Heppntr, Ort., GaztttTimu. Thurt, Dec. 20, 1973
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One of the charms of Oiriitmu It that one mutt wait
full year from one to another in order to enjoy it. There it no
tuch thing at "inttant" Chrtttmaa. It cant be packaged and
merchandised like eoff, TV dinners or store-made clothing.
No matter how rich, powerful, petulant or Impatient one may
be, he'll still wait a year for Oirittmas. It must be frustrating
to those who find themselves accuttomed to having
everything they want, and right now about it. There have
been experiments In celebrating Christmas In July, but it
never caught on. A few years ago a night club hit on the idea
of having New Year's Eve party every Saturday night. It was
as ridiculous as it was a failure. No matter that some people
try to rush into Christmas before the Thanksgiving turkey is
out of the oven, Christmas still comes on Dec. 25. Maybe we
should just try to live with that!
As a boy on a Texas Panhandle ranch I recall that
Christmas was a two-day affair. On Christmas Eve the tree,
if we could afford one, was put up and decorated with
hand-made ornaments that included garlands of strung
popcorn, strings of bright red cranberries, colorful chains
made of construction paper, and individual ornaments made
from paper and colored crayon. The tree was lighted by tiny
lighted candles attached to the tree. (We never had a tree
catch on fire, or heard of anybody who did. Maybe we were a
little more careful in those days). The family was up early on
Christmas morning. It was a festive and joyous occasion,
even though the gifts were on the skimpy side, running to
oranges, apples, nuts (I didn't know a nigger-toe was a Brazil
nut until I was 21! and peppermint candy. Christmas was a
great day, enjoyed to the hilt. But it ended as abruptly as it
began. On Dec. 26 the tree was taken out and burned.
Everybody was out riding the range or working the fields
again. But the goodwill lingered on, and it was around July 4
that the fist -fighting broke out again!
I don't know how the custom started, or where it went.
But in those days everybody in our house tried to be the first
one up on Christmas Eve to wake the household with the
shout. "Christmas Eve gift!" Whoever was first was the
day's hero, and I don't recall what benefits accrued to him
for his disruption of early moming sleep, but it was part of
the magic of the season. It was the same thing on Christmas
morning. The first person up rousted everyone with the cry of
"Christmas gift!" Everybody else moaned and lamented
they had lain too long abed to achieve the honor. I never knew
the significance of "Christmas Eve gift" and "Christmas
gift." I only know it was terribly important.
Christmas, like all good things, has its detractors. Upton
Sinclair, late Socialist writer, once wrote: "Or consider
Christmas-could Satan in his most malignant mood have
devised a worse combination of (raft plus buncombe than the
system whereby several hundred million people get a billion
or so of gifts for which they have no use, and some thousands
of shop-clerks die of exhaustion while selling them, and every
other child in the western world is made ill from
over-eating-all in the name of the lowly Jesus?" If I had
written that outburst in the Gazette-Times today I would,
after being properly tarred and feathered, been required by
readers to name one shop clerk who died of exhaustion
selling Christmas gifts, and to produce credible authority
that every other child gets ill from over-eating on Christmas.
Since Sinclair wrote that nonsense in 1927 nobody has
bothered to refute him-a gift of indulgence the American
people reserve for their more literate non-conformists. That
Christmas survives its detractors is testament that
Bethlehem, the Manger and the Star in the East still
represent man's best hope for the better world.
Among the detractors are Christians themselves. Some
deny that Jesus was born on Dec. 25. So? They point out that
' the early church did not celebrate His birthday. True. They
say that Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, and the custom of
exchanging gifts come from the pagan past and are
condemned by the Bible. Also true. As far back as 1660 in this
most Christian nation, Christian opposition to Christmas is
illustrated by that statute of the Massachusetts Colony:
PUBUCK NOTICE
The Obfervation of Christina having been deemed
a Sacrilege, the exchanging of Gifti and Greetmgt,
Areffma in Fine Clothing, reaping and similar
Satonkal Practices are hereby
FOIBIODEN,
With the Offender liable to a Tine of Five SkiUma
If Christmas is indeed rooted in paganism, does it really
' matter? If it does, we had better examine the cherished
institution of marriage and its rites, for it is deeply rooted in
paganism. So is hunting, fishing, religion, family, love,
loyalty and the doctrine of "do unto others." Does it distress
any of you that homo sapiens 1973 traces his ancestry back to
pagan days?
No matter. Christmas 1973 is a joyous reality. Our
schools are jammed with children participating in plays,
songs and pageants tuned to the birth of Christ-no matter
how hard some administrators try to erase any religious
overtones in education, they fail miserably, and justly so, On
Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day our churches will be
packed with worshippers, and their church bells will join
with those of churches around the world in pealing tribute to
the Prince of Peace. Each church, civic club and organized
group of people in our town has been busy for weeks
preparing food and cheer for needy persons. There are not
enough needy in all Morrow County to consume this
outpouring of heart and treasure. The biggest problem for
these organizations is to find enough people upon whom to
shower these gifts. Local citizens are sending gifts of money
and food to unfortunates in more than 50 nations of the earth.
That money is in short supply and taxes a crushing burden
makes no difference, for it is Christmas. The elderly, the
sick and always the children, are remembered. The lonely
are comforted and the hungry fed. There will be fewer fights
in the saloons and taverns in Christian countries.
Everywhere is the ring of "Merry Christmas!" The police
officer is reluctant to issue citations for minor infractions.
People who don't speak all year exchange seasonal
greetings. The girl on the street whom you never met returns
vour smile More children are patted on the head than at any
other time of year. In the stores there is less haggling over
prices, less complaining of shortages, and the sound of Bing
Crosby's perennial "White Christmas" brings tears to eyes
that haven't been moist since this time last year. Because it s
Christmas.!
How tragic that wars cannot be made to begin on
Christ mas-when nobody would hayeJhejteajlJgjLitiFor-
during this one time eacn year mere u an wjijwui hi . iw,
understanding, generosity, kindness and consideration
among people of the Christian community. And some
damne fools want to change Christmas!
One of the miracles of Christmas is that no man however
poor sick, suffering, lonely or low-placed or ill-used can fail
to be spiritually iaMted and touched in his soul by its
presence. Christmas can be shared by believers and
non-believers; by all races and creeds. 1 am happy to share
this Christmas with you all; and whether you know it or not.
you're sharing your Christmas with me. Merry Christmas.
If ins :
mm
The mail pouch
EDITOR:
As I enclose this check for renewal of my subscription I
want to tell you I enjoy your old Gazette-Times with the "new
dress" very much.
I will also add that it pleases me the way you call a spade a
spade, with very little, if any., equivocation. Also, that you
and Mayor Roy are bringing dear old Hardman back from
the grave. And it's not all humor either, for I note the old
dance hall is again open and doing a lively business, from all
reports.
Your articles on the tussock moth by your able
photographer has an impact of terrific importance, being
well ahead of many of the California newspapers in this
respect. The latter are only now awakening to the peril in the
forests as this larvae is wreaking untold damage. Keep up
this good work and hit the ecologists wherever and whenever
they deserve that recognition. Some of their boys are making
boo-boos every day-but I should tell you; you seem to have
the situation well in hand.
The people of Heppner and all Morrow County are the
finest . Of course, you know that. Many are my dear friends of
many years, and I go back to visit at every opportunity. Some
of the men in business in Heppner today are two generations
removed from my happy days on the Gazette-Times staff.
Holiday greetings to you, Mr. Joiner, and to the members
of your staff and all your readers. I hope to see you on my
next visit to the old home town.
ART CRAWFORD,
San Jose, Ca.
P.S. Hubert Scudder of Sebastopol (Ca.) was a very dear
friend.
(ED. NOTE-Thank you for making our Christmas!
According to Historian Giles French, the Crawford family
bought the Heppner newspaper in 1912. French wrote in his
book, "Homesteads and Heritages: A History of Morrow
County, Oregon," that "The Crawfords weren't mad at
anyone, and were excellent printers, good writers and strong
enough to not be swayed by temporary waves of public
sentiment. And they worked for Morrow County and
Heppner, observed it carefully and reported it respectfully."
That is a hard act for any publisher to follow. Congressman .
Hubert Scudder was also a friend of mine, Mr. Crawford, and
I was privileged to have been his friend before his death a few
years ago in Sebastopol, Ca.)
I GAZETTE-TIMEST I
X; MORROW COUNTY'S NEWSPAPER 4
j e J J7, Heppner, Ore. 7IJ4. Tel. 474-tttl
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The Heppner Geiette Mt established March 30. IM3. The Heppner j;."
V. Times was established Nov. II, 117. The two were consolioaied
g Fed IS, 1U. &
Member: National Newspaper Also . Ore9onNowsoaper Publish
-j. i
. Ernest V. Joiner PiAHisner
Em Ceres Photooreetiy na Umm 'fi
& Ann Toner &
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ft Ft,l SfremMMd Foremen
6 Peogv Taylor Operator, Crewel on g
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Cut your own tree?
Cut red tape first!
It is that time of the year again, to remind readers of
Christmas tree cutting and transporting.
Anyone cutting a single Christmas tree should have
permission of the land owner and if more than five trees are
to be cut and transported they need a bill of sale which will
state: .
The date of its execution, the name and address of the
vendor or donor of the trees, the number of trees,' by species,
sold or transferred by the bill of sale and the property from
which the trees were taken.
The State Police, sheriff's patrol and state forestry will be
checking on Christmas tree cutting and transporting.
You will not be asked to establish citizenship, submit
fingerprints, furnish character references or have a letter
from your Congressman.
Merry Christmas!
New record set
for rainfall
Records were made to be
broken, and this year the Old
Man Weather broke old ones
and set new ones.
Up until September Morrow
County was experiencing one
of the driest years ever
recorded. According to Don
Gilliam, Heppner weather
man, Heppner had 4.55 inches
of rain fall. :
The dry conditions brought
reduced yields of wheat and
shorter grassing period. But
from September on, the rain
maker gave dry Morrow
County a real bath.. In
September, 3.24 inches of rain
fell over the county; in Octo
ber the rainfall total was 2.10
inches.
November turned out to be a
record breaker as 3.94 inches
of rain was reported. This
broke the record for the wet
test month ever remembered
in this country. In 1897, the
rainfall was a record 3.36
inches.
November rainfall also
broke the predicted forecast,
that this year would be a dry
abnormal year formojsture.
With November's rain, the
total amount of rainfall for the
year is over j-inch of the
normal rainfall.
"1.72 inches of rain has been
recorded so far this month,
with over .56 inches falling in
Heppner in a three-hour
period Monday morning,"
Gilliam said.
With December's rainfall,
Heppner broke another record
for being the wettest month
period. In the four-month
period, September through
December, over 10 inches of
rain fell in Morrow County to
break the 1950 record of 8.21
inches.
"So far this year, 14.55
inches of rain have covered
the ground. This is over 1.30
inches of the normal recorded
rainfall of 13.25," according to
Gilliam.
Monday's rain dropped .56
inches in Heppner and as
much as 1W inches in the
surrounding areas.
Soil erosion, creek flooding,
and flooded roads were a com
mon sight Monday morning.
HONOR SOCIETY IN"
CANNED FOOD DRIVE
The annual canned food
drive is being revived this
Christmas season by the
Heppner High School National
Honor Society.
Class competion has been
stressed to stir interest in the
project.
drive will lasi two
Tm
weeks, ending on December
21, when the NHS will distrib
ute all cans collected. The
club's advisor is Mrs. Jane
Rawlins.
- Heppner High School is
looking for a full time custo
dian. Applications forms can
be obtained at the main office
of the high school or at the
district office in Lexington.
Mayor of Hardman
DEAR MISTER EDITOR:
Bug Hookum ttarted off the tetslon at the country itore
Saturday night by reporting where we final got a cause going
fer majority rights.
Bug had taw where ugly folk It demanding equa
treatment with prltty people, and he aaid thla movement will
open a hole new can of worms In the rights business.
Fer aure, aaid Bug, the Guvernment Is going to have to atep
In and aet up a Bureau of Ugly Equality, and somebody is
going to have to draw up 300 pages of federal guidelines on
what is ugly. A person has got to be declared official ugly
afore he hat a case agin the prltties, Bug allowed, and he
didn't aee how they could staff the new Bureau equal with
uglies and pritties til Congress or the Supreme Court rules on
how to quality fer the Job.
Actual, went on Bug, he figgers the ugly movement has
about as much chanct as that one some years back about
putting clothes on all the naked animals. They is some things
still left to personal opinion in this world, Bug said, and what
is prltty and what ain't is one of em. Personal, Bug said, he
alius has found that all wimmen is beautiful, some is Jest
more beautiful than others.
Clem Webster was agreed with Bug. Looks alius has been a
matter of opinion. A youngun so ugly you have to tie a bone
around his neck to git the dog to play with him still is
beautiful to his Ma and Pa, was Clem's words.
Clem said he had saw by the papers where a survey had
found that 52 per cent of all poet tested In England and
France was crazy to some degree. Clem was of the mind that
them poets is jest as shore that it's the other 49 per cent and
the rest of the world that's needing help.
The fellers was general agreed that the ugly movement
ain't got much future, special if it has to wait fer Guvernment
ugly guidelines. Zeke Grubb said It would take Congress to
sessions jest to decide who ought to be on the guidelines
committee. And Zeke said Congress would take the hole thing
serious, even if nobody else would, cause regulating the ugly
movement would mean more people on the federal payroll.
Zeke said he had saw where the Civil Service Commission
reported it had 12 college-trained applicants fer ever
Guvernment job that comes open, and it's a shame fer all
that education to go to' waste.
General speaking, broke in Ed"Doolittle, we is over
colleged in this country. We got folks walking around with
degrees that don't know how the pour rain our of a boot. Ed
said a panel of them would be as good as anybody to decide
who's ugly enuff to get a federal job and balance out the
employment in Line with the guidelines.
Yours truly,
MAYOR ROY.
Military
or civilian
chaplains?
BY
LESTER KINSOLVING
A drive to civilianize all military chaplains seems evident
in official reports of the American Civil Liberties Union, the
United Church of Christ and the United Presbyterian Church.
For the chaplaincy has been a prime target of those clergy
critical of U.S. participation in the Vietnamese War. Military
chaplains have been identified, rather unfairly, as being the
worst among their number, rather than the best. Hence they
have all been characterized as blessers of bombings and
body counts who are isolated from the enlisted men by virtue
of their officer's rank - a rank which is, in turn, dependent
upon how willingly they allow themselves to be manipulated
by commanding officers all the way to the White House.
This general caricature has been effectively challenged by
Navy Chaplain R.G. Hutcheson - effectively, because he
does not deny that occasionally there are such chaplains. He
notes, howfver, that there are iust such clergy, and similar,
if not identical pressures, in the civilian parochial ministry.
Writing in Christian Century magazine, Chaplain
Hutcheson cites a letter to all Air Force chaplains by the
Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam. This letter, he
notes, was "widely interpreted as urging chaplains to
counsel airmen to disobey orders," and may have been an
attempt to "get at" the military by "manipulating their
chaplains."
lie" goes on to note that the issue is not whether the
military should or should not exist, but how churches and
synagogues can most effectively minister to the millions who
comprise it. He brands as "Startling naivete" the idea that
the military would allow "persons whose selection it has no
part in and over whose conduct it has no control" to minister
in the areas, where chaplains are most needed - such as
combat.
Chaplain Hutcheson asks this key question later in his
article: "West Point has a civilian chaplaincy. What are its
characteristics?"
Yet the Rev. James Ford, Chaplain of the Untied States
Military Academy, told this column: "I'm really not a
civilian chaplain, because I'm paid and housed by the
military."
No such pay or allowances accrue, however, to West
Point's Catholic Chaplain. For Father Robert McCormick is
pastor of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity by appointment
of the Archbishop of New York, rather than the President of
the United States.
Despite his civilian status, Father McCormick did not take
to his pulpit to denounce the widely publicized (and severely
deplored) "silencing" of a Catholic cadet named James
Pelosi.
While he counseled with Cadet (now 2nd Lt.) Pelosi during
his long ordeal of isolation, Father McCormick did not
denounce this ancient punishment from his (civilian) pulpit.
"When you're part of an organization you can be more
effective by working within the organization," Father
McCormick told this column. "Of course this is difficult in an
iconoclastic society."
Said Chaplain Ford : "I was an area campaign manager for
Hubert Humphrey when I was a Lutheran pastor back in
Ivanhoe, Minn.. But since I felt an obligation to try to relate to
all my parishioners, I preached goals and left the specific
methods of the political campaigning."
How much these two chaplains had to do with the Corps of
Cadets' recent vote to abolish the silencing system, neither of
the two will detail. But it is doubtful indeed that this reform
-would have beea-aided by a frontonttadrfroTrrnieuTpTt by
either chaplain - or by a silent press outside of the Academy.
Perhaps as Chaplain Hutcheson puts it: 'The military
needs prophets pronouncing judgement from the outside and
also pastors sharing the life of the institution."
A II II J
One colonial doctor believed that the yellow feref
epidemic of the late 1700'i wu due to an upsetting of
the balance of liquid and aolidi in the body by the
"muumic" vapor of the air.