Dear Folks, This evening when my neighbor Dawn came over to take my trash out to the curb, she asked me if I'd be up in our historical society museum tomorrow. No I won't and why do you ask? Dawn told me that her son Jamie will be up there with the rest of the fourth-graders who will be taking a tour of the museum as well as the village of Youngstown. Well, let me tell you that almost brought tears to my eyes, Every year we always give a tour to the local fourth-graders and it's always been a joy for us volunteers who tell them all sorts of stories about the history of the village and stories about the museum artifacts we have to show them. However, during the past few years my physical problems have been such that I can no longer be one of the volunteers up at the museum. Nonetheless, I knew that I would hate myself it I weren't there when Jamie showed up tomorrow. As a result, I called Pat Lloyd who has taken over my job of showing the kids the delights of our old school room with the old desks in it. I asked her what the time schedule is for the museum tour, she told me and after much thought I caved in and asked her if she would give me a wake-up call at 9:00 tomorrow morning. No problem. So here I am, knowing full well that I really won't like getting up at the early hour of 9:00 but still determined that I will come hell or high water. I know that when I get dressed in the best that I have, I'll still look like a frazzled old lady with frazzled hair and having to walk with a cane. Nonetheless, I don't believe that the kids will take close notice. Certainly Jamie won't. He'll just be glad to see me. What I'm really looking forward to is seeing once again the children's faces as they walk around our museum. Watching them as they stand in front of our wind-up Victorola listening to the old record of "When the Roses Bloom Again" and giggling over the corny sound of the WWI song. It always amazed me that the young kids soaked up everything we pointed out to them. Therefore, I want to experience it all again. Especially since Jamie will be there. vee

Vee, please let us know how this goes, okay. Know we'd do the same thing for a best friend like your Jamie. We must encourage children to enjoy history. Evelyn