8 - SANDY (Or».I POST Thurs D k
21, 1972 (Sac 1)
Huckleberry discussion set
- ; - -
K IV E fV S
;
By
EDGE
G eorge M acA levy
Christmas is often a time to
rem inisce. In N orthw estern
P ennsylvania, n early every
Christmas is a white Christ-
mas
We lived on the banks of the
Allegheny riv e r which is
variable in width from V* to V«
mile wide in its middle 100 mile
section. By Christmas, the
river would be frozen over
except for a lead twentv to
thirty feet wide three forths of
the way across where the mam
channel ran If vou got new ice
&* alesfor Chnstmas, you had a
P|ace ,0 trY 'h em out River ice
never smooth The little
* ,nd "PP1« « « ’med to always
be frozen right in the surface
we couldn t skate too fast
and
harder work than it
should be, but it was fun
Many winter mornings would
he thermometer sit ting o n -
25 degrees at dawn Snow was
usuall-v deeP
Chnstmas. and
*f
new sn° * had faller
durin« th^ ™«ht. a favorite
Pastime was reading the story
<7x?e're hoping the holiday brings you
many joys shared with loved ones.
It has been a pleasure to serve you.
D A N N Y T. STANDLEY
District Representative
3115 N.E. 103rd Place
Portland, Oregon 97220
Telephone
254 8290
Aid Association for Lutherans
Appleton,Wis.Fratemaiife Insurance
Life • Health • Retirement
I
<
told by the animal and bird
tracks in the snow. The woods,
too, were close at hand, cloth
ing the sloping ndge behind the
house This was the home of
white tail deer, ruffed grouse,
co tto n tail ra b b its , snowshoe
hares, and assorted squirrels
The night an im a ls
were
p revalen t also; raccoons,
o possums, and skunks
White pines and Canadian
hemlocks occurred here and
there in small patches to break
up the monotony of the bare
winter hardwood forest These
evergreen boughs, laden with
snow, gave a Christmas card
appearance to the woods
A secondary road invaded the
valley at this point, dead ending
at the n v e r in the center of the
little community. If you came
in on this road, there was no
place to go except back out over
the ridge These secondary
roads got plowed occasionally
but never sanded Every car
wore tire chains all winter By
the same token, every road
became a bob-sled run. as every
road in that part of Penn
sylvania is constantly busy
going up and down hill and
around curves. There isn’t
much that is level there until
you get a little further west onto
what is called the Allegheny
p la te a u .
The
A llegheny
mountains aren't high They
are mostly a senes of ridges
running North and South and
are steep sided and closely
packed together This makes
any road traversing these steep
sided ridges a very interesting
bob-sled run There was always
bob-sledding at Chnstmas. and
the whole fam ily participated
Some of the farms had horse
drawn bob sleds for all the
winter hauling when the snow
got toe deep for the wheeled
wagons and trucks One of the
more prosperous farmers who
lived on the plateau even had a
cutter Perhaps I should ex
plain A cutter is a one horse
sleigh built for two. It is a light
weight very graceful looking
sleigh With a good horse,
cutters could cover the ground
rapidly. It was the custom to
use sleigh bells on the har
nesses of horses pulling
sleds of any sort. A winter hay
ride on a big bob-sled was a
popular party event with young
rural couples I used to envy
them when they went by with
the sleigh bells jingling, the
horses blowing great clouds of
steam from their nostrils, and
the young people waving Alas,
1 never made that scene - By
the tim e my squiring days
arrived, the bob-sleds were
rotting away in some neglected
comer of the b a m . the horses
were gone Drums of gasoline
and cans of oil sat where the oat
bin once stood The Fordsons,
the John Deeres, and the
Farm alls had taken over No
more are there sleighbells on
the roads or on the moonlit
w in te r fields to announce
Christmas is here
The first cold snap and the
acccom panying heavy snow
sufficed to remove the last
patches of old brown bark from
the sycamores, leaving the
trunks and limbs smoothly
white This darkened evenly as
winter progressed Against a
winter sky the pale tracery of
sycamore was accented by the
still hanging seed balls The
sycamores grew well only near
the river From a vantage point
by our giant sycamore, one
could look out over the river to
the open channel in the ice.
The fngid N or’easters hit
New England in December and
drove inland our annual winter
visitors from the coast The Old
Squaw sea ducks seemed
always to be Christmas visitors
on the Allegheny On the ice
shelf at the edge of the open
lead they would be sitting in
long rows, talking to each
other.
Do these ducks talk' The Old
Squaw is undoubtedly the
noisiest species of all the ducks
The ornithological name is
clangula clangula. and. believe
me. they sure can clang The
drakes are mostly white with
some black accents Their most
conspicuous feature is the three
long tail feathers which curve
downward Even though a very
handsome bird, they are not
hunted as they are too fishy to
be edible
Many things were shipped in
wooden boxes ra th e r than
cardboard in that time These
boxes, sturdily constructed of
good wood, would often be used
by distant relatives or friends
for shipping Christmas gifts
These boxes were jus, like an
aditional gif, to a boy This was
real wood, the v e ry stuff
needed to make a Go-devil. Did
you ever make or ride a Go-
deviH They are probably on the
way back to popularity now,
considering a ll the other
contraptions that are being
offered for sale to slide on the
snow
A Go-devil consists of a single
runner with a post on it. Across
the top of the post is a board to
use as a sea, We would shape a
runner out of the thickest piece
of wood and chiiel a groove on
the running surface Then we
would bend a length of iron rod
around the groove and staple it
where it came up over the ends
of the runner There always
were a few odds and ends of
iron rod about a farm
Once a Go-devil is made, you
ride down hill on it At leas, you
rode it while i, was running
upright which was usually just
until you hit the first bump
Then the Go-devil slewed out in
one d irection
w hile
you
spraw led in the snow in
another
The only Christmas greens
anybody bought was a spng of
M is tle to e . H o lly was not
available outside the larger
cities then We collected ground
pme in the woods and made
wreaths of it. We never knew
Christmas trees were sold
E verybody in our country
village went to the woods and
cut either a white pine of a
hemlock
Nobody had tu rk e y for
Clinstmas, that was a specialty
reserved
s tric tly
for
T h an ksg ivin g
Ducks were
reserved fo r New Y ears
Several big roasting chickens
provided the Christmas fowl
All the traditional Christmas
foods were prepared in ad
vance There were fruit cakes
light and dark, light and dark,
plum pudding and c u rra n t
pudding; Dozens of kinds of
Christinas cookies, hickory nut
bread; black walnut cake,
mince meat pies; and cider in
all its forms, hot and spicy, cold
and sweet, and hard There was
always a big thick ten pound
bar of milk chocolate so hard it
took an ice pick and a hammer
to break off a piece Hard rocx
candy was the only other
purchased sweet But there was
fudge,
penuchi,
d iv in ity ,
fondant in several colors and
flavors, and candied orange
peel There was the usual nut
bowl with the assorted nuts that
could be cracked with a nut
c ra c k e r. T h e re was also
another bowl of nuts, black
w alnuts and hickory nuts,
accompanied by a hammer and
a sad iron. To eat these nuts,
you needed a good hammer and
a solid sad iron for an anvil to
crack them
Then, when all else had
stuffed you to a surfeit, there
was the bowl of apples and
pears C risp cold B aldw in
apples that had been just
brought in from the back yard
where they lay under a great
pile of straw and snow In the
e a rly fa ll they had been
carefully layered there in the
straw, and then covered with
more straw Between the straw
and the snow, the extreme cold
was insulated away from the
center of the pile, so the apples
never froze
The p ears,
they
were
Kiefers, that hard Oriental
pear They were picked in the
early fall, still green and hard
Each one was c a re fu lly
wrapped in paper and laid out
on a shelf in the stone cellar.
Chnstmas was the tim e to eat
the first of these treasures
Yes, there must have been a
few hardships too, but 1 can't
remember them 1 just recall
the good things about those
Chnstmases past
A public meeting on the
Huckleberry Planning Unit will
be held Jan », 7 30-11 30 p.m at
Dexter McCarty School, 1400
SE 5th. Gresham, announced
Mt
Hood N a tio n a l F orest
Supervisor. Wnghl Mallery
The purpose of the meeting
will be to:
Present the basic land
suitabilities as developed by
the Forest M u lti-D is c ip lin e
Team from field inventory,
Review the public inputs
involvement, wa cannot gel the
neceaaary direction to take us
y t fff K
received to date;
Discuss the m anagem ent
assumptions, which are the
forerunners
to
the
management objectives which
are the criteria by which
alternatives are developed;
Involve meeting participants
directly in the testing of the
validity of the management
assumptions
"We encourage people in
terested in the management of
this 32,000 acre unit to come to
to the next step of prepari
management alternative! ”
f r t f f f c r r r [--*■*■*■*
•
May holiday
blessings
!•
V
.
Many thanks
for being
i
able to
brighten
\i-r i >■
your
tree
>i>U
the meeting and be prepared to
participate in the testing of
these assu m p tio n s," said
Mallery
"For without this
ooo
MORE CONFUSION
The Republican party ac
tually was the original name of
the Democratic party, founded
by Thomas Jefferson In 1824 it
split into two opposing groups
the National Republicans and
the Democratic-Republicans,
later called simply Democrats
o oo
FROM ALL OF US
AT
GRESHAM COOPERATIVE
325 Nf. 242nd Drive
Gresham
665-9151
N EED O F F IC E HELP*?
CHECK T H E C LA SSIFIEDS
C H filS TiilflS
B L E S S IN G S
COay the spirit of Christmas enrich
your life and bring you joy and
love. . . today and always.
i
•
»
N il
'* r
m *.
*
«
A IR M A N
F IR S T
class
Ruddy
Simpson
com
pleted basic training Sept 28 at
Lackland Air Force Rase In
Texas. He has since been at
tending electronics school at
Keesler Air Force base in
Mississippi Simpson and his
wife are graduates of Sandy
High, and will be living in
Mississippi Simpson is the son
of Mrs. Esta Simpson, and
Scott Simpson, of Welches
OLDEST NYC B U ILD IN G
Fraunces Tavern, famous as
the site of General George
Washington s farewell to his
officers at the close of the
R evolutio n ary W a r. is the
oldest building still standing in
Manhattan
Front th e S ta ff o f
U.S. N atio n al Bank
Pow ell At Hood
G resham
665-11"7!
M oy the holidays shine brightly with good
cheer, good health, and good fortune for
all our wonderful friends and patronsl
As we gather with our loved on»' around
the Christmas tree, we II be thinking
of you and wishing you the very best!
NEW YEAR S EVE
PARTY
(RESERVATIONS ONLY!)
CHRISTMAS DAY HOURS
11:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M.
BOWMAN'S
Hood Land's Most
Scenic Spot, oM
Mt. Hood Highway,
17 m ila i east of Sandy
MT. HOOD GOLF CLUB
AT WEMME, OREGON
Phone Wemme 622*3101 or Portland 224-7158