LSK's

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Issue #72
Series 2
December 2005




THE CHRISTMAS TREE FARM


CHRISTMAS TREES

On December 4, 2005, LS Kids Meghan Rockey, Debbie Benfield, Shelby Sander and Tiffany Allen, along with Lou and Lou’s wife Michelle, made their annual trip to Lou’s father’s Christmas tree farm in Slatington, Pennsylvania.
The trip began at nine-thirty that morning. Three hours later, after stopping in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, to visit a local gift shop and take a few photographs, the Kids arrived at Green Valley Farm and enjoyed a quick lunch of French fries, hot dogs, and pink lemonade. Then it was time to cut some trees. Lou manned the saw, taking a larger tree for himself and cutting down smaller ones for Tif and Debbie. Debbie wanted a Charlie Brown tree for her bedroom, and Tif got one to go in her new apartment.
Later, Tif, Debbie, Meghan and Michelle made their own wreaths out of sprigs of pine, complete with pine cones and red ribbons. On the way home that night, the Kids stopped by Berwick, Pennsylvania, to drive through their Christmas display on Market Street. Everyone talked about what a good time they’d had, and all are looking forward to making the trip again next year.
-Tiffany Allen
-Staff

CHRISTMAS


RINGING THE BELLS
On a bitterly cold December third, the LS Kids were in downtown Lock Haven ringing the bell for the Salvation Army. Despite the cold, the kids still managed to have fun talking and joking with one another. Every now and then a couple of the kids would run for cover in Subway to enjoy the heat and grab a cup of hor chocolate while they were at it.
Lou, Meghan Rockey, Tiffany Allen, Debbie Benfield, Krystle Welch, and new member Amanda Barry all attended the project.
The kids stood for 3 hours in the cold, but the money raised for the Salvantion Army made everything worth it.
-Meghan Rockey
-Staff

THE PARADE
On December third, Krystle Welch, Lou, Debbie Benfield, Tiffany Allen, Shelby Sander, Ginger White, and an added extra, Debbie's little brother Billy, walked in the annual Lock Haven Christmas Parade.
The LS Kids didn't throw candy in the parade this year, but they did hand out flyers for the luminary candles for the American Cancer Society.
Everyone wore Santa hats, and Debbie dressed up like a bag of toys.
Everyone had a god time, considering it was only about thirty degrees out.
-Debbie Benfield
-Staff

LS KIDS PLAY SANTA CLAUS
On Friday, December 16, LS Kids Tif Allen and Ginger White, along with Lou, got a chance to be Santa. Armed with pen and paper, and fueled by the chili Lou made for dinner, the three sat down at Lou’s kitchen table to answer a stack of letters and wish lists written to Santa by the children of the employees of CS Group, where Lou’s wife works.
The letter-writing started at three o’clock that afternoon and wrapped up at about six, with Ginger and Tif giggling at the requests of some of the children, which included a ‘big truck for mud-bogging with my Dad,’ and a picture of Rudolph. Many of the children wrote the letters themselves, but there were also a few letters written by parents on behalf of their small children. Tif answered one such letter, from the mother of a one-year-old girl whose father is currently serving in the Army and is stationed in Iraq, “It’s so sad,” she commented. “This child has never met her father. But Santa is going to tell him hi for her this year.”
After the letters are typed out and stamped, they will be mailed to the children with a picture of Santa Claus inside.
-Tiffany Allen
-Staff

OTHER HOLIDAYS


LOST SOLACE KIDS SHOW THEIR THANKS
On Thanksgiving day, the LS Kids showed their thanks when they did the annual helping to feed the less fortunate at Great Island Presbyterian Church's Thanksgiving dinner. The Kids have been doing this for several years now.
"Every year we feel good about it, even though we only do little things," says Krystle Welch, LS Kid President. This year, Lou, Debbie Benfield, Staci Wyland, Tiffany Allen, Krystle Welch, and Shelby Sander helped to welcome the people, seat them, bring them their drinks and food, and then clear the area for the next person.
"They say the littlest things you do matter the most," said Krystle. "So I guess we matter."
-Krystle Welch
-President


LOCAL


TWENTY YEARS OF NEWSLETTERS
December is a big month for Lou and newsletters. Twenty years ago, this very month, a school newsletter was started by a teenaged Lou.
The newsletter started out as a simple kids' newsletter that was handed out at the Slatington Elementary School. The first newsletter, entitled "Elementary School Times", was a special Christmas issue. This first issue had a festive Christmas tree on the cover of the newsletter. This Christmas Tree cover design has been recreated by Amber Snow for this commerative issue of the newsletter.
In the beginning, Lou was still learning how to write a newsletter himself and the newsletter would be filled with things that Lou had just learned in Journalism class that very morning. Since then, the newsletter has changed numerous times and has now come to be what it currently is, the Just Juniors Journal.
It might have been twenty years in the making, but the newsletter has come to be a huge part of the LS Kids. The newsletter will continue evolving, and the writers of it will continue to keep learning, but the newsletter will keep appearing every month filled with details of what has been going on with the group. Twenty years and Lou's newsletter career is still going strong.
-Meghan Rockey
-Staff

MODEL TRAINS
On January 18, Lou invited Meghan Rockey, Tiffany Allen, and Ginger White to go see model trains.
The Castanea Model Train Club, in Castanea, Pennsylvania, is set up in an old train station by the river. For several days during the month of December, they held an open house, allowing the public to come and join them for refreshments, walk through the club, buy souvenirs, and see the model train layouts.
"I thought it'd be educational," commented Lou. "It was kind of neat....They had the trains running through towns and tunnels, very sophisticated layouts. I thought it was realy cool."
The Kids arrived at one PM, and spent about an hour looking at the trains and the scenery.
-Ginger White
-Staff

NATIONAL


LAMBERT'S
ILLINOIS- My mom went to Arkansas to get married at the end of October, so I went to my brother's place in Cape Girardo to stay. He lives near a place called Sikeston, and we went to a restaraunt there called Lambert's.
It's a really famous place, I guess. There are only three of them in the whole world. I guess it's famous because they are called the home of the throwed rolls---They call it that because instead of bringing you rolls when you are eating, you just kind of hold up your hand at the man with the rolls, and he just throws a roll across the whole room to you.
Sometimes they don't quite make it, though, and they get on the floor. The funny part was when one hit my brother in the face.
Those are the best rolls I've ever had, and they are huge. They had other food, too, that was good, but I mostly just liked the rolls. People walk around with big, huge bowls with stuff in them. You can ask for them and they will give you things like okra or other good things, but the rolls are the best part. It's just kind of a country, place but it was still cool.
-Amber Snow
-DCS Bureau

WORLD


GIFTS FOR JANICE
For years, the LS Kids have been sponsoring Janice Marco, our little girl in the Phillipines. Janice turns fifteen on December 29, and the Kids sent an extra ten dollars to help her celebrate her birthday.
With the money, Janice received new clothes. A satiny blouse and a pair of stylish slacks were given to her for her birthday, so she could dress up for the various occasions of school ceremonies, community events, and holiday activities.
Now Janice gets to be a teenaged girl obsessed with clothes, just like the rest of the LS Kids.
-Ginger White
-Staff

OUTDOORS


AN EASY CAMP BREAKFAST
I've taken the Kids out camping plenty of times, and the last morning is always the same. We're tired and ready to pack up and go home, and cooking breakfast is beyond us. Under the circumstances, a box of pop-tarts would do, except that the Kids have invariable eaten them already, too.
So, what next? Give up on the idea of a nutritious breakfast and go home?
It doesn't have to come to that. There's an easy way out, and all it requires is that you bring along oranges and eggs.
Cut the oranges in half, and let everyone eat a portion. They can do this with their spoon, digging the orange out of the rind, like you would a grapefruit. But don't throw away the rind, either.
Crack an egg into it, and set it in the embers of the fire to cook. I'm assuming here that your fire has lasted the night, but generally it will. In fifteen minutes, you'll have an egg cooked inside the orange peel, and the Kids can eat that with the same spoon. The peel can be thrown away, or even buried, being biodegradable. And the spoon is all you have to wash---And frankly, that can be licked off and washed at home.
Egg in an orange. I've been doing this myself since I was a child, and I first began showing the Kids in 1999. For a nutritious, hassle-free breakfast, it's a sure winner.
-Lou
-Editor

THE VIEW FROM HYNER
Hyner View State Park is a six-acre park located in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, six miles east of the town of Renovo on Interstate 120. The biggest attraction of this park is the overlook wall, which was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC.
Easily accessible from the main road, the overlook wall provides a spectacular view of the countryside and of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, which snakes through the surrounding Sproul State Forest.
I went to Hyner View myself this past June. I was fascinated by the scenery, and insisted on taking enough pictures to use up almost an entire roll of film. I even saw a hang glider take off. (Hang gliding is a favorite pastime of many people who visit Hyner View, as is picnicking; near the lookout wall are tables and grills that have been provided for that purpose.) I am convinced that I have never seen anything more beautiful than the scenery from the overlook wall at Hyner View State Park. I can’t wait to go back there again, perhaps in the spring when all the trees are just beginning to blossom. I encourage anyone who is able to go to Hyner View to do so, and see it for themselves. Just don‘t forget the camera.
-Tiffany Allen
-Staff

TRAVEL


CENTRALIA
PENNSYLVANIA- Centralia is in Pennsylvania, on Route 42 in Columbia County. It needs a lot of help environmentally, because the coal mine under it is on fire. The fire has burned for forty years.
Centralia has only thirteen people now, but forty years ago, Centralia was a town of one thousand one hundred people. Five hundred and forty-five families and businesses made up the small town of Centralia at the time the fire started. The fire was started by a man setting a garbage fire that caused the coal mine to catch fire in May of 1968. The fire has never been put out.
From the years 1968 to 1978, the state and local governments spent a total of 3.3 million dollars trying to put the fire out. 10.8 million dollars was spent in 1994 in order to try to control the fire. All attempts made to put the fire out have not worked. In 1983, it was estimated that it would take 663 million dollars to put out the fire.
In 1981, Highway 61 started showing signs of disturbance due to the mine fire below it's surface. A half-million dollars was spent to stabilize Highway 61 in 1983. From 1984 to 1991, most people who lived in Centralia were relocated to other areas, using Grants and other money, costing over 42 million dollars. In 1992 Highway 61 completely closed down due to the fire damage. The Centralia fire has caused many people to lose homes and businesses.
The environmental problem is that it's on fire. The CO2 that is into the air from the coal burning has an effect on global warming. For anything to become better in Centralia, the fire would have to be put out. The waters are poisoned by the toxic sulfuric acid. Poisonous gasses rise up all around, and all this leads to more global warming.
One thing that could help the problem of the sulfuric acid being in the water is limestone, which neutralizes the effects of acid rain deposition. Open limestone channels may be the simplest passive treatment method. Open limestone channels are constructed in two ways. In the first method, a drainage ditch is constructed of limestone and AMD-contaminated water is collected by the ditch. The other method consists of placing limestone fragments directly in a contaminated stream. Dissolution of the limestone adds alkalinity to the water and raises the pH. Armoring or the coating of the limestone by Fe(CO)3 and Fe(OH)3 produced by neutralization reduces the generation of alkalinity, so large quantities of limestone are needed to ensure long-term success. High flow velocity and turbulence enhance the performance by keeping precipitates in suspension, thereby reducing the armoring of the limestone. Open limestone channels are sized according to standard engineering practice using the Manning equation and providing additional freeboard. Impervious liners are sometimes used under the limestone to prevent infiltration of the AMD into the groundwater table.
People who live there now have water because they get it from another town. Some people that still live in Centralia say that they can grow gardens all the time, because the ground is warm even in the winter.
Even though there are a lot of bad things, Centralia is a cool place---I want to live there.
-Amber Snow
-DCS Bureau

FEATURES



LETTERS HOME
By Biz
Basic training has been wild. Well, regular Basic is wild. Pre-Basic was pretty cool. Everyone was really cool and no one ever fought. Then again, it was me and one other female with boys. Boys in the Army are a billion times kinder than the girls. It's scary.
Here at Fort Leonard Wood I have two roommates. I swear they are the only nice people here.
I already ran three obstacle courses. One was bayonet fighting, another one we just blazed through walls and water (nasty water) pits, and the last was Warrior Tower.
Warrior Tower is the rappelling and climbing course. It was fun. They even took my picture and called me crazy when I waved.
Tomorrow is Pugil training and Combatants. I know this will finally be something that I'm good at. I kind of sucked at everything else, like climbing up ropes, pushups, running, pushups, cleaning, pushups....Things like that.
-Biz Albright
-Staff


HELL ON WHEELS
His name is Dr. Howard Gabbenesch. He’s a sociology professor at the University of Southern Indiana, where I used to go to school. I took his class the summer of my sophomore year, and I really haven’t been the same person since then. That was his objective.
“If you aren’t ready to be a critical thinker,” He said to his students on the first day,“Get out of my classroom. Now.” I considered it briefly, admittedly a bit taken aback by the frown on his face and his index finger pointed resolutely at the door, but it didn’t take me long to decide to sink my teeth into the course and hang on for the ride. I was intrigued by this man’s wildfire ideas.
As the class wore on, I discovered that it was one of the most difficult ones I could have ever taken, not because of the coursework, which I deemed just challenging enough to merit the effort it took to get an A, but because Dr. Gabbenesch challenged every belief I had ever had concerning the workings of the universe. At that time I had just become a member of a local Baptist church, and I was busy throwing myself headlong into Christianity. I went to worship service three times a week and Bible study every Tuesday. I sang in the choir, worked in the nursery, and served on the kitchen committee. I couldn’t have been any more involved if I’d tried. That all changed when I encountered Dr. Gabbenesch. His class was agony and ecstasy at the same time. He was teaching me things that clashed headlong with my entire belief system, and they made sense. I was a spiritual wreck, but I craved more and more of the knowledge he offered. I couldn’t get enough.
I’m telling you this story to make a point, eventually. You see, I’ve just had a personal revelation that I couldn’t resist sharing: there is no single correct answer to all the questions humanity asks of the universe. I’d always assumed that there was, and that if I got the right combination of the right beliefs, I would ultimately arrive at it and bask in the Nirvana of my own boundless wisdom. Not so. There is a common belief that we’re all, as a whole and individually, at least somewhat wrong in our perceptions of the universe. But what if we aren’t all wrong? What if we’re all right?
Tough question, I know. I don’t expect anyone to answer it. I’ve just been waxing philosophic a lot lately, with the arrival of the holiday season. A major change in geographical location, the loss of a family system, and the discovery of this fascinating thing called Wicca have left me feeling a little displaced this year. I’m in a new home, completely on my own for the first time in my life. I have no traditions of my own and have spent most of this month quietly yearning for the ones I used to know, wishing somehow that I could be content with them again, but finding that impossible. My life, and my outlook on it, have changed too much to allow that to happen. I can’t see Christmas in the same light I used to see it in before I started teaching myself the Craft, and before I moved hundreds of miles from every holiday tradition I’d ever known. And I got the feeling that that was wrong somehow, that changing my traditionally Christian ideas of Christmas into ideas that are so very far away from those original beliefs was somehow interfering with the my quest for the Ultimate Answer. But now I know something I didn’t know before: every day, every new tradition, is its own quest, and each quest has it’s own answer.
Happy Yule and a Merry Christmas, everyone.
-Tiffany Allen
-DCS Bureau Head


RHYME AND REASON
By Regina
Christmas Surprise
Daddies tuck in sons at night.
Mommie hugs her baby tight.
Prayers are quietly said
As children imagine the morning in their head.

Presents under trees sit silently
Bulbs of colors shining brightly.
Kids giggling cause they won't sleep.
The thought of the morning, their laughter it keeps.

The ornaments hold special memories,
softly humming, quiet melodies.
Christmas brings back the love.
That may have been hidden in attics above.

Joys and hope arise again.
Christmas brings together past families and friends.
Whispering the small "I love you's"
remembering the years you've made it through.

Snow falling down,
like the rain in the fall.
Christmas is in a few hours,
the children still giggling and all.

Finally sleep rest,
on their tired eyes.
and morning still comes,
with a pleasant surprise.
-Regina Spence
-DCS Bureau


ADORE IT/DEPLORE IT
By Ginger
Adore It: Six-year-old De'Monte Williams, during Hurricane Katrina, took charge of several younger children while evacuation was going on. He reassured the children, kept them together, and gave rescuers enough information to help reuinte their families. This six-year-old boy showed more sense than half the United States government. De'Monte says he's not sure why people call him a hero....But the title's been earned.
Deplore It: On Veteran's Day, President Bush gave a speech in which he denounced critics of his war as "rewriting history." How insulting does our president plan to get? First it was 9/11, then WMDs, then simply that Saddam had to go, and the critics are rewriting history? If there's any rewriting going on, seems like it's being done by the president.
-Ginger White
-Staff

The JJJ Is:
Editor: Lou
Assistant: Debbie Benfield
President: Krystle Welch
Secretary: Meghan Rockey
Quartermaster: Biz Albright
Staff: Ginger White, Shelby Sander, Cris Miller, Ida Yost
Distant Correspondents: Tiffany Allen, Kazlynn Otto, Regina Spence, MacKenzie Brundage, Amber Fleming, Meghan Wilson, Amber Snow, Goth Lizz
Foreign Bureau: Janice Marco


ENDNOTE
By Lou
Christmas is coming. Lock Haven is covered in snow, which I sort of like for Christmas, but I'll hate afterward. Meghan and Tif just stopped by, and we all exchanged Christmas presents. This has been our tradition, more or less, the past few years. We get together and trade off presents at some point, on or around Christmas. It's encouraged by Meghan, who has never yet let any holiday or birthday go by without handing out cards, gifts, notes, or something. Meghan's generosity on these days sort of brings a feeling of cohesiveness and cameraderie to the group, especially around special occasions. I love her for that.
The month began with the trip to my father's Christmas tree farm, the farm I grew up on. We have more important projects throughout the year, but I've personally always liked this one a lot. I take the Kids back home....Home where I was once a kid myself, where I went through the same things they go through. Home where I learned a lot of the lessons I try to teach them. I like that, to let them know that I was once a kid, just like them.
Meghan, Shelby and I walked around the farm, and down in the woods. I showed them some of the places where I camped and explored as a kid. And I anjoy it, but when I return to my father's farm, there's always a bit of sadness to it, as well. Because, no matter what, I'll never quite be a kid again.
Yeah, yeah, I know. All of you who are obsessed with driving, and voting, and drinking alcohol, and staying up after nine PM, you all would argue that's a good thing. For the most part, I agree. But there's a feeling of nostalgia, too, for the days when the only thing I had to worry about was getting a fort built out of sticks, and using it to defend against imaginary invaders.
Say what you will about childhood. There are times I kind of miss it.
So. Anyway. Meghan and Tif dropped by the house, to exchange presents. I had some stuff for both of them, gifts that I'd put some thought into. And they both had gifts for each other, and for me.
Tif gave me the one-volume, entire collection of the Chronicles of Narnia. I'd enjoyed all of these stories as a kid, reading them over and over. Some of them, I hadn't been able to find since---The Ross Library has maybe four of the seven available. So I get to read the adventures of Aslan, Lucy, Caspian, and the rest, all over again.
Meghan got me a T-shirt that she'd ordered online. Star Wars. From the old Star Wars, the first movie. With Luke and Leia branishing their weapons, Darth Vader's helmet prominently shown, Artoo and Threepio in the background. I had a T-shirt just like this as a kid, actually, in white instead of black. Took great pride in wearing it everywhere I went. Looking at this shirt, you can tell that the decal is from about 1978, before The Empire Strikes Back came out. (That's the most important lesson in Star Wars---Be very careful who you kiss. It might be your sister.)
I loved the presents. Both of them.
Meghan and Tif both get it---They both understand. Getting me something I need isn't really the best thing about Christmas. Get me something I want. Something that gives me the opportunity to be a kid again. Narnia, Star Wars....Yeah, let me live in those magical lands again, even if it's only for a few minutes. Let me forget about being an adult for a little while, and just let me get the cool stuff from childhood.
Oh, sure, sooner or later I have to go back to being an adult. I got an electric bill on the table, and my job to perform....No denying that. But for a few minutes, I got to open presents and be a kid again, with them. Which makes it a good holiday for me.
Merry Christmas.
-Lou
-And a partridge in a pear tree