By the time you read this, Millie and I will be in Canada.
We're off on a one week whirlwind vacation that will take us 1,600 miles north of Nebraska City by car and train to the west side of Hudson bay.
Whatta we gonna do?
Nuthin'.
We will meet Mr. and Mrs. Everett Browning and their sons at the International Peace Gardens north of Dunseith, North Dakota, this weekend. Their sons will stay at the Gardens for a music camp and we moms and dads will drive to The Pas, in Manitoba, Canada.
From there we will board a train and travel another 500 miles to Churchill, Manitoba, next to Hudson Bay. After three days, we will return the same route and head for home.
The family at home is looking forward to the trip — Grandma will stay with them.
The biggest smiles in town.
Bob and Polly Wirth, 905 Thirteenth Avenue, are smiling broadly and they have every right.
Just a few months ago Bob was a pretty ill man when the rescue squad put him on a plane for Mayo's Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Bob says he remembers being moved from St. Mary's to the airport and his stretcher being put in the plane. From then on, time and faces were rather dim.
Today, he's back, feeling great and putting on weight.
We remember well the critical illness of Bob and how hard it was on Polly during those days and weeks.
And unknown to the Wirths, we watched Bob's recovery on North Tenth Street. For some time, Polly was at the wheel of the car with Bob as the passenger.
Today he's sporting a broad grin and driving his pickup truck up and down North Tenth to his Wirth Machine Works shop in the Industrial tract.
It's good to see both of you smiling. Welcome back and continued good health to you.
Tony Ballain, a former News-Press darkroom man, called the other day to tell about an incident involving his foreign car.
"Ivan," he said, "you ought to see this. When I washed my car at Hastings Standard, the paint came off." Tony says the paint job on his car obviously wasn't up to the caliber of what he thought when he bought the car.
Tony attended Peru State, worked at the News-Press, worked with a relative in Ohio learning professional photography and has joined Burns Studio in a professional venture at Plattsmouth.
Up on the North 40.
Senior High Principal and Mrs. Carl Fielder and daughters have moved to the North 40 and 1742 North Eleventh Street.
I keep watching every day for Melvin Baker, 1401 North Eleventh, to bring a shovel and start digging footings for the new Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints across the street from our house.
They're breaking ground for the new home of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Beckman, Garry Ailes says he sure wishes he had a lawn to water at his new home, and the chief honcho of the Royal Arch Masons, Sam Kellogg, Jr., and family may be moving to the North 40. (Sure hope Sam brings along a 4020 John Deere with a snow blade for this winter.)
Say, I sure like having these retired farmers living on both sides of me. The Fred Bakers live on the north and the Fred Wusks are on the south.
And we get rolls and all kinds of goodies from the farm gals who can still whip 'em up over a modern range plus little benefits like "country" cream.
For the record.
Mrs. Roger Smith, Otoe County Extension Council chairman, writes that she'd like to set the record straight on some of the tree dedications during the Arbor Day Centennial.
"The Welch Juniper in back of the Otoe county courthouse is for the Youth of Tomorrow.
"The Pin Oak on the east side of the courthouse is dedicated to the Otoe county extension clubs. The tree was donated by the 4-Mile Hustlers club."
Our eldest, Denise, is attending summer school at Peru State. One of her classmates is Major Earl "Buddy" Webb, who has returned to college under a special Army program.
The major said recently he's found a lot of students on the campus who are children of his former classmates. "That sure dates me," he said.
The major is quite a man. He was a combat helicopter commander in Vietnam, was shot down seven times, has four Purple Hearts and 102 air medals. He is the son of Mrs. Bryan Farson of Nebraska City.