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4 The Altamont Enterprise – Thursday, December 20, 2012 To the Editor: My family and I wanted to take this time to thank our wonderful family, friends, neighbors, Berne-Knox-Westerlo staff and teachers, co-workers and the whole BKW community for their support, prayers, prepared dinners, cards, and gifts for our family. Our daughter Kara, who is 9 years old, had surgery last week at Albany Medical Center to have a brain tumor removed. We first found out about the tumor around Thanksgiving and, as you can imagine, to hear that To the editor Thanks for supporting our brave little girl To the Editor: On behalf of Altamont Community Tradition, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all those who helped make our 11th Annual Victorian Holiday a rousing success. This year was the biggest year ever with over 350 touring our Holiday Houses. We are especially grateful to our House Hosts who so graciously opened their homes for the festive occasion. These hosts include Father Girzone, the Loparcos, the Owens, Laura Shore, Barbara Harris, and Frank Williams; their tremendous efforts were greatly appreciated. The visitors were guided by house volunteers including Prudy Ciaccio, Mary Hughes, Judy Newcomb, Michele Paulson, Kate Provencher, Irene Peck, and Nicole Waggoner of the State Employees Federal Credit Union. We also want to thank our SEFCU volunteers — Nancy, Shelly, and Ashley — without whom we would have been lost. The children were delighted with the balloon hats created by our clown, MacIntosh, played by Tom Person, and were busy making crafts at the activities table of Meg Seinberg-Hughes and Pam Crounse! I am sure that parents, as well as ACT members, news it felt as if our lives were turned upside down. To help us get through this difficult time and to keep everyone updated, we started a Facebook page named “Operation Kara.” It was amazing to watch the Facebook page soar with heartwarming messages and words of encouragement from so many people. Kara took on this surgery and amazed us with her strength and courage. She never complained once while in the hospital. She truly has been a brave little girl. We have been blessed that surgery went well and the outcome was a success. Words can’t express how thankful we are for the overwhelming support in our BKW community. It was all of you who made this difficult time in our lives much easier to cope with. Thank you again for all of your love and support. We wish all of you and your families Happy Holidays. Renée Sherwin for The Sherwin Family Knox Volunteer drivers sought “All you need is a license and a giving heart” To the Editor: I was just wondering if there are any people in the area who would be willing to help a fellow neighbor to get to a medical appointment, dialysis appointment, grocery shopping, or to or from adult day care. I am in charge of transportation for the town of New Scotland and our program runs on the generosity of volunteers. This time of year is really hard since so many of the volunteers are retired and go to Florida or on the day they transport are ill or have just gotten to the point they realize they are not sure about driving others. We have a car and two buses (for social events, no special license required) and we need volunteers. If a person could commit to driving a senior in the town’s car with our gas and insurance on a Tuesday afternoon from 2 to 3, a Friday from 9 to 10 a.m. or 12:45 Victorian Holiday was a rousing success to 3 p.m. (some weeks just 2 to 3 p.m.), these are the slots I really need help with. However, it is truly a volunteer position; if something comes up, just let me know as soon as possible and I will try to find someone to fill in. Please, please consider giving me a call; all you need is a clean license and a giving heart. Susan D. Kidder Senior Outreach Liaison Town of New Scotland appreciated their efforts! The People’s Choice winners for the Festival of Trees were: first place, The Spinning Room; second place, Altamont General Dentistry; third place, SEFCU. Mio Vino got an honorable mention. Our thanks go to our business sponsors that actually enable us to put on the event. They include SEFCU, Altamont Country Values, First National Bank of Scotia, SMS Trains, Key Bank, and Big John’s Portable Toilets. Prizes for Festival of Tree winners were donated by the Home Front Café, Mio Vino, ReNue Spa, and Subway. We urge readers to support these businesses that have so generously supported our festivities and our community. We cannot forget those wonderful folks who decorated trees and wreaths for our Festival of Trees, as well as the children at Altamont Free Library who made gingerbread houses; their efforts and talents added the beauty and Holiday pizzazz that was evident everywhere. Many attendees were enchanted with the musical abilities of Girl Scout Troop 1133; the girls sang carols at two of the houses, and then transitioned into the angels they are for the re-creation of the first Christmas, presented by the Altamont Reformed Church. Thanks so much, girls! Let’s not forget the Boy Scouts who ably manned the fire pits in Orsini Park where families awaiting Santa could warm their hands. Of course, we at ACT are so grateful for the Masons who allow us to use their hall for this yearly event as well as for our meetings all year long. They are so generous to us and the community and have always been a great village presence. The ladies of the Eastern Star supplied baked goods and hot drinks for sale during the Event hours as well. To end this lengthy list of appreciation, I personally wish to thank the ACT Board of Directors that pitched in on the planning, executing, and cleaning up this wonderful seasonal effort; the board members and their spouses are the best! Judith Dineen, president Altamont Community Tradition Editor’s note: Pictures of the Altamont Victorian Holiday are posted online at www.AltamontEnterprise.com under “Photo Galleries.” The Old Men of the Mountain Why not shop for the person rather than wait for the occasion? By John R. Williams It was the 11 th day of December 2012 when the Old Men of the Mountain met at the Chuck Wagon Diner in Princetown. The OGs missed 12/12/12 by one day by being there one day early. Too bad — that would have been a date to put a nick in the post for. Anyone know what time of year it is? You got it, it is shopping season, so the OF’s discussed shopping and how most of them hate it. The main reason is because they have to shop — it seems to be a requirement. Why not buy something for somebody because you want to? Who cares what date it is? If an OF spots something that his wife would like, or his grandkids, or his own kids, and it is miles from their birthdays, and it is the middle of June, why not get it then so they can have it and use it — why wait? For example, it makes no sense to some of the OFs to see something that the wife could use, or perhaps she wants to buy it then. We will eventually buy it, but now we have to stash it someplace where she won’t find it. Then we will give it to her on her birthday, or Christmas, or Valentine’s Day. Why not give it to her when it is purchased so she can enjoy it? One OF wanted to know when the special-day rule was written and, if you don’t follow this rule or if you break it, are the gift-giving police going to come and slap the cuffs on you. This was approaching bah-humbug – for the special days — not the impulse to please someone with a special gift no matter when. Being prepared The shopping talk led to shopping, period, for groceries and the basic everyday-living items. One OF said that, where he worked, there were people who shopped every day because, if they didn’t, all they would have to eat was bread and peanut butter — if that. On the Hill, the OFs learn to shop for weeks at a time and how to prepare for events like power outages, being snowed in for days at a time, and bad storms that disrupt travel — summer or winter. One OF mentioned that they have Asian friends who many years ago showed them how to shop for supplies to last for a year in case of a real calamity. This OF gained knowledge of what to purchase and how to rotate it out; what will last for long periods of time, and require no refrigeration. They become skilled at how to rotate the stored water and also how to allow yourself two gallons of water per person per day. They learned how to use rain barrels to augment this water as it is depleted and there is no power to run pumps to replace it; to have an area with a wood stove, and enough wood to go the winter just in case. They were also shown how they could cook a carp on a wood plank; that fish was good, the OF said. Safety first Talking about all this led to talking about general safety and having a gun and ammunition for hunting in case things became really bad. “If you don’t follow this rule or if you break it, are the gift-giving police going to come and slap the cuffs on you?” Being safe with a gun came up because the OFs have had two people they know shot so far this hunting season, and another person (whom the OFs didn’t know) was shot up north — all in hunting accidents. One of the people that the OFs did know shot himself in the butt with his own gun. Golly, that must have been a fun place to put on a Band-Aid. Then safety generally became the topic of discussion, and it lasted quite awhile. How many farmers and industrial workers the OFs knew that were hurt on the job, and some who even died from these accidents. The OFs found that, in all the cases they talked about, there was human error or carelessness that caused these accidents — none were the failure of a piece of equipment. There were instances of guards being removed and not replaced, people not thinking when working with a table saw or chain saw, and then trying to do things the quick way and not taking the time to jig it properly. One OF said we all have done these types of things, and we still continue to do it. The OFs started talking about accidents that we have seen and we thought (as we have said before) all the OFs at the breakfast are lucky to be there because we all have had some pretty close calls, and many have had accidents and gotten hurt. Most agreed it was our own dumb fault, but these incidents happen so fast most of the OFs never saw it coming. One OG said the government is trying to, either by law, or by insisting, have manufacturers install completely unnecessary guards and place so many labels on whatever you buy that accidents will be eliminated. The OFs say, duh — no matter what you do, you can’t legislate stupid. One OF said the manufacturer could place so many warning labels on a ladder that the labels are longer than the ladder, and then they give the ladder to a worker who can’t read — another duh. Another OF said he didn’t want to be spitting into the wind on this one, but look at us OFs going out to buy a new car and the one we like is a thousand horsepower. The dealer is more than anxious to sell it to us because we have the money. That is like starting a chainsaw and giving it to a 6-year-old and telling him to go out and cut some brush. With our reaction time cut in half, what the h--- is any OF going to do with a car that has a thousand horsepower? The first thing the OF will probably do is drive it through the showroom window while pulling back on the steering wheel hollering, WHOA! Those OFs showing up at the Chuck Wagon Diner in Princetown in their 100-horsepower vehicles were: Robie Osterman, Bill Krause, Miner Stevens, Roger Chapman, Henry Witt, Roger Shafer, Steve Kelly, Harold Guest, Frank Pauli, Mark Traver, Glenn Patterson, Gary Porter, Jack Norray, Otis Lawyer, Willard Osterhout, Ted Willsey, Jim Rissacher, Henry Whipple, Mike Willsey, Gerry Chartier, Harold Grippen, Warren Willsey, and me.
The Altamont Enterprise – Thursday, December 20, 2012 5 Comfort & Joy The bubble-wrap boogie was popular with kids attending a luncheon with Santa at the Boyd Hilton Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Altamont on Saturday. The girl at top looks like one of Santa’s elves dressed in red with fur trim as her party shoes crunch the bubbles, making a delightful pop. Nestled in Santa’s lap, another party-goer shares a smile worthy of Mona Lisa as she snuggles against his silky beard while, below, two tykes decorate festive Santa hats their own way. — Photos by Michael Koff
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