Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/453047
JAN 28 -FEB 3, 2015 UCW 5 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Years ago, when the Precious Jewels were school age, one of our favorite television programs was called Rescue 911. As you might imagine, it dealt with people who had to be rescued by emergency crews from one dilemma or another, some of them outright bizarre. Many of the episodes involved women having babies in cars, in restaurants, on airplanes or along the roadside. Others involved children eating everything from coins and marbles to bugs to the occasional safety pin, and people literally stuck in strange places, like pet doors. One of these featured a burglar who broke into a jewelry store only to be trapped atop a tall safe by a snarling guard dog. That man called 911 himself and willingly departed with law enforcement, apparently thrilled to be away from the dog. Our hands-down all-time favorite episode, though, one which can send us into uncontrollable laughter even today, involved a little boy, maybe 5 or 6 years old. For reasons known only to him and his God, he decided to lick his family's icemaker with his little pink tongue, which promptly froze to the crusty plastic surface. Yikes! The little boy must have been a fan of Rescue 911, because he had the presence of mind to find a phone despite being frozen to the icemaker by his tongue. He managed to dial and when the dispatcher answered, she understood that he needed help, but because she could not really understand what he was saying with his tongue frozen to the icemaker, she sent out an emergency team expecting to find a stroke victim, not a 5-year-old stuck to the family fridge. Rescue 911 episodes always ended well. Moms and babies cuddled happily, traumatized fathers settled down and whatever the children ate eventually worked out. The little boy's frozen tongue thawed, even though I suspect he had trouble eating for a few days. In real life not all situations, including the truly stupid ones, resolve themselves positively. Just this month a young Fayetteville couple has been arrested and charged with drowning the puppy they adopted only months ago. News accounts indicate the couple had trouble controlling the puppy and could not afford his veterinary bills. The puppy's human parents are on the young side themselves but certainly old enough to know that tying an animal so he cannot move and tossing him into a lake is not the way to deal with inconvenience and financial issues. And how about the parents of 9-year-old twin boys in New Hampshire? What on earth were they thinking when they took three other children for a visit to Nigeria last July and left the twins home alone? For four —yes, four — months! An uncle apparently said he would check in on the boys every few days to drop off food, but when law enforcement officials found the boys, the only thing edible in the apartment was ramen noodles. This situation went on so long because the 9-year-olds were getting themselves up and out to school where they could eat breakfast and lunch, but school officials figured it out in November. News reports are not clear on whether the parents have returned from Nigeria or not, and the twins remain in foster care. Then there is what is being called "Deflategate." It seems that someone associated with a professional football team apparently let some air out of footballs to make them easier to hold during a cold and wet game. Admittedly, this is not world peace, but it does go to sportsmanship and honestly, what big-time sports are teaching our children about playing the game. And, finally, there are all things chicken that have been consuming our community for several months. A chicken processing plant explored the possibility of locating here, generating a firestorm of opposition. Cumberland County commissioners finally voted not to move forward with the project, but the next thing we know, commissioners and Fayetteville City Council members have planned a sit down to reconsider the matter. This meeting comes despite the fact that the interested company is no longer interested in locating here. Decades ago my mother attended an IBM training program to learn about the company's emerging computer technology. She returned with a handy dandy desk paperweight emblazed with IBM's iconic motto, "THINK." I wish I had a truckload of those paperweights to hand out to all the people who have evidently forgotten how to do that. THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! 484-0261 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-2:30 pm Daily Specials • Breakfast • Lunch • Dinner Fresh Seafood • Hand Cut Steaks • Homemade Desserts • Italian & Greek • Children's Menu Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests Contest&RequestLine: 910-764-1073 www.christian107.com KeepingtheMainThing...theMainThing. visitusonline FocusontheFamily 20Countdown Magazine Adventures in Odyssey MARGARET DICKSON, Contributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com.. 910.484.6200. What Were They Thinking? by MARGARET DICKSON