"Write down your name, rate and horsepower," the clerk said the other day when we purchased a box of .22 caliber shells.
"But we only want a box of shells to go do a little target practice," I said.
"Sorry," the clerk said, "we've got to have some information on you before we can sell you the shells."
I didn't want to be fussy, but it was disturbing to be challenged on a 63 cent purchase. The box was emptied in the gun range at the armory by the Boy Scouts.
But the law is the law.
Quickly now, what is your driver's license number? Your name, license number, type of shell and date of birth are necessary information.
Anytime Ralph Nader's name is mentioned, it is news, but a team report the other day stirs thoughts about the productive caliber of Mr. Nader.
The team proposed that a federal board set up standards to protect the public from incompetent doctors, claiming that the doctors have failed to do that job.
Now, if Mr. Nader's team is talking about the Navy corpsmen who give shots at boot camp, I'll buy that. But to put a wrinkle in the medical profession after umpteen years of study and debts, surely he can come up with something better, like perhaps unsafe and spark-spewing "gopher" matches?
We visited a few stores in Nebraska City last week with the family and got an eye opener on what's new in shoes and clothing.
We just had to admit: Youngsters nowdays sure have mighty nice and pretty shoes and clothes.
No. 1 son who is now 12 years old has bigger feet than Dear Ole' Dad and that means . . . as the clerk says . . . "he will have to wear men's sizes" . . . and that means more dollars.
It also means that No. 1 son will keep his big feet out of Dad's slippers.
Up on the North 40.
Snow and frost have cleaned out the last remains of gardening, but we've still got a stubborn rose bush with two big red and one white rose.
Mayor Louie Genoa got back to Nebraska City in time from his trip to cast his vote in Third Ward A in the general election.
The North 40 was not too concerned with the election results locally; Glen Cohn is rifleman on the hill and we can always rely on Principal Jerry Jacobson and his Educated Vigilantes, School Supt. Jim Withee and Principal Doug Dickerson.
A TWA pilot who will retire on November 16 at age 60 marked the occasion by chartering a 707 jetliner and taking 96 relatives on a sightseeing tour over northeast Kansas.
The pilot?
Capt. Ben Gigstad, who is related to Mayor A.O. Gigstad of Nebraska City.
Captain Gigstad paid $1,300 an hour complete with stewardesses. His copilot was his nephew, Capt. Al Gigstad, also a TWA pilot. The 93 relatives ranged in age from three weeks to 85 years.
"Most of the relatives are farmers and have little opportunity to fly on large commercial aircraft," Gigstad said. "I just wanted to get the crowd together and take them flying over their homes before my retirement."
Louis Kloepper, Gigstad's 82-year-old father-in-law, said:
"It's the best way in the world to shop for a farm."
Captain Gigstad is a cousin of Mayor Gigstad's father, Al, who lives at Effingham, Kansas. The Nebraska City family was not on the flight. Shucks!
There are Joe Namath's and Len Dawson's but the best in the business in my book has changed from Johnny Unitas to Oakland's George Blanda who is 43 years old.
If you saw the last quarter of the Sunday game between Oakland and Celveland, then you saw Oakland's Lamonica get hurt and Old Man Blanda was sent in.
And what a job he did. He tossed his team to a touchdown, kicked the extra point to knot the score at 20-20 and with seven seconds, the graying quarterback booted the ball 52 yards for a field goal to win 23-20.
You just can't beat that kind of playing.
And speaking of sports, Jack Andersen, former News-Press reporter and now with the sports department at Nebraska Wesleyan, stopped in the News-Press the other day.
Jack smiles as he announces he is a grandfather. His son-in-law is in Vietnam. His oldest son is a freshman at Wesleyan. They have a couple of other children at home.