By Mac Neely

I received the following note from Jamie Bade of the Goodnight Trail Gallery of Western Art:

“With the closing of the Goodnight Trail Gallery, I wanted to take a minute to thank the community of Mancos for all of your support over the years. Mancos is a wonderful, close-knit community, full of caring people that work so hard to make the community thrive and to always take care of each other. It’s an amazing place with a big heart, and I am extremely proud to be able to say that I was a part of your community for the last ten years. Thank you to everyone for your friendships, your support and for many wonderful memories over the years. I will hold so may of you and your beautiful town near and dear to my heart always.”

Christmas trees decorate Grand Avenue and Main Street, thanks to the efforts of the Creative District (and mainly Rena Wilson). Each person with a tree donated money for the Mancos School playground. The Creative District presented the school with a check for $500 last week. Congratulations and a big thank you to all of you for your efforts and for brightening the town.

Breakfast with Santa at the Absolute Bakery last week was a great success. David Blaine served pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and orange juice. I was amazed to see the kindergarten class not spill one drop on the table. Well, I did see one of the teachers spill a little water, but don’t tell.

First- and second-graders were also fed, and they pelted Santa with questions. My favorite was, “How old is Rudolph?” What do you think the true answer is? The number Santa gave was thousands of years, but I think Rudolph came along with Mickey Mouse and that bunch. Anyone want to look up the actual year? I’ll put your answer in next week’s column.

I was sad to see not much happening regarding Pearl Harbor Day except with the VFW. There was a TV show on PBS last week that was exceptional, but nothing local. I was a student nurse in San Francisco, and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor it was blackouts, flashlights, strange planes overhead, and wild rides in the dark. Very scary! If anyone is interested in hearing of my experiences during that time, let me know and I’ll try to arrange something.

In the meantime, take a walk through downtown Mancos and enjoy the beautifully decorated Christmas trees. Also check out the new Goodnight Gallery on Grand and the new Kilgore gallery, which is full of Native American Indian Art. It’s closed Sunday and Monday for the winter.