Chester Chatter: Remember our veterans

By Ruthie Douglas
©2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Right about lunch time the taxi pulled into the driveway. Out jumped my two cousins, the only two I have ever had, and the family went running to them.

Such hugging and kissing like you never saw, with mothers and aunts crying.

My sister and I hung back because we were shy. The cousins had left for the Navy and the Army when we were just babies. They had never seen us before. They were dressed in uniforms and looked so handsome. My sister and I stepped forward and out of their travel bags they handed us red pocketbooks with shoulder straps and two metal models of a bus, painted like the Greyhound they had traveled home on.

We sisters had a great sandbox where we played often, those buses traveled many miles playing in the sand highways and they lasted for years.

With this time of remembering our veterans, I recall the day that the cousins arrived home. I must have been only 4 or 5 years old, but I remember. Take time to remember.

New beginnings, and losses

David Rorison died this past week. He was 91 years old. For many years he was the milk tester on our farm. Our thoughts are with his son, my classmate, Bob Rorison.

Barry Erskine, who grew up in Chester, has passed away. Family members include Bob Erskine, Ann Bailey and Bryan Erskine. Much sympathy.

It is sad to say goodbye, farewell to Misty Valley Books. It was a special place in Chester for 31 years.

Get well soon Ann Bailey.

What a great turnout for the Tuesday, Nov. 6 midterm election. More than 1,250 voters out of 2,394 on the voter checklist: A 50 percent turnout.

November is Down Syndrome Month.

• This week’s trivia question: Where were the barn dances in Gassetts held?
  
• Answer to last week’s trivia question: Springfield Hospital, now 105 years old, opened its doors in 1913.
  

Street Talk

With the closing of Misty Valley Books, this week we ask: Does a bookstore affect the community in a small town like Chester?

Pam Kimball: They are so important because they offer educational programs, activities and author signings. It gives people opportunities and a sense of community and helps small communities thrive.

Nicholas DeFeo: Books are important for old and young minds alike. It is important to have a space where people feel safe to escape into a good story.

Kelly Baptie: Small bookstores are so important to small towns and communities. The big corporate stores don’t offer the things we get from small local stores. It sure is a loss to our communities when we can’t get books for our children and have to order them online.

Jo-Ann Clapper: My children and grandchildren enjoy going to bookstores.

Gerrie-Ann Perry: Small town bookstores are fun and educational and they help the community. They offers things that big chain bookstores do not. Children need to experience small, family-owned bookstores.