A8
Seniors
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
G RANT C OUNTY S ENIORS
John Day
Seniors
Nicky Essex
On July 31, David Pasco
and I were greeting, and the
First Christian Church served
us. Pastor Al and his wife,
Cathy, and Becky and Rick
Rhinehart kept us well fed and
with choices of milk, butter-
milk, juice and, as always, lots
of coffee.
Pastor Al and Rick Rhine-
hart took meals to our friends
in John Day and Canyon City.
Michael Hagopian and Rod-
ney Bruser from Step Forward
took the Mt. Vernon route. In
total, 27 regular meals and 34
frozen meals were delivered.
Cathy Altnow led our salute
to our flag to open our time
together. Veanne gave some
announcements, mainly about
our new doors, which need
more time to complete installa-
tion. Once again, there will be
no senior lunch on Aug. 21 be-
cause we’ll be serving brunch
for our parking lot campers for
the eclipse. Carl Swank won
the free meal. Heather Swank
won the Len’s Drug gift certif-
icate. The Harrison Ranch Pro-
duce certificate went to Becky
Rhinehart.
Pastor Al prayed the bless-
ing for our meal of biscuits and
gravy, sausage links, scram-
bled eggs and tropical fruit.
As always, Shay and Lisa put
out a very popular meal. We
served 23 diners.
On Aug. 4, Bonnie Kocis
and Jeanette Julsrud manned
the front desk, and the Naza-
rene Church did a great job of
serving a huge crowd. Shay,
Lisa and Veanne managed to
feed an additional two full ta-
bles and a couple of “end sit-
ters.”
Serving were Trace An-
drew and her twin grandsons,
Aiden and Elliott, Dale and
Corrine Stinnett and Jessie
Elliott and grandson, Brogan.
Others pitched in to help due
to the numbers. Veanne is a
regular workhorse. She acted
as hostess, emcee, server and,
later, mop girl. I doubt those
are in her list of duties. Corrine
led us in the flag salute.
Lisa Pereira is selling
tickets to benefit Lake Creek
Camp. Only 250 tickets will be
sold for $50 each, and the win-
ner will get $400 per month
at Chester’s for 12 months.
That is $4,800 in groceries.
You singles could share a tick-
et. Just saying. In our regular
drawing, Vickie Harrison won
the free meal at Valley View,
Carolyn Olson won the Ches-
ter’s Thriftway certificate and
Alva Conlee won the Harri-
son Farms Produce certificate.
Dale Stinnett led us in the
blessing for our meal, and we
dug in. We had roasted pork
with potatoes and carrots, gra-
vy, French bread, watermelon
for National Watermelon Day
and birthday cake donated by
our friends at Driskill Memori-
al Chapel. Our entrée was pro-
vided by Mobile Glass. Thank
you all.
I do want to mention our
unexpected friends. Carolyn
Stout brought Carl who tried
to pretend he didn’t know her.
There were Athena and Na-
than Moline and their guest,
visiting from Wisconsin, Kitty
Stark; Chris and Kris Labhart
brought their granddaughters,
Madison and Lindsey; and a
large contingency came from
Prairie City, Judy Bracken,
Carolyn Olson, Rhonda Ber-
nard and, from Twin Falls,
Jerry Williamson, aka “Old
Man.” Don’t call him that
here, or you’ll probably get 40-
50 old men yelling, “What do
you want?” Thanks for playing
bingo with us.
Micah 6:8 NIV “He has
shown you, O mortal, what
is good. And what does the
LORD require of you? To act
justly and to love mercy and to
walk humbly with your God.”
Monument
Seniors
Soo Yukawa
Can you believe that we are
already in August? To me, this
is the last month of summer.
Won’t be long now before fall
and winter will be again upon
us. But I guess we still need to
get through some events com-
ing up first.
Our cooks Terry Cade, Car-
rie Jewell and Christy Howell
made us our delicious meal of
spaghetti, garlic bread, fresh
green salad and cookies for
our dessert. I was extra hungry
from not having any breakfast
that morning so I savored every
bite. Thank you to our won-
derful and hard-working cooks
that feed us so well.
Our greeters were Bodean
Andersen, Jimmy Cole and
Marva Walker. Bodean led us
in the flag salute, made the an-
nouncements and prayed the
blessing over our meal. Bob
Blakeslee has stepped down
from serving at the greeting
table. Thanks, Bob, for all
your devoted years of service
to Monument and its citizens.
Jimmy and Marva took care of
the accounting books.
We had some visitors. Char-
lie Blakeslee, Bruce Strange’s
grandson Gabe and Veanne
from John Day. Veanne point-
ed out the same concerns about
the upcoming eclipse event and
to be prepared with extra food
and fuel. We had 56 guests on
our books and seven takeouts.
Yup, I’d say we definitely had
a full house. The free meal tick-
ets were won by Olivia Hood-
enpyl, Theda Phelps and Rickie
Doland.
We had some incident with
our freezer going out sometime
last week. We have many to
thank for their quick action and
help in avoiding what could
have been a disaster. We ap-
preciate Betty Richards and her
son, Bill Richards. We thank
Heather Riggs for noticing the
problem with the freezer.
We also thank Terry Cade
and her family, Riley and Eri-
ca Cade, Mary Cade and Cody
Zyph, for the assistance in
moving the frozen cases of food
from the school back to our se-
nior center freezer. That was no
small feat during the extreme
hot temps we were having. We
appreciate all the concerted ef-
forts of everyone and their help.
Again, thank you to all.
We also want to thank David
Stubblefield and Bob Cockerell
for putting on a new switch on
the cooler, which saved us a
bundle of money.
Jimmy Cole is now the new
chairman of the Monument
Senior Center board. Karen
Stubblefield is the new secre-
tary. Linda Abraham and Loni
Lawrence are also new mem-
bers to the board. Thank you
all for your participation and
for volunteering. We appreciate
everyone for their dedication to
the Monument Senior Center
and community.
The eclipse event will be
happening in just two weeks.
Hopefully, people from the
city will learn to appreciate the
beauty of the country out here.
Maybe, they will get a glimpse
of the slow and peaceful life of
Eastern Oregon and go back
home in envy of our lives out
here, just a thought.
Psalm 42: 1-2 “As the hart
panteth after the water brooks,
so panteth my soul after thee, O
God. My soul thirsteth for God,
for the living God.”
Prairie City
Seniors
Rose Coombs
Signs that you live in a
small town: waiting for the
ducks and geese to cross the
road and avoiding the spooked
deer on your walk to the post
office. Isn’t it lovely? Es-
pecially after hearing that a
Portland rush hour is now 4-6
hours long. I was driving to
meet someone, and they won-
dered what delayed me. Hmm,
had to wait for three cars to
pass before I could get on the
highway. That’s rush hour in
Prairie City.
Last week was Larry
Wright’s birthday, and this
week was his and Carla’s
wedding anniversary. My, my.
Also, Clayton and Beverly
Curtis celebrated their 50th
with an event at the hall. Con-
gratulations all around.
Alaina DeHart led the
flag salute, Jack Retherford
asked for the blessing and
Bob Meador won the $5 gift
certificate donated by Prairie
Hardware. The Lakes brought
in some zucchini to give away,
and our home deliveries were
made by Carlos, Larry and
Ken.
Veanne made announce-
ments about the eclipse and
left some information. The
two most important items
were be prepared and get the
proper glasses. So you have
been warned. Take heed.
Our meal this warm day
had lemonade, iced tea, or-
ange juice, milk and coffee
before we got to the Swiss
steak and sauce over noodles,
tarragon carrots, rolls and, for
dessert, a blueberry smoothie
– without added sugar. Mmm,
good; 63 people registered for
this delicious meal.
Lorna and Krystin brought
Marilyn Randall, Otho Lau-
rance, Joan Metlock and
Bud Salisbury from the Blue
Mountain Care Center. Fran-
ces Fannon came to eat with
them and friend Bud. Anoth-
er visitor was Roy Hill who
came with Jerry and Evelyn
Sheets. Good to see you all.
Come back again.
Derrol and I cleaned out the
grass and trees in the big hole
behind the hall. We did that so
that when the contractor exca-
vates for the new handicapped
landing pad, he will have a
place to put the dirt and rocks
he has to remove. You didn’t
know that we were going to
have a new handicapped land-
ing pad? We didn’t either until
the state of Oregon Building
Codes Division said we had
to. This is one of those simple
projects that turned into more
than we had imagined. But
when it is done, it will be a
great asset to the hall. So Joel
came and got the area marked
for the pad and the holes dug
for the ramp supports. Things
are moving ahead. Remember,
most things take longer than
you think they will.
Don’t forget the dance the
hall will be open for on Aug.
18, with music by the Copper
Ridge Band, starts at 7 p.m.
Entrance and refreshments
can be had with a donation to
the Prairie City Senior Center.
What a deal.
When you read this, it will
be Grant County Fair time, so
get yourself in gear and at-
tend.
Titus 3:1 “ Remind the peo-
ple to be… ready to do what-
ever is good…”
Church Services In Grant County
Come Worship with us at