About Town: It's funny that you can still learn something new every day

On Saturday the Monday Afternoon Women's Club in Willows hosted a meeting for women who belonged to clubs from Gridley north to Susanville. Three members from Susanville, in addition to the other 40 nearby club members, drove down to Willows for the day. The theme for the day was Japanese and the main speaker was Dr. Kimihika Aomura. The doctor is a specialist associate professor and director in Japanese language and culture currently teaching at Chico State University. He spoke about the country of Japan over its many years of population and finished his presentation demonstrating a tea ceremony. My golly. That is quite a procedure. He told us that sometimes the ceremony lasts for about four hours. Each cup, bowl or any other item must be placed just right on the table. Some of the bowls have faces on them and the face has to face in exactly the correct position or it is an insult to those attending the tea ceremony. The doctor was a very friendly individual and enthralled the audience with his speech and tea ceremony. Funny how you can learn something new every day, isn't it? The California Federation of Women's Clubs consists of nearly 15,000 members. The Willows, Orland and Corning clubs are taking applications for new members to join and help with the many community projects that these clubs handle. Give me a call at 865-3398 if you are interested and I will put you in touch with the right person to take your application. The Orland club is getting ready for its big annual community rummage sale coming up in early March. Watch for it. I would call myself a crotchety, old great grandmother if I had any great-grandkids, but since I don't, I guess I'm just a crotchety, old lady. I am getting very discouraged about where our culture is going. I think it is headed south and who knows if we'll ever get it back. The language used on the TV is atrocious at times. My mother would have washed my mouth out with soap if I had used any of those words when I was a kid. Even my children 40 years later had to watch their speaking habits. And, even though I can't see them, the clothes that are worn on the TV shows are pretty risqué I am told. My family would have called the language in use nowadays as "gutter talk." Nobody likes a good joke better than I do, but I was shocked recently when a Sunday school teacher told me that after a local youth group held a meeting at the church, she found the letter F and the letter U outlined in thumb tacks on her bulletin board. Sure hope our culture isn't going down the tubes. All I can say in my most polite language is TSK, TSK, TSK! If you are interested in attending the play "Brigadoon," I hear there are a couple of bus reservations that have been cancelled. The play is about a town in Scotland that people can only go to visit every 100 years. However, once you get there you can't ever leave. Of course, there is also a boy and girl situation. Call Pat Ragen at 865-2615. If you have any old phonograph records with their covers still on them, you might have yourself a windfall. Several of them are worth thousands of dollars. You can check it out on the Web site www.moneymusic.com. Good luck. Next Friday is Leap Year Day, Feb. 29. If this column should remain being printed on Fridays, can you figure out what would be the next calendar year that the column would be printed on a Leap Year Friday? I'll give you the answer next Friday which is this Leap Year Friday. Happy calculating. And looking at a perpetual calendar is cheating. Linda just told me a new tip that would be easy to try and excellent if it works. To avoid static electricity in your clothes when they are removed from the dryer, just crunch some aluminum foil and toss it into the machine while it is doing its job of drying. The aluminum foil forces electricity to move so quickly through the fabric that it neutralizes the opposite charges. No more cling and no more fabric softener at $5 a bottle. Happy birthday to all of you who get to celebrate only once every four years.