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From snow art to candy grams

Most people make snowmen when the fluffy stuff gets deep enough to roll some sizeable snowballs.

It isn’t hard. You just start rolling a small amount until you pick up enough of the white stuff to make three different size balls. Then the decorating begins, and that is where the fun lies. You can create a clown, a magician or anything your little heart desires.

Paul Giusto of Follansbee paid a visit to me at the Herald-Star last week with a different snow sculpture, a gigantic brown football on a blue stand with the letters NFL underneath all in the wonder of snowflakes.

He captured his neighbor David Lamp and his son molding the form and the football and then using some sort of tint to make them the appropriate colors, including adding the laces on the football.

It’s a shame it had to melt. It would have been appropriate for the Super Bowl. Maybe there will be more snow by then, and they can make another one.

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John Domenick is owner and operator of Vend-It, a great place for ordering a cone with 28 flavors of ice cream; fresh, sliced cheeses; and all types of candy, including penny candy that John’s wife, Martha, explains in a sign that the penny stuff is now 2 cents.

Anyhow, my grandkids love to go to “John’s Place,” as they call it, each time they arrive from the Columbus area. This time, my nephew, Travis McHugh and his wife, Amy, were visiting with his children, and all proceeded to walk up to the store with Aunt Margaret in tow.

Aunt Missy, knowing that 5-year-old Maggie would never make it that far, jumped in the car, with her mother-in-law tagging along, and followed them until they tired out and jumped in the vehicle for the rest of the nearly 1-mile trip.

I took a picture of Maggie McCoy, Maggie McHugh, Mason McHugh, and Jackson and Matthew McCoy holding their precious stash of sweets in front of John’s business and gave it to him. To my surprise, I saw it in a frame in the store.

I’m sure the kids will be pleased to know that they are posted in their favorite store. I was really pleased with Mason thinking of his brother, Morgan, who declined the invitation to hang out with the bunch of sweet-a-holics. Mason then brought his brother something tempting back from the store.

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We have become regular customers at Capraros in Hopedale on Friday evenings.

For one reason, it sure beats wondering what to cook for dinner, and another is because we see everybody we know there.

We always see Bill Sanders of Cadiz, my friend from the days of working at Hatcher Bros. Construction, and many times Butch and Carol Ann Garcia of Smithfield are there, with his sister, Babe Kovarik.

Last week, we saw Lester and Ruth Ann Nabb of Cadiz, people I had not seen for a long time; Merle and Ruby Fountz of Jewett were seen, along with Aimee and Bob Jaros of Wintersville. We seldom miss seeing Karen and Don Jochims of Hopedale as well, but missed them last week.

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I got a note from Stella Puskarich concerning my sliding half slip at the Christmas Eve Church service.

At the bottom of the page she put a post script telling me to keep my clothes on in church.

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Some time ago, I mentioned enjoying the Hanna-Barbera cartoon of “Punkin’ Puss and Mushmouse,” the hillybilly cat and mouse cartoon that was around in the 1960s. No one seemed to remember it or was too young to have seen it.

My newsroom friend Warren Scott gave me some information that he Googled on the animated cartoon and then wrote the caption, “They do exist!” at the top of the page.

It seems that because it resembled the “Tom and Jerry” cartoon so much, the Hatfield-McCoy-style feuding cat and mouse didn’t make it seem fresh and original enough to be very popular.

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I have to admire the devotion of Danny Flaherty to his Indiana Colts. Even back when they were struggling, he would have the gigantic blow-up of a Colt’s football player and many flags and decorations for his team in the yard. Just for his dedication, and since the Steelers were long gone, I was really hoping that they would make it to the Super Bowl again.

Danny told me at the funeral of his dad, Danny Flaherty Sr., that while his dad was an avid Steelers fan that he would cheer for the Colts, too. He had a large casket spray of Steelers colors and figurines and had Steelers paraphernalia beside him.

Danny met with a fatal accident in the fall and is sadly missed by his family and friends. He would deliver our Herald-Star as his son’s substitute at times and was always on time and gave a friendly wave if we were outside.

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Lamont was in the hospital this past weekend, and I had time to study the signs to signify the stages of pain that were posted on the bulletin board in his room.

They are somewhat happy faces done in colors and expressions to designate the stages of pain and they go like this:

Zero pain is a happy face, a funny looking type of happy, in a yellow color; 1-2 stage means it hurts a little bit, and the yellow-orange face has a tiny bit of a scowl; 3-4 stage means it hurts more and is a light shade of orange; 5-6 is getting up there a bit, it hurts even more and is a bright orange; 7-8 is the big ouch stage, it hurts a lot and is orange-red in color; and the 9-10 stage is a fiery red and the once-happy face has a most distressed look and hurts real bad.

So next time you are asked in numbers how bad the pain is, think about the colorful faces wearing anything from a goofy look to one of agony.

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I attended a meeting of the Brightway Center service board last Saturday and learned some of the plans that will be taking place in the near future.

Much of the activity depends on when the new activity building is completed, though.

Attending the meeting were Tim Zifzal, Steven Miro, Sherry Matthews, Karen Rish, Shirley McCartney, Rudy Micker and Virginia Young, who serves as chairman.

A teen dating session will be held at the Brightway homestead on Feb. 2, and a delivered candy gram fundraiser will be held for Valentine’s Day. There are some application forms in stores, and they are available from service members.

The cost for a candy- filled mug with some little treasures is $10 and must be paid before Feb. 11.

A request can be mailed to the center at 2511 county Road 15, Rayland, OH 43943.

Further plans will be posted as the dates draw near.

(McCoy, a resident of Smithfield, is food editor and a staff columnist for the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times. She can be contacted at emccoy@heraldstaronline.com.)

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