Hill-Topics
Well the (expletive deleted) Tooth Fairy visited the Overstake house again last week, taking our daughter Bethany's wisdom teeth and leaving a bill for $1,200 under my pillow.
It's the second time this year that the Molar Marauder has struck our house. Our son Garrison's wisdom teeth set us back $400 a few months ago.
His were cheaper because they were easier to pull. I think they took about 20 seconds apiece. Bethany's were sideways and impacted, and so painful that she actually looked forward to going to the dentist. She called just after the procedure and in a muffled voice cried, "I look like the Godfather."
We still have another child, our daughter, Jillian, 19, approaching the Age of Wisdom. Send contributions in unmarked bills to: The Tooth Fairy Ransom Fund, Box 10, Hillsboro.
What's weird about this is that neither my wife, Claire, nor myself had to have our wisdom teeth removed. Go figure.
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We received this notice in the recent Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce newsletter:
You may have noticed the increased amount of notices for you to notice. And, we have noticed that some of our notices have not been noticed. This is very noticeable. It has been noticed that the responses to the notices have been noticeably unnoticeable. Therefore, this notice is to remind you to notice the notices and to respond to the notices because we do not want the notices to go unnoticed.
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I also received the following e-mail from the chamber office: "In the Holly Days story, I had been told that Elmo Rahe was Shelly Arnold's grandfather, and she is not. Please print a correction."
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We received a card from Joe, our future son-in-law. It was a thank-you card he wanted us to pass along to Bethany's grandparents, who'd invited him to Thanksgiving dinner.
Since Keith and Betty read this newspaper, I thought I'd save a stamp by printing it here:
It reads, "Keith and Betty, Thanks so much for a wonderful Thanksgiving. The food was delicious and your home is beautiful. It meant a lot that you brought me into your home to join your family for dinner. See you soon! — Joe."
He's quite a guy.
I think we'll keep him.
And for those of you who thought I was picking on poor little Joe when I leaped from the dark and startled him, I failed to mention that he's about six feet, four inches tall.
Which made scaring him a bit dangerous, but a lot more fun.
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Speaking of greeting cards, I saw this funny birthday card the other day and thought of some of our longtime readers.
The front cover of the card reads, "On your birthday, here's a special message to you from God
Hey, don't slay the messenger.
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I went to the Hillsboro Takedown wrestling tournament on Saturday at the high school gym. About 200 youngsters from six to 14 years old were competing in the eighth annual event, sponsored by the Hillsboro Wrestling Club.
It wasn't like the wrestling shows on cable television, such as the Big Smack Down, or Wrestle Mania, or whatever.
These kids weren't stomping each other's throats, or throwing each other from the ring, or slamming their opponents with folding chairs. By television standards, it was pretty tame.
The gym floor was covered with real wrestling mats and the youngsters were doing it the old fashioned way, by the rules.
Sadly, however, there were a lot of coaches and parents screaming at frightened, teary-eyed kids, urging them in so many words to rip their opponents' little heads off.
I saw one little tough guy, maybe seven years old, with one of those temporary tattoos on his bony chest. He wasn't from Hillsboro. He was imitating one of his television wrestler heroes.
In stark contrast, I was impressed with the positive attitude of the athletes, coaches, and parents of the Hillsboro Wrestling Club. None of our athletes had tattoos, and the adults seemed to be doing their best to make the sport a positive experience for little grapplers.
The picture of six-year-old Jorge Hanschu of Hillsboro on the sports page says a lot about the positive aspects of the sport.
Jorge tried his best but didn't win the match I watched. The important thing was that his mom, Jan, and his club coaches, were positive in cheering him on, which allowed him to be a kid, and have fun.
-Grant Overstake
