A few years ago Nebraska City had a pretty foxy celebration for Arbor Day and it was said at the time when the Centennial comes up, "the committees will have to do something to out-do this year."
Well, glory be, they sure did just that.
The News-Press got into the thick of things with pencils, paper and cameras. Larry Parker was down with the flu bug and was even in more misery because he was unable to help.
But, we got along fine and hope that you enjoyed the pictures and stories. Mrs. Dorene Duffey, our society editor, handled all of Wildwood activities and the appearance and talk by John Neihardt, Nebraska's poet laureate and the window dedication at First Presbyterian church.
Deanna Sands, a senior at the University, worked for us last summer as a journalism intern and joined the newest member of the News-Press staff, John Quinlan, Omaha, former reporter and photographer for the Omaha Sun.
(Deanna will return when school is out to work this summer in the advertising department.)
I tell you these things to give you an idea of what it takes from your local newspaper to "get out the printed word."
Prior to the celebration, we printed many stories on what was coming up and tried to tell you what you could expect at the programs.
Then, when the Centennial got under way, it was our job to tell you what happened in news and pictures.
We used nearly 20 rolls of film in the three days and two nights of activities. From this we selected about 40 pictures, part of which appeared in the April 24 paper.
The rest will appear in a special souvenir section we are putting together. That section will contain some of the pictures already in the paper, like the tree planting on the White House grounds, and the dozens taken during the celebration that we saved for this special section.
Watch the News-Press ads for the announcement on how you can get this picture section.
The developing of the film and the print making was a two-man job. I developed film Sunday morning and Gary Lee, our regular darkroom man, took over about 3 p.m., Sunday after his National Guard duties.
Three people covered the first chautauqua in many years the opening night.
The Longest Day for the news people was Sunday when we started with pancakes and sausage at the Jaycee fly-in at 7 a.m. After that came the Presbyterian program and Mr. Neihardt, the weekend campers, dignitaries luncheon, parade, program and tree dedication.
Then the News-Press staff returned to the newspaper office.
Millie called and said she was bringing sandwiches. I told her "naw, we'll be done pretty soon."
She brought them any way.
Then No. 2 daughter, Clarissa, came and wanted a ride home. I told her in 30 minutes. Meanwhile her mother came with the sandwiches and took her home. We kept forgetting to look at the clock.
Then Deanna got a call. Her mother was worried. Deanna assured her mother that we were about through. (My, we told a lot of untruths that night.)
John is the only person who never got any calls. But when Millie came with the sandwiches, kool aide and cake, he bolted out of that chair and away from his typewriter.
Gary polished off the cake after finishing his picture making job and went home. All prints were done. He planned to check in at 6 a.m., Monday to get the halftones made for the day's paper.
Deanna, John and myself kept pecking away at the stories.
Then we went through all the pictures, selected the ones for the next day's paper, wrote the cutlines and identified the pictures on the backsides.
"Hey gang," I said cheerfully, "what say we knock off for the day?"
"Grumble, grumble," (with smiles) came the answer.
It was 11:15 p.m.