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Show THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Page 2 Volume II, Issue X 15 May 2000 The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Staff: Shanna Francis Tel: 745-2688 Fax: 745-0062 Cell: 941-1957 E-Mail: shannafrancis@worldnet.att.net Jeannie Wendell Tel: 745-2879 Fax: 745-2879 E-Mail: crwendell@msn.com Barbie Sunderland Opinions expressed by advertisers, columnists or letters to the editor are not necessarily the opinions of the owners and staff of The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS. Guidelines for Letters to the Editor Letters should be 300 words or less. Letters must be signed and the address of the writer submitted. The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS reserves the right to edit or decline printing of any submissions. Announcements Sought As a community service, The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS will print local birth, wedding, obituary, anniversary and missionary farewell and homecoming Eagle Scout announcements free of charge. We invite residents to send their announcements to: The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS PO BOX 130 EDEN UT 84310 If you would like your submitted items returned, please send a stamped, selfaddressed envelope. The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS, while respecting all property received, will take no responsibility for lost or misplaced items. Please remember to keep a copy for yourself. Invitation for Articles The staff of The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS welcomes the submission of articles by our readership. We invite you to submit local historical accounts or biographies, articles pertaining to contemporary issues, and/or other material that may be of interest to our readers. We also invite you to submit to the paper, or notify the staff of local events. Awards that have been earned by the reader, family members, neighbors or friends are also sought. While the staff of The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS invites the submittal of information and articles, we reserve the right to select which material will be considered for publication. All material, to be considered, must be submitted with the full name, address and telephone nember of the person submitting the material. The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS’ liability on account of errors in, or omissions of,advertising shall in no event exceed the amount of charges for the advertising omitted or the space occupied by the error. The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS does not endorse, promote or encourage the purchase or sale of any product or service advertised in this newspaper. Letters to the Editor Postal Patrons Encouraged to Gather Mail on Regular Basis Because of the growth in the Valley, local post offices are experiencing some growing pains. Postal patrons can help by picking up their mail from their post office boxes in a regular and timely manner. Section D910.3.5 of the Domestic Mail Manual states that when mail for customer’s post office box exceeds the capacity of the box on 12 of any 20 consecutive business days (excluding Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays), the customer must use caller service, change to a larger box, or use one or more additional boxes, subject to availability, to which mail will be addressed. The Caller Service Fee is based on the rate of the largest P.O. Box in the office. Currently the rate of the largest box at the Eden Post office is $66.00 per year. Please clear the mail from your P.O. Box in a timely manner. Thank you, Don Young Postmaster, Eden UT Share the Beauty Spring on the Wasatch back is my favorite time. Winter snows melt, brown turns to green, daffodils bloom, birds return to mate and bear their young. We in the Valley have the opportunity to enjoy a little quiet and share the beauty of spring’s miracles with our families. Before the summer crowds return, take your family out in our beautiful Valley to share in nature’s wonders. Loons, grebes, and other waterfowl stop at Pineview to rest, eat, and court their mate on their way to summer nesting grounds. Deer, elk, and moose browse on early green growth, preparing for the birth of the next generation. Take some time with our next generation—take them out walking, hiking, biking, horseback riding, and/or boating, and share in the beauty. Jim Poultor Huntsville Corrections The May 1, 2000 issue front page caption said Jeff Guthrie, it should have said it was Wayne Guthrie TO SLEEPING BEAUTIES: “My Mama Done Told Me” By Marjorie Hilton I am a “Supermom” who helped produce the Baby Boomers, and I have a thing or two to say to my kids and to your kids—who are now men and women and are ready to consider their lives from the perspective of middle age. I’ve waited a long time for you to reach an age when your eyes and ears are opening to the reality of adult life, and you are rid of some of the preconceptions you were fed as a child by TV, by your parents (who were then in their twenties, keep in mind!), and by the noisy, strident and provincial American society into which you were born. Hear ye! Hear ye! Now that we are all adults there is no need for me to soften or dilute the Mother’s Day message I have saved for you all these years. Ladies first: All you Sleeping Beauties, “Awake,” I say. Awake from the impossible dream of fame, a career on the Supreme Court, three welladjusted children, a loving and helpful mate who shares the household duties, a slim figure maintained by aerobic classes and jogging at dawn, and, yes, from your role of hostess serving gourmet candle-lit dinners which you whip up from the gourmet recipes supplied by a quick stop at the supermarket on your way home from work. And you, my brave sons, never mind chasing the holy grail of wealth and “making it big in America!” The quest to be a millionaire is a fantasy and full of froth. Awake! You need stronger stuff. Read history. Don’t be put to sleep by the hum of Wall Street. You already know the latest American dream is a nightmare, you say? Good! I know you are smart, so I will presume that you have cut your child-producing quota to what your family can handle, that you have decided to work in a small-town, private law practice and give up the Supreme Court, that you have settled for the division of labor in domestic tasks, that you have made peace with a ten-pound gain over your teen-age weight, and that you are satisfied to socialize with friends at a restaurant, or rely on potluck in place of the gourmet candle-lit parties. Still, I say, “Awake!” “So what else am I supposed to have discovered?” I can hear you ask. Forgive an aging supermom for trying to warn you, once again, that what is still to be learned and searched for is a life-long effort to discover one’s place in the universe. “Oh, Mother! For heaven’s sake! Don’t get religious on me at this late date!” Yes, I hear your exasperated retort to one more “goal”—one more “should oughta.” And no, I am not beginning a Sunday school lesson. I am making a very serious and hopeful attempt to warn you against your socialization as an American which could have you hopping from one fad to another and leave you feeling failed for not having time to catch up with the latest fad. Americans are trendy. You must resist media hysteria and the market’s seductive attempt to shape you into an eager consumer. The market needs you to buy and buy and buy. VISA needs you to overbuy and pay them to finance your habit. And the government needs you to pay taxes to finance its fear and pay back its donors. I swear to you there is a more elegant outcome for your life than paying bills and looking like everyone else. Take it from an old and remorseful fadfollower, it ain’t worth it! You will only end up being carbon copies of everyone else and, by heaven, and by all the gods that be, your individuality is far more precious, has more potential, and is deserving of more that a cheap copy of someone else’s idea of what’s cool. You children of the Sixties, you Boomers, I love you and I worry about you. What do I fear? That you will swallow TV infortainment and fail to dig out the facts and differing points of view. I worry that you will get swept into the current waves of media opinion and forget the concerns that your generation had about the environment, health and world peace. Don’t let the enormous weight of the entrenched power elite co-opt your revolutionary ideas into congressional wrangling and corporate dictates. Hang on to your generation’s deep insights about world sisterhood, clean air and clear water, and freedom from nuclear weapons and war. Don’t abandon working on the life-threatening 21st century problems in favor of earning the money to buy a new ski outfit. Don’t be lulled into apathy by the current economic boom. Pay attention to what is really happening and judge current events from an historical perspective. And speak up! All you Sleeping Beauties out there, “Stay awake,” I say. Awake from your culture. Awake from your nationality, from your socialization, from your particular conditioning, from suffocating traditions. Discover your own history, your own mind and talents. Follow your heart but embrace difference. Watch China. Watch the developing world and take part in the decisions about our species global fate. Continue to take a hard look at your place in evolutionary history, at your place in your community and think about your role in the universe. Anything less in unworthy of the gift of life. No, I haven’t gone bonkers in my old age. I have just gotten older and wiser—”Too soon old and too late smart,” as the saying goes. At least I can rest in the peace of knowing that I tried to sound an alarm to awaken my beauties and to speak to my brave ones. Send a Father’s Day message to the Ogden Valley News to be printed in time for Father’s Day. Ten cents a word ~ $3.00 minimum Send your message and check to: The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS PO BOX 130 EDEN UT 84310 |