As a big girl, I can take my lumps.
Judy Kessinger of Mill Creek picked a bone with me about a recent column I wrote.
“Ladies are obsolete,” Kessinger says. “You wrote about a new Seven Lakes Lions Club and said ladies can become Lions, too. Kristi, ladies have gone the way of corsets, white gloves, Model-T Fords, Oleo, and rotary telephones.”
We have become women, not girls, not gals, and not “you guys,” Kessinger says.
She says I can still use ladies, as in “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” or “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” when a speaker begins his address to an audience.
Other uses of the word are passe.
“So, please, Kristi, no more ladies,” she says. “It’s old-fashioned.”
I’ll try to adhere, but I know I’ll slip. Mom always wants me to be more ladylike.
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There will be eggs and plenty of laughs Saturday in Mountlake Terrace, just don’t expect to see the Easter bunny.
The Easter Egg Hunt is planned for 11 a.m. Saturday at Nile Shrine Center, 6601 244th St. SW in Mountlake Terrace.
There will be eggs filled with candy and special prize eggs, says Tom Caldwell, secretary for the Nile Oriental Band.
“I don’t think there will be anyone dressed as the Easter bunny,” he says. “The Nile Clowns will be there.”
Children will scarcely miss a rabbit, he says.
“There will be balloons and slapstick,” he says. “All designed for kids.”
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We can’t be sure if milk prices would be lower, but we used to have a major producer in Monroe. Nellie Robertson, Monroe historian, says 100 years ago, the city wooed the Carnation company to town.
L.R. Hardenbergh, a representative of Carnation, visited Monroe to talk about bringing a condensing plant to town. He wanted to know if the town could provide enough milk for the operation.
Town folks met at the Knights of Pythias Hall and discussed the matter. They counted about 2,000 cows around Monroe.
Good enough.
Construction began in the summer of 1908. Profits soared for dairymen, but by the late 1920s, the milk supply was skimmed and cream was sent to other plants for making butter.
In March of 1944, fire destroyed the warehouse.
“It was presumably started by spontaneous combustion,” Robertson says. “The only structure that now remains is the tall smokestack on East Main Street.”
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Fun Fact: Jim Strickland of Everett wakes up every morning at 4:30 a.m. and sips coffee.
“I read for an hour before I have to get ready for work,” he says. “My wife says I’m crazy, especially when I complain of being sleep-deprived, but it’s a discipline that helps keep me sane.”
And he has consumed the same meal for lunch at Totem Middle School in Marysville for 18 years of his teaching career — a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a yogurt.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
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