With that commitment in mind, the newspaper unveils a new column today. Around Town will relate stories of good will, good deeds, humor and those slices of life that sometimes cause reflection.
We want to make you and your family, your neighbors and friends a part of this. So here's your invitation to participate.
The real life blood of the column is pumped by you and the story ideas, jokes, anecdotes, essays, poems and opinions nice folks in these parts send along.
Let's keep our collaboration going. This should be great.
A KODAK MEMORY
As part of weekend activities, Carole Free of American Legion Post 613 in Trotwood has organized an auction to help raise money for the World War II monument to be built in our nation's capital.
One item on the auction block is a Kodak Brownie camera that the late John Sherman Rolland Sr. of Dayton presented to his mother in 1936 when he went into the Army.
"The family kept the camera in mint condition all these years,' Free said. "It still works. It was donated to us by Mic McGinnis, a Vietnam veteran who is a nephew of Mr. Rolland. When we looked the camera over, the original price tag was still on it. It cost $2.75. That was a lot of money back then." Free and friends hope to make a lot of money at the auction Saturday. It starts at 7 p.m. at post headquarters, 27 Meadow Drive, Trotwood.
SIGN HERE ON THE LINE
In this advanced technological era, like everyone, I get a good deal of e-mail, and some of it leaves me chuckling. The following showed up on my screen last week and was forwarded by David Wical:
"I was signing the receipt for my credit card purchase when the clerk noticed that I had never signed my name on the back of the credit card. She informed me she could not complete the transaction unless the card was signed. When I asked why, she explained that it was necessary to compare the signature on the credit card with the signature I just signed on the receipt. So I signed the credit card in front of her. She carefully compared the signature to the one I signed on the receipt. As luck would have it, they matched."
A FATHER'S LAST WISH
Pamela Hurley of Xenia says she has been haunted by an unaccomplished mission.
Her mother, Jewell Williams, died in 1982 of heart failure and her father, Kenny Williams, died a few months later at the age of 62 from Lou Gehrig's disease.
Her parents had been married 30 years. On their wedding day, her father had been presented a watch by a friend known as Charles Smith.
"It's just a simple little watch, a Gruen, with a leather band," Hurley said. "It rattles when you shake it. But my father wore it every day. For many years it didn't even work. We offered to buy him a new watch, but he insisted on wearing the one his friend gave him."
Hurley said that when her father was on his death bed, he begged her to find Charles Smith and to give the watch back to him. "He could barely speak. This is all he asked."
Well, there are a lot of Smiths in the area phone book. Hurley has worked hard but has been unable to find the Charles Smith she is looking for.
"All I know is that Charlie's wife was named Mary and she sold real estate. I am sentimental and I just don't want to give up."
There is little to go on, but if you have any leads in this regard, please be in touch. Perhaps we can put Hurley's mind at ease.
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