The Nebraska School for the Visually Handicapped is 100 years old and a Centennial celebration is planned for the latter part of the month.
Teachers Mrs. Phyllis Brunken and Steve Mahanes screened slides and spoke to Optimists the other day on the 100 years of the school. They have an interesting program and I'm sure a telephone call to Mrs. Sue Voltmer at the school would get you started on a program for your meeting.
We lived across the street from the school for several years and got pretty well acquainted with a number of students and teachers.
We learned, as Mr. Mahanes said the other day, that the blind are independent and like to help themselves. We also learned that they are bubbling with energy and humor . . . like the time we played pitch with "Wally" Wallace of North Platte. He used a Braille-marked deck and seemingly always was the player to "shoot the moon".
One of our favorites is Mrs. Jerry Regler, wife of the superintendent. She has a favorite saying too and we learned it several years ago when she was on a parents panel at the old Greggsport PTA meeting . . . "If I'd known you were going to quote me, I wouldn't have said so much."
Never fret, Anita . . . your son, Tim, is a senior in high school now and he says we can quote him anytime.
A few years ago we stopped in Chappell, Nebr. to telephone John Klingman's parents to say hello. John has graduated but during the four years that he and I occupied the bass row in the church choir, I had it made.
I can't read music, so when a problem area came up (really, for me they're all problems) I used to lean over to Don Cushing, point out the note, he'd reply that it was a "d" or sumthin' and I whisper that to true-tone Big John. He has perfect pitch.
You can imagine my handicap today without my friend, John.
And if you want to get your head chopped off, attend a convention of the Workers for the Blind and propose something distasteful to the delegates.
So, when the Centennial programs come around, be sure to attend. We're confident the museum being developed, the tours and entertainment will be well worth your time.
Thanks . . . to Bob Bebout for the two packages of tobacco from the Carribean. I bought one of those Washington, Mo. 79 cent corn cob pipes and puffed away while finishing a Christmas painting project.
Thanks . . . to Bill Thurman for the loan of the skis. I couldn't talk Bill away from his profitable painting hobby to teach me how to ski, so all I can report is that I haven't broken a leg . . . spills, yes.
Don Pickering and I used to ski down Riverview park a number of years ago. We never got too good at it, but we learned how to stop . . . that is if you call skiing on your back stopping.
Normally I wouldn't touch this situation with a 10 foot pole, but . . . the soldier on the right is First Sgt. Earl Freeman who was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. The picture was taken in the 1930s when things were really rough in Army life, Earl wrote. He never did convince anyone the other two in the picture are secret agents in disguise.
Stolen
A realtor rented three stores in a row at a new shopping center to three competitors. Observers waited for the action.
The fellow on the left got right with it and put out huge signs saying "Gigantic Sale! Super Bargains!"
The fellow on the right studied the signs and went in his store and came out with signs that proclaimed "All Prices Slashed 25 per cent! Fantastic Discounts!"
The fellow in the middle then went in and prepared his sign which simply stated, "Entrance."
Dave West, editor of the Sidney, Ia., Argus-Herald, reminisces about the Depression Years, snorts at it being called an historical era, recalled tuition at the University of Iowa was $48 a semester and his corn cob pipe and "P.A."
"People did help others as much as they could in those times, partly because they knew that no matter how bad they were having it, somebody else always seemed to be having it worse," he said in his column, It Takes All Kinds.
"About the only good thing there is to say about the depression is that it wasn't so bad to be without money when nearly everybody else was as broke as you were."
Dave will readily admit that he had a time writing the column about the depression. He was doing the job at home . . .
. . . and was interrupted by long distance calls from his family just wanting to call Dad and say "hello" . . . there was another "Treasure Hunt" in color on TV . . . he lost the plug-in cord to his electric typewriter and had to revert to a (tch, tch) manual typewriter . . . He had to get up from his electric recliner to turn up the thermostat on the furnace.
Adam Schellinger Post No. 8 has a way of getting things done and when the subject came up about the flag and no night lighting at the courthouse, Commander Harold Bliss directed that the incident be corrected.
Commander Harold didn't imply that the American Legion had a lobby when he appointed Vic Bremer to check into the matter with the county board, but he certainly used some heavy influence . . . Mr. Bremer is the Second District Commissioner . . . the flag is lighted nightly.
Today's famous quote.
This week we want to pay recognition to Ken Wiles, full-time fireman with the Nebraska City Fire Department. It was Mr. Wiles who read with interest the News-Press series of stories about the Bicentennial and observed:
"Heck, this country is only 80 years older than the Fire Department."
According to Nebraska City Fire Department records, the volunteers were organized in 1856.
We know this for fact — Pete Dillman spoke his first swear word the first time he slid down the firepole.