Greetings to all! As I write this column, our children return to school today.  An exciting day for many, sad for some parents.  I can still remember my very first day of kindergarten, back in September 1962.  I had never been on a bus before. I didn’t know how children got to the back of the bus, as I didn’t realize there was an open aisle in the bus.  Harold Keagan was my bus driver. In fact, Harold Keegan was my bus driver until the day I graduated from JYCS high school in 1975.  My mother has a photo of me getting on the bus, with Kathy Komanchek and the exchange student Trudie, from Austria sitting on the bus. Linda Blais and Susan Gabriel were my guardian angels on the bus, protecting me from any big, mean boys. Back then we didn’t have bus monitors. I have many fond memories riding on the bus to school. 

I recently wrote that the Kenoza Lake Fire Company was looking for community help with their annual Roast Beef dinner. Well, I have very sad news to report. There will be no Kenoza Lake Roast Beef dinner this year. I understand that there are two reasons, first the sky-high price of roast beef and second, not having enough help. The Kenoza Lake Roast Beef dinner has been a community tradition for decades. It saddens me greatly that there will be no dinner. A few years ago, the Kenoza Lake dinner went 100% take out. One of the reasons why I loved the dinner was the community aspect of it, seeing one’s neighbors and friends out and about. Two years ago, the Jeffersonville Fire Company tried the eat-in dinner option at their annual fall roast beef dinner along with a dinner dance. I don’t know the particulars, other than there will be a Jeffersonville Fire Company Roast Beef dinner, however it will be 100% take out with no eat-in option and no dinner dance. Youngsville used to have roast beef dinner on the last Saturday of October, however the annual event that has been changed around in recent years, with the dinner sometime being held in the spring. 

What is happening to our local communities? Church attendance has dropped off significantly and there are very few church supper type events. For the Kenoza Lake United Methodist church, we used to have a September parsonage spaghetti supper, a Grandparent’s Day pancake breakfast and a chicken barbecue. Now we don’t have any fundraisers. Our firemen and women are required to have more training to be a firefighter. Some people check out on community involvement. It truly saddens me, this direction that we are going in. Fortunately, there are some communities that still have eat-in, fundraisers. On Friday, September 12 the White Sulphur Springs United Methodist church will have a fish fry with eat-in/take out opportunities. However, it is strongly recommended that you reserve your dinner by contacting a member of the church as it frequently sells out.

Diehls’ Farmstand is now selling apple cider and cider donuts as well as mums and numerous other fruits and vegetables. 

I checked out the new DG Market in Fosterdale – awesome! Lots of food for sale there, you have to check it out, close to the traffic light in Fosterdale.

Full Moon, Sunday, September 7, Corn Full Moon. The fawns are losing their spots. Bucks are dropping their velvet. Our hummingbirds are having daily feeding frenzies, as they get ready for their upcoming migration. The first day of fall is around the day each year that my hummingbirds migrate south.