Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, July 20, 2019

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JUST FOR YOU!

Mountain Views-News Saturday, July 20, 2019 


WALKING SIERRA MADRE - The Social Side by Deanne Davis

“ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP 
FOR MANKIND.” 

The immortal words of Neil Armstrong, spoken fifty years ago today. Everybody 
in the world is writing about Apollo 11 taking us all to the moon...slipping 
the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God. That last phrase was 
taken from a World War II-era sonnet, written by a 19 year old American airman 
who had volunteered with the Royal Canadian Air Force, John Gillespie 
Magee, Jr., who was killed in action near Great Britain on December 11, 1941. 
This phrase was spoken by President Reagan on January 28, 1986, when he 
used these words to console a grieving nation following the explosion of the 
space shuttle Challenger. 

I don’t know if you’ve ever read the whole sonnet, but it’s magnificent, and 
when you consider that a 19 year old American young man who was already a pilot and flying in the Canadian Air Force wrote it, 
it kind of boggles the mind. Entitled “High Flight”...

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark nor ever eagle flew—

And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Touched the face of God! Unforgettable words. That’s not really what I was planning to write about today, but I wanted to share this 
with you friends. Here’s something else I wasn’t really planning to write about...what the Apollo 11 guys left behind:

Lots of footprints! Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s footprints are still there today because there is no weather on the lunar surface.

Also left behind, messages of hope, peace and goodwill from leaders in 73 countries, with words inscribed microscopically on the 
edge of a silicon disc. It says, “From Planet Earth, July 1969” and lists the names of the members of Congress who signed legislation 
making Apollo 11 possible and the names of top NASA officials. This disc is about the size of a half dollar coin!

They left a patch from the Apollo 1 mission to honor Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee, the astronauts who lost their 
lives when a fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module during a training exercise at Kennedy Space Center on January 27, 
1967. They also left medals honoring Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin. 

An American flag was left behind, not so much to “claim” the moon, but a symbolic gesture. It is theorized that flags left on the moon 
during the Apollo era have faded to white under the sun’s harsh ultraviolet rays.

What was I really going to write about? It was that when men walked on the moon I was a couple of weeks away from giving birth 
to our youngest daughter, Crissy. I was about the same size and circumference as the moon and lying flat on the floor with my feet 
up on the couch as my back was killing me. It was an amazing July back there in 1969. Men walked on the moon and I gave birth to 
a fantastic person. I can’t believe it’s been fifty years, can you? God is so good! 

“Sunrises & Sunflowers Speak Hope” is here! 

Look for it on my book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis 

Star of Wonder the CD is now on TuneCore! Take a look!

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@playwrightdd

 "A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter"

is also available on my book page and the apple cake recipe is in there!


KATIE Tse....This and That


TEAR-JERKER AT HAMILTON

This was looking to be another perfect week for recycling 
an old article, except that back in January I vowed not to do 
that. Lucky for me my Dad’s cousin, Phil, came through with 
another story for me in the nick of time. Phew!

I’ve written about Phil before. Dos Equis thinks they have 
dibs on “the most interesting man in the world,” but in reality, 
my Dad’s cousin holds that title. Phil can speak on a wide 
variety of topics, and always shows a deep understanding in all 
areas touched upon. That, and he’s just a riot overall.

This story has to do with his experience at Hamilton Elementary in Pasadena. Back 
then, Hamilton had a tradition that after summer vacation, students would gather 
in their previous classroom with their teacher and cohort from the year before. 
There, they’d wait for the principal to show up and personally walk them to their 
new classroom. Sounds nice.

So Phil was going into fourth grade, and his class had a wonderful young teacher 
who herself had children about the same age. As they waited for the principal to 
make his appearance a few students started crying at the thought of leaving “their” 
teacher. Then the whole class joined in, followed by the teacher herself crying.

Finally the principal showed up and they started down the hall to their new 
classroom, whimpering all the way. But before they even made it, the principal’s 
heart was touched, he told them to stop, and sent them back to spend the upcoming 
year with their old teacher from the year before. A happy ending.

“So did the teacher have to just scrap everything she prepared for the year and learn 
a new curriculum to accommodate this new grade level?” my mom and I wanted 
to know.

“And what of the lady who was supposed to teach them that year? What happened to her? Did she just swap grade levels with the 
crying lady?”

“Darned if I know!” Phil answered. “You think I thought about those things as a fourth grader?”

True. And those logistical questions kind of put a damper on the sentimentality of the whole story. It’s nice that the kids and teacher 
felt so closely bonded, and that they got to relive the experience for another year, no matter how unlikely the story would seem these 
days.

Well, thank goodness Phil saved me again from having to recycle something. But as I’ve said before, it’s never a question of not 
having ideas, it’s more about whether such things would be a good choice for the newspaper. 

This week I was very close to submitting a story I wrote for that creative writing class I’m taking. The only problem was that it’s about 
three times as long as most of the pieces I submit. I’m thinking of adding it and other non-newspaper worthy pieces to my Amazon 
author’s page as a blog, as soon as I figure out how to do so. Will keep you posted.

*Until then, check out my new novel, “A Year at Apex,” in paperback and ebook on Amazon and Barnes & Noble! Apex has it all 
--humor, romance, the human condition, and public education. Phil laughed when I told him that, in a nutshell, it’s a love story 
between a school teacher and a one-handed plumber. At least the premise is creative. I mean, no one else has a one-handed plumber 
angle!


SIERRA MADRE POLICE BLOTTER

July 7 to July 14, 2019 
During this period the Sierra Madre Police Department responded to 302 calls for service. 

Phone Scam 
A resident came to the Police Department on Monday, 7/8/19 at 3:30PM to report that he had received a phone call earlier at 
9:00AM from an unknown person from the “social security office” explaining that his account had been compromised. The caller 
directed the victim to deposit a large sum of money into a local Bitcoin ATM so that his account can be rectified. 
BE AWARE OF ONGOING PHONE SCAMS 

Theft from a vehicle 
Sometime between 7/9/2019 at 11:30PM and 7/10/19 at 9:30AM an unknown person(s) made entry into the victims possibly 
unlocked vehicle in the 100 block of W. Carter Ave. The victim reported personal items missing.

Residential Burglary 
A residential burglary occurred between July 9, 2019, at 5:00PM and July 10, 2019, at 8:00AM in the 500 block of Elm Ave. An 
unknown suspect(s) pried open a side door to the vacant house that is under renovations and took several construction power 
tools. 
This is an ongoing investigation 

Indecent Exposure 
On Thursday, July 11 at 11:35AM, officers responded to the park following a report of indecent exposure in the 200 block of W. 
Sierra Madre Blvd. Responding officers made contact with the male subject and arrested him before taking him to the Pasadena 
Police jail. 

Theft from a vehicle 
On 7-13-19 at 6:31PM officers responded to a theft from a vehicle that occurred in the 500 block of N. Hermosa Ave. The 
suspect(s) entered the unlocked vehicle and stole personal property. 


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com