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The Spiker Gazette |
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Oxford, WV
Volume 2
Issue 4 April 10, 2008 |
| Submitted by:
Bobbi Spiker-Conley |
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This time last year I was feverishly scrambling to get
all the pages of this new website finished before its debut during
the 2007 Memorial Day weekend celebration at the Spiker family
farm. Since then your contributions to the site of newsy
articles, photos and ongoing family updates have helped it grow
and mature. Hoping to witness continued growth throughout
the next year, this month's edition of the Gazette is focused on
encouraging your continued participation.
As you will recall from last year's Memorial Day event, our
Gazette reporters will be canvassing the grounds searching for the
latest scoop. Go ahead and start making your list now;
catch us up on all the latest headlines (and gossip) in your
family. Pass the list along to one of our reporters or be
sure to schedule a time for an interview so that they can record
your details for future editions.
And while you're writing down all your
notes, give some thought to compiling them into personal
reflections that we can add to the Spiker Family Album created by
Melanie Fouse. If you haven't had the opportunity to view
the album, we have transcribed previous submissions in the
Spiker Family Library.
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Of course, simply thinking about our
family gatherings makes our mouths water. No event would be
complete without the tempting dishes brought by our family's best
cooks. Fortunately, many of their personal recipes are
already recorded in the Spiker Family
Cookbook which is displayed in our Kitchen. So don't
forget...as you're digging out your recipes and preparing your
grocery list for this year's potluck, be sure to make copies for
us. If you e-mail your recipes to us in the next couple
weeks, we'll be sure to add them to the family cookbook before
Memorial Day weekend 2008. Lastly, we
encourage you "shutter-bugs" to share with us the best of your
photos of the 2008 Spiker Family Reunion so that we can display
them in one of our many Spiker Family Albums.
In the meantime, click here to view
some of the photos of last year's event submitted by Jean Spiker.
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Announcements
Submitted by Bobbi Spiker-Conley:
Haley De-an Conley will graduate
with Honors from Florida Gulf Coast
University
on Sunday, April 27, 2008. CONGRATULATIONS on your hard-earned
success!!!
Gary's parents had made plans to travel to Florida on Amtrak so that they
could attend the ceremonies. However, Gary's father recently became
ill and their trip had to be cancelled. We are hoping they will be
able to reschedule their trip sometime this summer. It will give us
an excuse to have another party!
Unfortunately, it may be quite a while before Haley will be able to begin
her career as a teacher in secondary education. The current economic
crisis has created severe education budget cuts throughout Florida.
Some current teachers are being offered early retirement while many more
are being laid-off (600 layoffs before the Fall term in Orange County
alone). Gone are the promises we received four years ago of
immediate employment, excellent pay and benefits, college student loan
payoffs and expense subsidies.
Nevertheless, Haley has always maintained great spirit in the face of
challenges. We're certain she will overcome this obstacle as well.
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