I am glad to see the money coming in for this year’s Cheer Fund. But at the same time, I want to reiterate an earlier challenge from the Suffolk Ruritan Club to other groups.

The SRC gave $500 and challenged all civic organizations to match or beat it.

This fund, handled every year through the newspaper, raises money and collects toys, both of which ultimately go to the needy children on our community. And believe me, there are a lot of them who benefit from this.

But only one club has given so far. Where are the others?

Where are the Kiwanis, the other Ruritans, the Lions, the Elks, the Pilot Club, the Woman’s Club, the Garden Club, the Police Benevolent Society, and all of those other wonderful civic groups that raise money every year for the community? Hopefully they are only waiting until the check has been authorized before sending or bringing it to us. I don’t want to even imagine that they are not going to give to this great cause.

Right now we have about $6,000 of the $45,000 we hope to raise this year. And time is running out. Christmas is less than a month away, and the folks who use this money to buy the toys need time to complete their duties.

So, if you are a member of any civic group in the city, won’t you talk to your members at the next meeting and ask that they approve this expenditure? It’s a great cause and one we cannot ignore.

We’ll even take a photo of you donating to the fund and run it in the newspaper.

Besides, if we reach the goal, you will have the opportunity to see me get my head shaved. I promised to do it, and I will go through with it if we succeed.

Those under 40 may disregard

My wife recently sent this to me and I found it quite entertaining. For those of us 40 and older, it will mean something. For the younger ones, well, who knows …

Black and White

You could hardly see for all the snow,

Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.

Pull a chair up to the TV set,

“Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet.”

Depending on the channel you tuned,

You got Rob and Laura – or Ward and June.

It felt so good. It felt so right.

Life looked better in black and white.

I Love Lucy, The Real McCoys,

Dennis the Menace, the Cleaver boys,

Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train,

Superman, Jimmy and Lois Lane.

Father Knows Best, Patty Duke,

Rin Tin Tin and Lassie too,

Donna Reed on Thursday night! —

Life looked better in black and white.

I want to go back to black and white.

Everything always turned out right.

Simple people, simple lives.

Good guys always won the fights.

Now nothing is the way it seems,

In living color on the TV screen.

Too many murders, too many fights,

I want to go back to black and white.

In God they trusted, alone in bed, they slept,

A promise made was a promise kept.

They never cussed or broke their vows.

They’d never make the network now.

But if I could, I’d rather be

In a TV town in ‘53.

It felt so good. It felt so right.

Life looked better in black and white.

I’d trade all the channels on the satellite,

If I could just turn back the clock tonight

To when everybody knew wrong from right.

Life was better in black and white!

Another goody for the ‘Oldtimers’

n Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same

cutting board, with the same knife, and no bleach, but we didn’t seem to get food poisoning.

n Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter, some of us used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in waxed paper, and placed in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers; but we can’t remember getting E. coli.

n Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

n The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.

n We all took gym, not PE … and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked’s (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors.

n Can’t recall any injuries, but they must have happened, because they tell us how much safer we are now.

n Flunking gym was not an option … even for stupid kids! Guess PE must be much harder than gym.

n Speaking of school, we all sang the National Anthem, and said the Pledge of Allegiance, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.

Grant is the managing editor of the Suffolk News-Herald. Contact him at doug.grant@suffolknewsherald.com, or call 934-9603.