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We have a good news story to report this week. In early November the Hebron Journal-Register newspaper published a sad story about a missing cat named Simba. Simba was described as a domestic short hair tabby cat that had become the Deshler community's pet. Veterinarian Cindy Sasse told Nancy McGill, the editor of the Hebron paper, "We think he's between 15 and 20 (years old), we're not sure. Witnesses said they saw the male cat affectionately named Simba scooped up by a woman and placed in her...
In September, a reader of this newspaper shared her concern that today’s students do not understand the significance of September 11 for her son had been wished “Happy 9-11.” She considered such a wish to be inappropriate and said the schools were failing to teach the students about the significance of that day. Those of us who lived through 9-11 and the days that followed will never forget the fear and emotion of that day and the ones that followed. As I thought about that conversation, I recalled other important days in our nation’s history...
Editorʼs Notebook By Bill Blauvelt While my father would later advertise that he offered tankwagon service, that was a misnomer. Dad offered tanktruck service for his bulk delivery tank was mounted on some kind of truck. His earliest Dodge truck was about the size of a modern pickup. As the years passed, the trucks got bigger. His largest, which was never put into service, held 5,000 gallons and was made to be pulled by a semi-tractor. I suspect the 1903 tankwagon had a steel tank mounted on wagon gear pulled by a team of horses or mules. A...
I enjoyed Saturday’s spring-like weather and appreciate the rain which followed but I am not looking forward to the colder temperatures and the possibility of snow which conclude the forecast for this week. That might be different if I had plans to put up ice. There was a time when putting away ice was a regular winter activity. Recently while reading an issue of the Ruskin Leader published in 1923, I came across a story distributed by the University of Nebraska Extension Service which advised every farm should have an ice house and farmers sho...
Producing a paper has been a bit of a challenge this week for this old editor. I approached Monday with great enthusiasm. During the weekend, I had assembled some interesting copy and I thought I would enter the new week with a good handle on this week’s paper. But when I tried to send the copy to the printer on Monday, my computer balked. It didn’t want to share. I could see the copy on my screen but it refused to let me send it anywhere and the computer program would crash. Before Monday was over, I couldn’t even open our desktop publi...
Our Kansas subscribers had an opportunity to go to the polls Tuesday and select those who will serve on school boards and city councils. This is an off-year in Nebraska and the polls were closed. That wasn’t the case in Nuckolls County in 1903. Had we gone back in time 120 years ago this week, we would have had an opportunity to select those who were to fill various county offices. From the stories printed in the 1903 papers, it appears it was a spirited election with many folks seeking a county job. In the days preceding the election, well a...
Elsewhere in this issue is printed the obituary for Gorman Foley, a retired pastor I have much respect for and former resident of this area, I was in high school when I met Gorman at the Polk Bible Camp near Polk, Nebraska. At the time, he was pastor of a Congregational Christian Church at Clarks, Nebraska and he accompanied campers to the camp. I was helping a Lincoln, Kansas, high school principal run the camp book store and concession stand. I was impressed with Gorman’s Bible knowledge and interest in photography. Keep reading to learn more...
Change may not be fast but it does happen. This year I have heard farmers talking about the small, but well developed corn they were harvesting. In at least some of the fields, the ears had filled well but were about the size of the early Fourth of July variety of sweet corn I used to plant in my garden. The early corn tasted good but the yield was so small I eventually decided it was worth waiting for the longer maturing varieties that produced larger ears and tasted even better. When my father sold Steckley Genetic Giant seed corn, the compan...
I’m sure harvesters bringing grain into Superior this fall have been real frustrated by road construction caused delays. While local officials could not require a pre-harvest completion date, they had asked for one and had been told to expect one. Road construction is now the responsibility of the government and most often it is state government’s responsibility. That hasn’t always been the case. One hundred years ago road construction was often done by local volunteers. In October of 1923, the Nelson Gazette reported there was a real spiri...
In last week's Notebook, I wrote about spelling. I thought the correct spelling was syphon but my word processing program's spell checker changed it to siphon and the dictionary agreed. After reading last week's Notebook entry, a faithful reader and former resident of Superior, Arlen Sealock, shared a story regarding the correct spelling of the word. His father, Elmer Sealock, operated the Superior Truck Line. Arlen's story follows: The agency which regulated truck lines published a tariff book...
This week the Good Samaritan Society sponsored a fishing program for the residents of their Superior home. I wasn’t there to see it. So I can only guess how it was done. I suspect it was similar to carnival games where the players tried to hook a prize. In country school, we sometimes played a fishing game in which we used a willow stick and dangled a hook over a blind made with a blanket or sheet stretched across a door way. The person on the other side of the blanket would grasp our hook and attach the fish which was a prize or instruction ab...
The United States Postal System keeps changing. Sometimes for better but not always. Seventy-years ago the post office was flirting with discontinuing twice daily mail delivery in Superior. From reading back issues of this newspaper, it appears the post office tested cutting back to once a day in the residential area while preserving twice daily service in the business district. Eventually, the decision was made to discontinue the twice daily service to both residential and business customers. When I built the West Third Street car wash in...
This week I looked through what was once the main entrance to Brodstone Memorial Hospital but it didn’t look the same. I didn’t see a Gray Lady sitting in the hall welcoming visitors and giving directions. Neither of the Jeans were in the office. When I first started visiting the hospital, Gene Steele was probably the only woman working in the office, a position she held for 25 years. Later Jean Linn shared office duties. I think my advisor was pulling my leg but I remember being told that to work in the Brodstone office one had to be nam...
Mike Combs, a Superior High School classmate of mine, shares my interest in history. Over the years, we have had many a conversation about the history of this area. I have questions about who were the Light Guards of Superior and why. I’ve asked Google those questions and not gotten a satisfactory response but it appears Superior wasn’t the only community to have similar organizations. The Sept. 7, 1903, issue of The Nuckolls County Herald Newspaper published at Nelson refers to what may have been a similar group of young men who held tar...
Last month’s illegal raid by law enforcement officers on a Kansas newspaper has made national news and will long have repercussions. I expect a steep price will be extracted from those who caused the raid. In Nuckolls County, a visit to a Nelson newspaper office with illegal intentions was treated as a joke by the operator of the newspaper and his crew. But that doesn’t mean the participants didn’t have a price to pay. Before sharing the story, I should perhaps share a bit of background. In 1903, aspiring teachers were not required to have...
My grandfather told me "It's an ill wind that blows no good" And that concept appears to be true with the vultures migrating into this area each spring. This year's drought has provided them with a feast. With ponds and streams drying up, the vultures have been enjoying a regular smorgasbord with the dead fish to supplement their normal road kill diet. Officially vultures are an endangered species but judging from the number of birds I've been seeing this year, they certainly aren't on the...
After the last heat wave broke and we had several days of pleasant weather, I was certain the hot summer days were behind us for this year. I was wrong. The last few days have been even hotter. Manhattan, Kansas, had the nation’s high, 114 degrees on Saturday. Had I been attending school there, I would have wanted to visit the state park located below the dam, When I was a KSU student we called it Tuttle Puddle and it was high on the students lists of favorite summertime places. However, this year the park is closed because of blue-green a...
A postal worker in a nearby community called this newspaper after the last issue was mailed and asked why the paper wasn’t being received in her office in an adjoining county until Friday. I was asked to please publish a story saying the papers weren’t being delayed by the post office. I was assured the papers are distributed the same day they are received and never held in the local office for delivery at a later time. I believe her story but the post office is to blame for the delay. In recent weeks the postal system has moved the pro...
Candy Downs, a former Superior resident now living in Florida and working as newspaper advertising salesperson shared the following story with friends Monday evening: Went to a convenience store this evening and a guy in line in front of me complemented me on my dress. I said, “Thank you.” He turned back around and asked if it was hot enough out for me today. I said, “Yes. It was brutal out there today.” Then he said his employer sent him home today to grieve properly because his son died on Friday. I said, “Oh, I’m so sorry.” He said, “My son...
An advertisement elsewhere in this issue gives the date and time for a tire collection activity in Nuckolls County. If this year’s event is anything like similar events in prior years, by the end of the day there will be a big pile of worn out tires to be disposed of. Tire disposal isn’t easy and it has gotten harder with the advent of the steel belted radial tires. When I was a youngster, it would have been easier to recycle the bias ply tire for the only metal in those tires was around the beads but recycling was not mandated as it is now. Di...
It’s almost the middle of July and the street in front of the newspaper has yet to be filled with trucks bringing wheat into Superior. The lack of trucks isn’t a surprise but it doesn’t feel right. There are several reasons. Wheat is no longer as popular with local farmers as it once was, this year’s drought has reduced, if not eliminated, the yield from many fields, and it is common for farmers to now bin the wheat on their farms as it cut and then bring it in to market after the harvest is completed. And I may not recognize their trucks...
Weather forecasting has changed over the years and for the most part the changes have been for the better. But we are still quick to criticize the weather bureau forecasters when they get it wrong. We won’t be satisfied until they are right 100 percent of the time and to the very minute. Saturday we were told there was a 90 percent chance of rain which might come in torrential amounts. It did rain some place and it was torrential someplace just not where I was so my take is they got it wrong again. Based on that forecast, the Superior C...
My nephew and his family live near Accident, Maryland. They stopped by North Central Kansas this week for a brief visit with relatives including his grandmother, parents, aunt and uncle. The Blauvelts met Garrett and family in Osborne about 11 a.m. Saturday. The Maryland residents left by 5 p.m. headed to Limon, Colorado, where they planned to stay the night. One of their goals on this trip is to visit the Four Corners Monument area. The monument, marks the only spot in the United States where four states (Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New...
A modern marvel caused this writer’s home to slip a few decades back in time this week. While growing up in the country, modern services like running water, inside conveniences and electricity were not common, if even available. We routinely kept about 30 gallons of water available, should our well not be available. And while they may not have been conveniently located, we never removed all of the outside conveniences. (Editor’s Note: When this article was proof read on Tuesday morning, one of our younger associates asked “Why did you have...
This has been a week of both rejoicing and sadness. Thursday morning got off to a sad start when Craig Barfknecht called to report his mother, a longtime employee of this newspaper, had died. Irene was the last living member of the crew that helped Howard Crilly produce this newspaper prior to the arrival of the three Kansas kids in May of 1970. Irene was a lifelong resident of Nuckolls County and I think she questioned if anything good come out of Kansas. She was loyal to her newspaper and fiercely clung to the standards set by her former...
