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Show PageA2 Thursday, December 9, 2004 Times Newspaper TIMES Submit a Guest Editorial or Opinion at our office, located locat-ed at 538 South State in Orem. Deadlines are Monday 10:00 a.m. o aion All submissions are subject to editing tor length. and The Orem-Geneva limes reserves me ngm to publish or not to publish a submission. Teens Receive a Crash Course on Seat Belt Use frl (OHHENW&QjQ-jj Li s i r - ii . ill h i j ihjlju t. Spanish Fork High School students received a wake up call on the importance of seat belt use during Seat Belt Week held at their school November 29 through December 3. The Health Promotion division of the Utah County Health Department (UCHD) developed the event to encourage students to safeguard themselves through seat belts in the event of a crash. In observing Spanish Fork High School students' seat belt habits, only 50 percent were wearing them, significantly lower than the 80 percent per-cent national average. Those who don't wear their seat belts are 14 times more likely to die in a car crash. UCHD developed a number of activities to get the seat belt message across to students. Two crashed cars were parked in front of the high school all week, booths were set up for students to sign seat belt pledges and the school participated in a "ghost out" on Friday where 20 people painted paint-ed their faces white to represent the number of people to die in a car crash during school hours. "Choosing to wear a seat belt can be a matter of life and death in the event of a crash," said Bonnie Hargreaves, injury prevention specialist at UCHD. "We're hoping these activities will get students stu-dents to buckle up every time they get in a car." UCHD would like to thank Spanish Fork High School faculty and students for their participation in Seat Belt Week. Other schools interested in receiving materials and assistance in developing a seat belt campaign can call Bonnie Hargreaves at 851-7035. The Orem-Geneva Times 538 South State Street Orem, UT 84058 An edition of The Daily Herald, Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc. Subscriptions & Delivery 375-5103 News & Advertising 225-1 340 Fax 2251341 E-mail oremtimesnetworld.com USPS 411-711. Published Thursdays by Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc., 538 South State Street, Orem, Utah 84058. Periodicals postage paid at Orem, Utah 84059. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 65, Orem, UT 84059. Member: Audit Bureau of Circulations NEWSSTAND PRICE $0.50 SUBSCRIPTION RATE 1 year-$36.40 (in county) (Sunday & Thursday plus Holiday deliveries) Holiday deliveries include delivery the week of Easter, Memorial, Independence, Pioneer, Labor, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. 1 year- $45.40 (out of county) NEWS We welcome news tips. Call 225-1340 to rerjort news tips or if you have a comment or a question. We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must include the author's name (printed AND sianecrt and a telephone number. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, punctuation, taste and length. Letters are welcome on any topic. DEADLINES Because ofthe increase of new stories & advertising SUBMIT TO THE 0rEMENEV TlMES, OUR DEADLINE FOR NEWS & ADVERTISING IS 10:00 A.M. MONDAY. ITEMS NEED -TO BE BROUGHT TO TIE OrEMEMVATlMESAT 538 South State, Orem. . Entries may be edited for length and content. ' IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE CALL OUR OflTCE AT 1254340 jl, -ir ziw limpanogos Green Requiem For Apple Trees An Orem apple fell upon the grass, Where any citizen may, safely, pass. Newtonian, the law of gravitation Determined it was time for graduation. And so, the apple tree released its grip, And let the apple try its trusty trip. This ancient apple tree was quite alone. That remnant of an orchard, once extant, Recalls the century when seeds were thrown, As Stephen Bunnell, Junior, stooped to plant. He introduced the Red Delicious fruit, Right here, to thrive and grow a righteous root! The noble citizens of ancient Rome Grew apple trees in cultivated loam; And took that precious fruit to England's regions, Where apple trees were grown by Roman legions. In England apple trees were widely spread, And, soon, became the fruit on which they fed. The English, in American pursuit, Brought with them seeds and hardy apple trees. The Indians would propagate the fruit With pollinating help from honey bees. John Chapman's apple-spreading was his creed, And people called him "Johnny Appleseed!" Handcarts and wagons, also, did their part In bringing apples to the country's heart. How many Utah pioneers had seeds They planted here to meet their greatest needs! When Bunnell planted apples on his farm, The neighbors saw it as a lucky charm. They added peaches, cherries, plums and pears, Along with berries, in the rocky soil To boost their agricultural affairs, And give fruition to their endless toil. New orchards flourished on the Orem Bench, As water came to query and to quench! The apples Under Timpanogos Green Became renowned, as any ever seen. The trees would blush and bloom in endless rows, And blossom, as their family: the rose! The boxes, with their fruit and "Orem" labels, Would find their way to many fancy tables. Delicious Apples, sweet and Orem-grown, Were hauled in cars to many other states. Their reputation glistened, quite alone, In apple pies on many dinner plates! And yet, in spite of ever-wide acclaim, The apple orchards faced a growing shame: Machines began to topple apple trees, Which no more thrust their apples to the breeze. More people built their houses on the land, Where apples, once, had borne the "Orem" brand. "Good living in Fine Homes" became the cry, As apple orcharding began to die. And here, where apple trees had, lately, grown, One ancient apple tree is left: alone! -v 4 m i i ,w a ms mt ma m i m. lm it mm mi mmm i i n Li v r r r r Orem-Geneva Times 538 South State Orem 225-1340 Fax: 225-1341 Kirk Parkinson 225-1340 Publisher kparkinsonheraldextra.com Russ Prestwich 225-1340 General Manager rprestwichheraldextra.com Landon Olson 225-1340 Editor lolsonheraldatra.cora DAILY HERALD PUBLISHING CO. Robert King 225-1340 Art director IT rkingheraldextra.com Sydney Walker 225-1340 Office Manager ssumnerheraldextra.com v S Leonard and lima Watte Thousands of English girls married American soldiers sol-diers during and after World War II, and some German girls also did. Irmtraud Tasch-Waiie was one,.of them. A devout young Catholic, she ended up, .marrying a Latter-day Saint soldier. But first her experiences in Kitzingen, Germany during the war. Hitler came to power in 1933, and my parents like- Hitler. In the early 1920s, they had gone through ter- rible inflation. Ordinary items had cost millions of German marks, and prices went up daily, even hourly. Hitler impressed the German people by having, among other things, the very economical VW Bug designed for every blue-collar worker to have a car and get off the bicycle for transportation. The cost was only 1000 Reichsmark ($250.00 in 1945). In 1939, my father was inducted into the military and was gone for nine long years, three of them in a Russian POW camp. He came home weighing only 90 pounds, with a goose-egg size swelling on his neck from where a Russian guard had hit him with the butt of a rifle when my father was stepping out of line to pick up some potato peelings a Russian housewife was throwing out. He returned home in February 148, and six weeks later, my dear mother died. I was eleven years old when the war started, and I remember well that day. On a Sunday morning as we readied for church, we turned on the radio at 6:00 a.m., as a special announcement was made that German troops had crossed into Poland. Food rationing was put immediately in place. By 1942, we received a ration of one three-pound loaf of . -bread, one cube of margarine, and pound of meat for one week; pound of pasta and pound of detergent for one month just to mention a few items.'We sometimes some-times has to wait in line for five hours for a loaf of bread, then have to go into an air raid shelter during the wait, because of approaching enemy planes. Starvation was most intense between 1945 and 1948. The bombing of the German cities began in 1940. Every night at the sound ofthe siren, we had to go into our cellars. The raids came closer and closer to my hometown of Kitzingen, a little town of 20,000. We never thought we would become a target. But we had an air force officers training school at the Flak Kaserne, and Hermann Goering visited it the week before our big air attack. On 23 February 1945, our little town was the target of a heavy bombing raid, in which 800 of its citizens perished. I was working as an apprentice bookkeeper with the Steiner Co., a winery. At twelve noon, the siren sounded and we all went into the cellar, which was heavily built, with arched ceilings and large, six-foot six-foot columns. Huge wooden barrels held aging wines, and thousands of bottles were in grates and on shelves. Within minutes, we heard the deafening whistling sounds of bombs raining on our city. A bomb exploded not more than 30 feet from us. Luckily we were behind pillars and were protected. The whole house was destroyed, but luckily the bomb left a hole through which we could crawl out, but for every two steps I took forward, I slid one step back. Many people suffocated in their cellars because no escape was possible. pos-sible. My own house was still standing, but no one was in the cellar. All the family had gone to various places of refuge. The cabinets were toppled, windows were broken, bro-ken, and everything was in disarray. In my neighborhood, neighbor-hood, 24 homes were destroyed. Fifty-six of my neighbors neigh-bors perished in one cellar. In March 1945, American troops occupied my town, and they behaved themselves very well. Though I was' a certified bookkeeper, the best work I could find was as a housemaid in an American captain's home. I took English classes and was then offered a secretarial position with the tank battalion at Harvey Barracks, and later as the librarian at Flak Kaserne, with 10,000 books. I continued to learn English spelling, my favorite subject. One day in 1952, an American soldier came by the library and took notice of me. I had friendly conversations conversa-tions with him, but we never dated. Next week: How a devout Catholic begins a trip to American to marry a former Mormon missionary. POOR |