WHY I CHOSE THE COVID-19 VACCINATIONS

 

10/21/21 Chatterbox 

by Betty Kaiser

Cottage Grove Sentinel 

 

I hate being sick! So, I was surprised at the controversy over the prevention of this horrible Covid-19 virus by vaccination. “Just do it and get it over!” was my thinking. So, as soon as it was available, my husband and I did.

 

Why? Because I have had mumps, measles, chicken pox, yearly colds, chronic bronchitis and every seasonal flu that came around (until the flu shots). But not everyone feels the same way. The vaccinations were immediately controversial.

 

In fact, wherever I go, the vaccine is the biggest topic of conversation. Many people still don’t find it acceptable for reasons that range from “it won’t happen to me” to “I don’t believe in the science.” 

 

I agree that science is not always perfect. Sometimes things don’t work but this is a dangerous, worldwide virus we’re dealing with— over 700,000 people have died from this virus just in the United States. And no problem can be solved if it’s ignored. 

 

Fortunately, there’s been a lot of trial and error to get this vaccination  to the public. Labs have done due diligence in their research and decided that this will save lives.

 

Now, we have a choice to trust them or not. I chose to believe the scientists are correct. The main reason is because over 6.6 billion shots have been given and lives saved. Amazing! 

 

I grew up in an era when my grandparents and parents, watched loved ones die from health issues that are now treatable. They knew some illnesses were transferrable, often non-curable and the only way to protect themselves was to stay away from those who were sick. Hard to do!

 

My mother didn’t talk very much about her childhood illnesses. My  grandmother, however, often told the story of her only child catching whooping cough in the 1920s from neighbor kids. Some died. There was no treatment and mom coughed violently for weeks.  She eventually recovered and today there is a vaccine. But not everyone takes it.  In 2019 there was an estimated 21 million cases and 160,000 deaths worldwide. 

 

Another example is my dad. He was born in 1908. He was a Missouri country boy, the firstborn in a family of six that included him, mom, dad, one sister and two brothers. He was still a bachelor during the early 1930s when his mother and sister both died of tuberculosis.

 

Later, he met my mother when she was visiting relatives in Missouri. They fell in love, eloped and got married! They then got on a train and came to California where her parents (my grandparents) lived.

 

A year later, a baby boy was born to them but dad was very ill. One day at work, he was found sitting on a curb, unable to move during the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Soon, he was hospitalized, diagnosed as having tuberculosis and sent to a sanitarium! The lung with tuberculosis was collapsed. He was hospitalized and isolated for 3 years.

 

During that time, mother and dad’s little 3-year-old boy died of tubercular meningitis. It was a heartache from which they never recovered. Today, there is a vaccine for it but  in some countries, it is still a problem.

 

Many of you remember the dreaded Polio paralysis epidemic of the 1950s. History will tell you that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was crippled by it as well as thousands of others. Thankfully, science came to the rescue in 1955 with the polio vaccine.

 

However, polio still roams the world. I personally, knew a woman who was disabled by it in the late 1960s. while a missionary in Africa. The natives kept her alive in the jungle by peddling a makeshift contraption that helped her breathe. She lived but she never walked again. 

 

So, dear readers, I hope that you make the right choice in this life-or-death situation. The decision to invest in a Covid-19 vaccination is yours. 

 

 God bless you all and stay healthy!

 

 

Contact Betty at bchatty@bettykaiser.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leave Sooner. Drive Slower. Live Longer.

9/19/21 The Chatterbox

Betty Kaiser

After 32 years of driving the beautiful  London Road into town,  I was thrilled to see the new “Safety Corridor” and “Fees Double” slow down signs that were recently  installed. Over the years, our country road had become dangerous because of some drivers .Hopefully, the new signs will help,

However, a recent trip from home to Cottage Grove and back, left me wondering if anyone was paying attention to them. They don’t know that accidents have happened and people have died in that area. Be cautious.

My first scary accident happened a couple of years ago when I stopped to make a left turn onto Reservoir Rd. Rocks from a speeding dump truck took out the windshield on my car. Ouch!

Last month, coming home from Cottage Grove, I suddenly had two cars playing tag behind me. For a few minutes a woman would ride my bumper in her white car while a man trailed her in a black car. Then they would change places at a high rate of speed still trailing me.

Finally, they screeched around me, and seconds later turned onto Reservoir Rd. and immediately turned into a Weyerhaeuser side road where they met a group of several other cars. Whew. Whatever their hurry it was nerve racking and I was glad to get up the hill.

My most recent incident began when I turned right from Reservoir Rd. onto London Rd. It’s one of those intersections that you feel like you’re taking your life into your hands when you turn. I stop at the sign and  look left to see if any traffic is coming around the curve from London. It’s a dangerous place because they can’t see me and I can’t see them until the last minute.

All was clear as I turned onto London Rd when the car in front of me slowed down to enjoy the scenery. So, I slowed down too. Suddenly, a blue car came roaring up behind me. He was on my tail and I had nowhere to go. The driver then decided to pass the two of us, going about 80 mph across double lines on a curve! Whew.

He didn’t see the oncoming car in the other lane. The two vehicles missed each other by inches! He could have wiped out lives in four different cars just because he was in a hurry. Scary stuff.

Erratic speed kills, but obeying laws can save lives. If you drive Interstate 5 you know it can be like a speedway. I know that I can get pushed and drive too fast to get out of someone’s way. So here are some reminders from ODOT:

“State statutes give Oregon motorists the following speed zone standards especially on places like I5 and in towns. Other posted speeds will override statutory standards.

• 15 mph - Alleys, narrow residential roadways.
• 20 mph - Business districts, school zones and some residential.
• 25 mph - Residential districts, public parks, ocean shores.
• 55 mph - Most rural highways; trucks on most interstates.
• 65 mph - Passenger vehicles, light trucks, motor homes and light duty commercial vehicles on most interstates.”
•  
  

Lately, I have noticed that it is not unusual to be pushed off a lane by vehicles large and small, some going 85 mph. It’s hard to stay calm. So, I try to pick a lane and stay with it. I don’t try to be the fasted car on the road because it’s not a race. The goal is to get  home safely.

 

• Contact Betty by email: bchattybetty@bettykaiser.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dealing with deer in Oregon

 

7/22/21 CHATTERBOX 

by Betty Kaiser

DEALING WITH DEER  🦌🦌🦌

After many years of flower bed and vegetable garden destruction by deer, you would think that my husband and I would be used to it. We are not. However,  this year we softened a little when a mama deer  brought her two tiny twin fawns to the property. So there were now 3 adorable, flower eating,part-time residents.

 

I was a city girl when we moved here and I thought that the deer would only be interested in eating meadow grass. Wrong!  We quickly became aware that anything that we planted was fair game.  Summer after summer, night after night,  plants were wiped out completely.

 

In 2001, I even posted some chomping rules in the newspaper. I know that deer can’t read but it made me feel better. It went like this:

 

“Now, Dancer and Prancer, we are reasonable landlords. We are willing to share five of our six-acre meadow with you. The catch being that we maintain complete control over the one-acre that includes all of our flower and vegetable beds. The roses and all other edibles are mine! Got it?

 

If, my ‘deer’ friends, you don’t agree, it’s time for you to move on. You need to dance and prance off to the nearby parks where the campers will appreciate you. Blackberry season is right around the corner so you won’t go hungry. And don’t forget to visit our neighbors. Some of them are very generous and probably still serving USDA approved deer food.

 

Despite our persistence, nothing worked to deter their destructive rounds. Not blood meal, deodorant soap, hair clippings, bright lights, clanging bells or barking dogs worked. They would even walk up our deck to devour hanging plants. Each flower bed massacre really ticked us off!

 

Our dogs barking in the middle of night were of no help. The electric fence didn’t always work, automatic lights made eating easier and they seemed to like the sprinkler system. “Deer Away” was our best bet but putting it out nightly was a nuisance.

 

So, I proposed a truce. “We do have other offerings, you know. How about this: I’ll smell the roses while you munch the meadow. Deal or no deal? It’s your choice. (Signed) Your rosy landlords.” There was no answer.

 

This year, when the young Mama Deer with tiny spotted twins, started visiting us, they didn’t eat the roses! Instead, they would have breakfast next door and then jump the fence to our “deer forest.” Mom would leave her babies here while she went looking for food and then return to pick them up and all would disappear for the night.

 

It was a fine arrangement. Normally, healthy fawns are left alone during the day by their mothers while she forages for food. Mom will stay away from them during daylight hours  to avoid leading predators to her young. She  will return and always gather her babies together unless she senses some kind of danger.

 

Last week, however, for several days in a row, one baby deer disappeared. And there were only 2 of them. We were terrified. After all, there are cougars and bears up the hill! Finally, last Sunday, the three of them surprised us in the middle of the day by tearing through the property and jumped the fence to safety elsewhere.

 

What a relief! They are all together again. It was a safe, mom leadership arrangement and they didn’t eat the roses!  They must know how to read after all! Now I may now have to eat my words and let them have a few flowers to nibble on. I'm such a sucker for babies!

•  Contact betty at bchatty@bettykaiser.com

 

6/24/21 The Chatterbox

Betty Kaiser

 

Because Life is hard for everyone: Bring Back the Golden Rule! 

 

The television news hour at our house is hard to watch. Day after day it is head lined with mass shootings and other killings by deranged individuals. Halfway through this year there have been more than 28 mass shootings in the USA, plus other violent attempts to mow down victims by cars and trucks.

 

Why in the world are these senseless mass killings going on all over our country? No one really seems to know. All kinds of people in all kinds of places are being attacked. The targets are in rich, poor and middle-class areas where people of all colors, race, incomes and beliefs live. 

 

It seems that here in the land of the free and the brave we have developed a killing culture. If you don’t like someone’s color, the way they look, think, walk, talk, where they live, or for no reason at all—Kill them!

 

Today’s mass shooters are now being joined by drivers in cars mowing down people in the street. Such actions defy understanding. Each incident seems to come from angry, petty cowards willing to destroy anyone that gets in their way. Their targets are varied— family, friends, fellow workers, strangers or people of a different color or religion. 

 

I don’t get it. Whatever happened to the Golden Rule that we learned as children saying, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” As I recall, killing others wasn’t included!

 

So, what can you and I do to stop all this violence? Not much. Our good intentions seldom rub off on angry people. We could start by making certain automatic weapons illegal and used only for military purposes. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What about cars as weapons?

 

Violence is not tolerated or expected in a peaceful, civilized society.  But those of us who want it stopped, need help to be agents of peace.  Being a communicator of peaceful thinking and living is easier said than done. We need help from a higher power.

 

As a Christian, I believe in prayer—communicating with God for His help. And I also believe that whatever your religion or theology, we can all pray for peace and then follow instructions. God listens to a sincere heart. 

 

I recently found the following prayer tucked away in a column fiIe. I don’t know who the author is but I sure agree with the reasons for loving and respecting each other. It reminds us to treat one another kindly because of our shared humanity—the good days and the bad—because life is hard for everyone. Check it out:

 

Dear God,

Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.

 

 Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried19 year old student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.

 

 Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

 

 Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week; this will be the last year that they go shopping together.

 

 Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear.

 

 Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us, but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive, show patience, empathy and love.      AMEN!

 

 

  

Contact Betty Kaiser’s Chatterbox by email bchatty@bettykaiser.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Memorial Day: Honor, Remember, Never Forget!

5/27/21 Chatterbox by Betty Kaiser  

              

Memorial Day is coming up! This year the bittersweet holiday falls on Monday May 31. All together, on this one day of the year, we can gratefully honor the tens of thousands of men and women who fought and died for our country in approximately 93 wars and rebellions. 

 

It is our yearly opportunity to say “thank you” to those guardians of peace. It is a day of remembrance and sorrow mixed with pride and appreciation and hope that someday the madness will stop. A day to reflect and remember that those heroes died for you and me.

 

Memorial Day’s history is about 160 years old. After the Civil War, it began as a grass roots occasion called National Decoration Day. On May 20, 1868 over 5,000 people decorated the graves of the 29,000 Union and Confederate soldiers who were buried at Arlington National Ceremony. A tribute to both the North and South sides of the conflict.

 

In 1968, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of CongressMay 30 was the official date until 1971 when Congress changed it to the last Monday in May. Now it is celebrated in almost every country where American soldiers are buried. Flags on government buildings and ships throughout the world are lowered to half-mast, as a tribute to those who lost their lives.

 

This weekend, prior to the holiday, the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment will honor America's fallen heroes by placing American flags at thousands of gravesites for service members buried at Arlington National Cemetery and at the Airmen's Home National Cemetery. 

 

The most solemn Memorial Day ceremony is when the President of the United States lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Other dignitaries also pay their formal respects. All flags will be removed after Memorial Day, before the cemetery opens to the public.

 

To remember military sacrifices is a sacred charge. Thanks to the Covid-19 situation, things will be a little different around the country this year. There will be fewer parades and public gatherings. But there is one thing that we can stop and do together wherever we are:

 

The National Moment of Remembrance encourages all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3:00 pm local time on Memorial Day for one minute of silence to remember and honor those who have died in service to the US.

There are also other things that we can do to honor those who died serving our country. The following suggestions come from a variety of sources including Military.com USO. Pay special attention to the timing of flying the flag. 

 

Do this: 

 Display the flag—the U.S. flag is flown at half-staff from dawn until noon on Memorial Day. Raise it again to the peak after noon.

1. Call a friend or loved one who has lost someone during a war.
2. Visit a cemetery and honor the memory of a family member or other veteran by putting flowers on their grave.
3. Watch the National Memorial Day Concert on your local PBS station.

 Here are some reminders of things not to do:   

1. Don’t wish anyone a Happy Memorial Day. This is not Christmas.   
2. Don’t thank the current troops. Veteran’s Day is coming up!
3.  Don’t let politics keep you from rendering respect.

 

                    God bless America! Let freedom ring!

                 Contact Betty Kaiser’s Chatterbox by email bchatty@bettykaiser.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Jeopardy for Seniors” Email questions brighten the day

 

The Chatterbox 4/22/21

Betty Kaiser

 

Hello, everyone! Today’s column is mostly just for fun. And heaven only knows we need a little fun to counter some of today’s horrible news.

 

As of April 18, 2021, deaths in the U.S. from the Covid-19 pandemic had exceeded 567,000 people. These horrendous numbers are heartbreaking. Fortunately, there is hope of slowing or stopping the virus with a vaccine as we all cooperate with sensible prevention measures. Keep up the good work everyone!

 

Unfortunately, killings, via mass shootings, continue to plague this country. According to forbes.com more than one mass shooting per day has occurred already in 2021. I don’t get it.

 

We are all born with the ability to know the difference between right and wrong. Wanton murder is wrong. Working together we should be able to control this awful, on-going, senseless killing of the innocent.

 

In the midst of all this bad news, a friend sent me an email questionnaire. It’s called “Jeopardy for Seniors.” AKA a test for older kids. That would be me. These simple questions from my childhood were harder than I thought. It tested my memory and confused my brain. I also giggled a lot. Try it!

 

Jeopardy for Seniors

 The answers are printed below (after the questions)

Have fun but don’t cheat! 

 

1.  After the Lone Ranger saved the day and rode off into the sunset, the grateful citizens would ask, "Who was that masked man?" Invariably, someone would answer, "I don't know, but he left this behind."

What did he leave behind? A ______ ______.

 

2. When the Beatles first came to the U.S. In early 1964, we all watched them on The __ ________ Show.

 

3. "Get your kicks, __ _____ __!"

 

4. The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to _______ ___ _______.'

 

5.  'In the jungle, the mighty jungle, ___ ____ ______ _______.'

 

6. After the Twist, The Mashed Potato, and the Watusi, we 'danced' under a stick that was lowered as low as we could go in a dance called the '_____.'

 

7. Nestle's makes the very best... _________.'

 

8.  Satchmo was America's 'Ambassador of Goodwill.' Our parents shared this great jazz trumpet player with us. His name was ____ _________.

 

9. What takes a licking and keeps on ticking? ___ _____ _____.

 

10. Red Skeleton's hobo character was named ______ ___ __________ and Red always ended his television show by saying, 'Good Night, and '___ ____ .'

 

11. Some Americans who protested the Vietnam War did so by burning their _____ _____.

 

12.  The cute little car with the engine in the back and the trunk in the front was called the VW.  What other names did it go by? ______ or ___.

 

13. In 1971, singer Don MacLean sang a song about, 'the day the music died.' This was a tribute to _____ _____.

 

14. We can remember the first satellite placed into orbit. The Russians did it. It was called _______.

 

15.  One of the big fads of the late 50's and 60's was a large plastic ring that we twirled around our waist. It was called the _____-____.

 

16. Remember LS/MFT _____ ______ /_____ ____ _______.

 

17. Hey Kids!  What time is it? It's _____ _____ ____!

 

18. Who knows what secrets lie in the hearts of men? Only The ______ Knows!

 

19. There was a song that came out in the 60's that was "a grave yard smash. Its name was the _______ ____!

 

20.  Alka Seltzer used a "boy with a tablet on his head" as its Logo/Representative. The boy's name was ______.

 

ANSWERS:

 

01.  The Lone Ranger left behind... A silver bullet

 02. The Ed Sullivan Show

 03. On Route 66 

04. To protect the innocent

 05. The Lion Sleeps Tonight

 06. The limbo

 07.  Chocolate

 08.  Louis Armstrong

 09.  The Timex Watch

 10. Freddy, The Freeloader and 'Good Night and God Bless.'

 11. Draft Cards (Bras were also burned. Not flags, as some have guessed)

 12. Beetle or Bug

 13. Buddy Holly

 14. Sputnik

 15.  Hoola-hoop

 16.  Lucky Strike/Means Fine Tobacco

 17.  Howdy Doody Time

 18. Shadow

 19. Monster Mash

 20. Speedy

 

 P.S. Send this to your 'older' friends (better known as Seniors) and let me know how you do.

 

Contact Betty Kaiser’s Chatterbox by email bchatty@bettykaiser.com