Usually this week, the first week of December, aka the busiest weekend of the year, the front page would be filled with multiple Holiday activities …but this year no in-person Cherish Our Children …no Breakfast with Santa …no in-person Festival of Trees, no VFW Bazaar, no Tree Lighting Ceremony …but … I am hoping the community will support …the Festival of Trees online version, taking place Dec. 4 – 6 and the Twinkle Light Holiday Parade, happening Saturday, Dec. 5 at 6:30 p.m.

The parade may be the only chance to see SANTA! Sadly due to COVID Santa will not be able to see kids one on one …but he will be ho-ho-ho-ing and his helpers will be handing out candy canes. Please come be in the parade or come watch! And this year I will try to not let the parade start until it is time. Last year people got excited and took off too early per the direction of the FPD.

This year West End Business can’t hold their drawings outside Outfitters but they did draw for three turkeys …the winners were Gabrielle Perete, Rowena Jongeward, and June Williams. There will be two Santa Bucks drawings, winners will be notified by phone. Also please purchase a few $500 Shopping Spree Tickets the money raised helps support our downtown Christmas decorations.

Also ….

In any year it is nice to hear from relatives, especially this year and especially your grandmother …and especially if she passed away in 1972 …

Last week Jane Schmitz brought me some paper items she found in the basement of her house; a 1953 Clallam Bay school newspaper and a 1936 special newspaper section from Norfolk, VA. Although Jane has lived in the house for a number of years she had never seen them before.

A note with them said, “These papers are very important to me, do not throw them away” and was signed …Caroline Henderson. Jane knows I love a mystery and since I also grew up on Sol Duc Way I sort of knew who they might belong to.

So I contacted Renee Nichols Borde and …the person who had written the note was her grandmother …Renee had grown up in the house now owned by Jane. In sort of a funny coincidence, Renee had just been saying to family members, the day before, that she wished she could talk to her grandmother, especially since her grandmother had been a nurse and lived and worked through the Spanish Flu era, and see how those times compared to today. Renee was really excited to get these items and Jane has since found a few more things! Thanks to Jane for heeding Grandma Henderson’s note!

Christi Baron, Editor