{"id":19441,"date":"2017-12-20T14:40:50","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T19:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19441"},"modified":"2017-12-20T14:40:50","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T19:40:50","slug":"inside-aurora-twas-the-night-before-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-twas-the-night-before-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: \u2018Twas the Night Before Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Twas the night before Christmas, it\u2019d been a long day
\nPlanning for that evening, was well underway
\nDespite the last minute rush, and deadlines to meet
\nSanta sat for a minute, and put up his feet.<\/p>\n

Donning his glasses, he sipped from his tea
\nAnd drew an Auroran, from the pile by his knee
\nThis paper covered that Town, with unbiased views
\nSanta found it the best source, to hear all the news<\/p>\n

The first thing he read was a bit of a surprise
\nCouncil this year had voted to reduce its size
\nNext year he need not carry, nearly as much weight
\nIf council put out only six stockings, not eight.<\/p>\n

The Town\u2019s old library would be torn down, he read
\nBut once that was done they would build nothing instead
\nThat was a decision he could not understand
\nBesides, that roof was a great downtown place to land<\/p>\n

Then Santa read that in fact an option or two <\/p>\n

For the Square had been proposed for council to choose
\nHe was outwardly hopeful, but deep down afraid
\nIt\u2019d be twenty more years \u2018fore a foundation was laid<\/p>\n

Glancing at the next page the story to follow
\nAbout the armory was better to swallow
\nFood and wine would be sold there, as quick as a wink
\nNext year his team might even pop in for a drink<\/p>\n

Vehicular challenges continued in Town
\nFor endless parking chaos no help could be found
\nWhile Council with patience still hoped it would score
\nFunds for a new exit at Highway Four Oh Four<\/p>\n

The Joint Ops Centre\u2019s debut had drawn a big crowd
\nIt was a structure of which the Town could be proud
\nIt had all kinds of features, from big ones to small
\nIt lacked only funding to pay for it all<\/p>\n

For the Town\u2019s local Bridge Club the year had been hard
\nPlaying on in Aurora was not in the cards
\nWhile for schools good news was there were now more spaces
\nBut sadly in portables – unpopular places<\/p>\n

He then read of a change at Aurora Peace Park
\nThe addition of something that left quite a mark
\nFor a moment he feared that his team might be harmed
\nBut the Light Armoured Vehicle had been disarmed<\/p>\n

Santa sat back and jotted some notes on his list
\nThen re-read it to make sure nothing was missed
\nHe shook his head as he set The Auroran down
\nEvery year brought surprises, in that little Town<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston \u2018Twas the night before Christmas, it\u2019d been a long day Planning for that evening, was well underway Despite the last minute rush, and deadlines to meet Santa sat for a minute, and put up his feet. Donning his glasses, he sipped from his tea And drew an Auroran, from the pile by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-53z","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 18:06:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}