Car of the Month: Dani`s fun Ford Focus

8
Billie Behind
Designed by
Alix Leavitt
Alix Leavitt
Editor
Why is April Fools day celebrated? And what is the point of it?
If you look at some websites on the internet, you’ll be told that it involves the late 1500s
when the New Year was moved from late March-early April to January with the new Gregorian Calendar. Supposedly, those who kept celebrating the old New Year’s were called
“April Fools.” But that’s ridiculous, since the ROMANS moved New Year’s from March
1st to January 1st about 1500 years before for a political move to keep a rival candidate
for consul from getting back to Rome for the “New Year.” Besides, Chaucer’s Canterbury
Tales talks about April and foolishness and that was written in 1392.
More likely candidates are the Roman festival of “Hilaria”, held on March 25th which
grew into the medieval “Festival of Fools” that was celebrated on December 28th, in
some centuries. On that medieval day the “world turned upside-down” with a peasant
finding a bean in a slice of bread or small bun each were given, was made the “King of
Misrule” and allowed to “command” willing nobles to do menial tasks (within reason, of
course, lest the next day become “hanging day.”)
Hilaria was celebrated about the time of the Vernal Equinox, the day when there were
12 hours of light and 12 of dark. The next day, the first when the light lasted longer than
the dark, all kinds of games and amusements were allowed, masquerades being the most
prominent, and everyone might, in his disguise, imitate whomever he liked, even government officials. Hilaria was the last day of a festival to the goddess Cybele, mother of
the gods, that lasted from the Ides of March (March 15th) until the first days of April.
So, pretend you’re someone else, pretend something silly is serious, and then see who
the “fool” really is on this day. It’s a temporary thing for most of us. As in medieval times
with its strict class system, or in the first longer day of spring, it is a time to fool around
and let off stress from society or cold weather keeping one indoors. Some young people
are complete and lethal fools during college “Spring Break” at resorts. Be careful you
aren’t that kind of fool.
even though kids in Eugene are sure all Pleasant Hill kids are farmers, few of you actually
DO farm. So, enjoy the break but also remember your roots and sow the seeds of good
grades in June by planting yourself in front of your books and get those long-term assignments done and make sure your studying is ready for the end-of-the-year push for final
exams. And ye shall reap a pleasant summer.
Why is the yearbook called Hepta?
At one point, there were 193 school districts in Lane County. Among these were Dist.
No. 1—Pleasant Hill, No. 2—Cloverdale, No. 3,—Trent, No. 29— Edenvale, No. 46—Lost
Valley-Dexter, No. 82 —Upper Lost Valley-Zion, No. 103— Coast Fork, No. 134— Natron, and No. 141—Enterprise.
By the time our first high school yearbook was printed in 1926, only seven of those
nine were still in existence, and the last seven joined together to make Pleasant Hill Union
School District No. 1. Edenvale had joined earlier as “Lower Pleasant Hill” (after Natron
had already joined it) and Enterprise had joined as “Upper Pleasant Hill”. Coast Fork and
Trent were also part of the original five districts who joined together. The last two joined
in the mid-1920s.
So, the final seven were Pleasant Hill, Cloverdale, Trent, Edenvale, Dexter, RattesnakeTrent, and Coast Fork. The Greek word for “seven” is “hepta”, as “hexa” means “six”,
as in “hexagon”. When I started teaching at PHHS in 1970, the name on the gym still
said, “Pleasant Hill Union High School” and that’s how all the books in the library were
stamped with that name.
We’re just lucky there were SEVEN districts. Six would have made “Hexa” and the German word for “witches” is “Hexen”. We would have had a very different mascot.
Why does Pleasant Hill have its name?
Elijah Bristow came originally from Virginia, in a place with a
“Pleasant Hill” there. So, when he saw our home area, and remarked,
“What a pleasant hill!”, probably Susannah Bristow, his wife, said,
We’re just lucky there
“Great, Elijah. Do you want to quit with the one-liners and get startwere SEVEN districts. Six
ed on The First Pioneer Cabin in Lane County?” Trivia: “pleasant
hill” is the 14th most common geographic name in the U.S. Coinwould have made “Hexa”
cidence trivia: in the San Francisco-Oakland area, before it closed
within the last ten years, was “Pleasant Hill High School” with their
and the German word for
mascot, “The Rams”.
Why do men have nipples?
They’re built into the system. All embryos start out the same;
it is only when hormones from the development process or from
the mother’s womb arrive that changes are made. How the embryo
responds depends primarily on XX or XY, but some people can be
insensitive to some hormones. These come at various times, affecting different structures, the brain at one point, and then later, more
external structures. Similar structures in males in females react to
“witches” is “Hexen”. We
the hormones they are presented with. When male “breasts” are not
presented with female hormones, they stay vestigial. Conversely,
Who was the first person buried in Pleasant
would have had a very
women can grow coarse beards when presented with male horI can’t find the name of the first nondifferent mascot.
mones. So, basically, humans are very similar in the womb; changes
NativeAmerican but it was “a traveler
happen on a programmed schedule, depending on genetic and envifrom California” who arrived at the
ronmental variations.
settlement Elijah Bristow had foundYoung males taking “’roids” to build muscles can have all sorts of unexpected effects.
ed in 1846 and “died”. The reason, in the account I read
The artificially too-large levels of testosterone-like hormones in the blood can make natabout 20 years ago, was not given. On the other hand, in
ural “sources” in the body shut down and diminish. Be very careful what chemicals you
his wanderings from Virginia though Illinois in 1845, Elijah
put in your body. You have NO IDEA what “structures” and chemical processes in your
had gone to California first himself but didn’t like it, so he
body you’re going to affect, and most likely, not for the good.
came north with Eugene Skinner, Captain Felix Scott, and
William Dodson, going north up the west side of the WillaWhat’s the point of spring break?
mette Valley before turning south again on the east side. EliWhat, a break isn’t good enough for its own sake? O.K., it’s probably related to two
jah arrived at this point between the Coast and Middle Forks
things in the school year: Spring Planting Season for a farming community, and Easter.
of the Willamette River, on a low rolling ridge, and stated,
Spring planting happens at the same time each year. Easter happens on the first Sunday
“This is my claim! Here I will live, and when I die, here shall I
following the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox (March 21–22). This year, the
be buried!” The “good” land having been claimed by Bristow,
Vernal Equinox is on March 22nd, the first full moon after that is April 6th, a Friday, and
Eugene Skinner had to take the lowlands that flooded every
so April 8th is Easter. This year.
year, building a cabin on “Skinner’s Butte”. The town was origiBut Easter can be any Sunday from March 22nd to April 22nd, depending on the
nally called “Skinner’s Mudhole” and only later “Eugene.” See,
phase of the moon. In California, students celebrate “Easter Vacation” with those vari“Pleasant Hill” is a really nice name.
able dates. Most years in Oregon, our Spring Break week has had the Vernal Equinox in
So, a few years before, Elijah Bristow could have been charit, except this year, when it’s the week AFTER the Equinox.
acterized as “a traveler from California.” Life was hard in those
The school year begins around harvest time, has a break for spring planting, and kids
days, especially in raw territory just claimed. Not everything was alget out in June to work and tend the fields during the summer growing season. However,
ways pleasant in Pleasant Hill
Hill?
Car of the Month: Dani’s fun Ford Focus
Deepraj Pawar
Reporter
Dani Chambers’ 2009 red Ford Focus is a lot of fun in a little package.
Dani’s car is named Fae (yes, it is spelled f-a-e) after her license plate. Dani
said “Fae” is “A lot of fun to drive.” Dani loves that “Fae” is little and lowmaintenance.
So why did Dani get a Focus?
“My dad got it because he thought they were relatively safe and it’s
a small car. My sister had a truck and that just wasn’t a good thing. I
was excited because I really like it.”
Dani takes care of most of Fae’s maintenance, which consists mostly of washing the car.
Dani also said she loves the sound system because it is “pretty good for being stock.”
One of her favorite features in
her Focus are “[The] lights
inside, they’re neon. You
can change the color so
when you’re driving
at night the inside
of the car by your
feet can be lit up in
different colors.”
Dani says the car
is perfect for her and
she loves that it is a
“girly” car because “It’s
small, red and the shape [of it,]is certainly feminine.”
Fae gets 27 mpg (she used to get 34 when Dani first got her.)
So what is Dani’s favorite memory with Fae?
“One night I was taking my sister to a friend’s house. It was really, really foggy, I
c o u l d n’ t
see anything, I could barely see in front of me. Then I saw this little
shape walking across the road and then I got
closer and [realized] it was an opossum
so I slammed on my breaks and
slowly drove over it.
[My sister and I]
screamed for like
five minutes afterwards
and
were freaking out
about it.
When I
drove
back
home it was in
the road and I
took pictures of
it because I had to
prove to people that I
killed a Possum.”
Dani Chambers (12) showing her Ford Focus