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Six at Sochi Celebration Draws Hundreds Page 3
The 44’s Play the Brewery For Two Nights
A Few Dozen Youngsters Turn Out for Annual Skatepark Contest
Page 5
Sun Valley Shakespeare Festival Continues Page 14
A u g u s t 2 2 , 2 0 1 2 • V o l . 5 • N o . 3 4 • w w w .T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
see it on PaGe 8
Davies’ Plate Full of History See John Davies’ License Plate Collection At The Bellevue Museum
COURTESY PHOTO
10-Year-Old Pens Novel BY KAREN BOSSICK
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rica Weiler is just 10 years old. But she will preside over her first book signing from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday at Chapter One Bookstore in Ketchum when she signs copies of “Two Worlds.” The 86-page historical novel revolves around a lonely girl with a privileged background whose wealthy life is turned upside down amidst the Great Fire of London in 1666. The daughter of Lord and Lady Jefferson runs away from the fire into a world of poverty and criminals, soldiers and wild boars and other adventures. “She was determined to write the novel,” said Erica’s grandmother, Eileen Weiler Judell, who spends summers in Sun Valley to escape the oppressive humidity of New York City. “Every time I would call, her mother would say, ‘You can’t talk to Erica. She’s writing a book.’ ” Weiler lives in London where her father Andrew Weiler works in the London office of a New York law firm. She attends the Thomas School with her eight-year-old brother, participates in athletics and entered a painting in the Chelsea Art Show. She also is a well-traveled girl, spending five to six weeks in Sweden every summer where her mother, also a lawyer, grew up. She has been on the Sinai Peninsula when a hotel was attacked and in Thailand when tsunami warnings were issued, so she has had her share of adventures, which may have contributed to her tale. A regular visitor to Sun Valley, Erica was here five years ago when the Castle Rock Fire ignited. That may have led her to set her novel during the Great Fire of London, her grandmother noted. “I’ve always enjoyed writing stories,” Erica Weiler said. “I told Mom when I was five, after a world book day at school, that I wanted to be an ‘authostrator,’ since I wanted both to write books and illustrate them myself. I actually drew some pictures for the ‘Two Worlds’ book but didn’t end up adding them.”’ Judell said she showed the book to a cousin, who happens to be CEO of Bloomsbury, the company that published the “Harry Potter” series. But he said he can’t publish a book unless it comes through an agent. Unwilling to wait, the family elected to self-publish the book. Helen Morgus, a children’s librarian at The Community Library in Ketchum, asked Erica to read her book at the library. But the 10-yearold was just bashful enough to turn her down. “I can imagine this book will be a template for future works,” Morgus told her grandmother. “She has the plot down cold and her character development will come with time. What tws a treasure!”
STORY & PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
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canning through John Davies’ license plate collection is like looking through picture postcards of Idaho history. There are early porcelain plates baked onto iron that were so fragile that few have survived. There are stickers issued in place of license plates during World War II when the country was saving tin and metal for the war effort. A 1928 plate displays the first outline of a potato and a 1948 plate features a spud loaded with butter and sour cream that looks good enough to eat. Davies’ collection features early Blaine County plates that featured 7A and A7 before the now-familiar 5B moniker. And it includes all the specialty plates issued for colleges, the armed forces and favorite causes such as the Basques and flying—the latest plate to be issued by the state. Davies is exhibiting 174 of his plates this summer at the Bellevue Museum. He has another hundred at home. “I have every one of Idaho’s plates. It cost me an arm and leg to update it, what with five branches of the military and reserves, three or four National Guard plates and all the other plates,” he said. “My favorites are the three porcelain plates.”
Davies, a retiree who was born in Hailey and still lives there today, is carrying on a family tradition by maintaining the collection. His grandfather started the collection, nailing his plates to the barn door. John’s father, John W. Davies, took those and added to them, hanging the plates inside his insurance agency. Davies recalls how Hailey kids scoured the dump in Lions Park when his father promised them a $25 bounty to find the plates he didn’t have in his collection. License plates came onto the scene in the United States about the time mass production of automobiles began. New York was the first state to begin requiring plates in 1901 but motorists had to make their own on cardboard, leather, plastic and other materials of their choosing. Massachusetts and West Virginia were the first to begin issuing plates in 1903. West Virginia’s was 5-by-3 inches—smaller than the 5.25inch-by-6.25-inch plate Idaho eventually began issuing in 1913. Idaho, Mississippi and Texas charged license plate fees based on the horsepower of the vehicle the plates would hang from.
continued, page 16
ABOVE: This 1948 plate features an illustration of a baked potato that looks good enough to eat. RIGHT: John Davies has a few special plates from other states, as well.