Thoughts on local events

Hi neighbors. A call has gone out from the Bushwhacker Museum that they need volunteer docents for this season, which starts May first. If you want to be a docent but don't want to tackle it alone, ask a friend to volunteer with you. As your fellow docent, your friend can work the same days and hours you do.

Typically you will be at the museum one of two shifts on the day or days you choose, Monday through Saturday.

The shifts are three hours each and run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. or 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. For example, you might work each Monday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. You can volunteer for as many days and time periods as you wish to work.

The main duty expected of you as a docent will be to greet visitors to the museum and guide them on tours of the museum and old jail. For more information call Terry Ramsey, Bushwhacker Museum coordinator at (417) 667-9602.

More artifacts from the Vietnam and Desert Storm conflicts are needed as well for those two exhibits.

Artifacts can be documents, photos, uniforms, keepsakes, medals, paraphernalia obtain while in service, etc. Again, contact the Bushwhacker Museum at the above phone number to find out more.

There have been several changes made and new articles and exhibits added. Opening day is Thursday, May 1, so be sure to mark it on your calendars.

I hope you ventured out in the weather Tuesday to vote on several local issues. Some people think local elections don't amount to much or local issues aren't worth getting out in the rain for. But "local" is where we live, after all. If we don't get involved in what's going on locally, how can we make decisions about broader voting issues?

When I voted, I was the 57th person that day to vote in that particular polling place. This was in the middle of the afternoon. Of course, a lot of people vote after they get off of work, so the number of votes cast by 2 p.m. may not be indicative of the actual results.

My son came to the rescue for me the other day when the pilot light on the furnace went out. It was just a matter or re-lighting it, but that requires standing on your head, balanced over a board across your tummy and reading the instructions in the dark. He can do all that! And still stand up and walk afterwards.

When it went out it was mid-afternoon and warm. We discussed it and decided we could tough out a few days without heat. This is April after all and surely warm weather had to be just around the corner.

By mid-morning the next day we were doubting our decision and by that evening we decided to re-light the pilot flame.

This is April after all and 70 degree weather can be followed quickly by a frost. I'll keep the heat on until there are at least five days (and nights) in a row of warm weather.

I'm glad that turning off the pilot light is all that is required in a home with central heating. I'll have to admit, this is the first house I've lived in that had central heating and air conditioning.

In the past I've lived with window air conditioners and those delightful "Warm Morning" gas stoves that lived up to their name winter after winter. I've used wood burning stoves as well and although I enjoyed their unique heating,(and smell) I prefer central heating.

Some day I hope to get a Ben Franklin wood burning stove as a back-up heat source. But global warming may make that purchase unnecessary by the time I decide I want to build a chimney and buy wood.

Air conditioning may become the big expense in everyone's future if global warming increases. You can bundle up to stay warm, but there's nothing to do and no where to go to get away from the heat.

I saw on a television show that using a car's air conditioning increased gasoline use by up to 30 percent. Wow, better stay home to stay cool, or drive with your windows open to a local store, cafe or museum to stay cool.

Until the next time friends remember, when it comes to voting for changes, supporting businesses, finding educational entertainment or keeping the home place in shape, think local. And buy American made -- the job you save could be your own.