Over the nearly 20 years I wrote a weekly column for The Union Democrat, the final pre-Christmas entry was always tough. For a few years, I suggested gifts for public officials. But many were cheap shots that were not exactly in keeping with the season. I also regularly promoted the UD-sponsored Christmas Sing, and once wrote about 11th-hour Christmas-tree shopping (the remaining pines and firs, no surprise here, were cheap and scraggly). For a few years I detailed offbeat gifts available at local businesses. A Jimtown store, for example, once offered a âfossilized walrus oosikâ (hint: an oosik is not a tusk) for just $300. Some years later, particularly desperate, I interviewed Santa at Courthouse Square. While sitting in his lap. Iâm pretty sure the Jolly Old Elf never forgave me.Â
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Silvia Keeley (far left), of Pembroke Pines, Florida, holds her cat, Wilma, with (from left of Keeley) Haley Fender, 12, Casey Fender, 42, and Amanda Fender, 42, Saturday at Woods Creek Rotary Park. It was Keeley s first time seeing and touching Wilma since Wilma escaped from Keeley s son in Jamestown in August. The Fender family found Wilma in their neighborhood near Mother Lode Fairgrounds in September.
Guy McCarthy
Guy McCarthy