The Jolly Trippers, the group of travelers who organized during the county Centennial, is making plans for a trip this fall to Florida and get this, to the Hawaiian Islands in the spring of 1972.
I'd just about give anything to go along with a hidden camera and photograph Troy Cushing and Leo Wirth doing a hula dance in a grass skirt on Waikiki Beach while drinking "Hawaiian Punch" from a coconut.
I could volunteer to teach the men how to do the hula as was taught to us at the Elks luau in Boulder, Colo., a few years ago with an apple, orange and bean.
But that would be taking the fun out of the trip so we'll leave that little trinket to the entertainers in the islands.
On a small wager, I attempted to crack open a coconut as we saw a small island boy do and ended up finishing the job with a ball peen hammer and a screwdriver.
I joshed Ed Hunter that rain occurences in the islands are so unusual that it's not uncommon to see rain on one side of the street while the sun is shining on the other side.
Well, Ed just got back from 10 days in the islands and he said what I said, was a lot of phooey.
"It rains DOWN the street not ACROSS it."
(First liar doesn't have a chance.)
We sniffled a bit as Harold Gress, armed with an axe, 14-foot saw and a stick of dynamite removed the mulberry tree next to his home, the new house that now occupies my potato patch.
We nursed that tiny sprig to two crops of mulberries, but the neighbors didn't appreciate the birds and the direct hit bombing runs on new washed cars parked in the driveway.
Mr. and Mrs. Gress will move in their new home the last of this month. Harold still walks with crutches from injuries received a year and a half ago in an airplane crash near Dunbar.
He's stubborn, though. He hobbles around his new home tiring himself, but enjoying the work of moving into a new home.
He also pilots a Tri-Pacer occasionally to keep in the pink at the controls.
The Little Toy Dog.
We've just finished reading "The Little Toy Dog," a title that does not entirely fit the story.
The book was written by William L. White about two Air Force officers who were shot down 10 years ago by a Russian MIG off Norway.
The two men spent seven months in Russian prisons while that country's prosecutors attempted to get the two survivors of the bomber to say they were spying for the U. S.
The navigator of the plane was Capt. John R. McKone, brother of Bob McKone, manager of the Penney store in Nebraska City.
The book is available at the Morton-James library.
Beaver Lake, U. S. A., it looks great!
One of the benefits of news reporting is meeting new people and visiting new businesses, industries and in the case of recreation — Beaver Lake.
We had the same opportunity 10 or so years ago when Mr. and Mrs. Ken (Cork) Wurtele were hosting visitors at the opening of Lake Wa-Con-Da.
At that time we rode in a boat up the Missouri from Nebraska City with Max Showalter, a game warden now living in Ainsworth.
We were impressed with the Wa-Con-Da project, but not as impressed as we are in 1971 when we look back over the popularity of such projects.
Beaver Lake is such a project.
It's going to take time, but judging by the popularity of recreational home living, it will become a reality.
When completed, it will be a town of several thousand population (about 1,500 five years from now), have a 350-acre lake, private swimming pool, eight miles of shoreline, boating ramps, acres of picnic and campgrounds and 22 miles of roads.
Police Sgt. Jot Lange asked about other projects similar to Beaver Lake. We asked Gene Bastian, general sales manager at Beaver Lake.
Lake Viking near Gallatin, Mo., is similar to the Beaver Lake project, but has a much larger lake and more lots. It was started m 1968. The lake was filled in a year and a half and today, there aren't many lots left to be sold.
We were particularly impressed with the sales force at Beaver Lake and the courtesy extended to we visitors. We don't know who is buying the lots from the Nebraska City area, but we know there are a lot of people from this area who have taken the tour.
The tour is an imaginary trip complete with signs of the beaver cartoons wearing swim face masks telling you that you are now under water.
Beaver Lake people want to take visitors on the tour. That's their business. (One out of four interested customers will buy a lot, we were told.)
So, take a trip, the Beaver Lake way. You'll enjoy it, dream a little and who knows, ole' Gene may have you driving stakes on your choice of lots.
This came from my neighbor, Fred Wusk, was written by Mabel Nair Brown, and is appropriate at high school reunion time.
Oh where are the playmates of yesteryear, The fellows we knew in school? What has become of the studious one, And where, oh where, is the fool? What has become of the orator Whose passion it was to recite, And the bashful kid who could speak no piece Unless he succumbed to fright? What has become of the model boy Who was always teacher's pet? And where, or where, is the tough young nut, The one we could never forget?
Here are the answers.
The studious one, so we've been told, Is driving a hack these days While the fool owns stock in a bank or two And an airline that pays. The orator whom we hear for hours Is a clerk in a grocery store, While the bashful kid we knew so well Has been in Congress for nineteen years or more. The model boy is behind bars, Did something the law won't allow. And you ask, what of the tough young nut? Oh, that one's a preacher now.
The little story was reprinted from Kitchen Klatter.
See you didn't know that ole' Fred and I were readers of the Kitchen news, did you?