In Our Community
Now that school is back in session, who is our favorite teacher?
The Shadow?, noooo. Fibber McGee?, noooo. Eve Arden as Our Miss Brooks? Of course! The show premiered on CBS July 19, 1948, and was one of the network’s most popular comedies for nine years. For six years, Colgate sponsored the program; then Toni Home Permanent began footing the bills. With Ozzie and Harriet, Life with Luigi and The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, Our Miss Brooks was one of the last bright lights of radio situation comedy. The title role was perfect for Eve Arden, a refugee from the b-movies. Writer Al Lewis captured the human side of Connie Brooks. Each year Miss Arden received thousands of letters from teachers frustrated with their own circumstances. At least half a dozen high schools offered her jobs teaching English. She turned down the jobs, but sometimes spoke at PTA meetings. The schools couldn’t affored her anyway. By then she was making $200,000 a year for being the tart-tongued schoolmarm of the air. Her highly funny supporting cast included Jeff Chandler the bashfull biologist, Jane Morgan her landlady, Gale Gordon (son of Jane Morgan) the funnist and most harried principal. Dick Crenna and Gloria McMillian (Mr. Conklin’s daughter) the perfect teenage couple and the ever school idiot Stretch Snodgrass played by Leonard Smith. Radio comedy is often stilted and badly dated, but Our Miss Brooks is still funny and warm. So completely did Eve Arden assume the part that even today she is best rememberd as the English teacher of Madison High. Her voice is immediately recognizable in any TV guest shot. It’s ironic that Eve was chosen to play the part of a school principal in the movie Grease. If you tune in to AM 1370 KDTH’s Big Broadcast from 6 to midnight every Sunday night, you probably will hear Our Miss Brooks which is heard frequently. 
Are You Getting All Your VA Benefits?
Are you taking advantage of all your veterans’ benefits? The Department of Veterans Affairs recently launched a program to bring awareness of the benefits that elderly veterans might be missing. Per the VA’s notice, only 189,800 wartime veterans and 139,800 surviving spouses are using all the pension benefits they could receive.
Here are a few benefits, available through the Pension and Fiduciary Service: • The Survivors Pension is a monthly payment to qualified surviving spouses and unmarried dependent children of wartime veterans, but only those who meet certain income and net-worth limits. There’s an additional benefit for surviving spouses who are housebound or need aid and attendance from someone else. • The VA Pension is for wartime veterans who are permanently and totally disabled because of nonservice disability, or those who are over age 65 and meet income and net-worth limits. • The Special Monthly Pension is an additional payment for qualified veterans who are housebound, need aid and attendance for daily activities, have limited sight or are in a nursing home. • Surviving Spouses of Blue Water Veterans (who served between Jan. 9, 1962, and May 7, 1975) might be eligible for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, even if they were previously denied. • Funeral and Burial Benefits are available whether the death was service or nonservice related. Additionally, there are benefits such as the burial flag, a headstone or marker and Presidential Memorial Certificate. See the National Cemetery website for much more information [www.cem.va.gov/burial_benefits] and to check eligibility in advance. For details about benefits, go to benefits.va.gov/benefits. Click on Apply to find instructions and forms. Those seeking help in filing claims need to beware. Be sure who you’re trusting with your information. Look for a VA-accredited Veterans Service Organization (VSO) representative — they are character-checked and have to pass an exam. Search for accredited representatives at www.va.gov/ogc/apps/accreditation by filling in the information, or call 1-800-827-1000 to ask for someone in your area. © 2021 King Features Synd., Inc. |
From Wounds to Scars
Most of us collect scars as we go through life. Those of us who are older have quite an extensive collection! Each scar has a history, and we can usually recall the circumstances under which we acquired each one. Scars are seen as ugly, especially major ones, but actually they’re symbols of victory, that we’ve survived the accident or the surgery!
Scars are left over from a wound. Sometimes scars can be sensitive to the touch, even uncomfortable, but they don’t hurt like the wound did! If we keep picking away at a wound it will stay a wound much longer than it has to. Our bodies have been designed to heal wounds so they’re nothing more than a scar. We just need to allow the process to happen and help it along by properly tending to the wound. Emotional wounds need to be treated in the same way. We’re all emotionally wounded in one way or another at one time or another, some of us more, some of us less. The good news is that the Creator/Sustainer who designed our bodies to heal from a wound to nothing more than a scar has the same intentions for our emotional wounds. He’s the great Healer of these too! Usually we can’t help that we’ve been wounded by someone, but we can help the wound heal into nothing more than a scar! How do we deal with a wound so it heals into nothing more than a scar? Well, to start off, by asking the Great Physician (God/Jesus) to work with our injury and to heal it. We then can cooperate with Him by letting the past go, forgiving the person who wounded us, giving up the right to get revenge, moving on, and identifying ways the wound of the past can make us a better person today. All of this, too, God will help with if we but ask Him. Then we need to decide that we will no longer see the wounds from the past as wounds but only as scars. They’re still visible and may even be sensitive, but they’re no longer bleeding, infected wounds, only scars. Scars aren’t bad. There will even be scars in heaven, but only one person will have them, Jesus. He will still bear the scars of crucifixion on His hands, feet, and side as an eternal reminder to all of us in heaven of the price He paid so we could be there with Him. Scars can be good. Scars we can live with; they’re a reminder that, by the grace of God, we’re a survivor! The Psalmist says of God, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3 
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My cat Charlie was named after a comedian of the early 1900s. Charley Chaplin. Actually, she has a black marking just like his mustache right under her nose. She is black and white all over but has totally white paws. She loves to have me open the back storm door so she can look out and watch for the chipmunks she has seen running under the stoop. The other day I was going to the back door and she indicated she wanted to look out. We got close to the door and she started to screech loudly. I thought she was just excited, but no I was standing on the tip of her tail. Usually, if I accidently step on her tail she runs away and licks her wounded area, but this time the thought of seeing a chipmunk won over her pain.
Let me tell you a few known facts about Charlie. When my husband retired, we decided we would never have another cat. We had lost our last cat when she was 18. Most of our cats lived to be 20 years old. So, we thought another cat would probably out live us and we didn’t want to leave a pampered cat homeless. Then my daughter, Pam rescued a cat from her backyard. She named her Charlie. For some time Charlie had been playing with the family dog, Augie. They had such fun running in the yard and playing in the garage. One day Pam noticed that Charlie was getting fat around her middle. Yes! She was carrying kittens. Pam brought her into their home and before long she had four baby kittens to care for. But, Charlie wasn’t a good mother. Even when the kittens were nursing she would jump out of the box. Pam would coax her back to her kittens. And then even before they were totally weaned, she started to slap at them. Pam asked us if we would like another pet because she was going to keep three of the kittens. We reluctantly said yes, and adopted Charlie, the yard cat. I guess being out in the wilds for some time caused Charlie to react cautiously when around people. Charlie doesn’t like to be picked up. She will snarl and hiss and threaten to bite. But, she will sit in your lap when she wants to. As a matter of fact if you sit in a lounge chair she will run for your lap. But you can’t pick her up and put her in your lap. At this time Charlie is 12 years old, I forget how old I am. HA! HA! She is a wonderful companion and greets me at the door whenever I come home from being out. Her ears pop up whenever she hears a noise so I guess she is a watch cat. I’m so glad we decided to take her into our home. |
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