COFFEE BREAK
Saturday, December 15, 2018
East Oregonian
C5
9-year-old overturns snowball fight ban
SEVERANCE,
Colo.
(AP) — A 9-year-old boy
has convinced the leaders
of a small northern Col-
orado town to overturn a
nearly century-old ban on
snowball fights, and he
already knows who his first
target will be — his little
brother.
Dane Best, who lives in
the often snow-swept town
of Severance, presented his
arguments at a town board
meeting Monday night,
and members voted unani-
mously to lift the ban.
“I think it’s an outdated
law,” Dane said in the
lead-up to the meeting. “I
want to be able to throw a
snowball without getting in
trouble.”
Dane’s mother, Brooke
Best, told The Greeley Tri-
bune her son had been
talking about snowballs
since he found out about a
month and a half ago that
it was illegal to throw them
within town limits. The last
time it snowed, Dane said
he and his friends looked
around for police and joked
about breaking the law.
Kyle Rietkerk, assis-
tant to the Severance town
administrator, said the rule
was part of a larger ordi-
nance that made it illegal
to throw or shoot stones or
missiles at people, animals,
buildings, trees, any other
public or private property
or vehicles. Snowballs fell
under the town’s definition
of “missiles.”
“All of the kids always
get blown away that it’s
illegal to have snowball
fights in Severance,” Riet-
kerk said before the meet-
ing. “So, what ends up hap-
pening is (town leaders)
always encourage the kids
with, ‘You have the power,
you can change the law.’
No one has.”
Then Dane took up the
cause, writing letters with
his classmates in support of
overturning the ban.
And
after
Monday
night’s success, his 4-year-
old brother Dax had bet-
ter watch out. When board
members
asked
Dane
during a meeting in Novem-
ber who he wants to hit, he
pointed at his little brother.
Dane and his family
have researched other Sev-
Timothy Hurst/The Coloradoan via AP/
Range View Elementary School third-grader Dane Best
throws the first legal snowball in the parking lot of the
Town Hall after presenting his argument to the town
board trustees to change a law in Severance that bans
snowball fights .
erance ordinances, includ-
ing one that defines pets
only as cats and dogs.
Dane has a guinea pig,
which is illegal in Sever-
ance, too.
OUT OF THE VAULT
Hitchhiker catches ride straight to jail
By RENEE STRUTHERS
East Oregonian
A deputy sheriff for Umatilla County
gave a courtesy ride to a stranger in
November 1928 — straight to the Uma-
tilla County Jail.
Deputy Sheriff Herman DeHart was
returning to Pendleton from Freewa-
ter on Nov. 10, 1928, and stopped at an
eating house between Milton and Free-
water for lunch. He stepped inside and
asked the proprietress if the lunch was
ready. When she said it was not, DeHart
told her he would drive on to Pendleton
and eat there.
As DeHart was leaving the estab-
lishment, a well-dressed man who was
sitting in the eating room spoke up and
said, “Never mind fixing anything for
me, I’ll go to Pendleton with this man
too.” Surprised at the man’s audacity
of inviting himself along for the ride,
DeHart nonetheless decided to give
him a lift.
“I have to make one stop,” DeHart
said, “and then I’ll go on to Pendleton.”
This was agreeable to his passenger,
so the deputy stopped to see Charles
Elliott, deputy sheriff for the Mil-
ton-Freewater district. In the course of
their conversation, Elliott told DeHart
that a garage had been burglarized the
previous night, and gave his fellow
deputy a description of the possible
perpetrator.
After studying the description for
a moment, DeHart said, “Why, I have
that man in my car.”
Elliott and DeHart went to the car
and questioned the man, J.C. Kitchener,
who finally admitted to the burglary. He
even took the deputies to the garage to
show them how he entered the building.
Deputy DeHart and his passen-
ger finally arrived in Pendleton later
that evening, and Kitchener was taken
straight to the Umatilla County Jail. It
was discovered that the bold hitchhiker
was wanted in Yakima for forgery, and
for other crimes in Spokane.
DEAR ABBY
Daughter’s Peace Corps plan gets thumbs down from Dad
Dear Abby: Our 23-year-
ting away as a cushion after
old daughter, “Alexa,” has a
her return in the event she’s
wonderful, well-paying cor-
unable to find a job right
porate job with good ben-
away. Then explain that you
efits and a flexible sched-
are asking because you need
ule. She has low expenses,
to build up your retirement
no debt and banks a respect-
monies and won’t be able to
able amount of her pay even
give her further financial sup-
port. It’s the truth, and she
though she lives 1,500 miles
J eanne
P hilliPs
needs to know it before she
from home in a high-priced
ADVICE
quits her job.
area. She works 40 hours
Dear Abby: My wife and
max and has plenty of free
I have been married for 20
time.
The issue? Alexa wants to quit her
years. I’m retired, but she still works
job and join the Peace Corps! Must
13-hour days in the ICU.
we just say OK to chucking it all and
When she told me before we were
moving to a Third World country?
married that she didn’t clean house,
Honestly, our biggest concern after
I didn’t realize she meant ever! I
her safety is her investing two years,
run the dishwasher, I wash and dry
moving back home and us having
clothes, and I pick up my stuff. When
to support her while she looks for a
I cleaned the kitchen and put all the
post-Peace Corps job. My wife and I
bills she had scattered around in one
need to save for our own retirement,
stack, I was told, “Now I can’t find
not spend it on our kids. I’m trying
anything! I have my own system, and
to convince Alexa to use her free time
you messed it up!”
to volunteer (something she does not
She has promised that “when she
now do). What advice do you have?
has time” she’ll clean house, but sev-
eral times when she had a few days
— Bad Idea
Dear Bad Idea: Talk to Alexa about
off, she spent them playing Candy
your concerns for her future after she
Crush on her tablet. I have never told
leaves the Peace Corps. Ask if she
her she must clean; I say we need to
plans to use the money she’s been put-
do it. She ignores me.
Abby, we both have allergies and
asthma issues, and the bugs are start-
ing to get bad even though we don’t
leave old food out. What can I do?
Hope she forgives me after I clean? —
In A Mess in the Midwest
Dear In A Mess: No. The responsi-
bility for ensuring your home is healthy
and habitable should not rest solely on
your shoulders. I do think you should
hire a house cleaner to come in once
a week. Your wife has a stressful job,
and when she’s off she may need to
rest. Because you are retired and she’s
still working, it shouldn’t break the
bank, so discuss this option with her.
Dear Abby: I am a junior in high
school, and there’s a cute guy on my
cross country team I really like. What’s
the best way to find out if he returns
my feelings, and how can I deal with it
if he doesn’t? — Teen in Montana
Dear Teen: A way to find out if a
guy likes you is to start talking to him
about your sport or other school-re-
lated subjects. If you do, you will soon
see if you have anything else in com-
mon. If he’s interested in talking to
you, that’s a good sign. But if he isn’t,
you’ll have to do what everyone else
does: Accept the disappointment and
move on.
DAYS GONE BY
100 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
Dec. 15-16, 1918
Because it is absolutely impracticable for a county orga-
nization to do honor to each of the individual soldiers and
sailors as they return from service, the executive committee
of the Umatilla County Patriotic Service League has decided
to ask each community in the county to receive its own boys
as they return from the service, through its commercial club
or other purely local organization. The league expects to
stand sponsor for a county-wide demonstration for all of the
returned boys as soon as the majority of them have come
back to their homes.
50 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
Dec. 15-16, 1968
A snowmobile rescue mission was carried out by Umatilla
County sheriff’s office and a pair of residents for eight Christ-
mas tree hunters mired down in snow about eight miles east
of Athena on Wildhorse Creek Friday night. Darrel Johnson
and Dick Thompson, Athena, carried out the last few miles of
the rescue mission with snowmobiles after sheriff’s deputies
found they couldn’t make it all the way with cars. Russell and
Margaret Remsen, Hermiston, hiked the nearly eight miles
to the old Adams Ranch and got a ride to Athena where they
called the sheriff’s office. Stranded when their car mired in
deep snow were Diane, 17, Becky, 14, and Tom Remsen, 16,
and Leo and Lillian Chranes and their three year old child, all
of Hermiston, and Jack Hone, Athena.
25 Years Ago
From the East Oregonian
Dec. 15-16, 1993
Umatilla County Jail officials reenacted Monday’s
escape this morning, hoping to learn how inmate Beacher
Noble used a hacksaw blade to free himself from a fenced
security area. The armed guard on duty at the time of the
escape also has been placed on leave, pending a hearing on
the guard’s performance. Eight other inmates were on the
roof besides Noble, although he was the only one to attempt
an escape. Investigators also are trying to discover how the
hacksaw blade made it inside the jail. Lt. Ron Harden of
the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office said every jail official
who was on duty during the shift and all inmates have been
interviewed.
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THIS DAY IN HISTORY
On Dec. 15, 1791, the
Bill of Rights, the first ten
amendments to the U.S.
Constitution, went into
effect following ratifica-
tion by Virginia.
In 1890, Sioux Indian
Chief Sitting Bull and 11
other tribe members were
killed in Grand River,
South Dakota, during a
confrontation with Indian
police.
In
1938,
ground-
breaking for the Jeffer-
son Memorial took place
in Washington, D.C. with
President Franklin D. Roo-
sevelt taking part in the
ceremony.
In 1961, former Nazi
official Adolf Eichmann
was sentenced to death
by an Israeli court for
crimes against humanity.
(Eichmann was hanged
5½ months later.)
In 1965, two U.S.
manned spacecraft, Gem-
ini 6A and Gemini 7,
maneuvered toward each
other while in orbit, at one
point coming as close as
one foot.
In 1967, the Silver
Bridge between Gallipolis,
Ohio, and Point Pleasant,
West Virginia, collapsed
into the Ohio River, killing
46 people.
In 1978, President
Jimmy Carter announced
he would grant diplomatic
recognition to Communist
China on New Year’s Day
and sever official relations
with Taiwan.
In 1995, European
Union leaders meeting
in Madrid, Spain, chose
“euro” as the name of
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the new single European
currency.
In 2000, the long-trou-
bled Chernobyl nuclear
power plant in Ukraine
was closed for good.
In 2001, with a crash
and a large dust cloud, a
50-foot tall section of steel
— the last standing piece
of the World Trade Cen-
ter’s facade — was brought
down in New York.
Today’s
Birthdays:
Actor-comedian Tim Con-
way is 85. Actor Don John-
son is 69. Actress Mela-
nie Chartoff is 68. Movie
director Julie Taymor is 66.
Movie director Alex Cox
is 64. Actor Justin Ross is
64. Rock musician Paul
Simonon (The Clash) is 63.
Movie director John Lee
Hancock is 62.
Thought for Today:
“Silence is more musical
than any song.” — Chris-
tina Rossetti, British poet
(1830-1874).
Happy
Holidays!
BURNS
MORTUARY
of Hermiston
&
Hermiston
Crematory
685 W. Hermiston Ave.
Hermiston, Oregon
(541) 567-6474
www.burnsmortuaryhermiston.com
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