December 2010

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Icon viewers have noticed several changes to the Icon home page this week. The Icon staff is still working on these changes and by the first of January, a new and improved Icon will be serving viewers with much more coverage.

We'll explain these new home page features soon, but first here's information on our new community directory unveiled today (Dec. 25). Viewers who click "Ad Index" on the top bar on the home page now additional access to several community features.

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The Icon spotted this plate on the roof top of a house on Grove Street about five minutes past midnight on Dec. 25.

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It's Dec. 25. You're still in need of a last-minute Christmas present that's so inexpensive that it makes you wonder if the original Bush tax cuts will ever trickle down and heal your check book.

Fear not. We bring you good tidings of great joy. Here's a Christmas present you may give to anyone who has even the most remote connection to Bluffton, Ohio.

Give someone The Bluffton Icon as a home page! Here's how:

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Click on photo to enlarge

Here's former Bluffton sixth grade teacher, Bob Stratton, with his daughter, Barb. Paul Diller took this color slide photo, we are guessing in the late 1950s. Any Icon Viewer with more information, please contact us. We'd love to hear from Barb, too. (From the Jim Diller collection)

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Here are the Christmas eve church services that area congregations provided to The Icon.

o First United Methodist Church
Christmas Eve Service
Traditional Service of Lessons and Carols, 7 p.m.
Pre-service music starts at approximately 6:35 p.m.

o Emmanuel United Church of Christ
Christmas Eve Service
There will be a special production by the children and lots of Christmas singing with the service starting at 6 p.m.

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By Mary Pannabecker Steiner

According to Luke 2, a Heavenly host of angels appeared on Christmas Eve. Well, technically, no one is sure of what time they appeared. But they did. And then, of course, along came the Wise Men. Okay, so today - Christmas Eve - two, well, let's just call them Wise angel men, appeared at Bluffton Family Rec center, as I was running around the track.

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Note: Robert Kreider, now of North Newton, Kansas, has a special place in his heart for Bluffton, Ohio. Here are some of his thoughts at Christmas.

At Christmas time boyhood images of a Bluffton of more than 75 years ago come surging out of my past. In my ripe old age, I savor these scraps of memory. Speaking of "ripe old age," how does one know when he or she has become "ripe"? Relax for this flow of nostalgia:

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Luther and Geneva Shetler hold their wedding photo from 70 years ago

You do the math: Luther and Geneva Shetler were married Dec. 22, 1940. So, 2010 minus 1940 equals, that's right, wedding anniversary number 70 this year.

Living in their 10535 Augsburger Road, Bluffton, home, they reminisced earlier today about their wedding seven decades ago.

"We were married at Eighth Street Mennonite Church, Goshen, Indiana, by J.E. Hartzler, who was interim pastor there," recalls Luther. Members of the wedding party were Joe Weaver of Goshen, best man, and Zelma Stamm of Archbold, Geneva's sister, as maid of honor.

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Anyone have any ideas on the meaning of this plate? The Icon spotted it in the Family Dollar parking lot.

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The Bluffton Icon and Common Grounds Coffee Shop recently teamed up for yet another fantastic contest. This one is simple, and Phil and Fred guess that you've never played it before.

Simply guess how many Icon coffee beans fit in this jar. The winner will be featured in an Icon 15-minute interview, plus may go home with a hearty congratulations from Common Grounds.

Here's how you enter. Stop in Common Grounds. Check out the coffee jar. An entry form is available at the shop. Enter and wait until New Year's day 2011 (actually Jan. 2) to discover if you've won.

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