Veteran's Day at Kiwanis

We had an excellent Veterans Day program at Kiwanis this noon coordinated by Marvin "PeeWee" Schulz. Here is how we were greeted as we approached the Civic Center for our regular Monday  Luncheon. (The picture was taken this noon regardless of the date shown). Club President Julie Klimn coordinated the meeting and thanked Pac n Sav for serving a delicious chicken dinner. A Civil War prayer was given by Rev. Don Helmuth who later gave an excellent, 1st person veteran experience, message. Dr. Byron Winter also made appropriate military experience comments. The Kiwanis Club of Seward Kitones sang: "This is My Country", "American Heroes" and "America The Beautiful". Tributes were paid to the many Veterans present and everyone left with their heads held a little higher.

Memories at Uncle Clarence's

This my brother Don and I a couple weeks ago when we had gone down to visit the old Walker farms of our Mother's family. This was taken on Uncle Clarence's place with the old Walker home place showing in the distance . The visit brought back many memories, some sad. It was on this place that Uncle Clarence's wife Edith, died during the late summer of 1935. She had made some home made fudge candy for my birthday in June and now she was gone. She and Uncle Clarence had 3 children, Kenneth, the oldest started to school that fall. Aunt Dorothy who had never married, went down to fill the void in helping raise the 3 youngsters. She had infantile paralysis (Polio) as a youngster which left her with some minor physical handicaps. I remember of Mother buying a big box of crayons for Kenneth to have in starting to school and my brother Don wishing he could have something similar. Mother explained that he could get along with a smaller box since he had his Mother. Life wasn't easy in the 1930's but a Mother like we had was worth more than all the wealth on Wall Street. And, someone like Aunt Dorothy who was willing to step in and help raise 3 youngsters was also a Saint.

Keystone XL Pipeline

When I read that President Obama would be making the final Federal decision on the Trans Canada Keystone XL pipeline, the following scenario emerged in my mind. He will not make the decision without coming to Nebraska to visit the Sandhills. The difficulty of the decision has been well publicized and he can not afford to lose the vote of Union workers nor the Environmental community. Though over 90% of the land easements have already been signed and many payments made, there must be a couple reluctant Sandhills ranchers. To by-pass them, Trans Canada officials might be amenable to moving the pipeline location a short distance to where obtaining easements may be more readily obtained if that would assure approval. This can all be worked-out ahead of his visit. As he looks over the grass covered, eastern edge of the sandhills, he can announce that an agreement has been reached to move the pipeline location further east. All sides can claim some degree of victory and the President can take credit for resolving a difficult issue and contributing to the Country's Economic Recovery & Energy Independence.  

Law Enforcement

I had the pleasure yesterday afternoon of riding with the Seward Police Chief in this heavy duty vehicle. We checked various things around town and down at the city park. Then he took me on a tour through the Police Station and the E 911 Center in conjunction with the County Jail. Our new City Administrator had asked the Chief to take each of us Members of the City Council on such an outing. I came away with several thoughts, first that our local law enforcement is efficient and effective. Secondly, it's unfortunate that we have to devote the time and money that we do to keep "law and order", and finally, how fortunate I have been for a career in Natural Resource Conservation. The people I worked with were interested in nature and had an appreciation of the "Long Run". I hope the people in law enforcement achieve the same satisfaction of a "job well done" that I have, but it seems to take a certain type of personality. It's well that we have them.

Corn Harvest

This is a picture of harvesting corn  south of Springfield, Illinois. When we see pictures like this, it is usually because a farmer needs help and neighbors show up with their combine, but in this case it all belongs to one operation; the largest in the state.

It is a far cry from the days of husking corn by hand, scooping it into a crib, and having the neighbors in to help with the shelling. On a cool fall morning it wasn't unusual to hear the sound of ears of corn hitting the wagon sideboard as the neighbors would compete to see who could be first in the field. I was out in the corn field one morning with my team and wagon before daylight when I was 18 years and by the time it got dark that evening, I had husked 138 bushels. I did it just for bragging rights since 100bu/day was a good standard and I didn't get that on a regular basis. Some of us thought of husking corn as an athletic event. It also was a lesson in management. You couldn't get the big numbers if you had to look at the ear you were husking or the wagon to which you tossed it. Much of it was by instinct. You positioned yourself for the next ear and planned how you would approach the 2nd one ahead of the one you were husking. It had to be mind-over-matter when the temperature was in the mid-30's and a light rain was falling but some such memories helped me cope with frustration later in life.

An old Crow's Tale

Carolyn sent me this old crow some time ago that appears to be caught in the chain of "time" and unable to reach the spoon of nourishment. This old crow (Vrana) is caught up in eastern Nebraska weather today that prohibited golf playing. Had I tried, the pain would have exceeded the pleasue by several orders of magnitude. Our high temperature occured early this morning and dropped during the day with light rain and strong northerly winds, . I didn't see any snowflakes but they were reported all around us. But, it's been a great fall for golfing and enjoying the beauty of nature. While I didn't even think of contesting my record of 91 consecutive days of golfing set 3-years ago, yesterday was my 49th. On September 12th, Elaine, son Verlon and I went out to the golf course and picked bag worms off a 10' spruce tree that we planted some years ago. I also wanted to be home  during the afternoon when son Jon was coming in from Washington, D.C. so I didn't golf that day. If I had golfed instead of picking bag worms, yesterday would have been #80. I also missed playing on August 12th because of  an Opthomologist appointment when dilated eyes kept me from going out. If I had not missed those 2 days, yesterday would have been #102. There is something about this story that reminds me of the old saying that, "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas".

Sister and her Brother

. This is Elaine and her brother Dale at their farm home north of Seward in what we believe to be the summer of 1938. Dale would have had his 11th birthday in June and Elaine about to have her 8th in September. Dale would have been going into the 7th grade of District 28 and Elaine into the 4th. Both were exceptionally good students. Students in Rural Schools were required to take 7th and 8th grade, county-wide examinations covering 6-8 subject matter areas. A county-wide promotion event was held in Seward at the Band Shell (Rose Bowl in those days), where students received their certificate of completion. State law provided that students complete the 8th grade or attain the age of 16, high school was optional. Dale was recognized for having attained the highest grades in the county on his examinations at his  promotion exercises in the spring of 1940. He went on to be valedictorian of his Seward HS graduating class, received a 4-year Regents Scholarship to UN-L, and the SHS Belfour Key. He receive his PhD in Agronomy after service in the Korean war and had an outstanding teaching career at UN-L where he was advisor to many Doctoral candidates. He spent some time with UN-L Extension, the Pioneer Hybred Seed Company, and continues to work as a private Consultant.

Elaine was 3rd in her SHS graduating class of 1947 and was offered a Scholarship to Doane College in Crete, NE but never accepted. It seems that Dale had introduced a farm kid from Garland to her in he fall of her senior year of HS which may have had some impact on her decision. In fact, it wasn't until years later, I learned that she never told her folks about the scholarship offer for fear of their insisting that she accept. She was happy with her job as the County Extension Agent's Secretary and had been discouraged in HS for even thinking about a career in accounting since "those jobs were not for girls". Though we lived within about 7 miles of each other as youngsters, we went to different churches, our folks traveled in different circles and never crossed paths until Dale's introduction. Had I known her earlier, I would have thought of her as that little Flowerday girl but by the time we met, she had matured into the attractive young lady in the lower picture and the years of difference in our ages seemed to melt away.