Heroes Next Door by Chris Peluso

Author:Chris Peluso
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction/Historical/Military & Wars
Publisher: Elm Hill
Published: 2018-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

AIRCRAFT COMMANDER

Christmas came and went. The kids had time off from school, so they spent time shopping, baking cookies, visiting family, and going to the Christmas play at church. When the family’s festive lights and decorations were packed away, the kids noticed that the lights stayed on the Loach longer than most of the houses in the neighborhood. One afternoon the kids had some free time and walked next door to find Mr. Ed. Their friend was working on a butcher-block table in his wood shop.

“Hi! Mr. Ed, can we visit for a few minutes?” Matt approached him first.

“No sir, you can’t just visit. You are welcome to stay and help, but you can’t just sit on your backsides.” He knew Matt liked to be hands on, and Matt knew that Mr. Ed was teasing him in his own way.

“Yes sir, I’d love to help! What do you need me to do?” Matt responded.

“Bring that clamp over here, I’ve cut some biscuits, and we need to glue and clamp these boards together.” He pointed to several thick pieces of maple and a few small pieces of wood that looked almost like a crackers.

“You’re going to put biscuits in your wood? Won’t they rot?” Ellie giggled.

Reaching down he picked up one of the small pieces and handed it to Ellie. “This is called a biscuit. Do you see the groove in the side of the board? We dab some glue in there and a little on here. We stick it all together, and the biscuit helps hold the boards together. I don’t know exactly why they are called biscuits.”

Matt chimed in, “Maybe somebody wasn’t a very good cook.” He tapped the wooden biscuit against a board before pretending to take a bite. Everyone laughed before falling into their jobs assembling the maple cutting board.

“Mr. Ed? Why do you still have lights on the Loach? It’s after the new year already.” Ellie asked.

“Well, you see,” putting down a bottle of wood glue, “a long time ago Pope Gregory XIII changed calendars. Europe had been using the Julian calendar, named after Julius Cesar the. . .”

“Roman Emperor!” Matt finished Mr. Ed’s sentence.

“That’s right. The Romans used a lunar calendar, based on the cycles of the moon. Thing is, over time the lunar months start to creep around, which got confusing. Spring usually starts in March here, but with a Julian calendar, it might start in March when you are your age. By the time, you get to be my age March might be in the fall. Pope Gregory’s calendar, the Gregorian calendar, fixed that problem – and a few others. But, it left a bit of confusion about when Christmas should be. Some folks decided they did not want to use the Gregorian calendar; their Christmas day fell on January 5th. Folks using the new Gregorian calendar celebrated the holiday on December 25th. Over time, January 5th became known as ‘Old Christmas’ because the folks that used that day were using an old calendar.

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