Halcyon House

Mary Dawson was accompanied by cousin Judith Swailes of Columbus Junction as they traveled to Fairfield where they met up with cousins Jeralle who resides at Sunny Brook, along with Shirley and Jerry Hill of Moravia. They went to lunch and shared lots of laughs and had such a good time reminiscing about days gone by.

Mike and Barb Wood have enjoyed the recent company of their daughters, Suzanne from Seattle, Wash., and Elizabeth who resides in San Francisco, Calif.

Diane and Bob Holtaway were in Washington to visit her parents, Bill and Ellen Perdock, and other relatives and friends in the area. Bob pilots his personal airplane into the Washington Airport. The couple traveled the skyline from Bedminster, N.J.

New resident Alfred Conrad, ?aka Fritz,? is father to four children, Richard, Daniel and Douglas Conrad from Washington, and daughter Carolyn Jacobs, who resides in Florida. He enjoys college football, basketball and the Cubs.

Martha Chabal accompanied Warren and Kathy Otterberg to Iowa City on Monday afternoon. They took the opportunity to dine out as well at a Chinese restaurant.

Junior Alex Thode of Washington shot a school record 66 on Tuesday, Oct. 28 during the final round of the Matt Dyas Invitational in Carrollton, Ga. This is the lowest score ever turned in by a Lewis University Golf player. Alex is the grandson of Ernie and Reta Beemblossom. Alex was introduced to golf by his grandparents at the age of 3.

The Independent Living folks geared up for an evening of a ?spooky? Halloween Bash on Thursday, Oct. 30. The residents endured haunting music, ghoulish decorations, nightmarish costumes, scrumptious but suspicious food and brew, not to mention spectacular games and super prizes.

This week, Ethel?s program took a scary turn. It was a ?boo-ti-ful? day program with chocolate cupcakes that featured spider decorations for this ghoulish Halloween occasion. A tricky word search kept everyone busy trying to find the haunting words. Halloween is recognized as the second biggest decorated celebration, with of course Christmas being No. 1. It is said that 93 percent of children hit the streets in search of treats with candy sales that average 2 billion in the United States. Favorite Halloween stories, jokes and trivia were shared. The custom of trick or treating is derived from the idea that originated from the Celts that they needed to hand out treats to the spirits that supposedly roamed the streets to keep them from harming the crops.

Dick Colby has had record attendance at his ?Classics? music held in the Epworth Chapel on Thursday mornings. We certainly appreciate Mr. Colby and thank him for providing this weekly program to his faithful followers.

Lela?s Topic of the Day was the history of Burma Shave that was introduced in 1925. It was a brushless shaving cream that was famous for its advertising gimmick of posting humorous rhyming poems on small sequential highway roadside signs. Sales took off and, at its peak, Burma Shave was the second highest selling brushless shaving cream in the United States. Sales declined in 1950s and the company was sold to Philip Morris and eventually became the property of the American Safety Razor Company. The Burma Shave brand was reintroduced, except with shaving soap and a brush kit in 1997.

Pastor Rick Zickefoose of the Brighton United Church delivered his message ?The Plan of Salvation.? The Scripture was from Jeremiah 29:1 at the Sunday afternoon church service. Margret Steinbeck served as the pianist for the congregation.

Please be sure to be extra careful on Friday evening as the little excited ghosts and goblins will be out in alarming numbers as they cross the streets in hot pursuit of the treats that await them from one house to the next. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!