BESSEMER AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Organized January 19, 2002
4th  Quarter, 2009 - Volume 6, Issue 4
Website - www.bessemerhistoricalsociety.com

Notice of Membership Meetings

January 21 at 2:00 PM 
February 18 at 2:00 PM
March 18 at 2:00 PM

Officers and Directors

President - Ed Sandene
Vice President - Catherine McLean
Treasurer/Editor - Lou Kalan
Secretary - Janet Gheller
Membership - Dolores Sandene
Directors at Large-
Dan Cvengros
James Gheller
Historian - Fran McCarthy
A REMINDER
If you wish to honor a member of your family or friend,we have a "We Remember" plaque at the Heritage Center where their names can be inscribed. Contact any board member or docent at the center. telephone numbers are:
667-0743, 663-4871 or 663-4091.

I found a picture of my father when he was a young child from around 1933.  He was probably about four or five years old and was holding a string that was attached to a toy horse.

I don't know if this was the only toy he had but since it was during the Depression I am sure there was not many more.  He had a look of content on his face.  That one small toy horse probably gave him hours of enjoyment in his young life.  A child of four or five years old today probably has one toy for every hour of the day to last a 24 hour day, if not more. 

Over the past 80 years or so, technology has advanced to a point where our tasks are supposed to be quicker and easier.  Computers and electronics gadgets have made our lives easier, but also maybe a little too complex.  We hear too often from our family and friends "I just don't have the time." 

It is important to look back into our past every so often to remember and to see just who is contentcontent and has more time.  Is it a child with one toy and 24 hours to play with it or is it a child with 24 toys and only one hour for each toy?

I found a short clipping from a December 1955 Pickands Mather Iron News Monthly Newsletter.  It was written by J.T. Stolee, a Lutheran pastor from Hibbing, Minnesota.  The article reads as follows:
                        
Let's Rediscover Christmas! 
How many there are who have lost the Christ of our Christmas.  It is far more tragic than the realization that a precious gift has been destroyed together with the wrappings.

  Let's try to remember whose birthday it is.  Most of us act as though it were a birthday party for every member of the family, our relatives and our friends - yes, just about everybody's birthday except Jesus!

Presents for just about everybody except the One whose birthday it is!  We are careful to forget no one - except that One whose birth we are to honor.

"Unto you a child is born this day a Savior."  That's God's great Christmas gift to all.  Accept into your life that Gift and you have Christmas.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Dan Cvengros, Director
Bessemer Area Historical Society