Hebron Crossroads 10-31-04
By Jeff Gill
Set your clock back? Good. Changed your smoke alarm batteries? Smart. Ate all the left-over candy from Beggar’s Night? Ooooo. . .Pepto-time.
At our corner of the Hebron Crossroads, such temptation is non-existent. We scrape the root cellar and give out cough lozenges one at a time towards the end of the evening, some 300 kids later, and still have to go lights-out at 7 pm (village council, take note!) when the laggard goblins come ‘round the streetlight.
Tuesday morning, 6:30 am, the Legion Hall will be lit and busy as Election Day 2004 opens up, with balloting to 7:30 pm. Say thank you to the pollworkers, many of whom put in 15 hour days and more to keep democracy ready for you to choose.
And choose who? (Or rather, whom; thank you, Mrs. Froberg.) For county commissioner, Phelps and Bubb are the obvious choices for experience and proven competence; with the new domestic court judge, we are fortunate to have five very qualified candidates amongst whom we cannot lose, but knowing Mrs. Green, I have to go with familiarity first! Dave Daubenmire has shown that he knows education and how to take a hit, both in athletics and the court of public opinion, and deserves his turn on the state board of education. State Supreme Court is tougher, but Chief Justice Moyer and Justice O’Donnell have presided over the mangling of the DeRolph school funding case, which leaves me thinking “anyone but him.”
Hallelujah and Lakewood has no levies on the ballot; for our friends and readers far and abroad, may the Newark and Granville taxes pass with vigor . . . we need strong educational systems in efficient buildings all around Licking County for economic development, so even Flint Ridge Road or the Northbank Drive have an interest in seeing other districts pass needed levies.
Countywide, the Senior levy and the Children’s Services levy are equally well-proven to be public interests that are needed, well-run, and beneficial even to those who never come into direct contact with their work.
One way community members can enjoy the benefits of our local educational system is to come to the Lakewood Band Highlights concerts, Friday and Saturday nights Nov. 5 & 6 at 8 pm. The $5 tickets almost always sell out before the performances (which the band also does for the elementary and middle schools), which you can get from band members, or by calling the Performing Arts hotline at 928-4496.
Speaking of which, congrats to Martha Fickle and the Lakewood Drama program for a section front picture and article in a (ahem) publication dispatched from Columbus. This is credit and plaudits long overdue for a real credit to our community right up there with baseball and band.
Back in town, Hebron Elementary School, built in 1914 and significantly added to and modified four times, has more students in it as a K-3 building (approaching 400) than it did for most of the years it was a twelve grade facility.
We have a marvelous piece of both history and community focus here, and some are concerned that the future might lead to closing this building, or selling it as was done in Jacksontown.
For all the charm and heritage our Hebron School has, with steps to nowhere and halls askew, 90 years weigh heavy on the prospects for flexibility and adaptation. Its very solidity will work against it as upgrades and connections are needed within the walls.
I was thinking about this as I read an e-mail from my mom about the end of the Kansas Bulldogs, a school in east-central Illinois which began as a comprehensive of grades 1 through 8, added to 12, and then shrank down to lower grades even as kindergarten was added. A recent consolidation in this declining, rural area left it unnecessary. My Grandfather Walton was a teacher, principal, and finally superintendent for the Kansas School, coaching basketball and, most cruelly, teaching algebra to my mother (who thinks still there should be laws about having your own children in class, especially math).
Mom went on to teach herself, following the example of Grandpa’s two sisters, who began when marriage was outlawed for teachers (so they never did), and though she was allowed to be married and teach in 1960, she had to hide my coming into the world until her pregnancy was too obvious, as she would be – and was – fired upon the principal’s awareness of the same.
Times have changed. I listened to one of our Hebron teachers talk to two moms in the hall about her early pregnancy, without fear that administration would hear. Unlike Kansas, Illinois, these Hebron, Ohio crossroads are growing and vital, lending an ongoing lease on life to these lovingly renovated halls.
And while the signs outside and students within might change, I will long treasure the sight of a lost corridor, half sealed into a closet in a corner behind a chamber, where a stretch of 1914 stenciling above antique wainscoting can be seen today, unchanged from when the first students saw it. . .probably on their way to Hygiene class. History is right around the corner, if you know where to look and take the time for it.
Jeff Gill is a local historian, archaeologist, and writer with a taste for irony and the unexpected; if you have news or tales of local interest, e-mail him at disciple@voyager.net.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Notes From My Knapsack -- November 2004 "The Church Window"
Not so very long ago (as stories nowadays seem to start), most everybody had jobs from 9 to 5 somewhere nearby, had dinner at 6, watched their news at 6:30, and on Sunday went to church past closed stores at 10 or 10:30, where all the cars on the streets were going.
And now today: work schedules vary from week to week, shift to shift, food on the fly, news on demand 24/7, and church . . .
These have been interesting times to serve as a parish pastor. Even shut-ins are often out, let alone finding families together. Ministry has always been an on-call calling, but for all of us in congregational leadership, from home communion by the elders, trying to catch new visitors at home, to when to hold women’s fellowship meetings -- the needs, demands, and expectations of church scheduling have expanded far beyond even 24/7. This is not a Hebron thing, it is an everywhere thing.
With my service as pastor coming to an end shortly, I leave knowing that we have navigated the turbulent waters of a time of change very well in some ways. Bright spots include the clearing out and opening up and better use of the lower level of the main building, and expansion of Sunday school into the old parsonage, with the improvement of the office space there as well; the vitality of the summer early service; the capital campaign securing the property to our east and the organ campaign for our sanctuary, plus pew Bibles. Lenten efforts to deepen faith through reading the Bible and sharing “The Purpose Driven Life” were well received, and our youth continue to be an example for all of us in witness and service, on 5th Sundays and beyond. Darker spots, but a valley of shadow we must all travel through, have been the many, many funerals we have shared together, looking to the Light that guides us. There is work that is unfinished in strengthening marriages and combating addictions of many sorts that will, that must continue.
Less successful has been our work together in reforming and renewing our policies and procedures for shaping congregational leadership and life for the new day already dawned around us. Much remains to be done. The “Emergent Church” movement has much to show us about what worship and mission will look like when our hearts are open to God’s activity in the world for which “He gave His only begotten Son.”
Many kind folks have said to me “I’m not happy that you’re leaving!” C.S. Lewis, the great Christian writer, says in the movie “Shadowlands,” “I'm not sure God particularly wants us to be happy. He wants us to be able to love, and be loved. He wants us to grow up. We think our childish toys bring us all the happiness there is, and our nursery is whole wide world. But something must drive us out of the nursery, to the world of others. And that something is suffering.”
We have wrestled with Scripture together, and puzzled over the writings of Rick Warren and Herb Miller; you’ve been patient (mostly!) with my confidence that our elders and leaders can handle Lesslie Newbigin and Alasdair MacIntyre in chunks, too. As I step back from parish ministry for a time, I’ve posted some reflections at http://epicycles.blogspot.com for those who have the patience for poetry.
For everyone, Joyce and Chris and I will be at 120 Bantry St., Granville OH 43023 after Christmas, and our vocations – mine and Hebron Christian’s – will intersect again, either around this historic crossroads, or at the foot of the Cross.
In Grace & Peace,
Pastor Jeff
Not so very long ago (as stories nowadays seem to start), most everybody had jobs from 9 to 5 somewhere nearby, had dinner at 6, watched their news at 6:30, and on Sunday went to church past closed stores at 10 or 10:30, where all the cars on the streets were going.
And now today: work schedules vary from week to week, shift to shift, food on the fly, news on demand 24/7, and church . . .
These have been interesting times to serve as a parish pastor. Even shut-ins are often out, let alone finding families together. Ministry has always been an on-call calling, but for all of us in congregational leadership, from home communion by the elders, trying to catch new visitors at home, to when to hold women’s fellowship meetings -- the needs, demands, and expectations of church scheduling have expanded far beyond even 24/7. This is not a Hebron thing, it is an everywhere thing.
With my service as pastor coming to an end shortly, I leave knowing that we have navigated the turbulent waters of a time of change very well in some ways. Bright spots include the clearing out and opening up and better use of the lower level of the main building, and expansion of Sunday school into the old parsonage, with the improvement of the office space there as well; the vitality of the summer early service; the capital campaign securing the property to our east and the organ campaign for our sanctuary, plus pew Bibles. Lenten efforts to deepen faith through reading the Bible and sharing “The Purpose Driven Life” were well received, and our youth continue to be an example for all of us in witness and service, on 5th Sundays and beyond. Darker spots, but a valley of shadow we must all travel through, have been the many, many funerals we have shared together, looking to the Light that guides us. There is work that is unfinished in strengthening marriages and combating addictions of many sorts that will, that must continue.
Less successful has been our work together in reforming and renewing our policies and procedures for shaping congregational leadership and life for the new day already dawned around us. Much remains to be done. The “Emergent Church” movement has much to show us about what worship and mission will look like when our hearts are open to God’s activity in the world for which “He gave His only begotten Son.”
Many kind folks have said to me “I’m not happy that you’re leaving!” C.S. Lewis, the great Christian writer, says in the movie “Shadowlands,” “I'm not sure God particularly wants us to be happy. He wants us to be able to love, and be loved. He wants us to grow up. We think our childish toys bring us all the happiness there is, and our nursery is whole wide world. But something must drive us out of the nursery, to the world of others. And that something is suffering.”
We have wrestled with Scripture together, and puzzled over the writings of Rick Warren and Herb Miller; you’ve been patient (mostly!) with my confidence that our elders and leaders can handle Lesslie Newbigin and Alasdair MacIntyre in chunks, too. As I step back from parish ministry for a time, I’ve posted some reflections at http://epicycles.blogspot.com for those who have the patience for poetry.
For everyone, Joyce and Chris and I will be at 120 Bantry St., Granville OH 43023 after Christmas, and our vocations – mine and Hebron Christian’s – will intersect again, either around this historic crossroads, or at the foot of the Cross.
In Grace & Peace,
Pastor Jeff
Monday, October 18, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 10-24-04
By Jeff Gill
Thursday night is region-wide “Trick-or-Treat,” with 5:30 to 7:30 pm the designated times around the Hebron Crossroads. Remember that if the lights are out, the occupants aren’t playing this year.
Some of the village side streets get crowded, and the Hebron Police Department does a good job of trying to manage the congested spots (does our small village have traffic congestion? Sometimes, yes!), but keep a sharp eye out, everyone, around those hours on Oct. 28.
Do you remember the aurora borealis during Beggars’ Night? Could we be so lucky again . . .
Speaking of beggin’, the Citizens’ Advisory Committee of the Lakewood Board of Education is making a series of calls around the area to evaluate our delivery of educational services with a phone survey. We aren’t telemarketers, and we aren’t looking for money, only input.
Many of us making the calls to get surveys filled out have received hang-ups early on in the process; please know this is a legitimate effort on behalf of your Lakewood School District. With the millage rolled back (keeping the total collected in property tax the same even as more housing is added and values increase), the growth of the district will put stresses fiscal and demographic on our system. We need to hear your priorities as we build the school system of tomorrow . . . not a science fiction tomorrow, but the day after next tomorrow, which will be almost as strange and different.
The day after Nov. 2 will be a very different day than most Wednesdays. Assuming the election will be concluded by midnight, which is looking very 2000 right now (is Tim Russert polishing up his dry erase board?), in which case we won’t have “the day after the election” for possibly weeks. Sigh.
Lakewood got an unquestioned win against Columbus Academy last week, which is more than Ohio State or my beloved Boilermakers had in the victory column over the weekend. Way to believe in yourselves, team!
The Lakewood Marching Band is gearing up for their Highlights concerts to close the season November 5 and 6; if you want those hard-to-get tickets, see a band member NOW, not tomorrow.
Before then, “Club 180” is open to all youth after the Lakewood home games on Fridays Oct. 22 and 29, from 9 pm to Midnight at the former Licking Baptist Church building on Beaver Run, north and east of the Canyon Road intersection. This Christian ministry, spearheaded by Licking Baptist, is supported by many area church folk who want our young people to have a fun and safe Fifth Quarter experience such as Licking Valley has enjoyed for many years.
And on the other end of the Lakewood district, Jacksontown United Methodist is well along on their exciting building renovation to enhance their worship space, improve access to the sanctuary, and expand the basement “fellowship hall” area, which means more seating for the first Saturday breakfasts! Does it mean more entrees on Nov. 6? Probably not that soon, but stay tuned, or just go eat at 7 am that day or any other first Saturday, which is how they paid for the construction work.
This is the last week for the “Coats For Kids” drive at Hebron Christian Church by their active youth group, led by the McNichols who have a unique way of adding to the number at meetings (welcome, Joshua Michael!), and the United Methodist Church of Hebron is working their way through “The Purpose Driven Life” this fall. And New Life Community, renting at Lakewood Middle School’s auditorium Sunday mornings, is notching over 120 in worship, reaching many unchurched folk with contemporary praise music.
Whatever church you attend in the Lakewood region, don’t forget that Oct. 31 is “Time Change Morning,” setting our clocks back one hour. Otherwise, you may find yourself at Sunday School whether you intended it or not. On the other hand, there are worse mistakes you could make!
Jeff Gill has been known to teach Sunday school; on the other hand, so did Hugh Hefner, so don’t assume too much from that. If you have curriculum notes about Abraham and Sarah or Isaac and Rebecca to share, or news of local interest, send it to disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
Thursday night is region-wide “Trick-or-Treat,” with 5:30 to 7:30 pm the designated times around the Hebron Crossroads. Remember that if the lights are out, the occupants aren’t playing this year.
Some of the village side streets get crowded, and the Hebron Police Department does a good job of trying to manage the congested spots (does our small village have traffic congestion? Sometimes, yes!), but keep a sharp eye out, everyone, around those hours on Oct. 28.
Do you remember the aurora borealis during Beggars’ Night? Could we be so lucky again . . .
Speaking of beggin’, the Citizens’ Advisory Committee of the Lakewood Board of Education is making a series of calls around the area to evaluate our delivery of educational services with a phone survey. We aren’t telemarketers, and we aren’t looking for money, only input.
Many of us making the calls to get surveys filled out have received hang-ups early on in the process; please know this is a legitimate effort on behalf of your Lakewood School District. With the millage rolled back (keeping the total collected in property tax the same even as more housing is added and values increase), the growth of the district will put stresses fiscal and demographic on our system. We need to hear your priorities as we build the school system of tomorrow . . . not a science fiction tomorrow, but the day after next tomorrow, which will be almost as strange and different.
The day after Nov. 2 will be a very different day than most Wednesdays. Assuming the election will be concluded by midnight, which is looking very 2000 right now (is Tim Russert polishing up his dry erase board?), in which case we won’t have “the day after the election” for possibly weeks. Sigh.
Lakewood got an unquestioned win against Columbus Academy last week, which is more than Ohio State or my beloved Boilermakers had in the victory column over the weekend. Way to believe in yourselves, team!
The Lakewood Marching Band is gearing up for their Highlights concerts to close the season November 5 and 6; if you want those hard-to-get tickets, see a band member NOW, not tomorrow.
Before then, “Club 180” is open to all youth after the Lakewood home games on Fridays Oct. 22 and 29, from 9 pm to Midnight at the former Licking Baptist Church building on Beaver Run, north and east of the Canyon Road intersection. This Christian ministry, spearheaded by Licking Baptist, is supported by many area church folk who want our young people to have a fun and safe Fifth Quarter experience such as Licking Valley has enjoyed for many years.
And on the other end of the Lakewood district, Jacksontown United Methodist is well along on their exciting building renovation to enhance their worship space, improve access to the sanctuary, and expand the basement “fellowship hall” area, which means more seating for the first Saturday breakfasts! Does it mean more entrees on Nov. 6? Probably not that soon, but stay tuned, or just go eat at 7 am that day or any other first Saturday, which is how they paid for the construction work.
This is the last week for the “Coats For Kids” drive at Hebron Christian Church by their active youth group, led by the McNichols who have a unique way of adding to the number at meetings (welcome, Joshua Michael!), and the United Methodist Church of Hebron is working their way through “The Purpose Driven Life” this fall. And New Life Community, renting at Lakewood Middle School’s auditorium Sunday mornings, is notching over 120 in worship, reaching many unchurched folk with contemporary praise music.
Whatever church you attend in the Lakewood region, don’t forget that Oct. 31 is “Time Change Morning,” setting our clocks back one hour. Otherwise, you may find yourself at Sunday School whether you intended it or not. On the other hand, there are worse mistakes you could make!
Jeff Gill has been known to teach Sunday school; on the other hand, so did Hugh Hefner, so don’t assume too much from that. If you have curriculum notes about Abraham and Sarah or Isaac and Rebecca to share, or news of local interest, send it to disciple@voyager.net.
Friday, October 08, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 10-17-04
By Jeff Gill
Poison ivy is beautiful. Have you looked at it lately? From a distance, yes, but look around at the fall foliage and some of the deepest, richest, most multi-hued leaves are from a vine coiled around old tree trunks, gnarled fence posts, and along the backs of sheds and outbuildings around these Hebron Crossroads.
For those with severe allergies to the oil, the sap of these common growths in our region, poison ivy is no joke; especially when brush piles alight on early autumn evenings contain the vine, the stalks, or even the leaves of the more modest ground cover variety. Yes, even the smoke from burning poison ivy can carry substance enough to trigger those highly sensitive to it. The red berries, the crimson, maroon, golden, pink, saffron colored leaves, the vines growing as thick as my wrist, is all uniquely lovely and still problematic.
Harvesters on the main roads, grain trucks spilling a golden trickle on corners, whether soybeans or corn, headlights in trackless fields by night tracing their humming square dance, all telling us that it is time to bring in the full and fulfilled growth of the long summer season now past. Be patient if you’re behind one, as the farmers have had to be patient since spring planting. (And be patient with the Lakewood football team, too; they’re not quitting in the third quarter, and that’s a victory all it’s own.)
Hallowe’en is always October 31, the eve of All Hallows, or All Saints Day Nov. 1, but official “Trick or Treat Night” for the village of Hebron is set for Thursday, Oct. 28, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Most areas around are using the same night, but times may vary, so check our fellow columnists here or see the list in our sister publication, “The Advocate.”
Geese have been flocking and vee’ing and honking their flapping way overhead, heading (generally) south. Saturday morning at Evans Park sees a steadily growing mass of vehicles jockey for parking spaces as if it were Polaris on Christmas Eve, dropping off or picking up either soccer players or flag footballers, or for some lucky families (!) both. Jackets get progressively heavier each weekend, as the chill sets in earlier each evening.
School pictures, soccer pictures, senior pictures, wedding pictures; fall is a favorite time for adding to our digital stash of memorabilia, with Mother Nature providing spectacular backdrops for free – the key chain picture, however, will cost $8 extra with or without foliage.
It’s a season full of memories, both those being made right now and those the smells and sights and sounds evoke. Perhaps a distant ancestral need to sharply etch on our gray cells where the final food stashes went is why this time of year carves so deep a mark.
Making this fall memorable for our family is that we will be leaving Hebron soon. We will not forget -- in fact, we won’t even be going very far from here -- but we will move shortly to a house closer to the Lovely Wife’s job at Denison and to set a new pace of home life for the Little Guy.
My five and a half years in Hebron have been wonderful, and we know that we were “meant” to be here; we also know that our plans as a family have always been that we would do whatever we had to not to have both of us in full-time, extra hours, professionally demanding careers.
When after a dozen years of forgetting even about our child care plans the Little Guy made his dramatic appearance, for a time we thought I might be the one staying and working from home on a part-time basis. Then the Hebron possibility turned that equation on its head, and the Lovely Wife worked off a laptop and the kitchen table for six years.
Now it’s my turn! I’m going to step back from full-time parish ministry and the 24/7 expectations (internal and external), but our editors tell me they may still have a place for my weekly scribblings – off of a laptop and on the kitchen table. We’ve kicked around “Out Centerville Street” or “Notes From My Knapsack,” but I most assuredly plan to keep writing, even if no one wants to publish it.
Through Dec. 31 I’ll still be preaching Sundays, and will continue passing along this weekly printed nod from those sitting by these growing, thriving, and memorable crossroads.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church (for a few more months!) and still plays Stone Soup’s “October Nights” every year at this time. If you have seasonal news or notes to share, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
Poison ivy is beautiful. Have you looked at it lately? From a distance, yes, but look around at the fall foliage and some of the deepest, richest, most multi-hued leaves are from a vine coiled around old tree trunks, gnarled fence posts, and along the backs of sheds and outbuildings around these Hebron Crossroads.
For those with severe allergies to the oil, the sap of these common growths in our region, poison ivy is no joke; especially when brush piles alight on early autumn evenings contain the vine, the stalks, or even the leaves of the more modest ground cover variety. Yes, even the smoke from burning poison ivy can carry substance enough to trigger those highly sensitive to it. The red berries, the crimson, maroon, golden, pink, saffron colored leaves, the vines growing as thick as my wrist, is all uniquely lovely and still problematic.
Harvesters on the main roads, grain trucks spilling a golden trickle on corners, whether soybeans or corn, headlights in trackless fields by night tracing their humming square dance, all telling us that it is time to bring in the full and fulfilled growth of the long summer season now past. Be patient if you’re behind one, as the farmers have had to be patient since spring planting. (And be patient with the Lakewood football team, too; they’re not quitting in the third quarter, and that’s a victory all it’s own.)
Hallowe’en is always October 31, the eve of All Hallows, or All Saints Day Nov. 1, but official “Trick or Treat Night” for the village of Hebron is set for Thursday, Oct. 28, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Most areas around are using the same night, but times may vary, so check our fellow columnists here or see the list in our sister publication, “The Advocate.”
Geese have been flocking and vee’ing and honking their flapping way overhead, heading (generally) south. Saturday morning at Evans Park sees a steadily growing mass of vehicles jockey for parking spaces as if it were Polaris on Christmas Eve, dropping off or picking up either soccer players or flag footballers, or for some lucky families (!) both. Jackets get progressively heavier each weekend, as the chill sets in earlier each evening.
School pictures, soccer pictures, senior pictures, wedding pictures; fall is a favorite time for adding to our digital stash of memorabilia, with Mother Nature providing spectacular backdrops for free – the key chain picture, however, will cost $8 extra with or without foliage.
It’s a season full of memories, both those being made right now and those the smells and sights and sounds evoke. Perhaps a distant ancestral need to sharply etch on our gray cells where the final food stashes went is why this time of year carves so deep a mark.
Making this fall memorable for our family is that we will be leaving Hebron soon. We will not forget -- in fact, we won’t even be going very far from here -- but we will move shortly to a house closer to the Lovely Wife’s job at Denison and to set a new pace of home life for the Little Guy.
My five and a half years in Hebron have been wonderful, and we know that we were “meant” to be here; we also know that our plans as a family have always been that we would do whatever we had to not to have both of us in full-time, extra hours, professionally demanding careers.
When after a dozen years of forgetting even about our child care plans the Little Guy made his dramatic appearance, for a time we thought I might be the one staying and working from home on a part-time basis. Then the Hebron possibility turned that equation on its head, and the Lovely Wife worked off a laptop and the kitchen table for six years.
Now it’s my turn! I’m going to step back from full-time parish ministry and the 24/7 expectations (internal and external), but our editors tell me they may still have a place for my weekly scribblings – off of a laptop and on the kitchen table. We’ve kicked around “Out Centerville Street” or “Notes From My Knapsack,” but I most assuredly plan to keep writing, even if no one wants to publish it.
Through Dec. 31 I’ll still be preaching Sundays, and will continue passing along this weekly printed nod from those sitting by these growing, thriving, and memorable crossroads.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church (for a few more months!) and still plays Stone Soup’s “October Nights” every year at this time. If you have seasonal news or notes to share, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Press Release -- Interfaith Prayer Circle
Sun., Oct. 31, 2 pm
Octagon State Memorial, off West Main at 33rd St., is the site of an interfaith prayer circle led by Friends of the Mounds October 31 at 2:00 pm.
Sunday, October 31 and Monday, November 1 are "golf-free days" at Octagon State Memorial, which also contains a leased golf course. Members of many Native American spiritual traditions, along with those of immigrant traditions including Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist have been formally gathering once or twice each year since 2000 for a time of prayer.
Participants are invited to come join the prayer circle and speak or not in turn, as you are moved, according to your own sacred traditions. We join our spoken, sung, and silent prayers together at this ancient and significant site, noted as one of the "70 Wonders of the Ancient World" along with Stonehenge, the Pyramids, Athens' Parthenon, and only Chaco Canyon and Cahokia in North America.
Sun., Oct. 31, 2 pm
Octagon State Memorial, off West Main at 33rd St., is the site of an interfaith prayer circle led by Friends of the Mounds October 31 at 2:00 pm.
Sunday, October 31 and Monday, November 1 are "golf-free days" at Octagon State Memorial, which also contains a leased golf course. Members of many Native American spiritual traditions, along with those of immigrant traditions including Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist have been formally gathering once or twice each year since 2000 for a time of prayer.
Participants are invited to come join the prayer circle and speak or not in turn, as you are moved, according to your own sacred traditions. We join our spoken, sung, and silent prayers together at this ancient and significant site, noted as one of the "70 Wonders of the Ancient World" along with Stonehenge, the Pyramids, Athens' Parthenon, and only Chaco Canyon and Cahokia in North America.
The Scouter -- Simon Kenton Council – Nov/Dec 2004
Licking District Trailmarkers
September had the traditional United Way campaign kick-off with a parade through our county seat, Newark.
That’s not unusual (tho’ many counties long ago gave up on a UW parade, and Licking County is still going strong!), but what was unusually wonderful was their choice of Grand Marshall, our District Chairman, Trevor Gamble. Trig was the first recipient of the Ken Johnston Volunteer of the Year award last spring, and for his work with Scouting, at Denison during and after his retirement, in his community and church, the folks with the United Way put him right at the head of the parade!
Along the route, Scouting was represented in a number of ways, with Packs and Troops involved, and Pack 75 winning an award for “Best Interpretation of the Theme” and Pack 22 for “Best Unit Float.” Good job, Cub Scouts!
This fall – and beyond – we need to remind our Licking County friends and neighbors who work in Franklin and Delaware Counties to designate their United Way giving to Licking County. Out of county workers are accounting for a growing percentage (approaching 25%) of Licking Co. UW funds, and we need to put those charitable dollars to work in their home community. Some folks think this happens automatically: wrong!
Remember, the $10 registration each Scout and scouter pays goes to the national background check and record keeping system – none of it stays with Simon Kenton Council. United Way dollars and Popcorn sales, along with Friends of Scouting (FOS) is what keeps Scouting paid for at $110 per child per year locally. What a great buy those dollars are!
Please support your Popcorn Sale and local United Way work . . . and for units, remember that scheduling your unit’s family FOS presentation through Larry Lorance is part of what it takes to get free advancement materials.
If you have post-Jan. 15, 2005 info or announcements to share, send it to disciple@voyager.net.
* * * * * * *
Charters Make Scouting Go!
Unit charters went out to unit commissioners Oct. 23; Nov. 16 is our first charter turn-in day, at the Newark 5th St. Red Cross building from 7 to 8:30 pm. Nov. 27 is the final sweep, from 9 to 11 am at Central Christian Church on Mt. Vernon Rd. in Newark. Questions? Come to the Roundtables in Nov. or Dec.; Nov. 2 at 7:15 pm in Central Christian Church, or there again on Dec. 7, always the first Tuesday at &:15 pm.
* * * * * * *
Popcorn Pick-up
Sat., Nov. 20 (aka Beat Michigan Day) from 8 am to Noon at the Alltel Bldg. on Hopewell Dr. in Heath is Popcorn Pick-up. Bring checks dated to Dec. 6 made out to SKC/BSA from your unit treasury. We’ll be done in plenty of time to get home and fire up the grill.
* * * * * * *
District Elections
January 2005 will see the next round of elections for district positions; Judge Tom Marcelain has agreed to serve as Nominating Committee chairman, a position he has well served in the past. All chartered organization representatives are voters for the leadership positions in Licking District, along with at-large members. If you have suggestions for nominations, bring them to Roundtable!
* * * * * * *
Klondike Derby at Camp Falling Rock
January 22 is the annual Klondike Derby for our district; smoke rising from historic Franklin Lodge, feet thundering across the covered bridge, ice on Lake PeeWee and icicles off the cliffs are all part of the “can’t miss” experience in Scouting that is Klondike. Unit leaders will receive a mailing on this event shortly, and the lead article on January’s “The Scouter” (our next issue) will cover the snow forecast (it’s gonna!) and plans for having fun (you will!) at the Rock.
Licking District Trailmarkers
September had the traditional United Way campaign kick-off with a parade through our county seat, Newark.
That’s not unusual (tho’ many counties long ago gave up on a UW parade, and Licking County is still going strong!), but what was unusually wonderful was their choice of Grand Marshall, our District Chairman, Trevor Gamble. Trig was the first recipient of the Ken Johnston Volunteer of the Year award last spring, and for his work with Scouting, at Denison during and after his retirement, in his community and church, the folks with the United Way put him right at the head of the parade!
Along the route, Scouting was represented in a number of ways, with Packs and Troops involved, and Pack 75 winning an award for “Best Interpretation of the Theme” and Pack 22 for “Best Unit Float.” Good job, Cub Scouts!
This fall – and beyond – we need to remind our Licking County friends and neighbors who work in Franklin and Delaware Counties to designate their United Way giving to Licking County. Out of county workers are accounting for a growing percentage (approaching 25%) of Licking Co. UW funds, and we need to put those charitable dollars to work in their home community. Some folks think this happens automatically: wrong!
Remember, the $10 registration each Scout and scouter pays goes to the national background check and record keeping system – none of it stays with Simon Kenton Council. United Way dollars and Popcorn sales, along with Friends of Scouting (FOS) is what keeps Scouting paid for at $110 per child per year locally. What a great buy those dollars are!
Please support your Popcorn Sale and local United Way work . . . and for units, remember that scheduling your unit’s family FOS presentation through Larry Lorance is part of what it takes to get free advancement materials.
If you have post-Jan. 15, 2005 info or announcements to share, send it to disciple@voyager.net.
* * * * * * *
Charters Make Scouting Go!
Unit charters went out to unit commissioners Oct. 23; Nov. 16 is our first charter turn-in day, at the Newark 5th St. Red Cross building from 7 to 8:30 pm. Nov. 27 is the final sweep, from 9 to 11 am at Central Christian Church on Mt. Vernon Rd. in Newark. Questions? Come to the Roundtables in Nov. or Dec.; Nov. 2 at 7:15 pm in Central Christian Church, or there again on Dec. 7, always the first Tuesday at &:15 pm.
* * * * * * *
Popcorn Pick-up
Sat., Nov. 20 (aka Beat Michigan Day) from 8 am to Noon at the Alltel Bldg. on Hopewell Dr. in Heath is Popcorn Pick-up. Bring checks dated to Dec. 6 made out to SKC/BSA from your unit treasury. We’ll be done in plenty of time to get home and fire up the grill.
* * * * * * *
District Elections
January 2005 will see the next round of elections for district positions; Judge Tom Marcelain has agreed to serve as Nominating Committee chairman, a position he has well served in the past. All chartered organization representatives are voters for the leadership positions in Licking District, along with at-large members. If you have suggestions for nominations, bring them to Roundtable!
* * * * * * *
Klondike Derby at Camp Falling Rock
January 22 is the annual Klondike Derby for our district; smoke rising from historic Franklin Lodge, feet thundering across the covered bridge, ice on Lake PeeWee and icicles off the cliffs are all part of the “can’t miss” experience in Scouting that is Klondike. Unit leaders will receive a mailing on this event shortly, and the lead article on January’s “The Scouter” (our next issue) will cover the snow forecast (it’s gonna!) and plans for having fun (you will!) at the Rock.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 10-10-04 By Jeff Gill
Are You Financially Disabled?
Friends and folk about the Hebron Crossroads, we are less than 90 days out from that great festival of consumerism and self-indulgence called “the Holiday Season.”
Actually, all of the 90 days ahead are part of that new social construct, “the Holiday Season,” starting with costumed extravagance and culminating in a brief nod by some of us to a manger and the Child found under a star. But by the time we reach that evening to honor the Prince of Peace by candlelight, many more of us will have committed financial sins aplenty by stark fluorescent light in stores and malls and businesses near and (online) afar.
We're now up to over $8000 in average household credit card debt in America, and that's before gift giving and self-indulging this year potentially adds to the pile of financial burden. Jean Chatzky points out that we can make that go away in three years by just cutting an average of $10 a day of spending. . .but you've gotta put that $300 a month to paying off high-interest debt, not just shift it around to other outlays.
Now is the time, not in our 2005 resolutions, to stop and assess our personal and family financial fitness. Indeed, many of us who work with families in the Lakewood area – and far beyond – fear that there are many who are financially impaired, “disabled” in a manner of speaking, with no few even qualifying as “shopaholics.” Are you one? Well . . .
If you’ve held a yard sale because you had too much stuff and too little cash, and then went right out to buy stuff with the proceeds, you might be a shopaholic.
If you are unsure how many credit cards you have active currently, you might be a shopaholic.
If you can’t answer within $20 what your *unpaid* balance on credit cards is right now, you might be a shopaholic.
If you have your children (or grandchildren) answer the phone in case bill collectors may be calling, you might be a shopaholic.
If you have a closet, room, or garage full of packages mailed to you that are as yet unopened even though you bought them online or by phone with great anticipation, you might be a shopaholic.
If you got a home equity loan and spent it on stuff (clothes, computers, CDs, DVDs, sports equipment, or even eating out), you might be a shopaholic.
If you have declared bankruptcy once already, and are starting to build up consumer debt of any sort, you might be a shopaholic.
Somewhat less drastically, you may just be “financially disabled”: for instance, if you don’t know what percentage of your income goes to housing (rent/mortgage, utilities, annual upkeep costs), or what percent of your income goes to transportation (car payments, gas, annual maintenance like oil, brakes, tires), you might be financially disabled.. In fact, if over a third of your income goes to housing costs, you might be severely financially disabled.
Actually, if you don’t even know what your annual/monthly income actually is, you might be *very* severely financially disabled. Not “oh, I just don’t make enough to pay my bills!” OK, I understand, but how much do you bring in? Can’t make a budget until you know that number for the bottom of the page. No budget? You might be financially disabled.
If you don’t know what percent of your monthly income goes to paying off credit cards, you might be financially disabled.
If you don’t have three months living expenses put away where you won’t just spend it, but can get at it if necessary (so retirement funds don’t count), you might be financially disabled.
If you don’t have a budget figure for vacations (hey, I didn’t say this was a no-fun zone), you might be financially disabled. After all, if you don’t budget it, you’ll spend whatever is at hand, even if it was money that you had a “plan” for last month . . . like the money to pay off the credit card.
If you don’t have a budget figure for giving to causes you believe in – if only to remind ourselves that our money, no matter how hard-earned, is just a gift that we’re given for a brief time to use in making the world a better place -- you might be financially disabled.
So what do we do if we’ve honestly answered these questions, and have seen ourselves in a mirror?
First, ask yourself: can I stop on my own? If you’ve never done yourself the courtesy of asking that question, try it, and see what you say.
Second, ask a friend to help: always a good idea (we aren’t made to be alone, in problems or in celebrations), unless our friends all have the same problems . . . in which case you may want to branch out a bit.
Third, check in with a minister, counselor, or person you respect in your circle of activities. Trust this pastor: they won’t be shocked, and they will have heard it all before. Really. They may suggest a few non-fun ideas like slowing or stopping a $20 a week smoking habit (times 52, makes over $1000 a year!) or cutting out the daily latte ($3.50 times 250 makes $875!) but they will understand, and have constructive ideas to help.
And fourth, those same folk may suggest Consumer Credit Counseling, available in both Licking and Franklin Counties. They can take the big wads o’ debt and roll them up into a smaller ball that can be juggled successfully. They’re at 349-7066, and are ready to be of service to you now, let alone after “the holidays.”
Or check in with your local bankers. You may think bankers are all about getting your money, but they actually profit more from helping you keep your cash together than letting it be spread to the four winds. I happen to think well of Betty Green and her 50-plus years of experience in the Hebron area with Park National, but whoever your banker is, stop by and ask their counsel.
Whatever steps you take, you will find that your enjoyment of the holidays is much deeper and wider when your worries over finances are smaller and manageable. Let your memories be rich and your worries be poor when 2005 rolls around!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and an advocate for financial literacy at all ages. If you have holiday savings tips or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Are You Financially Disabled?
Friends and folk about the Hebron Crossroads, we are less than 90 days out from that great festival of consumerism and self-indulgence called “the Holiday Season.”
Actually, all of the 90 days ahead are part of that new social construct, “the Holiday Season,” starting with costumed extravagance and culminating in a brief nod by some of us to a manger and the Child found under a star. But by the time we reach that evening to honor the Prince of Peace by candlelight, many more of us will have committed financial sins aplenty by stark fluorescent light in stores and malls and businesses near and (online) afar.
We're now up to over $8000 in average household credit card debt in America, and that's before gift giving and self-indulging this year potentially adds to the pile of financial burden. Jean Chatzky points out that we can make that go away in three years by just cutting an average of $10 a day of spending. . .but you've gotta put that $300 a month to paying off high-interest debt, not just shift it around to other outlays.
Now is the time, not in our 2005 resolutions, to stop and assess our personal and family financial fitness. Indeed, many of us who work with families in the Lakewood area – and far beyond – fear that there are many who are financially impaired, “disabled” in a manner of speaking, with no few even qualifying as “shopaholics.” Are you one? Well . . .
If you’ve held a yard sale because you had too much stuff and too little cash, and then went right out to buy stuff with the proceeds, you might be a shopaholic.
If you are unsure how many credit cards you have active currently, you might be a shopaholic.
If you can’t answer within $20 what your *unpaid* balance on credit cards is right now, you might be a shopaholic.
If you have your children (or grandchildren) answer the phone in case bill collectors may be calling, you might be a shopaholic.
If you have a closet, room, or garage full of packages mailed to you that are as yet unopened even though you bought them online or by phone with great anticipation, you might be a shopaholic.
If you got a home equity loan and spent it on stuff (clothes, computers, CDs, DVDs, sports equipment, or even eating out), you might be a shopaholic.
If you have declared bankruptcy once already, and are starting to build up consumer debt of any sort, you might be a shopaholic.
Somewhat less drastically, you may just be “financially disabled”: for instance, if you don’t know what percentage of your income goes to housing (rent/mortgage, utilities, annual upkeep costs), or what percent of your income goes to transportation (car payments, gas, annual maintenance like oil, brakes, tires), you might be financially disabled.. In fact, if over a third of your income goes to housing costs, you might be severely financially disabled.
Actually, if you don’t even know what your annual/monthly income actually is, you might be *very* severely financially disabled. Not “oh, I just don’t make enough to pay my bills!” OK, I understand, but how much do you bring in? Can’t make a budget until you know that number for the bottom of the page. No budget? You might be financially disabled.
If you don’t know what percent of your monthly income goes to paying off credit cards, you might be financially disabled.
If you don’t have three months living expenses put away where you won’t just spend it, but can get at it if necessary (so retirement funds don’t count), you might be financially disabled.
If you don’t have a budget figure for vacations (hey, I didn’t say this was a no-fun zone), you might be financially disabled. After all, if you don’t budget it, you’ll spend whatever is at hand, even if it was money that you had a “plan” for last month . . . like the money to pay off the credit card.
If you don’t have a budget figure for giving to causes you believe in – if only to remind ourselves that our money, no matter how hard-earned, is just a gift that we’re given for a brief time to use in making the world a better place -- you might be financially disabled.
So what do we do if we’ve honestly answered these questions, and have seen ourselves in a mirror?
First, ask yourself: can I stop on my own? If you’ve never done yourself the courtesy of asking that question, try it, and see what you say.
Second, ask a friend to help: always a good idea (we aren’t made to be alone, in problems or in celebrations), unless our friends all have the same problems . . . in which case you may want to branch out a bit.
Third, check in with a minister, counselor, or person you respect in your circle of activities. Trust this pastor: they won’t be shocked, and they will have heard it all before. Really. They may suggest a few non-fun ideas like slowing or stopping a $20 a week smoking habit (times 52, makes over $1000 a year!) or cutting out the daily latte ($3.50 times 250 makes $875!) but they will understand, and have constructive ideas to help.
And fourth, those same folk may suggest Consumer Credit Counseling, available in both Licking and Franklin Counties. They can take the big wads o’ debt and roll them up into a smaller ball that can be juggled successfully. They’re at 349-7066, and are ready to be of service to you now, let alone after “the holidays.”
Or check in with your local bankers. You may think bankers are all about getting your money, but they actually profit more from helping you keep your cash together than letting it be spread to the four winds. I happen to think well of Betty Green and her 50-plus years of experience in the Hebron area with Park National, but whoever your banker is, stop by and ask their counsel.
Whatever steps you take, you will find that your enjoyment of the holidays is much deeper and wider when your worries over finances are smaller and manageable. Let your memories be rich and your worries be poor when 2005 rolls around!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and an advocate for financial literacy at all ages. If you have holiday savings tips or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Hebron Crossroads 10-03b-04
By Jeff Gill
Fall makes me think of dinner; actually, there’s very little that doesn’t make me think of mealtime. Cooler temperatures and an early sunset turns our hearts . . . and stomachs . . . to a filling, hearty supper.
The United Methodist Church of Hebron is having their Fall Baked Steak Dinner next Saturday, Oct. 9, from 4:30 to 7 o’clock or so. $5.50 for adults, $2 for children, and carryouts are available. Call the church office at 928-2471 for more information. They’re right on East Main Street, the name our old National Road, US 40 takes as it goes through the Hebron Crossroads from coast to (nearly) coast.
To the west, down US 40 out of town past Sunset Hill, Devine Farms is having their Fall Festival this weekend, next, and on until Sunday, Oct. 31. Ralph and Charla have their grounds open from 10 am to 6 pm Saturdays and Noon to 6 pm Sundays, with no admission fee or parking charge, and most activities still $1.00. Oh, and you can buy pumpkins, too! And gourds, and honey, and cornstalks, and pumpkin butter.
The Little Guy is already psyched for the barrel train (but how much longer will he fit?) and the corn maze.
Honor system straw and squirrel or indian corn available right through the week; just stick your hand in the pumpkin’s mouth (go and read the signs, you’ll see). Questions? Call 928-8320 or just visit on-line at www.devinefarms.com.
New Life Community Church has a website, too: www.hedied4.us. They are now worshiping weekly in the space they’re renting at Lakewood Middle School facing . . . yep, US 40, east of Hebron. Brian Harkness, their pastor, reports about 90 in worship with them after a launch service with over 150.
Well, we’ve got to get off of 40 for a bit, anyhow. Let’s turn north at Luray and go up Ohio 37 to Infirmary Mound Park, where Rich Niccum is organizing the Licking Park District “Autumn gathering and Harvest Moon
Rendezvous” on October 9 and 10. He tells us that “we are in dire need of scarecrow entries. The contest is simple. All you need to do is create a scarecrow. It can be any size and in any form from traditional to contemporary. The scarecrows are then judged by public voting at the
event and then ribbons are handed out just like an old-fashioned country fair. The winner will then be displayed at The Works the following week during their fall festival.”
Sound interesting? Give Rich a holler at 323-0520 if your group would like to (quickly) put together a scarecrow for the show.
Or just mark those days on your calendar to drop by and see who got stuffed . . .
Our Medicare program at the Municipal Complex was attended by a few dozen interested seniors and friends; thanks again to Alice Gordon from Licking County Aging Program and her volunteer aide, Mary Ann Draa.
She also brought one Larry Fugate (you were expecting two? Get out of my column, Larry) who spoke about the upcoming Senior Levy on the Nov. 2 ballot; this and the Children’s Services Levies are a small but vital part of our local tax base that have clearly earned our support and continuance.
Hubert Humphrey talked about the need of a good society to care for those in the sunrise of life, the sunset of life, and in the shadows of life: good foster care and child abuse response in the Children’s Levy, subsidized programs like Meals on Wheels and local feeding programs through the Senior Levy, and all the work through the United Way for the hungry and the homeless answer that call.
As to the Medicare issues, we did learn that while anyone who is on Social Security qualifies for some drug discount through a prescription discount card, those who have an income under around $12,500 for a single retired person or $16,800 for a couple can get $600 credit on this year, and again for next year, as things currently stand.
After the fall elections, who knows . . . you did know there was an election coming up, right?
Larry also mentioned that we are heading to a record year for Licking County registrations (something around 105,000) with expectations for over 80,000 voting on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
And then we’ll get our more familiar annoying commercials back . . .
Jeff Gill is pastor at Hebron Christian Church and a registered voter; if you have questions about registration, absentee voting, or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
Fall makes me think of dinner; actually, there’s very little that doesn’t make me think of mealtime. Cooler temperatures and an early sunset turns our hearts . . . and stomachs . . . to a filling, hearty supper.
The United Methodist Church of Hebron is having their Fall Baked Steak Dinner next Saturday, Oct. 9, from 4:30 to 7 o’clock or so. $5.50 for adults, $2 for children, and carryouts are available. Call the church office at 928-2471 for more information. They’re right on East Main Street, the name our old National Road, US 40 takes as it goes through the Hebron Crossroads from coast to (nearly) coast.
To the west, down US 40 out of town past Sunset Hill, Devine Farms is having their Fall Festival this weekend, next, and on until Sunday, Oct. 31. Ralph and Charla have their grounds open from 10 am to 6 pm Saturdays and Noon to 6 pm Sundays, with no admission fee or parking charge, and most activities still $1.00. Oh, and you can buy pumpkins, too! And gourds, and honey, and cornstalks, and pumpkin butter.
The Little Guy is already psyched for the barrel train (but how much longer will he fit?) and the corn maze.
Honor system straw and squirrel or indian corn available right through the week; just stick your hand in the pumpkin’s mouth (go and read the signs, you’ll see). Questions? Call 928-8320 or just visit on-line at www.devinefarms.com.
New Life Community Church has a website, too: www.hedied4.us. They are now worshiping weekly in the space they’re renting at Lakewood Middle School facing . . . yep, US 40, east of Hebron. Brian Harkness, their pastor, reports about 90 in worship with them after a launch service with over 150.
Well, we’ve got to get off of 40 for a bit, anyhow. Let’s turn north at Luray and go up Ohio 37 to Infirmary Mound Park, where Rich Niccum is organizing the Licking Park District “Autumn gathering and Harvest Moon
Rendezvous” on October 9 and 10. He tells us that “we are in dire need of scarecrow entries. The contest is simple. All you need to do is create a scarecrow. It can be any size and in any form from traditional to contemporary. The scarecrows are then judged by public voting at the
event and then ribbons are handed out just like an old-fashioned country fair. The winner will then be displayed at The Works the following week during their fall festival.”
Sound interesting? Give Rich a holler at 323-0520 if your group would like to (quickly) put together a scarecrow for the show.
Or just mark those days on your calendar to drop by and see who got stuffed . . .
Our Medicare program at the Municipal Complex was attended by a few dozen interested seniors and friends; thanks again to Alice Gordon from Licking County Aging Program and her volunteer aide, Mary Ann Draa.
She also brought one Larry Fugate (you were expecting two? Get out of my column, Larry) who spoke about the upcoming Senior Levy on the Nov. 2 ballot; this and the Children’s Services Levies are a small but vital part of our local tax base that have clearly earned our support and continuance.
Hubert Humphrey talked about the need of a good society to care for those in the sunrise of life, the sunset of life, and in the shadows of life: good foster care and child abuse response in the Children’s Levy, subsidized programs like Meals on Wheels and local feeding programs through the Senior Levy, and all the work through the United Way for the hungry and the homeless answer that call.
As to the Medicare issues, we did learn that while anyone who is on Social Security qualifies for some drug discount through a prescription discount card, those who have an income under around $12,500 for a single retired person or $16,800 for a couple can get $600 credit on this year, and again for next year, as things currently stand.
After the fall elections, who knows . . . you did know there was an election coming up, right?
Larry also mentioned that we are heading to a record year for Licking County registrations (something around 105,000) with expectations for over 80,000 voting on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
And then we’ll get our more familiar annoying commercials back . . .
Jeff Gill is pastor at Hebron Christian Church and a registered voter; if you have questions about registration, absentee voting, or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Notes From My Knapsack -- October "The Church Window"
As the children have been traveling the world on their "flying carpets," visiting mission projects around the globe, the visit to the hurricane ravaged islands of the Caribbean caught many worshipers’ attention.When we “flew low” to see the deployment of Interfaith Medical Assistance boxes in village squares on Haiti and Grenada, a number of you took note, and asked later: what would we need to do to “refill” some of those, which will no doubt be needed again.Well, thanks to Johnny Wray, our Disciples of Christ director for Week of Compassion ministries (see www.weekofcompassion.org), here’s the list, and we will have envelopes in church the next few weeks for offerings. We’re asked to add $350 per set of supplies we send, so that they can get donated and deeply discounted medical supplies to finish the box.Johnny tells us “with Medicines and Medical Supplies Donated by Pharmaceutical Companies plus Medicines and Medical Products Purchased with Your Cash Gift your $400 Medicine Box is valued at approximately $2,000! Weighing no more than 70 pounds, the I.M.A. Medicine Box® is designed to treat the common illnesses of approximately 1,000 adults and children for 2-3 months. Health care workers, as well as volunteer medical mission teams, tell us how much they value the Medicine Box for its delivery of consistent medicines and medical supplies that are appropriate to the health needs of the developing world.”You can see the list elsewhere in the newsletter (and on an insert in the bulletin the next few weeks), and bring in some items, or simply add to the donation, and we’ll let you know how many bright red IMA boxes Hebron can make up!In Grace & Peace,Pastor Jeffps: the youth collected over 100 items in their food pantry scavenger hunt! Good work, gang!!
Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), 325 mg (5gr) tablets, 1,000 tablets (*bottles of 100 tablets or more if possible), preferred brands are Bayer Aspirin, Rite-Aid Aspirin, Equate Aspirin.
Ferrous Sulfate 65 mg tablets (65 mg iron), 500 tablets (*packets of 100 tablets)
Children's Multivitamins with Iron, Chewable tablets, 500 tablets (*bottles of 100 tablets or more if possible), preferred brands are Flintstones Plus Iron, or Centrum Kids Complete.
Adult Multivitamins with Iron, Tablets 500 tablets (*bottles of 100 tablets or more if possible), preferred: Theragran-M, Nature Made Therapeutic-M.
Children's Acetaminophen, 80 mg chewable tablets, 300 tablets, preferred: Children's Tylenol (note: usually available in bottles of 30 tablets only).
Triple Antibiotic Topical Ointment, 1/2 oz tubes, 4 tubes, such as Neosporin Ointment.
Sterile Gauze Pads, 4 x 4, 50 pads, preferred: Johnson & Johnson or Curity.
First Aid Adhesive Tape 1/2" or 1" x 10 yds or more, 6 rolls, preferred: Johnson & Johnson, Curity.
Please follow these collection guidelines:
Products must be new products, with unbroken seals.
Products must have expiration dates of 18 months or longer; purchase longest dating possible.
No substitution of products or strengths is acceptable.
Send only complete kits containing all required products, in quantities shown.
Generic brands are acceptable. Ask your pharmacist if a generic brand is equivalent to the listed example products.
Where possible, purchase tablets in bottles of 100 or more.
Samples are not acceptable.
For example, if the required number of tablets is 1,000, collect: 1 bottle of 1,000 tablets; or 2 bottles of 500 tablets each; or 4 bottles of 300 or 250 tablets each; or 8 bottles of 130 tablets each; etc.
As the children have been traveling the world on their "flying carpets," visiting mission projects around the globe, the visit to the hurricane ravaged islands of the Caribbean caught many worshipers’ attention.When we “flew low” to see the deployment of Interfaith Medical Assistance boxes in village squares on Haiti and Grenada, a number of you took note, and asked later: what would we need to do to “refill” some of those, which will no doubt be needed again.Well, thanks to Johnny Wray, our Disciples of Christ director for Week of Compassion ministries (see www.weekofcompassion.org), here’s the list, and we will have envelopes in church the next few weeks for offerings. We’re asked to add $350 per set of supplies we send, so that they can get donated and deeply discounted medical supplies to finish the box.Johnny tells us “with Medicines and Medical Supplies Donated by Pharmaceutical Companies plus Medicines and Medical Products Purchased with Your Cash Gift your $400 Medicine Box is valued at approximately $2,000! Weighing no more than 70 pounds, the I.M.A. Medicine Box® is designed to treat the common illnesses of approximately 1,000 adults and children for 2-3 months. Health care workers, as well as volunteer medical mission teams, tell us how much they value the Medicine Box for its delivery of consistent medicines and medical supplies that are appropriate to the health needs of the developing world.”You can see the list elsewhere in the newsletter (and on an insert in the bulletin the next few weeks), and bring in some items, or simply add to the donation, and we’ll let you know how many bright red IMA boxes Hebron can make up!In Grace & Peace,Pastor Jeffps: the youth collected over 100 items in their food pantry scavenger hunt! Good work, gang!!
Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), 325 mg (5gr) tablets, 1,000 tablets (*bottles of 100 tablets or more if possible), preferred brands are Bayer Aspirin, Rite-Aid Aspirin, Equate Aspirin.
Ferrous Sulfate 65 mg tablets (65 mg iron), 500 tablets (*packets of 100 tablets)
Children's Multivitamins with Iron, Chewable tablets, 500 tablets (*bottles of 100 tablets or more if possible), preferred brands are Flintstones Plus Iron, or Centrum Kids Complete.
Adult Multivitamins with Iron, Tablets 500 tablets (*bottles of 100 tablets or more if possible), preferred: Theragran-M, Nature Made Therapeutic-M.
Children's Acetaminophen, 80 mg chewable tablets, 300 tablets, preferred: Children's Tylenol (note: usually available in bottles of 30 tablets only).
Triple Antibiotic Topical Ointment, 1/2 oz tubes, 4 tubes, such as Neosporin Ointment.
Sterile Gauze Pads, 4 x 4, 50 pads, preferred: Johnson & Johnson or Curity.
First Aid Adhesive Tape 1/2" or 1" x 10 yds or more, 6 rolls, preferred: Johnson & Johnson, Curity.
Please follow these collection guidelines:
Products must be new products, with unbroken seals.
Products must have expiration dates of 18 months or longer; purchase longest dating possible.
No substitution of products or strengths is acceptable.
Send only complete kits containing all required products, in quantities shown.
Generic brands are acceptable. Ask your pharmacist if a generic brand is equivalent to the listed example products.
Where possible, purchase tablets in bottles of 100 or more.
Samples are not acceptable.
For example, if the required number of tablets is 1,000, collect: 1 bottle of 1,000 tablets; or 2 bottles of 500 tablets each; or 4 bottles of 300 or 250 tablets each; or 8 bottles of 130 tablets each; etc.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 9-26-04
By Jeff Gill
The National Freedom Center is one of America’s newest museums, just down the road in Cincinnati (take a virtual tour at freedomcenter.org).
Three buildings, signifying courage, pride, and perseverance, make up just a part of their plan to tell the story of the Underground Railroad. On-line resources, an affiliation of historic sites throughout the country, and archives in many existing institutions are all being woven together into the Freedom Center.
The Underground Railroad was a vast network of abolitionists and safe houses all across the eastern half of the United States that guided more than 100,000 slaves to freedom. From the early 1820’s to 1850, that freedom might be in southwest Michigan, northern Ohio, western New York or New England; after the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, the “railroad” extended fully to Canada beyond the reach of federal law.
Major “spurs” in this invisible line of traffic went through Columbus and Zanesville, where houses with hidden rooms and secret cellars can still be seen. But from 1836 through 1860, when the slavecatchers were out in force, a side route skirting our Hebron Crossroads up through Granville was used.
William Utter, whose “Granville: The Story of an Ohio Village is one of the best local histories of the last century, wrote of the challenges even 50 years ago in sorting fact from well-meaning fiction about the days of the Underground Railroad. The label alone kept (and keeps) the idea of tunnels and buried passageways alive, with Utter noting ruefully the still-told tale of a tunnel from Monomoy House, now the home of Denison’s presidents, to the Avery-Downer House next to the library. On the other hand. . .
“The record shows that no fugitive was ever captured in this community, and no arrest of agents of the Underground,” says Utter, while it is very clear many escaped slaves passed through Licking County. Recorded accounts point to the canal path up from the Ohio River marking a line which then turned to Reynoldsburg, from which “agents” would escort their charges, usually by night, away from the Lancaster or Newark Roads with all their traffic to places like the Gilmore farm surrounding Fairmount Presbyterian Church. On calmer occasions they might chance some daylight travel along Refugee Road to Canyon, winding north then to Centerville Street, now Newark-Granville Road. Along that artery, many agents stood ready to take over for the trip through the Welsh Hills to Utica or Homer and on to Mansfield and then Oberlin.
The village of Union Station, where Canyon Road crosses the railroad tracks, is often mentioned as a station on the Underground Railroad as well.
Do you know stories of pre-1860 homes that tie them to this proud story? I’ve got a few I’ll share on through the fall, but send in any you may have heard and we’ll put them all in.
Cub Scout Pack 33 will have their first pack meeting of the new school year at Jackson Elementary, Monday Sept. 27 at 7:00 pm. All first through fifth grade boys are welcome to come and be registered.
Ed Fuentes, veteran Cubmaster of Pack 33, is looking forward to a great year of activity; themes are chosen for each month to June, with the September meeting inviting all youth and adults to come dressed as cowboys. October, as you may have guessed, will be costumes generally. If you have questions, call Ed at 323-3936.
Tiger Cubs in first grade, second grade a Wolf Den, third grade Bears, and Webelos Scouts in fourth and fifth grades make up all the “dens” of a Cub pack. Come find your place and howl with ‘em!
Speaking of howling, I’m sure you’re ready to howl at your TV if you have to watch one more political ad. Relief is coming with the general election on Tues., Nov. 2, and if you want to register to vote, you’d better do it this week! Libraries, license bureaus, and municipal offices can show you how. October 4 is the deadline.
Absentee voting is available through Mon., Nov. 1, but with demand high, you might want to get your application in to the Board of Elections on Second Street in the County Admin. Bldg. soon. Or, visit lcounty.com for more info: click to “Board of Elections.” There you can get a downloadable form to apply for an absentee ballot.
One way or another, make sure you can serve your country in the most basic way possible, and vote. We can’t all volunteer for national service, the Underground Railroad doesn’t need conductors and agents nowadays, and not everyone gets called for jury duty; yet each of us can be a well-informed participant in democracy by casting our ballot.
But you’ve got to register first!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and an amateur historian; if you have historic announcements or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
The National Freedom Center is one of America’s newest museums, just down the road in Cincinnati (take a virtual tour at freedomcenter.org).
Three buildings, signifying courage, pride, and perseverance, make up just a part of their plan to tell the story of the Underground Railroad. On-line resources, an affiliation of historic sites throughout the country, and archives in many existing institutions are all being woven together into the Freedom Center.
The Underground Railroad was a vast network of abolitionists and safe houses all across the eastern half of the United States that guided more than 100,000 slaves to freedom. From the early 1820’s to 1850, that freedom might be in southwest Michigan, northern Ohio, western New York or New England; after the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, the “railroad” extended fully to Canada beyond the reach of federal law.
Major “spurs” in this invisible line of traffic went through Columbus and Zanesville, where houses with hidden rooms and secret cellars can still be seen. But from 1836 through 1860, when the slavecatchers were out in force, a side route skirting our Hebron Crossroads up through Granville was used.
William Utter, whose “Granville: The Story of an Ohio Village is one of the best local histories of the last century, wrote of the challenges even 50 years ago in sorting fact from well-meaning fiction about the days of the Underground Railroad. The label alone kept (and keeps) the idea of tunnels and buried passageways alive, with Utter noting ruefully the still-told tale of a tunnel from Monomoy House, now the home of Denison’s presidents, to the Avery-Downer House next to the library. On the other hand. . .
“The record shows that no fugitive was ever captured in this community, and no arrest of agents of the Underground,” says Utter, while it is very clear many escaped slaves passed through Licking County. Recorded accounts point to the canal path up from the Ohio River marking a line which then turned to Reynoldsburg, from which “agents” would escort their charges, usually by night, away from the Lancaster or Newark Roads with all their traffic to places like the Gilmore farm surrounding Fairmount Presbyterian Church. On calmer occasions they might chance some daylight travel along Refugee Road to Canyon, winding north then to Centerville Street, now Newark-Granville Road. Along that artery, many agents stood ready to take over for the trip through the Welsh Hills to Utica or Homer and on to Mansfield and then Oberlin.
The village of Union Station, where Canyon Road crosses the railroad tracks, is often mentioned as a station on the Underground Railroad as well.
Do you know stories of pre-1860 homes that tie them to this proud story? I’ve got a few I’ll share on through the fall, but send in any you may have heard and we’ll put them all in.
Cub Scout Pack 33 will have their first pack meeting of the new school year at Jackson Elementary, Monday Sept. 27 at 7:00 pm. All first through fifth grade boys are welcome to come and be registered.
Ed Fuentes, veteran Cubmaster of Pack 33, is looking forward to a great year of activity; themes are chosen for each month to June, with the September meeting inviting all youth and adults to come dressed as cowboys. October, as you may have guessed, will be costumes generally. If you have questions, call Ed at 323-3936.
Tiger Cubs in first grade, second grade a Wolf Den, third grade Bears, and Webelos Scouts in fourth and fifth grades make up all the “dens” of a Cub pack. Come find your place and howl with ‘em!
Speaking of howling, I’m sure you’re ready to howl at your TV if you have to watch one more political ad. Relief is coming with the general election on Tues., Nov. 2, and if you want to register to vote, you’d better do it this week! Libraries, license bureaus, and municipal offices can show you how. October 4 is the deadline.
Absentee voting is available through Mon., Nov. 1, but with demand high, you might want to get your application in to the Board of Elections on Second Street in the County Admin. Bldg. soon. Or, visit lcounty.com for more info: click to “Board of Elections.” There you can get a downloadable form to apply for an absentee ballot.
One way or another, make sure you can serve your country in the most basic way possible, and vote. We can’t all volunteer for national service, the Underground Railroad doesn’t need conductors and agents nowadays, and not everyone gets called for jury duty; yet each of us can be a well-informed participant in democracy by casting our ballot.
But you’ve got to register first!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and an amateur historian; if you have historic announcements or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 9-19-04
By Jeff Gill
Monarch butterflies are back around the milkweed stands, swooping and drifting and fluttering through my yard, more orange than the now fading marigolds around the slumping tomato vines.
Thanks to friends and neighbors who have mowed my lawn during this broken-armed summer (ooh-rah for Scott and Mike), their consideration has extended to mowing around the milkweed I leave in the back corners, which by this time of the year can be a real pain to avoid.
But sure enough, they helped draw back those orange and black regal Lepidoptera to the Hebron Crossroads. Sadly, there seems to be fewer of them, which matches with what I’ve been reading about the cutting of their home forests in Mexico. This is one of those kind of conservation issues I wish conservatives still put front and center; too many still sound like they think that the ocean is a fathomless depth for absorbing waste and pollution, that there are limitless reaches of sky to pump chemical smog into for dispersal, or that the myriad clouds of monarch butterflies mean that we can spare a few million. Earth has limits that we do well to respect.
Humans have limits, too; limits not only of overwork and activity, but limits of solitude and self-sufficiency. We need each other, even when we get on each others’ nerves. People need community and culture and contact, even more in our crowded but individualized society.
“Intentional Community” is the phrase sociologists give to those times and places we create a place to belong that isn’t a neighborhood or village. Summer sees intentional communities sprouting all over the place, and as summer ends we see fewer of them as we retreat for the winter into our homes and streets.
Camp is a good example, whether a kids camp for a week in cabins or an RV park for a few days. National Trail Raceway has a number of intentional communities through the season: each big weekend becomes one in itself, and the Wednesday nights are a running sort of family all along.
Some very specific examples include the two week “Pennsic War” just east of Ohio near Grove City, PA. Thousands of medieval re-enactors move in and live “in character” wearing robes, roasting meat, jousting and the like. This isn’t open to visitors, it is a planned community that exists for its members, but for two weeks.
Nationally famous, or infamous, is the just completed “Burning Man” festival on a dry lake bed in Nevada each Labor Day weekend. Created by artists and performers from the San Francisco area decades ago, they now create Nevada’s third largest municipality for three days each year, where mobile works of performance art move through crowds that may be garishly costumed, nude, or wearing pajamas.
“Burning Man” has been going on so long that now original participants have married there (as they do at Pennsic) and now bring children (ditto) who have grown up knowing this as their “other home.”
Much more sedate – at least by comparison – is the Sweet Corn Festival, which is an event you pass through for many, but an actual community for quite a few. Coming right up is the Backwoods Fest at the other end of Buckeye Lake, which I suspect operates much the same way.
And of course there are churches, communities within our communities whose membership is not necessarily so geographic, but gives participants a very real place to belong, to feel connected. Many of our local long-standing churches are family oriented and made up of family members who may not all live right next to each other, but appreciate having a place to come together each week.
Our area welcomes a new faith community this Sunday as a weekly place of worship, even though they’ve been around for quite a few months now. New Life Community, a new church start of the United Methodist Church, is starting every week 10:30 am services Sept. 19 at Lakewood Intermediate School’s auditorium, where the leadership group with Brian Harkness, their pastor, rents space.
This intentional community hopes to offer a place to belong for newer residents, those with perhaps less of a geographic tie to the area, and a style of music and message a bit less traditional than many churches use.
With less than 40% of our area claiming any church affiliation, there’s room at the Crossroads for New Life Community and for all who work to create community on all levels!
For our more elderly residents, the Licking County Aging Program offers a variety of “intentional communities” to seniors and their families. Zerger Hall on Newark’s east end is one of the better known forms of that, but many of their programs, like “Meals On Wheels,” are meant to go on the road.
With the sponsorship of Hebron Christian Church, Jacksontown United Methodist, and the United Methodist Church of Hebron, they will come to the Hebron council chambers on Wed., Sept. 22 at 7 pm to talk about “Medicare Prescription Cards.”
Alice Gordon, a Hebron resident, is Medicare staff person with LCAP, and she is putting together a program for us that may well be repeated at other community locations around the county. For our panel, she’s bringing Shirley Curtis, Diane Leeds, and MaryAnn Draa.
Alice also said she was bringing Larry Fugate, but since that would put two Booster columnists in the same room, we may have to check Ohio Fair Meetings law to see if we can get away with that.
And a final personal note: my own family continues to spread widely across not only the Midwest, but now also the whole country, as is true for many of you. This is probably one of the reasons intentional communities are growing in popularity, with family relationships stretching and thinning. We need those kinds of bonds, and if we have to we create them from scratch. But I am blessed with brothers and a sister I love, even if I don’t see them as much as I’d like.
All of which is to say that I learned by cell phone and e-mail picture that on Labor Day my sister decided to go into labor, and delivered my first nephew and the Little Guy’s first boy cousin, Brady Joseph Christiansen, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Mother, child, and the loving community around them from coast to coast are all doing well.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and Brady’s uncle; if you have momentous announcements or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
Monarch butterflies are back around the milkweed stands, swooping and drifting and fluttering through my yard, more orange than the now fading marigolds around the slumping tomato vines.
Thanks to friends and neighbors who have mowed my lawn during this broken-armed summer (ooh-rah for Scott and Mike), their consideration has extended to mowing around the milkweed I leave in the back corners, which by this time of the year can be a real pain to avoid.
But sure enough, they helped draw back those orange and black regal Lepidoptera to the Hebron Crossroads. Sadly, there seems to be fewer of them, which matches with what I’ve been reading about the cutting of their home forests in Mexico. This is one of those kind of conservation issues I wish conservatives still put front and center; too many still sound like they think that the ocean is a fathomless depth for absorbing waste and pollution, that there are limitless reaches of sky to pump chemical smog into for dispersal, or that the myriad clouds of monarch butterflies mean that we can spare a few million. Earth has limits that we do well to respect.
Humans have limits, too; limits not only of overwork and activity, but limits of solitude and self-sufficiency. We need each other, even when we get on each others’ nerves. People need community and culture and contact, even more in our crowded but individualized society.
“Intentional Community” is the phrase sociologists give to those times and places we create a place to belong that isn’t a neighborhood or village. Summer sees intentional communities sprouting all over the place, and as summer ends we see fewer of them as we retreat for the winter into our homes and streets.
Camp is a good example, whether a kids camp for a week in cabins or an RV park for a few days. National Trail Raceway has a number of intentional communities through the season: each big weekend becomes one in itself, and the Wednesday nights are a running sort of family all along.
Some very specific examples include the two week “Pennsic War” just east of Ohio near Grove City, PA. Thousands of medieval re-enactors move in and live “in character” wearing robes, roasting meat, jousting and the like. This isn’t open to visitors, it is a planned community that exists for its members, but for two weeks.
Nationally famous, or infamous, is the just completed “Burning Man” festival on a dry lake bed in Nevada each Labor Day weekend. Created by artists and performers from the San Francisco area decades ago, they now create Nevada’s third largest municipality for three days each year, where mobile works of performance art move through crowds that may be garishly costumed, nude, or wearing pajamas.
“Burning Man” has been going on so long that now original participants have married there (as they do at Pennsic) and now bring children (ditto) who have grown up knowing this as their “other home.”
Much more sedate – at least by comparison – is the Sweet Corn Festival, which is an event you pass through for many, but an actual community for quite a few. Coming right up is the Backwoods Fest at the other end of Buckeye Lake, which I suspect operates much the same way.
And of course there are churches, communities within our communities whose membership is not necessarily so geographic, but gives participants a very real place to belong, to feel connected. Many of our local long-standing churches are family oriented and made up of family members who may not all live right next to each other, but appreciate having a place to come together each week.
Our area welcomes a new faith community this Sunday as a weekly place of worship, even though they’ve been around for quite a few months now. New Life Community, a new church start of the United Methodist Church, is starting every week 10:30 am services Sept. 19 at Lakewood Intermediate School’s auditorium, where the leadership group with Brian Harkness, their pastor, rents space.
This intentional community hopes to offer a place to belong for newer residents, those with perhaps less of a geographic tie to the area, and a style of music and message a bit less traditional than many churches use.
With less than 40% of our area claiming any church affiliation, there’s room at the Crossroads for New Life Community and for all who work to create community on all levels!
For our more elderly residents, the Licking County Aging Program offers a variety of “intentional communities” to seniors and their families. Zerger Hall on Newark’s east end is one of the better known forms of that, but many of their programs, like “Meals On Wheels,” are meant to go on the road.
With the sponsorship of Hebron Christian Church, Jacksontown United Methodist, and the United Methodist Church of Hebron, they will come to the Hebron council chambers on Wed., Sept. 22 at 7 pm to talk about “Medicare Prescription Cards.”
Alice Gordon, a Hebron resident, is Medicare staff person with LCAP, and she is putting together a program for us that may well be repeated at other community locations around the county. For our panel, she’s bringing Shirley Curtis, Diane Leeds, and MaryAnn Draa.
Alice also said she was bringing Larry Fugate, but since that would put two Booster columnists in the same room, we may have to check Ohio Fair Meetings law to see if we can get away with that.
And a final personal note: my own family continues to spread widely across not only the Midwest, but now also the whole country, as is true for many of you. This is probably one of the reasons intentional communities are growing in popularity, with family relationships stretching and thinning. We need those kinds of bonds, and if we have to we create them from scratch. But I am blessed with brothers and a sister I love, even if I don’t see them as much as I’d like.
All of which is to say that I learned by cell phone and e-mail picture that on Labor Day my sister decided to go into labor, and delivered my first nephew and the Little Guy’s first boy cousin, Brady Joseph Christiansen, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Mother, child, and the loving community around them from coast to coast are all doing well.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and Brady’s uncle; if you have momentous announcements or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Monday, September 06, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 9-12-04
By Jeff Gill
Medicare premiums go up 17%; this is a dilemma, as Howard Dean said at Denison last weekend (see more below if you like politics), that is a Democratic and Republican problem, and will require a Republican and Democratic solution.
Many of us are experiencing wage stagnation or decline due to the annual 15% to 40% increase in health insurance costs that have been with us for. . .well, all my professional life. Americans are staying in jobs with no future or deferring entrepreneurial options (is the Republican party reading this?) to hold onto insurance unreachable otherwise, and state budgets are looking at whacking libraries and school support because Medicare costs are sucking the fiscal oxygen out of the treasury (Dems, can you say anything to your voters about this?).
As our local Hebron Crossroads contribution to this situation, on Wed., Sept. 22, at 7 pm in the municipal complex council chambers, there will be a public program on “Medicare Prescription Cards: What’s The Deal?” Co-sponsored by Hebron Christian Church, Jacksontown United Methodist Church, and the United Methodist Church of Hebron, we invite everyone who is a) on Medicare, b) knows someone on Medicare, or c) plans on getting older. More next week!
Back a couple Wednesdays, I stood with the Little Guy at the corner of Chautauqua and Lancaster in Millersport. There where the Sweet Corn Festival parade turned the corner, 150 units and more, we heard bands and watched the scramble for scattered candy by sprawling kids (LG safely on my shoulders), with festival queens from far reaches of festal Ohio carefully waving with one hand while holding on for dear life to a convertible trunk lid with the other.
With the show’s end out on the streets, our focus went into Lions’ Park. Reporting to my station in Heritage Village, we had a great view from the steps of the Walnut Township building of the Main Stage bandstand and Lakewood Band’s show, which I later heard they did even better down at OU in Athens (but guys. . .the 80’s? do people really want the 80’s back? The 40’s and Woody Herman and Glenn Miller nostalgia I get, but AC/DC? Yet the Def Leppard tune was oddly uplifting. . .).
Almost every night of the festival had a brilliant sunset – is that an oxymoron? – with blue skies and temperate temperatures. That meant starting with the first day, record sales for all the food booths was the norm.
When we took a break to find dinner for my sidekick, I stood in a briskly moving but lengthy line through Hickory Grove, shagbark trunks breaking up the views of snaking files leading to tater booths, waffle stands, and pizza places. Looking around, you might have a biker with a stroller in front of you, a goth arguing with her mother behind you, and a crowned queen in tiara and evening gown walking away balancing four slices of pizza on her arms, mouth clamped on a stack of napkins.
And the now 25 year old Lakewood Band Booster booth! Walking that way through a dim huddle of picnic tables, the view suddenly opens up to reveal the high prow of the roofline with its painted doughnut, cutting through a sea of customers 20 deep in 10 lines. We got our mixed dozen and swam back to the safe harbor of Heritage Village.
Due to some wedding related complications, I never got back to serve as a host later in the week (and missed my annual steak-on-a-stick, which evidently was bad luck for Fisher Catholic since their booth nearly burned down on Friday), but that first night was a fascinating series of conversations with people delighted to see how some simple, basic local history was being preserved.
Mind you, this is what the Millersport Lions do in their spare time when they aren’t maintaining the grounds, their clubhouse, and planning the next Sweet Corn Festival. But for every cheering fan of “Confederate Railroad”, there was a quietly appreciative visitor to the Slater Gas Station or Holliday Covered Bridge.
Congratulations to all the community groups and youth organizations who made a big part of their budget last week, thanks to many volunteers, many more patrons, and the support of the Millersport Lions, without whom none of this would happen.
And remember to give thanks for great weather, which helped set some records for 2004!
Some of you may have seen Sen. John Kerry on his campaign appearance in Newark. In fact, I did too. After meeting with someone in the Tim Horton’s on N. 21st St., I got stuck in the parking lot by a flotilla of police cruisers from, I kid you not, every police department in the county. They sealed off the roadway, and so it was that I got to see candidate Kerry.
20 yards away, at 45 mph, facing away from me, through the tinted glass of a campaign bus. Ah well.
From what I caught on ONN, Kerry was very well oriented to local issues and seamlessly worked them into his stump speech, referencing Longaberger, Owens, Dow, and a variety of challenges felt here in Licking County. His “front porch meeting” sounded like a good move in terms of retail politics, but the wholesale electoral package has yet to look that saleable, as poll numbers continue to indicate.
It was the appearance by Howard Dean that engaged both heart and brain, and reminded me why Kerry is likely to be back checking off items on Teresa’s honeydew list this winter.
Denison can be very proud of student Eric Spengler, who did the introductory task in front of what I estimated as 3000 people in the acoustically challenged Mitchell Center. He summed up the Dean candidacy, the reasons for his continued relevance after the end of his role in the primary campaign, and introduced the former Vermont governor with aplomb and gravitas.
All of which was a fascinating and appropriate contrast to Dean’s fire and intensity.
A brief note is in order here: your columnist is a Bull Moose Republican, waiting for the next Teddy Roosevelt to earn his vote. I’m for free enterprise and property rights, but not when they compromise groundwater. And as Dean pointed out sharply, a balanced budget is required to support any social safety net -- he’s the Dem, for those of you keeping score at home. Capitalism requires a civil society to function efficiently, and that means good public schools controlled locally, basic health care available to all but especially children, and family life affirmed as the basic unit of our common life.
This scribbler heard more on those subjects from Gov. Dean than from Pres. Bush or Sen. Kerry have said put together, and the Lovely Wife can tell you I’ve been looking.
Yet Dean, Kerry, and most of the Democratic apparatus are apparently convinced that the global war on terror is mostly an overreaction (the nicest word they use) to random flailings of discontented dispossessed groups frustrated by the world wide reach of McD’s and Disney. If you believe that, I can see why you might vote for Kerry.
If, on the other hand, you see a dispersed but co-ordinated assault on free societies and liberty by forces of monolithic barbarism and terror – and I do – it is hard to avoid the sense that voting to re-elect Pres. Bush is necessary and important.
Meanwhile, Dems and Bull Moose R’s can work domestically to turn back “No Test Left Behind” (or “No School Board Left Standing,” Dean’s phrase), maintain environmental standards, and find a better national health care policy than making ER’s the federally mandated primary care centers for the poor (which is the national health care policy we currently have -- remember, the question isn’t having a national plan or not; we’ve got one already AND IT DOESN’T WORK for employers or retirees, let alone the general public).
But when we focus on protecting the Olympics and our conventions in the US, we see suicide bombers from an Islamofascist group allied with Al-Qaida bring down two jetliners, blow up a subway station, and kill over 400 in a school in a “first day” takeover attempt, all in Russia. They, like France, thought they’d bought a free pass from the terror mob by taking a more accommodating approach. Both countries now have reason to reassess their choices.
I wish I thought it was safe enough in the world to reassess mine, but I will be casting a rueful vote for George Bush this November.
Cheerful stuff next week, I promise. Plus more on Medicare cards and our program Sept. 22. Just wanted to be honest with y’all, even though I know Licking County and the Hebron area are very likely to vote Kerry, which (contrary to many of my liberal friends fears of Bush’s re-election) won’t be the end of the world.
I just want us to get back to work on making a better world!
By Jeff Gill
Medicare premiums go up 17%; this is a dilemma, as Howard Dean said at Denison last weekend (see more below if you like politics), that is a Democratic and Republican problem, and will require a Republican and Democratic solution.
Many of us are experiencing wage stagnation or decline due to the annual 15% to 40% increase in health insurance costs that have been with us for. . .well, all my professional life. Americans are staying in jobs with no future or deferring entrepreneurial options (is the Republican party reading this?) to hold onto insurance unreachable otherwise, and state budgets are looking at whacking libraries and school support because Medicare costs are sucking the fiscal oxygen out of the treasury (Dems, can you say anything to your voters about this?).
As our local Hebron Crossroads contribution to this situation, on Wed., Sept. 22, at 7 pm in the municipal complex council chambers, there will be a public program on “Medicare Prescription Cards: What’s The Deal?” Co-sponsored by Hebron Christian Church, Jacksontown United Methodist Church, and the United Methodist Church of Hebron, we invite everyone who is a) on Medicare, b) knows someone on Medicare, or c) plans on getting older. More next week!
Back a couple Wednesdays, I stood with the Little Guy at the corner of Chautauqua and Lancaster in Millersport. There where the Sweet Corn Festival parade turned the corner, 150 units and more, we heard bands and watched the scramble for scattered candy by sprawling kids (LG safely on my shoulders), with festival queens from far reaches of festal Ohio carefully waving with one hand while holding on for dear life to a convertible trunk lid with the other.
With the show’s end out on the streets, our focus went into Lions’ Park. Reporting to my station in Heritage Village, we had a great view from the steps of the Walnut Township building of the Main Stage bandstand and Lakewood Band’s show, which I later heard they did even better down at OU in Athens (but guys. . .the 80’s? do people really want the 80’s back? The 40’s and Woody Herman and Glenn Miller nostalgia I get, but AC/DC? Yet the Def Leppard tune was oddly uplifting. . .).
Almost every night of the festival had a brilliant sunset – is that an oxymoron? – with blue skies and temperate temperatures. That meant starting with the first day, record sales for all the food booths was the norm.
When we took a break to find dinner for my sidekick, I stood in a briskly moving but lengthy line through Hickory Grove, shagbark trunks breaking up the views of snaking files leading to tater booths, waffle stands, and pizza places. Looking around, you might have a biker with a stroller in front of you, a goth arguing with her mother behind you, and a crowned queen in tiara and evening gown walking away balancing four slices of pizza on her arms, mouth clamped on a stack of napkins.
And the now 25 year old Lakewood Band Booster booth! Walking that way through a dim huddle of picnic tables, the view suddenly opens up to reveal the high prow of the roofline with its painted doughnut, cutting through a sea of customers 20 deep in 10 lines. We got our mixed dozen and swam back to the safe harbor of Heritage Village.
Due to some wedding related complications, I never got back to serve as a host later in the week (and missed my annual steak-on-a-stick, which evidently was bad luck for Fisher Catholic since their booth nearly burned down on Friday), but that first night was a fascinating series of conversations with people delighted to see how some simple, basic local history was being preserved.
Mind you, this is what the Millersport Lions do in their spare time when they aren’t maintaining the grounds, their clubhouse, and planning the next Sweet Corn Festival. But for every cheering fan of “Confederate Railroad”, there was a quietly appreciative visitor to the Slater Gas Station or Holliday Covered Bridge.
Congratulations to all the community groups and youth organizations who made a big part of their budget last week, thanks to many volunteers, many more patrons, and the support of the Millersport Lions, without whom none of this would happen.
And remember to give thanks for great weather, which helped set some records for 2004!
Some of you may have seen Sen. John Kerry on his campaign appearance in Newark. In fact, I did too. After meeting with someone in the Tim Horton’s on N. 21st St., I got stuck in the parking lot by a flotilla of police cruisers from, I kid you not, every police department in the county. They sealed off the roadway, and so it was that I got to see candidate Kerry.
20 yards away, at 45 mph, facing away from me, through the tinted glass of a campaign bus. Ah well.
From what I caught on ONN, Kerry was very well oriented to local issues and seamlessly worked them into his stump speech, referencing Longaberger, Owens, Dow, and a variety of challenges felt here in Licking County. His “front porch meeting” sounded like a good move in terms of retail politics, but the wholesale electoral package has yet to look that saleable, as poll numbers continue to indicate.
It was the appearance by Howard Dean that engaged both heart and brain, and reminded me why Kerry is likely to be back checking off items on Teresa’s honeydew list this winter.
Denison can be very proud of student Eric Spengler, who did the introductory task in front of what I estimated as 3000 people in the acoustically challenged Mitchell Center. He summed up the Dean candidacy, the reasons for his continued relevance after the end of his role in the primary campaign, and introduced the former Vermont governor with aplomb and gravitas.
All of which was a fascinating and appropriate contrast to Dean’s fire and intensity.
A brief note is in order here: your columnist is a Bull Moose Republican, waiting for the next Teddy Roosevelt to earn his vote. I’m for free enterprise and property rights, but not when they compromise groundwater. And as Dean pointed out sharply, a balanced budget is required to support any social safety net -- he’s the Dem, for those of you keeping score at home. Capitalism requires a civil society to function efficiently, and that means good public schools controlled locally, basic health care available to all but especially children, and family life affirmed as the basic unit of our common life.
This scribbler heard more on those subjects from Gov. Dean than from Pres. Bush or Sen. Kerry have said put together, and the Lovely Wife can tell you I’ve been looking.
Yet Dean, Kerry, and most of the Democratic apparatus are apparently convinced that the global war on terror is mostly an overreaction (the nicest word they use) to random flailings of discontented dispossessed groups frustrated by the world wide reach of McD’s and Disney. If you believe that, I can see why you might vote for Kerry.
If, on the other hand, you see a dispersed but co-ordinated assault on free societies and liberty by forces of monolithic barbarism and terror – and I do – it is hard to avoid the sense that voting to re-elect Pres. Bush is necessary and important.
Meanwhile, Dems and Bull Moose R’s can work domestically to turn back “No Test Left Behind” (or “No School Board Left Standing,” Dean’s phrase), maintain environmental standards, and find a better national health care policy than making ER’s the federally mandated primary care centers for the poor (which is the national health care policy we currently have -- remember, the question isn’t having a national plan or not; we’ve got one already AND IT DOESN’T WORK for employers or retirees, let alone the general public).
But when we focus on protecting the Olympics and our conventions in the US, we see suicide bombers from an Islamofascist group allied with Al-Qaida bring down two jetliners, blow up a subway station, and kill over 400 in a school in a “first day” takeover attempt, all in Russia. They, like France, thought they’d bought a free pass from the terror mob by taking a more accommodating approach. Both countries now have reason to reassess their choices.
I wish I thought it was safe enough in the world to reassess mine, but I will be casting a rueful vote for George Bush this November.
Cheerful stuff next week, I promise. Plus more on Medicare cards and our program Sept. 22. Just wanted to be honest with y’all, even though I know Licking County and the Hebron area are very likely to vote Kerry, which (contrary to many of my liberal friends fears of Bush’s re-election) won’t be the end of the world.
I just want us to get back to work on making a better world!
Saturday, September 04, 2004
I'm posting this from Beliefnet's convention blog by Steven Waldman; with special attention to the closing point --
Red God, Blue God
September 1, 2004 10:30 a.m.
As noted in these pages, the so-called religion gap is actually a church attendance gap. But why does THAT exist?
. . .But it's also time we asked what this God gap says about religion. Conversely, the question is not why less-frequent attenders vote Democratic, but why Democrats are drawn to church less often. Why are progressive houses of worship unable to create an urgent reason for liberal people to show up on Sundays?
Red God, Blue God
September 1, 2004 10:30 a.m.
As noted in these pages, the so-called religion gap is actually a church attendance gap. But why does THAT exist?
. . .But it's also time we asked what this God gap says about religion. Conversely, the question is not why less-frequent attenders vote Democratic, but why Democrats are drawn to church less often. Why are progressive houses of worship unable to create an urgent reason for liberal people to show up on Sundays?
Friday, September 03, 2004
“The Scouter” – Simon Kenton Council Oct. 2004
Licking District Trailmarkers
Looking through my e-mail box (disciple@voyager.net), it must be time to run these little reminders again: “The Scouter” is a great tool for promoting long-range planning and sharing an overview of events past and upcoming. But production and mailing realities mean that information you send me – by the first Thursday of each month, when lovely Editor Bobbi awaits it in Columbus at the council office – must be about events that are 30 to 45 days down the line.
Send me an article about an event on Sept. 1, and I put it in the pipeline Sept. 2; the print/send process goes to work the last week of the month, and should be into the hands of the USPS by Oct. 1, which means many in our district won’t see it until as late as the week of Oct. 11-15. If the event you’re wanting to see in print happens Oct. 23 (just as a for instance), the Scout or Scouter reading about it has less than two weeks to respond.
Add to that the fact that if an error has crept in by my mistake, your error, or a production slip-up: I won’t see it until the next month’s copy has been e-mailed, meaning that corrections are on a two month or more turnaround, by which time folks aren’t always sure what we’re even talking about!
The bottom line is that this page is a great place for announcing plans and registration info two to four months ahead, which means getting your info to me three to five months ahead. It kind of forces you to plan ahead, doesn’t it? But if we want Scouting units in Licking County to participate in what we do as a district, we have to respect that most of them have a year-round plan already in place, and we owe it to them to stay out ahead of their hard work for the youth in their unit.
* * * * * * *
Fall Camporee – Apple Butter Days
[Repeat info from last “Scouter”]
Nov. 5-7 is our Fall Camporee weekend, where with your registrations turned in, your popcorn sold, and your leaders trained, you and your Scouts can come and enjoy the real heart of Scouting, which is “Outing” out at Camp Falling Rock.
Saturday, Nov. 6 will offer a number of special Cub activities, and Friday through Sunday is open to Scouts and Venturers. Mike Dalton will be in touch as the District Activities Committee continues to offer great experiences for your unit program.
* * * * * * *
[insert Bill’s articles on Popcorn and Cub Scout Leader Basic Training]
Down the Trail -- A Closing Word
“Scouting For Boys – the Original 1908 Edition” is now in print from Oxford World’s Classics. Approaching the centenary of the writing of the book that began our Movement, it seems that someone has noticed that the effects of what Robert Baden-Powell put down on paper still live and breathe all around them.
Since the 1948 Scout Field Book was written by “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt, most Scout publications have been written by committees – and read like it. But the original Scout Handbook was, well, here’s what the Amazon.com book description starts with:
“A startling amalgam of Zulu war-cry and Sherlock Holmes, of practical tips on health and hygiene and object lessons in woodcraft, Scouting for Boys (1908) is the original blueprint and inspiration for the Boy Scout Movement. An all-time bestseller in the English-speaking world, second in its heyday only to the Bible, it is one of the most influential manuals for youth ever published, known and loved around the world. Including all of Baden-Powell's original illustrations, this new critical edition of Scouting for Boys serves up a wonderful hodge-podge of true crime stories, stern moralizing, stock adventure tales, natural history, first-aid tips, advice on observation and tracking, and much more. Readers will find . . . lengthy quotations from adventure fiction--from Rudyard Kipling and James Fenimore Cooper, to Alexander Dumas and Arthur Conan Doyle.”
If you have never read the narrative that was B-P’s match to the kindling of youth organizations, you might want to spend the $20 it’ll cost you to read where it all began. There are snarky comments in a “scholarly” introduction, but even those who intend to critique the roots of a Movement that wears a uniform and rewards achievement, find themselves saluting the spirit within this Scouting program:
“Indeed, the book brims with Baden-Powell's philosophy of life, one that replaces self with service, puts country before the individual, and duty above all. . . Though almost a century old, Scouting for Boys continues to fascinate, surprise, and motivate readers today. It will delight anyone interested in popular culture, Victorian history, and literature for children.”
And I invite you to share your Scouting news with me at disciple@voyager.net, or call 928-4066 and leave your info or call back contact numbers.
Jeff Gill, District PR guy and Chaplain
Licking District Trailmarkers
Looking through my e-mail box (disciple@voyager.net), it must be time to run these little reminders again: “The Scouter” is a great tool for promoting long-range planning and sharing an overview of events past and upcoming. But production and mailing realities mean that information you send me – by the first Thursday of each month, when lovely Editor Bobbi awaits it in Columbus at the council office – must be about events that are 30 to 45 days down the line.
Send me an article about an event on Sept. 1, and I put it in the pipeline Sept. 2; the print/send process goes to work the last week of the month, and should be into the hands of the USPS by Oct. 1, which means many in our district won’t see it until as late as the week of Oct. 11-15. If the event you’re wanting to see in print happens Oct. 23 (just as a for instance), the Scout or Scouter reading about it has less than two weeks to respond.
Add to that the fact that if an error has crept in by my mistake, your error, or a production slip-up: I won’t see it until the next month’s copy has been e-mailed, meaning that corrections are on a two month or more turnaround, by which time folks aren’t always sure what we’re even talking about!
The bottom line is that this page is a great place for announcing plans and registration info two to four months ahead, which means getting your info to me three to five months ahead. It kind of forces you to plan ahead, doesn’t it? But if we want Scouting units in Licking County to participate in what we do as a district, we have to respect that most of them have a year-round plan already in place, and we owe it to them to stay out ahead of their hard work for the youth in their unit.
* * * * * * *
Fall Camporee – Apple Butter Days
[Repeat info from last “Scouter”]
Nov. 5-7 is our Fall Camporee weekend, where with your registrations turned in, your popcorn sold, and your leaders trained, you and your Scouts can come and enjoy the real heart of Scouting, which is “Outing” out at Camp Falling Rock.
Saturday, Nov. 6 will offer a number of special Cub activities, and Friday through Sunday is open to Scouts and Venturers. Mike Dalton will be in touch as the District Activities Committee continues to offer great experiences for your unit program.
* * * * * * *
[insert Bill’s articles on Popcorn and Cub Scout Leader Basic Training]
Down the Trail -- A Closing Word
“Scouting For Boys – the Original 1908 Edition” is now in print from Oxford World’s Classics. Approaching the centenary of the writing of the book that began our Movement, it seems that someone has noticed that the effects of what Robert Baden-Powell put down on paper still live and breathe all around them.
Since the 1948 Scout Field Book was written by “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt, most Scout publications have been written by committees – and read like it. But the original Scout Handbook was, well, here’s what the Amazon.com book description starts with:
“A startling amalgam of Zulu war-cry and Sherlock Holmes, of practical tips on health and hygiene and object lessons in woodcraft, Scouting for Boys (1908) is the original blueprint and inspiration for the Boy Scout Movement. An all-time bestseller in the English-speaking world, second in its heyday only to the Bible, it is one of the most influential manuals for youth ever published, known and loved around the world. Including all of Baden-Powell's original illustrations, this new critical edition of Scouting for Boys serves up a wonderful hodge-podge of true crime stories, stern moralizing, stock adventure tales, natural history, first-aid tips, advice on observation and tracking, and much more. Readers will find . . . lengthy quotations from adventure fiction--from Rudyard Kipling and James Fenimore Cooper, to Alexander Dumas and Arthur Conan Doyle.”
If you have never read the narrative that was B-P’s match to the kindling of youth organizations, you might want to spend the $20 it’ll cost you to read where it all began. There are snarky comments in a “scholarly” introduction, but even those who intend to critique the roots of a Movement that wears a uniform and rewards achievement, find themselves saluting the spirit within this Scouting program:
“Indeed, the book brims with Baden-Powell's philosophy of life, one that replaces self with service, puts country before the individual, and duty above all. . . Though almost a century old, Scouting for Boys continues to fascinate, surprise, and motivate readers today. It will delight anyone interested in popular culture, Victorian history, and literature for children.”
And I invite you to share your Scouting news with me at disciple@voyager.net, or call 928-4066 and leave your info or call back contact numbers.
Jeff Gill, District PR guy and Chaplain
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 9-05-04
by Jeff Gill
[ital]“Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden. . .”[/end ital]
Labor Day is come, and may be gone when many of you read this, worn out from the Sweet Corn Festival or the Buckeye home opener, or a Lakewood Band appearance at OU in Athens (Ohio, not the Olympic one), or hacking down the last wild growth of the summer in advance of autumn’s brown snags and snarls.
We need rest, but early September around the Hebron Crossroads isn’t the time to get it. The Hebron Parent-Teacher Organization fall fundraiser catalogues are out and about; if you see the delighted snowman on a blue cover, know that your purchases help elementary kids for Buckeye Lake, Hebron, and surrounding township areas get field trips, added reading and math enrichment, and other supplies not in the very basic Lakewood schools budget. (And Jackson Elementary, when you do yours, make sure to let me know and I promise to promote y’all, too!)
Final day to turn in for kids and parents is at school, Friday Sept. 10, with orders arriving the week of October 4. We hope to have most of our fundraising needs met through this and the Memorial Day weekend Crossroads Festival, so the rest of the year PTO can help support the staff and teachers in education and involvement.
Any family member of a student at Hebron Elementary is welcome to drop by our first meeting this school year on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 7:00 pm in the art room around back.
With so much work to do, just done, and going on the weekend of Sept. 11, our “Respond To the Call” service project was hobbled this year by Patriots Day falling on a Saturday. Weddings and fall activities (and the Marshall game in Columbus…sigh) tie up most of our Hebron area co-ordinators, so anyone looking for a chance to do some public service is asked to report that day to Ryan Park in Buckeye Lake, where a day-long project is going on to fix and maintain that park, where many of our Hebron Elementary youth play.
How ‘bout those “Effective” ratings for Lakewood Schools? Our building count is up, more new students, and we are continuing to improve our community wide support of education.
Anyone who says that “Excellent” is out of reach for Lakewood isn’t paying attention: that’s exactly where we’re heading.
One of the effectively excellent things our local students have done is build a display case for the lobby of the municipal complex. The Hebron Historical Society has put a marvelous arrangement of objects with informational cards in the case, telling our story from 1827 to today.
Garrett Boysen, Robert Cundiff, and Earl Kissell may think they’re too old to be a part of history, but they are now. Larry Prater may not think of himself as a history teacher, but that’s what he is as we thank them all for their work. Stop by and look at it and the original plat map, framed next to it, carefully copied and enlarged with some loving work from Dave Morrow and Linda Nicodemus (and they tell me they aren’t done yet).
A few weeks ago, I was walking around in the middle of some of our local history. Right in the heart of Union Township, in a spot carefully hidden right out in the open (and that’s all I’ve got to say about that), is a cemetery that was used from the 1820’s to about the end of the Civil War in 1865.
From my eye, used to casting about across the surface of old historic cemeteries, it seems that the plot allocated for burials filled, and for whatever reasons was closed down. The dates I have are from the stones still visible, of which there are few; many more are horizontal and submerged almost entirely in sod. The remaining space has the lumpiness of old wooden casket burials, with their faint subsidence capped by hummocks that may yet hide the stumps of long-broken sandstone markers.
On the “newer,” mid-1850’s stones, the names are those that haunt the pages of early Union Township and Licking County history: Park, Wells, Holmes, Hughes, Kirkendall. A history book of sorts lay open all around.
[ital]“Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest, they rest from their labors.”[/end ital]
In marking Labor Day, as we work ourselves into and out of this interval, stop and stroll through a cemetery, and mark the names and imagine the work, the labor, that built this land of farms and churches and mills and schools. On Hebron’s east edge, at Kirkersville, north of Jacksontown, out by Fairmount, our story is there to be told. Listen closely for it, and you will hear a few pages rustle.
Or if you just have to work some on Labor Day, then shift gears; don’t do your usual chores. . .you could bake bread!
A number of you have asked for my sister’s Indiana State Fair winning recipe for bread, and here it is as she sent it to me, waiting the birth of my first nephew in New Mexico:
Challah Bread
2 pkg. yeast
2 C. warm water
1/2 C. sugar
4 tsp. salt
3 eggs beaten
1 1/4 C. oil
7 C. flour
1 egg
small amt. oil
poppy seeds
Dissolve yeast in water in bowl. Add next 5 ingredients gradually, mixing
well after each addition. Knead on floured surface until smooth and
elastic. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease surface. Let rise until
doubled in bulk. Roll into six 18-inch ropes on floured surface. Braid
into 2 loaves on greased baking sheets. Let rise for 1/2 hour or until
doubled in bulk. Brush loaves with mixture of egg and oil. Sprinkle with
poppy seeds. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
P.S. Brian (our brother) and I used to throw the dough back and forth during that
kneading stage--we found it really helped :-)
If you just gotta work, have fun with it, right? Either way, may you find rest for heart, mind, or body (ideally, all three!) this weekend.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and an occasional baker of Irish Soda Bread; if you have recipes to share or news of local interest, e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
by Jeff Gill
[ital]“Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden. . .”[/end ital]
Labor Day is come, and may be gone when many of you read this, worn out from the Sweet Corn Festival or the Buckeye home opener, or a Lakewood Band appearance at OU in Athens (Ohio, not the Olympic one), or hacking down the last wild growth of the summer in advance of autumn’s brown snags and snarls.
We need rest, but early September around the Hebron Crossroads isn’t the time to get it. The Hebron Parent-Teacher Organization fall fundraiser catalogues are out and about; if you see the delighted snowman on a blue cover, know that your purchases help elementary kids for Buckeye Lake, Hebron, and surrounding township areas get field trips, added reading and math enrichment, and other supplies not in the very basic Lakewood schools budget. (And Jackson Elementary, when you do yours, make sure to let me know and I promise to promote y’all, too!)
Final day to turn in for kids and parents is at school, Friday Sept. 10, with orders arriving the week of October 4. We hope to have most of our fundraising needs met through this and the Memorial Day weekend Crossroads Festival, so the rest of the year PTO can help support the staff and teachers in education and involvement.
Any family member of a student at Hebron Elementary is welcome to drop by our first meeting this school year on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 7:00 pm in the art room around back.
With so much work to do, just done, and going on the weekend of Sept. 11, our “Respond To the Call” service project was hobbled this year by Patriots Day falling on a Saturday. Weddings and fall activities (and the Marshall game in Columbus…sigh) tie up most of our Hebron area co-ordinators, so anyone looking for a chance to do some public service is asked to report that day to Ryan Park in Buckeye Lake, where a day-long project is going on to fix and maintain that park, where many of our Hebron Elementary youth play.
How ‘bout those “Effective” ratings for Lakewood Schools? Our building count is up, more new students, and we are continuing to improve our community wide support of education.
Anyone who says that “Excellent” is out of reach for Lakewood isn’t paying attention: that’s exactly where we’re heading.
One of the effectively excellent things our local students have done is build a display case for the lobby of the municipal complex. The Hebron Historical Society has put a marvelous arrangement of objects with informational cards in the case, telling our story from 1827 to today.
Garrett Boysen, Robert Cundiff, and Earl Kissell may think they’re too old to be a part of history, but they are now. Larry Prater may not think of himself as a history teacher, but that’s what he is as we thank them all for their work. Stop by and look at it and the original plat map, framed next to it, carefully copied and enlarged with some loving work from Dave Morrow and Linda Nicodemus (and they tell me they aren’t done yet).
A few weeks ago, I was walking around in the middle of some of our local history. Right in the heart of Union Township, in a spot carefully hidden right out in the open (and that’s all I’ve got to say about that), is a cemetery that was used from the 1820’s to about the end of the Civil War in 1865.
From my eye, used to casting about across the surface of old historic cemeteries, it seems that the plot allocated for burials filled, and for whatever reasons was closed down. The dates I have are from the stones still visible, of which there are few; many more are horizontal and submerged almost entirely in sod. The remaining space has the lumpiness of old wooden casket burials, with their faint subsidence capped by hummocks that may yet hide the stumps of long-broken sandstone markers.
On the “newer,” mid-1850’s stones, the names are those that haunt the pages of early Union Township and Licking County history: Park, Wells, Holmes, Hughes, Kirkendall. A history book of sorts lay open all around.
[ital]“Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest, they rest from their labors.”[/end ital]
In marking Labor Day, as we work ourselves into and out of this interval, stop and stroll through a cemetery, and mark the names and imagine the work, the labor, that built this land of farms and churches and mills and schools. On Hebron’s east edge, at Kirkersville, north of Jacksontown, out by Fairmount, our story is there to be told. Listen closely for it, and you will hear a few pages rustle.
Or if you just have to work some on Labor Day, then shift gears; don’t do your usual chores. . .you could bake bread!
A number of you have asked for my sister’s Indiana State Fair winning recipe for bread, and here it is as she sent it to me, waiting the birth of my first nephew in New Mexico:
Challah Bread
2 pkg. yeast
2 C. warm water
1/2 C. sugar
4 tsp. salt
3 eggs beaten
1 1/4 C. oil
7 C. flour
1 egg
small amt. oil
poppy seeds
Dissolve yeast in water in bowl. Add next 5 ingredients gradually, mixing
well after each addition. Knead on floured surface until smooth and
elastic. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease surface. Let rise until
doubled in bulk. Roll into six 18-inch ropes on floured surface. Braid
into 2 loaves on greased baking sheets. Let rise for 1/2 hour or until
doubled in bulk. Brush loaves with mixture of egg and oil. Sprinkle with
poppy seeds. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
P.S. Brian (our brother) and I used to throw the dough back and forth during that
kneading stage--we found it really helped :-)
If you just gotta work, have fun with it, right? Either way, may you find rest for heart, mind, or body (ideally, all three!) this weekend.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and an occasional baker of Irish Soda Bread; if you have recipes to share or news of local interest, e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 8-29-04
by Jeff Gill
Across the mown field behind Hebron Elementary a few evenings ago, the air was filled with motion. Insects, caught in the slanting light, swam thicker than dust motes in a haymow, an ocean of life suspended above the ground.
With the end of August, the burden of life weighs heavy across treelines and meadows, an overproduction of vine and stem and blossom that now sways low. Green no longer glows brightly, but the swelling tomatoes grow ever redder, and on curling vines some expectant pumpkins along alleys and in nearby fields fill with orange across the once-sickly white towards the stems.
Harvest time is coming, and a day to rest from our labors before then. Labor Day weekend means this week opens the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival (look for the Hebron Crossroads to relocate into Heritage Village near the bandstand!), the 25 year anniversary of the Lakewood Band Boosters Donut Booth, and Buckeye Lake Youth Association waffle cakes . . . plus many other culinary delights.
Corn may be available, too. And every other entrée and side dish your cardiologist warned you about; just park a really long way aways (like in Hebron?) and walk enough so you can eat a bit of everything!
The Hebron Lions join their Laker Lion colleagues with their fry booth, but without Mr. Potato Head himself, Verne Griffith, who took his last pass down National Trail Raceways in a suspiciously “Goldenrod” hued casket recently.
His passing, and the death of Barbara Pierce last week, leave Hebron and Jacksontown respectively poorer, and this column a bit sadder than I’d originally intended, but both gave a gallant meaning to “passing on,” dying after hard struggles with cancer that did not take away their love and good spirits they each tried to maintain for family and friends who gathered around them through the end.
A salute to the staff and volunteers of Hospice of Licking County, who made it possible for Verne to die at home and Barbara to at least be back closer to home at Licking Memorial.
If you want to add to a fitting memorial for Barbara Pierce, make sure to sign and keep with your driver’s license (or have placed on your next license) an organ donor card. The last five years were all gift for Homer & Eileen thanks to someone who did this, and made it possible for Barbara to enjoy a few more years of life and love.
Or if you’ve already done so, you can come by the Hebron municipal complex and give blood Tuesday from 1 to 6 pm. Transplant surgery often requires many units, and sometimes rare blood types (which you may have!) or O- as the universal donor. These regular blood drives are a great way to give of yourself for others, particularly for those who have given so generously of their hearts, their spirits, and themselves for a richer community ‘round these crossroads.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and soon-to-be ten gallon blood donor (not all at once, though!); if you have news or information about community events, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
* * * * * * *
Entertaining Yourself at the 2004 Sweet Corn Fest
By Jeff Gill
Entertainment is not the first thing most folks think about when the subject of the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival comes up.
There’s food (like lots of sweet corn), there’s the midway filled with rides and games, and there’s the parade opening the whole shebang on Wednesday, Sept. 1 at 6:00 pm.
But the Main Stage area is at the center of the festival grounds in more ways than one. Even though the Lions’ Building and Heritage Village are important locations for navigating around the hundreds of food booths and dozens of rides and games, the sounds from the Main Stage are a landmark of their own, crossing all boundaries of the festival and of musical tastes as well.
Many already know that noted country music legend Porter Wagoner is the closing act of the whole festival on Saturday, Sept. 4 at 8:30 pm, but did you know that the Teays River Cloggers were performing Wednesday at 7:30 pm at the Hickory Grove bandstand? Were you aware that The Ragtime Strutters were roving the Festival Park grounds on Thursday? Or had you planned to catch Confederate Railroad on Friday at 9 pm at the Main Stage?
In fact, from high school brass bands to Razzamatazz & Jazz Thursday evening, almost every type and genre of music (and dancing!) you can imagine will be part of this 58th Sweet Corn Festival.
Gospel singers, bluegrass, Charles Slater playing his harmonica from a park bench: you name it, and the Millersport Lions have found a place for it (except maybe “Swan Lake,” but someone may be selling roast duck on a stick in the food booths, which is close, isn’t it?).
Most amazingly, all this entertainment is free ($5 for parking in the area); just walk into Festival Park and follow your ears. Neither the food nor the rides can match that for the family on a budget. You don’t have to buy a set of tickets or shell out anything much more than the time it takes to enjoy a concert or performance.
Beyond the musical performances from local groups and marquee acts, there are entertainments of a variety of sorts available through each evening, such as Ohio Nature Education’s display of live wild animals at the Covered Bridge Entertainment Area, the always interesting corn eating contests at Founder’s Commons Stage. The Hickory Grove Bandstand has a series of cloggers, country dancers, and square dancers right through all four days of the festival, and there are the roving entertainers throughout the grounds.
If you like racing, whether it’s a 5K race to cheer on the runners, an antique tractor pull, or even a Hula Hoop contest, something to see and be fascinated by is going on all the time. As to the Rolling Pin Throwing Contest, perhaps we should just say that men may want to find something else to watch on Friday night.
Porter Wagoner does represent a very exciting entertainment option Saturday; a fellow who once had Dolly Parton as a backup singer in his band and then was smart enough to make her his singing partner clearly has made quite a mark in country and pop music.
“The Green, Green Grass of Home” and “Just Someone I Used To Know” represent just a small part of the music he has made popular across America and around the world. The Sweet Corn Festival will close with everyone having a chance to sing along with some old favorites and hear some new music from this country music icon, whose proudest moment he says was to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
If nothing described here sounds entertaining, there is one more attraction to keep in mind. The Millersport Sweet Corn Festival has offered, since 1947, the very finest in . . . people-watching. You can spend hours and spend not a dime in this compelling, occasionally dramatic activity. Find a good spot to rest, and see the show.
Just remember, someone may be getting a charge out of watching you!
The Millersport Sweet Corn Festival is at Festival Park in Millersport OH at the end of Chautauqua Street west of Main (just follow the lines of cars!). The Millersport Ohio Lions Club has full information on their festival at www.sweetcornfest.com, or call 740-246-5680. Admission is free, with parking in most areas near the park at $5. The proceeds from this four-day community event are a major source of income for approximately eighty non-profit charitable organizations that participate from eight counties in the Central Ohio area. They operate all of the food & game concessions, whose profits go toward their administration and community projects.
* * * * * * *
Hebron Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)
For the fifth Sunday youth-led worship, Tracy Wildermuth will lead the call to worship, Mattie McCord will offer the invocation, Kalie McCord will share the offering meditation and blessing, and the presiders at the communion table will be Julie McNichols and Amy Brown. The scripture reading from Jeremiah will be from David Scheidegger, Whitney Mason will lead the children’s message, and Josh Halter will give the benediction.
The drama “Unpacking Church Camp” from Pastor Jeff is presented by Crystal Damron, Julie McNichols, Michael Scheidegger, Amy Brown, and Josh Halter, rehearsed by youth advisor Lisa McNichols. Serving through worship are Josh Walters, William Harris, Jessie McNichols, Katie Day, and others in the youth group.
For more info, call 928-4066 or click http://go.to/Hebron_Christian
* * * * * * *
Notes From My Knapsack – Sept. “The Church Window”
Hebron Christian Church
Barbara Pierce was a gift to our church, as well as to her parents Homer and Eileen. She lived out an example of good spirits in the face of challenge and hardship that few of us can ever live up to, but we’d be better off all of us to try.
Eileen remembered over and over during our last few days at the hospice unit in Licking Memorial (and this after many, many weeks in University Hospital) that these last five years have been “a gift,” and indeed they have. The liver transplant, fixing a problem created by one of the many previous surgeries to fix other problems she had throughout her too-short life, made a few of it’s own problems. . .but without it, as Barbara herself would remind me each year on her “second birthday,” she wouldn’t be here.
Just as Shirley Curran asked us to remember her brother on his death by making sure we have advance directives and a living will prepared for the sake of our families, we have a chance here to honor Barbara with a simple act we can do ourselves.
At license bureaus, village hall, the library, or any police or state police office, we can pick up and fill out a donor ID card, to slide behind our driver’s license, affirming that we support organ donation on the occasion of our death. As Christians, we all know that death comes for each of us, even as Jesus experienced death, but that was simply a way-station on the road to eternal life.
So we shouldn’t fear acknowledging that day, and making good use (good stewardship, even?) of what we leave behind physically through our instructions. We can tell those we love what our wishes are, too, so they will know what to decide when we have moved on.
My driver’s license has laminated right into it a logo that indicates my wishes, intentions that now carry the double meaning of also honoring Barbara Pierce’s fortitude and example. I hope yours will, too.
In Grace & Peace,
Pastor Jeff
* * * * * * *
Rally Day – Sept. 12
Outdoor Worship 10:30 am
Strawbale seating on the north yard
(bring lawn chairs if you wish)
All-church Picnic at Noon!
by Jeff Gill
Across the mown field behind Hebron Elementary a few evenings ago, the air was filled with motion. Insects, caught in the slanting light, swam thicker than dust motes in a haymow, an ocean of life suspended above the ground.
With the end of August, the burden of life weighs heavy across treelines and meadows, an overproduction of vine and stem and blossom that now sways low. Green no longer glows brightly, but the swelling tomatoes grow ever redder, and on curling vines some expectant pumpkins along alleys and in nearby fields fill with orange across the once-sickly white towards the stems.
Harvest time is coming, and a day to rest from our labors before then. Labor Day weekend means this week opens the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival (look for the Hebron Crossroads to relocate into Heritage Village near the bandstand!), the 25 year anniversary of the Lakewood Band Boosters Donut Booth, and Buckeye Lake Youth Association waffle cakes . . . plus many other culinary delights.
Corn may be available, too. And every other entrée and side dish your cardiologist warned you about; just park a really long way aways (like in Hebron?) and walk enough so you can eat a bit of everything!
The Hebron Lions join their Laker Lion colleagues with their fry booth, but without Mr. Potato Head himself, Verne Griffith, who took his last pass down National Trail Raceways in a suspiciously “Goldenrod” hued casket recently.
His passing, and the death of Barbara Pierce last week, leave Hebron and Jacksontown respectively poorer, and this column a bit sadder than I’d originally intended, but both gave a gallant meaning to “passing on,” dying after hard struggles with cancer that did not take away their love and good spirits they each tried to maintain for family and friends who gathered around them through the end.
A salute to the staff and volunteers of Hospice of Licking County, who made it possible for Verne to die at home and Barbara to at least be back closer to home at Licking Memorial.
If you want to add to a fitting memorial for Barbara Pierce, make sure to sign and keep with your driver’s license (or have placed on your next license) an organ donor card. The last five years were all gift for Homer & Eileen thanks to someone who did this, and made it possible for Barbara to enjoy a few more years of life and love.
Or if you’ve already done so, you can come by the Hebron municipal complex and give blood Tuesday from 1 to 6 pm. Transplant surgery often requires many units, and sometimes rare blood types (which you may have!) or O- as the universal donor. These regular blood drives are a great way to give of yourself for others, particularly for those who have given so generously of their hearts, their spirits, and themselves for a richer community ‘round these crossroads.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and soon-to-be ten gallon blood donor (not all at once, though!); if you have news or information about community events, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
* * * * * * *
Entertaining Yourself at the 2004 Sweet Corn Fest
By Jeff Gill
Entertainment is not the first thing most folks think about when the subject of the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival comes up.
There’s food (like lots of sweet corn), there’s the midway filled with rides and games, and there’s the parade opening the whole shebang on Wednesday, Sept. 1 at 6:00 pm.
But the Main Stage area is at the center of the festival grounds in more ways than one. Even though the Lions’ Building and Heritage Village are important locations for navigating around the hundreds of food booths and dozens of rides and games, the sounds from the Main Stage are a landmark of their own, crossing all boundaries of the festival and of musical tastes as well.
Many already know that noted country music legend Porter Wagoner is the closing act of the whole festival on Saturday, Sept. 4 at 8:30 pm, but did you know that the Teays River Cloggers were performing Wednesday at 7:30 pm at the Hickory Grove bandstand? Were you aware that The Ragtime Strutters were roving the Festival Park grounds on Thursday? Or had you planned to catch Confederate Railroad on Friday at 9 pm at the Main Stage?
In fact, from high school brass bands to Razzamatazz & Jazz Thursday evening, almost every type and genre of music (and dancing!) you can imagine will be part of this 58th Sweet Corn Festival.
Gospel singers, bluegrass, Charles Slater playing his harmonica from a park bench: you name it, and the Millersport Lions have found a place for it (except maybe “Swan Lake,” but someone may be selling roast duck on a stick in the food booths, which is close, isn’t it?).
Most amazingly, all this entertainment is free ($5 for parking in the area); just walk into Festival Park and follow your ears. Neither the food nor the rides can match that for the family on a budget. You don’t have to buy a set of tickets or shell out anything much more than the time it takes to enjoy a concert or performance.
Beyond the musical performances from local groups and marquee acts, there are entertainments of a variety of sorts available through each evening, such as Ohio Nature Education’s display of live wild animals at the Covered Bridge Entertainment Area, the always interesting corn eating contests at Founder’s Commons Stage. The Hickory Grove Bandstand has a series of cloggers, country dancers, and square dancers right through all four days of the festival, and there are the roving entertainers throughout the grounds.
If you like racing, whether it’s a 5K race to cheer on the runners, an antique tractor pull, or even a Hula Hoop contest, something to see and be fascinated by is going on all the time. As to the Rolling Pin Throwing Contest, perhaps we should just say that men may want to find something else to watch on Friday night.
Porter Wagoner does represent a very exciting entertainment option Saturday; a fellow who once had Dolly Parton as a backup singer in his band and then was smart enough to make her his singing partner clearly has made quite a mark in country and pop music.
“The Green, Green Grass of Home” and “Just Someone I Used To Know” represent just a small part of the music he has made popular across America and around the world. The Sweet Corn Festival will close with everyone having a chance to sing along with some old favorites and hear some new music from this country music icon, whose proudest moment he says was to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
If nothing described here sounds entertaining, there is one more attraction to keep in mind. The Millersport Sweet Corn Festival has offered, since 1947, the very finest in . . . people-watching. You can spend hours and spend not a dime in this compelling, occasionally dramatic activity. Find a good spot to rest, and see the show.
Just remember, someone may be getting a charge out of watching you!
The Millersport Sweet Corn Festival is at Festival Park in Millersport OH at the end of Chautauqua Street west of Main (just follow the lines of cars!). The Millersport Ohio Lions Club has full information on their festival at www.sweetcornfest.com, or call 740-246-5680. Admission is free, with parking in most areas near the park at $5. The proceeds from this four-day community event are a major source of income for approximately eighty non-profit charitable organizations that participate from eight counties in the Central Ohio area. They operate all of the food & game concessions, whose profits go toward their administration and community projects.
* * * * * * *
Hebron Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)
For the fifth Sunday youth-led worship, Tracy Wildermuth will lead the call to worship, Mattie McCord will offer the invocation, Kalie McCord will share the offering meditation and blessing, and the presiders at the communion table will be Julie McNichols and Amy Brown. The scripture reading from Jeremiah will be from David Scheidegger, Whitney Mason will lead the children’s message, and Josh Halter will give the benediction.
The drama “Unpacking Church Camp” from Pastor Jeff is presented by Crystal Damron, Julie McNichols, Michael Scheidegger, Amy Brown, and Josh Halter, rehearsed by youth advisor Lisa McNichols. Serving through worship are Josh Walters, William Harris, Jessie McNichols, Katie Day, and others in the youth group.
For more info, call 928-4066 or click http://go.to/Hebron_Christian
* * * * * * *
Notes From My Knapsack – Sept. “The Church Window”
Hebron Christian Church
Barbara Pierce was a gift to our church, as well as to her parents Homer and Eileen. She lived out an example of good spirits in the face of challenge and hardship that few of us can ever live up to, but we’d be better off all of us to try.
Eileen remembered over and over during our last few days at the hospice unit in Licking Memorial (and this after many, many weeks in University Hospital) that these last five years have been “a gift,” and indeed they have. The liver transplant, fixing a problem created by one of the many previous surgeries to fix other problems she had throughout her too-short life, made a few of it’s own problems. . .but without it, as Barbara herself would remind me each year on her “second birthday,” she wouldn’t be here.
Just as Shirley Curran asked us to remember her brother on his death by making sure we have advance directives and a living will prepared for the sake of our families, we have a chance here to honor Barbara with a simple act we can do ourselves.
At license bureaus, village hall, the library, or any police or state police office, we can pick up and fill out a donor ID card, to slide behind our driver’s license, affirming that we support organ donation on the occasion of our death. As Christians, we all know that death comes for each of us, even as Jesus experienced death, but that was simply a way-station on the road to eternal life.
So we shouldn’t fear acknowledging that day, and making good use (good stewardship, even?) of what we leave behind physically through our instructions. We can tell those we love what our wishes are, too, so they will know what to decide when we have moved on.
My driver’s license has laminated right into it a logo that indicates my wishes, intentions that now carry the double meaning of also honoring Barbara Pierce’s fortitude and example. I hope yours will, too.
In Grace & Peace,
Pastor Jeff
* * * * * * *
Rally Day – Sept. 12
Outdoor Worship 10:30 am
Strawbale seating on the north yard
(bring lawn chairs if you wish)
All-church Picnic at Noon!
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 8-22-04
By Jeff Gill
Zooooom. . .
That rush of wind was the summer passing us by; from late spring to early autumn, there was an interval of but a few weeks we could call the summertime.
Monday, Aug. 23, Lakewood schools and most of our surrounding districts start classes. Devotees of St. Murphy are sure that we’ll get our long overdue warm spell with heat and humidity when our kindergarten through third graders are safely ensconced within the un-airconditioned walls of Hebron Elementary.
We will see; they took shorts and t-shirts to band camp at Marengo and put out an emergency call for blankets and sweatshirts the first day, so anything can happen.
I’m going to stall a bit on sharing Hartford Fair results ‘til I’m sure I’ve got everyone I can from around the Hebron Crossroads. Prime Producers and Kith-and-Kin got ribbons for their delightful booth displays, and many local faces were seen around the show rings and barns. More to come. . .
Monday evening on Aug. 23, after school has truly begun, there will be a chance to give our whole community an education, as a dedication is scheduled for the Hebron Historical Society display cases in the lobby of the Municipal Complex, starting at 7:00 pm.
That lobby and the council chamber will host the village Blood Drive, coming ‘round again Tues., Aug. 31 from 1 to 6 pm. The end of summer sees the shelves of central Ohio blood banks pretty bare, with few wanting to stop and donate blood during these vacation-heavy months. If you are fit and healthy, come help your fellow man. . .actually, a fellow man, woman, and child, since each unit often helps as many as three people once processed. We tend to get around thirty donors, which adds up to nearly a hundred humans helped by this simple act.
Y’know, with all the pre-first-day-o’-school preparations (and without fair results), there’s not going to be much more to this column, so let me sign off with this observation from my hometown county fair (and yes, as has been asked, I’m trying to get my sister’s challa bread recipe to print here soon, too).
The Porter County (Indiana) Fair had, along with the 4-H displays and barns, the midway and the rides, some interesting attractions including a sea lion show four times a day, alternating with an elephant performing.
If you walked around behind the elephant enclosure and saw the portable stabling arrangement (not your standard horse trailer), there was a large sign against the back wall in sharply contrasting black and yellow, standing above a rack of very large shovels and rakes.
It read, “Manure Happens!”
Ah, show business.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and a big fan of show business at all ends; if you have glamorous news to share from the stockbarn or swinepens, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
Zooooom. . .
That rush of wind was the summer passing us by; from late spring to early autumn, there was an interval of but a few weeks we could call the summertime.
Monday, Aug. 23, Lakewood schools and most of our surrounding districts start classes. Devotees of St. Murphy are sure that we’ll get our long overdue warm spell with heat and humidity when our kindergarten through third graders are safely ensconced within the un-airconditioned walls of Hebron Elementary.
We will see; they took shorts and t-shirts to band camp at Marengo and put out an emergency call for blankets and sweatshirts the first day, so anything can happen.
I’m going to stall a bit on sharing Hartford Fair results ‘til I’m sure I’ve got everyone I can from around the Hebron Crossroads. Prime Producers and Kith-and-Kin got ribbons for their delightful booth displays, and many local faces were seen around the show rings and barns. More to come. . .
Monday evening on Aug. 23, after school has truly begun, there will be a chance to give our whole community an education, as a dedication is scheduled for the Hebron Historical Society display cases in the lobby of the Municipal Complex, starting at 7:00 pm.
That lobby and the council chamber will host the village Blood Drive, coming ‘round again Tues., Aug. 31 from 1 to 6 pm. The end of summer sees the shelves of central Ohio blood banks pretty bare, with few wanting to stop and donate blood during these vacation-heavy months. If you are fit and healthy, come help your fellow man. . .actually, a fellow man, woman, and child, since each unit often helps as many as three people once processed. We tend to get around thirty donors, which adds up to nearly a hundred humans helped by this simple act.
Y’know, with all the pre-first-day-o’-school preparations (and without fair results), there’s not going to be much more to this column, so let me sign off with this observation from my hometown county fair (and yes, as has been asked, I’m trying to get my sister’s challa bread recipe to print here soon, too).
The Porter County (Indiana) Fair had, along with the 4-H displays and barns, the midway and the rides, some interesting attractions including a sea lion show four times a day, alternating with an elephant performing.
If you walked around behind the elephant enclosure and saw the portable stabling arrangement (not your standard horse trailer), there was a large sign against the back wall in sharply contrasting black and yellow, standing above a rack of very large shovels and rakes.
It read, “Manure Happens!”
Ah, show business.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and a big fan of show business at all ends; if you have glamorous news to share from the stockbarn or swinepens, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 8-15-04
By Jeff Gill
If you see this before Saturday afternoon, Aug. 14, an opening note to lay this paper down where you can find it later, and run down to Hebron United Methodist Church on E. Main between 4:30 and 7 for their Ice Cream Social.
They’ll have the usual array of tasty food, ice cream, and a chance to meet Rev. Penny Drenton, their new pastor. Go ahead, I’ll be here when you get back. (Rustle of newsprint, slam of door.)
***
(Click of door opening, creak of sofa.) All right, now that you’re well fed, let’s talk about the home of fine dining on a stick, the Hartford Fair! Not only fine fair food, but plenty of great weather, a marvelous set of 4-H booths and projects on display (yes, those were plastic water bottles transformed into tropical fish!), and a whole herd – really – of animals shown from around the Hebron Crossroads.
Special congrats to David Cable, Junior Fair Board member from Hebron who got to go to the State Fair after winning the Tractor Rodeo. This is all the more special as his grandfather, John Slater, won the same event at the same age, making it a few years back in Hartford history.
This is one of the delights of the Biggest Little Fair In The World since 1858: family history and continuity and tradition. Like our tradition of getting sick on elephant ears, part of our Gill family heritage. Some families just have a bit more to be proud of, that’s all.
Kindergarten Orientation and Open House at Hebron Elementary is this Thursday, Aug. 19 at 6 pm. Dr. Jeff Geist, our building principal, and members of the kindergarten teaching staff will be in the gymnasium for the opening and in the classrooms to meet parents, grandparents, and guardians with their new school-age charges, as they charge (gently) around the building.
Your friendly neighborhood columnist will be there, disguised as this year’s PTO president, with a few words to share about a new year for our whole building, K through Third Grade, and about our Fall fundraiser which will start in less than two weeks, with a student rally on Friday, Aug. 27. Let’s get it done, and focus on education and improvement through the year with the help of your purchases.
Do you think you’ll hear a bit more the next few weeks about the Hebron PTO fundraiser? As they say in Minnesota, “Yah, youbetcha.”
Back to school for all is Monday, Aug. 23; note the bus stops and the kids waiting in the still well lit dawn, plus the high corn (shoot, the high soybeans!) around the rural intersections. Those big yellow buses will be a’rollin’ hyar soon, and remember to “Stop” when the little red octagon swings out from the side.
Amazing how many people seem vague on what that’s about. Feel free to write down license numbers and share them with your local law enforcement: they’d be happy to help deliver a reminder to those confused drivers.
Many, many little start o’ the school year details to tend to, and little of note to share with y’all at the moment, so I’ll close with this note about health and fitness.
No, not stay off of scooters. But wear your helmet and elbowpads, right?
Seriously, with the end of summer vacation and the start of school, the new schedule is a critical time for kids to make activity a part of their afterschool plan. Others (read: teachers) will tell you more effectively and with stronger incentives than I have just how important doing your homework is when you get home. Let me add a plug for “motion,” a bit before you sit down to study and more after.
With hours of chair piloting behind your child when they get home from a school day, slumping into a seat at home just helps push the Numb Button for the brain as much as the gluteus maximus. Get outside while the days still have an evening and warmth, and get your blood pumping. Pull some weeds (don’t tell me you haven’t any), ride a bike (no scooters? Well…), play hopscotch – whatever. Just move!
And after homework time is done, whether it’s getting the stack of engine blocks moved out of the garage to the shed out back or sitting in the driveway playing jacks, don’t plug your cerebrum into the tube right away. Time enough in the chill darkness of winter to soak up the latest pop culture by passively absorbing flickering images while slumping your spine before the shrine of silliness.
This applies to child, adult, or senior alike. If the late summer/early fall pattern is set with sitting and soaking up TV on returning home, you’ll surely do little else in the dim winter days, either. Start now molding a day around the school schedule with some motion (push-ups, playing catch, chasing fireflies) and the momentum might just carry you into next spring with your pants still fitting. . .unless you’ve grown five inches taller.
So I’ll stop here to go shop for new school clothes for the Little Guy, who seems to have done just that.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and Hebron PTO president this year (for his sins); if you have news of the upcoming Sweet Corn Festival to share or other notes to pass along, e-mail him at disciple@voyager.net, or call 928-4066.
By Jeff Gill
If you see this before Saturday afternoon, Aug. 14, an opening note to lay this paper down where you can find it later, and run down to Hebron United Methodist Church on E. Main between 4:30 and 7 for their Ice Cream Social.
They’ll have the usual array of tasty food, ice cream, and a chance to meet Rev. Penny Drenton, their new pastor. Go ahead, I’ll be here when you get back. (Rustle of newsprint, slam of door.)
***
(Click of door opening, creak of sofa.) All right, now that you’re well fed, let’s talk about the home of fine dining on a stick, the Hartford Fair! Not only fine fair food, but plenty of great weather, a marvelous set of 4-H booths and projects on display (yes, those were plastic water bottles transformed into tropical fish!), and a whole herd – really – of animals shown from around the Hebron Crossroads.
Special congrats to David Cable, Junior Fair Board member from Hebron who got to go to the State Fair after winning the Tractor Rodeo. This is all the more special as his grandfather, John Slater, won the same event at the same age, making it a few years back in Hartford history.
This is one of the delights of the Biggest Little Fair In The World since 1858: family history and continuity and tradition. Like our tradition of getting sick on elephant ears, part of our Gill family heritage. Some families just have a bit more to be proud of, that’s all.
Kindergarten Orientation and Open House at Hebron Elementary is this Thursday, Aug. 19 at 6 pm. Dr. Jeff Geist, our building principal, and members of the kindergarten teaching staff will be in the gymnasium for the opening and in the classrooms to meet parents, grandparents, and guardians with their new school-age charges, as they charge (gently) around the building.
Your friendly neighborhood columnist will be there, disguised as this year’s PTO president, with a few words to share about a new year for our whole building, K through Third Grade, and about our Fall fundraiser which will start in less than two weeks, with a student rally on Friday, Aug. 27. Let’s get it done, and focus on education and improvement through the year with the help of your purchases.
Do you think you’ll hear a bit more the next few weeks about the Hebron PTO fundraiser? As they say in Minnesota, “Yah, youbetcha.”
Back to school for all is Monday, Aug. 23; note the bus stops and the kids waiting in the still well lit dawn, plus the high corn (shoot, the high soybeans!) around the rural intersections. Those big yellow buses will be a’rollin’ hyar soon, and remember to “Stop” when the little red octagon swings out from the side.
Amazing how many people seem vague on what that’s about. Feel free to write down license numbers and share them with your local law enforcement: they’d be happy to help deliver a reminder to those confused drivers.
Many, many little start o’ the school year details to tend to, and little of note to share with y’all at the moment, so I’ll close with this note about health and fitness.
No, not stay off of scooters. But wear your helmet and elbowpads, right?
Seriously, with the end of summer vacation and the start of school, the new schedule is a critical time for kids to make activity a part of their afterschool plan. Others (read: teachers) will tell you more effectively and with stronger incentives than I have just how important doing your homework is when you get home. Let me add a plug for “motion,” a bit before you sit down to study and more after.
With hours of chair piloting behind your child when they get home from a school day, slumping into a seat at home just helps push the Numb Button for the brain as much as the gluteus maximus. Get outside while the days still have an evening and warmth, and get your blood pumping. Pull some weeds (don’t tell me you haven’t any), ride a bike (no scooters? Well…), play hopscotch – whatever. Just move!
And after homework time is done, whether it’s getting the stack of engine blocks moved out of the garage to the shed out back or sitting in the driveway playing jacks, don’t plug your cerebrum into the tube right away. Time enough in the chill darkness of winter to soak up the latest pop culture by passively absorbing flickering images while slumping your spine before the shrine of silliness.
This applies to child, adult, or senior alike. If the late summer/early fall pattern is set with sitting and soaking up TV on returning home, you’ll surely do little else in the dim winter days, either. Start now molding a day around the school schedule with some motion (push-ups, playing catch, chasing fireflies) and the momentum might just carry you into next spring with your pants still fitting. . .unless you’ve grown five inches taller.
So I’ll stop here to go shop for new school clothes for the Little Guy, who seems to have done just that.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and Hebron PTO president this year (for his sins); if you have news of the upcoming Sweet Corn Festival to share or other notes to pass along, e-mail him at disciple@voyager.net, or call 928-4066.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
“The Scouter” – Simon Kenton Council Sept. 2004
Licking District Trailmarkers
From the last reports on School Night Round-Ups to the Fall Camporee/Apple Butter Days at Camp Falling Rock, there’s quite a bit to keep up with, so without any editorial blather, let’s start with:
Popcorn is Poppin’ Out All Over!
Oct. 1 to 28 is the Popcorn Sale window, but first are “Show & Deliver” sales from Sept. 20. If your unit didn’t get popcorn info at the Fall Program kickoff or Roundtable (first Tuesdays, 7:15 pm, Central Christian on Mt. Vernon Rd. in Newark!), call Mary Rose Lewis, our newest Popcorn Kernel with Tressa Kroll on the Popcorn Corps. Mary Rose can be reached at 345-1306 (home) or 345-4336 (work).
Pick-up for the “early” Show & Deliver sales is at the Alltel Building on Hopewell Drive (across from Park Lanes in Heath) Oct. 2 from 8 am to Noon. Unsold material – including broken cases this year! – can be returned Oct. 30 at Alltel from 9 to 11 am.
Orders for the Popcorn Sale in general need to be in by Oct. 28 (mark that date, Oct. 28!!), with pick-up Nov. 20 from 8 to Noon at – you guessed it! – Alltel, our good corporate partner. Bring checks to that location, dated to Dec. 6, to receive your unit’s order.
* * * * * * *
Fall Round-Ups and School Nights
Most of you will see this after the bulk of Cub Scout registrations for the new program year are turned in; Sept. 20 is the date Bill Acklin, our Membership Chairman, and Tim Bubb, School Night Chairman, would like to have all results for units, especially Cub Packs.
Many Boy Scout units have an open house early in the school year, along with Venture Crews (Randy Crothers will be working with those 14 to 21 year old young men and women this year as they continue to grow across Licking County). Whatever your branch of Scouting, if you have new Fall registrations, we need to get them on Scouting rolls, with insurance, and receiving great membership bonuses like . . . this newspaper!
Call Bill at 344-1502 if you have results yet to report on getting “The Scouter.”
* * * * * * *
From the Commish:
October 5 Roundtable will be devoted to Charter Renewal Training. Hopefully we’ll have all the information about the “new” on-line recharter process. I and my commissioners will be there “in force” to answer your questions. See you there.
Yours In Scouting, Mike Deeslie
* * * * * * *
Boy Scout Leader Basic Training
If you have Boy Scout new leaders, or leaders needing training, contact Mike as noted above, or Jim Francis at 366-7677 about “BSLBT” (however you pronounce it).
Dates are held on Sept. 11 & 12, and the full weekend with outdoor experience Oct. 8, 9, & 10.
* * * * * * *
Fall Camporee – Apple Butter Days
Nov. 5-7 is our Fall Camporee weekend, where with your registrations turned in, your popcorn sold, and your leaders trained, you and your Scouts can come and enjoy the real heart of Scouting, which is “Outing” out at Camp Falling Rock.
Saturday, Nov. 6 will offer a number of special Cub activities, and Friday through Sunday is open to Scouts and Venturers. Mike Dalton will be in touch as the District Activities Committee continues to offer great experiences for your unit program.
* * * * * * *
Down the Trail -- A Closing Word
Some recent publications I had threatened to discuss in this space two months ago (July/August) will wait, as we have so much of immediate interest to share. But a note from the Round-Up Training: Bill Acklin and Trevor Gamble, our District Chairman, reminded all of us that, of youth eligible in Licking County for Cub Scouting, 1 in 5 or 20% are registered. Their goal this year is to get our “density” figure up to 1 in 4, or 25%.
Right along with that, may I offer that to reach that goal, we need to get as close as we can to 100% of eligible youth getting an invitation to a Scouting unit. We’ll never see anything close to 100% density, but each young person in Licking County deserves to hear about the opportunity to learn and grow through outdoor education, leadership development, and values training in the Scouting program.
Ask your local fast food joint to put on their sign for a week the date of your local “Round-Up,” send your info to your local correspondent in those free weeklies around the county, put up a sign in your place of worship or service group’s hall, and make sure to invite a child on your street and their parents to try out Scouting for themselves.
The personal invitation, in the end, is the one that matters the most.
And I invite you to share your Scouting news with me at disciple@voyager.net, or call 928-4066 and leave your info or call back contact numbers.
Jeff Gill, District PR guy and Chaplain
Licking District Trailmarkers
From the last reports on School Night Round-Ups to the Fall Camporee/Apple Butter Days at Camp Falling Rock, there’s quite a bit to keep up with, so without any editorial blather, let’s start with:
Popcorn is Poppin’ Out All Over!
Oct. 1 to 28 is the Popcorn Sale window, but first are “Show & Deliver” sales from Sept. 20. If your unit didn’t get popcorn info at the Fall Program kickoff or Roundtable (first Tuesdays, 7:15 pm, Central Christian on Mt. Vernon Rd. in Newark!), call Mary Rose Lewis, our newest Popcorn Kernel with Tressa Kroll on the Popcorn Corps. Mary Rose can be reached at 345-1306 (home) or 345-4336 (work).
Pick-up for the “early” Show & Deliver sales is at the Alltel Building on Hopewell Drive (across from Park Lanes in Heath) Oct. 2 from 8 am to Noon. Unsold material – including broken cases this year! – can be returned Oct. 30 at Alltel from 9 to 11 am.
Orders for the Popcorn Sale in general need to be in by Oct. 28 (mark that date, Oct. 28!!), with pick-up Nov. 20 from 8 to Noon at – you guessed it! – Alltel, our good corporate partner. Bring checks to that location, dated to Dec. 6, to receive your unit’s order.
* * * * * * *
Fall Round-Ups and School Nights
Most of you will see this after the bulk of Cub Scout registrations for the new program year are turned in; Sept. 20 is the date Bill Acklin, our Membership Chairman, and Tim Bubb, School Night Chairman, would like to have all results for units, especially Cub Packs.
Many Boy Scout units have an open house early in the school year, along with Venture Crews (Randy Crothers will be working with those 14 to 21 year old young men and women this year as they continue to grow across Licking County). Whatever your branch of Scouting, if you have new Fall registrations, we need to get them on Scouting rolls, with insurance, and receiving great membership bonuses like . . . this newspaper!
Call Bill at 344-1502 if you have results yet to report on getting “The Scouter.”
* * * * * * *
From the Commish:
October 5 Roundtable will be devoted to Charter Renewal Training. Hopefully we’ll have all the information about the “new” on-line recharter process. I and my commissioners will be there “in force” to answer your questions. See you there.
Yours In Scouting, Mike Deeslie
* * * * * * *
Boy Scout Leader Basic Training
If you have Boy Scout new leaders, or leaders needing training, contact Mike as noted above, or Jim Francis at 366-7677 about “BSLBT” (however you pronounce it).
Dates are held on Sept. 11 & 12, and the full weekend with outdoor experience Oct. 8, 9, & 10.
* * * * * * *
Fall Camporee – Apple Butter Days
Nov. 5-7 is our Fall Camporee weekend, where with your registrations turned in, your popcorn sold, and your leaders trained, you and your Scouts can come and enjoy the real heart of Scouting, which is “Outing” out at Camp Falling Rock.
Saturday, Nov. 6 will offer a number of special Cub activities, and Friday through Sunday is open to Scouts and Venturers. Mike Dalton will be in touch as the District Activities Committee continues to offer great experiences for your unit program.
* * * * * * *
Down the Trail -- A Closing Word
Some recent publications I had threatened to discuss in this space two months ago (July/August) will wait, as we have so much of immediate interest to share. But a note from the Round-Up Training: Bill Acklin and Trevor Gamble, our District Chairman, reminded all of us that, of youth eligible in Licking County for Cub Scouting, 1 in 5 or 20% are registered. Their goal this year is to get our “density” figure up to 1 in 4, or 25%.
Right along with that, may I offer that to reach that goal, we need to get as close as we can to 100% of eligible youth getting an invitation to a Scouting unit. We’ll never see anything close to 100% density, but each young person in Licking County deserves to hear about the opportunity to learn and grow through outdoor education, leadership development, and values training in the Scouting program.
Ask your local fast food joint to put on their sign for a week the date of your local “Round-Up,” send your info to your local correspondent in those free weeklies around the county, put up a sign in your place of worship or service group’s hall, and make sure to invite a child on your street and their parents to try out Scouting for themselves.
The personal invitation, in the end, is the one that matters the most.
And I invite you to share your Scouting news with me at disciple@voyager.net, or call 928-4066 and leave your info or call back contact numbers.
Jeff Gill, District PR guy and Chaplain
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 8-08-04
by Jeff Gill
Hartford Fair -- you think of sunny skies, sudden downpours, stock barns and amusement tents, midway rides and demolition derbies.
OK, and from the Hebron Crossroads area, you think of a long, long drive, farther than it would take to get to the Ohio State Fair. But Licking County is the second largest land-area county in the state, so what do you expect?
Through next Saturday, out past Croton north of Johnstown, this "Independent" Fair, not a county fair, will host our county 4-H displays (including this area's Prime Producers booth), county entries in quilting, gardening, and pie baking. But don't call it a county fair! County champions in swine, beef, and equestrian competition will be declared: since parts of Knox and Delaware Counties participate, don't call it a county fair. This is the Hartford Fair, bub, and don't you forget it. And a proud tradition it is, too.
Last week the family was on vacation, and we got to spend a day at my own childhood county fair, the Porter County (Indiana) Fair, their 154th edition. This is one big honkin' county fair, larger than many state fairs (we were always told), with sights to see like 20 "farm scene" entries in the 4-H barn.
For all the kids entering projects from 4-H in fair judging, i can't help but mention my sister Debbie. For four years she entered a dress and a food item in the county fair, winning a "participated ribbon."
Then she won not only the county "Grand Champion" awards, but went on to the Indiana State Fair, gaining both a "Reserve Grand Champion" for her challa bread but a "Grand Champion" for the outfit she handmade.
This is cool enough for a high school kid, but my real point is that she then went on to get a PhD in apparel merchandising and interior design, became a college professor, and travelled with her work on fabric and fashion to New York, Paris, and Milan, not to mention Nazca, Peru to evaluate ancient Inca textiles from the Andes.
All because she kept on entering the county fair with her 4-H projects. From dusty fairgrounds to exotic mountaintops: it can happen, trust me! I've seen it with my own eyes.
Speaking of watching the skies, if not the mountaintops (Sunset Hill west of Hebron doesn't count), the night of August 11 & 12 offers the Perseid meteor shower. These nighttime streaks of blazing light are the last hurrahs of dust from Comet Swift-Tuttle, a regular visitor to our heavens, peeled off that ice ball around 1862, now burning up in Earth's atmosphere.
Early in the evening of Aug. 11 to the east and after 2 am the morning of Aug. 12 more to the west you should see 40 or more meteors per hour, with a few less most of the evenings leading up to those nights and just after.
Fanning out of the constellation Perseus (hence the Perseids), these dashes of light in the darkness show how the cosmos and this planet continue to trade material and influence through the long ages. Go out Wednesday night, lay out a sleeping bag to the northeast, and lie down with your head to the southwest. If you can trace the course of the Milky Way, you'll see the main track the Perseids will follow.
Hebron Christian Church is pleased to welcome the Land of Legend Barbershop Chorus, directed by John Tegtmeyer, to their worship Aug. 15 at 10:30 am. You may well have heard them already, as these men travel all over Licking County during the summers, sharing the gift of their music with congregations in communities large and small. Good to have you all in Hebron, thanks to Kent Herreman!
All of us pray that there are no further terrorist attacks in the US, and many suspect that the next one is inevitable nonetheless. With a recent increased level of alert in the financial district of New York City, i'm reminded of the remarkable monument on the very steps of the New York Stock Exchange, right under the gaze of George Washington's statue across the way marking the first inauguration of a US president.
"The Ohio Company," a stock venture organized by a Cutler, one of the families ancestral to the Dawes clan just up Route 13, is remembered where 212 years ago a group of stockbrokers began yelling at each other with strange hand motions. The hand motions are now computer trades, and the yelling is often into wireless headsets, but that marker recalls a day only recently past when the fate of adventurers and tracts of wilderness were settled by a simple exchange of stock.
May the New York Stock Exchange continue on uninterrupted, and may the carving honoring "The Ohio Company" stand unmarred for many years to come.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church, and owner of no stock himself; if you have tips on buggy-whip futures or swampland in the Sahara, or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
by Jeff Gill
Hartford Fair -- you think of sunny skies, sudden downpours, stock barns and amusement tents, midway rides and demolition derbies.
OK, and from the Hebron Crossroads area, you think of a long, long drive, farther than it would take to get to the Ohio State Fair. But Licking County is the second largest land-area county in the state, so what do you expect?
Through next Saturday, out past Croton north of Johnstown, this "Independent" Fair, not a county fair, will host our county 4-H displays (including this area's Prime Producers booth), county entries in quilting, gardening, and pie baking. But don't call it a county fair! County champions in swine, beef, and equestrian competition will be declared: since parts of Knox and Delaware Counties participate, don't call it a county fair. This is the Hartford Fair, bub, and don't you forget it. And a proud tradition it is, too.
Last week the family was on vacation, and we got to spend a day at my own childhood county fair, the Porter County (Indiana) Fair, their 154th edition. This is one big honkin' county fair, larger than many state fairs (we were always told), with sights to see like 20 "farm scene" entries in the 4-H barn.
For all the kids entering projects from 4-H in fair judging, i can't help but mention my sister Debbie. For four years she entered a dress and a food item in the county fair, winning a "participated ribbon."
Then she won not only the county "Grand Champion" awards, but went on to the Indiana State Fair, gaining both a "Reserve Grand Champion" for her challa bread but a "Grand Champion" for the outfit she handmade.
This is cool enough for a high school kid, but my real point is that she then went on to get a PhD in apparel merchandising and interior design, became a college professor, and travelled with her work on fabric and fashion to New York, Paris, and Milan, not to mention Nazca, Peru to evaluate ancient Inca textiles from the Andes.
All because she kept on entering the county fair with her 4-H projects. From dusty fairgrounds to exotic mountaintops: it can happen, trust me! I've seen it with my own eyes.
Speaking of watching the skies, if not the mountaintops (Sunset Hill west of Hebron doesn't count), the night of August 11 & 12 offers the Perseid meteor shower. These nighttime streaks of blazing light are the last hurrahs of dust from Comet Swift-Tuttle, a regular visitor to our heavens, peeled off that ice ball around 1862, now burning up in Earth's atmosphere.
Early in the evening of Aug. 11 to the east and after 2 am the morning of Aug. 12 more to the west you should see 40 or more meteors per hour, with a few less most of the evenings leading up to those nights and just after.
Fanning out of the constellation Perseus (hence the Perseids), these dashes of light in the darkness show how the cosmos and this planet continue to trade material and influence through the long ages. Go out Wednesday night, lay out a sleeping bag to the northeast, and lie down with your head to the southwest. If you can trace the course of the Milky Way, you'll see the main track the Perseids will follow.
Hebron Christian Church is pleased to welcome the Land of Legend Barbershop Chorus, directed by John Tegtmeyer, to their worship Aug. 15 at 10:30 am. You may well have heard them already, as these men travel all over Licking County during the summers, sharing the gift of their music with congregations in communities large and small. Good to have you all in Hebron, thanks to Kent Herreman!
All of us pray that there are no further terrorist attacks in the US, and many suspect that the next one is inevitable nonetheless. With a recent increased level of alert in the financial district of New York City, i'm reminded of the remarkable monument on the very steps of the New York Stock Exchange, right under the gaze of George Washington's statue across the way marking the first inauguration of a US president.
"The Ohio Company," a stock venture organized by a Cutler, one of the families ancestral to the Dawes clan just up Route 13, is remembered where 212 years ago a group of stockbrokers began yelling at each other with strange hand motions. The hand motions are now computer trades, and the yelling is often into wireless headsets, but that marker recalls a day only recently past when the fate of adventurers and tracts of wilderness were settled by a simple exchange of stock.
May the New York Stock Exchange continue on uninterrupted, and may the carving honoring "The Ohio Company" stand unmarred for many years to come.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church, and owner of no stock himself; if you have tips on buggy-whip futures or swampland in the Sahara, or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
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