"Great Times" Prologue

"Great Times"

By Frank Phillips

© 2002 Terry Franklin Phillips Sr.

All rights reserved

Prologue

2147 A.D.

Forrest Smith had a problem. History was being rewritten. It wasn’t his doing. This time.

He first noticed it while flipping through the family’s movie selections.

A student of history by hobby as well as by vocation, he absently looked through the descriptions of movies in the “mockumentary” vein.

He was startled by a new selection of movies he had never seen before.

Taking a drink of the cool concoction at his side, he looked more closely at the descriptions on the screen before him.

Several dealt with the subject “Roswell”. There was a 1999 movie, a 1994 TV show and “Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence” from 2002, nearly 150 years earlier.

“I wonder why we didn’t see this?” he asked himself, muttering, rather than speaking the words aloud. “I hope –.”

He didn’t finish the words. He was soon on the telephone.

Smith was head of the nation’s time travel project. For some months the project administrators had sent time travelers -- historians, as they liked to call themselves -- back in time to witness the past so they could correct errors in the nation’s history books.

The organization had been able to do so with much success. Great success meant observing without changing history.

The next day Smith’s fears were confirmed. Following his call, his chief researcher had found something new in American history of 1947. That was a worrisome prospect to the nation’s chief time travel administrator.

“What do you mean, something new?” asked Sheryl, who had shared the 50-year-old’s bed and board for nearly 30 years. The couple were eating their dinner in a small apartment they called home.

Forrest smooshed his spoon through noodles on his plate. It was a nervous habit that drove his wife crazy, but he had not been able to shake it.

“We are beginning to see things in history that didn’t used to be there - not as far as we know, anyway.

“Yesterday I found ‘new’ movies – from 150 years ago – that were about a desert town called Roswell, New Mexico. Then, today --.” He pushed his plate away, knowing he would not finish his half-eaten dinner . “Ralph brought in a research file - a history book - that he had been reading. All of a sudden, we have an anomaly in 1947.”

“What’s an anomaly?” Sheryl asked, rested against the wall. She realized dinner was over and thought she may as well burn a few extra middle-aged fat cells by standing instead of sitting through the conversation.

“Something that shouldn’t be there, something unexpected,” he said. “Well, it seems that all of a sudden – yesterday – new antique movies show up on the screen and today - the history books talk about a spacecraft - a UFO - unidentified flying object, as they used to be called - that crashed in New Mexico on a ranch in 1947. Did you ever hear of anything like that?”

Sheryl glanced at the calendar. It was Jan. 23, 2147, and she thought back to the beginning of her formal education.

As a five-year-old, she had started school in 2105. Forty-two years later, her husband’s work frightened her. She tended to agree with those who believed that time travel was dangerous because yesterday’s history could be changed.

She knew there had been no recorded UFOs in New Mexico in 1947, at least none she had heard of.

“You hadn’t heard of it, I hadn’t heard of it, but what bothers me most is that Ralph hadn’t heard of it. And, Ralph knows his history. That’s why I wanted him on my team.

“But now, every kid in school will learn about Roswell, New Mexico,” Forrest said. “They will think it’s just something they hadn’t heard before. Teachers will be relieved they heard about it in time to put it on the latest history tests. But we know it was an anomaly and we suspect we know why it happened. It was a time-travel anomaly.”

Forrest bit his thumbnail.

“Worse, if people become frightened by the new historical artifacts that just happen to pop up, the government could decide the project isn’t worth the cost – might even be dangerous to pursue.”

Sheryl started clearing the table.

“Are you sure it hasn’t been there all along?” she asked. “After all, I know Ralph. He certainly isn’t perfect.”

Sheryl had introduced Ralph to a homely cousin on her side of the family a year earlier. Ralph hadn’t taken the bait. In fact, he later told Forrest, “She had a face that made me think she was looking for worms!”

Forrest had not passed on that tidbit to his wife.

“So, why does everyone at the lab think it’s an anomaly?” she asked.

“You know we are always careful. That we don’t want to change history? Well, this 1947 UFO that crashed in New Mexico not only was observed, but it made quite a mess of things. According to the new history, pieces of the wreckage were strewn over a large area.

“Then, Ralph found a Web site that indicated movies I saw yesterday had been made about the crash. In one of them, a soldier at the site took a piece of the metal home to show his family. He wadded it up like metal foil and when he laid it down on the table, it smoothed out without a wrinkle to be found. And, it seemed nearly indestructible. Ralph is going to try to bring some movies - movies that you and I don’t remember seeing - to work tomorrow.

“The crash was rumored to involve aliens - creatures not of this world. At least, that was what the first reports said. Then, the government said the ‘crash’ was actually a weather balloon.”

“What else is bothering you?” she asked.

“I’m afraid,” Forrest said finally. “I’m afraid every time we send a team out and they come back - you know - all scrunched up in the face and spindly in the arms and legs.

“It’s not natural, Sheryl. It’s just not natural.”

"And you think one of your people were involved. Then quit.”

“Why? The genie is out of the bottle, Sheryl. Oh, yeah! The genie is out of the bottle and there is no stuffing him back in. Time travel is here and it is not going away.

He paused and looked up at her with the “puppy dog look” as she called it.

“Sheryl, I’m afraid we’re going to send one of our teams to 1947 and then find out our guys who were killed on that ranch. We certainly don't have the technology - even today - to do what the new reports say happened there. So, it must have been some other group - maybe evening space aliens, we don't know. But somehow it was all unheard of until now.

He began sobbing and Sheryl took his head in her arms.

Police recovered my Zuma!

I am elated and I feel a little less endangered.
Capt. Andy Whittington of the Brazil Police Dept. just called. My Zuma motor scooter has been recovered! We don't know the details yet, but the little feller has apparently been Zum-ing around Terre Haute.
About two months ago, I opened the dor from our dining room to our garage to find the big car door standing wide open at 5 a.m. The thief was polite -- after breaking our window screen frame and removing it, he raised the garage window, moved the bicycle that was underneath out of the way and took my Zuma.
Now a few things need explaining. We normally keep our windows locked, so I'm not sure how that one came to be unlocked. Like a fool, I thought no one would be able to get into our garage through that tiny window, much less want my scooter. But, that is all they took.
State Farm Insurance did pay off the value of the scooter, (not what we owed). So, it belongs to the insurance company.
But, I had two pairs of gloves under the seat, a reporter's notebook and pens. I would like to have the personal items back and not everyone knows how to access the underseat storage (or that there IS under seat storage) so I may still be able to get those things back.
But congratulations to the Brazil Police Dept. and whatever police organization found the sccot. We have had a lot of robberies and it's nice to know the police are making progress.

Review: "Superman Returns"

The movie, “Superman Returns,” is scheduled to debut this month across the country.
But the story has been out for weeks (at least) in the novelization by Marv Wolfman.
“The movie is never the same as the book,” my wife, Linda, points out, but at least we have the general gist of the story to think about before we plunk down our money at the show.
“Superman Returns” does not make the same mistake other comic book movies make — retelling the hero’s origin. We had that in 1951 when “The Adventures of Superman” (now available on DVD) told Superman’s Kryptonian beginnings in its first episode. Then, in the 1970s, the move,” Superman” told the story over again. The only redeeming part of that movie was that it explained how the Fortress of Solitude grew from a crystal.
In “Superman Returns,” we learn how he is duped into building a spaceship to carry him to the location of Krypton before it was destroyed by internal explosions when he was a baby. (He has no super powers under the sun that warmed Krypton.) His parents placed him in a crystal spaceship (Kryptonians were big into grow-your-own-crystals technology) and sent him to Earth, a primitive planet with a yellow sun, much younger than Krypton's sun.
When Superman arrives at Krypton, 2 1/2 years later, he finds what is left of it to be a dead world. He flies his spaceship past buildings where Kryptonian furniture can still be seen, though no living beings exist.
Soon he is overcome by kryptonite radiation and has to tell his spaceship, “Get me away from here — fast!”
The trip back to Earth takes another 2 1/2 years.
When he gets home, he finds Earth’s inhabitants did not put their lives on hold just because the big guy was out of town. His adopted mother, Martha Kent, is courting a neighbor man and plans to move to Montana. Lois Lane has moved in with Perry White’s nephew and they have a 5-year-old son.
The only person who seems unchanged is Superman’s old nemesis, Lex Luthor, who has discovered Kryptonian crystalline secrets.
Thanks (?) to kryptonite, Luthor makes Superman physically inferior to himself in order to wreak revenge on the guy dressed in red and blue.
The book was entirely satisfying. I hope the movie lives up to it.

Orville's on TV again

By FRANK PHILLIPS
frankphi@hotmail.com
Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Popping Corn was one of three products featured on “Titans of Taste,” a special program on the Food Network Tuesday night at 9 p.m. EDT.
Glen and Evelyn Brown, representing the Clay County Popcorn Festival were interviewed. So, were members of the Redenbacher family who talked about his love of popcorn and family values.
The program told his story of attending Purdue University and his tireless efforts to create a better popcorn hybrid.
The interviews with the Browns were taped in their home at Brazil. Redenbacher was born and raised on the family farm near Center Point.
Also featured on the hour-long program were Oscar Mayer and Chef Boy-ar-dee.

What you didn't read in the paper ... about Make-A-Wish

I never cease to be amazed by the generosity of people.
After the article was printed about Ben Durcholz's wish, the Make-A-Wish people in Indianapolis were inundated with phone calls. The same day the article was published!
Teresa, the Clay County volunteer, said within 24 hours so much had been donated. And, Clay County has two new volunteers as well. And, WTWO (isn't that a great set of call letters for Channel 2?) in Terre Haute plans to do a story about Make-A-Wish.
It was almost like a bubble had been building pressure and was ready to pop. I'm glad I had a pin at the right time.
God bless the people of Brazil and Clay County and God bless Make-A-Wish.
Oh, yes, and I am told a former Clay County resident lives in London and teaches English as a second language. He used the Make-A-Wish story from The Brazil Times Web site as required reading for his students!
Wonders never cease!

NHS student among six chosen to travel to China

By FRANK PHILLIPS / frankphi@hotmail.com
Frank Phillips photos

Top: John Huber was one of six Indiana State University students chosen to travel to China and study at a music conservatory in Shenyang this year. He is holding a garment he purchased in China. On the bed are souvenirs he brought back to the United States.

Center: John holds his Chinese visa.

Bottom: Each student received a graduation certificate when they completed the course at Shenyang.

John Huber was one of six Indiana State Dept. of Music students chosen to study this summer at the Shenyang, China, Conservatory of Music. Dr. Todd Sullivan and Dr. Timothy Crain led the overseas excursion. The group left on May 9 and were gone 13 days.
For the past three years, ISU faculty members have taken students to China for this purpose.
After the 14-hour trip from California to China, John and his friends saw evidence Asian culture is welcoming the Western world.
The group spent 10 days studying at the conservatory and two days site-seeing at Dalian, China, a resort area on the Yellow Sea, about a four-hour drive from Shenyang.
A school is being built at Dalian on a 2- to 3-acre site that will operate along with the conservatory at Shenyang.
The conservatory students spend at least eight hours each day practicing, John said. They don't take general education classes that would be found at an American university.
John photographed many buildings that seemed to contrast the stark, utilitarian Soviet influence with the more attractive, flowing lines of Western architecture.
China has also managed to incorporate the country's love of bright colors with the 21st century needs. Highway ramps are lined with ribbons of colored lights to show drivers how to exit safely at night. At least one building's sign is gold. A bridge is outlined at night with a rainbow of ribbon lights.
In classes, the ISU students who are talented and trained in a variety of musical instruments and voice, learned about Chinese instruments.
"There are thousands of them," developed over China's 8,000-year history, John said. The conservatory recently began a wind band program.
The conservatory was started during World War II to train musicians to play for Chinese soldiers.
The ISU students learned to sing Chinese songs. They learned "Red Lamp," which is part of the repertoire of the Beijing Opera.
“Of all the songs I learned, I thought it was the most interesting since it was anti-Japanese," John said.
They also learned mountain and spiritual songs.
Listening to John's description of the trip indicates how China is different from what little has been seen in American media in decades past.
Perhaps the most emotion-stirring photo in this reporter's lifetime to come from China was that gripping photo of a young man challenging a tank to stop its progress at Tiannemen Square.
The Chinese people's demands for change have been heard, at least in part.
The four trips from ISU to Shenyang Conservatory of Music are one indication. The fact that Chinese residents have gained permission of their government to own and drive automobiles in the past two years, is another.
But signs of the old days are everywhere, from officers dressed in military-type uniforms everywhere, to the Chinese people's wariness of cameras. Although John was able to take some photos of the backs of men wearing uniforms, the practice was largely forbidden.
Imagine a nation filled with 18-year-olds who have only gotten their drivers’ licenses two years ago. That is one tension a passenger or drive faces when they wander onto Chinese streets and highways.
"Rush hour is all the time since they've been allowed to use cars," John said.
He related one incident when their taxi was stopped by a police officer.
Not only was the driver ticketed, but also the officer was very emotional and very vocal, apparently scolding the driver for his infraction.
When the officer left, the driver turned to his passengers and laughed.
Petro China operates all the gasoline stations to feed China's thirst for gasoline.
Twentieth century Chinese life is also seen in that the president of the conservatory is not the head official. There is a Communist commissar always present "in case something goes wrong," John said.
Time in class was spent listening to lectures and instruction that had to be translated by Lily, a Chinese foreign affairs representative, who accompanied the group wherever a translator might be needed.
Lily became quick friends with the group.
John was surprised with a birthday cake one evening. During the festivities, Lily painted John's face with part of the whipped cream frosting.
Another contrast between the modern China and the way China has been portrayed is in the use of space. During the trip, the ISU group stopped at least at one park. While we remember being told the Chinese are so numerous they could march over Western countries, China has dedicated large spaces for parks. John wasn't sure of the exact dimensions but he said the park he visited was easily "a hundred times" bigger than Forest Park in Brazil.
Another way modern China parts ways with traditional Communist thought is religion.
Although Christian worship is not encouraged, religion is recognized as a part of the Chinese culture through the millennia.
The Chinese people are being exposed to shopping, not unlike that in America. A mall has been built at Dalian, China, 10 floors high that would be many times the size of the famous Mall of America in Minnesota, John estimated.
On the last night of their visit, the ISU students gave gifts from Indiana to their hosts.
John gave orchestrated transcripts of band marches by Fred Jewell that are part of the Brazil Concert Band collection.
Professor You, a composition professor, opened his package and found the “New Friendship March,” by Jewell, which seemed to sum up how the ISU students felt about their hosts — and new friends — at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music.
Now a part of Indiana has taken root in the lives of at least a few Chinese music-lovers.

Make-A-Wish needs you

Group wants to make Ben’s wish come true

By FRANK PHILLIPS /frankphi@hotmail.com
Ben Durcholz


If you could have one wish, what would it be? To be younger, richer, better looking, to have a better job?
Adults have active imaginations, but what if you are between the ages of 2 1/2 and 18 and have a life-threatening illness? How big would your wish be?
Abigail wants to go to Disney World. Joshua wants to take his whole family to Disney World, including five kids and two adults! Ben wants his bedroom to be made over with a basketball theme.
Make-A-Wish has been making wishes come true since 1980 when a sick little boy in Phoenix, Ariz., told his family and friends he would really like to be state trooper for a day.
He was given his own uniform and got to spend the day with his heroes, the Arizona State Police.
The response was overwhelming and, as they say, the rest is history.
In 1983, Indiana Make-A-Wish opened its doors. More than 1,600 wishes have been granted in the past 23 years, 17 in Clay County and 222 across the state in fiscal year 2004-05.
Now, it’s Ben Durcholz’s turn.
Ben’s mom, Annette, approached The Brazil Times in April, wanting the newspaper to help parents of MPS victims identify the illness and find support. MPS is a family of diseases that dramatically shorten a child’s life span.
When the Durcholz family’s story was published on April 17, it was read by Teresa Bradley, a Make-A-Wish volunteer. She approached the paper, wanting to enlist our help in making Ben’s wish come true.
Teresa is a regular reader of The Brazil Times. In fact, Teresa learned of the Make-A-Wish program through The Brazil Times. An advertisement in American Profile a magazine carried inside The Brazil Times each Saturday, caught her eye in May, 2003.
Although people may think Make-A-Wish only grants wishes for terminally ill children, that is not the case. Any child with a life-threatening illness is eligible.
The families Teresa works with make her marvel and reinforces her faith.
“I’ve seen retarded children with no religious training talk about God before they die,” she said. “What’s up with that?”
But even the terminally ill children don’t look at their illnesses as terminal. They have lived their entire lives knowing nothing else.
Make-A-Wish volunteers don’t look at children as being terminally ill, either.
“We don’t look at death, but the days of joy we can give them,” Teresa said.
She stressed the children who are not facing premature death. Of 27 children she has worked with in west central Indiana, only two have died, but all have received their greatest wishes.
When Teresa sat down with Ben, after receiving his parents’ permission, his greatest wish was for a basketball-themed bedroom.
In Teresa’s mind, it already exists.
One end will be a basketball court complete with goals and bleachers and the other end will be a mini-McDonald’s activity center.
Teresa needs help.
Donors are needed for the following items:
• Three 2-by-10-by-8 boards
• Six sections of 4-by-8, 1/2-inch plywood
• One junior and one adult basketball hoop
• Lockers have already been donated
• Balls have been donated, but more are needed. These cannot be real basketballs, but soft, Nerf-type balls of various sizes.
• One 2-by-6-by-8 board for a bench in front of the lockers
• McDonald’s golden arches — any size will do
• A plastic Ronald McDonald - full-size, preferably.
• A cluster table from a McDonald’s restaurant
• Paint: chalkboard paint, several colors of paint (Ben’s favorite color is orange) and wood stain
• Sandpaper
• Sports banners
• Coloring books, crayons and kids books (any subject)
Teresa also hopes people will donate their time and energy.
Make-A-Wish needs more volunteers in Indiana. There should be three or four volunteers in Clay County, but Teresa is the only one, so far. Vigo County needs many more volunteers, too.
For more information, call or e-mail Juli Miller at (317) 636-6060 or jmiller@makeawishindiana.org.

On the Net:
http://www.makeawishohio.org