Fuss Was Worth It
In a couple of weeks, the STA bus won’t be coming down Denise Greco’s South Hill street anymore.
She won’t miss the noise and kicked-up dust.
But she’ll always remember when her daughter Michelle was a toddler and got a big kick out of waving to the drivers.
“They got to where they looked for her,” said Greco. “And they never failed to give her a friendly wave.”
* That’s the scientific name: Joyce Hoffman’s 5-year-old grandson came running into the house all excited. He’d just seen a “bumble-jacket.”
* Striding confidently into a new century: D.B. Gray of Cocolalla, Idaho, came across an interesting book from 1901 called “Historic Towns of the Western States.”
It includes entries on outposts such as Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago.
But the thing that caught Gray’s eye was a rather amazing characterization of another city.
“Spokane is credited with being the most modern and best-equipped city in the world, and this is due, first, to the falls whose power brings many utilities, considered luxuries in other communities, within reach of the lowliest consumer; and secondly, to the singular fact that the city is newer than the telephone, the electric light, and other latter-day inventions and discoveries. There were no ancient institutions and prejudices to supplant. To children reared in Spokane, other cities seem archaic, their streets sloven, and their homes grotesquely behind the times.”
Right.
* Parenting 101: It’s time to start getting ready to respond to a child saying “I’ve got a stomach ache, I don’t think I can go to school today.”
Here are just a few of the possible approaches.
“Join the club, pal. Get out of that bed.”
“That just means you’re normal.”
“Yeah, well I’m sure your teachers have stomach aches, too.”
“OK. We’ll go get a blood workup when you get home from school.”
“They had stomach aches on D-Day, too. Let’s go. Hit the beach.”
“I’ll make you a deal. If it turns out you’ve really got something and my making you go to school radically worsens your condition, you can hold it over my head forever. Meantime, let’s go. Cold cereal awaits.”
* A blow for sanity: We never thought we would see the day. But earlier this week a local TV weather person — was it the guy on KREM? — admitted on the air that he didn’t mind relatively cool summer weather every once in a while.
Rage on, brother.
* Today’s Slice question: A performance-enhancing drug tailored specifically for your line of work would do what?