In his more than a half-century affiliation with The Superior Express, Howard Crilly often wrote a column he titled “Among Ourselves.” In my growing up years, it was one of the first things I read when The Express arrived in the mail box about noon on Fridays.
While searching for information for another story, I copied the following observations from his March 20 and 27, 1947 columns:
One of the prettiest things is a pretty girl who doesnʼt know it.
County Assessor Ira Adams told us the other day that fibbing to the assessor isnʼt going to be quite so easy this year. Youʼre going to have to do it under strict oath.
The Nuckolls County Jail has been empty the past few days, but we saw the sheriff parked out at a country crossroad with a gleam in his eye.
W. A. Blauvelt (this editorʼs grandfather) says that if you lose anything and want to find it, offer 5 gallons of gasoline as a reward. It worked for him before the ink was dry on last weekʼs Express.
The race may not always go to the swift, but the coach says he would feel a little safer if he had a 10-second man on the team as the track season gets under way.
It didnʼt take the quiz kids long to prove they knew more than we did. Since then we have quit listening.
A Superior golfer did pretty well while practicing up for the season in the basement at his home. He got the electric light bulb with the first swing.
If a dog is manʼs best friend, what we would like to know is, why our pooch never brings home any bones with ham on them.
The housewives may not be able to find it, but most of the politicians seem to have about as much soft soap to hand out as ever.
We are glad to note that the Mending Basket lady is back on the job. Filling out this column alone has been a terrible strain on our mental faculties.
To get some idea of the troubles the Balkan nations have with each other, imagine what would happen if Florida and California had common borders.
Politicians and husbands are about on a par when it comes to keeping their campaign promises, a lady said while visiting our the office the other day.
I was surprised to see grandfather was quoted in the 1947 issue of the paper. After reading about the five gallons of gasoline reward he offered the week before, I had to look back and see what he had lost. I had many times heard the story about losing his hat in an Armistice Day snow storm while trying to drive home after visiting his son, Leslie, in Lincoln, Nebraska. This was different for I knew his hat was never recovered.
In the process I found the Blauvelt Station was advertising for sale Blue Line Feeds made in Superior by the Superior Milling Company.
And grandfather placed the following classified ad: “Car license plate 42-2775 lost between Superior and Mankato. Reward of 5 gallons of gasoline. Leave at Blauvelt’s State Line Station and pick up the gas.”
Classified ads got results in 1947 and they get results in 2023. Last week we published the following advertisement:
“1998 Alumacraft boat, 1988 Shoreland’r trailer, 9.9 Mercury motor and Johnson 85 rebuilt motor. For more information call 402-984-0554.” Monday the person placing the ad called to tell us to stop running ad as the outfit was sold.
Monday I received a message from the Angela Bardon of the Lost and Found Shop thanking The Express for sponsoring the city-wide garage sale. Instead of a garage, the shop utilized the former Dollar General store. The garage sale wares, bounce house and face painter were located inside the building with a food truck parked outside. The building’s door hinges nearly wore out. A counter on the door recorded more than 3,700 passes on Friday and almost 4,200 on Saturday. She said, “We were truly blown away.”
While reading those back issues, I learned a bit about how safes are made should I decide to take up safe cracking as a retirement job.
According to The Express, when burglars entered a dozen or more business places in Nelson, Oak, Davenport, Ruskin and Carleton in March of 1947, they got away with hardly any loot worth mentioning but they did manage to ruin a good safe at the Farmers Union Elevator at Nora.
The safe, formerly owned by the Nora State Bank, was of the ball type and made of steel and magnesium with walls about nine inches thick. It was too tough for the inexperienced gents who attempted to burn a hole in the door, the thickest part of the safe. They became discouraged and quit before they were much more than started. It was just as well that they did, for had they continued they would probably have burned all of the currency as well as the checks and other papers locked in the safe.
While failing in the attempt to open the safe, they damaged the door so badly it could not be opened and experts were called from the factory. These men drilled a small hole in the wall of the safe and filled it with water to prevent destruction of the papers from the heat and then burned a hole through the wall large enough to get out the valuables.
The safe contained about $300 in cash and some checks. The burglars stole the acetylene torch with which they tried to burn into the safe at Nelson and left it at the Nora elevator. They made away with $25 in cash and a small amount of liquor at Oak.
The paper didn’t say, but I got the impression an honest job would have netted them more and been less risky.
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