Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 135, Number 52, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 29 December 2016 — Page 4
Advance N«ws • Thursday, Deeranber29, 2016
Page A4
Happy New Year Recently I looked through a stack of children'9 books
about Christmas, trying to pick one to read Christmas morning- to the children-' it church. There's -one about a Japanese mother folding
cranes to decorate her son's first Christmas tree. One centers on a little camel travelling in a caravan following a special star. There's another about a donkey who dreams while carrying Mary to Bethlehem. One is all pictures and no words, about Santa's adventures delivering a special gift to a little drl. Another tells about the other people the angels visit when Christ was bom. - The-orie that makes me cry is the one about a mom who tries to come home from the U.S. to Mexico each Navidad to be with her daughter, although she can't always make it. That's just the few on my office desk. We've got a whole lot-more at home. „ The one I picked was called "Too Many Tamales, because it reminded me of the way my mother and her sisters would get together to make a couple hundred tamales for Christmas and New Year's Day. You make tamales by soaking dried com husks so they are pliant, taking a butter knife and spreading a moist com dough made with pork broth inside a husk, spooning in a thick red chili and pork mixture (although you could make them with, chicken or beef, and, use green chilis instead, or skip tire meat and chili and make them sweet with pineapple and rasiris), role the husk into a tube, cook mem in a pressure cooker, and later revive them in a steamer. "Too Many Tamales" is a beautiful little story of forgiveness about a beautiful little girl who helps her mother and the family make tamales for Christmas Eve. After playing' with her mother's wedding-ring she becomes convinced that it was accidently cooked inside one of the tamales. She and her three siblings eat thirty-six tamales trying to find thejing, to no avail. As it turns out, the ring wasn't lost. Her mother found it on the counter. But the family is not angry and everyone works together hard to make thirty-six more tamales for Christmas. That got me to thinking, I don't really have any children's books about New Year's. There must be some, but I don't have any. Maybe it's because lots of times kids are fast asleep by the time the ball falls in New York. Maybe it's because kids don't worry about resolutions for the coming year. They're much more excited about living in today. ' _ .
It’s not like the day is particularly special. What we're celebrating is one more orbit of our Earth around the Sun. It's not like lights go flashing when we pass the magic mark in the sky. "Well, Tve thought about it, and I've made my New Year's -Resolution. I’m going to write a children's book about Neto Year's Eve. Maybe I'll mention that New Year's Day imßnglish speaking countries used to be March 25th, not Jan. 1. Or maybe it'll be about all the different New-Year's Days. Chinese New Year is Jan. 28 this year. The Jewish New Year begins September 20th and the Islamic New Year begins Sept. 22. Or maybe it'll be an adventure book about children and their families making pillow cases as they start the New Year. And shouldn't it nave a dog? Just about every book is better with a dog. So what's your resolution? Think about it. Happy New Year, one and all! God bless us, everyone! . Frank Ramirez is the Senior Pastor at the Union Center Church of the Brethren. ' I
Continuous Publication Since 1879 Advance News Serving Noppahw ft Wakarusa Published Weekly • (USPS 370-960) Periodical postage paid in Nappanee, 7 IN 46550 PMTMtTQb Please send address corrections'to ' I; P.O. Box 220, Plymouth, INI 46563 hMMnr/lVbrfcsttag Mrectar Cindy Stockton - [email protected] • - ••• [email protected] 7 Assistant filter Amy Weilger [email protected] Spsrfi EdttST James Neil Costello _ [email protected] ” y MriMee Manager Michelle Touderback [email protected] Jessica Rivera [email protected] 7 ... ” [email protected] " r • 'Janie. Dandino jdandint>@titg:pilotnews.c6m - Ida Call 1-800-933-0356 Monday „ ™ through Friday, 8 am. to § p.m. ~ - / All classifieds must be pre-paid. ••. Deadline: Monday at T1:30 a.m. I Advertising Call Angi Rodriguez or Janie Dandino at 574-936-3101 for rate information orJoT—' place an ad Thursday as 5 p.m. Lggal Notices Deadline: Wednesday at 5 p.m. (Week - ' prior). / ----- ... ' BlliSengtllM Annual subscrtptfonjmce (52 issues) i' is tUttinstate and S3B out-of-state. ,s i, ' To renew or start anew subscription. or to solve delivery problems, call the Email news items and photos to [email protected], or drop them_. off at the Bremen office, 126 E. Plymouth St. For possible story ideas, please call 574-548-2941 or cell, 574-209-0704. Deadline: Fridav at noon
/I
County Road Seven ByFrartk Ramirez, I . Pastor
Community
The meaning of true love, light
ft is the morning after Christmas Day as I sit down to write, all the while lingering over a mug of butterscotch hot chocolate as I ponder what I wish to say. Right now, the house is almost perfectly still. I am the only one awake, and it's nearly 10 a.m. All
of my children are still slumbering away, the holiday euphoria from the previous days having proven itself to be both exhilarating and exhausting. When I was still a child, I generally regarded December 26 as one of the saddest days of the year. The thrill, the rush, the anticipation of guessing what was inside each gaily wrapped box or suspiciously lumpy package had faded away Shreds of wayward wrapping paper still drifted across the floor in certain spots and empty gift boxes were piled high in a corner, broken down and ready for use next year. Somehow, the tree seemed a little less luminous, the lights were a little dimmer and the branches were beginning to droop, its fragrance long gone. We always had a genuine Christmas tree, because as my family saw it, it was go real or go home. We dared not traipse across our floors in bare feet, because more often than not, our toes would find a pine needle or a fallen ornament hook. But none of those thoughts entered my mind on this day, though. Far from it. Funny how that sense of perception changes as we grow older and wiser. I thought of my children, and how just 24 hours earlier, they had posed beneath our Christmas tree, each holding one of their pet guinea pigs. Moments later, they opened their gifts patiently, taking turns so that they could admire what their siblings had received. And then my boy, beaming with pride, presented me with a gift bag filled with ornaments he had lovingly created at school, his wide open smile meeting my adoring gaze. When did my son cease to be a toddler and grow to become a sweet and compassionate little man? My girls came to me with a jewelry bag, in which I discovered a glistening pink stone, encased artfully in swirling sterling silver. "It's to bring you healing," Hannah explained. She knew, and they knew, that the year had been a challenging one for my fickle kidneys. How well they know my heart. Last year, these beautiful souls gifted me with a filigree silver locket, in which was placed a picture of my father. How much comfort that heart shaped pendant brought to me on that first Christmas without my dad.
Photo Provided Correction: Pictured, .vocalist Amanda Baugh, professional solo artist and lead singer of the all woman band "Radiance." In an article published about*he<*pcalist-and her band, which was published Dec. 15 in the AdvanceNews, the name of Matt Hammitt original lead singer for the group Sanctus Real was misspelled. It was also incorrectly reported that Baugh was not already attending Grace Community Church, Goshen, when she took part in a woman's ministry there for the first time which in turn led to the formation of the "Radiance" Christian band. Be watching future issues of the Advance News for updates on Baugh and other "Radiance" band members.
100 YEARS AGO December 29,1916 The fire department was called Saturday evening at six o'clock when a blaze was discovered in a storage shed located near the Coppes Bros. & Zook factory. Very little damage was done. Then on Wednesday evening at eight o'clock, fire was discovered in some robes in the bam at the William Ulery residence. The burning robes were thrown into the yard, and no other damage resulted. The heaviest mail ever received at the Nappanee postoffice, arrived on train 65 on Christmas Day, and consisted of 38 sacks of parcel post and two first-class pouches. Five men with sleds delivered iLduring the afternoon and evening. On December 26, fourteen sacks~ofparcel post, practically' all Christmas packages, was received. 75 YEARS AGO January 1,1942 Tuesday evening an adjourned session of the city council was held for the purpose of allowing all claims against the aty for the current year, to discuss ways of with which we are faced today and to get the opinion of manufacturers as to the advisability of additional police for the city. The council went on record as favoring the establishment of an auxiliary fire fighting force suchTas described elsewhere in this issue. Mayor Ralph Amott explained the plan the city proposed for adding another policeman to the force if desired and this met with the approval of those present. In this connection, the proposed police tower which has been under construc- . tion for some time was brought into the picture and the idea seemed to meet with approval, but there is a wide difference of opinion as to where it should be placed., it being almost a certainty no place of business will want it "planted" on their front doorstep. 1 Wednesday evening of next week, a muck crops school will be held at the City Hall, beginning at 7:30 o'clock, with Roscoe Frasier, muck soil specialist of Purdue, leading the discussion. He will have motion pictures, showing farms in the various parts of the state and will tell of the experiments being carried on not only on the experimental farms of the university, but will also show what work is being done on many other farms through modem methods. 50 YEARS AGO December 29/1966 Friday, the labor force at Mutschler Bros. voted whether or not to have a new union represent them or to stay with the
B
All those years ago
Wisdom and Whimsy y ? By Amy Lant-Wenger, Assistant Editor
All the silly nicknames and expressions that we carry between ourselves, something of a Lant secret language. We dined on my brother-in-law's fantastic spaghetti, noshed on desserts, doubled over at the atrocities of old family photos, and participated in several rousing rounds of cards, from euchre to spoons. The greatest gift I witnessed that evening was the sight and sound of piy mother laughing again. Laughing in such a way I'd not seen for so very long. ft was right in the midst of one of those great, grand peals of family laughter that a bright light flashed, just once, right in the center of the dining room. We were startled straight into being frozen in our tracks, our own personal, albeit unintended, version of the "Mannequin Challenge." "Did someone just take a picture?" Mom asked. No. Not a one of us had a camera at that moment. Yet we all saw what we saw. The kids rushed to the window, awash in a feeling somewhere between delight and paranoia, that somehow, someone might have sidled up to Nana's porch door and snuck a clandestine photo. And then the rambunctious little posse of preteens scampered away, the moment burned off just as quickly as their spans of attention. My glance shifted to the empty chair at the head of the table. The same chair that Dad once occupied for family gatherings, and where my mother had most recently Been sitting during our spell of gleeful camaraderie. I would like very much to believe, with everything in me, that the light came from my father. And that he was smiling and laughing, looking down on his wife, his daughters, and his five grandchildren and radiating that pure joy that comes from such love. I think it is that childlike sense of wonder that sustains us at times. I hope I never become so jaded and cynical as to let that magical sense of captivation and adoration wither and drift away. And so that is what is on my mind and my heart as we say goodbye to 2016.1 wish all the same for each of you in 2017. Go forth and be blessed!
ft ftf ■ IV r /
one they have had. By a vote of 93 to 61, they voted to be represented by District 50, United Mine Workers over the AFL United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. The United Mine Workers is the union which represents workers at Northern Indiana Public Service. During preliminary talks among the members of the union here, a great deal of selling was done by the two unions involved as well as by some outside sources. The present contract between Mutschler Bros, and its union employees expires in February, 1967 and the new union will now represent Labor in these negotiations. A spokesman for the company said the management has appreciated 28 years of working with Local 3138 and anticipates'no major change in the collective bargaining relationship. ~~ : —The-Wa-Nee School-Board dosed out its "calendar year Monday night. Superintendent Osborn reported that tire district was in good shape finandally, but he said that the Board should consider increasing the spedal school fund in the budget so that it wouldn't be necessary to borrow money from other funds. He pointed out that it would soon be necessary to spend money from the cumulative building fund from which funds had been borrowed. Other business induded an announcement from the committee which has been studying possibilities of giving certain parts of the Wa-Nee district to another school district, with members of that committee sayiftg that they would have a fuH fepoft at the next meeting. : / . 25 YEARS AGO January 1,1992 Pletcher Furniture Village, McCormick Motors, and Amish Acres joined with the Marine Corps 'Toys for Tots" program during the holiday season. Employees, customers, and local churches donated toys for local children, who attended a spedal party at Amish Acres. Approximately 90 children _ received spedal invitations for activities, which included games, cookies, orange juice, milk, lots of fun, and aspetial appearance by Santa, wno distributed the gifts. / McDonald's announced that Mike Kerns, a senior at North Wood High School, Nappanee, was chosen as a state finalist to the 1992 McDonald's All-American High Scfipol Band, presented in partnership with the National Academy 1 of Recording Arts and Sciences, Incorporated. Kerns now qualifies for a chance to be named as one of 25 members of the 1992 All-American Band, to be announced later this month. If selected, Kerns will travel to New York City to perform with festivities during Academy's St ever School StudenTllfuste Award.
Later that day, with both necklaces draped gracefully around my neck, tfie kids and I trekked to Plymouth, to spend Christmas with my mother and with my sister's family. The atmosphere was decidedly different this year. We talked about Dad often, and we chuckled just as much.