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This spring and summer, people in America are ready to burst out, make a break for it and get away. Much like a caged bird, Americans were confined long enough following the COVID-19 scare and lockdown, and are ready to get out of the cage. When trying to make reservations at hotels while forming trip plans, it seemed rooms were all booked for months ahead and the prices had risen. If a person was looking to purchase recreational vehicles they were selling like hot cakes. If a person was fortunate enough to have or purchase a camper, making res...
It took 21 years but Friday I finally made it to Deshler and the Spring Creek Model Trains store. I had planned to attend their spring toy show but a family conflict took me south to Osborne on show day. As a youngster, I enjoyed playing with a Lionel model train and dreamed of expanding the train layout to circle the basement of my family's home on Blauvelt's Hill. I studied the toy catalogs and designed the layout I wanted to build when I got sufficient money together. Of course, there had to...
Presenting Biblical answers to tough questions Q: Some Bible passages tell us to ‘pester’ God with our prayers, others say that we should avoid vain repetition and just have faith; what gives? How often should we ask God for what we want? A: First let me say that it’s normal to see a tension between different Bible passages that address a given topic. If I tell one person to drive west to get to Mankato, then tell another to drive east to get to the same place, it can seem like a contradiction. Until I tell you that the first person lives...
August . . . Always a special month to me as birthdays abound; wedding anniversaries seem abundant, and . . . football season gets all that much closer. I learned from the comic section of today’s paper that in August there are no national holidays . . . so we have to make our own holidays. It is fortunate that we do have the religious holiday of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We can add that to our personal holidays. I start the month with my own birthday and 55 never looked so good. Of course I have to look back at that age w...
I’m always joking that I will drive a car until the tires fall off. Well, folks, I almost did that very thing. I knew the tires were fairly worn but was hoping to get through a few more months before I had to replace them. We took the car in for an oil change and the attendant in the pit noticed that I had wires showing on one of them. Talk about embarrassing. I have been doing the maintenance on my vehicles for 20 years. In the last couple of years, I have become lazy. Having a car that doesn’t burn oil and a check engine light isn’t stuck...
A question asked on social media yesterday, was “ What is a word you most associate with your mother?” It didn’t take me long to come up with my word associated with my mother. It would be “Horses”! She grew up with horses. Her father, Henry Heskett, was a true cowboy of the western plains of Kansas. He broke horses, was a horse trader, and liked to ride them. When my parents, sister and I, moved off the farm near Burr Oak to Stockton,Kan., the “horse fever” really hit Mother. Dad must have eventually caught it as he too became active in the...
Earlier this week, while visiting with a home owner, I learned of a problem at his home he was still dealing with. A couple days before he had attempted to replace the water control parts serving a porccelain commode’s water closet. ( Since Superior is the Victorian Capital of Nebraksa, I want to be correct and use proper Victorian descriptions here and not use what the Victorian’s would consider gutter language to describe what happened.) The repair job took longer than expected and my friend ran out of time before the refill valve was adj...
Presenting Biblical answers to tough questions Q: Why are we supposed to go to church? What is church good for? A: The word translated “church” in our Bibles refers to a ‘called-out assembly.” In other words, a church is a group of people who have been called out of their culture and society by God to become part of something completely new and different (1 Peter 2:9-10). Members of this group are called saints (Colossians 1:2), beloved brethren chosen by God (1 Thessalonians 1:4), holy brethren (1 Thessalonians 5:27), believers in Christ...
“Doctor’s Advice . . .” Seems most of us around my general age range grew up with a respect for doctor’s advice. We were constantly told the doctor was the expert and knew more than we did. I suspect that is true in many, if not most, cases. However, every so often something comes up that make me wonder just who does the best. Nancy and I just had our annual heart doctor appointments and we were give a whole set of new guidelines considering the amount of water to drink on a daily basis. I can remember from many years ago that it seemed most al...
I can’t believe we are at the end of July already. Where has the summer gone? Oh wait, I know, I’ve spent it running around like a chicken with its head cut off. This past week Jacob went back to Dad’s for another short visit. One tank of gas. We picked up the Omaha boys for a visit. Another tank of gas. We took the Omaha boys back to Omaha. You guessed it, Another tank of gas. The price of fuel right now burns my tail feathers. We shall not speak any more on that topic; I don’t want to be in a crummy mood all day. The money pit has taken up mu...
Things change and I certainly realize this the older I get. The last several wedding ceremonies I have been attended have been held outdoors at what is called a chosen “Venue” which officially is termed as “the place where something happens, especially an organized event.” Popular venues for weddings include a barn not far from the Schlaefli Farm and along the shore line of a lake, on a rolling prairie hill and on a grassy golf course. More than 50 years ago, in what some would term as being “too many years ago,” the wedding ceremony was almost...
I’ve been told history repeats itself and this newspaper is filled with old news. At least part of the time, both are true. History does tend to repeat and this newspaper tries to report on both what is happening and what has happened. In this space last week, I wrote about a photography project of more than 50 years ago that included taking pictures of the late George Higher’s home located about seven miles southwest of Superior along what is now known as Diamond Road. Last week I reported on his great-grandchildren’s memories of the house. La...
Presenting Biblical answers to tough questions 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 han...
Gosh, last week I had a number of items I was thinking about for this space. However, I did make a note of them and have seemed to have forgotten most of them by Monday morning. So, I think I’ll cover several items without any particular system in mind. VOTING — I have watched with great interest the changes in the voting laws around the nation this year, to date. It is interesting. Last year the Liberals won the national office of president and now control the federal government. On the local level in many, many states, the more conservative i...
First and foremost, I have a mistake I need to correct. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about the Fourth of July events in Oak and made a mistake. I said the pastor’s name was Keith, it is not. It is Kevin Bogus, and I know this. I often make that mistake. I am sorry, Kevin, and I hope that my embarrassment and acknowledgment of this mistake keeps me from making it again. Another boneheaded thing I did this week was trying to save a kitten along the highway. As I drove home from the money pit Saturday, I noticed a cute little black a...
Recently I saw a social media post made by a great-granddaughter sharing her memories of visiting her great-grandfather’s house as a child. The house was a large two story house that once stood along a road my parents would travel when going to a neighboring town. I remembered that house well as a child. I often wondered about the history of it and the family who once called it home. So many childhood memories are made in our great-grandparent and our grandparents’ homes. Though many of those houses do not exist anymore, as most older farm hom...
As a college junior, I took an advanced photojournalism course offered at Kansas State University. I made friends with a fellow photography student who apparently kept close tabs on the weekly surplus sales held at Ft. Riley. Thanks to his updates on what was being offered, I made several Tuesday afternoon road trips over to the post in search of irresistible deals. Once I found 100 foot rolls of Ansco film selling at a fraction of what I was paying for a comparable Kodak film. I bought several...
Presenting Biblical answers to tough questions Q: What does the phrase “’Vengeance is Mine,’ says the Lord.” really mean? A: “Vengeance is mine,” Is an often repeated promise from God to right the wrongs that surround us in this world (Deuteronomy 32:35; Psalm 94:1; Romans 12:19). Any time we see wrong done to ourselves or others we can often feel a strong desire for payback or revenge. If we act on this desire the Bible calls it taking vengeance. While the Bible does not say that wanting justice is wrong it does tell us we are not to take jus...
I didn’t plan on writing about golf this week, but I played in the “Over 50” golf tournament Sunday at the Lawrence Country Club. That provided the incentive for some of the following observations: * I probably don’t take the game seriously enough as I suspect most people that are as inept at the game as I am would have quit long ago. But I do enjoy getting out and playing. * I played with some men who are probably among the better golfers at the Lawrence Golf Club and I learned a lot from them. One of the things I learned was not to throw m...
By Teraesa Bruce This week I am writing to you from the pool. With the fair beginning and half of my guards off to church camp, I am short-staffed, so I am down here “managing” things. Working at the pool is like that dream, you know the one, you are standing in front of the class in your underwear! George took his vacation days to work on the money pit. It’s been chaotic, to say the least. He and Jacob spent several days pulling wires, framing for windows, installing a door and cursing. So much cursing. LOL. For a while, I kept trying to co...
Living on a farm most all of my life has given me an appreciation of the country life. Mostly it’s the simple things that draw my attention to my surroundings such as the lovely smell of freshly mowed alfalfa; the fragrance of the rain as it falls on a summer day; the sweet smell of the blooming yellow clover. Memories include being a young girl and climbing into Dad’s truck box that had just had wheat augured in and then walking barefooted around in that grain feeling the grain as it went between my toes. I liked climbing up into the com...
While looking through the archives, I found a copy of the Manhattan Mercury newspaper in which a story I wrote in November of 1965 was published. For my first college level reporting class, I wrote about a college stunt I was involved with. Unlike some student stunts which are filled with danger, ours was pretty harmless, if you don’t take into consideration college students losing a few hours of pre-Thanksgiving break sleep. While I didn’t have a hand in organizing the stunt, the organizers expected me to use my connections and get them the...
Presenting biblical answers to tough questions Q: Is America a Christian Nation? A: I have read many works on the founding fathers and the birth of our nation, along with documents written by the founders during that period. The conclusion I have reached personally is the Christian worldview was indeed one of the principal influences on the founding fathers as they forged the framework of this country. I am as sure of the Christian basis for their decisions as I am about anything in secular history. Let me give you an example of this...
Very interesting . . . At least to me. On occasion I do get contacted about some things I have written about. I hope you don’t think I’m boasting, but most of the time people let me know they enjoy what I’ve written. Some of the time I have furnished information about something of a historical item, or just plain trivia and I’ll get contacted. Well, last week was such a time. Jack Gilsdorf, Lawrence native and LHS alumni of 1960, called about the item I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the book I read concerning the nuclear accident in Cher...
We had a busy weekend with all of the holiday festivities. Friday, we were in Oak for the Fourth of July block party and pot luck. I took a cake made by the women at Caps Cafe. Time got away from me like it always does, and I forgot I needed to make a dessert. So last minute, I texted Chelsey and asked if there was any way she could whip one up for me. Then I forgot to take a spatula! Oh well, folks figured it out, and what was left, the boys finished as a snack when we got home. If I could keep my family out of it, I would buy a few made-up...
