Christmas preparation, city updates and hiking happiness

By Darla Buckhannon

Happy birthday to Ralph Enderle, Dorothy Noble, Kathy Kirn, Justin Wilson, Alison Ressel, Alberta Masterson, Crystal Pobst, Stella Tweedy, Amy Burnett, Darren Lincoln, Jonell Overfield, Alan Seabaugh, Kenny Lee, Bill Rauch, Annie Fort, Ryan Glastetter, Joseph Campbell, Autumn Gilmer, Loraine Reischman, Deborah Sadler, Lisa Parker, Kathy Moyers, Shelly Burnett, Jim Bollinger, Christina Smith, Yolanda Schlosser, Jim Emerson, Travis Dumey and Virginia Bohnsack.

Happy anniversary to Gary and Sharon Crowden, Mike and Sheila Eby, Randy and Mona Harrell, David and Jennifer Nolen and Ronnie and Brenda Held.

Christmas prep

We hope everyone had a terrific Thanksgiving. Christmas decorations are going up everywhere and soon Circle Park will be all aglow for the Christmas parade. This year's theme is "A Disney Christmas." The parade will start at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3. Call HB Rice at (573) 887-3555 for more details.

The Chaffee High Fine Arts Club will meet at city hall Nov. 29 for Christmas window painting. The band will hold a Christmas concert at 7 p.m. Dec. 14 in the gym.

Band concert to be held

Flyers will be posted soon regarding a community band concert Dec. 18 at the VFW. The day will start with the Chaffee Historical Society serving breakfast and later, chili and soup following the concert. Watch for brochures with all the details including costs, times and maybe even a surprise!

Missing Moguls

The Chaffee Library is digitizing Moguls and needs the following years: 1930 to 1938, 1943, 1944, 1979, 1980 and 1993. If you do not want to give up your Mogul, they will be happy to return it to you. Librarian Tina Horton says they now take debit cards and reminds us that January is amnesty month at the library.

Moving online

Effective Dec. 1, water bills can be paid online at payment.cityofchaffee.com for a small convenience fee. The city reminds dog owners to register your dogs at city hall. They also remind dog owners to have a bag handy when walking your dog so you can pick up after they do their business.

Pay toilet disappearance

A lot of people hit the road for the Thanksgiving holiday. Do you remember pay toilets? They cost 10 cents and although there was usually a free one, most chose to pay. Pay toilets were mostly in airports, bus stations and highway rest stops. In 1970, there were more than 50,000 pay toilets and in 1980, almost none. In 1973, Chicago was the first major city to ban pay toilets at local airports and later, altogether. Mayor Richard Daley stated he "did it for women's lib."

Happy hiking

Richard and I are enjoying our hikes at Lake Tywappity. It is a nice time of year to hike, as there are no bugs and no spider webs. We heard and saw nuthatches, titmice, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers, a hawk and a king fisher on one hike. A tree was across the trail around Bridge 10, but certainly that will be cleared soon. The trail can be tricky with the fallen leaves covering the many tree roots. Probably those of you who walk/run the trail frequently know where every root is. I am pretty certain in negotiating the roots I took twice as many steps as Richard!

Movie-related memories

There was a marathon of sorts featuring Natalie Wood movies on TCM since the anniversary of her death is approaching. One movie was "Splendor in the Grass" starring Wood and Warren Beatty. I got to tag along with my sister Ruth Ann and cousin Kay Sue Finney to see the show at the Montgomery Drive-in. I think they let me sit in the front seat with them so I could share in the big bowl of popcorn. The movie was a little mature for me, but I was more excited that I got to hang out with my older sister and cousin. It was Beatty's first movie and the very handsome young man had all the girls swooning. The talented actor, director and producer's new movie, "Rules Don't Apply," is touted to be a huge success at the box office.

Final thoughts

Our sincere condolences go out to Jo (Snider) Hailey, family and friends following the recent passing of Gerald Hailey.

Remember to tell those special people in your life that you love them -- those three words mean so very much and are so nice to hear.

Email your news to darbuck2@airmail.net or leave a message at (573) 887-6430 or (214) 207-7839.

And then ...

Then there was the 106-year-old who said his memory is bad enough to forget the bad things and good enough to remember the good things.