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I’m sorry to say I don’t have much to write about this week. With the wedding over and things back to regular business, it’s pretty quiet around here. The two younger boys were here for the weekend, which stirred things up a bit. Nicholas had a baseball game on Friday, so that made our Omaha trip 10 hours instead of the usual seven. Although it made for a long day, I’m glad we got to see him play. We don’t get too many chances to attend those types of events with the distance between us. Jack was in a mood when we picked him up. He had had a ba...
It was a wet, showery Monday morning and it was enjoyed. After getting flowers, veggies and grass planted last week, the rains were welcomed. Maybe the old saying “April Showers brings May Flowers” should be changed this year to “May Showers bring May Flowers.” I recalled rains received while a youngster on my folk’s farm. Those rains would often fill the ponds, ditches, draws and creeks. I couldn’t wait until the rains stopped and the sun came out as it meant fun times running down into the home pasture, shedding my shoes and wading into...
I have great respect for the newspaper crews who produced newspapers with handset type. As a journalism student at Kansas State University, my introductory course was one that dealt with the history of printing and the various methods used.The instructor was an old man in poor health. He knew his material but when the class met I prayed he wouldn’t keel over dead in our presence. Professor Byron Ellis required each of his students learn how to handset type. In the lab portion of the class, we composed things like business cards and advertisemen...
Q: Would you explain about the tithe? Is tithing just to the church or do donations towards shelters, hospitals, etc. count too? A: By all means! Let’s take a closer look at tithing. When we say a “tithe,” it literally means a tenth of something (In fact, the New King James Version translates the same Hebrew word as tithe and tenth in Leviticus 27:32). “Tithing” means to offer a tenth of something to another. We can trace the concept of tithing clear back to the Patriarchs. Abraham offered a tenth of the spoils of battle to Melchized...
When I was about four years old, my father bought my mother a swivel rocking chair present. It had a thick padded seat and back and was made of maple. It was great fun to sit in and rock while spinning this way and that. It was also large enough to climb up on Mom’s lap and cuddle while she read a story. The only problem was that it was top-heavy. My brother and I found out, if we ran across the living room and leaped into Mom’s lap, the chair would tip over backwards. If you have ever sat on the seat of a dunk tank you have some idea what it...
Northern Lights . . . Aurora Borealis . . . Plus scientific names . . . Gosh, what an experience. Something many of us in south central Nebraska never thought we’d have the chance to experience in our lifetime. I did take a peek outside Friday night, but did not see anything at all. Most all reports I heard about were much later. I heard about those lights, I read about them, but never thought they would ever reach this far south. In today’s ‘technology based’ world, it seems pictures taken by today’s cell phones show more than just plain vie...
I’ve been pulling weeds in my yard for the last few weeks, and the task is never ending. I have bind weed, stinging nettles, milk week, prickly pear, wandering ivy and a whole mess of other stuff I have yet to put a name to. My hope is to get most of them before they seed even more, but I’m afraid I’m failing. Every weekend we talk about spraying, and every payday we put it off for another week. We expanded the garden this year, and since we now have Duke, who pays no attention to what he is running over and digging up, we needed a fence...
This week is National Nurse and Teacher appreciation Week! Both these careers are extra special ones and deserve our thanks and appreciation. It’s my opinion it takes a special and caring person to fill a nurse’s shoes. Through the years, I have had to have help from many trained and dedicated nurses and I’m sure everyone feels the same way. Many hours of schooling and working in the clinics and hospitals, takes a strong person. Having to go into the hospital’s emergency section after a car accident, three broken bones, and with COVID treatme...
When I was young, many companies offered free merchandise if you sent in a specific number of box tops or seals with a “small fee for postage and handling.” After eating many boxes of the same cereal, Mom would be presented with a stack of box tops and I would beg for a check to cover postage and handling so I could have my very own cereal bowl with the cereal logo on it. Of course, Mom would comply and even help find a big envelope, address it, fill out the order form and buy a bunch of stamps to send it off. Every day after that I would che...
Other than notes about the weather, the notebook pages are empty this week. I’m blaming allergies for the chest conjestion which has clipped my wings the past couple of weeks. I was supposed to have a part in Superior’s National Day of Prayer observance and had to cancel. A week later I was asked to record a podcast spot. Same story, I had to cancel. Many years I have attended multiple high school graduation activities but thus far this year my count stands at 0. After being surprised in Lincoln by the April 26 storm outbreak, I have been kee...
RAIN . . . Remember all those foggy days we experienced late last winter. They were supposed to forecast rainy weather in 90 days. Are we there yet? Around this local area we’ve had approximately two inches of rain in the last few days. Pray that it continues. A O Some time ago I noted that the liberal, federal government we now have seems intent to pass so many laws over so many areas that no matter what we do, we’ll be breaking a law some place. That will give the government control over all of us in some form, or another. Then last win...
Holy cow! What a weekend! Two major events in two days was a little much. Jessica, now my daughter-in-law, graduated from Lawrence-Nelson High School on Saturday. I had the pleasure of helping out with her reception, and I think the turn out was a bit more than her mom, Kasey, had expected because we ran out of sloppy joes. All in all it was a good day, and I’m thankful I got a sloppy joe before it was all gone. We left Jessica’s reception early so we could congratulate Andrew Koehler, Rocky Miller and Roy Davidson. Those three are kind of lik...
Ready or not here comes May! I don’t know where April went, but it’s gone. It’s always a busy month. It’s time to be getting a vegetable garden planted, clean out and start up the water fountain, mow grass and mow again. Then there is my favorite May duty. That’s making trips to my favorite local flower-garden centers to shop for the flowers I hope to get planted in my prepared flower beds. It’s time to be neglectful to my house cleaning duties. It’s time to put on my straw hat and gardening gloves and get to digging in the worked soil....
Thursday afternoon Rita and I drove into Lincoln with plans to attend the 151st annual meeting of the Nebraska Press Association. One hundred fifty-one seems like a lot of meetings, but while in Lincoln, I got to thinking about my experiences with the association. While I haven’t always availed myself of the opportunities to attend the annual meetings, I have been eligible to attend more than a third of them. My first one in the Lincoln Hotel came 53 years ago and I have fond memories of older members making me feel welcome. This year’s mee...
Q: Is it ok to laugh in church? A: My first impulse is to respond to this question with a resounding “Yes!” While the church is not a comedy center, I firmly believe there is a place in our services for humor. Christian joy is a fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22); rejoicing is an oft-repeated command (Philippians 4:4), and I believe that our church services should reflect the joy of the Lord. However, there is no biblical mandate or clear command to either include or prohibit laughing in church. Each church is free to pursue the goals and...
Some things never change, it seems. Many years ago someone said, “There’s never a good day for a funeral!” That statement has been proven out many times over the years and last Friday was another proof. We buried my brother, Bob, in Gretna, Nebraska. The day was cold, wet and just plain nasty . . . the gravel road on the way to the cemetery was under construction . . . and you had all the understandably sad feelings to go along with it. Then, later in the day, we had to dodge the tornados that hit Lincoln and Waverly on the way home . . . and...
What a crazy, happy, tear-jerker of a week this will be. Jacob gets home Wednesday evening, Jessica graduates on Saturday, and the two will be united in holy bliss on Sunday. I’m so excited! I can’t sleep and can’t eat. My tummy is full of crazy little flutterflies. I’ve been cleaning like a crazy woman just because I need to keep busy. I clean when I’m nervous, anxious, irritated, or just plain angry. So if my house is a mess, I’m happy and content! LOL! Robert won’t make it home for the wedding. He got orders last minute for the weekend,...
Q: (From our friend; the atheistic college professor) If billions of people dedicated their life to having an intimate relationship with God, how could it fail to produce overwhelming positive effects, forming solid proofs of this divine guidance? A: You’re absolutely right. For Christianity to be true it would demand an obvious and overwhelming amount of evidence. For instance, if Christianity were true, then we would expect it to have spread to every continent and corner of the world (hint: it has). We should see Christians loving their n...
A former employee of this newspaper, Tom Zoellner, recently commented on a social media page about the appearance of The Superior Express office. According to Tom, the office looks the same now as it did when he first visited it while applying for a job 33 years ago. I prefer to think he was commenting on general appearance, Rita thinks he was commenting on the editor’s filing system. Over the years did opinions on the proper way to file has created numerous arguments. I’ll not mention names but one long-standing employed filed chronologically....
I was reminded last week of a bit of history of the Lawrence community that seems to have been mainly lost over the years. It involves an action of Lawrence High School students during World War II. More than 80 years ago, in the early years of WWII, after Pearl Harbor, “The Lawrence Locomotive” was not being printed on a regular (weekly) basis. As such, much of the local news was not being circulated. The students at the high school started putting together a “newspaper” which they called: “The Panther.” I know from my days in this high s...
I’m so excited! Jacob will be home in a little over a week. I’m not sure if he will stay at the house this visit, but it will be nice to see him in person and give him a big long hug. I do hope that he and his wifey will stay a night or two, but if not, I will do my best to keep my mommy feelers hidden. It doesn’t do anyone any good to have me throwing a toddler sized tantrum just because they don’t want to sleep here. LOL! I got the go ahead to help decorate for my daughter-in-law to-be’s graduation. I love, love, love party planning,...
In the days before children’s attention was drawn to playing computer games and they had their faces buried in their cell phones, there were some pretty interesting youth games played. Growing up, some of my generation played many physical games that did also require some thinking and planning. During recess at school, games such as dodge ball, softball, Run Sheep Run and Red Rover were often played. At home, my sister and I would compete against each other with games such as Pick Up Sticks, Jacks and Marbles. The Pick Up Sticks were either w...
The Nebraska Press Association annual meeting is scheduled for later this month in Lincoln, Nebraska. Program topics will include “Creative Ways to Cover Your Community,” Maximizing Digital Ad Revenue,” “Reviving Rural News,” and “Niche Products.” Times are changing for the newspaper business but they have been changing for a long time. Some of my first associates at The Express remembered when all the type for each issue was set by hand. It was quite revolutionary when mechanical typesetters like the Linotype replaced handset type. I wasn...
Q: What does the Bible have to say about anger? Is it a sin to be angry? A: The Christian’s ultimate standard for right and wrong is the character of God Himself (see Matthew 5:48 for one example). This gives us a solid basis for saying that it is not always sinful to be angry, since we are given many examples of both God and Jesus Christ becoming angry (Matthew 21:12-17; Romans 1:18). That being said, anger can lead to sin even though it isn’t always wrong to be angry. Therefore, it must be handled carefully. A good place to start is with the...
I have attended what I consider “my fair share” of funerals over the years. There are several that stand out to me for one reason or another. Funerals of family members, of course, maybe stand out the most, but one of the first one I remember was not long after I returned home to southcentral Nebraska after time in the military, the East Coast and St. Louis. It was the funeral of a cousin, Art Hoelting. What impressed me the most was the number of people at the funeral in the St. Stephen’s parish church. By that time, the world became famil...
