On Tuesdays from Feb. 7 through tax day, AARP will offer free IRS tax preparation from 9 a.m.– 2 p.m. at the Community Center in Anthem for basic personal filings.

Neighbors do not need to be AARP members to participate, however the service is intended primarily for low and moderate income families, with special
attention to those individuals 60 and older. For more info, 623 879-3011 or aztax-aide.org.

Vaudeville was the most common form of theatrical entertainment in the early territorial towns of Arizona. Traveling troupes of musicians, dancers, comedians and actors were highly anticipated social events of the year for the local citizens. If a town could rally its local resources to build their very own opera house―why, that town became something very special on the traveling vaudeville circuit.

“Prescott should have a good opera house,” began the 1904 article in the Prescott Daily Journal Miner. Local business leaders were anxious for the Feb. 12 meeting to see if a plan proposed by the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge No. 330 to add an opera house to their new lodge could become a reality. A deal was struck to the tune of $15,000 and entertainment-hungry Prescott citizens would soon have their very own beautiful opera house.

Thank you for the article on geocaching [here]. It is a sport that just about all ages can participate in and it can be a family function. Our children and grandchildren have all been active “cachers.” We have found geocaches in two countries and 14 states, bringing our current total to 607.

Most hand-held GPS units support geocaching, which makes finding and recording geocaches easy. There are over 50 caches in Anthem and easily over a hundred in a five-mile radius. They aren’t all easy to find—some are difficult and others are diabolical, but that is part of the fun.

The motto of geocaching is “Cache in, trash out.” We are encouraged to pick up trash on the way to a cache site and bring it out. Geocaching.com is free and [offers] lots of information for the beginner. Check it out, we are team S/VKokopelli and our profile is on the site.

Ian and Sue LeMair
Anthem

Smoothies offer a quick, delicious way to get “whole food” nutrition into our bodies before running out the door in the morning. Best of all, smoothies will not break the budget.

Teens can be heard collectively complaining that there’s nothing to do. But this local bunch is funneling its energy into an up-start team of junior riders with USA Cycling. Under the watchful eye of child psychologist and bicycling enthusiast Chris Wylie, this pack of more than 20 riders is training weekly. “Most importantly, the team is learning how to become leaders in our community,” said Wylie, who had incorporated community service into the training program.

“They all were certified to help out with the Special Olympics and volunteered in the local Veterans Day parade here in Anthem.”

Some of the members of Fly Jr. Cycling Development Team, from left, (front): Brandon McNulty, CJ Stone, Blake Heckathorn, Alex Terrell.
Back: Chris Magras, Taylor Skinner, Kenny Anderson, Chris Wylie (Director, Coach).

photo by Brad Wood

Fly Jr. Cycling Development Team
Info: 623-640-3133 or write to
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What’s the Difference Between 3/4" and 1"?
About $400 per year.

Truth be told, I’m a cynic at heart. And since we’re being truthful, I admit that my finely tuned internal skept-o-meter is not a genetic gift, but a hard-earned character trait honed and hardened from a previously soft and gullible inner core. Over the years I’ve swallowed enough snake oil to sink a Nigerian money ship. These days, I let others buy the incredibly discounted surround sound speakers from the unmarked white creeper van.

It was a warm, muggy Illinois morning in August when my two brothers and I, along with our families, carried our mother’s coffin to lay forever at rest. The reality that both our parents were now with God was setting in, but so, too, was the reality of how they both continued to show their love for us, even in death, by having totally planned their funerals and the final distribution of their estate. As a young man, I remember well a conversation of some 30 years ago when Mom and Dad lovingly told the three of us they wanted to take the burden of funeral planning from us and that they had already arranged and paid for all the details and costs of their funerals, including the selection of the matching caskets that now lie side-by-side in that black Illinois soil they so dearly loved.