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GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Hardtobelieve,butschool has started for most children in Tehama County. When I was a child the school year started after La- bor Day, mostly to allow us city kids to serve as the primary la- bor force for Te- hama County peach and prune operations. If you were related to or were a friend of the farm owner, you were likely fortunate enough to work on a tractor, forklift or in the packing shed. If not, you were instead pick- ing prunes at fifteen cents per box. I was almost always picking prunes at fifteen cents a box. Back in my day, school started in September and ended in June. We all at- tended the same school. Other than Christmas vaca- tion and a couple more days at Thanksgiving, we attended school five days a week, for a total of 220 days each and every year. Today's students spend 185 days a year in the classroom. In today's world, we are able to choose our schools, much like the way we choose the color of the socks we wear. We can choose to attend a school in our neighborhood or one at the other end of the county. We can attend home school, community school, continuation school, char- ter school, reform school — and we can even choose to at- tend something called regular school. I guess I'm not sure if it's better or worse, but I know one thing for sure: school just ain't what it used to be. I, along with many other long-in-the-tooth residents of this community, attended the same three schools: Lincoln Street, Bidwell and Red Bluff High School. For me at least, the memories relating to each school are positive indeed. •••• I attended first through fifth grades at Lincoln Street School from 1951 through 1956. I loved Lincoln Street School. Lincoln Street was the perfect neighborhood school. Lincoln Street School occu- pied two or three city blocks, and in those days most ev- ery child walked to and from school, unencumbered by overprotective parents—or worse yet, deranged child kidnappers. In those days, the more re- sponsible fifth grade class members were selected to serve as crossing guard moni- tors at intersections bordering the school; a practice that cer- tainly would not be allowed in the litigious world we live in today. Not to brag, but I was crossing guard captain at the intersection of Park Avenue and Franklin Street, which was the most complicated as- signment one could be given. It makes me smile now to re- member that our reward for ensuring the safety of pedes- trian students was a weekly movie pass to the then almost- new State Theatre. It is funny what one re- members most when think- ing back some 60 years. As a child, I suffered from a mild speech impediment. I had a tendency to lisp a bit when I spoke. In those days there were no speech therapists at- tached to schools, so every day I was sent out to stand in the hallway, along with my friend and fellow student Jim Calegari who would moni- tor my progress as I practiced making "S" sounds by ma- nipulating my still-uncoordi- nated tongue. Perhaps that is why I still have a lisp today. Another thing I remember about Lincoln Street School were the cloakrooms that stretched all the way across the front of every classroom. While designed for the pur- pose of holding raincoats and other outerwear, most teach- ers utilized these rooms as disciplinary chambers. If you misbehaved in class you were banished to the cloakroom, where you were to sit in sol- itude, quietly contemplating your sins. Needless to say, I spent a great deal of time sit- ting alone in a Lincoln Street cloakroom while quietly con- templating my sins. While not officially part of the Lincoln Street campus, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Frankie's candy store was an important part of the Lincoln Street experi- ence. Sitting adjacent to the school at the corner of Frank- lin and Union, Frankie's was owned and operated by brother and sister Frankie and Delores Rodrigues. With ev- ery candy ever made and soda pop of every kind, Frankie's was the go-to destination for every student who attended Lincoln Street School. I remember that by neces- sity Frankie ran the store with an iron hand, while sweet and demure Delores handled the cash register. While Frankie has been gone for a decade or so, the still sweet and demure Delores re- sides only a few blocks away from the original Frankie's candy store. In the lives of all who knew them, Frankie and Delores Rodrigues mat- tered…a lot. Sadly, a few short years af- ter I attended Lincoln Street School some idiot or group of idiots decided that the beau- tiful Lincoln Street School would likely crumble to the ground in the case of an earthquake or a strong gust of wind, so they declared it unsuitable as a place to edu- cate America's children. Don't know about you, but I pre- fer it to the Quonset huts and portable classrooms that cur- rently dominate our educa- tional landscape. Lincoln Street School has served as the home of the Te- hama County Department of Education for the past sev- eral decades. Apparently no one cares if these folks per- ish in an earthquake or a re- ally strong wind. This makes sense, when you stop to think about it. For the few of you still with me, it is my hope to share equally scintillating infor- mation concerning Bidwell School and Red Bluff High in next week's column. •••• On August 24, the World Famous Glenn Miller Orches- tra will return to the Haleak- ala Stage at the historic State Theatre. The Glenn Miller Or- chestra has appeared at the State on two prior occasions, and with the excellent acous- tics within the theatre it has been one of our best-received concerts. Tickets are still available, and may be purchased for $35-$40 by calling 529-2787. Tickets are also available at the Tehama Country Visitor Center, and at the box office one hour prior to the perfor- mance. See you at the State. BillCorneliusisalifelong resident of Red Bluff, a retired Chief Probation Officer, a champion of the State Theatre and an exceptional athlete. He can be reached at bill. cornelius@sbcglobal.net. William Tells Back to school already? Cartoonist's take Fewer Americans are watch- ing the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro than they did prior Games. I offer a solution. According to The Christian Sci- ence Monitor, only 26.5 million Amer- icans watched the Olympics open- ing ceremony — "a 35 percent drop in viewership from London's cer- emony four years ago and the lowest rating for the event since 1992." Why the low ratings? For starters, fewer people are watching TV. Anyone under 30 is too busy snapchatting and Face- booking to sit in front of some- thing as outmoded as a televi- sion set. America's waning interest in the Olympics could also be be- cause too many events have been added by the Interna- tional Olympic Committee (IOC), which may be diluting the Olym- pics brand. Consider: During the very first Olympics in 1896, there were only nine sports. The Rio Olym- pics are featuring 28, two of which were newly added: golf and rugby sevens. Now I played rugby at Penn State. In my book, its toughness qualifies it as a genuine Olym- pics sport. But golf? Sure, golf requires precision and smarts. But that's about it. The better golfers don't carry their own clubs or even walk. Their caddies do most of the work. Besides, if you can smoke a ci- gar, sip gin and flirt with your mistress on your smartphone while in the throes of competi- tion, I don't think that qualifies as an "Olympics-level" event. Nonetheless, the IOC, ea- ger to appeal to younger audi- ences, keeps expanding its list of sports. In fact, the IOC just announced that it will add five events to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. In addition to the return of baseball/softball, there will be karate, rock climbing, skate- boarding and surfing — to which I respond"Cowabunga, dude!" It seems to me that if the IOC wants to draw in American view- ers in bigger numbers, maybe it should add other key "sports" that appeal to our national sensi- bilities — "sports" that have long been trying to make the Olym- pics lineup, such as bowling and ballroom dancing. Sure, bowling doesn't require the speed and physical stam- ina long associated with Olym- pics sports. But it does require a stamina of sorts: Only a true professional can drink three pitchers of lager and still roll a perfect 300. Keeping track of the "ath- letes" will be a lot easier, too — since bowling is the only "sport" in which each competitor has his name stitched onto his shirt pocket. Proponents of ballroom danc- ing have been trying like mad to have their "sport" added to the Olympics event list and I say why not. Such dancing does require the finesse of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. And I don't care how dif- ficult traditional sports, such as swimming and track, may be. Only ballroom dancers run the risk of blowing out a knee by trip- ping on a buffet table. That brings us to pole danc- ing. Its proponents are hoping that this "sport," made popular by ladies who shed their clothes in dark, smoky bars, should join the esteemed list of Olympic Games, and I couldn't agree more. Now I know that the games are — or are supposed to be — about excellence, sacrifice and commitment. I know they're sup- posed to be about athletes push- ing themselves beyond their physical limits. But Americans have gone soft over the years. We're no longer as interested in "the thrill of vic- tory and the agony of defeat" as we are about instant gratifica- tion, junk food, adult beverages and figuring out new schemes by which we can get "the rich" to fund more "free" government goodies. If the IOC wants Americans to tune back in, it needs to in- clude more "sports" that appeal to what we have become. Which is why the IOC should add Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest to the Olympics lineup. Tom Purcell, author of "Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood" and "Wicked Is the Whiskey," a Sean McClanahan mystery novel, both available at Amazon.com, is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom@TomPurcell.com. Tom Purcell How to get Americans to watch the Olympics It makes me smile now to remember that our reward for ensuring the safety of pedestrian students was a weekly movie pass to the then almost- new State Theatre. Bill Cornelius Tom Purcell By Michael Shannon In an effort to prevent a huge mistake — with dreadful reper- cussions — that can haunt one for the rest of their life, I'm ad- vocating the required viewing of images before undergoing a particular out — patient medi- cal procedure. Many readers are now think- ing this is an abortion column, and that I'm urging potential mothers be required to view a sonogram of their unborn child before submitting to an abor- tion. Not really, but that's how I plan to prove my point. Sonogram images have saved lives and spared women future regret and guilt. I think images can make for an equally in- formed decision in other areas of modern life. Michael New of the Charlotte Lozier Institute told me of a study done by the National In- stitute of Family and Life Advo- cates. Women who were unsure or conflicted about the deci- sion to abort their unborn child visited the centers for counsel- ing. As part of the process they were shown a sonogram of the unborn. After viewing the image 83.5 percent of the women chose life for their baby. Okay, so some may ask what about the women who weren't conflicted and just wanted to get it over with? New says there are currently 23 states with informed con- sent laws where "women seek- ing abortions have the opportu- nity to see color photos of fetal development prior to the proce- dure." Even in a setting where their mind was already made up, anywhere from 2 to 7 per- cent decided to keep the baby. And as the Left always says: If it saves one life, it's worth it! Now I want to apply that protocol to the decision to get a tattoo. Before our culture de- cided to cheerfully jump into the abyss, particularly dar- ing men and women might have had a tattoo branded on a patch of skin that was normally hidden by clothing. That way the rest of us were spared watching the Mickey Mouse you had on your hip gradually elongate over the years into Goofy. That mercy is denied us now as people have decided to be- come human billboards. For a generation that revels in spon- taneity (the decision to get the tattoo), they are sentenc- ing themselves to a life of mo- notony. Even worse they are paying tattoo "artists" $100 to $300 an hour and providing the canvas for free. As my wise wife has pointed out, getting a tattoo is like de- ciding the wear the same T- shirt for the rest of your life. And skin is less resilient than your compression wear. Thirty years from now that tight tat of The Punisher's logo on your chest is going to look like Edvard Munch's The Scream after gravity and An- heuser Busch have done their work. Michael Shannon Decreasing abortions, and tattoos OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, August 17, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6