WHAT ARE YOU MARKING ON YOUR NEW CALENDAR

`Tis hard times, so they say. I'll go along with that. But I got more free calendars this year than ever before. Bright, four-colored and illustrated calendars don't come cheap for the providers. So I like to take this as a tiny, timely (no pun) harbinger that things may be lightening up.

The one from a local hospital is optimistic that we're going to have three or four things to do each day. There is room in the big blocks to write them down clearly. If we do three or four things a day, that is, things important enough to note on a calendar, we're at least going to be busy, another optimistic view, even if such entries are: Dentist for root canal @ 8:00; IRS interview at 10:00; Circuit Court at 3:00. Pick up, take-home supper @ 5:00.

More optimistically the entries in the big blocks might be: Coffee on neighbor's deck at 9:00; luncheon at Mary's @ 12:00; Matinee at 2:00; Dinner with friends at N'Orleans at 8:00.

The calendar from Unity, in addition to its religious content, strikes a "We're-all-in-one-world" theme with its colored pictures of people from different races. While its daily blocks are smaller, assuming, maybe, you're keeping your life a little simpler, it gives an affirmation for the month and a scripture quotation to fit the colorful pictures. The picture and scripture for the month of March strikes my fancy. I think, of all wildlife, raccoons take the most lovable pictures. So here in March is a picture of a half grown raccoon stretched out on a thick limb, his legs and tail dangling loosely, the epitome of restful patience, and the scripture below is "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him."

Some would argue that this scripture is meant for humans, not animals. But if a sleeping kitten curled up on a cushion, a snoozing dog on the floor before a fireplace or a raccoon relaxed on a limb give us a clearer idea of being still and waiting patiently, why not? I'll think of this picture often when I have more things to do than any of the calendars make room for.

The Paralyzed Veterans of America have really come up with a beauty this year. For all I know, it is their first attempt at a calendar. It has a title, "Birds of America." A colorful robin on the cover seems to be singing out this title, gleefully. It is a masterful job of printing. The goldfinch, bluebird, hummingbird, etc. will make you reluctant to turn the page at the end of the month.

This calendar doesn't have the moon phases, a thing I'm a nut about, as do others, but the holidays have suitable pictures in color. Halloween has an orange jack o'lantern, Christmas a golden creche with white lambs, Rosh Hashanah with a blue Star of David. There is a colorful, appropriate-to-the-month flower border around each page of this calendar. I'm wild about page borders too. Somehow its layout makes me think of the old Roycrofters who, never mind the cost, put out beautifully handcrafted books.

These latter two calendars, I said were free. They're free in the sense the company sends them to you without your ordering. You can make a remittance if you wish. Postmaster's rules. I usually wish to.

My pharmacist's calendar is a compendium akin to an almanac. If you are a calendar freak, as am I, you will note on this calendar that there is something doing every day of the year, even if its a notation only of the sun's coming up at 7:22 and setting at 4:45. How can that example be when we have four different time zones? Well, the calendar explains how to make that adjustment too. It's a good exercise in arithmetic. You deal in minutes, degree and meridians to arrive at sunrise and sunset in your zone. All legal holidays are duly noted in red, while the lesser ones are only duly noted.

Also, on this calendar there are astrological signs each day to tell you such things as it is a good time for planting root crops, pruning vines, transplanting, grafting, budding, etc. What do you know about astrological signs you say? Nothing? Well, it is all there too, in the back, like an index.

For example the astrological sign for tomorrow, Jan. 6th (Old Christmas) resembles two m's written in the lower case, one above the other. It is Aquarius, it says. "A barren period. Do not plant. Well disposed to the destruction of weeds and vermin." How do you like dem potatoes? I didn't plan to plant anything nor pull up weeds, but if I hear a mouse, I might set a trap, I dunno though. A mouse between the two brick walls of my home sounds kind of friendly at 2 a.m. on a cold winter's night. I feel as if I'm providing shelter, even though it be for a mouse.

Then comes my big wall calendar the Currier and Ives calendar put out by Travelers Ins. Co. I worked for that company for a while back in the '30s, and saved their calendars ever since. Where do I find room for them? Beats me.

Currier and Ives (the illustrators) captured the essence of an earlier America. Their winter scenes are great favorites of mine. The one for January 1992, although done by Durrie instead of Currier or Ives, is so nearly a replica of our old farm layout it makes tears of nostalgia come to my eyes. I can picture Mama and Grandma in the kitchen making a supper of fried ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, biscuits, butter, jelly etc., etc. Grandpa and Dad are bedding down the livestock. Birds are flying into roost on the barn rafters. Barn kittens are curled up asleep already. I'm in the kitchen, maybe putting up a new calendar. It would be a religious calendar, maybe a picture of the Disciples in an upper room wondering whatever was to become of them.

REJOICE