The Press-Dispatch
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Katiedid Versus By Katiedid Langrock 2020 Superstitions REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS Jerry A. Fowler conveys to Chad M. Brown, real estate as recorded in Pike County. George Glen Wiscaver AK A George G. Wiscaver and Margaret Sue Wiscaver AK A Margaret Wiscaver convey to Margaret Sue Wiscaver, real estate as recorded in Pike County. Lodestar Financial Services quitclaims to Ronald A. Travis and Rita F. Travis, real estate as recorded in Pike County. William B. Uebelhor conveys to Kaleb J. Chambers and Whittney M. Huff, real estate as recorded in Pike County. Val J. Fleig conveys to Val J. Fleig Transfer on Death, Elizabeth Weyer, John Fleig and Daniel Fleig, real estate as recorded in Pike County. SATURDAY, JAN. 9 • 10am EST at the Auction Barn – 2667 E. CR 400 S., Winslow Auction pick-up available! KALEB CLARIDGE AU11700062 Follow on Auctionzip.com • ID# 46613 • CALL TODAY TO SCHEDULE YOUR AUCTION! No Buyer's Premium. AUCTION WASHINGTON ESTATE Antiques, collectibles, tools, furniture, large collection of pink and green depression and carnival glass, vintage Pyrex, large amount of vintage DC comic books, collection of vintage baseball cards, complete set of 1970 tops cards dating back to the 1950s, 1950-1960s bobble heads, several silver coins, Longaberger baskets, vintage toys and so much more! "Check out my new orna- ment," my friend texted in our group chat. A moment later, a video appeared of her new Christ- mas ornament to commemorate the year. It was of a dumpster on fire, with lights flicker- ing in bright yel- lows and oranges and "2020" written across the bottom of the orna- ment. The 2020 dumpster fire — how appropriate. In the final days of this dreadful year, it's hard to sum up what 2020 has been. A number of definitions come to mind: global hell, collective nightmare, 30 -pound weight gain, the year of increasing alcohol tolerance, breakfast in bedlam, hot mess, butt- imprint-on-couch year, train wreck, the year of obsessive- ly scrolling through the cheap flights to exotic destinations that I can't take because of COVID-19 restrictions, om- nishambles, chaos curtsy, buy-a-Peloton year, never- use-my-Peloton year, pj's-all- day year and, of course, the beloved dumpster fire. The single word that stands out most to me when I think about 2020 is "superstition." It's not that this year was full of superstition (though there is probably a decent argument one could make). Rather, the term "2020" will be the superstition of the fu- ture. In the decades to come, at 20 :20 (Or 8:20 p.m., for those of us who don't actively practice military time), elders and children alike will hold their breath and wait for the moment to pass, lest they cause another pandem- ic. The year twin siblings turn 20, they will be banished from their families for fear of the evil their 20th birthday will bring. (Perhaps you think this sounds cruel, but just imagine the rocking 21st birthday that follows.) At the optometrist, mothers will scream at the abject hor- ror of discovering that their children's vision is 20/20. No, please, say it ain't so! Not 20/20! Think this sounds extreme? Bear in mind that we still fear the number 13 because some mopey Norse god crashed a private party at Valhalla thou- sands of years ago. We still shudder at broken mirrors because the ancient Greeks thought the sick would die if they saw ripples in their reflec- tions in water. And thanks to the faulty springs in Victorian England's umbrellas — result- ing in unintended injury and broken personal property — we still avoid opening umbrel- las indoors like the plague. Ooh, sorry. Probably should avoid saying "like the plague." But you get what I'm going for. We just endured a pandemic during a time of political di- vision and social strife. The term "2020" has to be in the running for some crazy super- stitions! Considering that your 40th birthday (20 +20) is when we start making over-the-hill jokes already, coming up with doom-and-gloom 2020 super- stitions shouldn't be hard. Perhaps we will start avoid- ing the number 20 in build- ings the way we do the num- ber 13. Perhaps we will run to wash our hands for 20 seconds upon mention of the dreaded year. Or perhaps our natural walking cadence will include an odd skip as we effective- ly leap past every 20th step. Similar to how we throw salt over our shoulder to combat the bad luck of spilling salt in the first place, maybe we will throw a vial of vaccine over our shoulder anytime some- one coughs. For added pro- tection, we will follow in the steps of the witches and wiz- ards who spoke of Voldemort and call this era "the year that shall not be named." And in- stead of knocking on wood to prevent an unpleasant oc- currence, perhaps our de- scendants will keep match- es handy and light dumpsters on fire whenever they speak of their hopes and dreams. Superstitions carved out of 2020 are coming, but I be- lieve slang culture is coming first. In a decade, teens go- ing through painful breakups will say, "It's just so 2020, ya know? " And those of us who lived through home-schooling those teens during 2020 will roll our eyes and tell them that they don't know what 2020 was really like. That irritation, however, will pale in compar- ison with the annoyance we'll feel when "2020" makes the slang transition from mean- ing "bad" to meaning "good," the way "ill," "wicked" and "sick" did. As this terrible year comes to an end, let's be proud that we survived a year that was surely terrible enough to spawn a superstition or two. I mean, if a faulty Victorian-era spring gets one, I think we've earned it. Don't you? Follow Katiedid Langrock on Instagram, at www.instagram. com/writeinthewild. The Press-Dispatch 812-354-8500 | www.pressdispatch.net *By enrolling in the Birthday Club, you agree to have your name, town and birth- day, or the person's name and town and birthday of whom you are enrolling, printed in e Press-Dispatch on the week in which the birthday occurs. Joining is easy! Visit pressdispatch.net/birthday or send your full name, address, city, state, zip code, phone number and birthdate to birthdayclub@pressdispatch.net.* Each week, a list of birthdays will be published in the paper! You could win a FREE PRIZE from area businesses and a three-month subscription to e Press-Dispatch. MUST RE-ENROLL EVERY YEAR! Join the One WINNER is drawn at the end of each month Adam Scales (812) 354-8488 adam.scales@infarmbureau.com B-2 Wednesday, Januar y 6, 2021 The Press-Dispatch Sweet's Column By Barbara Sweet To enter the Birthday Club, email your name, ad- dress, phone number and birthdate to birthdayclub@ pressdispatch.net. Only the person's name, town and birth- day will appear in the paper. As an added bonus, one lucky person each month will re- ceive a free three month Press-Dispatch subscription. This month's birthdays have a chance to win a free pizza gift certificate from BathBombs Petersburg, in Petersburg. DECEMBER WINNER And the winner is... Lora Carlisle from Petersburg. Lo- ra won a free pizza gift certificate from Fish Hut, in Pe- tersburg, and a three-month subscription to The Press-Dis- patch. Congratulations! THIS WEEK'S BIRTHDAYS Beulah Copeland ..................... Oakland City ...........1/7 Donna Stinson ............................Evansville .............1/8 Max Burkhart ........................... Petersburg .............1/9 Cherie Dedrick ............................. Otwell .............. 1/10 Garry Willis ................................RUSKIN ............ 1/10 Linda Dent ................................ Petersburg ........... 1/10 Delaney Morgan ....................... Washington .......... 1/11 Beverly Bement ......................... Petersburg ........... 1/11 THIS MONTH'S SPONSOR G I F T S H O P BathBombs Petersburg 714 E. Main Street • 812-789-3054 bathbombspetersburg.Com Hi stars and welcome to the big stage all lit up in bright col- orful lights for this new year of 2021 and decorated to help celebrate with all our stars who will have a birthday or anniversary in the week of January 7-13. Come up onto this stage and take a bow. January 7-Daniel Merritt turns 47; Taylor Tru- itt turns 34; Stephanie Cole- man turns 50 ; Julie Nixon. January 8 -Kinzy Bailey Amos turns 33; Bobby Dotth- reich turns 49. January 9 -Mary Ann Dill- man turns 40 ; Jane Sim- mons; Donnie Poehlein; Kar- en Brossman Bass turns 61; Robert Bolin turns 33; Roger McCandless; Mallory Cates turns 34. January 10 -Mary Jo Cra- vens. January 11-Joe Sweet turns 75; Valerie Jones turns 50. January 12-Gavriel Isaac Brock turns 12; Brittney Turpin turns 29. May all our stars have a re- ally great day and may all your wishes come true. Keep in your heart and in your prayers all our stars who have COVID-19, those under- going surgeries and treat- ments, those recovering, and those with a cold, flu, allergies or the aches and pains of ev- eryday life. EVENTS January 11-Winslow Town Hall at 7 p.m. unless they change it to 6 p.m. January 12-Winslow Beau- tification at 6:30 p.m. and Winslow Economic at 7:30 p.m. may be meeting at the Community Center. January 14-Petersburg Li- ons meet at 6 p.m. at Village Inn, I believe. January 18 -Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Winslow and Petersburg se- niors will not meet again un- til Governor Hol- comb gives the okay. Sweets Col- umn, Winslow, IN 47598 re- ceived no post- cards or notes of interest this week. If you have a birthday or an- niversary you would like to share with all our stars everywhere, I would be grateful to put it in my book and celebrate this glorious day with you all. The Winslow Patoka Riv- er will be up with the inch or more of rain we got at the end of 2020. We got to have a snow flurry Christmas, with cold temps in the 20s, but the winds were strong enough to have a wind chill of minus ze- ro to the teens. The snow was off and on all day and one time, the snow blew almost sideways. Our decorations in the yards were blown over or leaning (the candy canes), but Santa in his sleigh was lying on its side. It was pret- ty to see the snow falling on this Christmas Day and the snow only lasted that day. The temps came up to normal in the 40s, but climbed into the 50s for only a short time. The temps at night were a cold, cold, freezing night over the end of our weekend. The sinks were either dripping or the doors were opened to bring in some heat to the pipes. Our two squirrels were seen in the big tree of Grandma's, playing on a nice day. We hope you all had a great Christmas Day with your fam- ily and your gifts were just what you always wanted. To the children, we hope the spe- cial gift from Santa was as spe- cial as you are to get it. San- ta also loved the cookies and milk. Our Christmas Day was with Mom, Norm and I. We ate a meal of ham, mac and cheese, and green beans, with pumpkin pie, chocolate candy and ding dongs for dessert. We also sat down to watch the football games, parades of last year, wrestling at night and the yule log. John Cooper stopped by on his way home from deer hunt- ing and, even with all the in- sulated clothes he had on, he was still cold with those freez- ing temps that stayed all day long. No deer were seen. Laura needed her Pop's help on Saturday to rescue her car that had a flat on her way to work Thursday night in Wash- ington. So Norm got all the tools he may need to change a tire and he used every tool he took, but this tire was re- ally stuck and the other tool used was a big wrench from a trucker. At Wal-Mart, Norm saw a star he used to work with on the thigh line at Per- due a while back. Then anoth- er star saw Laura and thought she was me, "the one from the paper." Norm said she was our daughter and he said, "they do look alike." Thanks and I ap- preciate the compliment. No matter where we go, Norm is seen by someone he worked with or knew him from T V or around town. Laura is very grateful to her Pop for com- ing to her aid to get her back on the road again. The Christmas decorations were all lit up in our area of town until the day after Christ- mas, where only one or two decorations are still up and shining bright. I usually keep ours up until after New Year's, but some take theirs down ear- ly. What is your tradition? Speaking of tradition, how did you celebrate the New Year? We have cabbage to eat as our wealth through the year and black-eyed peas as our health in the year to come. On the last day of the old year, Norm and I stay at home and celebrate together as we drink our favorite drink. We eat crackers with summer sausage, then at the hour, we kiss and welcome in the new year to our neighborhood and hear Winslow's response for a brand new year. My mom has been here for almost two weeks and she will be going back to Illinois, as I'm writing, in a few days. She got to see the whole fam- ily, but not her cousin and sis- ter-in-law. Maybe she can see them when she visits again. When this column comes out, the new year will have begun, so our hope is that all our stars had a great New Year's celebration and that the reflections of 2020 were too awfully bad. Our year was great because our health was fine, we got to go to the Atlan- tic Ocean, which I had never seen until then. We met a lot of great stars all year long and got to share Winslow with all of you stars who have been en- couraging me to keep writing, and I will. There were a lot of events throughout the year we couldn't do and we are sad about that, but it was for everyone's health that it was put off until it is okay to gath- er together in crowds again. There were lots of changes for everyone. With this new year, our hope is that your health is great and you all wear that mask for other's safety, and the distance you keep will help when you have to out with other stars. Have a wonderful New Year of 2021. The lights are dimming for this week. Keep an eye on fam- ily and friends, if only to lis- ten. Slow down and don't be in such a hurry; you will miss all the wonders in your area. Wear your mask when out and be kind to others. As always, smile, wave and say "hi" to everyone you see this week. Have a great 2021.