On November 3rd we posted two articles from The Index Eagle on the blog. These articles were taken from November 1995, Vol. 12 - Issue 11.

We hope you enjoy these articles written by Bob Hubbard and Dr. David Cameron. We find them humorous as well as informative, even at their age. The history of Index is quite a lot of fun to read about.

The next scheduled posting of Off The Beaten Path is slated for December 16, 2008.

Posted some photos of the Skykomish River during the rain fall we had 11.07.08. It was swift but did not crest. The water was in the back yard of the old Tavern and creeping up near the Art Gallery as well. Available on the blog for your viewing.

Subscribers of News As It Happens got first shot at the viewing 45 minutes after the photos were shot.

For those that do not know Dave Cameron, he is the Towns Historian and an accomplished author and to top it all off, he is a very nice person. Along with his wife Louise (Heybrookridge.org) they are very involved with the town.

We received two emails from Dave during the recent flooding. Here is an excerpt of one email. The complete email may be read online at http://indexwa.org/blog/?p=344.
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Ed,
Thank you for alerting Index folks to the incoming rain and high water on November 12. We came through the event without serious problems due to people being alert, taking action and being willing to help out others.

Boy! The blog has had a busy month (November). Remember, this is a small town website but on Nov. 7, the blog received over 200 hits. We are still scratching our heads over that one. What makes people search us out? As of this writing, we are tracking for our busiest month yet on the site.

11.18.08 - It was the flooding! People were seeking information and it seems they came to the right place. We got quite a few new users from the "near flood". We were lucky this time.

We are also working on a project that will tie into the site also. We can't let the cat out of the bag as of this moment, but we will announce it on the blog, in the Newsletter and News As It Happens when the time comes. (11.27.08 - The time has come. The article is in this newsletter).

IndexWa.org has opened up an online Gift Shop. We won't elaborate but we have a LOT to do to get it organized put products on line. For a peek (it's open for business) visit www.cafepress.com/indexwa.

We will be adding a lot more products over time. OH, and we have added another type of Newsletter that may be of interest to some. This new newsletter will keep you informed of sales, promotions and new items added to the gift shop. You may add yourself to the new Gift Shop Newsletter by visiting http://www.indexwa.org/mail/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1. It's the 3rd one down. As usual, NO SPAM.

The reason we added the Gift Shop Newsletter? Cafepress is wonderful but they hammer you constantly with sales on this and that. I mean EVERY DAY!!! They have a subscribe to blah, blah on their site (ours also at the Gift Shop) and we removed the button so folks would not subscribe there.

First, it makes it easier for us to have our Newsletter's in one spot.
Second, Cafepress can be a pain, seeing their ads and promos daily. We did not want our users getting caught up in that trap.

If you know of a business that would like some exposure through our site, please send them our way. The revenue generated from our sponsors or advertisers help offset the cost of our hosting and bandwidth. In the future we will need to invest in an upgrade to send out our newsletter also. About another 100 subscribers will put us at our limit without the investment.

We would not have started this if we could not afford to do so out of our own pocket but it is always nice to have help from others and they are helping their business along the way. The advertisers play a big role in maintaining IndexWa.org. We are now generating enough hits on the site to justify asking for their business.

Again, if you know of anybody that would be interested, have them contact me at e d @ i n d e x w a d o t org . I will pass on my phone number to them and get them set up. More can be read on this subject at http://indexwa.org/blog/?page_id=15.

ALSO, if you run a website or a blog, please consider a link to our site or blog. It really helps drive traffic.

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	[not listed: 278]

Dang. Missed another Town Council Meeting this month. Meetings are on the 1st Monday of the month at 7pm.

I had a small case of the flu and missed work so it was inevitable to miss the meeting. I enjoy the meetings and at the meetings a lot of things come to light that you would not know about otherwise.

Most families have a tradition or two that they abide by during the holiday season. We would like to hear about your family traditions for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. Just hit REPLY to this newsletter and email it to us. Our favorite choice will be posted in the January 2009 edition of the newsletter as well as on the blog. AND, the winner will get to choose a SITE TO SEE in the next issue of the Newsletter (A Site To See is something new we just started).

This question is also posted to our blog so, if you are so inclined, leave a reply on the blog for all to see. You do not need to be logged in to post on the blog (we do however, review the information before it is posted to the public for obvious reasons).

My traditions have gone by the wayside in the past years due to the passing on of family members. The funny part is, I can't recall any "real" traditions except for one. Waking up Christmas morning to see the "big toys" that Santa had delivered. All the kids had to stay in bed until mom and dad called us out. One year my dad played with one of my toys until he broke it! It was a helicopter attached to a cable. You spun this handle on the toy and the props would spin on the chopper and you would walk with it while it was flying, all the while grinding on the little wheel on the cable to keep the chopper in the air. To this day, I think "Santa" bought it for his own little child that was in his heart.

On my wife's side there are some traditions. On Thanksgiving Day the majority of the family meets at a designated family members home for dinner and names are drawn to see who buys Christmas gifts for whom. I am not in the drawing as it is too hard for me to purchase for people that I am not often around. And tradition 2 is Christmas Day. The whole family (locals in Washington) meet at another family members home (it was ours last year) for dinner and time of reflection and then the gifts are handed out. Some are pretty darn funny while others come from the heart.

Not sure if this is newsworthy for our Newsletter BUT your going to hear it anyway.

My daughter became engaged last month. When she called me she asked "Well, aren't you going to congratulate me"? I told her no. I am going to congratulate her fiancé for getting such a good catch!

They came up to Index this past weekend to check out the possibilities of getting married here in town. Our back yard, the park? Nothing is set in stone as of this moment. You see, coming to our home a few years back was their actual first date so they would like to get married in town but who knows what they will end up doing.

I had to ask her the same question my father asked me. Why do you want to ruin a good relationship?

All joking aside, her fiancé is a nice guy, really. He really loves her and he shows it. He looks like he is 18 years old but is actually 30.

This will be posted to the IndexWa.org Blog on December 6, 2008. You're the first to see it!

We know this is very old, but it is one of OUR favorite(s) to read around this time of year. We may post this yearly as a tradition. It's a fun read if you are compelled to read it to your inquisitive children and it helps with the question that is inevitable at some point during a child's short span before becoming a teen. I think I broke the news to my daughter at age 9. Some kids at school new the answer and she was becoming antsy and we all know kids can be quite cruel to each other at times, so it's better to hear it from the horses mouth than to have a child embarrassed at a later date.
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By Francis P. Church, first published in The New York Sun in 1897. [See The People’s Almanac, pp. 1358–9.]

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

About the Exchange

Francis P. Church’s editorial, “Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus” was an immediate sensation, and went on to became one of the most famous editorials ever written. It first appeared in the The New York Sun in 1897, almost a hundred years ago, and was reprinted annually until 1949 when the paper went out of business.

Thirty-six years after her letter was printed, Virginia O’Hanlon recalled the events that prompted her letter:

“Quite naturally I believed in Santa Claus, for he had never disappointed me. But when less fortunate little boys and girls said there wasn’t any Santa Claus, I was filled with doubts. I asked my father, and he was a little evasive on the subject.

“It was a habit in our family that whenever any doubts came up as to how to pronounce a word or some question of historical fact was in doubt, we wrote to the Question and Answer column in The Sun. Father would always say, ‘If you see it in the The Sun, it’s so,’ and that settled the matter.

“ ‘Well, I’m just going to write The Sun and find out the real truth,’ I said to father.

“He said, ‘Go ahead, Virginia. I’m sure The Sun will give you the right answer, as it always does.’ ”

Her letter found its way into the hands of a veteran editor, Francis P. Church. Son of a Baptist minister, Church had covered the Civil War for The New York Times and had worked on the The New York Sun for 20 years, more recently as an anonymous editorial writer. Church, a sardonic man, had for his personal motto, “Endeavour to clear your mind of cant.” When controversal subjects had to be tackled on the editorial page, especially those dealing with theology, the assignments were usually given to Church.

Now, he had in his hands a little girl’s letter on a most controversial matter, and he was burdened with the responsibility of answering it.

“Is there a Santa Claus?” the childish scrawl in the letter asked. At once, Church knew that there was no avoiding the question. He must answer, and he must answer truthfully. And so he turned to his desk, and he began his reply which was to become one of the most memorable editorials in newspaper history.

Church married shortly after the editorial appeared. He died in April, 1906, leaving no children.

Virginia O’Hanlon went on to graduate from Hunter College with a Bachelor of Arts degree at age 21. The following year she received her Master’s from Columbia, and in 1912 she began teaching in the New York City school system, later becoming a principal. After 47 years, she retired as an educator. Throughout her life she received a steady stream of mail about her Santa Claus letter, and to each reply she attached an attractive printed copy of the Church editorial. Virginia O’Hanlon Douglas died on May 13, 1971, at the age of 81, in a nursing home in Valatie, N.Y.

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This Months Quote: A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

PS - as a subscriber to IndexWa.org, you may hit REPLY to comment on anything in the newsletter. Please do not quote the complete newsletter, only the piece you are responding about. We have read the entire newsletter already. (grin)