I hope the Easter Bunny was good to you. I also hope he had on his

raincoat and galoshes. I’m not sure what it is about holidays and rain, but

they certainly seem to arrive together on a regular basis.

PPP

Funky Fact: Easter is a “movable feast,” which means the date

varies each year. It is set by the following formula: Easter Sunday is the

first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. It can be as

early as March 22 or as late as April 26. This is a late year.

PPP

Faithful Reader Charlotte Parkinson sent me some more

“multiple” adjectives. Some that fit my house include a gang of elk, a

decent of woodpeckers, and a clowder of cats. (OK, it’s a

very small clowder — one cat). At the other house, we have

a colony of ants. And as a collector, I find I have a parcel of penguins.

PPP

May is a busy month at the North Bend Library. Story times start

again on Tuesday, May 2. Toddlers at 9:30 a.m., Preschool at 10:30 and

Family Story times on Wednesday evenings at 6:30.

There will be a Poetry Night on Wednesday, May 3, at Isadora’s

in Snoqualmie. Come and read your poetry or listen to others. The

program is sponsored by the Friends of the North Bend Library. Doors open

at 6:30 p.m., program starts at 7.

The First Tuesday Book Club meets Tuesday, May 2, to

discuss Studs Terkel’s book “Coming of Age: The Story of our Century by

Those Who’ve Lived It.” May is Older American’s Month, and these oral

histories will help to commemorate our heritage. Come and join the

discussion.

Bring a lunch and join Wednesday Wanderings at the library from

noon to 1 p.m. Each Wednesday, the library will be screening a travel video

for your enjoyment. Travel to the far corners of the globe on your lunch hour.

You can pick up more information on these and the many other

programs available by dropping by the library, or by calling (425) 888-0554 for

more information.

PPP

I have been asked by several people to reprint the address that

gets you off of mailing lists. It is as follows:

Direct Mail Marketing Association

Mail Preference Service

P.O. Box 9008

Farmingdale, NY 11735

Send them all the variations of your name that you receive junk

mail under and ask that they remove your name from national mailing lists.

This will cut your junk mail quota considerably. It is a good idea to do this

once a year or so. Mailing lists are like weeds. Every year there is a new crop.

PPP

I took my dad on a road trip last week. We went to Olympia to see

the World War II Veteran’s Memorial. Daddy had purchased a brick to

honor my maternal grandfather and wanted to see it. It is a lovely memorial,

and after three trips around the path of bricks, we found Grandpa Donnelly’s.

There is a bronze sculpture that looks like airplane tails, or maybe

fins, that is inscribed with the names of the Washington men who gave their

lives in the war. Then there is a “field of wheat.” The stalks and heads are

made from torpedo casings. When you pull one stalk of wheat, it sets up a

clanging noise, and spreads through out the entire piece, just as wind affects

real wheat. It is an effective way of showing how the war affected

everyone, and still does. Children who never had the chance to get to know their

dads dedicate some of the bricks to “unknown fathers.”

My mother always maintained that if President Truman had not made

the decision to use the atomic bomb, she would have had two less children,

the ones born after the war. Daddy remembers being on board ship,

hearing the announcement that they were preparing for the invasion of Japan

and fully expected to lose 1.5 to 2 million service men in the effort.

The millennium project of the National Endowment for the

Humanities is “My History is America’s History.” I have been blessed by the

fact that so many of my relatives have lived long lives. My paternal

grandmother, who lived to 91, talked of her father-in-law, who fought in the Civil

War. She had his notes for a speech he made at a Fourth of July picnic in 1867

that referred to it as “the late tragedy

which rent the fabric of our great country,” That is truly “living history.”

I think that is one of the tragedies of our mobile society. So many

people no longer live near relatives, and so they lose that sense of being

connected to the past. No “home town” that

holds a lifetime of memories. No place to take their children and say, “This

is where Cousin Frank and I played baseball,” or “That’s the theater

where I met my first boyfriend.” That’s another way I’m lucky. Barring an

eruption, I can always go to where my Dad proposed to my Mom. It was

halfway up Mount Rainier!

PPP

Thought for the Week: As I mentioned, May is Older

American’s Month. Visit the older relatives if you can. If you don’t have any, adopt

a neighborhood “Grandma” or “Grandpa.” Call your local senior

center, and see if there is someone who might need help with errands or

yard work. Remember, we are all going to be “older Americans” some day.

I would like to think that the younger generation now would help us then.

Please submit items for

North Bend Nuggets to

Pat Simpson at P.O. Box 857,

North Bend, WA 98045,

or by e-mail to patsimps@hotmail.com,

or drop them by the library.