Joy of Christmas

Archive for February, 2006

If you opened up your Rollins College email account on January 9, 2006 would have received a message from Cat McConnell entitled “THEFT On Campus.” Sometime during the winter holiday a number of thefts took place on campus, all from the Greek houses.

Imagine coming back to campus after a long holiday and as you are unpacking you notice that some of your things you left behind in your room are missing. The first thing you do is check the window, but it is locked, and you remember that the door was locked when you left for break and it was still locked when you came back so how could this have happened?

According to burglarized students their rooms were secured when they left and returned from break, “our doors were locked when we left for break, and locked when we returned from break,” commented Cat McConnell. There were also no signs of forced entry, so it would appear as though the thefts were committed by someone who has access to the residential halls.

The Director of Campus Security, Ken Miller, seems to believe that the thefts were committed by someone with either R-Card, INTELLIKEY, or hard key access to the buildings. Safety precautions were taken right away. All exterior doors have been re-keyed as of Friday, January 20, 2006 and now there is only one master key to each building and Ken Miller holds that key.

It is unfortunate that theft occurs in our residence halls, but according to a campus wide email sent out by Miller “The College takes these illegal activities seriously and a very aggressive investigation is currently underway. We take pride in the fact that Rollins College is a safe environment to learn and work in.”

There is a joint investigation being conducted by the Rollins College Campus Security Department and Winter Park Police Department in order to address the problem as quickly as possible. When the incidents were first reported Campus Safety jumped right in. “It was like throwing down a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle at the start of the investigation,” said Miller.

If you walk into Ken Miller’s office you will see stacks of papers sitting on his desk, each paper has a list of students and faculty who had access into each residential building. After going through each name one by one and checking R-Card swipes or the use of the INTELLIKEY the suspect list was finally narrowed down to 10 people. Campus Safety has checked out Pawn Shops and Ebay in search of the stolen items in hopes of a lead. They are committed to helping the students and finding the person who did this. The investigation is still ongoing.

All information gathered within the first week was handled by Campus Safety and then all evidence was handed over to the Winter Park Police Department, but our Campus Safety Department did most of the work. Ken Miller even still has the list of items stolen and out of which rooms they were stolen from on his dry-erase board. And as I glanced over at the board I noticed the items stolen were not little things like a book or a hairbrush, they were expensive things like DVD players, purses, laptops, iPods, and jewelry. Even Cat said, “It seems like the thieves had good taste, they only went for certain designer labels and high quality electronic equipment.”

After in-depth investigation Miller believes that this was mainly a “crime of opportunity.” It was a time when there were no student on campus and the thefts took place in Greek housing building possibly because they are “smaller and quicker to get in and out of,” believes Miller and Cat McConnell.

Campus Safety wants all students to feel safe on campus and know that if something id ever wrong they can count on Campus Safety to help. Ken Miller believes that it is students who play a role in making the campus a safe place to be.

Several safety precautions have been discussed and it is possible that in the near future cameras may be installed around he campus. Campus Safety would also like to give students the option of locking up some of their valuable things in a lock box when they leave to go home.

It is important to always keep your doors locked and it is important to remember that if you ever see anything suspicious taking place it is important to report it to Campus Safety. And although it may seem like more criminal related events are taking place on campus things are not what they seem, in fact the actual number of criminal incidents is lower than before.

The Rollins College President Lewis Duncan, along with Rollins Campus Security and Rollins SGA President Cat McConnell are working together diligently to make sure this does not happen again.

For the first time in 12 years, the McDermott family will be packing away their entire collection of Christmas lawn decorations, and they couldn’t be happier.

In true Christmas miracle fashion, a custom-made Winnie the Pooh figurine that was stolen off the family’s front lawn on Vinegar Hill Road more than a decade ago, was returned two days after this past Christmas.

“I looked out my window and saw Winnie casually leaning up against my mom’s car,” said Erin McDermott, 24. “I just figured my dad had gotten side-tracked, and left it there accidentally, because I thought it was the replacement bear, not the one that had been stolen.”

After Winnie was stolen in 1993, Bob McDermott, the mastermind behind the family’s gigantic holiday display, had made a replacement bear in order to appease his children.

“It was really heartbreaking,” the dedicated father of four said. “We started making these decorations when the kids were all little. To have to explain that someone had stolen a piece of Christmas was one of the worst things I’ve ever had to do.”

The figures, many of them famous cartoon characters, are all made out of plywood that was carefully hand painted and sealed. They are not only one-of-a-kind but a landmark for some in Ledyard.

“I remember being in grade school and all the kids thinking my house was so cool,” Erin McDermott said. “For as long as I can remember, my dad has been the Clark Griswold of Gales Ferry.”

Prior to Winnie the Pooh being stolen, a group of plywood penguins were bird-napped off the front lawn in the late 1980s. Remarkably, six years ago, a town police officer drove up to the McDermott house and pulled two long-lost penguins out of the trunk.

“Apparently a new family had moved into town and found two giant penguins hanging in the garage,” Bob McDermott explained. “Everyone knew that they belonged to us, so now we have twins because I had already made replicas to replace the missing ones.”

At one point Bob McDermott became so discouraged by the incidences of vandalism, he decided to not put up the Christmas display.

“That didn’t last long,” he said. “So many people were disappointed, including the kids. We even got an anonymous Christmas card in the mailbox begging us to put the display back up. It finally became clear to me how important it was to people; helps strengthen their holiday spirit I guess.”

Since Winnie the Pooh disappeared in the early ’90s, the McDermotts haven’t had anything else stolen off their lawn.

Over the years the display has grown to include a 16-foot motorized Ferris wheel, practically every Disney character ever invented and Santa’s sleigh appropriately perched on top of the roof.

Never in their wildest dreams did the McDermotts think Winnie would ever return.

“I mean, it’s been 12 years,” Bob McDermott said. “I figured some kids took him and used him for target practice or something.”

The stolen Winnie is actually in better condition than his replacement.

“You can tell it was stored inside,” he said. “His paint is almost perfect.”

The family all has their own ideas on where Winnie has been all these years.

“I prefer to think the kid who took him has grown up now, and has his own kids,” Bob explained. “He now probably knows how important the spirit of Christmas is.”

Erin McDermott, who works at the Ledyard Middle School, said that the story has touched both the children and staff.

“It’s nice to have a happy ending,” she said.

Like many New Yorkers, you’ve probably experienced Nantucket as an island escape in the summer. But have you ever sampled it as a winter wonderland, decked in holiday cheer?

If not, now is the perfect time. As tourists descend on Manhattan this holiday season, consider heading north for part of Nantucket’s annual month-long Noel celebration. The carefully planned fête provides a perfect escape for families and a memorable romantic adventure for couples.

The Noel festivities begin the day after Thanksgiving with a Christmas tree lighting ceremony and continue through New Year’s Eve, with the 2005 Nantucket Christmas Stroll taking place the weekend of December 2-4. The three-day adventure kicks off Friday evening with the Historic Holiday Tour, where guests will be enchanted by guided visits of decorated landmark homes. Next, stop off at the Whaling Museum on Broad Street to view the Festival of Trees, a collection of more than 100 evergreens decorated by local artisans and business and community leaders.

Family-friendly events commence on Saturday morning, when the town crier rings in the annual Stroll and announces Santa’s arrival via Coast Guard vessel. Carolers and musicians in period costumes perform joyously throughout the quaint town’s cobblestone streets and children awaiting a visit with Santa are invited to interact with a Magical Talking Tree.

At noon area restaurants will provide regional fare—including lobster rolls, quahog chowder and fried scallop rolls—at a centrally located food tent organized by the Nantucket Chamber of Commerce. Meanwhile, local proprietors will toast shoppers with eggnog, while showcasing examples of regionally specific gifts evocative of the island’s past and geography. Delicate works of scrimshaw—decorative pieces designed from the carving or incising of intricate designs on whalebone or whale ivory—are featured items, as are lightship baskets, inspired by the designs of sailors while passing time at sea.

Closer to home: If Nantucket is a little too far to travel during a busy, event-packed season, there are also some nearby day trips for conjuring holiday happiness. Christmas marks a special season at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut. During this time, the 19-room mansion is decorated as it was for holiday celebrations from 1874-1891, when author Samuel Clemens lived there with his wife and three daughters. While in the area, stop by the Hartford’s Holiday Light Fantasia, an illuminated drive-through spectacle in Goodwin Park featuring over one million bulbs. Last year’s display included a 20-foot high gingerbread house, a 30-foot high Christmas castle, and a special presentation of Harry Potter’s magical voyage.

A quick trip to the Bronx also yields options for the entire family. For hobbyists, horticulturists, and children of any age, the Holiday Train Show at the Botanical Gardens displays replicas of more than a hundred New York landmarks—from the Statue of Liberty to the Apollo Theater—intricately fashioned from holiday foliage, berries, pinecones, and twigs. Miniature trains and trolleys zoom through an exhibit accented by evergreens and lights. Those in charge of holiday parties and decorating details will appreciate the Glasshouse Winter Flower Exhibit in the nearby Misty Palms of the Americas gallery. Its showcase includes holiday alternatives to predictable poinsettias, including exotic red, white, and pink anthuriums and vibrant bromeliads. Both exhibits run from Nov. 19th through Jan. 8th.

A tour of the offerings at the Gardens can be followed by a special holiday excursion at the nearby Bronx Zoo for the Holiday Lights-Polar Express Experience. Amid more than 500,000 lights and 140 lighted sculptures, ice carvings and live characters—including Sammy Snowman, Tommy Turtle, Penguin Pete and Blizzard the Polar Bear—The Wildlife Theater Players bring to life “The Polar Express” Christmas story via live evening performances, weekends through Dec. 15th and nightly until Jan. 6th, excluding Christmas Eve. The zoo also hosts a special book signing for Caldecott Medal winner and bestselling Polar Express author Chris Van Allsburg at the Bronx Zoo Store on Saturday, Dec. 14th, from 6:30-8 p.m. Van Allsburg’s tale is an enchanting ode to the spirit of Christmas that will delight family members, young and old.

The proposed city Christmas lights ordinance will be heading back to committee today, so inspectors can share some concerns about how to enforce it.

The proposal would require residents to remove outdoor holiday lights and decorations 90 days after Christmas.

Aldermen were supposed to vote on the ordinance at this week’s City Council meeting. However, city inspectors said some language in the proposal would be confusing to enforce, according to 2nd Ward Alderman Juany Garza, who proposed the ordinance. Religious statues, for instance, could pose a problem.

“When some people have a madonna, that can be confused with a Nativity,” Garza said.

In other business, aldermen unanimously approved three top-level city appointments. Mayor Tom Weisner, who made the nominations, was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.

Interim Corporation Counsel Alayne Weingartz will become the permanent head of Aurora’s law department, at a salary just more than $93,000.
Dan Barreiro will move from an assistant chief of staff to the director of community services, receiving about $86,000 per year. Rosario DeLeon will move from the head of the city’s public property department to director of neighborhood standards, a new city position. His $112,000 salary will not change.

The night’s final vote on Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church’s expansion proposal produced a tie. Since a super-majority of nine votes was necessary, the proposal was denied.

Aldermen voting in favor of the church’s proposal were: Garza; John “Whitey” Peters, 5th Ward; Scheketa Hart-Burns, 7th Ward; Leroy Keith, 9th Ward; Bob Shelton, at-large; and Bob O’Connor, at-large.

Voting against were: Abby Schuler, 1st Ward; Stephanie Kifowit, 3rd Ward; Rick Lawrence, 4th Ward; Mike Saville, 6th Ward; Chris Beykirch, 8th Ward; and Lynda Elmore, 10th Ward.

Children have long been accustomed to driving their parents up the wall. Now they can do the same with their toys.

A manufacturer yesterday unveiled a remote-controlled car that can gracefully navigate any wall, window or vertical surface. The gravity-defying vehicle – which contains a fan that blows air hard against a plastic film on its base, pinning it to the wall – is thought to be the first of its kind and is being hotly tipped as one of this year’s must-have toys.

While most people, particularly parents, may still be recovering from the financial shock of Christmas, the toy industry yesterday unveiled its plans for December 2006 at the London Toy Fair.

Bryan Ellis, of the British Toy and Hobby Association, said the next big sellers would be a mix of electronic gadgets and old-fashioned toys.

“The high-tech toys are still important, but traditional toys – such as dolls, action figures and board games – are as popular as ever,” he said.

The predictions of this year’s best-selling toys – which include robot dinosaurs, the return of Muffin the Mule and the arrival of the American “cup stacking” craze – came as a leading child psychologist warned that parents have forgotten the difference between entertaining children and playing with them.

Dr Pat Spungin said children were too often dumped in front of televisions or computer games. It was only through interaction with adults and other children, and time spent alone with toys, that they developed into fully functioning people, she said.

Dr Spungin said play with adults strengthened family relationships and taught them about the world. Unsupervised play with other children helped youngsters learn about compromise and negotiation.

Unaccompanied play was important for developing imagination, she said.

One of the big crazes predicted for 2006 is sports stacking, the American game in which contestants race against time to arrange plastic cups in pyramids and then demolish them.

The craze took off six years ago in California and was taken up across the United States. It is spreading to Britain, where around 500 schools have taken it up.

The game involves balancing 12 cups in pyramids and then stacking them away, all against the clock. In schools, sports stacking is often done as part of a running relay.

The success of two BBC revivals are likely to provide a lucrative source of income for manufacturers.

Doctor Who fans can buy a range of action figures, a remote controlled K-9 dog, and a Cyberman helmet that changes the wearer’s voice into the electronic buzzy voice of the robotic monsters.

A slightly less terrifying range of toys is also being launched on the back of the new Muffin the Mule cartoon, which started in the autumn. The show’s 60th anniversary will be celebrated in October with the launch of an old-fashioned string puppet.

I want to let you know about several Atchison groups, along with Wal-Mart and many individuals, that helped about 50 deserving children have a wonderful Christmas season. Our agency, The Farm Inc. Family Services, works with children in the Atchison area who have been placed in foster homes sponsored by TFI. We also work with children who are in our agency’s family preservation program.

In order to help these children enjoy a merrier Christmas, we try to provide gifts for all of them. This year, there were about 50 area children who needed this help and we were able to fulfill the wishes of all of them. The generous businesses and individuals provided items such as warm clothing, stuffed animals and toy trucks. Teenagers also saw their wishes granted, with items such as gift cards, CD players, nail polish and makeup.

None of this would have been possible without the help of Wal-Mart, Benedictine College, the Knights of Columbus and the caring people who live in and around Atchison.

Wal-Mart allowed us to place a Christmas tree at each entrance of the store. Both trees held snowflakes with the wishes of the children written on them. Wal-Mart used the time and energy of one of their staff members, along with their customer service department, in order to take care of this Christmas tree and the gifts received from the customers. We wish also to thank the customers who graciously brought items and gave them to our children.

We were also able to place a Christmas tree with snowflakes at Benedictine College in order to obtain gifts for children. We’re grateful to the Student Ministry and Knights of Columbus of Benedictine College for helping put up the tree and for gathering the gifts for the children, as well as for contributing gifts.

We also wish to thank the Knights of Columbus in Atchison for its donation for the second year in a row. They purchased numerous gifts cards for our children.

In a year of such tragedies with the hurricanes, it was wonderful to see that people still had enough in their hearts and pockets to help us give the families and children that we work with a better Christmas. Thanks so much to these groups and Wal-Mart for their help. We are certain the children appreciated each and every gift that they received.

THE Ghost of Christmas Future might have some bad news this year for Brent’s Christmas Trees, a fixture in the Grand Lake neighborhood for almost 30 years.

The Christmas tree business, which in recent years has operated in the parking lot under Interstate 580 off Lake Park Avenue, could be evicted by the city because of complaints from merchants who say it takes up too many parking spaces during the busiest time of the year.

“They’re coming in and screwing up my holiday business by taking 60 or 70 spaces,” said Allen Michann, owner of the Grand Lake Theater.

Brent’s, which has set up its operation every holiday season since 1978, actually occupies only 27 spaces in the parking lot, said Frank Hennefer, a local Realtor who operates several Christmas tree lots with his father, Brent Hennefer.

Brent’s pays rent and sales tax to the city. Plus, the lot brings in customers who buy trees, tie them onto their cars and then walk across Lake Park Avenue to watch a movie, eat dinner or patronize other businesses, the Hennefers said.

“I do so much for the city of Oakland, that’s what gets me,” said Brent Hennefer, who has been selling Christmas trees in the East Bay since he was a teenager in the 1950s.

In the 1960s, Hennefer opened his own lot at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and 27th Avenue. The Hennefers grow their trees near Redding and truck them to Oakland every year. They also have lots in East Oakland and Berkeley.

Brent’s moved into the parking lot under the freeway a few years ago to make room forthe expanding farmers market in Splash Pad Park. That move resulted in a loss of about 20 percent of the lot’s business, the Hennefers said.

City Councilwoman Patricia Kernighan (Grand Lake-Chinatown) said Brent’s can move back to the park and share space with the farmers market or find a new place to sell its trees.

“Brent’s has been a neighborhood tradition for a very long time, but much has changed in the last 30 years,” Kernighan wrote on her Web site. “Vacant lots are a thing

“It’s strange the way things happen in your life,” Villages resident Theresa Fockler reflected last week.

When she first met Herbert Fockler in a New York City skating rink in 1943, she didn’t know that he was the man she would marry.

After three dates, Herbert shipped out for a two-year tour of duty at sea, and their embryonic courtship shifted from getting-to-know you dates to letter writing.

Even when one of Herbert’s letters included a marriage proposal, Theresa declined to commit to the sailor she’d met only three times.

When I see him again, she thought, I’ll know.

The day he returned to New York, she didn’t recognize him immediately.

“And then I thought, well, yeah. I guess that’s the man who’s going to be my husband,” Theresa said.

She became a Navy wife in June 1945, knowing that being married to a sailor meant traveling with him to foreign places. But neither she nor Herbert suspected that 13 years and two sons later, her marriage to Herbert would lead her into an adventure of a lifetime with one of America’s all-time most beloved entertainers.

Herbert was stationed in Naples, Italy, where Theresa was busy raising her sons and socializing with other Navy wives.

Her sons played softball and Herbert played baseball and basketball, and Theresa became well known for her exuberant cheering. She had a strong, deep voice, she was from the Bronx, and everyone at the naval station knew it.

That is why, when workers at the base making arrangements for the arrival of Bob Hope’s annual “Around the World with the Troops” Christmas tour were asked to find a woman to play a pushy, man-hungry Women’s Air Force soldier in a skit in the USO-sponsored show, they came up with Theresa.

Out of the blue, Theresa received a phone call.

“I understand you do a lot of yelling at baseball games,” the woman said.

Fockler confessed that she did.

The woman then explained that they wanted her to tryout for a part in a skit with Bob Hope.

The skit, “Chief Boatswain’s Mate of the WAFs,” featured Hope as a USO host in a canteen frequented by lonely WAFs – Women Air Force personnel. Hope’s character tries to romance a lovely young WAF, but his efforts are thwarted by the pushy, highest-ranking WAF on the base.

Singer and teen heartthrob Molly Bee was Hope’s love interest. Fockler, if she read well, would be cast as the pushy commander.

“I was a little nervous in the interview,” Fockler said. “I thought I would be on the stage.”

But her nervousness disappeared when she was accepted for the role and after she met the celebrities with whom she would be working, especially Hope.

“He was a very nice man,” Theresa said. “He made me feel like I was somebody.”

Hope’s charm was not reserved just for the nervous Navy wife who had been plucked from obscurity and tossed into a troupe of seasoned professionals. Hope was, Fockler said, extremely generous when it came to sharing the spotlight.

“He was very considerate of the other people,” Theresa said. “He always tried to make them the important part of the show.”

Fockler learned her lines and rehearsed the skit. Then, on show day, the professional make-up crew went to work on her, wrapping her midsection with towels to make her stockier so she would fill out the uniform jacket borrowed from a male chief petty officer.

“I was heavy at the time, but that wasn’t big enough,” Fockler said.

The towels bulked out her 5-foot, 4-inch frame and smoothed any wrinkles in the oversized jacket as her character was hauled off to the brig by military police for harassing Hope.

Her show biz debut included a lesson in the old “show-must-go-on” tradition. The show was supposed to be staged on the deck of an aircraft carrier docked in the Bay of Naples, but high winds forced the show to an indoor venue that meant an extra rehearsal to familiarize the actors with the different stage.

Fockler’s participation in the show was big news in the tight-knit Air Force community, and the “Bulletin Board” ran a story about her, along with a photo of her on stage with Hope and Bee.

She earned rave reviews: “Her voice was perfect, her stage presence excellent,” the reporter wrote.

Hope was impressed enough with Fockler’s performance to ask her to reprise her performance in the troupe’s Berlin show.

Fockler hesitated because going to Berlin with the troupe meant leaving her husband and sons, then 9 and 12, on Christmas Day. But with their encouragement, she accepted Hope’s invitation and went “on the road” with Hope and the rest.

She was in prestigious company. In addition to Molly Bee, who had made a splash on the music scene with her 1953 recording of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” the cast included dancer Elaine Dunn and comedian Jerry Colonna.

The association between Colonna and Hope was long-standing. Colonna had played a cavalry captain in “Road to Rio,” in 1947 and a character named Achilles Bombanassa in “Road to Singapore” in 1940, and traveled with Hope’s overseas USO shows for many years.

Fockler and her husband understood that Fockler had been given a unique opportunity to participate in the legendary shows. Her sons just thought it was cool seeing their mom on stage.

“They thought it was great,” Fockler said. “Now they appreciate that it was Bob Hope.”

Her serendipitous venture into stage acting led Fockler in a new direction. She followed the USO show with roles in community theater, which she might never have done had she not been recruited for the USO show. Herbert Fockler also became involved in community theater, directing some of the plays in which Theresa had parts.

Fockler believes that hers was not the only life influenced by the USO – not by a long shot.

“The USO was a big thing in the war years. I think it helped a lot of servicemen cope,” she said.

After a pause, she added, “It kept a lot of them sane.”

A new cost-of-production study for “choose-and-cut” Christmas trees is available from the University of California Cooperative Extension.

Based on common practices in the Sierra Nevada foothills, the study shows per-acre costs to establish and produce Douglas fir and white fir trees as Christmas trees.

The study is available online at coststudies.ucdavis.edu or can be ordered from the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, One Shield Avenue, Davis, CA 95616 and the UC Cooperative Extension office in Stockton, 420 S. Wilson Way, or by phone at (530) 752-4424.