WAITING FOR WESTERN DAYS

It's the day before the Western Days parade and already some of the festivities have started. I heard gunshots last night, which means that the VC Posse was at work gunning down the bad guys. They will really get a workout tomorrow after the parade when they wills stage several fights at the fake Western town that they built just for this purpose. Should be fun!

They will choose the honorary mayor tonight at 5:30 p.m. at the community center. The four candidates to replace Left Eddy are Jan Imonti of the women's club, Doug Dechairo of the Kiwanis, Bill Laird of the Lions and Carol Mohrbacher of the Chamber.

We had two odd aeronautical events happen this week. First, there was a small private plane crash landing at Blackington air field (see our website). No one was hurt. This is the same airfield from which a private plane took off on the last day of 2005 and crashed moments later, killing three people. There's no relation, of course, but people tend to notice these kinds of coincidences.

The other crash happened early Thursday night when a helicopter came in for a hard landing near the entrance of Guejito Ranch, near the eastern shore of Lake Wohlford. Once again no one was hurt. Once again, you can get details on our website.

Yesterday I had the high privilege of seeing the high school unveil its heroes wall in the administration office. The wall has a dozen VCHS graduates who are serving in the military, most of them, interestingly enough, are Marines. Mel Schuler, the retired vice principal, who attended, was quite excited about all the Marines on the wall. Two additional photos honor VCHS grads who are soon to graduate from military academies.

Principal Ron McCowan invited retired Air Force Major Gen. Gene Hudson to say a few words. He was very inspirational, and looked fit and trim in a uniform that he has only worn twice since he left the Air Force in the 1970s. VCHS secretary Kathy Eckert, who wiped away a few tears while she listened to Hudson talk about how much we owe the young people who serve us in the armed forces, had arranged for a nice cake for guests to nibble on after the talk.



A few weeks ago I was interviewed for a show on the Oxygen Network called "Snapped," for an episode about Jane Dorotik, a VC woman who was convicted for the murder of her husband several years ago. They were interested in the newspaper's perspective on the case.

My interview ended up on the cutting room floor, however the episode will air June 3 on the Oxygen network. Be sure to miss it! Oops! I mean, be sure to catch it!