Column: In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue

Dear readers,

With all the Halloween decorations around town coupled with Christmas trees already on sale at Walmart, I almost forgot Columbus Day.

The federal holiday is a week from tomorrow. It is the day set aside to honor Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer and navigator.

More on Columbus in a minute, but first let’s revisit the topic of “rounding up” from last week.

My suggestion that Walmart give us the option to “round-up” to support local charities instead of charities from out of town was a big hit. The sentiment expressed by many readers can be summed up best by this message I received:

“Kris, I was shocked by your column last Sunday. After reading hundreds of your columns filled with honoring The Helbing and other stupid ideas, you finally have somehow come up with a great idea. Yes, Walmart should let us donate to local charities and so should Speedway and CVS.

All three of those businesses offer the convenience of giving your change to charities, but the charities are all from out of town. I am a firm believer that charity begins at home. Congratulations on finally having a good idea after 30 years of writing a weekly column.

By my calculation, your rate of coming up with good ideas is about the same as your batting average when you played for Farmer’s Bank.”

Now let’s get back to Christopher Columbus. In 1492, he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain on the Santa Maria, with the Pinta and the Niña ships alongside, hoping to find a new route to Asia. Instead, he found what became known as the New World. His voyage was a significant moment in history.

As a testament to the enduring legacy of Columbus’ journey, towns, cities, streets, rivers, mountains and even countries bear his name including Columbia, British Columbia, and the NASA space shuttle, Columbia.

Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli created a colossal statue called, “Birth of the New World,” located in Puerto Rico. At 360 feet tall it is one of the tallest statues in the world.

Now, you are probably wondering what you can do to celebrate Columbus with your children or grandchildren. Wonder no more. After hitting a home run with my “round-up” for local charities idea last week, I’m suddenly full of ideas.

Get out the construction paper, tape, glue, and scissors. Make little replicas of the Santa Maria, Pinta, and Nina. Better yet, use spices like cinnamon and paprika to create pictures of the boats. It will be a fun way to learn about the spices Columbus was searching for.

See you all next week, same Schwinn time, same Schwinn channel.

P.S. Just kidding about the children’s Columbus Day activities being ideas of mine. The loyal reader who complimented me on my “round-up for local charities idea” was right. My batting average isn’t very good. I just hope it isn’t another 30 years before I get another good idea.