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This lovely old English carol is yet another which has not been previously used as a theme in any of the past three Decembers.

Happy Birthday today to Durwood Adams ('57)!
On the 22nd, we'll have another one of those rare Four-Fers for

Kitty Norman Haskins ('57) of VA, Harry Barritt ('64) of VA, Dale Mueller ('64) of VA, AND Bill Rash ('67) of VA!

From Elizabeth Tedder Nunnally ('65 / '68) of VA - 12/16/07 - "Awe Inspiring":

Old Age, I decided, is a gift.

I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend.

I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60&70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)

MAY OUR FRIENDSHIP NEVER COME APART ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART! MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE A RAINBOW OF SMILES ON YOUR FACE AND IN YOUR HEART FOREVER AND EVER!

FRIENDS FOREVER!

Thanks so much, Lady!

Maybe if I ever get around to growing up instead of just growing old, I will have the maturity to think this way myself. For the moment, I'm not even close.....

From Terry Seay ('67) of TN - 12/17/07 - "From our House to Yours ... Merry Christmas!":

Terry G. Seay
Senior Principal Consultant
ORACLE | ACS Certified
J D Edwards Business Solutions

It's curious how all our life's regrets seem to revisit us all towards year's end, n'est pas?

RE: Trivia question posed by George Clark RM2 TACRON 22, 59 to 63 - 12/12/07

Trivia...What do these plates have in common?
EKY7551 Explorer
DDE3679 Maroon 4 door
FHP3222
EKF0324
GMK7134 Green Saturn (GMX ?)
GKK5911 Large White Sedan(10/11/06)
DAB6669 FOP plate
P/D7878H small light color
GDY9010 Explorer replaced 7551 Post accid
VW 708J Nu Joisy August 2000

Thank you, Joe!

I hope you're able to add many more subscribers to that great website!

From Joyce Lawrence Cahoon ('65) of VA and My Niece, Shari, of VA - 12/17/07 - "Don't worry....":

IF A FAT GUY GRABS YOU AND PUTS YOU IN A BAG,
DON'T WORRY, I TOLD SANTA I WANTED A GOOD FRIEND FOR CHRISTMAS!

Tired of the relentless "Get Rich Quick" schemes that abound?
Have you fallen victim to pyramid scheme after pyramid scheme in a fruitless attempt to realize your "American Dream" of becoming fabulously wealthy without earning it?
Have you found attempts to swindle money from the unsuspecting public has left you high and dry?

If you have answered yes to one or more of these questions then you have been barking up the wrong road all this time...

The secret of gaining fortunes is not in getting it quick, but getting it, period. That is why I have created a system of "Get Rich Slow" schemes that are guaranteed to make you millionaires!!! Yes, that is right, If you don't become a millionaire before you die, I will personally give you my entire net worth on the spot! That is how confident I am that these techniques will work. Yes, my friend, the pot of gold that you have been searching for is here, read on:

GET RICH SLOW -- The Basics

The most important concepts in the "Get Rich Slow" philosophy are the three C's (Can, Coin, Couch), commonly referred to as the three "treasures" of getting rich. Once you have memorized and mastered these techniques you will never have to worry about money again...

$ THE FIRST TREASURE - One Word: "Cans"

Today's world severely underestimates the value of turning in aluminum cans for cash. Some states will pay up to five cents per pound that you can collect, which is about the average weight in Coke and Pepsi cans that are used by a family of four in one month! Yes, that means every house on your block is a potential nickel in your pocket, every month! The average neighborhood may contain 90 homes, that is four dollars and fifty cents in your pocket per month! The untapped power of the aluminum can dollar is not yet even begun to be realized... but wait, you say that most families put their recyclable materials in those red or green recycle bins to be picked up every week... A true opportunist sees these little baskets as the golden goose! Go out there and raid those bins! Stick it to the man and take his trash, because that is money in your pocket!

$ THE SECOND TREASURE - Don't spend those old coins, collect them!

Unknown to most people, the coins that you use every day may be twenty, thirty, even forty years old or more. As these coins age, their value goes up astronomically! A silver dollar from the turn of the century goes today for nearly $1.02 on the collectors market, and one from 1870 can go has high as $1.05!!!! Think what would happen if you began stockpiling your twenty and thirty year old coins now... In less than one century you will have all the cash you will ever need! That means no more fiddling with junk savings bonds, no more fear of spending your final years in poverty... You will be sitting pretty with your set of 1972 dimes, dimes that will make you rich! Whoever said the seventies never created anything worthwhile! They will make your fortune.

$ THE THIRD TREASURE - The City of Gold

The third treasure in the pursuit to get rich slow is the hidden gold mine that exists in everyone's house, yes the living-room sofa. The average sofa can collect up to 12 cents from a single man's pants... Some students of the Get Rich Slow philosophy have reported collecting SEVENTY two cents in an average week, merely from rummaging the couch after every guest... Can you believe those numbers??? This is no hoax, this system really works! The highest record reported so far has been one dollar and thirteen cents in a single night after a particularly successful party! With those numbers, how can you lose?

$ SUCCESS IS YOURS -- Don't Hesitate, Act Now, Reap Later

Don't hesitate, go, go, go, and begin raking in your first pennies today and by the end of the year you will be skilled enough to make nearly fifty cents a day. With that earning power you will find yourself free to do all the things you have dreamed of: Buying food, collecting matches, becoming your own employee!

As someone mentioned recently in this newsletter, a casual mention of something can bring back some memories.

So, many, many thanks to Jean Poole Burton ('64) of RI for the "Ode to Plurals"!! I have been wanting to find that ever since taking first-year Latin.

Miss Free used to read that to her beginning Latin classes. She always taught us that Latin was an ordered language that followed fixed rules. After trying to drum that into our heads for our first three or four months, she would spring the "Ode to Plurals" on us out of the blue, and that would really reinforce her point, showing us how insane English can be.

She had us in stitches, reading it to us in an obviously dramatic, over-acting fashion. I'm not sure now how much of our laughter was due to the words of the ode, or how much due to her hamming things up a little, since that silliness seemed so out of character for her. In any case, that lesson has stood the test of time!

Thank you, Ron! Isn't that a great feeling to find something after forty-eleven years?!?

I added your memory - and the Ode - to Miss Free's page:

From Richard Dawes (NNHS / HHS - '62) of VA - 12/18/07 - "Richard Dawes sent you a JibJab greeting":

Lucky you! Richard Dawes cared enough to send you a JibJab Sendables(tm) greeting instead of a crappy e-card!

To see it, click here or copy and paste this url into your browser:

WOWZERONI-RINI!!! This is so unbelievably cute, Dicky! Thank you so much for going to all the trouble to create this! Merry Christmas, Sweetie!

Carol -- Your choice of "Mary Did You Know" for the 12/14/07 newsletter music was perfect!

One of my daughters, Donna, sang that at her church's Christmas Cantata. And of course, my totally unbiased opinion is that her performance of same was far better than any professional has ever done. :-)

From one of my Famous Marines, Herb Hice of MI, who served in the Pacific Theater during WWII - 12/14/07 - "Dear Carol / Dimples, This is Dog Logic" (#2 in a series of 12):

There's much more to come - next time! Meanwhile, Good Yule - and Merry Christmas!

Y'all take care of each other! TYPHOONS FOREVER! We'll Always Have Buckroe!

Sussex Carol is a Christmas carol popular in Britain. Also known as On Christmas Night True Christians Sing and On Christmas Night
All Christians Sing, its words were first published by an Irish bishop, Luke Wadding, in a work called Small Garland of Pious and Godly
Songs. It is not clear whether Wadding wrote the song or was recording an earlier composition. Both the text and the tune to which it is now
sung were discovered and written down by Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams, who heard it being sung by a Harriet Verrall of Monk's Gate, Sussex (hence "Sussex Carol"). The tune to which it is sung today is the one Williams took down from Mrs. Verrall and published in 1919.

On Christmas night all Christians sing
To hear the news the angels bring.
On Christmas night all Christians sing
To hear the news the angels bring.
News of great joy, news of great mirth,
News of our merciful King's birth.

Then why should men on earth be so sad,
Since our Redeemer made us glad?
Then why should men on earth be so sad,
Since our Redeemer made us glad,
When from our sin he set us free,
All for to gain our liberty?

When sin departs before His grace,
Then life and health come in its place.
When sin departs before His grace,
Then life and health come in its place.
Angels and men with joy may sing
All for to see the new-born King.

All out of darkness we have light,
Which made the angels sing this night.
All out of darkness we have light,
Which made the angels sing this night:
"Glory to God and peace to men,
Now and for evermore, Amen!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~


	12/19/07 - NNHS Newsletter Sussex Carol “I truly believe that if we keep telling the Christmas story, singing the Christmas songs, and living the Christmas spirit, we can bring joy and happiness and peace to this world." - Norman Vincent Peale (31 May 1898 - 24 Dec 1993)