4 I The Lovell Chronicle I October 27, 2011
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Lett have fun
with the
Pumpkin, Fest
What great fun the Lovell Pumpkin Festival will be
this weekend - if the folks participate.
The Pumpkin Fest is the brainchild of Hen House
proprietor John Lafko, who saw a similar event in ac-
tion over the years in Keene, New Hampshire, a town
about the size of Rock Springs. The Lovell Area Cham-
ber of Commerce has jumped on board to help spon-
sor the festival this year.
Keene started small, gathering around 600 pump-
kins for display in 1991, and by 2009, the festival had
grown to nearly 30,000 of the big, orange gourds on
display all over that community.
Lovell can't match Keene, but John idea is to add a
nice splash of fall color to Lovell Main Street and give
families something fun to do.
The concept is simple: Carve a jack-o-lantern or two
and bring them to the Chamber of Commerce build-
ing on Friday. John and the Hen House will add Glow
Sticks and place the pumpkins in a two-block area of
Main Street - in the veterans park, the mural park, park
next to Lovell Drug and other areas.
The pumpkins will be lit on Friday night, add color
all day Saturday, be lit again on Saturday night and
then be available to be collected on Sunday so that
families can have the jack-o-lanterns back at their
homes for Halloween on Monday night.
Any pumpkins left downtown will be cleaned up.
There is also a free community dance Saturday night
at the Lovell Rec Building - the old B&G Lumber build-
ing on Main Street. Music will be provided by the Cow-
ley Boys.
Store owners are also invited to make scarecrows for
display.
This promises to be a lot of fun for the family, and it
can really be a neat festival that could grow over the
years - but only if people embrace it. The possibilities
for expansion are endless. Think food and fun.
The great thing is that you can make your jack-o-
lantern and then get it back for display at your own
home, and the Hen House handles the lighting, too.
Let embrace and have fun with this festival. Bring
your pumpkin to the Chamber on Friday.
David Peck
Letters to the editor
Byron mayor, council need
to enforce ordinances
Dear editor,
My name is Dennis Nolte. I
live in Byron. I am writing this
letter to the editor to see if we can
take up a donation for the town
cop of Byron to buy a compass to
let him know there is more than
one street in Byron. Seems all he
knows is east and west.
Enough said on above; now I
would like to inform people of or-
dinances that are not enforced:
Weeds.
Junk cars, trucks and stock
trailers with no current tags for
2011.
In a one-block area - W. Yel-
lowstone and N. Center St. -
there are 27 barking dogs. I com-
plain and nothing happens.
N. Center St. had a 25 mph
on the corner of N. Center and W.
Yellowstone. This sign has been
down all summer of 2011. The
speed limit is open; you more or
less travel at your own risk.
We have empty mobile homes
that have been empty for over 10
years. Why has the town mayor
and council not removed these
breeding grounds for stray cats
and dogs?
The Byron Improvement
Group has two new homes that
have not been finished for years.
Do they keep weeds mowed? No.
Byron may not be a great
place to live, but it might be a
nice place to live if the mayor and
town council would enforce ordi-
nances.
Dennis Nolte
2011 MEMBER
Postmaster: Send address changes to
The Lovell Chronicle, USPS 321-060
234 E. Main, Lovell, Wyoming 82431
(307) 548-2217
Published every Thursday
Periodical postage paid at Lovell, Wyom
Editor and Publisher: David Peck
Reporter: Patti Carpenter
Staff: Gladys McNeil, Pat Parmer,
Dorothy Nelson, Marwyn Layne,
Teressa Ennis, Jason Zeller,
Cheryl Jolley, Stormy Jameson
Is a small town post office necessary?
What makes a town? Would it be the
same without its people? Would it be
the same without its gathering places?
Would it be the same without its post of-
rice?
Even a ghost town is made interesting
mostly by the evidence of the people who
used to congregate there, and by the rem-
nants of the places those folks used to con-
gregate --like the churches, the schools,
the saloons and yes, the good ol' post of-
rice.
The post office is the place that brought
our ancestors the news from near and far,
the place they gathered to hear the latest
about the goings on around town and, for
some, it still serves that function.
One of the toughest things for me to
get used to when I moved to Lovell some months
back was the fact that there is home mail delivery
in town. Prior to that, I lived in places for many
years where going to that special little building in
the center of town to check my mail was a daily rit-
ual I looked forward to.
Home delivery? Convenient, yes, but a bit of an
odd adjustment for me because my trip to the post
office had become a highlight of the day for me, one
that I really looked forward to. It was the only time
I saw certain people, especially my more distant
neighbors, who lived a little further outside of the
town limits than I did.
It wasn't just about the little envelopes crammed
into a box that only I possessed the magic key to. It
was how I knew my 72-year-old neighbor Paul was
okay. It was how I found out ol' Mike was getting re-
married. It was how I knew Marcie's cat had kittens
Patti
Carpenter
Impressions
and that Phyllis needed someone to help
her split wood. Of equal importance to all
else, it was a major source of human in-
teraction for me and my fellow townsfolk.
Can downloading my Email in a dark
little room by myself really replace this
ritual? I think not.
This week I attended yet another
meeting that threatened to take this im-
portant gathering place away from a com-
munity. This time it was Deaver. A. few
months ago it was ago Byron. In Wyoming
alone, 44 of these vital community gather-
ing places are on the chopping block await-
ing a decision based solely on a reading of
"the numbers" by a group of individuals in
the heart of a concrete jungle somewhere,
and somehow I don't get the feeling they
are looking at the alternatives.
I say this because, once again, I heard citizens
make good suggestions about how to make the whole
process more efficient from a business standpoint,
and once again those suggestions seemed to fall on
deaf ears. The question was asked repeatedly, "Is
cutting services the only answer?" A question fol-
lowed by many excellent ideas that would cut costs.
Does a town really die when it loses it post of-
rice? At this meeting and all the others I've attended,
this seems to be a major concern expressed by the
citizens of these small communities.
What's left of a small town when the school, the
post office and the local caf closes? Unfortunately,
it looks like we're about to get the answer to that
question with decisions pending for the town of By-
ron within a matter of days and for Deaver within a
matter of weeks.
Wandering thoughts cause strange brain waves
Periodically it's good (I think) to list
one's wandering thoughts, which is what
I've done here. This could explain why I
never advanced much.
*why do medical offices have Patient
Registration, but not Impatient Registra-
tion?
*Why do so many people constantly
drive on the left lanes of two-lane divided
roadways when they don't plan to pass or
make a left turn for another 450 miles?
*Why does the U.S. government send
bazillions of dollars to countries that don't
have to repay the money and have no in-
clination to demonstrate that the money
is being put to good use?
*Why have I lost most of the hair on
my head? And why do I have more hair in my nose
and in my ears?
*How come everything I really like is illegal, im-
moral or fattening?
*Has anyone else had the privilege of seeing fall
leaves being blown across a road like a herd of small
animals?
*If mankind evolved from monkeys and apes,
Bob
Rodriguez
why do we still have monkeys and apes?
*Why are some relatives called in-
laws instead of outlaws?
*How come we say that people are in-
sane? Shouldn't we say that they are out-
sane?
*Why don't our children telephone us
more often?
*Has anyone else out there had the
exciting experience of living with six cats
and six cat litter boxes?
*Why does my wife enjoy rearranging
the living room furniture when I'm not
looking?
*When will the lacerations on my legs
heal from the endearing habit some of our
kitties have of using our legs as scratch-
ing posts?
*Are we alone in the universe?
*May I please have another burrito made of non-
fat frijoles and a low-fat tortilla? And what about an-
other bottle of root beer?
*Will I ever conquer the world of computers?
*Why do I find certain asp of life amusing,
while my wife thinks I'm oUtsane?, :v, .
Letter to the editor
Ghosts, goblins and a really dark cave
Dear Editor,
What a wonderful fall sea-
son we are having. It has been so
nice out that I almost forgot that
one of my most favorite events
is about to happen. Yes, you got
it, Halloween. I love Halloween.
I get to cover my house in skel-
etons, spiders, bats and other
creatures.
I love seeing all the differ-
ent costumes and the hollering of
"Trick or Treat." Plus, I get to eat
whatever I don't give away. I re-
ally think that Halloween brings
out the person's true nature. A
witch gets to be herself that day,
as do warlocks. It is scary when I
see guys wearing dresses. And of
course, I get to scare myself ev-
ery day by looking in the mirror.
I have always enjoyed an
active lifestyle, cliff diving, wa-
ter skiing, spelunking, etc., but
I have yet to convince myself to
jump out of a perfectly good air-
plane. One of my scariest times
was exploring caves in Ken-
tucky. Normally, the guides take
five to 10 people through the
caves, but this day there were 32
of us. While I was growing up, I
had this reoccurring dream that
always ended with me sitting
in the bottom of a well. I never
knew what it meant but that
day, to enter the caves, we had
to descend a ladder - yep, down
a well.
When we reached the bot-
tom, there was a hole in the wall
to crawl through. I stopped and
waited while I got my courage up.
I turned on my light and crawled
through the hole only to bump
my head against a rock (back
then we didn't wear helmets). A
guide sitting there laughed and
said to move toward him very
carefully as there was a 200-foot
drop-off to my left. Gee, thanks,
I said as I rubbed my head. This
is not a good start.
He then tells me that there
are many small, tight crawl spac-
es and that there are many holes
in the caverns, which are full of
water. "If you slip and fall into
the water, try not to go under,"
he tells me. "Because if you do,
the water is too muddy to see and
you'll drown." This just keeps
getting better.
So off I go and I notice that
there are people with backpacks,
cameras, a bipod, multiple can-
teens, telephones - back then
they were a foot long in size - ex-
tra clothes and more. I had my
canteen and a small bag of trail
mix in my pocket. As we moved
along, more and more people
couldn't carry what they brought,
so for some reason, they kept giv-
ing it to me. I mean, there we are,
going through tight crawl spac-
es, some seemingly a hundred
foot long with dirt coming down
into your eyes and I'm pushing
a backpack in front of me while
pulling a bipod, a sleeping bag, a
first aid kit and somebody's ex-
tra pair of boots. I can barely fit
through these dark tunnels much
less loaded down like a mule. I'm
having the time of my life.
All sense of time stops in
caves as we traveled further
and further, down a slope, up a
slope, jumped off a ledge, climbed
up onto another and crawled
through mud until we finally got
to the main cavern. This place is
so big, no matter how much light,
you can't see anything but you
can feel the bats as they fly past
your head, then hear the scream
of the girl who got a bat stuck in
her hair. What a wonderful trip
this is. And then the guide an-
nounces, "People, the exit has
caved in so we have to go back
the way we came."
Off I go through darkened
passageways followed by a single
girl. Where the rest of the group
was, I had no idea. As I had nev-
er been down this cave before, I
had no idea where I was going. I
didn't know I was moving as fast
as I could. I could feel the earth
closing in around me and I just
wanted to get out of that cave. So
much so I missed jumping over
one of the water holes. As I fell,
I threw the bipod, sleeping bag
and backpack I was carrying over
the hole that was about to devour
my being. I hit with a splash, but
I moved so fast to avoid going un-
der that I believe I walked on wa-
ter that day. Oh sure, save some-
one's bipod but drown yourself.
Somehow, I made it back
to the bottom of the well. As I
caught my breath and slowed my
heart, the girl that had followed
me laughed, telling me she had
never seen anyone move so fast
when I hit that water. We talk-
ed for a bit and when we finally
had the strength, we climbed the
ladder out the well. Up top, cov-
ered in mud and dirt, there were
18 other people. Ve were missing
11 people plus the two guys help-
ing the broken ankle lady. Three
hours later, they all made it out.
Can you believe it, the guy was
mad I had gotten his boots wet in
the water?
So why do I love Halloween? I
have done enough to scare myself
in life, so now I get to scare oth-
ers. So for this Halloween, I have
been training bats to get caught
in your hair, and as much as I
would love to dig a well with a
hole in the bottom and make the
kids crawl through a dirt tunnel,
I think I'll just stick with wear-
ing the most horrible costume of
all. I may even share some of the
bags and bags of candy I bought.
Happy Halloween!
Gary Noth, Lovell
Letters to the editor
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