West End News Jan. 27

Events are ramping up at Birch Grove Center. This Saturday, Jan. 30, the Birch Grove PTO is sponsoring a Winter Extravaganza from 4:30 until 7:30 p.m. There will be all sorts of outdoor events at the outdoor facilities at Birch Grove, not the least of which is an outdoor movie.

On Friday and Saturday nights pizzas are available at Birch Grove. So you can buy a pizza, sit in a snow bank, and enjoy the movie. Only West End residents would understand, right?

Tuesday, February ninth, is the day for community lunch at Birch Grove. Good food, community fellowship, and an opportunity to visit with the students at the school.

Dr. Sandy Stover will be at the Birch Grove medical clinic from 12:50 until 4:30 on Tuesday, Feb. 2. Call the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic at 387-2330 for an appointment. The Birch Grove clinic is a great convenience for West End folks.

There’s an addition to the services offered to the community by Birch Grove this time of year—help with income tax preparation. This service is provided by well trained volunteers. For information about the help offered with income taxes, and/or the dates and times that volunteer tax folks are available, call Birch Grove Center at 663-7977.  The service is first come, first serve.

This past week I read a long article about what happens to family memories as time and generations move along. Subtle changes take place as the years roll by. Then the discovery of a family history document may show that stories told now about family history may be wildly different from what really happened.

I have already observed this in the community as stories are told about John Lyght, who recently left us. Many conversations about John included anecdotes about him. As I listened to the telling of the same incident several times over I discovered that each telling was a little bit different from all the rest; and John has only been gone for about a week. A simple example is his height and weight. I have heard estimates of height up to six feet eight inches; and weight up to two hundred and eighty pounds. John was a very large person, both in height and weight but nothing like that. Time will tell how tall and heavy John will become as time moves along.

Perhaps if you had transgressed, John might have appeared to be larger than life. As one person told me this week, “John pulled me over because I was speeding. When he was standing next to my car all that I saw was a belt buckle. He was big! At the time I did not know who he was, but soon found out. From that day on, every time I came into the county and drove through that stretch of road, I thought of John Lyght.”

We finally have received the fervently wished for snow fall. The precipitation amounted to little more than a mixture of freezing rain and snow right next to the shore of Lake Superior. However, as the elevation in altitude increased, the precipitation changed to heavy, wet snow.  In the higher elevations in the county close to a foot of snow fell. 
The temperature is slated to fall to normal cold temperatures, so this snow will stay with us for the rest of the winter. A good start, but we can always use more snow. Keep on wishing.