmas Story as Ralphie’s little brother, Randy, dressed in snow pants, squirms on his back like an upside-down turtle when he falls to the snowy ground while wearing the awkward woolen things. Yes, it’s funny these days to watch the children walk home from school in T-shirts and hoodies; they don’t seem cold at all and unlike me, they certainly don’t seem to be plotting the demise of their winter wear. I especially chuckle when pointing out those happy-go-lucky, skimpily dressed kids to Mom, who shudders at the thought of a world without snow pants. • • •

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Hundreds of hand-colored lithograph prints of American rural life and events in 19th century America were produced by Nathan Currier (top right) and James Ives (bottom). Among the popular prints were those of sleigh rides in wintry scenes on the country roads.

A Sleigh Ride Together By S. Thomas Curry of Hometown magazine or readers who have “matured” from the years of their youth in the 1950s, one of the most popular and enjoyable pieces of music for this time of year is the tune and the lyrics of “Sleigh Ride.” Other readers, younger in years, will recall it, too. Heard in orchestral arrangements and sung by popular recording artists, its familiar ringing of sleigh bells in the background takes a listener on an enjoyable ride over winter’s snow. With no reference to the Christmas holiday or even December in its lyrics, it can be sung all winter, joined by another familiar tune of times past, “Jingle Bells,” written in the 1850s. The lyrics paint a picture of old-time winters that can be recalled as clearly as a print from the Currier and Ives collection that captured the imagination of nineteenth-century America. Legendary printmakers of the mid to late nineteenth century, Nat Currier and Jim Ives created affordable lithograph prints of scenes from American life. Millions of them are still cherished today. In the mid-nineteenth century, Punx-

sutawney was mostly an agricultural area with many family farms around it. There were the little general stores, cabinet makers, blacksmiths, and small hotels to serve the public. There were grist mills, stables, wagon makers, harness makers, and sleigh makers. To elevate civic spirit and pride in the little country village that was a growing community, Punxsutawney was incorporated as a borough in 1850. About 400 people were living in the town then, with lumbering the major industry amid the

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Often displayed by the Punxsutawney Area Historical Society in special events for winter is a donated sleigh once used by an area family many years ago. A colorful Currier & Ives print has recreated a scene of those days “dashing through the snow.” (Currier & Ives lithograph print “American Homestead Winter” - 1868)

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Sleigh Ride Continued from previous page farmlands. The booming town of the industrial age would arrive later – in the late 1880s and 1890s. When the lovely summer and fall weather turned snowy, country roads were traveled by sleigh or sleds, the typical cold-season alternative to the carriage or wagon of warmer months. Sleighs and sleds are only useful over terrain with the right amount of snow – neither too little nor too much. Some folk claim eight inches of snow provides a good base. Historically, the term “sleigh” has referred to a moderately sized, open-topped vehicle with one or more passenger seats. A cutter was a small horse-drawn sleigh, and a “tallyho” was a term for a vehicle to haul larger groups of riders – for example, the common sleighing parties in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Punxsutawney’s early newspapers wrote about many people’s experiences of riding in the “one-horse open sleigh … with sleigh bells jingle-ing, Ring ting tingling too” – either for fun or out of necessity for winter travel. In the weekly Punxsutawney Plain-

dealer of December 16, 1869, a brief note reported one snowy week – “About six inches of snow fell in this section last Friday night and on Saturday our ears were greeted with the merry chiming of sleigh bells. The snow commenced falling again on Monday, and has continued at intervals ever since. On Tuesday and at the present writing [Wednesday] the snow has been drifting at a fearful rate, delaying our mails, and impeding travel to a great extent ... the depth of the snow at present will average twenty inches.” In the early winter of 1888, a local newspaper writer wrote, “The merry jingle of sleigh bells gladdens the hearts of those who are unfortunate enough not to own a horse and cutter, but like to see others enjoy themselves.” When the first substantial snow of winter arrived in town, streets bustled with the activity of sleighs and sleigh bells. Oh, what fun it was to ride in a one-horse open sleigh! So, “giddy-yap, giddy-yap, giddy-yap let’s go.” With the tunes of sleighing songs in our heads, let’s visit times in the past when people enjoyed “riding in a wonderland of snow.” In 1910, an article in the Punxsutawney Spirit, the oldest sleigh known to Punxsutawney folks was described. On a win- Continued on page 8

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By Rosemary Sadez Friedmann Scripps Howard News Service he holiday season is upon us. Beautiful lights twinkling everywhere indicate that Christmas is coming soon, so here are some decorating ideas for your home in these next fun-filled weeks. Let’s start with the front door. After all, that is the first thing guests see when they come to your house. If your front door is bright white or soft gray, or slightly offwhite, accent it with deep colors of green and bright red with accents of gold. Garlands with red ribbons and twinkling lights can be seen from a distance as you approach your house after a day of shopping or a day of working (so you can afford the shopping). Your guests and neighbors can enjoy the view as they approach your welcoming home. Do you have a double door? I’ve seen twopiece wreaths where half the wreath goes on one door and the other half on the other door. When the doors are closed, you have one big wreath. You can do this yourself by starting with a large wreath — either a store-bought one or one you make yourself. Cut the wreath in half with sturdy wire cutters; then, securely hang half the wreath side by side on each door so when the doors are closed, the centers of the wreath meet. Decorate the

wreath with ornaments or ribbon. The finished product is beautiful and impressive. Do you have pendant lights in the kitchen? Dress them up for Christmas with garlands that start at the ceiling and finish at the lamp part of the pendant. The kitchen is always a hot spot with guests at Christmas, so why not decorate it? And this decoration is up and out of the way, so the island and counter are free for food and other goodies. If your home has columns, either outside by the front doors or inside anywhere, play them up by spiraling garland and lights around them. That look is always a hit. If you have stairs, don’t forget to wrap them, too. Or you can simply put big, red Christmas bows at intervals on the handrail. Just about everyone has a cocktail table in the living room and in the family room, right? Transform those tables into wrapped Christmas gifts by crisscrossing ribbon over the tops. You will have a gift-looking table; put a big bow in the middle and you’re done. The blank areas still leave room for drinks and snacks. (Rosemary Sadez Friedmann, an interior designer in Naples, Fla., is author of “Mystery of Color.” For design inquiries, write to Rosemary at DsgnQuest(at)aol.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.) • • •

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Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159 – 7

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With warm blankets to cover you, foot warmers in the sleigh, and jingling bells, winter travel in the snowy, rural Punxsutawney area was by horse and sleigh. Many news stories from over a century ago tell about the fun and danger of those days. (1903 print courtesy of Punxsutawney Area Historical & Genealogical Society)

Sleigh Ride

Continued from page 6 ter day in early January, Harry Grube, accompanied by J.H. Kremkau, drove to town from Cloe in a sleigh that was built in 1818. A McGees Mills man, John “Devil” Thompson, considered a famous builder of sleighs, crafted Grube’s sleigh. The nearly 100-year-old sleigh was thus described in the January 17, 1910, edition of the Punxsutawney Spirit: “The runners, bents and cross bars of the sleigh were built of oak, and the bed of popular, both materials being yet apparently in a state of almost perfect preservation. Iron was used sparingly, excepting as soles for the runners. It has never been repaired except for the new footboards that replaced ones worn out by the feet of those who entered and dismounted it. The first coat of red paint it received is still intact. The panels of the bed and dashboard were beautified with gaudily painted woodland and landscape scenes, but these have become quite indistinguishable.” Memories of the many residents who saw the old sleigh recalled the “merry sleighing parties” and the good times they provided. Groups of nine to fifteen people in large “tallyhos, or sleds,” were often seen passing by on the streets or through the town to neighboring villages, bells a jingling. Some recalled sleighing-party rides to country school houses where “singing schools” were held. Others remembered special trips to farm house of friends in a

Merry

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neighboring town for entertainment and good, hot suppers at the end, before the return home. For these trips, groups would hire sleighs from a local livery to take them to their destinations – such places as Cloe, Anita, Sprankle Mills, Covode, Coolspring, and others. Groups from these towns, too, would travel through Punxsutawney to events miles away from their starting points – from, for example, Rossiter to DeLancey, and the Adrian mines. Many of these group outings were reported in brief descriptions, but others in great detail with a sense of importance. One such social event – a February 1897 sleighing party to Reynoldsville by wives of prominent Punxsutawney men – was described in dramatic words by the local newspaper writer. Days before the trip, the owner of Hotel Matson in the neighboring town was informed of the intention of “the illustrious ladies” to dine at noon. Mr. Matson, and his wife, “had the tables ladened with all the choicest, richest and rarest edibles of the season.” After what was described as a feast, the Matson family entertained the guests from Punxsutawney. Their ride and party were “pleasant and invigorating.” The ladies on the trip were named, of course. A series of reports in February 1908 mention various experiences. One report carries the headline “COOL SPRING INVADED” and is an account forty young ladies “bursting into the quietness of the village.” A group of eighteen members of the fairer sex left Punxsutawney at 7 p.m. “in Baumgardner and Well’s “Snow - Continued on page 12

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8 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

The fossil of an early fern-like tree of the Devonian Period is similar to those found in the Punxsutawney area. Photo courtesy of the University of California, Museum of Paleontology.

Rising from Underground: Punxsutawney Area Fossils

By PRIDE for Hometown magazine

lthough coal was the primary underground product in the Punxsutawney area in late nineteenth and early twentieth century, other treasures that amazed and enchanted the people of that time were found deep underground. These treasures were fossils that excited the imagination of the public as they talked about them and considered what life was like when these fossilized animals and plants were alive. In 1887, a Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper item made local residents aware that the rock strata on the south side of town contained fossils – behind Christian Haag’s brewery where the waters of Mahoning creek had cut into the hillside, revealing the various layers of the earth. The lower stratum was filled with little univalve fossil shells, about the size of a piece of chalk, thought to be from the Devonian Period. Just above it was a softer formation that contained impressions of numerous larger shells resembling bivalves. Also scattered throughout the formation were hard, potato-shaped stones that, when broken open, revealed imprints of leaves with all the fibers plainly and delicately traced. Many youngsters in that day spent time searching and hoping to find one of these fossils. Stonecutters who worked in quarries would often find unusual fossils. In 1894,

county surveyor Eli Coulter received a gift of fossils from Ash Tucker, a stonecutter. The fossils had been found in a sandstone rock quarry in Gaskill Township. One was approximately twenty-one inches in circumference with the bark and grain clearly imprinted. It was thought to be a portion of the stem of a giant flag (flower) that grew at that time. The other was a large root, believed to be of the calamus plant, often mistaken for a petrified snake, generally found embedded in sandstone rock. These fossils were estimated to be from the Carboniferous Era, the time when most of the coal beds in the Punxsutawney area were formed. According to a Spirit article in May 1894, Mr. Coulter, who had an abiding interest in geology, was considering donating these fossils to the Smithsonian Institution. In August 1896, the Punxsutawney Spirit reported that miner Harry McHenry had found a fossil embedded in solid rock just above the coal measures more than 100 feet below the earth’s surface. A complete and faithful imprint of a fern – one estimated to have grown a million years earlier – was on a thin slab of stone about a foot long. While Mr. McHenry’s find made the news, many other miners also found fossils and took them home to show their families. According the Punxsutawney News of July 27, 1898, men cutting sandstone were working about eighteen feet below the sur-

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A Giant Fossil Saurian It is Constantly on Exhibit in the Roof of Walston Mine No. 1. Continued from previous page Thomas McMillen, mine superintendent face in Adams’s quarry, located about a for Kurtz & Rinn at Walston, accompanied mile from Punxsutawney. The stones they the editorial force of the Spirit on an excut were to be used as the foundation for ploring expedition into Mine No. 1 last the new addition to John B. Bair’s store on Wednesday night for the purpose of examthe corner of Gilpin and West Mahoning ining a giant fossil saurian which lies streets in Punxsutawney. The men found coiled among the sand rock in the roof of molds of footthe mine about prints left by a three feet large animal milabove the coal. lions of years beThis monster fore. The of the Reptilian footprints were age perhaps approximately belonged to the four inches square genus known with four large as the toes and the ball Mosasaurus, a of the foot. Peosnake-like aniple theorized that mal that great the molds had One artist’s rendering of a masasaurus shows the crea- to a length of been created ture’s S-like shape. Photo from www.wpclipart.com. fifty feet, many when the animal specimens of walked through a bed of thick mud or clay which have been found in North America. and left impressions of its feet. Shortly This particular specimen is apparently thereafter, a second layer of softer mud about forty feet long. Its head at the widest covered his tracks creating lifelike imprespart is fully fifteen inches across, and its sion of the animal’s footprints. The stonebody in the thickest portion is perhaps two cutters found more than a dozen of these feet in diameter. footprints in the quarry, which in prehisThis Mesozoic monster lies about 150 feet toric times may have been a bog. below the surface of the earth and was exPerhaps the largest and most impressive posed by a fall of rock from the roof of the fossil reported was in Walston Mine. The mine about a year ago. It is perfectly prefirst fossil of this type had been discovered served, the entire animal from head to tail, in France in 1764. Fossils of leviathans being intact. A portion of the tail, however, were found in the mid-western United extends back under the rock, out of sight. States. Descriptions of similar fossils stated This great fossil might, with proper care be that an elephant was a mere pigmy in comtaken out without a break, but it would be a parison and that a grizzly bear would be but very expensive operation. a snack for a leviathan. The Punxsutawney This specimen of the Clydastes is espeSpirit carried a description of this saurian cially valuable because it is the only one in in its August 31, 1904, edition: - Continued on page 20

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10 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

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A tale of two Christmases

By Dale McFeatters Scripps Howard News Service he Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog, a seasonal guilty pleasure, arrived on the desk with a solid thud, bespeaking the 175 glossy pages of improbable, and improbably expensive gifts, inside. The catalog is aimed mainly at women since they control most of the discretionary household spending. The cornucopia of costly goodies opens with a set of a dozen “high-performance lipsticks.” I have no idea what a “high-performance” lipstick is and have no intention of paying $588 to find out. A mere page or two later there is a twopage spread for a pretty red dress that has a

What I really wait for is the Neiman Marcus Christmas fantasy car, which this year is the 565 horsepower Aston Martin Vanquish Volante, one of only 10 in the world. It has a top speed of 185 mph, which means I could get to work in under three minutes except that Washington, D.C., traffic moves at only 25 mph when it moves at all. Unfortunately, you were to reserve your Aston Martin by Oct. 23. Story of my life: a month late and $344,500 short. To be fair, Neiman Marcus makes substantial donations to charity with each of these purchases, which is good because the next catalog to arrive on my desk was the 20-page World Vision Center wish list to offset greed with guilt.

The center’s top-of-the line fantasy gift appears to be a hand-drilled water well with pump to deliver clean water to remote Third World villages for $3,000, or you can pay for a share of the well for $75. The next ranking gift is kind of a livestock starter kit, 28 farm animals — two cows, two sheep, two pigs, two goats and 20 chickens — for $2,362. For $70 extra they’ll throw in 10 ducks, recommended for flood-prone countries like Bangladesh. One can only fantasize about orders getting mixed up and the owner of a McMansion in Neiman Marcus’ hometown of Dallas coming downstairs Christmas morning and finding a dairy cow ($650) and a donkey ($322) under the tree – or perhaps eating it. (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com) • • •

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Continued from page 8 Bird” and arrived at Cool Spring at 9 p.m. at the Kunselman Hotel. Another group of young ladies arrived later from Brookville. After an evening meal of chicken and waffles – and entertainment that included dancing – the evening of fun concluded at midnight. In another report a group of sixteen young people drove to Sprankle Mills one evening. The brief article stated that “the young people were conducted to the home of Daniel Eisenhart at Sprankle Mills in the tallyho of the BaumgardnerWells livery. The party left this city at 8 o’clock and because of the condition of the roads did not arrive until nearly midnight.” The party of eight young ladies and eight young men passed the morning away in “games of all kinds and the consumption of an extremely sumptuous feast.” They returned to Punxsutawney after daylight the next morning, according to the account. Another brief article reports that “Miss Verna Hoffman, of Trade City, entertained a sleighing party from Covode which was conveyed by Chas. Kippert’s tallyho, “The Speedwell.” The party consisted of about twenty-five persons. They were entertained by vocal music and instrumental selections. After the music delicious refreshments were served. All report a good time and returned to Covode about 1:30 o’clock, after several upsets in the snow.” Another states that “A South Side sleighing party had an experience last night which they will not soon forget. While returning from a nearby town at an early hour this morning they struck a bunch of drifts which resulted in a series of upsets, a runaway and a breakfast this morning at eight o’clock.” Other experiences generated more reports. From Cloe, an article notes that “Sleighing still continues good in and about Cloe, and our young people have been taking advantage of it. Several sleighing parties visited the nearby towns during the week.” Passengers on one of the sleighing trips, however, might not have been singing “Oh, what fun it is to ride.” On their journey over the rolling hills and snow-covered fields, the young couples had started for Rossiter, but had, unfortunately, ended up in Smyerstown. When they arrived, the front runners of their sleigh were smashed, and their driver had been dumped in a snow drift.

In addition, their return trip home was delayed because of a sick horse. In 1905, the Punxsutawney Spirit reported a frightful sleigh experience. On a Saturday night in January, a group of four young men and four young ladies from Punxsutawney, Clayville, and Walston hired a sleigh, a horse, and a driver in Clayville (Punxsutawney’s West End) for a trip to Big Run. Their experience involved a street car on West Mahoning Street. In their sleigh, along Mahoning Street toward Punxsutawney, they passed and re-passed a street car several times. As the team jogged along in the middle of the street near the Methodist Church at Church Street, the street car, riding on its tracks in the middle of the street, approached them from behind, clanging its bells one more time. The young man driving the horses realized the trolley was near, and he “whipped up” the horses and pulled the sleigh to the right, into a high pile of snow near Gilpin Street. The sleigh overturned, dumping the young people in front of the street car. The motorman operating the street car put on the brakes to bring his car to a standstill. Two of the young people were found under the front of the street car. The others were thrown out onto the street with one of them struck by the car as he rolled away from it. The injured young men and women were taken to the Grube Hospital on Mahoning Street or to the Adrian Hospital on Jenks Hill – with one having a broken leg, another a broken arm, and the others with bruises and minor cuts. In the midst of the accident the team of horses got away and furiously dashed up the middle of Mahoning Street with the overturned sleigh behind it. They went on to East End and turned at Woodland Avenue and turned again on to what was called the Bubeck Addition (where State Street and Robert Street are now located). The lap robes and blankets that had given the young people comfy and snugly warmth were scattered all along the streets. Oh, winter – complete with sentimental thoughts and images of sleighs drawn by gentle horses, of being snuggled under blankets to keep warm, and of the singing of merry songs! What were the words of the popular song of the 1950s? “We’re gliding along with the song of a wintry fairy land.” For some, as historical accounts tell us, sleigh rides with their jingling sleigh bells were not all fun! • • •

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Make your own stocking stuffers By Sandi Genovese Scripps Howard News Service veryâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; Christmasâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; loveâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; hanging large,â&#x20AC;&#x201A; decoratedâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; stockingsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; onâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; the fireplaceâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;mantel,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;butâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;thenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;haveâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;to fillâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;them.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;withâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;multipleâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;stockingsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;stuff,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;itâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;canâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;getâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;prettyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;pricey,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;so thisâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;yearâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;decidedâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;makeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;stocking stuffers.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;discoveredâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;additionâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;to cuttingâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;holidayâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;spending,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;itâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;givesâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;me theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;freedomâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;personalizeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;eachâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;present inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; wayâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; justâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;tâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; possibleâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; with

store-boughtâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;gifts. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; setâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; outâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; createâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; itemsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; would combineâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;costâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;savingsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;withâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;customization andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;wouldâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;alsoâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;beâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;smallâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;enoughâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;fitâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;in aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;stocking. Notepadsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;areâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;easyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;makeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ifâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;youâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;have accessâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;dieâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;cutter.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Ifâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;youâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;tâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;have one,â&#x20AC;&#x201A; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;sâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; likelyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; yourâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; area does;â&#x20AC;&#x201A; generallyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; theyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; willâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; allowâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; youâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; to useâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;itâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ifâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;youâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;bringâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;yourâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ownâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;paperâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;and cutâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;whenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;tâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;needâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;machine.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Selectâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;shapeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;suitsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;gift

withâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;woodenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;popsicleâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;stick.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Washiâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;tape andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;rub-onsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;areâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;availableâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;atâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;craftâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;stores.â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Ifâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;reâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;willingâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;participateâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;littleâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;do-it-yourselfâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;action,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;itâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;tâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;beâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;difficultâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;makeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;small,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;inexpensiveâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;giftsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;to stuffâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Christmasâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;stockings.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Evenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;though theseâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; pint-sizeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; presentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; willâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; sitâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; a stocking,â&#x20AC;&#x201A; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;sâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; niceâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; knowâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; theyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t costâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;anâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;armâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;leg. (Contact Sandi Genovese at sgenovese1@cox.net. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.) â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;&#x201A;â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;&#x201A;â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;&#x201A;

Hometown Magazine... Online All the Time... www.punxsutawneymagazine.com

Merry Christmas Signs of the season are in the air, With lights and tinsel everywhere -And a blanket of white covers the ground, Spreading joy and glad tidings all around -So at this most special time of year, We'd like to thank all of you for stopping here!

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Firefighter Tami McFarland sits behind the desk at the Central Fire Company office. The Punxsutawney Fire Department is always ready to respond to emergencies. Photo by Tracey Young.

Firefighters, Clergy - Always Ready to Respond

By Wendy Veitz-Giavadoni for Hometown magazine ffering help to others on any given day of the year is something many people do. But taking on a responsibility in the community that includes making yourself available on holidays is a truly selfless act. Volunteer firefighters leave their meals and their families and risk their lives to save others, no matter what day of the year. “Being called out on a holiday – it’s tough,” said Tami McFarland, president of Central Fire Co. and vice president of the Punxsutawney Fire Department. “It’s a way of life. You make the most of the time with your family.” Firefighters spend countless hours in training to learn how to fight fires. “We know we could risk our own lives to help people,” she said. “It’s just who we are and what we do. It’s rewarding to know you could make a difference in someone’s life. It’s just knowing in your heart you make a difference.” Making a difference includes doing what’s best for the community. In addition to fighting fires, training, and keeping trucks and equipment in top shape, the 100-plus members of the entire Punx’y Fire Department take on projects such as food drives, teaching fire prevention, and raising funds through “boot drives” for fire equipment and charity. Firefighters credit their families for their commitment, too. “They understand when the pager goes off,” McFarland said. “They know if it was their home or their lives, they

would want people responding.” Having a sufficient number of active firefighters allows them to relax, should they have to go out of town for work or a well-deserved vacation. “I can sleep without listening to the pager,” McFarland said. “It’s nice knowing someone is here.” She admits, however, to driving her car with her gear in it, if she’s not going very far out of town. The fire department is always looking for more members. Taking on the obligation of risking their lives to save lives or property and giving to the community through several ways is what firefighters do. “We love helping people,” McFarland said. Also ready to respond to emergencies on holidays, although in a different way, are members of the clergy. “I have to be accessible at all times,” said the Rev. Maureen Seifried, pastor of the First English Lutheran Church in Punx’y. “It’s part of the calling.” If a holiday falls on a Sunday, pastors lead worship. As part of their work, they know they may be called to a hospital or an emergency scene at all hours of the night or day, any day of the week. “I never know when I’m going to get a phone call,” she said, noting many people are willing to wait until the next day for her pastoral care, should an emergency happen at night – unless their loved one is near death. Although she’s not had too many emergency calls yet in her career, Pastor Seifried knows such calls are part of her obligation - Continued on page 22

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14 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

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A new disorder is plaguing teenagers: Sleep texting By Allie Shah Minneapolis Star Tribune livia Priedeman, 17, woke one morning from a dream she had about making plans with a friend. But it wasn’t a dream. Her phone showed that during the night Priedeman had punched in her passcode, unlocked her phone and read a text message from her friend. All while she was fast asleep. “It was really weird,” recalled Priedeman, a high school junior in Minneapolis. Weird, but not uncommon. Reading and responding to text messages while asleep — called “sleep texting” — is an abnormal sleep behavior, similar to sleepwalking. It’s also a growing concern among doctors grappling with a sleep-deprived population: young people who can’t be separated from their cellphones. For teens, lack of sleep has been linked to obesity, high blood pressure and behavioral problems. Dr. Mike Howell, with Fairview Sleep Center at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, estimates that as many as half of his young patients who report sleep problems have sleep texted. While some of those texts did little more than embarrass their senders, others were nothing to joke about. “We’ve had concerns of people who have texted or called 911, not realizing what had just happened,” he said. We tend to think of sleep in finite terms: You’re either fully awake or fully asleep. But it’s not that simple, said Dr. Andrew Stiehm, a sleep medicine specialist with

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Allina Health. It’s possible for the part of the brain that controls motor skills to wake up, while the part of the brain that governs memory and judgment may remain asleep. That’s why some people can perform rote movements — such as walking, talking, texting or even driving — while they’re sleeping. Dr. Gerald Rosen, medical director of the pediatric sleep disorders program at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, considers sleep texting an automatic response, similar to how a mother responds to a baby crying in the middle of the night. “If you’re a mother, you awaken to the sound of your child crying. Even if it’s not a loud noise, it will trigger an awakening,” he said. “That’s essentially what’s happening with lots of kids with their phones.” But Rosen sees sleep texting as a symptom of a larger problem: young peoples’ overreliance on cellphones. “For them, the cellphone is a life link,” he said, “and this is central to how they view the world.” One in three teenagers sends more than 100 text messages a day, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. And at least four out of five teens said they sleep with their phone on or near their bed. Elizabeth Dowdell, a Villanova University professor who has studied sleep texting, said that having a phone nearby all night is a big part of the problem. - Continued on page 20

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Library Director Coral Ellshoff stands by a shelf at the local library. As part of a larger renovation project, the shelves have been moved around to provide more space for those browsing among the books. Photos by Wendy Veitz-Giavadoni.

Renovated Punx’y Library Offers More than Books

By Wendy Veitz-Giavadoni for Hometown magazine hat could be better during the long, cold winter than to curl up with a good book? And where better to find a good read than the Punxsutawney Memorial Library? A step through the new front doors of the library reveals to visitors that the library offers much more than books to keep people entertained and busy throughout the year. “One of the things libraries need to keep up with is a different set of needs now,” said library director Coral Ellshoff. “Things are coming digitally, and people are relying on the internet, so libraries need to provide access to it.” She added that now libraries should be “a shared and common space in the community.” To that end, the library has undergone some changes. New doors have been installed, and two meeting rooms have been created behind the circulation desk. The larger meeting room will have tables wired for computers. The tables can be arranged in a board-meeting style or a classroom style. Patrons will be able to

plug their laptops right into the tables and use them. “This room gives us the opportunity to provide gathering space and internet access,” Ellshoff said. The meeting room, when not being used by a group, will be open to the public. It is already booked to hold the Groundhog Day art exhibit by the Punxsutawney Art Association. Another, smaller room next to the larger room will function as a media room, with a large monitor, or a study room, as it’s more private. There will be a table in the room, and the monitor can be used for video conferencing. The renovations, and all they include, are funded by a $60,000 state Keystone Recreation grant, matched by $60,000 in local funds. The Friends of the Library and two estate bequests are paying for the furnishings. Along with the physical renovations, which should be concluded early in the new year, the library will purchase some laptops, a photo scanner, and a zip disc drive. The library currently has eight desktop - Continued on page 18

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16 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

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Holiday music for your less-than-silent night By Wayne Bledsoe Scripps Howard News Service ooking for some mood music for the season? Each year I choose the best, worst and mostly in between. Here’s this year’s Christmas sack: n “Wrapped in Red,” Kelly Clarkson (RCA) OK, Kelly Clarkson is a little over-emotive here and there, but she takes the project seriously and it shows. It’s a good mix of familiar and new material, old-fashioned and more trendy arrangements, and Clarkson nails it vocally throughout. This is an especially rock-solid pop Christmas disc.

fluential artists in their own right. Elizabeth Mitchell leads a variety of musicians performing faith-based folk songs that are mostly from Seeger’s collection. It’s simple and mostly acoustic and includes Peggy Seeger, Natalie Merchant, John Sebastian, some talented children and other guests. This might be the sweetest disc of the season. n “Quality Street,” Nick Lowe (Yep Roc) Mercurial singer-songwriter Nick Lowe is responsible for the anthem “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understand-

ing” and has developed a cool post-rock style. His Christmas entry is pretty good: A cover of Roger Miller’s “Old Toy Trains,” a couple of traditional numbers and some originals. But the prize is “Christmas as the Airport,” a gentle fantasy about falling asleep when flights are canceled and waking up alone in the airport. n “A Family Christmas,” The Piano Guys (Portrait) Piano, cello a little vocal and traditional songs. It’s pretty and mostly very nice background music - until you get to, say, “Carol of the Bells” (calm that cellist down!) and “Let It Snow.” It’s definitely for Christmas on the more peaceful side. n “Vintage Christmas Wonderland,” David Ian (Prescott) I actually prefer this piano-based Christmas - Continued on page 22

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n “Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas,” The Robertsons (Capitol) The “Duck Dynasty” family and special guests give you 14 tracks that range from clever to pure corn and sentimentality. For fans of the show, it’s great. If you’re not a fan it’s an avoid-at-all-costs endeavor. n “The Sounding Joy: Christmas Songs In and Out of the Ruth Crawford Seeger Songbook,” Elizabeth Mitchell and Friends (Smithsonian Folkways) This collection is a gem. Ruth Crawford Seeger was modern composer and folk song curator, as well as being the mother of Pete, Peggy and Mike Seeger, who all became in-

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814-427-2555 Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159 – 17

R.D. Brown MeMorials

All signs point to a wonderful season, And your kind patronage is the reason; So let us make one thing perfectly clear-We’re grateful for your seeing us this past year!

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(l. to r.) Judy Hampton, director Coral Ellshoff, Ashaunti Damore, Jennifer Soliday and Jane Parente welcome visitors to the Punxsutawney Memorial Library. Patrons can find many new, free programs at the local library.

Renovated Library Continued from page 16

computers, located in the window wells. The new laptops, when they arrive, will be available for use within the library. The photo scanner will be able to convert photographs into digital files and the zip disc drive will convert files stored on discs into digital files. Many people are starting to store various records on digital media. “Libraries would like to be able to help them with organizing their digital life,” said Ellshoff. Visitors will also see a new circulation desk and the fiction has been arranged AZ, from left to right. The shelves have been moved to allow three feet of space between them, which makes them wheelchair accessible. The library offers computer classes, ereader classes, story times for children, teen group, a monthly book club for adults, and a free yoga class. At the library’s website, www.punxsutawneylibrary.org, patrons can search for books, renew materials, and get their name on the reservation list for the newest bestsellers. The website also features “OverDrive,” which allows patrons to download ebooks and audio books. There are many free books available for Kindles and Nooks. Inter-library loans also are still available. This service allows materials to be borrowed from other libraries and shipped to the Punx’y library. Between 2011 and 2012, the children’s area at the library was changed to utilize

new shelving and new furniture. The new arrangement opened up the area’s space, allowing youngsters more space to look for books, to get comfortable on some soft chairs and a new rug, and, of course, to view Punxsutawney Phil and his family through the Groundhog Zoo window. These changes were funded by the USDA, an anonymous local donor, the Punx’y Rotary Club, and the Friends of the Library. Children’s programs include pre-literacy story hour for little ones ages eighteen months to three years; early literacy and crafts for ages three to five; elementary reading hour for those in kindergarten through third grade. There is a Tweens Reading Hour for grades four to seven and Teen Activity Time for high school-age kids. The teen area upstairs has been rearranged, which allows for more light and better accessibility to the books. “We’re working on beefing up our DVD collection,” Ellshoff said, adding that the library only purchases movies based on books. In the DVD collection are several DVDs about home health issues, purchased by the county through a LINK grant. “We’ve got lots of stuff going on,” said Ellshoff. “Everything’s free. It’s more accessible and more usable.” The library serves patrons of all ages, but has been seeing more families with young children. “We’d like to grow the teen group,” she commented, “and every library is struggling to engage the working parents [because of hours and work schedules].” Obtaining and offering more digital tech- Continued on page 22

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These are a few of my favorite things...about the holidays By Barton Goldsmith Scripps Howard News Service or many reasons, this is my favorite time of year. One reason is not the colder weather. In fact, the temperature outside may be the only thing I don’t like, but the joy of the season more than compensates for it. Here are some of my favorite things about the holidays: — How people are nicer to each other. I see this every year and wonder why it can’t continue past the winter holidays. The malls and parking lots are crowded, but many people take shuttles and patiently wait in line. Most people seem more caring, not just toward those they love but also people they don’t even know. They go out of their way for those around them, and that is a really wonderful gift, and what the season is all about. — Getting to be a kid again. People say the holidays are for children. Well, then count me in. It’s not about being childish (most of the time, anyway), but about

watching all of them as they look at the lights, wonder what’s in the boxes, and giggle at the good times they are having. Bringing joy to a child is about as good as it gets. — Giving and receiving. The whole gift thing can go way over the top, but the idea is to find something that moves both the person who’s receiving your gift and you as the giver. Meaningful gifts are important. My other half asked me to write her a letter, a gift that will cost me nothing but time and one that will contain my whole heart. She will get some other things, but my holiday letter will be the highlight. — Can’t forget the food. Though I work hard to stay healthy, from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, there are things I eat that I wait for all year long. I have learned to savor the flavors and the dinners with loved ones. I so enjoy having a full table of smiling faces and great food. I also make it a point to share our gatherings with

a few folks who have no place to go. It makes the food taste even better. — Being reminded of how lucky we are. As you shop for your family, you can’t help but hear the bell ringers and see the booths of the many organizations that help those less fortunate. This time of year, I give as much as I can to those people and organizations that help others. Taking the kids to a homeless shelter on Christmas night to serve dinner to those less fortunate

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is a great way to appreciate your own blessings, while also brightening the holiday season for others. It’s too bad we only get into the holiday spirit once a year. If only it were powerful enough to keep us in a pleasant mood for the next eleven months! Carrying the spirit into the New Year would make us all a lot happier. Give it a try and Happy Holidays. (Dr. Barton Goldsmith, is a psychotherapist in Westlake Village, Calif., is the author of “The Happy Couple — How to Make Happiness a Habit One Little Loving Thing at a Time.” E-mail him at Barton@BartonGoldsmith.com. Follow his daily insights at www.twitter.com/@BartonGoldsmith) (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com) • • •

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Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159 – 19

Area Fossils Continued from page 10 existence, so far as known, where the great lizard has left a complete facsimile of itself in stone. Others have left only their fossilized bones. But we are sure that this is actually a petrified saurian because Mr. McMillen says it is. He has seen all kinds of rock roof in his time, and knows the difference between a freak of nature and a genuine fossil. Anybody who is inclined to be skeptical about it can go and examine the monster for himself, and if he does not agree that it is either a Plesiosaurus or a Masasaurus, he can have the thing for nothing. No record of the fossil’s removal has been located which leaves many to wonder if it may have been a fossilized root of the calamus plant. Miners at Walston No. 1 continued to pass under the fossil, and, perhaps, they wondered where and when the next monstrous fossil would be found. (Editor’s Note: The resources used in the preparation of this article are available the Punxsutawney Memorial Library, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and the Punxsutawney Area Historical and Genealogical Society This article has been prepared by PRIDE – Punxsutawney Revitalization: Investing, Developing, Enhancing. PRIDE is a nonprofit organization that brings together residents, business people, community leaders, and civic organizations to improve the business districts in Punxsutawney. PRIDE is working to develop a Coal Memorial and Welcome Center for the Punxsutawney Area. Comments on this article may be directed to PRIDE, P.O. Box 298, Punxsutawney, PA 15767.) •••

Sleep texting Continued from page 15 “That phone is in bed with them or sometimes on top of their chest when they’re sleeping or even in their hand. So the response is kind of automatic,” she said. Some of Dowdell’s students have admitted that they’re disturbed by their nighttime texting behavior. But because sleep texting is unconscious, it’s a difficult habit to break. Dowdell said she knows of one student who wore mittens at night — and others who wore socks on their hands — to keep themselves from texting. For families with tweens and teens, texting in bed after “lights out” has become common, said Dr. Marjorie Hogan, a pediatrician at Hennepin (Minn.) County Medical Center. That’s why she suggests establishing a “media curfew,” docking all electronic devices outside the bedroom at a fixed time. Shay Radhakrishnan, 16, admits that she sleeps with her phone. But now the practice is giving her some pause. “A lot of people leave their phone on their side table, but for some reason I leave mine on my bed,” she said, “which is probably dangerous because it will probably wake me up a lot more - and (will) probably cause me to start sleep texting.” (Contact Allie Shah at ashah@startribune.com.) (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.) • • •

David R. Setree Rare Coins

By PRIDE for Hometown magazine

avid Setree’s passion for coins began with an old cigar box of unusual coins that his father had collected in his travels and in his family’s business, operating the Big Run Inn in Gaskill Township across Stump Creek from Big Run. Among the coins in the old cigar box were one-cent pieces nearly as large as a half dollar and minted from a rich chocolate-color copper and an 1889 silver Liberty dollar with the letters “J J” etched on Liberty’s cheek. The story Dave Setree examines coins used in an educational program at a recent Indiana Coin Club meeting.

Each piece of red Punxsutawney souvenir ware has a unique story, which makes it a choice collectible.

Dave Setree holds a Punxsutawney Brewery bottle that was found in the old train station with the label intact, making it is rare collectible.

of the Liberty dollar was that the coin had belonged to Jesse James, and to the young Setree, the story was believable, even though James had died in 1882, seven years before the coin was minted. Setree turned his early passion for coins into a business that gives him opportunities to buy, sell, and trade coins. He also does estate appraisals of coins, gold jewelry, precious metals, and currency for customers. In his shop, located at 485 Harmony Road, he maintains supplies for amateur coin collectors and confirmed numismatics. To keep his knowledge of coins current, he is a member of the Indiana Coin Club, where he has served as president for the past twenty-one years. The club provides edu-

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Milk bottles are among the collectibles available at David R. Setree Rare Coins.

cational programs for members and for youngsters. Through the programs provided for young people, the club hopes to encourage the development of the next generation of numismatics. For Setree, stories that accompany old coins are as important as the coins themselves. He has in his collection a number of coins and pieces of paper money that are tied to Punxsutawney. They have the names of local people written or embossed on them. “The story makes the item more valuable,” said Setree.

Antique watches are among the interesting items to be found at David R. Setree Rare Coins. A Big Ben Alarm Clock, from W. H. Jewelers, Hill Punxsutawney is a one-of-a-kind item.

In addition to coins, Setree has recently expanded his collecting to Punxsutawney and Groundhog artifacts and small antiques. “Anything that has the word ‘Punxsutawney’ on it catches my eye,” he said. The display cases in his shop contain any number of interesting items that have caught his eye. He is willing to consider purchasing the odd, the strange, the curious – anything with a story. Although he purchases items because he likes and enjoys them, he is willing to sell them for the right price. If you seek the unusual, the unique, or a specific coin it is best to make an appointment with Setree at the coin shop between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. from Tuesday through Saturday. Although he is usually there, he just may be attending a show or doing an appraisal. To contact him, please call (814) 590-0609 or send an e-mail to dsetree@hotmail.com. •••

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20 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

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Warmest Wishes For A Wonderful, Heartfelt, Joyful Christmas, and A Happy New year Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159 – 21

Firefighters, Clergy

Holiday music

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Continued from page 14 when she accepted her calling. “It’s not anything new to me,” she said. “I grew up in a household with a pastor for a father. I experienced him leaving at all hours or missing family activities.” E v e n when pastors take vacation time, they must ensure their congregations are looked after. “If I’m not in the area,” The Rev. Maureen Seifried, she expastor of the First English plained, “I Lutheran Church, discusses to how clergy must always be ac- have cessible to their congrega- have a feltions. Photo by Wendy low pastor Veitz-Giavadoni. on call [for emergencies].” With today’s technology, pastors can respond very quickly to the needs of their congregations or communities. Phone calls from pastors’ offices can be forwarded to their cell phones, for example. Being ready to respond at any time goes with the job. “You never stop,” Seifried said. • • •

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Continued from page 17 disc. It’s only five-tracks long, but it’s jazzy relaxing and wonderful. Andre Miguel Mayo and Acacia add some stylish vocals. It’s still peaceful, but it has a little more pizzazz to keep your attention. n “Snowed In,” Mindy Smith (Giant Leap) Mindy Smith keeps her Christmas disc short and sweet with five songs. Two nice new originals sit well alongside “Silent Night,” “What Child Is This” and “Auld Lang Syne.” It’s sweet and humble, like the best Christmas discs should be. n “Christmas In My Heart,” Gretchen Wilson (Redneck) Gretchen Wilson’s entry into the Christmas category could benefit from Smith’s take. If you love Wilson, you’ll probably be fine with it. Overall, though, it’s not too inspiring. n “Musical Gifts,” Joshua Bell and Friends (Masterworks) Classical violin great Joshua Bell enlists Alison Krauss, Chick Corea, Placido Domingo, Brandford Marsalis and many others to help out, but it’s Bell himself who makes this disc shine — as it often does. In fact, it would probably be better without the guests. n “Just In Time for Christmas,” Natalie Toro (www.natalietoro.com) Natalie Toro is a singer with a clear, crisp voice and a delivery that never lets you forget she performs on Broadway. Sometimes it’s almost irritating. But her delivery of the under heard earworm “Once Upon a Christmas Song” is terrific. n “Merry Christmas to You,” Jonathan Butler (Mack Avenue) South Africa’s Jonathan Butler delivers 10 songs with a 1970s R&B vibe. When he keeps it simple with just vocal and guitar it’s excellent. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. n “Sea Sun Greetings,” The Surfchords (www.surfchords.com) You have to give attorney-by-day Lawrence Savell credit. He doesn’t give up. Years after entering the holiday novelty market with “Yule Hear From Our Lawyers” (under the name LawTunes) and following with regular releases, he’s returned with a surf rock collection with such titles as “Yuletide Riptide,” “Snow Justice” and “Rippin’ on a Red Eye With Santa on Christmas Eve.” Sometimes it’s funny. Sometimes it’s not. But, there’s charm in the guy’s dedication and his 82year-old mom’s watercolors on the cover. (Contact Wayne Bledsoe of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at www.knoxnews.com.) • • •

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Continued from page 18

nology may appeal to that audience. “People are doing more stuff on their phones,” Ellshoff explains. Along with the new technology and programs the library offers, “making people comfortable and welcoming them” will help increase the number of people using the library. Ellshoff noted the program schedule will stay the same for 2014 and next summer’s reading program will be based on science. The library is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Library cards make great gifts and open up a wealth of good reading, activities, and services. Punxsutawney Memorial Library (814) 938-5020 info@punxsutawneylibrary.org •••

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22 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

Dog & Cat Boarding & Grooming Michele Wachob, Owner with Chance and Cindy Hoover, Assistant Groomer with Jewels

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Spruce up your holiday entrance with festive paint

By Rosa Colucci Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reath on the door? Check. Lighted trees on porch? Check. Boughs of holly on the staircase? Check. Christmas magic? Not so much. You did all of the right things, and still something is lacking. Maybe the problem isn’t your decorations. Maybe it’s time to give a jolt of color to the background that those lovely decorations are set against. Maybe it is time to paint. Painting for the holidays doesn’t have to be a labor-intensive drama show. Sometimes, all you need is a big splash in a small space like your foyer or front door. Either way, it is a quick afternoon project that can pay dividends all year long. Red is a really festive color and works well for maximum impact. You don’t need to be afraid of it, either, because the foyer area is not a place where you spend a lot of time. You essentially saturate yourself in color there and then move to the rest of the house. Benjamin Moore color and design expert Sharon Grech loves the idea. “My choice for a fabulous festive red for

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Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159 – 23

Christmas specials, ‘Face Off,’ ‘Mad Men’ and more

May the Christmas season be filled with joy and delight for you and those you love. We look forward to serving you and yours in the new year. Thank You for your patronage.

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By Ron Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Does The Hallmark Channel intend to run Christmas specials through December or will they return to regular broadcasting soon? I am starting to miss “The Golden Girls,” and come on, how many Christmas movies can you watch? — Mary, 58, Canonsburg, Pa. Rob: Get used to it. A Hallmark Channel publicist said the regular programming won’t resume until Jan. 2. Hallmark gets its best ratings with its Christmas movies, so you’ll be seeing a lot more of them. Q: I enjoy watching Syfy’s “Face Off.” When are the contestant interviews filmed? After or during each episode or the entire season at once? — John, 46, North Huntingdon, Pa. Rob: According to the show’s publicist, contestant interviews are shot throughout the season during each episode. Gotta do it when the drama is fresh in the contestants’ minds. Q: With all the retro stations showing classic television shows now, I can’t seem to find the older comedies like “NewsRadio,” “Dave’s World,” “Murphy Brown” or “Night Court.” Are they out there somewhere or is it a contractual reason why they aren’t in reruns on TV? — Margaret, West St. Paul, Minn. Rob: A search of TV listings (http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do?aid=

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www.krevelsupply.com 24 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

zap2it) shows “NewsRadio” and “Night Court” are available for online viewing for a fee. The others do not show up there, but you might try Netflix or Hulu Plus. Usually shows air in syndication for a time and then get retired. That’s probably what has happened to these older programs. Q: Has “Lucky 7” been canceled or is it on a different channel? — Julie, Canonsburg, Pa. Rob: It was the first show of the 2013-14 TV season to be canceled. It won’t air again. Q: When will “Longmire” be back on TV? — Jan, California Rob: Sometime in 2014 (my guess is next summer). The show was just officially renewed last week. Q: Is a movie going to be made for either Showtime’s “Boss” or HBO’s “The Sopranos” to tie up loose ends? — Tom, 51, Ocala, Fla. Rob: There was never going to be a “Sopranos” movie and with star James Gandolfini’s death, there certainly won’t be now. There was some talk of a “Boss” movie, but nothing ever came of it. Q: Do the Stars on “Dancing With the Stars “ get paid for every week they survive on the show? — Louis, 81, Morningside, Pa. Rob: Pretty much, yes. In 2010, The Hollywood Reporter offered this breakdown - Continued on page 26

We wish you peace, joy and enlightenment throughout this holy season and beyond.

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All in the eye of the beholder By Sharon Randall Scripps Howard News Service

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hristmas is a-coming,” the old song goes, and the goose is not the only one getting fat. I’ve used that line before and it isn’t as funny as it used to be. Just once, I would like to eat my way through the holidays without picturing, the instant I imbibe in a bit of fudge or a swig of eggnog, exactly how it’s going to look on my hips. It’s an image I’d welcome if it ever prevented or even gave me momentary pause from partaking in the traditional holiday eating/drinking orgy. But no, picturing how I will look doesn’t help; it only heaps a big greasy layer of guilt on top of all the fat which, either way, still ends up on my hips. My friends are no help either. Recently I received an early Christmas gift from Joy, a woman who clearly knows no shame. Having grown up, as I did, in the Deep South (where sugar and fat are two of the four basic food groups, along with alcohol and salt) Joy knows all too well my various vulnerabilities. And still, she dared to present me with a time-honored token of our heritage — a gift that can only be truly appreciated when bestowed by one Southerner on another — a big old box of Krispy Kreme

Doughnuts. I was so touched, I could barely speak. Especially with three doughnuts in my mouth. When I came to my senses, I offered to share one with her (not a glazed one, of course, because those are my favorites, but perhaps one of the tacky ones with sprinkles.) And she, bless her heart, had the nerve to say, “Oh, no, I wouldn’t think of it, they’re all for you!!” Then she proceeded to tell me about her latest diet on which she has shed enough pounds to wither away from a whopping size 6 to a 4. What do you think? Should I give her a gallon of my grandmother’s famous “Merry Christmas Eggnog,” a recipe made even merrier by a secret ingredient that my grandfather always slipped into his? Fat, it seems, is a relative term, especially to my relatives, whose standards for defining obesity vary widely. My aunt Jane, for example, a woman of uncommon kindness and grace, might describe someone (never mind who) as “a mite big-boned, but cute.” Others in my family (and they know who they are) would not hesitate to say that person is “not bad looking, if only she’d lose a little weight.” Which might explain, while I love all my kin, I liked my aunt Jane better than most. - Continued on page 30

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Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159 – 25

Christmas specials Continued from page 24

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26 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

Printed 12-13

of the pay scale for the Fall 2010 season of the show: “With a $345,000 pot up for grabs during the 10 weeks of airtime, the source said each star makes an initial $125,000 for signing, three weeks of rehearsal before the premiere and competing in the first two episodes, even if the cast member is cut after the first dance. “The breakdown for the remaining weeks is $10,000 an episode for Weeks 3 and 4, $20,000 an episode for Weeks 5 and 6, $30,000 an episode for Weeks 7 and 8, and $50,000 an episode for the final two weeks. “The production source said contestants forfeit a portion of their salary if they fail to meet the ultra-strict rehearsal schedule.” Q: The DVDs of “Mad Men” Seasons 15 arrived replete with classy packaging and special features, including detailed commentaries by the writers, actors and producer Matthew Weiner. Some sets offered two different commentaries per episode. Not so with the Season 6 DVDs. Aside from a few special features, commentaries are absent. Given the show’s prestige and popularity of the commentaries, Lionsgate owes fans some sort of explanation. — Rich, 62, Hempfield, Pa. Rob: It is curious because past DVD “Mad Men” releases were always more robust with special features, including commentaries. The best I could get from a Lionsgate spokesperson was that “due to shooting schedules, the timing could not be worked out (to record commentaries) for this release.” Q: Will PBS’s “Call the Midwife” and Bio’s “The Ghost Inside My Child” and “The Unexplained” be returning or have they been canceled? — Mary-Ann, 50, Pittsburgh Rob: “Call the Midwife” will return for a new season on March 30, and a new Christmas special airs at 7 p.m. Dec. 29. “The Unexplained” won’t be back, and the jury is still out on “Ghost Inside My Child,” which could possibly return with new episodes. Q: Is “Happy Endings” dead? There was some talk about USA or FX picking it up but I would think that with a year gap it is dead now. Was there ever a “finale”? I thought it was a good show with lots of promise. — Mike, 40, Pittsburgh Rob: Sadly, “Happy Endings” did die without any sort of series finale. There was talk of a cable network picking it up, but

nothing ever came of that. The stars of “Happy Endings” have moved on: Adam Pally is now on “The Mindy Project” and Damon Wayans Jr. is on “New Girl.” (Ask TV questions by sending your query, name, age, city and state to owenr@shns.com. Follow TV writer Rob Owen on Twitter or Facebook under RobOwenTV.) • • •

festive paint Continued from page 23

line of paints. “People look at bold color, and they tend to go too saturated. Sometimes it is too ‘clean’ and ends up so bright. I tell people to go a little ‘grayer’ in their choice,” she says. In layman’s terms, stick to the bottom two colors on any paint strip you choose when working with red. She notes that the center of the paint strip is the “clean” shade in that color and might be more jarring. Of course, if you are really stuck, every paint company has an online color visualizer that can help you select something that will go well with your existing colors. You can go to the websites of these companies, plug in a shade of an adjoining room and start clicking. The computer program will give you all of the color possibilities. Companies such as PPG have applications that allow you to take a photo of the room with a smartphone or an iPad and electronically paint the shade right there for a real-life effect. If you are on the fence, you can try painting a piece of furniture red. An old dresser, chair or a stool are all possibilities. Just remember that the paint needs to cure for a few days at least, and then spray a clear polyurethane to seal it and protect it from scratches. Jordan also loves the idea of painting the inside of the door red as well or maybe even the ceiling. But she has a warning: “Don’t use cheap paint. It will prolong the job and, especially with red, look bad. Ask about primers. If your manufacturer recommends a gray one, do not skip it or the color will look thin.” (Contact Rosa Colucci at: rcolucci@post-gazette.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.) • • •

How to manage holiday stress By Barton Goldsmith Scripps Howard News Service e all get stressed during the holiday season for various reasons. Most of us just deal with whatever is pressing on us, and don’t think about what all the stress is doing to our bodies and brains. When you are stressed, powerful chemicals, such as adenine, course through your system to help you battle whatever you are facing. The business of the holidays can make what would normally be a small issue into something much bigger. But there are always things you can do to manage your stress during the holiday rush: — Don’t overspend. One of the biggest stressors for the December holidays comes when we get the January bills. It has been a tough few years, most people are cutting back, and you may find that spending less just makes sense right now. If you feel that you have to go overboard to enjoy the holiday, you might need to rethink what this time of year is supposed to be all about. Giving from the heart is the truest gift we can offer. No amount of money is going to make up for the love that you can give to those you care about. — Enjoy every moment you can. For many of us, the holidays are the most wonderful time of the year. The trick is tuning into the good parts while learning to cope with the troublesome parts. We all have a choice as to how we allow ourselves to feel, and teaching yourself to take in the good while letting the bad roll off your back is a great gift to give to yourself. Don’t let the chaos get to you, and treasure the beauty

and love that you find. — Take one minute a day to imagine yourself feeling totally relaxed on top of a majestic mountain, or picture a beach with the surf crashing, or you can go even deeper by imagining the smell of clear winter air and the sound of holiday music. Even if it’s only for a minute (you can take longer if you like), it will lower your heart rate and blood pressure and give you a feeling of peace. — Keep your energy balanced. If you aren’t enjoying the season, you might just be hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. A lot of people push themselves too hard at this time of year. A light snack and a power nap could be all you need to get you back in the mood. If there are personal things weighing on you, talk with your loved ones about what’s going on, and do your best not to let it bring you down. Instead, put your attention on the positive activities and people that are around you. — You don’t have to be a Santa-holic to enjoy the holidays. Don’t do things that you know will stress you out. Allow the true meaning of the season to flow into your heart and head. (Dr. Barton Goldsmith, a psychotherapist in Westlake Village, Calif., is the author of “The Happy Couple — How to Make Happiness a Habit One Little Loving Thing at a Time.” E-mail him at Barton@BartonGoldsmith.com. On Twitter: www.twitter.com/@BartonGoldsmith.) (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com) • • •

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Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159 – 27

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Homemade snow globes, gift tags and other holiday decorations By Rosemary Sadez Friedmann Scripps Howard News Service Let’s try some interesting Christmas home decorations on for size. Pinecones are readily available at this time of year either in your own backyard or at craft stores. They are inexpensive even if you have to purchase them instead of gathering from your yard. Spray-paint them. Pick a color that works with your decor; you can also go with traditional red and/or green or make them glitter with silver or gold spray paint. Try placing a bunch of pinecones in tall, glass containers and display on the mantel or the dining table or the coffee table. Place them in bowls or in trays and display them on any table. Put them in a basket and let them sit next to a sofa or chair in the living room. Easy work, nice decoration. Do you sew? Do you have pillows you don’t use anymore? These can be decorative pillows or bed pillows as long as they are large. Re-cover them in Christmas fabric. Place them on the floor by the tree and everyone will have a comfy, cozy place to sit while opening gifts. This might sound strange, but how about a disco ball for decoration? Hang it

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28 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

May His good graces guide you and may the light of His love find you wherever you go this Chistmas season. We appreciate your stopping by this year. Thanks!

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from the ceiling or dangle it from the dining room chandelier for a sparkly decoration. It doesn’t have to rotate to look festive. Make your own gift tags. Do you have cookie cutters? Use them as templates. Outline cookie cutters on decorative construction paper, cut them out, punch a hole in the top, string ribbon on them and you have personalized gift tags. Dress up your dining table chairs. You can wrap the backs with large ribbon or simply put a large bow on the backs. Adding some greenery to the ribbon or bow will complete the look and if you carry that same greenery onto the dining table centerpiece, it will look like you planned it well. Make your own snow globes with mason jars. You will need a variety of mason jars, waterproof superglue, glycerin and glitter, and whatever holiday trinket or decoration you want to put inside the globe. The glue is to adhere the trinket or decoration to the inside of the jar lid. You will need to let that dry for 24 hours. Next, fill the jar with enough water to completely cover the trinket or decoration you have glued to the jar top. - Continued on page 30

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Winter gardening activities By Joe Lamp’l Scripps Howard News Service ith temperatures now consistently dipping into the twenties, my time spent outdoors tending to my winter garden is becoming less frequent. That leaves more time than ever to turn my attention to indoor garden-related activities. A recent paper-shredding project was a good example. As I patiently fed stacks of paper into my shredder to prepare them for the compost pile, I pondered some of the many projects that can be done through the colder moths to make your garden more productive next spring, and to make you a little smarter in the process. Here are the first five in a two-part series to get you started.

— Shred paper for compost. One of the best (and most overlooked) opportunities

we have as gardeners for an unlimited source of composting ingredients comes into our house everyday. Paper: printed emails, old homework, junk mail, bills and more. It’s also one of the fastest ways to bulk up your pile while provid-

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holiday pounds Winter gardening Continued from page 25

Continued from previous page

But the person I like best — in the way that he sees me, or rather, in the way I see myself in his eyes — is my brother Joe. Here’s a tip: If you want a true assessment of your weight and how you wear it, don’t step on a scale; ask a blind man. “You look good, Sister,” Joe says as he runs his hand over my face to “see” how I look. I feel good, too, when I hear him say it. Too bad I don’t see him more often. I was thinking this morning about Christmas lights. You know, those little twinkly white lights with long curly strands? By night, they look so lovely, like icicles made of diamonds. And by day, they look like gobs of tacky plastic hair. They’re the same, night or day, rain or shine, Christmas or the Fourth of July. So are we, really, despite the addition of a few extra pounds or years. The real difference, it seems, is in the kind of light that shines upon us — whether it makes us feel as lovely as diamonds or as tacky as plastic hair. My plan for the holidays is to see myself in the best light possible, in the eyes of those who love me as I am, and to reflect that same light on them. I can always diet in January. (Editor’s Note: Sharon Randall is on vacation. The following column originally appeared in December, 2002.) (Contact Sharon Randall at P.O. Box 777394, Henderson NV 89077, or at www.sharonrandall.com) • • •

garden through the seasons is a powerful design tool and a great way to archive the transformation over time. Taking pictures in winter allows you to always be mindful of your garden’s structure throughout the year. It’s the foundation and essential elements of every good design. Having an easy way to refer back to those pictures any time of year will prove invaluable when that stroke of genius hits. — Work on tools. Gather up your favorite hand pruners, shovels and more for that all-important maintenance. I admit: It’s not a project I look forward to, but once I’m into it, I never regret it. Steel wool removes rust and shines up metal; my trusty file sharpens the edges of my pruners and spades. Fine sandpaper and linseed oil smoothes and coats the hardwood of my favorite long-handled tools. Lastly, a light spray of machine oil over metal protects the exposed areas from rust and keeps it looking good. In short order, I’ve restored my favorite tools to good-as-new for the busy year ahead. — Read. I love those cozy times by the fire on days or nights when there’s no need to feel guilty for not being more productive. Pick a subject you want to understand better, such as pruning, botany, saving seeds or organic gardening. There is no shortage of material on any subject. Also consider books written from the perspective of other gardeners — their experiences and wisdom on gardening and life. I always learn new things and thoroughly enjoy walking in the shoes of other passionate gardeners around the world. Some of my favorite books in recent times include: “Organic Manifesto” by Maria Rodale, “The Backyard Parables: Lessons on Gardening and Life” by Margaret Roach, “Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer” by Novella Carpenter, and “French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France” by Richard Goodman. (Joe Lamp’l, host of “Growing a Greener World” on PBS, is a Master Gardener and author. For more information visit www.GrowingAGreenerWorld.com. For more stories, visit shns.com.) • • •

snow globes Continued from page 28

Add a few drops of glycerin and whatever amount of glitter you want (for the “snow”). Glue the lid to the jar and let dry. Then apply glue to the lid’s inner edge and screw the lid to the jar. Let it dry, then shake all you want. Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and add some new decoration to your holiday decor. (Rosemary Sadez Friedmann, an interior designer in Naples, Fla., is author of “Mystery of Color,” available at Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Amazon.com.) • • •

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Never question the value of time spent with your children By Betsy Hart Scripps Howard News Service recently spent an afternoon seeing “Wicked” in Chicago with my oldest daughter, Tori, a high school senior. The Broadway show, about what really happened in Oz “before Dorothy dropped in,” is fabulous. I loved spending the day with her. But what mattered most to me wasn’t the show, it was the time. A dear, and very professionally successful, friend recently told me that she might question the value of time spent on many things, but never the time spent with her kids. She had forgotten telling me — years before — that such times were “like making a deposit in the bank” to her. Those words, and her more recent observation, struck a deep and true chord with me. I sometimes question time spent on professionally successful enterprises, or other personal pursuits, such as an evening out with friends. Was that really time well spent? Was the tradeoff worth it? But I never question the value of time spent with my children on even the most mundane activities. I’m not talking, necessarily, about quality time or teachable moments. Just time. Over the years I’ve weighed in on many political issues, moral battles, and life observations. Those years of writing a weekly column are coming to a close soon. But through it all an increasingly common theme for me is that family has become ever more important. My job (however imperfectly done) of build-

ing into my children is one thing I am confident will have lasting value. The political and cultural battles of the day will always be with us. I think in my 20s and 30s I some how thought I was fighting battles that had never been waged before. And yes, family breakdown and government takeovers and moral degradation are serious things. They should be addressed, and I’ll continue to speak about them. But in one form or another, we live in a broken world where these things are part of the fabric, though they may ebb and flow. Over the decades I’ve come to see that — and that’s one of many reasons these battles concern me less. On the flip side, I sometimes do wonder about my professional arc. Maybe I should have gone to graduate school, maybe I should have attempted more, and earlier in my life, maybe. . . Sure, there are other questions and “what ifs?” But I simply don’t question the time I’ve spent with my children. I don’t mean for a minute that I’m looking to live through them. Or that they somehow reflect all my values, or that they are always easy to live with or that that time is fun, though it often is. And I’m hardly saying time with our children is the only valuable time there is. Community, church, friends, extended family, work, and of course our spouses all rightly have a claim on our time. I’ve written about the intrinsic value of our callings in the workplace, and how our relationship with our

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Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159 – 31

Wishing you loads of joy and laughter, Throughout the holiday season and after!

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henâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;youâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;areâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;littleâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;world seemsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;soâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;big,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;it'sâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;hardâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;understandâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;whyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;youâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;loveâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;is hereâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;oneâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;dayâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;goneâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;next. Actually,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;canâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;beâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;hardâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;understandâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;at anyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;age.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;I'veâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;beenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;tryingâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;makeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;senseâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ofâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;itâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;all myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;stillâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;don'tâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;getâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;it.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Orâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;likeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;it.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;But I'veâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;comeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;acceptâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;itâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;asâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;oneâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ofâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;harderâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;facts ofâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;life. Randyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;doesn'tâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;acceptâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;itâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;bit.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Heâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;isâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;3â&#x20AC;&#x201A;years oldâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;smartâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;enoughâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;noticeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;hisâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;nanaâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;-â&#x20AC;&#x201A;thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;wouldâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;beâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;meâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;--â&#x20AC;&#x201A;showsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;upâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;atâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;hisâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;door unannounced,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;onlyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;disappearâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;laterâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;likeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;the UPSâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;guyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;droppingâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;offâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;package. Yes,â&#x20AC;&#x201A; thereâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; areâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; differences.â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; UPSâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; guy wearsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;crispâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;brownâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;uniform.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;dressâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;mostly inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;rumpledâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;black.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;heâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;neverâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;sticksâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;around toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;playâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;withâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Randy,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;evenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;forâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;minute. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;alwaysâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;stayâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;atâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;leastâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;fewâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;days,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;longâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;enough toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;makeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Nanaâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;pancakesâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;(they'reâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;best)â&#x20AC;&#x201A;and readâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;storiesâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;(aboutâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Curiousâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;George)â&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;trick hisâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;intoâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;lettingâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;himâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;stayâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;upâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;late. Theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;UPSâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;guyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;neverâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;doesâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;that. Butâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;soonerâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;orâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;later,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;alwaysâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;driveâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;away,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;not inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;bigâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;brownâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;van,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;butâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;littleâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;rentalâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;car. Andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;I'mâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;goneâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;forâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;veryâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;longâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;time.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;month. Orâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;two.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Orâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;three. Thenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; getâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; messagesâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; onâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; voiceâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; mail: "Nana,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;canâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;youâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;goâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;parkâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;withâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;meâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;today?" Howâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; doâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; youâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; keepâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; sayingâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; noâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; whenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; allâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; you wantâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;sayâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;isâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;yes?â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Randyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;livesâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;California, withâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;hisâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;hisâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;brother,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Wiley,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;whoâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;is almostâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;yearâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;old.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Wileyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;doesn'tâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;careâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;howâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;long I'mâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;gone.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;can'tâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;proveâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;it,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;butâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;thinkâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;heâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;likes theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;UPSâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;guyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;better. Theirâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;cousinâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Henryâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;hisâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;liveâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;only aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;fewâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;milesâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;awayâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;fromâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;them.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Henryâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;isâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;2,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;and heâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;likesâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;meâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;lot,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;butâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;he'sâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;notâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;quiteâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;oldâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;enough

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32 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Hometown Punxsutawney â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

Hours: tues.-Sat. 1-8 pm 938-1914 240 N. Findley St. PuNxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;y

yetâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;takeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;issueâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;withâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;howâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;longâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;I'mâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;gone. Henry'sâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;mamaâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;saysâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;whenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;heâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;seesâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;anâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;"older woman,"â&#x20AC;&#x201A;heâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;willâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;pointâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;herâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;smileâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;and sayâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;"Nana!"â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;tellsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;meâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;this,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;know,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;make meâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;feelâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;missed,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;notâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;old.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Eitherâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;way,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;loveâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;it. Theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;reasonâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;forâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;vanishingâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;actâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;isâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;simple, butâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;notâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;easilyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;explained,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;especiallyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;child. Myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;husbandâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;liveâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;500â&#x20AC;&#x201A;milesâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;fromâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;our childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ourâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;grandchildren,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;desert overlookingâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Lasâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Vegas,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;withâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;anâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;interesting arrayâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ofâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;wildlifeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;allâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;sortsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ofâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;thingsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;do. Likeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;manyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ofâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ourâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;neighbors,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;weâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;didn'tâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;plan onâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;jobâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;changeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;thatâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;broughtâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;usâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;here.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;But afterâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;fewâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ofâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;tryingâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;makeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;bestâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;of it,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;we'veâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;beenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;surprisedâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;findâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;howâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;muchâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;we likeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;it. Theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;onlyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;thingâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;weâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;don'tâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;likeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;isâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;500â&#x20AC;&#x201A;miles betweenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;usâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;weâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;love. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;wasâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;almostâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Randy'sâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ageâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;whenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;parents divorced.â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; livedâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; withâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; motherâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; will neverâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;forgetâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;howâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;muchâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;missedâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;dad.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;But whenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;visitedâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;dad,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;I'dâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;missâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;mother, too. Myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;grandmotherâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;helpedâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;meâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;comeâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;terms withâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;it. "Whenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;someoneâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;lovesâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;you,"â&#x20AC;&#x201A;sheâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;said,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;"you don'tâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;haveâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;beâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;sameâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;roomâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;knowâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;you areâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; loved.â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Loveâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; staysâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; forever,â&#x20AC;&#x201A; evenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; when they'reâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;outâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;ofâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;sight." Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;rememberedâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;thoseâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;wordsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;laterâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;when Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;lostâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;slowâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;successionâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;grandparents,â&#x20AC;&#x201A;my parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;firstâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;husband. Myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;grandmotherâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;wasâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;right.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Youâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;don'tâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;have toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;beâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;inâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;sameâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;roomâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;knowâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;you'reâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;loved. She'sâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;beenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;goneâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;someâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;30â&#x20AC;&#x201A;yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;andâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;feelâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;her loveâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;everyâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;day. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;wantâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;myâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;grandchildrenâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;feelâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;theâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;same wayâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;aboutâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;me.â&#x20AC;&#x201A;Soâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;amâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;teachingâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;itâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;toâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;them, - Continued on page 36

Can’t face holiday baking? Here’s how to cheat...a little By Allen Pierleoni Sacramento Bee e’ve crossed into the official holiday season, which means cooking and sharing, of course, with smiling family members gathered in warm kitchens to lovingly re-create treasured specialties from recipes passed down through the generations. One warm and fuzzy part of that tradition is cookie-making. But for the novice baker it can be time-consuming, confusing and messy. Bar cookies or decorated cookies? Flour, powdered sugar and candy sprinkles all over the counter. The array of ingredients (molasses, butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract, fruit) to be measured, mixed, shaped and finished with a flourish. We’re tired already. There’s an easier way for the cookieconfused, one that purists scoff at until they taste the end product. Essentially, we’re going to doctor a tube of Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies into unrecognizability. You’ll need the cookie dough and bags of Mariani dried cherries, Diamond pecan halves and Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate morsels, all found at most supermarkets. For a “gourmet” touch, find some pine nuts. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap the dough and lay the tube on the surface of a nonstick baking pan; be sure the dough is very cold. Ignore the Pillsbury directions that say, “Spoon dough by rounded teaspoons two inches apart ...” We want clunky, politically incorrect cookies, so we need to break the rules. So, using a blunt knife (so the nonstick surface isn’t damaged), cut the roll into 1/2-

inch-thick coins. Place them around the cookie sheet. They’re big and awkward and will take up most of the sheet, but that’s OK — we want them to melt into each other and stick together, so that when they cool we’ll need to break them off at the “seams.” Why? For aesthetics, of course. We don’t want our cookies in only one size and shape, or confused with ones that take actual skill. Now the fun part: Take a few cherries, pecans, chocolate morsels and pine nuts and mash them into the dough. How’s it looking? Need another pecan over there? What about more cherries on that one? Does that one have enough chocolate? You get the idea. Put the cookies in the oven and ignore the timing instructions on the Pillsbury label, the one that says, “Bake 10 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.” Let’s bake ‘em for 20 minutes and add 2 or 3 or 4 minutes, depending on how they look. We want them dark and crunchy, with slightly burnt edges and a tinge of char on the nuts and cherries. Remove the cookies from the oven. They smell and look pretty darn good, don’t they? What do you say now, Martha Stewart? While the cookies cool, put a quart of milk and your favorite glass into the freezer. You know what comes next. (Contact Allen Pierleoni at apierleoni@sacbee.com.Follow him on Twitter @apierleonisacbe.) (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.) • • •

Merry ChristMas

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Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159 – 33

Food rituals may enhance enjoyment of food By Bill Ward Minneapolis Star Tribune s an Oreo cookie better when pulled apart? The answer might be yes, but not because a separated cookie has more flavor. Those who prefer the lift-and-lick method might not know it, but they’re performing a ritual. Same with people who peel an apple from left to right, fold a piece of pizza in half before they eat it, or tap a soda can before opening it. These small, simple acts make food taste better. Even carrots. That reflects the findings of a study by researchers from the University of Minnesota and Harvard on how rituals affect food. In tests that paired rituals with specific foods, study participants reported that “the flavor tasted more pungent, and people took longer to eat the foods, a sign of savoring,” said lead researcher Kathleen Vohs, a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. “They rated the experience as better, and were willing to pay more to do it again.” Rituals, acts typically repeated in the same manner, are used on special occasions and in ceremonies (sacred and profane) to heighten the experience and to connect us to one another and to the past. A food-related ritual can be anything from popping a Champagne cork to serving the Thanksgiving cranberries in great-grandmother’s cut-glass bowl. “They get ingrained in our psyches,”

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said Mark Blegen, chair of St. Catherine University’s Department of Nutrition and Exercise Sciences, “and because of those rituals, we outsource our decision-making to the environment and just eat.” Today’s laboratory: millions of groaning dinner tables around the country. The ritual: carving the turkey, which might evoke Norman Rockwellian warm-andfuzzy feelings, but, said sensory scientist Marcia Pelchat, also will kick-start a physical reaction. “That smell of the turkey being carved is a very potent trigger for food craving,” said Pelchat of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Pennsylvania. “You’re watching while it’s carved, and you can’t eat it. That is likely to stimulate desire and then enjoyment and appreciation.” Most often, mealtime rituals are more subtle, but no less effective. Vohs, Carlson Ph.D. candidate Yajin Wang and two Harvard professors collaborated on a study they called “Rituals Enhance Consumption.” In the first experiment, some of the participants broke a wrapped chocolate bar in half, unwrapped one half, ate it, then unwrapped the other half and ate that. The other participants could eat the chocolate bar any way they pleased. The first group “spent more time eating and enjoyed it more and were willing to pay more for the food,” Wang said. Another test revealed that the people who mixed lemonade enjoyed drinking it more than those who only watched the - Continued on page 36

Merry Christmas!

grAMpiAn hArDWAre Mon.-Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sat. 8:30 a.m. - noon

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34 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

Owner Lesa Walker

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Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159 – 35

Punxsutawney Community Health Center Embracing Excellence in Healthcare

Jay Elder, MD Joseph Kernich, MD Charles Lambiotte, MD Medical Arts Building, Punxsutawney

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36 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

Food rituals

Never question

Continued from page 34

Continued from page 31 spouse should be seen as the most important relationship in any family. All true. But as I get ready to move to a next chapter, and to communicate in a way other than a weekly newspaper column, I look back on all things I’ve written, all the policy and cultural skirmishes I’ve been involved in, all the things I’ve cared about, and especially all the things I’ve spent time on — both personally and professionally. One thing I’ve spent time on without regretting a minute, is my children. I’m not suggesting there are any new big lessons to that, because I think this is something most people feel, even if they don’t quite put it like my friend did. She was right — spending time with our kids is like making a deposit in the bank. Processing the truth of her observations gives me clarity as I move on to what comes next in my writing and professional life. Seeing “Wicked” with my daughter was fabulous. But it’s spending a day with her was priceless. And that puts so much else about life into a really healthy perspective. (Betsy Hart is the author of “It Takes a Parent: How the Culture of Pushover Parenting is Hurting our Kids — And What to do About It” (Putnam Books). Reach her at hartmailboxmycolumn@yahoo.com.) • • •

lemonade being mixed. In the final experiment, a control group using precise (but meaningless) hand gestures found carrots more gratifying than a group that just ate the carrots. “We put people into a ritual mind-set, and it led to an enhanced experience,” Wang said. “We were really excited to see the factor turn out to be so large. We saw a huge effect from merely performing repeated, episodic behavior.” Pelchat didn’t find the results surprising. “It’s not that food is better,” she said, “but the ritual becomes part of the memory of the whole experience. I don’t enjoy Asian food as much if I can’t have chopsticks. Given that we’re so suggestible when it comes to flavor, maybe this is not so surprising.” In some ways, Pelchat added, these rituals fit in with other traditions that put us in a savoring mode. “If we got used to enjoying milk and cookies in the afternoon,” she said, “just walking into the house after school would be a cue.” The most egregious example: popcorn at the movies. “No one even likes it, and yet everybody craves it,” she said. “It’s oversalted, usually stale, and that’s not real butter. But just walking into the movie theater and smelling it makes people want that.” For their part, the researchers would like to see their findings used not only to steer people away from food like movie-theater popcorn, but to enhance other parts of their lives. “We have all kinds of thoughts about how rituals can help people to enjoy exercising more, recover from an illness or injury and be more creative,” Vohs said, adding that a Tulane University colleague is researching the creativity angle. Wang said their Harvard research team members already have done some work on how ritual can help people grieve the loss of a loved one. Both Vohs and Wang hope that their findings might lead to the introduction of rituals that help people to eat healthier. Vohs said she would like to see food professionals “start getting people to perform rituals around food that they don’t desire to eat, but know they should eat more.” And it all could start with a carrot. (Contact Bill Ward at bill.ward@startribune.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.) • • •

Keeping loved ones

Continued from page 32 starting with Randy. The last day I was with him, I held his face in my hands and said, "Where is your nana when you can't see her?" He studied my eyes, waiting for me to tell him. So I did. I told him and I showed him, then I made him show and tell me. "Will you remember?" I said. He nodded and smiled. Then I left. Again. The next day his mama emailed to tell me this story. That morning Randy came out to the kitchen to ask, "Mama, where is Nana?" "She's gone home, honey," she said, "with Papa Mark." "No, Mama," he said, grinning and pointing to his chest. "Nana is right here in my heart." Take that, UPS guy. (Sharon Randall can be contacted at P.O. Box 777394, Henderson NV 89077, or at www.sharonrandall.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.) • • •

Happy Holidays! Zuhdi M. Dajani, M.D.

720 W. Mahoning St., Punxsutawney, PA 15767 • (814) 938-2000 Specialty: Cardiology/internal Medicine Medical School: College of Medicine/university of Baghdad, iraq Residency: Georgetown university Hospital, Washington, D.C. Punxsutawney Area Hospital

Tis the season to drive carefully By Dale McFeatters Scripps Howard News Service Earth peace, good will to man . . . but on the highway, not so much. A study by David Brown, a University of Alabama professor who studies holiday traffic (perhaps if you’re studying the traffic, it means you’re not stuck in it), found that the six days around Christmas showed 18 percent more accidents than Thanksgiving weekend, the heaviest travel days of the year, and 27 percent more than New Year’s Eve when drivers are perhaps handicapped by an excess of holiday cheer. Claims for collisions increase by almost 20 percent during December, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute, which indicates that’s probably on the low side because many minor fender benders happen in mall parking lots and are settled privately. The problem is that probably you and certainly your fellow drivers are stressed out and short-tempered by the extra traffic, including people who aren’t really sure where they’re going, and the necessity to pick up a lot of stuff in scattered locations. Holidays, it is no secret, are stressful. State Farm Insurance found that 32 percent of drivers were likely to become more aggressive during the holidays. Drown says that this year the worst, and most hazardous traffic, will fall on the Friday before Christmas, although the next four days leading up to Christmas are likely to be no

safe-driving clinic either. The safest day to drive? Christmas Day itself. “Nobody’s out there on the roads,” Brown said. “It’s a very safe day to drive.” It’s also a good day to rest up, relax and unwind because that weekend there will be all the gift returns and post-Christmas sales. (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com) • • •

‘Here we go, SteelerS’ football conteSt winner Joan Aul of Punxsutawney was one of two entries guessing a total point score of 38 predicting that the Miami Dolphins would defeat the Pittburgh Steelers. Both entries guessed a total point score of 38 being the closest to the correct total points of 62 . Joan was randomly picked from the correct entries to win her $25 gift certificate, which she will redeem at Punxsutawney Pizza Hut . You, too, can be a winner. Clip and complete the coupon appearing inside today to play. Play to win. Clip, complete, and return the Steelers coupon appearing in Hometown magazine. And, as always, "Here we go, Steelers." • • •

Dean Dairy Found at Your Local Grocery Store Products, Inc. 1-800-851-5902 Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159 – 37

Chocolate and cheese together? Why not? It’s the holidays By Aimee Blume Scripps Howard News Service f one were to list pairs of two delicious snacks that should never be swallowed in the same mouthful, fudge and cheddar cheese would probably be on the list ... yet this is a combination many people enjoy. Cheese fudge is a regional thing, popular in the East and parts of the South, and is

of it. You know how sometimes fudge will get a little hard and brittle, and this does not do that. It stays very soft and moist." The Jim's brand cheese fudge is indeed very soft and creamy, especially at room temperature. It has none of the crystalline texture of regular fudge. The taste is sweet and chocolate, with just the slightest edge of salt, just a little something different. It would make a very interesting addition to a cheese platter, on a separate plate so no sugar-sweet smears get on your Brie or another cheese that wouldn't appreciate it.

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slowing catching on in the Midwest. Many dairies in Wisconsin market a version of it, but cheese fudge is not a Wisconsin dairy-country thing like cheese curds. Most homemade recipes are from southern sources and use Velveeta or another processed cheese product. We even found a recipe from Cabot (in New York) that uses real sharp cheddar. Dewig's Meats in Haubstadt, Ind., carries cheese fudge distributed by Jim's Cheese of Wisconsin; Darla Kiesel of Dewig's said they sell 50 to 100 pounds of the cheese a month, in 8-ounce packages. "The kind we have has walnuts in it," she said. "It's very creamy. If you were to take a blind taste test you would tell me this was fudge, you wouldn't think it has cheese in it. We're members of the Indiana Meat Packers' Association and when Jim's cheese brought this out for everyone to try, we were in the mind frame of "Oh, this is not appealing," until we tried it. . . . Customers will look at it and say that too, but once you get them to taste it, they are lifelong lovers

DIRECTIONS 1. Line 9-inch square pan with large piece of foil or plastic wrap; set aside. 2. Let cheese and butter stand outside of refrigerator until they are room temperature. Grate cheese. 3. In large mixing bowl, combine cheese, butter and vanilla; beat with electric mixer until fluffy. Add milk powder and beat until smooth. Alternatively, combine all in food processor and process until smooth. 4. Add cocoa powder and 4 cups of powdered sugar; beat or pulse to combine. Gradually beat or pulse in enough of remaining sugar until mixture is very stiff. 5. Spread fudge evenly in prepared pan. Cover top with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or until firm. 6. Remove from refrigerator shortly before serving. Lift fudge out of pan and cut into small squares. *If your milk powder is at all coarse, measure, then pulse briefly in blender into fine powder. Source: Cabot cheddar Makes 64 (1-inch) pieces (Contact Aimee Blume of The Evansville Courier in Indiana at www.courierexpress.com.) • • •

SALLACK Happy Holidays to All! The way banking should be.

Well Services Co. 938-9593

304 Hidden Hollow Lane Punx’y

www.bankcnb.com 38 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

oPen til 1 a.m. everyday

Sun., Sept. 8........TEnnESSEE ..............16-9l Mon., Sept. 16 ....at Cincinnati ................10-20l Sun., Sept. 22......CHICAGO ..................40-23l Sun., Sept. 29......at Minnesota ..............27-34l Sun., oct. 6 ........Bye Sun., oct. 13 ......at new york Jets ........19-6W Sun., oct. 20 ......BALTImORE ..............16-19W Sun., oct. 27 ......at oakland ..................18-21l Sun., nov. 3 ........at new england ..........31-55l Sun., nov. 10 ......BuFFALO ..................10-23W Sun., nov. 17 ......DETROIT ....................37-27W Sun., nov. 24 ......at Cleveland ................27-11W thurs., nov. 28 ....at Baltimore ................20-11l Sun., dec. 8 ........mIAmI ........................34-28l Sun., dec. 15 ......CInCInnATI ..............8:30 p.m. Sun., dec. 22 ......at Green Bay ..............4:25 p.m. Sun., dec. 29 ......CLEVELAnD ..............1:00 p.m.

Member FdiC

Merry Christmas

Downtown Punxsutawney

2013 SteelerS ScHedule

CABoT CHEDDAR CHEESE FUDGE 8 ounces Cabot Sharp cheddar (about 2 cups) 2 sticks (8 ounces) Cabot unsalted Butter 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 1 cup instant nonfat dry milk powder* 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 5-6 cups powdered sugar, divided

White Chocolate Mocha or Peermint Mocha

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(Editor’s Note: ‘From Our Past,’ researched by S. Thomas Curry, features items of interest from past editions of Punxsutawney and area newspapers.)

The Short Term Rehab Therapy Unit is Christ The King’s latest addition to making the transition from hospital to home as easy and comfortable as possible. Our therapy department features highly trained physical therapists, occupational and speech therapists. For more information and a tour of our Rehab Therapy facilities call 814-371-3180.

Christ The king Manor 814-371-3180

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BuRkett’S P.A.W.S.

Contest Rules

1. Complete the coupon on this page. 2. Guess the winning team and the total number of points you think will be scored in the Steelers vs. browns Game and enter the guesses in the spaces provided on the coupon. 3. Enter one of the participating advertisers on these contest pages in the space provided to redeem your coupon should you be the contest winner.

Hometown magazine ‘Steelers Football Contest’:

242 NORtH FiNdley St. PuNxSutAWNey

Complete, Clip, Drop off or Mail to: Steelers Football Contest c/o Hometown magazine, P.O. Box 197, Punxsutawney, PA 15767

4. Clip and forward the coupon to: ‘Steelers Football Contest,’ c/o Hometown magazine, P.O. Box 197, Punxsutawney, PA 15767. 5. All entries must be received at the Hometown magazine post office box by 4 p.m. thursday, dec. 26. 6. No purchase necessary to participate. All entries must be original magazine coupon (no photocopies). 7. In the event two or more contestants correctly pick the winning team and total number of points, one winner will be randomly selected and awarded the winning prize. In event two or more contestants tie for closest to the total score, one winner will be randomly selected to win the $25 certificate. Each issue we will give one $25 certificate. 8. Hometown magazine retains the right to make any final decisions regarding the contest, and by submitting an entry, contestants agree to abide by the rules of the contest.

Name ________________________________ Address ______________________________ Zip __________________________________ Phone ______________________________ Coupon for Game of Sun., dec. 29 Step 1: Guess the Winning Team: __ Steelers vs. __ Browns Step 2: Guess the Total Points that will be Scored in that Game: _______ Total Points Step 3: Should I win, I would like to redeem my merchandise certificate at: (List business from these pages) _____________________

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(missing from photo) Local Registered Pharmacists

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December 10, 1902 — Snow fell to a depth of about five inches last Friday night, since which time the merry jingle of the sleigh bells has been heard with much persistency. Winter, when the earth is clothed in her garments of pure and wholesome snow, and the frosty air is dancing to the music of the spheres, is the happiest season of the year. (Punxsutawney Spirit) December 18, 1889 — The new street lamp in the East End is appreciated but it would be more so if it had a glass top, as it would then give more light. (Punxsutawney News) December 23, 1885 — Sudden deaths area becoming alarmingly frequent now-a-days. Americans work too hard, worry too much and live too fast. Heart disease and apoplexy are getting to be the common complaints among Americans. The old aristocratic English gout is gradually losing its place in this country. We want something livelier and quicker in its work, and every man who lives in such way as to bring this on, gradually gets what he lives for. (Valley News) December 29, 1897 — Santa Claus paid a visit to the Snyder school, situated on the hill above town, last Thursday. He came on the invitation of Hugh Smitten, the teacher. He wore the conventional Santa Claus costume, and distributed presents amongst the pupils and saying things that kept the whole school in a roar. The children had no idea who it was that represented Santa in such hilarious fashion. It was no other than the irrepressible Charley Chambers. (Punxsutawney Spirit) December 30, 1896 — The Baptist congregation diverted considerably from the usual method of holding Christmas Eve exercises. Instead of a tree they used a large swinging clothes frame on which were hung stockings, pillow cases, etc. filled with candies, fruits and the presents. Three hundred and fifty clothes pins were required to fasten these good things to the frame. The house was beautifully decorated with evergreen. After the treat, the Sunday school children gave a musical and literary entertainment. (Punxsutawney Spirit) • • •

Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159 – 39

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40 – Hometown Punxsutawney – Christmas 2013 - Issue #159

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