Desk store?
To the Editor:
I’m an avid reader of “A Stone’s Throw” every week in the Vevay paper. Sometimes it makes me so mad that I want to literally ‘throw stones.’ Other weeks my response is something like, “Right on, it’s about time someone voiced that opinion.” But your dilemma about the desks really hit home.
You asked for ideas. Why don’t you open a Desk Store? Thirteen desks would be a great inventory for starters, with lots of possibilities for names, like “Antiques and Desks,” “Desks and More,” or how about “Desks Galore?”
What do I know? I grew up in a family of pack rats. There were seven of us in a big old house in downtown Louisville. We were overwhelmed with family heirlooms, books, junk and all the related paraphernalia. My father called it “layering.” My mother cried when he brought home a Tiffany lampshade he paid $40 for, and s he shoved it under a bed. It later sold for $2,400. Today it would more likely be $24,000.
Then cam the turning point. We had a Franklin stove in the basement. One day my mother gave it to the junk man, while my brother staged a huge protest. I can still remember them in the basement hollering back and forth, while the happy junk dealer carted the thing away. That did it.
When my father found out, he went out and bought stoves: Franklin stoves, coal stoves, pot bellied stoves, Warm Morning stoves and wood cook stoves. He even bought houses because they had coal grates in them. Thirteen desks you say? Try 13 stoves.
What had been a fairly normal household became a jumble of cardboard boxes stuffed with pottery, glassware, china, scrapbook, pipe organ parts, pictures, paintings, furniture, and on and on. And you can guess the next chapter. We opened an antiques store in Vevay, Indiana. Why Indiana? I believe my mother wanted it as far away from Louisville as possible.
So here’s my idea. With all due respect to Jade and Shadow, why don’t you open a store, in Patriot perhaps? It would only be “a stone’s throw” from home.
Ann Farnsley
Vevay
Littering
Dear Editor:
I thought I had seen everything until this past week. I have often thought about all the trash that is thrown in someone’s yard, field or ditch and I wonder how we would feel if you took all that trash and put it in the road. Would you want to drive over all that stuff? I sure wouldn’t.
Earlier this year someone threw out several trash bags of garbage along the side of the road and left them for someone else to pick up. This happened more than once. Several weeks ago, someone threw a bunch of dead fish in a field on Bradford Road. That was enough for me.
However, this past week someone tossed out a hog’s head and the rest of the hog – I assume, didn’t open up those black trash bags – on Bradford Road. Yes, that’s right. My initial thought was, why would someone do that? Was the hog stolen? I can’t imagine someone gutting a hog and then driving down a road to dispose of what is left. I walk that road and I do not appreciate having to walk past that mess.
My husband called the sheriff’s office to see if someone could come and pick it up since the leg of the pig was lying in the road. Unfortunately, no one knows whose responsibility this is. So whose responsibility is it?
We should be a little more respectful concerning other people’s property.
Saundra Adams
Near Fairview
“Storyfest” 2007
To the Editor:
The first “Storyfest” was held in September of 1994, offered as an educational field trip for grades 3 to 5, sponsored by the Hoosier Theater. By experiencing stories through dance, music, puppetry, oral tradition, and visual arts, the children realized the many ways to relate a story and the evolution of stories. Professional artists brought their talents to Vevay to provide an enriching experience that teachers could use to bring language arts and social studies to life.
The tradition continues with a few changes. The 14th annual “Storyfest” was just held, but it is now a two day event for all the students in grades 1 through 6 in Switzerland County. Grants have always been the way to fund the event, but in the early years students had to each pay $2.50 to help cover costs. The entire event is now at no cost to the schools or students. A variety of funding sources have been utilized over the years, but our own United Fund of Switzerland County has become the major support. What a fantastic organization to have in our community, enriching the lives of so many. Vevay Kiwanis always contributes and the Town of Vevay helped out this year. Thank you so much to all three.
Expenses each year are approximately $7,000, mostly for the professional performers, but we also pay for the use of the school buses and incur copying costs to provide teachers with information packets about the performers and study guides that help relate the performances to the curriculum.
Besides the educational enrichment, the students also experience three organizations and facilities we are ever so fortunate to have in a community of our size . . . the Hoosier Theater, the Switzerland County Historical Museum, and the Switzerland County YMCA. A last minute plumbing problem at the theater made it unavailable this year, but the Methodist Church provided an excellent alternative. Thank you to these organizations and their cooperative staffs that always provide their facilities at no cost. The Vevay Park Board is also to be commended for having the Paul Ogle Riverfront Park ready for so many visitors.
Last but surely not least, thank you to the teachers and students. They arrive at each performance location on time (thanks to Ivan Green and the bus drivers) and are an attentive and appreciative audience. The performers always comment on what great audiences we are, and truly appreciate the wonderful thank you letters from the students.
Plans are already underway for next year, with new memories to be made.
Martha Bladen
“Storyfest” coordinator
World hunger
Dear Editor:
I would like to remind our community that this week is “World Food Awareness Week.
Let us reflect upon the hunger issues in our world.
Barbara Fletcher
Near Florence