halloween edition - semo.net
TRANSCRIPT
SEMO TIMES 1
October 30, 2014
SEMO TIMESSoutheast Missouri’s News and Entertainment Community
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FREE - WEEKLY!
Page 7
BUTLER COUNTY COLLECTOR’S RACEDOWN TO WIRE
The Folly of Common CoreWhether You Like It Or Not Page 10
Page 11
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From the Publisher’s Desk
SEMO TIMES1899 N Westwood #218, Poplar Bluff, MO 63901
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Brian Becker - Publisher Scott Faughn - PresidentTammy Hilderbrand - Reporter Steve Hankins - ReporterToni Becker - Columnist Peter Tinsley - Sales Rachael Herndon - Creative Director DeAnna Strubinger - SalesMichelle Lack - Sales
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From the start, our paper has tried to adhere to the Associated Press style when writing. It is the standard among newspapers and each of our reporters was provided the 2013 edition of The Associated Press Stylebook. Toni and I often refer to that book while editing.
In our short publication history, I’ve received my share of punctuation and capitalization chal-lenges similar to the one posed last week. A reader from Florida who picked up the SEMO TIMES while visiting asked, “Why did you put quotes around Gone Girl in your Oct 16 edition when it should have been italicized?” I informed the questioner that according to AP, movie titles are in quotes and book titles are italicized. Here the AP is at odds with most English style guides which have both types of titles italicized. [Yes, I did go back and verify that each of the “Gone Girl” uses were referring to the movie.]
For those still reading (e.g. my mother and possibly the likes of former publisher of the Daily American Republic and family friend, John Stanard), we hope to have finally conquered the vacillating capitalization issue of “city council” within our pages and posts:
Whether it includes the city’s name in front of it or not, if we are referring to a singular city’s council then it will be capitalized, otherwise, when used in the generic sense or when using “the council” or “council” it will not be capitalized.
Whew! ikr? Toni and I are both pedantic when it comes to writing and continue to perfect our eye in hopes of printing
that ever-elusive “error-free edition.” [Wait, should that be in quotes?]
Sincerely,
Brian Becker
SEMO TIMES 3
THIS ISSUE
CONTENTSPage 5
YOU PAID FOR IT: More Comes to Light Regarding
City Cable Sale
Page 6Black Powder Enthusiast -
Van Rhodes
Page 7Butler County Collector’s
Race Down to Wire
Pages 8-9You Are Here: Around The
World in 92 Minutes
Page 10The Folly of Common
Core - Whether You Like It Or Not
Page 11Doniphan Spooktacular
on Halloween Night
Page 12Daylight Savings Time
Page 13Roots and Rituals -
Halloween
Page 14Wisdom in the Woods
Page 15Preview:The
Baldknobbers are Coming!
UPCOMING EVENTS
NIGHTMARE AT KINYON SCHOOLKINYON SCHOOL, POPLAR BLUFFCHECK SEMO.NET FOR TIMES
30-1
HOWLING AT THE MOON - ANIMAL WELFAR ALLIANCE BENEFITWESTWOOD CENTER, PB 6:00PM7
For more details on these events and additional events in the area, please go to semo.net! To have
your event added to the calendar, please email [email protected].
OCTOBER
A MATTER OF FAITH - THE MOVIEAMC SHOWPLACE 8, PB HELD OVER ANOTHER WEEK
30-6
DONIPHAN 3RD ANNUAL HAUNTED DOWN-TOWN SPOOKTACULARDOWNTOWN DONIPHAN (SEE PAGE 11)
31
THE HAUNTED GROTTOCHECK SEMO.NET FOR TIMES
30-31
NOVEMBER
BAH! HUMBUG!TINNIN FINE ARTS, THREE RIVERS 16
THREE RIVERS 2ND ANNUAL TRIVIA NIGHTPOPLAR BLUFF ELKS LODGE 6:00-10:00PM21
THROWDOWN: SCONE WAR COOK OFF SWEET REVENGE VS. STL’S CAFE VENTANA, PB17
www.semo.net4
SEMO TIMES 5 SEMO TIMES 1
KENT HAMPTON
ForDunklin County
CLERK
Paid for by the Committee to Elect Kent Hampton, Carl Richardson, Jr. Treasurer
This November, cast your vote for
Accountability, Accuracy, and Accessibility.
Vote Kent Hampton for Dunklin County Clerk.
KENT
HAMPTONFor
DUNKLIN COUNTY CLERK
Paid for by the Committee to Elect Kent Hampton, Carl Richard-son, Jr. Treasurer
SEMO TIMES has unearthed yet anoth-er disturbing instance of former City Man-ager Doug Bagby’s careless management and costly inattention to the city’s fiscal health.
First, Bagby and his coalition on the council left the new leaders with a $3M deficit in the employees’ health insurance fund.
Next, the taxpayers footed the bill for successfully challenging the clever, but illegal, perpetual contract that Bagby or-chestrated.
And now, the most recent instance of manipulation, playing sleight of hand with public money in the sale of City Cable.
Eight months and six days after City Council voted to sell the cable system, Utilities Manager Bill Bach stood be-fore City Council on Septem-ber 23 and said, “The ZCorum contract was not included” in the cable sale. He went on to say that the city’s agreement with ZCorum had “seventeen months remaining, at an approximate cost of $425,000.”
Bach also told council at the last meet-ing that ZCorum had agreed to reduce the balance owed by $187,500, as long as the remaining $237,500 was a one-time pay-ment in full.
Bach was correct. On the “Excluded Contracts” list, page 188 of the fully-ex-
ecuted Purchase Agreement, one of the items reads:
Other Contracts which are Excluded Assets: 8. All agreements by and be-tween the Seller and ZCorum…
But, if you look at the Purchase Agree-ment actually authorized by City Council on March 17, it says nothing about exclud-ing the ZCorum contract.
To answer the obvious question: Yes, there were two versions of the Purchase Agreement for City Cable. The one coun-cil passed on March 17 containing 192 pages and the one signed and enacted with NewWave on April 1 with 218 pages.
SEMO TIMES finds it alarming that this little tidbit of information regarding a $425,000 liability was kept from the public during the transaction discussions.
In addition to this expense, the citizens were also not informed that the consultant was wired $187,500 by the city after the sale. That’s in addition to the $75,000 paid leading up to the sale. In all, a quarter of a million dollars was paid to the consultant
for his work selling City Cable.Our former leaders and the local Rust-
owned daily newspaper continue to loudly criticize the progress of our new city leadership. They particularly cite the need for transparency, fiscal responsibili-ty, and most recently, buying local.
The sale of City Cable is a prime ex-ample of how business used to be done in Poplar Bluff --backroom shuffling of multiple contracts, willfully neglecting to mention a $425k liability the city would be on the hook for, and paying $250k to an out-of-state consultant whose payday depended on rapidly closing the touted “now-or-never deal.”
Where were the cries for transparency, fiscal responsibility and “shop local then?”
Only those used to feeding at the public trough would be proud of the circumstances under
which our former leaders sold City Cable.It is embarrassing that months after
the city sold all their assets in City Cable, we find out that exactly $500,000 of the $7M proceeds have been used to pay for things not forewarned by our leaders while pushing for the sale.
One thing we can tell you regarding that half-million dollars: you paid for it.
More Comes To Light Regarding City Cable Sale
$500,000
www.semo.net6
Vote to Re-Elect
Carol HineslyDunklin County Clerk
Experience CountsVote November 4th
Paid for by the Committee to Elect Carol Hinesly – Joe M. Hinesly, Treasurer
Vote to Re-Elect
Carol HineslyDunklin County Clerk
Experience CountsVote November 4th
Paid for by the Committee to Elect Carol Hinesly – Joe M. Hinesly, Treasurer
By Tammy Hilderbrand
Van Rhodes didn’t grow up with black powder guns.
“My family just had the typical kinds of guns and shotguns around the house,” he said.
But the moment he fell in love with black powder was the first time he saw one at an auction. He bought it.
“After that first black powder pistol I bought, I found they were just fun to shoot,” Rhodes said.
“I’m intrigued by their history and the fact that they are beautiful guns,” he con-tinued. He said black powder firearms originated in the U.S. in the 1800’s. They were the weapon of the American Civil War.
As with everything having to do with the Civil War, there were divisions.
“The Union forces used guns with steel casings, and the South used guns with brass casings,” said Rhodes, adding that high metal costs at the time were probably the deciding factor in which metals to use.
One of the most famous guns, because of its history in the Old American West, was the Colt 1851 Navy revolver; a .36 caliber black powder pistol designed by Samuel Colt between 1847 and 1850. It was so popular it stayed in production for 22 years.
Rhodes has a Colt Navy 1851 revolver in his collection.
“I bought it from a guy, and then wasn’t quite pleased with it because it had a
mechanical problem,” recalled Rhodes. He returned the pistol to the seller. After researching more about it, he decided it could be fixed, and so he bought the gun
back again. He sent it to
a gun smith in Bloomfield and, now, the revolver fires perfectly.
“The first time I used it, I shot a rabbit with it,” he remembered. He even, at one time, had a horse that would let him ride and shoot, a rari-ty because black powder guns are very loud. Most
horses become afraid of them. He said protective ear and eyewear are
a must when firing a black powder weap-on. “Sometimes little pieces of metal can shave off during firing. So you always want to protect your eyes.”
It is also important to hold the gun prop-erly, keeping your hand well away from the cylinder.
“And, these guns have no safety, so you have to always pay attention to what you are doing,” said Rhodes.
After his first gun, Rhodes was hooked. He now has five in his collection.
Many gun enthusiasts don’t like black powder because they regard it as too in-accurate. But Rhodes disagrees. He said once one is used to a black powder gun, they can be used effectively for hunting.
Because these guns are not at all on the cutting edge of technology, ammuni-tion can be difficult to come by. Rhodes makes his own out of lead. But he noted even lead is becoming harder to find and
relatively expensive. The lead is molded into balls that are placed in the gun’s cyl-inder. The cylinder holds six shots.
“I think I like black powder because it takes you back to the old days,” pondered Rhodes. There is a lot of history when you hold a black powder gun; from the Civil War to Wild Bill Hickock.
“All of that history just gives the guns a real romance,” explained Rhodes.
Though black powder became popular in the U.S. especially in the 1800’s, black powder was actually introduced in Ameri-ca in about 1675. American powder was generally of lower quality, so England re-
stricted the manufacturing of black powder among the colonists. It wasn’t until after the American Revolution that small mills started springing up to make ammunition.
American gunpowder continued to be of less quality until E.I du Pont, founder of the world’s third largest chemical com-pany, took on the production of gun pow-der in 1804, and became the leading gun powder producer.
Missouri encourages the use of black powder weapons in hunting during the “Alternative Methods Portion” of the deer hunting season, which is Dec. 20-30.
Black Powder Enthusiast —
Van Rhodes
SEMO TIMES 7
Chris MichelDemocrat Candidate
Chris Michel says not only can he do the job as County Collector for Butler County, he already is.
“After Brenda Fox died, the Office of Commissions in Jefferson City contact-ed me within the week, and asked if I would take this position. I agreed, and I hit the ground running,” said Michel.
That was September 18, and since then Michel said he knows he has already done much to improve the office, and he would like the opportunity to contin-ue bringing a technological and profes-sional edge to the office.
“I’m really not a politician,” he explained. “I’ve got 30 years of business experience.”
He started back in 1982, operating one of the first One-Hour Photo Labs in the country. His experience with comput-ers goes even further back to 1976. He said the primary challenge he has found working in the county collector’s office is that it was being operated “old school.” Procedures in some areas had not really changed since the 1950’s.
“Reports coming from daily opera-tions had information but not in a way that made sense. It took hours and hours each month, using a manual calculator to add and subtract data to reach usable information,” said Michel.
Read the remainder of Michel’s inter-view at http://tiny.cc/e46gox
Emily ParksRepublican Candidate
Emily Parks wants to be Butler County’s new County Collector. She feels she has both the experience and the desire to do an outstanding job in the position.
“I’m a sixth generation Butler Countian,” said Parks. She knows the county well, and with a degree in business administra-tion from the University of Missouri, she feels that she is well-equipped for the po-sition.
Since graduating with that degree in 2004, she has held three different posi-tions. She started her career as an ac-count manager in political fundraising, and in 2008 she was appointed by then Governor, Matt Blunt, to fill a vacancy of the position of Circuit Court Clerk in Butler County.
In 2010, she became the Director of De-velopment and Executive Director of the Three Rivers Endowment Trust.
She noted all of these positions involve trust and serving the public.
She is the daughter of John and Jea-nette Clark, and is married to Chad Parks. They have two children.
She is the candidate chosen by the But-ler County Republican Party, and cites her father, a long-time local attorney, as one of her role models.
Read the remainder of Park’s interview at http://tiny.cc/jo6gox
Tammy MarlerWrite-In Candidate
If Tammy Marler were to choose a fa-vorite superhero, it would surely be “Un-derdog.”
That’s because she realizes that is ba-sically her position as a write-in candidate for the office of Butler County Collector on November 4.
Her story is not one of a blue blood Republican dynasty. Her story is one of a woman who has worked her whole life to overcome odds.
“I was born and raised in Butler County living at Lake Wappapello. I was one of nine children living in a home with just three bedrooms and one bathroom. I shared a bedroom with two of my sisters, one of them my twin sister,” recalls Marler.
She came from a single income family, with her father being a carpenter and driv-er of a log truck.
Marler started working at just age 15 as a waitress at Grecian Steak House in Pop-lar Bluff. She remembers at the time the owner was very hesitant to hire a 15-year-old, but Marler talked her way into the op-portunity. Later her twin sister also began working at Grecian.
A few years later, Marler married and began working on an accounting degree at Three Rivers Community College.
Read the remainder of Marler’s inter-view at http://tiny.cc/b36gox
BUTLER COUNTY COLLECTOR’S RACE
DOWN TO THE WIREBy Tammy Hilderbrand
Butler County hasn’t seen a race like this, well, ever. An election with two Republicans running, one on the ballot and one as a write-in, and a Democrat is very unique in this heavily Republican county.
One key controversy within the race focuses on the $25,000 com-pensation for collecting taxes for the city of Poplar Bluff; this is in ad-dition to the $62k salary the county official receives.
Tammy Marler, the write-in candi-date, was first to speak out against using the office for personal gain.
The interim collector and Dem-ocrat candidate, Chris Michel, told SEMO TIMES he would not accept any personal payments of tax in-come.
Emily Parks, choosing to evade giving a direct answer to the $25k question, has stated she will wait and decide whether to receive the kickback until after she is elected.
One thing’s for sure, election re-sults won’t be available early since each of the write-in ballots will have to be individually inspected, validat-ed and tabulated separately.
The talk around town is that this race is close as each of the candi-dates push into their final weekend before Election Day.
www.semo.net8
YOU ARE HERE – AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 MINUTES
In You Are Here – Around the World in 92 Minutes, astronaut Chris Hadfield creates a surprisingly intimate and compelling visual essay about the planet we live on, choosing from the thousands of photos he took from the International Space Station. Chris Hadfield’s new book shows us our home—our city, country, continent, our whole planet —from a unique perspective. Millions followed Chris’ Twitter feed from the ISS, most caught the beauty but missed the meaning. Curated from images nev-er before shared, Chris’ big picture reveals why our planet looks the way it does and why we live where we do. Chris sees more in these images, not just because he’s spent months in space, but because his in-depth knowledge of geology, geography and mete-orology allows him to read mysteries the photos reveal. You Are Here represents one (idealized) orbit of the ISS. This planetary photo tour—surprising, playful, thought-provoking and visually delightful—is punctuated with fun, fascinating commentary on life in zero gravity, too. You Are Here opens a singular window on our planet, using remarkable photographs to illuminate the history and consequences of human settlement, the magnificence and wit of never-before-noticed landscapes, and the power of the natural forces shaping our world and the future of humanity.
Buy online at http://tiny.cc/ia2fox
SEMO TIMES 9
YOU ARE HERE – AROUND THE WORLD IN 92 MINUTES
PHOTO GUIDE
[TOP] Detroit, Michigan (right), and Windsor, Ontario (left), two countries, one river. [ST] While the line drawn between Tijuana (left) and San Diego (right) may have been drawn arbitrarily, it is not imaginary. [ST] A twist of cloud near Arica, Chile. North of the equator, the spiral would turn counter-clockwise.
[MIDDLE] Much of the densely built-up waterfront around San Francisco sits on landfill, often a blend of rubble and sediment dragged up from the bay. [ST] The Richat Structure in Mauritania, also known as the Eye of the Sahara, is a landmark for astronauts.
[BOTTOM] Salt from evaporation ponds at the Great Salt Lake, Utah, attracts pastel-colored algae, brine shrimp, birds… and this one land-sculpted lone wolf. [ST] The majesty of the Himalayas. [ST] The bright lights of Cairo announce the opening of the north-flowing Nile’s delta, with Jerusalem answering to the northeast.
Photos and Captions by Chris Hadfield/NASA
www.semo.net10
By Toni Becker
Some have likened America’s educa-tional system to an imperiled ship, buffet-ed about and taking on water with each so-called reform that blows through like a hurricane. The current ugly storm rock-ing Missouri’s public schools surrounds the implementation of the Common Core State Standard Initiative (CCSSI) brought into our state by Governor Nixon and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in 2009.
Multiple laws prohibit federal involve-ment in the details of education. Missouri law requires that the legislature be re-sponsible for educational standards and that each local school board be allowed to alter as they see fit.
But none of that stopped the governor from bypassing the legislature and signing Missouri onto the CCSSI anyway.
The CCSSI encompasses hollow stan-dards; high-stakes assessments; massive collection and sharing of personal student data; and curriculum. The reaches of the initiative threaten district accreditation, teacher evaluations and local control over schools. Not to mention that the standards and forthcoming aligned curriculum push a distinctly global, liberal/progressive ide-ology.
The initiative initially imposed “stan-dards” governing math and English Lan-guage Arts but is poised to consume sci-
ence and history as well. The Common Core-aligned Next Generation Science Standards are being heavily pushed by Common Core supporters and aligned “social studies” content is being funneled through the literacy component of ELA.
Missouri parents are finally starting to wake up about what the CCSSI means for their kids. Math for younger students is causing great stress, not because the kids aren’t smart and the math too “rigorous” but because it is highly age-inappropriate and ridiculously complicated.
Parents are scratching their heads as to why they can’t see the assessments their kids are being subjected to, not even fully comprehending that the data being extracted from their child during assess-ments assures that personal privacy for their child is a mere vestige of a by-gone era.
Moms and dads can’t seem to get straight answers from school staff when they inquire about Common Core as if teachers are forbidden to discuss it. The double-speak flying off the tongues of school board members and superinten-dents is making parents’ blood boil across the state.
Moms and dads from across the state were compelled to try to “do something” to stop the CCSSI. They petitioned their legislators and HB 1490 was crafted to carry their explicit demand that the illegal CCSSI be banished from Missouri.
HB 1490 made its way through the grinder that is the legislative process and emerged virtually unrecognizable.
HB 1490 morphed into a two-year slog in the form of workgroups; hurriedly as-sembled, chaotically constructed and vaguely charged. The workgroup recom-mendations on the standards must be submitted to the State Board to accept or reject by October 2015. Any changes accepted will go into effect beginning the 2016-17 school year.
In the waning hours of the legislative session language from data bills opposed by citizen advocates because they failed to protect student and family privacy was added to HB 1490. The inclusion of this language lays the framework for DESE to collect and share openly untold amounts of personally identifiable information on all children attending public school in Mis-souri.
Sandra Stotsky is a renowned English language scholar who served on the Na-tional Validation Committee for the CCS-SI in 2009-10. Stotsky refused to sign off on the academic quality of the standards because they lacked in so many areas. Stotsky has been closely observing the workgroups’ progress and has concluded that Missouri is simply producing “warmed over Common Core.”
Many closely involved in 1490’s pitiful transfiguration are shaking their heads af-ter coming to terms with just how unhelpful
legislation has proven to be in correcting what was an already illegal transformation of our kids’ education. Some citizen ac-tivists felt like the new 1490 was the best they could get and believe further legisla-tion is necessary going forward. Others viewed it as a horrible disappointment, especially to Missouri’s kids.
While parents and teachers wrangle and fight it out in the workgroups over the next year DESE gets another two full years of relative smooth sailing in the fine-tuning of the implementation of the CCSSI.
Meanwhile Missouri’s children are hus-tling off to school each day deserving the very highest quality education a state can offer but receiving, instead, the blowback caused by a system more concerned with increasing its own power, control and fi-nancial bottom line.
Would that those we elected to repre-sent our families would have simply stood up and rejected Nixon’s albatross of the CCSSI the day they realized how he and the DESE had usurped the sovereignty of our state and sold out its most precious re-source for federal cash. What is the point of having laws on the books that no one enforces?
So more legislation is the answer? Ask the innocent kids of Missouri how that’s working for them. It is more likely that all that amounts to is plugging the latest gap-ing hole in the sinking ship with gum.
The Folly of Common CoreWhether You Like It Or Not
SEMO TIMES 11
By Tammy Hilderbrand
There will be a huge Halloween cele-bration in Doniphan Friday evening and the town has an unusual bit of genealogy to credit for the celebration.
When Kat Robinson started research-ing her family’s genealogy, she ran across something very surprising.
She found she was a direct descendant of the Bloodlines of Salem Massachu-setts.
“Luckily, my multi-great grandparents, Thomas and Mrs. Roberts, weren’t exe-cuted, but they were banished to Rhode Island,” explained Robinson. This was pri-or to the famous witch trials of 1692.
Those trials resulted in the execution of twenty people, most of them women. The preliminary hearings of those trials were actually held in several towns in the prov-ince of Massachusetts Bay: Salem Vil-lage, Ipswich, Andover, and Salem Town. At least five more individuals accused died while in prison.
Robinson, now a member of Doniph-an’s City Council and owner of Active Kat Yoga, decided to honor her ancestors and descendants of the Roberts’ in a small way on Halloween.
“Our home in downtown Doniphan used to be an old hospital. We have a balco-ny, and I thought it might be fun to do a candy drop for the kids in town,” recalled Robinson.
Last year, she and her daughters donned costumes and threw 3,000 pieces of candy from the balcony.
“This year we hope to be tossing about 10,000 pieces of candy over the balcony. Donations keep coming in and we are al-most to that goal,” said Robinson.
Kat took her idea to the Doniphan Neigh-borhood Assistance Program (DNAP) and they were elated to get on board saying they had been wanting to do something like this for years! Now it is the 3rd Annual Haunted Downtown Doniphan Halloween Spooktacular.
Due to the generous donations and ef-forts of volunteers, the Spooktacular event will feature a trunk or treat, hayride, food, games, and haunted tours of the Histori-cal Museum and the Heritage Homestead. Many businesses plan to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. Although many events are free, some attractions do have a nom-inal charge for their event.
“It has basically turned into a fun night for parents to bring their children to that don’t feel comfortable with trick or treating. It’s another option for kids and parents on Halloween,” explained Robinson.
The Ripley County Chamber of Com-merce along with the City of Doniphan sponsored a window decorating contest. Many businesses decorated their win-dows with Halloween themes to add to the Halloween night festivities.
The “Trunk or Treat” event will be host-ed by His Place Church around Heritage Park.
It all begins with the candy drop at 6 p.m. on South Grand Street. The Hallow-een events will continue until 8 p.m.
“Anyone interested in becoming a ven-
dor or volunteer is still welcome to get in-volved. Those interested should call Rob-inson at 573-996-7481.
“We ask that booths sell or participate in a way that keeps with the spirit of Hallow-een, such as offering hot chocolate, hot
cider, hot dogs, chili, Sloppy Joes, etc.,” explained Robinson.
Lynn Maples, curator of the Current River Heritage Museum expects several visitors to this year’s “Haunted Museum,” sponsored by Project Graduation.
Cindy Jenks, DNAP Board, Candi Whitlow, DNAP Board and Bloodlines of Salem Descendant, Kat Robinson, Event Coordinator and Bloodlines of Salem, Lynn Maples, Museum Curator.
Doniphan Spooktacular on Halloween Night
Walter Dearing is focused onthe Bootheel.
VOTE WALTER DEARING ON NOVEMBER 4STATE REPRESENTATIVE - DISTRICT 150
PAID FOR BY THE COMMITTEE TO ELECT WALTER DEARING STATE REPRESENATIVE
VOTE WALTER DEARING STATE REPRESENTATIVE - DISTRICT 150
PAID FOR BY THE COMMITTEE TO ELECT WALTER DEARING STATE REPRESENATIVE
Walter Dearing is focused onthe Bootheel.
www.semo.net12
Daylight Savings TimeBy Tammy Hilderbrand
It used to be said that there are two top-ics that one should always avoid in con-versation: religion and politics.
Now a third can be added: Daylight Savings Time.
People love it or hate it.The modern-day concept was con-
ceived in the mind of Benjamin Franklin back in 1784 and was introduced in an essay he penned entitled “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light”
The idea behind it was to make better use of natural daylight and to conserve energy.
As we all know, during Daylight Savings Time (DST) clocks are set ahead by one hour, giving us an added hour of daylight each morning and one hour less in the evening.
Though Franklin came up with the con-cept in 1784, it has only been used for about the past hundred years.
The concept did not actually begin with Franklin, though. It is believed that several ancient civilizations basically did the same thing, adjusting their daily schedules to the Sun’s. The Romans had water clocks that used different scales for different months of the year.
George Vernon Hudson presented his version of DST in New Zealand to the Wellington Philosophical Society in 1895, proposing a two-hour shift forward in Oc-tober and back in March. His idea was not utilized.
A British builder, William Willet, also proposed the idea in 1905. His idea was more complex, suggesting that clocks be set 20 minutes ahead on each of the four Sundays in April, and then switching them back by the same amount of time on each of four Sundays in September. His idea made it to the House of Commons as a bill, but it was never fully passed.
Germany was actually the first mod-ern-day country to implement DST on April 30, 1916. The rationale was to min-imize the use of artificial light in order to save fuel for the World War I effort. Then the idea spread to Britain and the United States, but it wasn’t actually implemented in the U.S. until World War II, again, to save energy resources for the war effort.
Franklin D. Roosevelt acted to have DST instituted year round, calling it “War Time,” just forty days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The U.S. time zones were designated as “Eastern War Time,” “Cen-tral War Time,” and “Pacific War Time.” After the surrender of Japan in 1945, the zones were re-named “Peace Time”.
The U.S. time change caused a great deal of confusion from 1945 to 1966 for trains, buses, and the broadcast indus-try because states and localities could choose when and where to observe DST.
In 1966, the “Uniform Time Act” was passed and it stated DST would begin on the last Sunday of April, and end on the last Sunday of October. States and local-ities could still claim exemption from the time, though.
In 1974, the U.S. Congress extended DST to a period of ten months, and then in 1975 to eight months, again, in order to save energy during the 1973 Oil Embargo.
Studies indicated the time change saved about 10,000 barrels of oil each day.
Though the beginning and ending dates vary from country to country, DST is used in over 70 countries worldwide.
The current U.S. schedule was intro-duced in 2007, and follows the “Energy Policy Act of 2005”, which extended the period by about a month. It now starts on the second Sunday in March, and ends on the first Sunday in November.
Source: www.timeanddate.com
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SEMO TIMES 13
By Toni Becker
The fall season ushers in shorter days, chilly evenings and traditions richly rooted in curious lore.
Halloween occurs every year on the 31st day of October but the preparations marketed by retailers begin in late Au-gust. Pumpkins, straw bales, corn stalks, fall-colored wreaths and vibrant mums abound to inspire the home décor enthu-siasts but it’s the bustling of excited kids rummaging through the crowded racks of crazy costumes and accessories that cap-tures the spirit of Halloween.
To most Halloween revelers, the holiday is an opportunity to decorate the house, host themed parties, carve pumpkins, dress up in fun costumes and score on some serious candy by trick-or-treating. Most don’t inquire about the history that spawned the festivities we engage in; that “spirit” behind Halloween.
It is believed that Halloween, and many of its characteristic traditions, is rooted in the pagan practices of the Celts some 2,000 years ago. The Celts, who occupied parts of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, engaged in an annual
festival of the dead called Samhain (pro-nounced sah-win). Held at the end of October when summer had faded and the dark winter loomed on the horizon, the festival was steeped in mystery, dark magic and otherworldly mayhem.
On this day each year it was believed that the shroud between the living and the dead was lifted allowing departed spirits to cross over death’s chasm into the land of the living. Fairies, witches and demons also ruled the black night. Because it was thought that the dark shadows of the dead would pay a visit to their former dwellings, the living would prepare lavish feasts and a reserve a seat at the table for their ghoulish guest.
Lore has it that the living curried the fa-vor of the spirits with offerings of food and drink left out for them to secure protection for their lives and livestock over the brood-ing, bitter winter.
Bonfires illuminated the night sky. The ritual flames were stoked as the smoke billowed to honor the dead, assisting them on their sojourn and hopefully keeping them at bay beneath the twilight. Sacrific-
es of food and animals were ceremonially
heaved upon the towering
pyre.
A gruesome rite, considered by some as fable, involved a divination game where each person laid a stone represent-ing themselves around the fire, forming a ring around the flames. With torches in hand, participants ran around the blaze rejoicing. As morning split the sky, if a stone was missing, the person the stone represented would die, perhaps even at the fingers of the flames….
Fortune-telling rituals were part of the traditions of Samhain. Villagers would peel apples, toss the peel over their shoulder and study its shape in hopes of discovering the first initial of their future spouse’s name.
Roasted nuts were studied and if the nuts remained intact it was interpreted as a good omen for married couples. Egg whites, plopped in water, formed slimy shapes that foretold the number of future children one would have. Children chas-ing crows, apple-bobbing and mirror-gaz-ing were believed to offer insight into the unknown.
Townspeople donned ghoulish garb, imitating dark devils, demons and spirits in hopes of escaping the attention of the roaming dead during Samhain. The cos-tumed villagers went door-to-door, solic-iting food for feasts, alms for the spirits or fuel for the bonfires in exchange for a song or recited verse.
The Samhain invited mischief and trick-ery. Pranksters of the night lit their paths with lanterns fashioned from hollowed out turnips with evil faces carved in their flesh. These were the early Jack-o-lanterns, a name that hails from the legend of a stingy rascal named Jack who tricked the devil so many times he was denied entrance into both heaven and hell and thereby cursed to wander the earth for eternity, waving his lantern to lure people from their paths.
The name “Halloween” comes from the movement of Christian missionaries, un-settled by the popularity of pagan practic-es within Samhain, who sought to morph the festivities into a more Christianized adaptation.
In 601 A.D. Pope Gregory I set out to subsume the native rituals as tools of conversion, not eradicating the deeply ingrained customs but consecrating them to Christ and the work of converting their followers to Christianity. Church fathers created two holy days on the first two days of November; All Saints’ Day on the first day to honor saints and martyrs, followed by All Souls Day on the second to pray for the departed. The church selected these dates specifically to coincide with the pa-gan festival.
Thus, the day before the two holy days became known in English as All Hallows’ Even which, over time, became the gram-matical contraction known as Halloween.
It is difficult to say with certainty when the tradition of Halloween became a fix-ture of American culture, but with the ar-
rival of swells of European immigrants came the colorful blends of traditions and customs they brought with them.
And so Halloween is observed to this day on the final day of Oc-
tober and, even as this account is assembled, kids of all ages are
planning and plotting how to make it the most memorable Halloween ever.
Roots and Rituals - Halloween
www.semo.net14
For those who read this column and enjoy the outdoor colors in the fall of the year, it would be wise to take a trip this weekend as the colors will begin to fade pretty soon. For reasons that only Mother Nature knows, the colors did not begin to appear as early as they normally do and therefore the early October color watching didn’t happen.
The late spring, the warm conditions during part of the winter seems to have messed up everything outdoors. I have recently seen doe deer with young ones that still have their spots. During the nor-mal weather, the young buck deer have nubbins on their heads that you can see if you get close enough. Usually they will weigh in between 75 and 100 lbs. during hunting season but this year most hunters will let those deer pass and grow up a lit-tle: let them go and grow.
The acorns have begun falling even though we haven’t had a frost or freeze. I haven’t seen any white oak acorns under the trees in our yard. The post oak and black oak seem to be in good supply.
Recently someone asked my wife, “Have you guys done all those things your husband writes about?” and my wife quickly replied, “Yes, and a lot more he hasn’t written about yet.”
An example of the experiences we have had was the inaugural hunt titled “Coon Hunters Reunion” which was held at Hillsboro, Ohio. We wanted to go but it was near the end of the school year and with three kids in Mark Twain Elementary School, it wasn’t a good time.
My wife was well known at the school as she helped out on a lot of occasions and decided to contact the teachers to see how it would work out if the kids missed a week of school as that was a big hunt and would take a week away from their final month. All of the teachers agreed that the kids would probably learn more from a trip like that than they would learn if they were in school as the last few days there wasn’t much they would miss. They would be back in time for any tests that would be given.
We made the trip and met lots of people that we have kept in contact with and the kids made friends with a lot of other kids that missed that week of school to attend with their families.
To let you know how expensive that trip happened to be, we didn’t spend a lot of money because we didn’t have it but the motel on a lake outside of town cost us $50 for four days. The gas bill for the en-tire trip was $22. We took along a lot of drinks and snacks and the cabin on the
lake had cooking privileges. With the food we bought to prepare and the entry fee for the hunts, it was about $125 for the entire trip.
I know it would cost a lot more at today’s prices. The $22 for gas would barely get us out of the state and we’d still have about 300 miles to go.
My travels to hunts have taken me, and sometimes us, to Virginia to the east, Kan-sas to the west, Texas to the south, and Minnesota and Wisconsin to the north and almost all states in between. I believe the best of the hunting territory was in Iowa. The worst was at Cookeville, TN. When I arrived there one of the hunters who would guide me told me that it usually took about 45 minutes from strike to tree to put one up. We struck three tracks and it took 45 minutes for each one.
Hunting and fishing was an inherited thing to me. Dad hunted and fished when he was a kid and told me a little about his activities. He bragged to me one time that “I’ve taught you everything I know and you still don’t know anything.” He sure was wrong as I learned plenty.
My kids inherited it from both sides of the family. My wife was her dad’s fishing buddy and she held rabbits and squirrels while he skinned them.
The picture is of my wife Elaine’s dad,
Lewis Stephen York, born January 17, 1909 at King Bee, MO, the now extinct town in Ripley County. He is the father of Ruth Elaine York Woods (Mrs. Paul Woods). The picture was taken in the back yard of the family home in Doniphan. He was around 7 or 8 and has a stringer of bass he caught in Current River. He was from a family of 10 children and spent most of his spare time on Current River. Elaine, as mentioned before, was his fish-ing partner.
He worked for the Missouri Pacific Rail-road at Doniphan around 19 years and then was transferred to Poplar Bluff and finished his career with MO Pac at age 68, retiring from the railroad at St. Louis.
There are very few UKC shows and coon hunts for the remainder of the year as most clubs choose not to have a hunt during open furbearer season.
The Razorback Club at Knobel, Arkan-sas has a show and hunt November 1. The Club at Walnut Ridge has a show and hunt November 29. In Missouri the only hunt that was listed in the magazine is No-vember 8 at Summersville.
With the opening of duck season in the Middle Zone November 1, there could be some noise on Wappapello Lake for the anglers to listen to but there haven’t been many reports of ducks there.
OUTDOORS
Mills Iron & Supply, Poplar Bluff, Mo
By Paul Woods
Lewis Stephen York with bass he caught from Current River
SEMO TIMES 15
PREVIEW
By Tammy Hilderbrand
Those familiar with Branson are famil-iar with “The Baldknobbers Jamboree,” a comedy show that has kept people laughing for 55 years. Since becoming a Branson mainstay, it has been rare for the comedy group to leave Branson for shows.
But they are making an excep-tion on Friday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. when they will perform at Poplar Bluff’s Historic Rodgers Theatre. The show is being performed as a fundraiser for Springhill’s School of Hope in Fairdeal-ing.
Sean Kallner, who founded the school, says his school has had a number of different fundraisers over the past three years. This year the decision was made to try to get the Bald-knobbers to come to Poplar Bluff, with the belief that the comedy troupe would pull a good crowd and thus help the fundraising efforts.
“We felt the Baldknobbers would be well-supported by the community,” said
Kallner. He said the school is in the midst of a building project and really needs the funds to complete it.
He and Jim Hoyt began the project of recruiting The Baldknobbers for a visit to Poplar Bluff.
“I contacted The Baldknobbers and be-
gan the negotiation process. We nailed down the date, and I have to say they have been very helpful in working with us,” said Kallner.
Now he would also like to draw in some corporate sponsors to help underwrite the event.
The Baldknobbers began their career as a family entertainment phenomenon in 1959, when the four Mabe brothers be-
gan entertaining visitors at Branson’s lakefront. Their show is a special blend of comedy and music.
Now the second and third generations of the family carry on the tradi-tion, joined by a cast of singers, musicians, co-medians and entertainers. The Baldknobbers keep their show fresh by creat-ing a new show each year.
Springhill School of Hope was found-ed by the Springhill Missionary Baptist Church. The idea for it began in 2004 and the first year of operation was 2007. It in-cluded seven children, grades 2 through 8. By 2010, enrollment grew to 31 stu-dents.
“By then we were running out of room,” explained Kallner. So in 2011, the church began construction of a new school build-ing.
“With a new school building, we will be able to enroll over 50 students,” said Kall-ner.
Springhill School of Hope has as its mission to provide quality, individualized instruction for its students. The school utilizes the ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) school curriculum. ACE was founded in 1970, and today is utilized in
over 6,000 schools in 145 countries.“Our school is based on the idea of each
student having reasonable goals to work toward,” explained Kallner. “We strive to provide a Christ-centered atmosphere and a positive learning environment. We also want to encourage growth in Chris-tian character.”
The school serves students in kinder-garten through 12th grade, and features a school calendar that is somewhat different than the traditional school.
“Our school year begins in July and ends in June,” said Kallner. “Our quar-ters are ten weeks of school and then a three-week break between each quarter.” School days are Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The school is located off Highway 160 between Poplar Bluff and Doniphan.
The Baldknobbers are Coming!
www.semo.net16 SEMO TIMES 1
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PUERTO JAIVOM E X I C A N R E S T A U R A N T
SEMO TIMES 1
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