Having a Pig Time Celebration

   Celebrate life! Remember that catchy slogan from the 60’s? If you don’t, it doesn’t matter. I just celebrate whatever I can whenever I can, and today marks my eighth anniversary as a Post columnist.

   Today I’ll just reflect on some columns I’ve written and what - if anything – has happened since I wrote them.

   In May I wrote about an across-the-sea connection when Miss Herman’s fifth grade class at Arcado reviewed Phyl Johnson’s e-book “Being Frank with Anne and Other Poems,” which gained notice from her publisher in England. The students’ thoughtful responses were influential in helping Johnson get a contract for a book and CD, with online lesson plans and a companion e-book called Secret Annexe, Secret Lifestyle, that compares Anne's life to that of a contemporary girl.

   When I wrote about Antonio Villegas and his new jewelry store, he was sharing space with several other businesses in the old Greer-Ivy Hardware Store in Norcross. Villegas has occupies the whole building. I still miss the old hardware store, but Villegas’s creations of silver and gold in a way give hardware a new and more beautiful meaning.

   And while we’re in Norcross, for years I’ve followed all the ideas being batted around for preserving baseball on Wingo-Carlyle Field. The latest pitch is to place park benches in the outfield so people can sit and look at life-size statues of children playing baseball. 

   When Carla Carter started Noah’s A.R.C. – Adoption Resource Center, one of her goals was to collect a million diapers for foster babies’ bottoms. If your group is looking for a real “no-brainer” service project, Noah’s A.R.C. welcomes any diapers you can donate. (678-521-4545 or www.yournoahsarc.org .)

   I had a ball last spring at Annandale Village’s Jazzy Thing fundraiser. (The food and festivities were fantastic, but my favorite part was ogling all the good-looking hunks selling balloons to help support the developmentally disabled residents of this non-profit community.) The next Jazzy Thing is on April 21at Hamilton Mill Business Center. Sponsored by the Enterline Foundation, this year’s event promises to be bigger and better than ever. (770-945-8381 or www.annandale.org )

   Many readers sent me Web sites and personal greetings for the Year of the Fire Pig, but Evelyn Schneider, the Media Specialist at Arcado found me a whole book. “In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson,” by Bette Bao Lord is a delightful read about how hard - and humorous - the life of an immigrant can be. The story is just as relevant today as it was the year it was written. But then, in the Chinese calendar, isn’t it the same year anyway? 

   Well, however we mark our years, I’m glad to have spent eight of them filling this space and I look forward to at least one more!

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