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Show ommunity ews A2 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 04, 2009 -NEWS- Spanish Fork 280 North Main St. Spanish Fork, UT 84660 Lane Henderson Publisher Namon Bills Editor Dana Robinson . Assoc. Editor The Spanish Fork News is published each Wednesday for $37-50 per year in area and $41.50 out of area by J-Mart, 280 North Main St., Spanish Fork Utah 84660. Email stories to editor@spforknew$. com Email ads to ads@spforknews.com Call us at 794-4964 POSTMASTER Send address changes to Spanish Fork News 280 North Main St. Spanish Fork, Utah 84660 The entire content of this newspaper is Copyright © 2009 Spanish Fork News. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the editor or publisher. THE SPANISH FORK NEWS (USPS 024716) is published weekly for $37.50 per year by JMart Publishing, 280 North Main St., Spanish Fork, UT 84660. Periodicals Postage Paid at Spanish Fork, UT. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Spanish Fork News, 42 East 300 North, Spanish Fork, UT 84660. DEADLINES Weddings, anniversaries, missionaries, 1st birthdays, articles, photos, letters to the editor Friday,. 12 p.m. Winter Stillness Life After Birth Janene Baadsgaard In the northern hemisphere winter is normally viewed as the season to get through as quickly as possible — a sort of white knuckled hang in there and grit your teeth through this lousy time of the year. After the anticipation of Christmas and the New Year celebration there is so much left-over confetti and the rest of the long dark cold winter stretches before us with no quick end in sight. Perhaps because I was born in the winter and maybe because I always like to stick up for the little guy who nobody likes and everybody picks on — I want to give you my take on the least appreciated season of the year. For I have learned to love winter. I believe we can be thankful for anything if we are paying proper attention. For example, soon after I was born I discovered I was in for a lot of dish washing — for the rest of my life! I hated washing dishes. Then I decided I didn't want to spend an enormous part of my existence doing something I loathed. So I decided to teach myself how to enjoy doing the dishes. After all, what we enjoy is a choice. So I began noticing the comforting way the warm water in the sink soothed my chills in the winter or how the cold water cooled me off in the summer. I watched rainbow bubbles pop in the suds while I made dirty pots and pans shine. While scrubbing, I transformed the fork into a bad guy, the knife into a gallant knight and the spoon into a princess as I created fantastical stories. When I finished cleaning up in the kitchen I always glanced around for a moment to appreciate the beauty and order I'd created from the mess and earlier chaos. Now I love doing the dishes. Winter used to be my least favorite time of year. So I decided if I could love doing the dishes, I could love winter. I began by paying better attention. I noticed mosquitoes were never pestering me in the winter. Because I didn't have to spend time working in the yard, I appreciated the extra time to focus on in-house projects. Rousing basketball games were everywhere. The days were short so the nights were long and deep — perfect for reading a good book next to the fire. I relished the calm quietness of snow, the way it covered the bare tress and gardens and transformed a bleak grey world into a magical shimmering land of white. Noxious weeds become jeweled orbs and spider webs become glistening lace. Because of winter, I've learned how to wait for spring with trust and patience. So now I can wait for God to reveal the meaning and purpose in personal times of grief and loss. So when you are tempted to complain about winter, don't. Walk outside on a star-lit night and feel the stillness. Breathe deep before the morn. If you find no joy in winter, you find no joy in pain. If you find no joy in pain you have not learned. Trust. All that lies beneath the snow will someday return to living and the time for believing without seeing will be over. For now — welcome the stillness and be at peace. Janene Baadsgaard is the author of many books including 15 Secrets to a Happy Home, Families Who Laugh - Last, On the Roller Coaster Called Motherhood, Winter s Promise, Financial Freedom for LDS Families and The LDS Mother's Almanac. Read her past columns at www.janenebaadsgaard. blogspot.com. Ups and downs in Benjamin 'Round and About Benjamin Kathleen Olsen The sun is shining warmly through my window this morning and it surely feels good! I need to remember in July just how much I was enjoying the sun in January. One of the bright things about the winter is watching the birds at our bird feeders. On a regular basis we see sparrows, chickadees, doves, pushy starlings, gentle doves, and woodpeckers. Shy pheasants tentatively come through the fence and pick up the seeds the other birds have dropped. As it gets closer the spring, we will have other birds as they stop for a snack while migrating. We've decided birds surely have an excellent communication system — when my husband goes out to refill the feeders, not a bird will be in sight anywhere, but within a half minute of putting the bird seed in the feeders, birds of all kinds from all directions will appear. They are interesting to watch and a pleasant sight on a winter day. ••• Congratulations to Ryan and Shaylee Hawkins Jensen who were married on Friday, Jan. 23, 2009. Shaylee is the daughter of Darol and Sharla Hawkins of Benjamin and Ryan is the son of Ron and Gerry Jensen of Payson who have many connections with Benjamin. Ryan and Shaylee will be living in Ryan's home in Benjamin. ••• Former Benjamin resident, Kenneth Dee Ashby of Springville, passed away on Friday, Jan. 23,2009. He was the son of the late Elias and Marjorie Ashby and attended school in Benjamin and Spanish Fork. He remained a good friend to his Benjamin associates and though he no longer lived here, it was always fun to visit with him. Funeral services were held on Wed. Jan. 28, in the Kolob Stake Center in Springville. Burial was in the Spanish Fork Cemetery. Our sympathy goes to Michelle and Wayne Anderson and their family on the death of Michelle's mother, Valera Hogan, who died on Sat. Jan. 24, 2009. Mrs. Hogan often attended activities in Benjamin and was very supportive of her family's involvement in many areas. As a result, many of us were able to become well acquainted with this gracious lady and we will feel her loss as does her family. Funeral services were held on Thurs. Jan. 29, in Payson at the Utah South Stake Center. Burial was in See BENJAMIN* A3 Covering what matters most Another Great Depression? There and Back Again Shirlene R. Ottesen Your chuckle for the week: A customer was bothering the waiter in a restaurant. First, he asked that the air conditioning be turned up because it was too hot, then he asked it be turned down because he was too cold, and so on for about half an hour. Surprisingly, the waiter was very patient. He walked back and forth and never once got angry. So finally, a second customer asked him why he didn't throw out the pest. "Oh, I really don't care or mind," said the waiter with a smile. "We don't even have an air conditioner." Given the recent economic situation, I have been reading a book from my bookcase called "We Had Everything But Money," which is about the Depression in the '30's. Many (mostly younger adults) have wondered, "Are we in another Depression?" And with the continual announcement of job losses it would seem to be a valid question. Admitting my age, I was born in 1931 and so I remember some of the Depression and many of you reading this lived during that time also. But, right now I think the answer is no — maybe down the road, but not right now. According to this book 35% of Americans were out of work during the Depression and we are not anywhere near that at this time. I found many of the insights of this book to be most interesting. The following was contributed by Stanley Cryor, "I was working for the St. Louise Star Times newspaper and in 1931 my pay was $107 a week. Pay cuts would come over the next two years. We could no longer buy clothes so my wife maintained what we had by mend- DKDAVIS PHOTOGRAPHY.COM 801.318.9907 SPECIALIZING IN GRUNGE PHOTOGRAPHY l ing. I cashed in insurance policies. By 1934 my pay was down to $50 a week. We couldn't make our mortgage payments. We offered our home for sale at $6,200 - half of what we paid for it. No one even came to look at it. Finally, I told a friend I'd give him the deed for $100.00!" This one is from Dorothy Paterick, "We used feed and flour sacks for bed sheets, pillowcases, curtains, towels and all our apparel, including underwear. On one memorable occasion, our washing machine broke down and it was beyond repair. An enterprising young sales man brought a Maytag washer out to demonstrate its merits. My mothered sorted the wash and asked him to start with the sheets and towels, which were all made out of feed sacks. At one point, the salesman wanted to wipe his hands. He reached down into the laundry pile and grabbed some white material he thought to be a towel. Much to my mother's embarrassment, he was wiping his hands on her blopmersJ ^-hey^st happeried;to be'made Out of the^same material.; as the sheefs'and towels. My sister and I laughed so hard our sides ached!" When I read the following one from Ruth Tvedten, I saw my own mother do everything she mentions, "My Dad worked in construction, but when the Depression hit, there was no new construction. He worked long hours and barely made enough for us to live on, but my mother was thrifty and used her sewing machine to help us economize. When our sheets wore out, the middle would be threadbare. Mother would rip the sheets down the middle, sew the outside edges together and hem the worn sides and we See DEPRESSION* A3 |