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Hello, It’s been awhile since I’ve been to the dentist. On my phone, I keep getting a message that it is time for my next appointment. I will get to it, but I have to finish haying first. And I also keep getting a message that it is time for my eye appointment. Again, haying comes first. But I promise, when the last of the hay is baled, I will honor these calls. I have a good dentist. He has TVs in the ceiling, so when you tip your chair back, you can watch the news, sports or cartoons that you like. That is cool. Not tha...
Hello, Do you remember that Don Williams song that has a line in it, “I love sleep without dreams?” Or wait; maybe it was Tom T. Hall. I’m not much into remembering songs or musicians. But I did play the trumpet for a number of years. Was pretty good, except for the high notes; I wasn’t a Louie Armstrong. What made me think of this were dreams. And stories. I’ve always been kind of a storyteller. When Will was growing up, at bedtime I would tell him and Alfred bedtime stories. They usually were stories about my war heroics....
In this article, I am going to deviate from my memories of those special neighbors to my graduating Class of 1948. The Days of ‘85 are coming up and a few class members wondered if we could “get together” some way during that time. Some thoughts and arrangements were made to accomplish this. Of the 34 that graduated, I believe that 17 are still alive, though scattered. Every graduating class is unique, but I feel this class was unique in at least two ways. First, there were six Gundlachs, three Waterlands, two Schwe...
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” — Emma Lazarus These words were written in 1883 by 34-year-old Emma Lazarus. She only lived until 1887, 38 years, but she managed to write volumes of poetry and attract the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Her words appear on the base of the Statue of Liberty, the destination immigrants from Europe, including Irela...
Hello, I started haying on June 2. That is a long time ago. But, thankfully, we had a few stretches where it was rainy and couldn’t hay, but the past couple weeks we’ve been going pretty steady. So when we had a chance to take an afternoon off and go help friends celebrate 50 years of marriage, we took off. Shirley said it was too wet to bale. I remember going to my folks’ 50th anniversary party. I marveled at how they could still dance! My gosh! 50 years of marriage and they could still dance! As Shirley and I are getti...
We always had a carnival come to town, usually in the middle of the summer, during the early days in Ekalaka. Everyone looked forward to it and enjoyed themselves thoroughly when it came. Of course there were the carnival rides, I don't believe that we had tilt-a-whirls and things like that in Ekalaka, but we had the Ferris wheel and of course the merry-go-round. My experience with the merry-go-round came very early, at probably age 3. I wanted to go on and Mother put me on, only to have to rescue me when I cried. Later, I...
Those are the first words of a song from the movie “Cabaret,” starring Liza Minnelli. The song goes on to say, “Money makes the world go around.” I must have believed that. Never having any excess money, I bought two Powerball lottery tickets every week. I had selected numbers for tickets, based on Ekalaka’s zip code. I wanted to pave Ekalaka’s streets. I had not thought that problem through. I would need much more than the paving cost to cover maintenance and repair. And costs would go on and on. What is the town’s tota...
Hello, I really don’t care for a lot of things that happen on the Fourth of July - I used to. I used to like fireworks, but as I’ve aged, they have lost a lot of their bang. And when you have horses and dogs near a city, it is stressful because cities will announce, “No fireworks inside city limits.” So, that means celebrators drive a mile or two out of town and set them off by our pasture. I used to like parades, but as I’ve aged, parades don’t carry the same appeal they used to. When a five-year-old kid can beat me to...
My article didn’t get written in time to be included in the 4th of July holiday paper. My husband explains his refusal to hurry, saying he had rushed to beat deadlines for nearly 30 years. He refuses to do that in retirement. Well, that is his reason; I just didn’t nail down my choice of subject until too late to beat the deadline. My final choice of subject was the shooting of journalists at a Maryland newspaper. Carter County folks probably carry more guns than Maryland residents. But we were taught as children not to poi...
Hello, You haven’t seen me around lately. No, this isn’t a repeat of last week’s column. Although I have been known to do that. The reason for my disappearance this week is hay. Now, I know hay is not real exciting. Hay is not real funny. Hay is not interesting. There is not much you can say about hay. But, as in the Forrest Gump movie, when Bubba is talking about shrimp; there is alfalfa hay, CRP hay, slough hay, prairie hay, wet hay, dry hay, haylage, timothy hay… I have to tell you a little about haying. Fresh cut hay sme...
Hello, We lost a neighbor this week. A cowboy. A one in a million kind of guy. Bob Christophersen. In the Dakotas, you don’t have to live down the street or across the fence to be a neighbor. As Garrison Keillor once said, “North Dakota is really just a mid-size town with real long streets.” So when we lose someone we’ve known and loved, it hurts. One of the weekly news shows on Sunday mornings always closes with a segment aptly named “A Life Well-Lived.” That show could be about Bob. Bob was a cowboy. A Hall of Fame cowboy...
If this Universe has a Creator, she must have been having a good day when she created birds. They are colorful and dull, helpful and ruinous. They eat bird seed, harmful insects, even our garbage. They will also ruin your clean car and carry off your cat at night. They nest in trees, on the ground and even underground. Yes, even underground. A friend called a couple of years ago excited that a pair of burrowing owls had taken up residence in an abandoned gopher hole on her...
We had quite a discussion on Facebook awhile back about my grandma, Lena Coon’s, blindness, so let me tell all of you the story about this and other things. My grandparents, Lena and Fred Coons, homesteaded near Belltower around 1910. My mother Mildred was born in Malvern, Iowa in January 1910 and moved to Belltower as a very young baby. Maybe Grandma had sight problems before this, but as far as I know it started in the late ‘30s or very early ‘40s when my uncle Chet Coon ran into a fence with their International picku...
My hometown had some 8,000 residents, situated midway between Kansas City and St. Louis, on the Missouri River. James A. Michener mentioned the town without using its name in the book “Centennial.” By Missouri standards, we were a small town. A reformatory for boys, ages 10-18, was located on the edge of town, complete with a dairy. Every 4th of July they put on a free fireworks display. When we lived in town, my dad would drive the car to the prescribed parking lot and we’d settle in for the evening. Mom always made lots...
Hello, I think maybe the rain we had over the weekend was one for the books. It’s not many times in your life when we get a June rain like this. Most reports are from one to three inches. And it came straight down! Here, in the Dakotas, rain and snow don’t often come straight down. I know I’ve told you of wet roundups before, but dang, it’s hard not think of them when you get a rain like this. Once the roundup had started you went every day. Kind of like the postman. “Neither rain nor sleet nor hail,” you know. Only lack o...
Years ago, when I lived in Billings, I’d walk to the bus stop downtown and get on the bus headed to Rimrock Mall. I just had to be careful not to buy more than I could carry. Not many people were on the bus; just mentally and physically handicapped youngsters headed for their jobs at the handicapped workshop. There was plenty of room for me. Later I’d catch the bus headed back downtown, making sure not to miss the last bus. We had a friend who didn’t own a car. A divorced mother of four with an ex-husband who only spora...
Hello, I suppose you are getting tired of me writing about branding. You should be, because I seem to write about brandings fairly often. I guess it’s because they really show how a neighborhood comes together to work or play. The season is pretty well wrapped up now. A few of us have some late calves to brand, but most people are pretty well done. I should rephrase that. I don’t have late calves. To me, a calf is a calf. When we preg check cows, when the person checking asks what the cutoff date is to mark for late cal...
Hello, Let’s make a deal! Let’s make a deal! We all have that friend, or maybe relative, that is always looking for a deal. Maybe you are the friend or relative that is looking for “the deal.” You know what I mean. The person that will spend a day going to rummage sales, looking for that painting they can take to Antique Roadshow and sell for $1.3 million dollars, after they bought it for 50 cents along Highway 21. Or they sleep in the street when it is 15 below so they can be first in line when Walmart opens and can buy an...
All my life I have seen people rooting for their team or players and have done so myself. My earliest memories are going to the high school football and basketball games as a grade schooler in Ekalaka. That would have been in the 1940s and the early 1950s. We had some good teams and players back in those days; we still hear from Loyd Townsend, one of the premier athletes back then. Loyd played for many years on the town teams, including basketball, as well as refereed. Two others I remember are Ross Caton and Billy Jo...
Hello, It’s been a long time since I read or listened to any of Aesop’s fables. I imagine there are many of you in the same boat I am. We sit and stare at the TV, clicker in hand, and complain because there is nothing good on. Oh, Seinfeld reruns are OK, and once in awhile I watch a Twins game. In spite of this, my reading has diminished the past few years. And that is a bad thing. What started this train of thought was watching Shirley this past week. She planted her garden. Now, I’m not much of a gardener. I was 22-ye...
Fishing was a big part of our life growing up in Ekalaka and Carter County. I have told some of my fishing stories before, but I don't think that I have ever written a story about fishing, so, here goes. Grandma and Grandpa Coons kept a good supply of fishing stuff on the porch of their wonderful home. When us kids visited, we helped ourselves to willow poles and various other fishing supplies. We usually went fishing in Box Elder Creek, though, sometimes, we went in the reservoir by their house, which we referred to as the...
Water, water, everywhere. You don't have to be an ancient mariner to see we have plenty of water around us. People are filling sandbags, checking flood insurance policies or waiting for fields to dry up so they can plant. From a recreation point of view, too much water makes it difficult, impossible or downright dangerous to boat or float or fish. That leads to a lot of grumbling about something we have no control over. Life underwater is exciting, too but sometimes in a good...
Have you noticed the carpets of a little mustard-like yellow flower this year? The patches seem to be everywhere from road ditches to hay fields to pastures. You are likely seeing either desert or yellow alyssum, members of the Mustard family. Both species grow at low to mid-elevations in disturbed soils of grasslands, steppe, streambanks, or roadsides, as well as rocky areas. Yellow alyssum can invade undisturbed areas and grow with established perennial bunchgrasses. Desert...
Hello, Do you know the song “Muleskinner Blues”? It’s an old classic. I’m not going to sing it for you. It’s a hard one to hit the high notes on. I’ve got the muleskinner blues. They actually started last fall. I’ve a friend in South Dakota who raises miniature ponies and donkeys., And when you have a miniature jackass and miniature ponies, you often get miniature mules. I stopped and looked at them last fall, but couldn’t get a deal done. All winter long I thought of those ponies. I couldn’t get them off my mind. It was l...
In my last article about Frank and Clara Nies, readers learned of Clara’s early life, her education, and moving to Montana. The article also gave information about her teaching experiences in Calumet, Jordan, and the Mackenzie school, which at the time was near the Fulton Ranch. In the fall of 1917 Clara came to teach the Spring Valley school and boarded at the Charles Nies home where she met Frank, her future husband. At the end of the school year she returned to Superior, Wisconsin and while there, Frank’s mother who was...
