plus 4, Fans build football-shaped tailgating trailer - Houma Courier |
- Fans build football-shaped tailgating trailer - Houma Courier
- 'Twas Long Ago - Momlogic.com
- My life has been transformed’ - Oakland Press
- Sometimes the best gift isn't the biggest - Lafayette Journal and Courier
- A black hole in health insurance - Walletpop.com
| Fans build football-shaped tailgating trailer - Houma Courier Posted: 25 Dec 2009 11:46 AM PST They finally did. On its first tailgating trip — to the LSU-Arkansas game at Tiger Stadium on Nov. 29 — Charlotte's Tailgate Trailer won the "Tailgater of the Week" award. A photograph of the trailer was shown at halftime on the stadium's big screen to 92,000 fans. "It couldn't have turned out any better," Bill Hester said. The Hesters live in Monroe and Walton's fiberglass shop, where the trailers are produced, is in Hamburg, Ark. "We had plenty of experience loading and unloading the SUV through the years at all the tailgating parties, so I thought it would be good to have a trailer where you could store everything you needed and not have to go through that hassle before every game," Charlotte Hester said. The Hesters' children were sports fans. Charlotte's three boys (from a previous marriage) were defensive players for Louisiana Tech University and Bill's son and daughter (from a previous marriage) were sports fans with the son, Brett, playing football at LaSalle High School. Brett Hester and his sister Kristen live in Olla and Kristen's newly built home has its own LSU room. Charlotte's two oldest sons are Dr. Nathan Darby, a sports medicine physician, and Dr. Nicholas Darby, a dentist. They live in the Jackson, Miss., area but return to Ruston for home games. The youngest son, Nolan Darby, finished his football eligibility last year and is continuing his studies to become a chiropractor. Charlotte Hester came up with the idea after seeing trailers Walton had made to look like street rods. Walton also had extensive experience in fiberglass boat manufacturing. The idea was placed on the back burner for a while in 2003 when Charlotte Hester developed breast cancer. The couple then had to focus on her surgery and treatments, but Charlotte Hester said she never quit reminding her husband and Walton that they needed to get the project started. In March, Bill Hester and Walton finally started working on the fiberglass mold for the football portion of the trailer. "I just didn't realize how labor intensive this part would be," Bill Hester said. He said that he and Walton, who has a regular job, would work 12 to 15 hours a day, two to three days a week "when Roy was off." They have now started work on their patent. If enough people want the $4,250 trailers, the families could hire a crew and start producing at least three units a week, Hester said. "It's all going to depend on demand," he said. The trailer is more than 12 feet in length and more than seven feet in width and height. One side has a 48-by-48-inch door that lowers to provide a table. The other side has an identical door that raises to provide storage. "This door is a great location for mounting your wide-screen television," Bill Hester said. The larger area is open for items such as chairs, coolers, generators and other supplies. The floor has recessed tie-down rings for securing items. There is a receiver hitch at an angle off the tongue for a barbecue grill. There also is a receiver hitch on the tongue extension for a cargo carrier. The trailer also will include lights, license bracket, tongue stand and mounting holes for a team flag or banner. "We realize everyone will apply their favorite team's colors and logos," Charlotte said. "We're anxious to see how some football fans will decorate our trailers." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Posted: 25 Dec 2009 09:59 AM PST Christmas was one of my mother's favorite times of the year -- and now that she's gone, I hurt inside. Sue Carswell: For her last Christmas, my mother rallied enough strength in her then emaciated 90-pound frame to dial the 1-800 number at the Disney Store. She placed an order for five Winnie-the-Pooh nightgowns and one set of Mickey Mouse pajamas. On Christmas Eve, right before my father read "Twas," My sisters and I helped my mother get up from the living room sofa, next to the Christmas tree. Then, supported by our strong arms, she walked over to the staircase where my nieces and nephews were sitting, one grandchild per step. They were all wearing her presents of whimsical sleeping attire, squealing in delight as they showed off for their grandmother, who just cupped her hands over her mouth in delight. The breast cancer had spread to her eyes at that point, but she was able to squint and focus in on the sugarplum vision of these young children she so adored. This was a lovely fuzzy picture of the present, one that obviously brought up memories of the past, when we, her five little ones, awaited the reading of our favorite Christmas tale. Tears rolled down her cheeks. There wasn't a day that passed since she had first learned of her cancer that she didn't say to my father, "Oh John, you don't know how much I'll miss seeing my grandchildren grow up." It slays me to think that over the years after she passed away that Easter that she would have today nine additional grandchildren -- a whole staircase banked full of grandchildren. I can't get passed that notion of what could have been, so I have become someone who avoids Christmas all together, and instead just go see a movie with my other orphaned friends on Christmas Day. And even though it also kills me, I read aloud "Twas" to myself because it keeps her very much alive. "...The children were nestled all snug in their bed..." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| My life has been transformed’ - Oakland Press Posted: 25 Dec 2009 12:15 PM PST
Gidget Centeno (second from left) married Robbe Campeau (right) in Judge Nancy Carniak's courtroom Oct. 30, following a Sobriety Court session. At left is Centeno's friend Michael Milk. Gidget Centeno plans to experience Christmas and New Year's Eve sober for the first time in 15 years. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Sometimes the best gift isn't the biggest - Lafayette Journal and Courier Posted: 25 Dec 2009 10:56 AM PST West Lafayette resident Crystal Parker said the best Christmas gift she ever received came in a box. But it wasn't something store-bought. "I would say the best gift I got was a box of notes from my dad after graduating from college, and on each note there was a piece of business advice," Parker said. "It was great because I have a lot of respect for him and his advice. "I use a piece of advice from him every day." Today, as the wrapping paper flies and presents are shared and compared, the definition of the perfect Christmas gift could be rewritten. Is having the biggest haul of presents the ultimate goal? Or is being able to put a smile on a loved one's face what surpasses anything purchased at a store? Either way, nearly everyone has one gift that remains a highlight in their minds throughout the years. Here's a sampling of those gifts and moments shared by Greater Lafayette residents. A new set of wheels Ricardo Arias of Lafayette said a gift he received 23 years ago is still the one to beat. "When I was 4, my grandpa got me a pedal car I used to ride around in all the time," he said. "It was a long time ago, but when I see pictures of it I still remember it." Arias said the time he spent pedaling around in the car made things easier when he went to get his license when he turned 16. "It's beat to pieces now, but that car is still around after all these years." Bike took a licking, and still is Zach Seibert of West Lafayette also has fond memories of exploring his neighborhood with the help of pedals as a child. "I got this dirt bike when I was in fifth grade that was just the best, and I remember immediately after getting it I rode right into the side of the house," he said. "It held up through the years, and later on it was passed down to my cousin, so it's still in the family." They found a very old book "I got a book from my kids about four or five years ago that I believed to be long out of print," said Duane Gillam of West Lafayette. "It had to be about 150 years old, so I didn't think it would ever be found. It has since been reprinted in the last three years, but it's not the original." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| A black hole in health insurance - Walletpop.com Posted: 25 Dec 2009 12:01 PM PST
She will have to wait until 2011 to join the millions of Americans in the Medicare program for people 65 and older. Medicare provides relatively inexpensive -- and very secure -- coverage through the federal government. Hoke has no security now. She lost her health insurance in August when her employer dropped its health benefits plan. Since then, she has gone without coverage, paying cash for prescriptions and medical services, skipping the more expensive care. Ironically, Hoke is a licensed practical nurse in the Columbus, Ohio, area, working with people who have developmental disabilities. She did get one recent price quote for private insurance: $2,200. That's twenty two hundred a month. For a nurse who is single, making about $40,000 a year, it was impossibly expensive. The rate was high, she says, because she had breast cancer six years ago. Since then, "I've been cancer free,'' she says. ''But when they hear 'cancer,' they don't want to cover you.'' She also belongs to an age bracket hit hard by recent job and insurance changes: the 55 to 64 group, where the oldest of the baby boomers reside. My own age group. Many of my fellow boomers have lost jobs during the recession. But the chances of our landing a new position with good benefits appear as steep as winning a lottery. And we tend to have more health conditions than younger people. "They are the most vulnerable of the uninsured,'' says Bill Custer, a health insurance expert at Georgia State University. This group has more health needs, he adds, and "if laid off, they have a harder time finding a similar job." Even though self-employed, I'm one of the lucky ones. I have health insurance. Recently, our age group was targeted for specific help in the health care reform debate. Senate Democrats floated a proposal to allow people 55 through 64 to buy into the Medicare program. The Medicare ''buy-in'' was expected to offer subsidies eventually for the uninsured to get coverage, but not at the start. It would have cost an applicant hundreds of dollars a month. A buy-in, though, was a tantalizing idea for many reform proponents. It was also a much more tangible proposal than a public option, the government-run insurance plan pushed by many Democrats. The idea, though, quickly died amid opposition from hospitals, doctors and centrist Democrats. But the healthcare reform bill, which the Senate on Dec. 24 approved, along strict party lines, still could help people such as Hoke. That's because a proposal envisions creating a national insurance program immediately for ''high risk'' people with health conditions who can't get affordable insurance now. Eventually, the uninsured could shop for coverage in a health insurance exchange, and people with low and middle-incomes would get subsidies to purchase coverage. Reform would bar insurers from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions. "The individual insurance market has never been very good,'' says Cheryl Matheis, an AARP senior vice president. "It has become increasingly discriminatory'' as insurers cherry-pick only the healthiest individuals, Matheis adds. Reform will greatly help people 50 and older, she says, by eliminating these insurance company practices. Meanwhile, Hoke is stuck in an insurance black hole. Because her company jettisoned its health benefits plan, she's not eligible for COBRA and its newly-subsidized lower price. Hoke skipped a recent mammogram because of the cost. She takes only generic prescription drugs, saying her brand-name medications are too pricey. "I haven't gone back to the doctor, because I can't afford it,'' she says. This sudden medical squeeze has heightened her interest in health reform for ''uninsurables'' like herself. Right now, she hopes no serious illness occurs. "I can't think about it,'' Hoke says. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
At 63, Billie Hoke is two years and a ton of worry away from the health care goal line.| You are subscribed to email updates from Add Images to any RSS Feed To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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