Hard to believe there ever was a time when retail stores didn’t open their doors on Sundays until noon in respect for families whose Sunday mornings were reserved for church.
My, but how things have changed.
To digress for a moment — like other newspaper readers, I find the letters to the editor section one of the most interesting and frequented section of any paper regardless of the newspaper’s origin or area of coverage. And, like many readers, I seldom have felt compelled to write a letter to the editor. Until now.
I’d like to share here a letter I felt needed to be written. I sent it off to the Woodinville Weekly with the hope that someone might get the message that Sunday mornings, for some, still have a purpose other than for a soccer, softball or baseball game or even a public acknowledgement of public service and good works.
“I don’t know whether to be saddened by or just plain irritated by the city of Woodinville’s scheduling of an important public event for a Sunday morning at 10 a.m.
“There are still some of us who reserve our Sunday mornings to attend church services. Has this tradition in so many area households escaped the notice of the city leadership and/or staff? Apparently churchgoers are not sufficiently important community ingredients in Woodinville life?
“My wife and I would both have liked to attend the unveiling of plaques in ceremonies July 20 recognizing the generous Calkins family donation made years ago of land for the old Woodinville school. I want to thank the city for the personal invitation, but we respectfully decline. Unfortunately, staff chose to schedule this unveiling at an hour that ignores the traditional values of some of its citizens.”
SubBlurbs
• I am frequently asked if we keep track of Northshore graduates who receive grants through the Northshore Scholarship Foundation. The recipients’ interests, plans and fields of study vary immensely.
Here’s what 2006 Inglemoor High grad Leah Scott-Zechlin wrote:
”I would just like to write to tell you how thankful I am for the scholarship the Northshore Scholarship Foundation awarded me. I received the Steven Haynes Memorial Scholarship in 2006 when I graduated from Inglemoor High School. Your foundation was kind enough to allow me to defer the scholarship for a year as I studied abroad in Germany as an exchange student through the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship Program.
“I returned this past summer and have just finished my first semester at Lewis & Clark College in Portland. I am so grateful for the scholarship in helping with my first year of tuition. I have learned so much, both academically and about myself, in just one semester and I would like to thank all at the foundation for the opportunity. I plan to study economics and foreign languages. At Lewis & Clark, I am also involved with the music program and appreciate the opportunity to keep singing.”
• The nearly 40 premium wine producers of Woodinville will display the best they have to offer this weekend at Marymoor Park in Redmond with a two-day “Wine Notes” concertfest featuring complementing wine selections from top restaurants and a number of top-flight musical groups. Most intriguing to this old fuddy duddy is the group called Big Bad Voodoo Daddies. More information can be found at www.winenotesconcert.com, and that site might tell you that proceeds will go toward scholarships. The wineries are staging their first such concertfest under their marketing arm of Woodinville Wine Country.
• Bothell attorney Julian Denes is the recent winner of a grueling triathlon at Ocean Shores — just a warm up for an Iron Man event in California next month.
John B. Hughes was owner-publisher of the Northshore Citizen from 1961 to 1988 and is active in local nonprofit organizations.
