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Show Feature Hurray, SOUTHERN UTAH NEWS WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 28, 1996 14 its my birthday! It only comes once every four years several months off. Roman emBy Barbara Pyles do Just what we celebrate in perors had the right to interfere February? Well, February is known as the month of lovers. We also celebrate Agricultural Week, Shape up with Pickle Time, National Pay Your Bills with the calendar. This became a means of shortening or prolonging certain magistracies. To put it bluntly, things were in a mess. Good old Julius Caesar recognized the need for a stable, predictable calendar. So, Caesar asked the Greek astronomer Sosigenes, to help with the chore of forming the Julian calendar. Sosigenes ad- Week, Vegetation Month, Potato Lovers Month, and National Snack Food Month. The list goes on arid on. Usually, February has twenty-eigdays. Every fourth year an extra day is added. Then some- vised abandoningthe present systhing special happens. The world tem and replacing it with a tropiClowns cal year of 365.25 days. The two turns topsy-turvdance. - Firecrackers pop and believed that the year would recrackle, and drums roll. Leap main in agreement with the seayear folks, those born on Febru- sons if an additional day was ary 29, have a real birthday. added every 4 years. Somehow, Hurray, its my birthday, can the leap years did not get corbe heard around the world. rectly inserted. Augustus Caesar February 29, is Amy Hegges corrected the calendar in AD 8. Overthe 1,600 years the Julian birthday, and she is planning a d was in use, it slowly calendar day. Hegge laughed. Ive been married 57 years and caused problems. The Julian Im only 19 years old. year of365.25 days and the tropiHegge was bom in Beardsley, cal year of 365.242199 graduMinnesota in 1920. It was just ally produced serious errors. The before midnight on February 29. discrepancy accumulated at the My mother asked the doctor if rate of 11 minutes and 14 seche could change the time so I onds per year. By year 1545, it wouldnt be a leap year. baby. added pp to a full 10 days. doctor said no. Unfortunately, for a very long Just who does Hegge have to time, nobody could find an anblame or thank for such good for- swer. People were upset because tune? (After all, when you reach a Church holidays did not occur in certain age, a birthday every four the proper seasons. . But for every problem theres a years sounds pretty good). With the help of Jesuit solution. in all it 46 started Anyway BC. The Roman calendar was astronomer, Christopher ht y. fun-fille- e Clavius, Pope Gregory XIII instituted the Gregorian calendar. The pope issued a decree to drop 10 days to bring the calendar back in line. So one cool evening in 1582, when the citizens of Rome went to bed it was Wednesday, Oct 4. by the Julian calendar. When they awoke, it was Oct. 15, by the Gregorian calendar. To prevent further displacement, the Gregorian calendar, also called the Christian calendar, involved changingthe simple The more comrule for leap-yeardeclared that century rule plex divisible evenly by 400 years would be leap years. All other century years would be common years. For example, 1700, 1800 s. and 1900 were common years. way, Happy Birthday all you Year 2000 will be a leap year. Leap Year babies. The new calendar also signified January 1 as the beginning of the 'fa year. Roman Catholic countries p quickly adopted the Gregorian calendar. Qther countries made the change later,- The original Roman calendar, introduced around the 7th century , B.C., begins the year on March 1. According to legend, King Numa Pompilius added Januarius (named after the god Janus, the protector of doorways) at the beginning of the year. He placed Februarius (after Februalia, the time for sacrifice) at the end of the year. Sound confusing? Well any Amy Hegge Bruecks are community asset By Dixie Brunner Friends nearing retirement used to stop by our house and say that they didnt know what they were going to do with all their free time once they quit relates Vaydes working, Brueck. We would always tell them to get involved in their community-voluntee- r! Fred and Vaydes Brueck have lived by their own advice. Everyone living in Kanab to- day has benefitted by the Bruecks community commitment. If you have ever had a housefire, been in an accident, used the Kanab City Park, the baseball fields, enjoyed the beauty of the city cemetery or used the bookmobile, you have enjoyed some of the fruits of the Bruecks labor. I love Kanab. Its a great place to live, commented Fred Brueck of his home for the past 22 years. Fred Brueck was an easterner, when he met Vaydes, a native of Kanab, while working for the Park Service at Bryce. They married on April 14, 1939. Fred continued working at Bryce until the winter of 1941, when he took a job at Zion National Park working for the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1942, Brueck went to the Grand Canyon to work as a clerk and later was named to the perma- died), they were busy contributing to the community in which they lived. While at Zion, Brueck was a member of Lions Club, the Washington County School Board, and served seven years on the library board. But his first love always was rescue and first-ai- d work, both of which he performed during his Zion tenure. I was involved in some amazing rescues while at Zion, said Brueck. There were some pretty tragic accidents too. In 1973, Fred and Vaydes retired and moved to Kanab. But for the busy couple, retirement wasnt synonymous with slowing down. Fred became a member and eventual president of the Kanab Lions Club, doing many volunteer and beautification projects with his friend Uke Gardner. He continued his involvement in emergency and rescue work, working with the Kanab EMTs and Kane County Search and Rescue. The busy man also was a city councilman, helped with the bookmobile, and assisted slow readers in school. Most Kanab residents remem- - ber Fred Bruecks years of devotion to the Kanab City Fire Department. He was a member of the volunteer group for over 23 years, until retiring last year. He said that the group was dedicated to providing service to the community and commaraderie to each other. Poor health has slowed Brueck down a little as of late, but he and Vaydes are still staunch Kanab supporters. They have seen many changes take place in the community through the years. I can remember years ago when the cars used to get stuck in the mud of the unpaved streets, said Fred. He added that he wished residents would d to be more infrastructural improvements, such as the recent curb and gutter issue. None of these things are going to get any cheaper. But the Bruecks love Kanab, and are pleased that theyve had an opportunity to contribute to the quality of life here. Kanab has the best climate in the open-minde- world, said Brueck. Its been a wonderful place to live. nent ranger force. Mini-Dis- h Satellite TV Starting At About A Dollar A Day No Equipment To Buy No Equipment To Maintain Digital Quality Picture and Sound Worry Free Warranty PRIMESSW- Up To 95 Channels Call Today Or Call Your Local PRIMESTAR Retailer Service, selection, packaging, pricing and locations are subject to change. ABC. CBS. NBC. PBS and FOX channels are available only for homes ( 1 which cannot receive an acceptable picture from local ABC. CBS. NBC, PBS and The government then decided that Brueck needed to take a Pacific cruise...on the Navy Battleship Texas as a radio technician. When I got out of the service, we stayed at Grand Canyon briefly and then were assigned to Wuwatki Sunset Crater (in Arizona) where we stayed until 1953, said Brueck. But southern Utah beckoned the Bruecks. Fred went to work as assistant chief ranger at Zion National Park, and in 1970 was named chief ranger." ' ' ' ' " ' " ing two sons, (their daughter . . . . . they do for the community. . . v - |