According to Buck Cope in Radio Shack, Amazon.com

reports that between November 1 and December 7, there were 68,697,612 items ordered online. . . . Just think about what it would be like if all those orders were purchased by shoppers in stores.

There are a few copies of the recently published Rehoboth Baptist Church Cookbook still available. We have some here at The NewsReporter.

Eddie and Selena Walker’s house will be featured on the “If Walls Could Talk” show on GPTV on Christmas night at 10 p.m.

Rainfall for the first 13 days of December totals two inches, with .9 of an inch since Monday, December 5. As of right now (Tuesday night), the weatherman – or the meteorologist – says this area is scheduled for a little rain turning to sleet Wednesday night into Thursday. We’ll see.

Barbara (Bufford) Wheatley has been associated with Athens Technical College for some time now. Beginning in January she will be teaching in the Cosmetology Department at Appalachian Technical College in Jasper.

Eight-week-old Henry Townsend was “Baby Jesus” in the First Baptist Church Children’s Choirs presentation of “Three Wise Men and a Baby” Sunday night. Henry is the son of First Baptist Minister of Students Chris Townsend, and his wife, Tara.

The Washington-Wilkes Bands have extra citrus fruit for sale. Call Darlene Canterbury at 678-6783 for information.

Both the December 22 and December 29 issues of The News-Reporter will be printed next week, so that our staff can have time off for Christmas. The deadline for all classified and legal advertisements and society news for the December 22 issue is Friday, December 16, 5 p.m. All other news and retail advertising is due by Monday, December 19, 12 noon . . . For the December 29 issue, all social news should be in by 5 p.m. Monday, December 19; all classified and legal advertisements, by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, December 20; and all other news and retail advertising by noon on Wednesday, December 21. . . . Radio Shack will be open Friday, December 23, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Saturday (Christmas Eve), December 24, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

The Senior Choir of the First Baptist Church will present a Christmas cantata titled “Gloria In Excelsis Deo” Sunday evening, December 18, at 7 o’clock. The program is directed by Patricia Burton and soloists are Anne Tiller, Gail Duggan, Shirley Gunter, Kay Nelms, Tom Wells, Joseph Baldwin and Tom Duggan.

We really appreciate our community correspondents who gather the news from various areas of the county. They are always faithful to get their news in on time and are always helpful when we have to change deadlines for various reasons. Bonnie Boatwright writes the Rayle News; and Samille Sherrer gathers the Lundberg News. Priscilla Maxwell writes the Tyrone News; and Sherry Newsome, the Aonia News. Thank you to each one of them.

Some people don’t quite understand the jobs and titles of a newspaper. Here at The News-Reporter, Sparky Newsome is the editor and publisher and is responsible for the entire content of the paper. He has many jobs. He writes the editorials. He attends and writes the report from the County Commissioners, the Payroll Development Authority, and other civic groups. He writes all the sports news and designs the whole paper and produces each page from his computer. He sells advertising and designs many of them. He does other things too, but that gives you an idea. . . . Mary Newsome is managing editor and circulation manager and does just as many things. She designs and produces most of the advertisements and the society pages. She oversees all of the production including job printing. She manages all our customers’ accounts and is the bookkeeper not only for The News-Reporter but also The Lincoln Journal and Radio Shack. She’ll let you know when your subscription is about to expire and she also helps customers in Radio Shack. . . . Kip Burke is news editor and covers the meetings of the Washington City Council and Wilkes County Board of Education. He handles the reports from the police department and court news as well as taking pictures of nearly everything that goes on around here. . . . Susan Pope is personalities editors and keeps us informed about social events, births, meetings, weddings and birthday celebrations. . . . Teri Eno is circulation and printing supervisor and is responsible for keeping up and printing the labels on two newspapers. She is also the managing editor of The Lincoln Journal office where she does a lot of everything. . . . Eric Sifre is print shop foreman and prints three papers every Wednesday, in addition to printing many envelopes, letterheads, and all sorts of other printed materials. . . . Buck Cope keeps Radio Shank operating and assists with front desk sales. . . . I take care of your classified and legal advertisements and rewrite various items of news that are submitted. . . . Now, you know a little bit about us.

Since we will be printing both the December 22 and December 29 papers next week, I need your help in writing this column. Please call me by noon on Monday.