SMALL TOWNS and BOBCATS
by Rick Murphy

Being a small town, it seems like people in Rugby know a lot more about what’s going on in your life than you would think. Which actually can be nice.

The recent sad passing of Bill Jones got us thinking fondly about one of those small town things. In earlier days when Verda Brooks used to handle the mail as “postmistress” at Brooks Store, George says he used to have fun sending postcards to a friend who was spending the summer in Rugby. He would compose part of the message on the postcard and then write “Now Verda – don’t read this part,” followed shortly by “OK, Verda. You can start reading again.” I guess it wasn’t that anybody knew that she read their mail, it was just that being in a small town with not much amusement, it was fun to assume she did.

I had a similar small town mail experience last week. Earlier in the week I got a nice email from Cathy in the Historic Rugby office saying that they had received by mistake a postcard notice from my dentist reminding me of my dental appointment - so she wanted to make sure I knew about it. Later in the week, on Saturday evening, we got home from a visit to Nashville and there was a message from Rita from the Commissary/Post Office saying that she had my dental appointment reminder card, the same one, and wanted me to make sure I knew that I had a dental appointment coming up. Well, it is really sweet to have our wonderful neighbors looking out for us! (Ok, it was a slow news week)

And speaking of good neighbors, it was also nice to have the shop Spirit of Red Hill open this weekend. We miss having Donna and Annie around the village during the winter months. They had cookies and hot drinks and a sale of old books to help the villagers get through the rest of winter. They were telling us about a lady they know in Scott County who came upon a bobcat that had been injured on the road. She got out of her vehicle intending to shoot it to put it out of its misery. But she saw its head move and had second thoughts about shooting an animal lying on asphalt, concerned that the bullet might ricochet. So instead of dragging the poor animal off the road to end its troubled life, she picked it up and put it in her Ford Explorer to take it somewhere else where she could more safely carry out the merciful deed. We all speculated that it takes a special type of person to put a bobcat, injured or not, inside their vehicle. (Turns out it died en route, so no shot was needed in the end.)

Which is all a long-winded way of saying that there are a lot of special people in and around Rugby. We wouldn’t have it any other way!

The photo shows Annie Patterson visiting with Miss Annie, the Walton Court cat.

OH DEER!
We have seen a lot of deer on the road recently when we are driving near Rugby in the evening. So, it struck a chord when Mara Trumbo sent a link to a little video about some wonderful ghostlike white deer. Thanks, Mara. We wondered if anyone had ever seen one of these before in the Rugby area. If so, please let us know.

To view what Mara said is a PBS documentary from Wisconsin about them, click here.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=inwi10s22a3q81f

BIRTHDAYS
January 18 - Deanna Oliver
January 23 - Sara Senft

CALENDAR

January 18 – Martin Luther King Day – no mail in Rugby!

January 23 – (NEW DATE) Historic Rugby Board Meeting – 1:30 p.m. Eastern at the Community Building.

February 6 – Community Potluck 7:00 p.m. Eastern

February 12 – History Club 7:00 p.m. Eastern at the Friendly House.

February 13 – St. Valentines Dinner at the Harrow Road Café – four-course dinner and special gift. Reservations required. Lodging packages also available. Contact HRI at 423-628-2441 or toll-free at 888-214-3400

March 20 -The Silver Stage Players Present “The Way the Story Goes” at the Rebecca Johnson Theatre – Contact Historic Rugby for more information or reservations.

Quilters Group - Wed. and Sat. 2-4 p.m. Eastern at the Friendly House

NATURE NOTES
By Linda Konig
If we'd gotten a good amount of snow each day that it snowed recently, we'd have had a huge snowfall to dig out of. As it was, I'd give it about a C on the Konig scale of snowfalls. As for the lingering icicles hanging from bluffs and rock shelters, however, I'd give them an A+.

I couldn't resist going to the Clear Fork Saturday from the Fentress County side to admire them and make pictures. Several little wet-weather waterfalls are along Brewster Spring as it travels downhill to the right of the park road, meandering to the river, as well as mini-icefalls from freezing melted snow dripping off bluffs, etc.. All these little falls, of course, are frozen now and more beautiful than ever. Back when Highway 52 still went down into the river gorge (before the high bridge was built), you hardly dared take your eyes off the sharply curving road in bad weather to see the little falls, especially if they were set back in the woods a bit.

Photo above taken by Carrie Thornthwaite of icicles at Jones Waterfall.

Now you can look to your heart's content. Along the old highway roadbed, there were icefalls, ice curtains and ice aprons aplenty, with hardly any melting. There has been some warming, which only makes for longer more spectacular icicles. Most were white as you'd expect, but some were tinted a light green or tan because of what the freezing water had passed over such as moss or decaying vegetation. I wasn't the only one out looking at icefalls this past weekend. Carrie Thornthwaite and Mary and Bob Hemminger were, too, and when I saw Bob yesterday afternoon, he was heading for Jones Falls (between the Ericksons' and the river). I understand that Carrie Thornthwaite and Mary Hemminger also went to Jones Falls the day before.

This Week’s Editors: Rick Murphy and George Zepp