Sugar Grove
By Paula Mitchell
Another reader sent the writer this letter written by the late Paul Harvey. It bears reading. Perhaps a good “read” for the New Year.
Paul Harvey’s Letter to His Grandchildren:
“We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I’d like better.
I’d really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would.
I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.
I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car.
And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.
It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.
I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.
I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it’s all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he’s scared, I hope you let him.
When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you’ll let him/her.
I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.
On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don’t ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won’t be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.
If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.
I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.
When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.
I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy/girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.
May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.
I don’t care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don’t like it… And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he/she is not your friend.
I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.
May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.
I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor’s window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.
These things I wish for you – tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it’s the only way to appreciate life.”
The writer hopes that this is carried through to all children/grandchildren. It is what life is all about.
The writer wishes all of her readers a happy New Year with a great flight through 2023.
Life’s lessons to make one’s day much nicer include the following:
- Commit oneself to constant improvement.
- Become the most positive and enthusiastic person one knows.
- Return borrowed vehicles with the gas tank full.
- Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of one’s life.
- Keep one’s promises, no matter what.
The weeks before and after Christmas sure were wintery and cold. A blast of freezing temperatures descended on the area allowing for the wood stoves to be cranked up high. New Year’s Day had warmer temperatures.
Quotes for the new year are as follows:
“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.” — Charles Dickens
“There’s something about a holiday that isn’t all about how much money you spend.” — Hilarie Burton
“You can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” — Maya Angelou
“My wish for you, sweet happy life…may all your sorrows be gone and your heart begin to sing.” — Peggy Lee.
“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness.” — Neil Gaiman
Looking at the “Talk of the Grove”:
News from the Willard and Judy Rader household — Bob and Marti Fisher of Romney were Christmas visitors in the home of Willard and Judy Rader and a Christmas dinner at Monterey, Virginia, was enjoyed. Willie, Donna, Travis and Amanda Rader, Chad, Amber and Bella Kimble, C. J. Eckard, Rick Starita and Jazmyn Clatterbuck enjoyed a Christmas Eve dinner in the home of Willard and Judy Rader. Eddie Rader of Davis was visiting in the home of Willard and Judy Rader on Monday and enjoyed a Christmas luncheon. On Christmas Day, Willard and Judy Rader enjoyed visiting and Christmas dinner in the home of Benny and Linda Custer.
Bob and Judy Grimm enjoyed Christmas with Rodney Kiser and family of Preston County. They had a white Christmas!
Janelle Mitchell, Natalie and Destiny of Charlotte, North Carolina, enjoyed a Christmas/New Year’s visit at the home of Paula and Tom Mitchell. While here, they visited friends. Other visitors in the home were Jennifer, Tim, Allison and Morgan Hoover, Damian Morris and Brandon, Cara, Macie, Carson and Carly Mitchell.
St. Paul Independent Lutheran Church celebrated their Sunday worship service with their Christmas program.
Janet Judy, Terry Harper, Judy Costello and Evelyn Varner motored Saturday evening to Victory Baptist Fellowship Church in Dayton, Virginia, to enjoy the Jeff and Sherri Easter presentation. Judy Costello accompanied Evelyn home to spend the night with her.
Robbie, Linnea, Michael and Logan Fisher enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner at the home of Bob and Brenda Fisher.
Phil Downs motored to Romney to assist the Ruffner family whose house burned. He took some supplies along.
New Year’s clickety-clacks for the chin waggers are as follows:
- The first year that fireworks were used for the New Year’s Eve celebration was 1904.
- About 360 million glasses of champagne are served New Year’s Eve in the United States.
- In ancient Persia, eggs were given as gifts.
- Before the clock strikes at midnight in Spain, 12 grapes are eaten.
- The translation of the title song “Auld Lang Syne” is “Times Gone By.”
- The Australian city having the largest New Year’s Eve celebration is Sydney.
The judges have declared the winners for the Parade of Lights contest in the Sugar Grove community. The winners were as follows: Brandon and Cara Mitchell, grand prize; Jason and Martha Smith/Benny and Dinah Mitchell, first place; Jeff and Maxine Rader/Galen Crummett, second place; Rhonda Nash/Andrew Kiser, third place; and Justin and April Simmons/“Pidge” and Charles Anderson, honorable mention.
Concerns for this week are many, and they are as follows: Roger and Joan Ashley, Mercedes Aumann, Vernon “Fuzzy” Baldwin, Lynn Beatty, Jack Bennett, Jimmie Bennett, Bill Brackman, Jed Conrad, the Helen Lucile Cowger family, Ralph Harper Dunkle family, Jeff Evick, Ina Evick, Dan and Margaret Ferrell, Ron Gilkeson, Lola Graham, Rosalee Grogg, Steve and Armanda Heavner, Gary and Jackie Hills, Virgil Homan, Jr., Charlee Marie Hoover, Keith Hoover, Myrtle Hoover, Debbie Horst, Doris Hull, Bob and Cynthia Hurry, Lisa Dawn Jamison, Alice Johnson, the Steven Judy family, Kim Kline, Richard Judy, Melissa Lambert, Tammy Lambert, Robert Lambert, Rex Landis, Angela Lung, Linda Malcolm, Betty Mallow, Roger and Skip Mallow, the Betty Conrad May family, Naomi Michael, Gary Mitchell, Gloria Moats, Joe Moats, the Ruth Moyers family, Melvin Moats, Helen Nash, Aaron Nelson, Ruth Nelson, Bennie Nesselrodt, the Charles Ernest Nesselrodt family, Cheryl Paine, Sutton Parrack, Shirley Pratt, the Betty Lou Propst family, Kathy Propst, Sheldon Propst, Mary Puffenbarger, Verla Puffenbarger, Jason Rexrode, Jimmy Rexrode, Kent Rexrode, Pam Rexrode, Glen and Jeannie Riggleman, Max Rodriguez, Donna Ruddle, Annie Simmons, Barbara Simmons, Barry and Phyllis Simmons, Davey Simmons, Erin Simmons, Eva Simmons, Tom Simmons, Robbie Sites, Ona Smith, Stanna Smith, Patricia Swecker, Rosa Tichenor, Ed Troutman, Sandra Vandevander, the Charles Lee Whetzel family, Ron White, the Susie Marie White family, Judy Williams and the Samuel Curry Wilkins family.
