Mountain Times- Volume 48, Number 51: Dec. 18-24, 2019

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Columns 46 • The Mountain Times • Dec. 18 - 24, 2019 Tucked behind a stonewall on the edge of a hardwood forest, my 6-year-old students and I spy on an Eastern gray squirrel as it climbs out of a tree cavity and scurries down to the ground. There is a dusting of snow. My students, bundled in vibrant snowsuits, are the only flash of color on this cold winter day. They are astoundingly quiet as they watch the scampering squirrel. We see it slide to a halt, stand on its hind legs, flick its tail, and then it’s off again until it stops to dig into the cold winter ground. As it pulls out a nut-brown acorn, I hear a buzz of excitement travel through The Outside Story By Susie Spikol Looking Back By Mary Ellen Shaw Achieving success Oftentimes we look at others’ success and see some circumstance that may have contributed to said success. While circumstances may make it easier or more difficult to achieve success, they do not create success on their own. Researchers have found that mental toughness and perseverance predicts our level of success more than any other factor. Whether you want to be the best accountant, salesperson, professional athlete, doctor, Money Matters By Kevin Theissen Children’s Christmas gifts from the 1950s It’s fun to take a look back at Christmas in the ’50s when we lived in simpler times. I don’t think the world was as materialistic back then. Christmas lists that were compiled by me and my friends didn’t have many items on them and those that made the list didn’t cost a lot of money. Of course, digital devices didn’t exist back then and games were not electronic for the most part. When those became popular the items became more costly. In Rutland if you wanted to ask Santa Nuts for corns my fellow squirrel professionals. Gray squirrels are so common that many of us forget to notice them unless we are 6. But as my students would tell you, there’s a fascinating story here. How the squirrel spends all fall collecting acorns and can tell by a sniff and a shake if the acorn is a keeper. If the acorn has a weevil in it, the squirrel won’t bury it for winter. Instead, it will often eat it right then, consuming the nut and the added protein of the larva. This is a good plan, since an acorn with a weevil in it won’t keep for winter, rotting after the weevil has consumed most of the nut. Another intriguing element of the story involves the squirrel’s use of deception to thwart competition. They carry acorns, bury them, unbury them, and then rebury them in a different location, all as a means of confusing cache raiders. Gray squirrels are master scatter Hoarders. Each fall they bury hundreds upon hundreds of nuts in different locations around their territory. Studies have shown that they are pros at remembering the location of each nut, with a 95% retrieval rate. Recent research has shown that it is a squirrel’s precise spatial memory that helps it reclaim its buried bounty more than smell. As we watched that day, it was natural to assume that the squirrel was taking advantage of the oak. But what if it was really the oak that was shaping the squirrel and its life style? These trees have their own tricks up their sleeves. Think of the acorn itself – that luscious protein that’s an irresistible invitation to a seed eater like a gray squirrel. But the prize is wrapped in a hard shell. It is an endeavor to eat an acorn, one that requires time to crack the shell and get to the meat. Because of this, squirrels can’t consume large quantities at once. The handling time is too long and would make them vulnerable to predators. And so they evolved to tuck the acorns away for leaner times. How convenient for the oak tree to have a bushy-tailed helper who buries its seed. The squirrel not only hides it away from other seed predators, it gives the acorn a place filled with soil and protection to sprout in the spring. And then there is the way that in years like this one, all the red oak trees synchronize their acorn production across entire regions. When the forest floor is littered with acorns, squirrels up their scatter Hoarding behavior, stashing away more than they could ever eat. The more acorns there are, the farther away the squirrel buries the nuts from where it found them. These outlying seeds, hoarded far from the shade of their mother tree, often go unclaimed and become the next generation of oak trees. As the first graders watched the squirrel gnawing away the shell and finally nibbling on the nut, I was watching the oak tree. I let my mammal gaze wander up its broad branches and saw another living being, not simply a passive producer providing for a consumer. Susie Spikol is community program director for the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock, N.H. The illustration for this column was drawn by Adelaide Tyrol. The Outside Story is assigned and edited by Northern Woodlands magazine and sponsored by the Wellborn Ecology Fund of N.H. Charitable Foundation. personally for the items on your list, the place to do that was at the Economy Store on Merchants Row. Santa was ready and waiting for you during the month of December. There were not a lot of local stores with elevators. But the one at the Economy had an elevator operator who took you to the top floor to see Santa. That experience was a thrill in itself. After telling him what you wanted for Christmas you were given a candy cane. A popular board game that children had on their list was “Candy Land. “The board looks like a colored race track and when you removed the top card from the deck it told you where to place your marker. The goal was to reach the Candy Castle first. This popular game from my childhood became modern with a VCR version in the 80s and a DVD format around 2005. Other items that might have been on the wish list were Play-doh or a Slinky. In Rutland if you wanted to ask Santa personally for the items on your list, the place to do that was at the Economy Store on Merchants Row. These would have kept a kid busy for a good part of the day. Play-doh is described as a “modeling compound” used for arts and crafts projects. It came in bright yellow containers with tops that matched the color inside. The smell of the product is distinctive enough to produce its own memory. It smelled like wheatbased dough along with a vanilla and parent, etc…, there is a simple a simple formula for success. That formula is to do what other people aren’t willing to do and do it a lot. This can be applied to studying, working out, getting more experience or learning to be more patient. Success isn’t a secret formula. Often the greatest difference between someone who is average and someone is successful comes down to “doing it.” Doing the daily habits will compound over time to success. It’s not easy – and that is why there are many average and few successful. But it is something we can each improve upon day by day. The media often refers to “smart money.” I don’t know why. The “smart money” make some pretty stupid decisions. Its identification of “smart” is misleading. Intelligence has very little to do with investment success. In fact, Warren Buffett said that once you have an average IQ, what sets apart successful investors is their ability to control the urges that influence us to make bad financial decisions. These urges are natural, and they are hard to fight off. It takes a lot of mental toughness to ignore the media or the hot investment of the month. It takes mental toughness to ignore what your co-worker is bragging about. It takes perseverance to stick with your financial plan and exercise patience – especially when your plan doesn’t appear to be “working.” After all, no strategy will outperform all of the time. Being patient and disciplined is not easy! It goes against what may feel right. But that is why financial advisors exist. They are there to help and guide you along your financial journey. Just like with a personal trainer, sometimes it is easier to exhibit mental toughness when you have someone cheering you on. cherry scent. In case you have never seen one a Slinky. it is a coiled spring, a very simple toy! Children can make it walk, bounce or even go down a set of stairs. It was discovered by an engineer who was working on a project involving coils. As the engineer worked one coil fell from his desk and bounced. What it did after it landed amused him so much that he decided to bring it home for his son to play with. The boy put it at the top of the stairs and down it went…one stair after another, all on its own. Thus, the Slinky was born! And what little girl didn’t have a doll on her Santa list? Most of them didn’t do anything special back in the day. They were pretty basic. Enjoyment came from dressing them, combing their hair and Looking Back > 47
The Mountain Times • Dec. 18 - 24, 2019 COLUMNS • 47 The Movie Diary By Dom Cioffi Upping the competition Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll tell you I have a highly competitive streak. I don’t deny it. In fact, I point to it as a contributing factor in the many successes I’ve had in life. When I was very young, I had a hard time losing at anything. It wasn’t uncommon for me things didn’t go my way while play- a game or sport. I remember the emotional toll that losing took on me, like it was a direct slight to my worth as a person. I even reached a point where I stopped playing board games to cry if ing because the thought of losing was too much to handle. Later, during high school and college, my competitiveness jumped up a notch. At that stage, I had to win. I wouldn’t go so far that I’d cheat, but I’d look for every competitive advantage I could find. The difference during this period and my youth was that the sadness from losing turned into anger. This usually manifested in sports, which I was heavily involved in. I played with a profound intensity, demanding that everyone I competed with also play at this level. And if things didn’t go my way, it took everything in my power not to explode at myself or those around me. Luckily, I usually held it in check. It was afterwards when no one was around that I usually lost control. I had several losing moments when I nearly broke my hand by punching the steering wheel or shower wall. I’ve now calmed down to a point where I’ve learned to lose. Don’t get me wrong… I still like to win and try my hardest to win every time I engage in any competitive situation; I just don’t let it define me in any way. This holiday season was a perfect example. I decided sometime in October that I was going to knock out all my Christmas chores ahead of time. My plan was to decorate the inside and outside of my house, get my tree up, do all my Christmas shopping, mail all of my holiday cards, and make plans for a holiday party all before Dec. 1. I approached things the same way last year and was pleased with the results. By getting everything done ahead of time, I left myself with a very relaxed holiday. In fact, it was so relaxed that my wife and I made a couple trips to the mall just to walk around and watch the madness. It was weirdly exhilarating not to be part of the chaos, but merely a curious spectator. So, as soon as our Thanksgiving meal ended, I put my plan into action. By the end of Black Friday, I had ordered almost all of my Christmas gifts online, taking advantage of numerous sales. I had also decorated the entire outside of my house, complete with wreaths and garland strung across several windows and doors, with accompanying white lights for holiday bling. Red bows added a final splash of color to make things pop. During the following weekend, I attacked the inside of my house, spicing it up from top to bottom with the boxes of decorations that we’ve collocated over 30 years. I then put up our tree (yes, it’s fake) and reset several hundred blown out lights. Fake trees are supposed to be easier, but I can say after owning one for a couple years, it’s not that much easier. And when you buy one as expensive as ours, it’s definitely not saving you any money. Eventually, my wife had to pull me aside to gently tell me to calm down. In the following days, I got all of my Christmas cards in the mail and secured everything for a holiday party. When Dec. 1 hit, I was officially done. Or so I thought. This is when my competitive juices started kicking in. While out jogging, I started to see other people decorating their houses with much more flare. It seemed like everywhere I looked, there was a house that looked more Christmassy than mine. Before I knew it, I was back in the stores looking for more lights and decorations. I then started to question the validity of my indoor decorating, feeling like I had neglected some rooms over others and contemplating whether I needed to upgrade older decorations. Again, I hit the stores for more ornamentation in my quest to have the perfect holiday environment. Eventually, my wife had to pull me aside to gently tell me to calm down. She explained very nicely that I was in danger of going full Clark Griswold if I didn’t reign in the over-decorating. I begrudgingly agreed and then tried really hard not to punch the shower wall. This week’s film, “Jumanji: The Next Level,” also has its share of competitive frustrations. In the fourth installment of the popular franchise (originally created by writer Chris Van Allsburg), the same cast of characters are back to play the game again, this time with an interesting twist to their personalities. At its heart, this a big budget children’s movie that will get a chuckle or two out of adults, but ultimately leave them feeling listless. However, given the magic of the holiday season, just seeing little ones entertained is reason enough to go. A “C” for “Jumanji: The Next Level.” Got a question or comment for Dom? You can email him at moviediary@att.net. Looking Back: Simple gifts are memorable > from page 46 playing “mother” to them. One of mine had long blonde hair that must have been acceptable to me in the dead of winter but I thought she would be cooler in the summer with short hair. So I cut off most of it. The scissors that children were allowed to use probably played a role in the look of a haircut “gone bad”! I loved the doll anyway which goes to show that children are not judgmental when it comes to appearance. I asked my husband, Peter, what he liked to find under his family’s Christmas tree. Model airplanes were always a welcome present and a train set was probably his favorite. Peter’s fascination with trains probably came from spending a lot of time at the train station in Plainfield, New Jersey as he went there with his mother when she dropped off and picked up his dad who worked in New York City. The train set was permanently placed in their basement and was enjoyed by him and his friends year round. For me, getting a record player was probably one of my most fun gifts. The turntable held one vinyl record at a time. There was an arm with a needle at the end. You placed the needle on the record and the music began. By the end of Christmas Day my parents had heard “Old McDonald Had a Farm” about 100 more times than they cared to. Kids love repetition and that gift allowed for plenty of that! As they say, “You can never go back.” Maybe not in time but you can go back in your memories and that’s a fun thing to do. Merry Christmas and keep your “wish list” simple… just like in the 50s! Full Service Vape Shop Humidified Premium Cigars • Hand Blown Glass Pipes Hookahs & Shisha Roll Your Own Tobacco & Supplies CBD Products • Smoking Accessories 131 Strongs Avenue Rutland, VT (802) 775-2552 Call For Shuttle Schedule Keep your “wish list” simple…just like in the 50s! Like us on Facebook! Please call or check us out online for this week’s movie offerings. Movie Hotline: 877-789-6684 WWW.FLAGSHIPCINEMAS.COM
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Mountain Times- Volume 48, Number 51: Dec. 18-24, 2019

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