Tuesday Tidbit from Asst. Chief Magdich... Happy Halloween readers! In just a few short days, the day second only to Christmas in gross earnings, will occur. Friday the 31st of October, Oregon will celebrate Halloween. The hours are from 6 pm until 8 pm for ghoulies, ghosties, and long legged beasties to go thump in the night, and receive treats while doing so. I gave some statistics last year, but the internet is rife with more, so what the heck. Did you know these nuggets of information? Did you know the first Jack-O-Lanterns (Remember Stingy Jack?) were made out of turnips? The origin of this holiday is said to date back to 4000 BC and Ireland is the believed birthplace. Did you know that the word witch originates from the old English word wicce meaning “wise woman”? Remember that when someone calls you a witch. You can then say “Thank you” and they will wonder what is wrong with you. The record for the most lit Jack-O-Lanterns is 30,128 in the great City of Boston, Massachusetts. Did you know that famous magician Harry Houdini died on Halloween in 1926 in the City of Detroit from peritonitis, as a result of a burst appendix? This may have been the result of, or exacerbated by, a couple strong blows to the stomach. Did you know that Owls in medieval Europe were thought to be witches and that to hear the call of an owl meant that someone was about to die? How about the fact that 99% of the pumpkins marketed domestically are turned into Jack-O-Lanterns? This is a good one…..did you know that 35 million pounds of candy corn will be produced for the holiday. That is the equivalent of nearly 9 billion pieces of Candy Corn. How much is that? It is enough to circle the moon nearly 4 times when placed end to end! Now, the important things to keep in mind are these: Halloween is the deadliest night each year with regard to vehicle pedestrian accidents. Children are more than twice as likely to be killed in such a manner as on any other day or night of the year and 93% of children under the age of 12 will be Trick or Treating this year. Child deaths in this manner average a little more than 5 per year. Younger drivers are the most involved and the middle of the block is the deadliest area. As always, we will have additional officers on the road that night. If at all possible, stay out of your cars for those two hours. What I see a lot during Trick or Treating, is parents driving along the street while their children go door to door. These parents are keeping an eye on their children and, in doing so, are potentially creating a risk for other children. Park your cars and walk with your kids. If you can’t do it, find someone you trust that can. Now you older teenagers that will be going out for free candy, and there are a bunch of you, have the decency of at least trying to put together the semblance of a costume. I mean c’mon! A couple weeks back I mentioned that we were in the process of starting up the File of Life program here in Oregon. We are doing this in conjunction with the Oregon Fire and Rescue Department. This is a program that has morphed out of the Vial of Life program that was its predecessor. The viles were placed in the refrigerator, where they were getting lost. The files are in a magnet that hangs outside of the fridge. It is red and says “File of Life” right across the top of it in big white letters. There is a similar personal sized file for the wallet or purse, in the event a medical emergency happens away from home. We have all heard before, that every second counts in a medical emergency. The following is taken right from the File of Life foundation’s brochure: “The File of Life provides a substantial preventative step that a person can take. It’s visibility and readability ensure that emergency personnel can access it quickly when responding to a call.” The file contains a card that lists emergency contacts, personal info, such as blood type or special conditions, a list of medications, dosages and frequency, allergies, recent surgeries and insurance information. Once filled out, they should be reviewed and kept up to date every 6 months. We have already ordered a few thousand of these and have yet to determine how we are going to get them from us to you, but we will work that out. If you have any questions, let us know. I hope you have a great week!
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 16:56:32 +0000
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