Henrietta Hay's Column

It's time to re-read the year's mail. That is one of the pleasantest parts of writing anything -- finding out that somebody is reading it. This year there were no letters that I had to drop in the wastebasket with a fire extinguisher, handy, although a couple came close. Some wise soul commented that if you can't annoy someone there's little point in writing. Most of your letters and comments, though, were friendly and informative, and I thank you for every one.

I expected a firestorm of letters to the editor after my open letter to the President. But almost all of your comments were of the "Right On" variety. Oops! This is no place to use the word "right." Your reaction leads me to upgrade the estimate of Happy Valley liberals to 21.

After writing about the C. U. women's basketball team I heard from a woman who was a sophomore in Grand Junction High School in 1958. She tells about her horrendous experiences in first hour P. E. The girls had to walk by the teacher after each shower and drop their towels so that said teacher could see that they were wet. Wow. There was no real basketball, no track, no soccer, and no tennis. "But let me tell you what we did get to do. On Mondays we got to take a sponge in hand, saturate it with some disinfectant from a mop bucket and WASH THE MATS . We were girls, you know. Good training for womanhood" But she goes on to say that a young friend who is in High School today gasped and commented, "You've got to be kidding." Conclusion: maybe things have improved. Sort of.

One reader wrote about riding on the Burlington Zephyr a couple of years before I did. After the original trip between Denver and Chicago in May 1934, "the train was sent back over the route to acquaint the public with the train. Tickets were issued to public officials and business people along the way." He sent me a copy of one of those tickets, permit #6862, to ride from Harvard to Hastings on July 6, 1934.

Another reader added the information that early Zephyr came through Grand Junction twice in 1934 en route to the west coast. "On the return eastward trip, a limited number of local people could buy tickets and ride to Rifle. Return was on an ordinary coal burner. What a letdown."

There was lots of mail about the Knott ranch. I had phone calls and letters and enjoyed every one. The interesting thing is that even people closely connected to the story gave varying versions of it. History is not an exact science.

I had a letter from a charter member of DORU (Defenders of Raisins United) in response to my tongue-in-cheek raisins column. As a raisin lover she tells me that, "...any of your efforts to stonewall the raisin will be met with equal resistance from raisin-lovers. Pickets will be met by pickets." Wow, a raisin lover with a sense of humor.

After the censorship column - I'm agin it - one man wrote, "Even though I happen to be of the male persuasion, I do agree MOSTLY with your slightly feminist viewpoint, and for sure DO agree with the most recent writing about censorship."

After a guest column in the Orange and Black on censorship I heard from a professor emeritus of journalism who lives in Muncie, Indiana. He edited the O & B back in 1937-38. On the subject of censorship he said that, "...the Supreme Court really did not mandate censorship of the high school press, and the Orange and Black is correct in proclaiming it to be a student produced open form newspaper."

I treasure a letter that I received from several budding journalists at Grand Junction High School after my guest editorial. Their thank you letter said, "Your message is important. We must remind ourselves to fight censorship and not give in to the loads of conservatives that inhabit Grand Junction." That raises the total of liberals here to 27. The younger generation shows great promise.

It's the readers who ultimately write the column. Keep in touch. Thanks.

And let's all have a Very Happy New Year.