The Lincoln Journal Star publishes a "neighborhood EXTRA" on a weekly basis as a supplement to their paper. Ruth Thone often writes a piece for it. This week, it was on "memories" and her headline was, "Do we find our memories a joy or a burden". She wrote of our obvious memories and those that "reside in my brain, and wait patiently for some current happening to call up their presence". She quoted Marcel Proust who wrote: "Involuntary explicit memory occurs when cues encountered in everyday life evoke recollections of the past without conscious memory". And, "Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were".
We have known Ruth for many years having first met when we lived back in the Washington, D.C. area and her husband Charles served in Congress as a Nebraska Representative. We enjoyed the relationship of the "Nebraska Society". After serving 3 terms in the House of Representatives he was elected Governor of Nebraska in 1978. We moved back to Nebraska in 1980 and I worked for the State's Natural Resources Commission. We had become involved in local politics and in 1982, hosted a "Down of the Farm with Charlie Thone Day" as a Seward County Republican Party rally of support for his re-election as Governor.
Last evening I sent her a copy of this picture that was taken our at our farm the day of the rally. It was a great day with a silent auction, food, speeches, music, etc. Along with the picture, I alluded to her piece on memory and asked if she had any memory of that event. She wrote back right away and said, "ah, the memories. My, we were young then!" Cheers, Ruth. It was great hearing from her. Ruth was a very popular 1st Lady in the Governor's Mansion and even agreed to letting a picture be published of her sliding down the stairway banister. She has continued to write and has been recognized as the 2014 Nebraska Press Women Communicator of Achievement.
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