Originally proposed over 50 years ago, the President’s Council on Physical Fitness was formed after concerns that our nation was going “soft.” President Eisenhower appointed then Vice President Richard Nixon to chair the council and establish physical fitness objectives for the country at large, and youth in particular. Immediate goals for the very first council were to raise the standards for physical fitness professionals, increase funding for classes and equipment at public schools, and to encourage more students, particularly girls, to participate in sports and recreational activities.
If you have ever wondered where you may have misplaced say, oh, a Swiss Army knife, I’m here today to tell you how to find it.
As summer becomes official, Islanders throng to our walking-biking trails. Not only do more dog-walkers surface, but hired sitters manage “leash bouquets” attached to assorted pups. Skateboarders join in, free from the classroom and often with cell phones attached to their ears.
This spring, I was frequently asked, “Where are the hummingbirds?” I, too, noticed little activity at my nectar feeders. At first I thought it was just the cold spring that delayed the birds’ northbound migration. I was hopeful that they would still appear.
The good thing about global warming, climate changes and high gas prices is that many people are now becoming aware of the need to conserve. I see more shoppers bringing reusable bags to the supermarket. The shuttle bus from the Mariners game last week was standing room only. I especially appreciated the bumper sticker on a hybrid car that said: “We drive this car for our grandchildren’s future.”
Two Mercer Island octogenarians are celebrating unexpected graduations this season — 66 years after the moment in history that dashed their college careers and sent 120,000 people of Japanese descent to internment camps in 1942.
I heard you enjoyed five weeks of yarns from the late Virginia Ogden Elliot, the Island pioneer who bequeathed us her “Mercer Island Old and New” columns. A compilation of her work is on reserve at the library.
Standing on a skateboard for his first time ever in brown dress shoes, a helmet and knee pads over his khakis, state Rep. Ross Hunter glides down the ramp.
It was July 29, 1959, when Mercer Island pioneer Virginia Ogden Elliott first began serializing her “Mercer Island Old & New” columns in the Mercer Island Reporter. Born on the Island exactly 100 years ago in 1908, she shared stories of its evolution from 1920 to 1980.
When Chuck Kusak answers the phone at his family-owned glass and crystal shop in the Rainier Valley, his first words are, “How can I serve you?”, summing up in just one sentence the philosophy of the Kusak Cut Glass Works, Inc.
Shorts and swimsuit season will be here before you know it! Fortunately, there’s still time to shed those extra pounds and get toned up for spring and summer. When you fit into those “skinny jeans” or reach that “ideal” number on the scale, though, will you really be “fit” and healthy?
