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This week I have been following stories out of Manhattan, Kansas, reporting on two alligators stolen from a pet store located in that community. I don’t know why anyone would want to steal an alligator but people are doing many things these days that I don’t understand. One of the two missing alligators was spotted last Wednesday afternoon by a man walking on Linear Trail near Wildcat Creek, a creek located a few blocks west of where I lived while attending Kansas State University. A co-...
Richard Schmeling is a frequent contributor to this newspaper. The 1958 graduate of Superior High School and retired attorney now living in Lincoln, Neb., likes to recall what it was like to grow in Superior. Nearly as often as he submits a column, he telephones this editor and talks about current Superior events. This week, he submitted a column about waxed paper and Lincoln Park's big slide. He noted in a personal message he had checked the dictionary and waxed paper was the correct term for...
For some people Monday was a special day but most people were unaware that it was special. Instead struggled with the new norm of social distancing, face masks and closed or at least changed businesses. Our city cousins added racial unrest concerns. On Monday a friend of this newspaper passed along the following letter she had received through her membership in the United Methodist Church. The letter was signed by Ruby Thelander. The sender didn’t know if Ruby is related to the Superior Thelanders and neither do I. But that doesn’t matter for...
Amazing the way some things grow and others shrink. While preparing copy for this week’s Nuckolls County Locomotive-Gazette, I read about the sale of the Mt. Clare pool hall. It’s been a long time since there were enough people in the Mt. Clare community to support a pool hall but evidently in 1920 someone thought there was and purchased the existing business. According to the newspaper account the seller was moving to Pauline where he planned to open a garage. Today Mt. Clare is a ghost town and Pauline is in decline. Before this week’s rain...
Fifty years ago this week I was preparing to observe my first Memorial Day as editor of The Superior Express. For this 24 year-old “youngster” I expected the day would be different for in my life Memorial Days had long been different but I never dreamt how different it would be. In other years I had gone with my grandparents to decorate graves. The Blauvelt side of the family had graves in the Hardy and Superior cemeteries and the Wrench side had graves in Mitchell County. In preparation for the annual pilgrimages to the cemeteries, my gra...
What is this rectangular concrete structure pictured near the edge of Lost Creek ? If I was a youngster playing along the creek, it would look pretty inviting. I’m sure I would look over the edge, curious to know what I might see. I remember being with other boys exploring a pasture while our parents attended a picnic held in a nearby farmer’s grove. We found the remains of two hand dug wells that probably had been part of an abandoned farmstead. Other than the wells we didn’t see any evide...
I know I wrote about attending virtual meetings last week, but I’m so amazed by the technology I want to write about this week’s experiences. While seated in this newspaper’s front office on Saturday afternoon, I attended the first electronic meeting of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper editors. Sandra George, a former manager of the Nebraska Press Association, introduced me to the group a couple of decades ago. Others I know who belong to the association have twisted my arm and tried to get me to attend the society’s annual confere...
Since we received our diplomas in the Superior Auditorium longer ago than I wish to admit, members of my high school class have held reunions every five years. Until this year, I’d only missed one of the reunions and that was because of a conflict with college final exams. But with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and life becoming more uncertain, it was decided to hold reunions more frequently. I am sorry to report I have missed two of three reunions held this month. Yes, this month is not a typo. Thanks to the internet and a computer p...
Editor’s Notebook 4/23/20 These are challenging times for most everybody including those of us working for this newspaper. Ours is a people business. We are accustomed to advertising for and reporting on local happenings. These days not much is happening locally. Most people are staying home and only going out when absolutely necessary. In the past, if we didn’t have stories about people for this newspaper, we went out looking. On a nice afternoon, we might drive to a nearby community to visit with people we found out and about there. We usu...
In my early years with this newspaper, spring fashion sections were produced prior to Easter with the intent to help the clothing stores spark sales as the holiday approached. We wanted our readers ready for the annual “Easter Parade” of new fashions. Our readers, who were also customers of the local clothing stores, were tired of winter and eager to buy and wear spring fashions. Superior had at least eight stores which sold clothing and we also sold advertising to clothing stores in neighboring towns. Store keepers wanted snow before Tha...
The South Heartland District Health Department (SHDHD) was contacted Saturday and informed that the COVID-19 test result received by SHDHD for the Webster County man in his 60s, was reported incorrectly to SHDHD and that the test result was actually negative, not positive. This means that Webster County case count is still zero (0) and that the SHDHD case count total is eight (8). The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services notified SHDHD of the administrative error this morning. SHDHD immediately notified the facility where the man...
First case of coronavirus (COVID-19) identified in Jewell County The Jewell County Health Department received notification confirming our first case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Jewell County. The case involves a resident of Jewell County. The individual is currently maintaining in-home isolation and is stable. Jewell County Health Department is working to identify any close contacts of the individual and those who were exposed will be contacted as soon as possible. We will be monitoring these contacts for fever and respiratory...
The South Heartland District Health Department, in collaboration with the district’s four-county region, is implementing Directed Health Measures necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Today, the health department announced that of the four confirmed COVID-19 cases in Adams County, investigations were unable to determine the source of exposure for three of them. They are now being reported as community spread. The health department is working with state officials regarding the implementation of state Directed Health Measures in the f...
Though as a youngster I only participated in one of Superior’s organized Easter Egg Hunts, hunting Easter eggs and derivatives were among my favorite activities. Instead of eating my Easter eggs, I saved them so they could be hid over and over. My Easter eggs were stored on the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard. To get to them, I had to stand on a kitchen chair and stretch to the limit. Thus I didn’t get to play with them as often as I would have liked. In his youth, my uncle was an avid marble player. When he left home, Grandmother saved his mar...
Time marches on but some things never change. On the weekend I was looking through the microfilm reels which store copies of this newspaper looking for stories about how the area was coping with the flu epidemic of 1918. If I would have paid attention when my grandparents were alive, I would know more about those times. As a youngster I regularly asked my grandparents to tell me about the “Old Days.” Their stories included the flu pandemic but I’ve now forgotten most of what they told me. When I was a youngster, 1918 seemed like a very long...
Nuckolls County Board of Commissioners and the Superior City Council met in back-to-back sessions Wednesday afternoon with Nick Elledge, the county’s emergency preparedness director, and approved emergency declarations relating to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Effective at 8 a.m. Thursday, the City of Superior canceled all meetings and gatherings at all city facilities including the public library and public safety building. While individuals may still visit the facilities, city-owned parks and ball fields may not be used for games and p...
When it comes to our current COVID-19 journey, this newspaper, like most area residents and businesses, is traveling in uncharted waters. Many years ago on a Saturday afternoon in October, a friend and I took a canoe trip down the Republican River. The sun was warm and trees were loaded with beautiful fall colors. We were enjoying every minute and not paying attention to the time as we lazily floated downstream. It began to grow dark and we hadn’t found the place where we planned to leave the river. I hadn’t been looking real hard for we had le...
When I first read about the Cornavirus health issue, it was on the other side of the world. At that time a health problem in China didn’t concern me. I know something about China for when I was a youngster, I liked to dig holes. And when I was digging holes my mother warned me to be careful. She warned if I was careless and dug a deep hole I might strike a Chinaman with the point of my shovel. I had visions of an angry Chinaman with blood streaming down his face jumping out of the hole and chasing me. Dad never told me to look out for an a...
Changes are on the way. Saturday I turned my calendar pages to March. I have a new ribbon for the office time clock which I plan to install when I advance the clock in anticipation of the arrival of Daylight Savings Time on Sunday. The Tuesday morning news reported a killer tornado had struck the Nashville area. The National Weather Service reports the frost is out of the ground. We’ve had an unusually mild winter. The maximum frost depth this winter was less than a foot. To keep them from freezing, water lines in this area are generally p...
This week marks the 40th anniversary of the fire which destroyed the original Elks Lodge buildings in Superior along with an addition that saw its first use on New Year’s Eve. We may not have space this week to reprint The Express story and pictures which reported on the fire but we are getting the material ready for republication. While preparing the From the Files report for this week, we recalled that super cold night and the biggest fire I’ve had an opportunity to cover in my 50 years with The Express. The official U.S. Weather Bureau therm...
We can’t say for sure as these notebook entries are being made before the paper is printed, but we do know the chance of printing a paper this week increased significantly when Monday afternoon the man in the brown truck delivered a wooden box to the newspaper office. There was a time when wooden shipping crates were common. All of the storage shelving in the former Mullet Store buildings now owned by this newspaper was made from wood salvaged from shipping crates. As youngsters, my father and a friend who’s family operated a grocery store made...
With Valentine’s Day nearly here, next week’s issue of this newspaper should have one or more features related to this day. When I was a youngster attending Pleasant Valley School, I looked forward to exchanging valentines with my classmates and the party held that afternoon. While the pupils were encouraged to share valentines with everyone, there were always special girls I particularly wanted valentines from. Thus far this year, we have struck out when it comes to special feature story ideas for the Valentine issue. Surely, we haven’t exhau...
There was a time when I was awed by politicians and hoped I could be one when I grew up. When I was a wee lad I played on the floor of my family’s home while my father listened to radio broadcasts originating at the major national political conventions. At one of the conventions, there was an unplanned back stage fire which added to the excitement. At the time I thought it a big deal but this week I couldn’t find a story about it on the internet. But I did learn about other fires which destroyed the Democrats’ convention halls. I didn...
Ben Price, the son of Carla and John Price, Jr. and a 2018 graduate of Superior High School, has returned to Superior to open a business Price attended Southeast Community College in Lincoln. He earned his diploma in welding on Dec. 19, 2019. After graduation he returned home to Superior to open Lost Creek Welding located at 160 West Third Street. He purchased the building from his grandfather, John Price, Sr. The buildingwas constructed in 1941 to house the machine shop of Stacey Barker. In...
Literature classes and reading how noted authors described foggy days served to spark my interest in trying to produce a photograph that shows the beauty of a foggy day or night. I’ve seldom captured with a camera what I feel when the area is blanketed in fog. My emotions run the full gamut from terror to delight. As a college student, I sometimes went for a foggy campus walk just to see how the fog changed the campus and the students. I have little interest in returning to the campus to watch an athletic event but I would like to return for w...
