You might say it is ….
You might say it is a dog’s world, as we had a birthday party for Maverick on Wednesday. He had just turned 6 and would have been a puppy or year-old dog when Florence was here. I thought I knew who owned the dog, but it turned out to not be the case.
Another good program on Friday. He had been here before and goes by the name of Mr. Concertina. He plays a wide variety of music and Florence would have loved him when he sang “The Little Brown Church in the Vale.” It sure holds a special place in my heart, when I think my mother might have had a little influence in picking the spot.
I know I told you this before, but Florence always claims we got married on Dec. 30, 1956, as I wanted to make sure I got the extra income tax deduction. I said that wasn’t true and the real reason was because 1956 was a Leap Year and Florence didn’t want me to get away.
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A strange story came to mind this morning as I sat in the rehab room. While the names on our door just list our first name and initial, it doesn’t take long and people are calling me Bob and not Robert. And people are used to calling everyone by name.
When someone came by and said hi, I just happened to think of a time when we had been attending a newspaper convention at Telemark. It was always our habit to take any of the staff along that wanted to go. Gov. Tommy Thompson flew in to be one of our speakers.
So, naturally when he arrived, everyone was standing outside the door to watch him land and walk in. Missy Hinkelmann got all excited. She said, “He called me by name.” Her big bubble suddenly broke when someone told her, “He probably read your name tag.”
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Last week’s TRG contained a bonus. A 32-page supplement about things made in Wisconsin. More specifically, things in the distribution area of TP Printing of Colby-Abbotsford. The big story that caught my eye right away was the one about Northside Elevator’s 75th anniversary.
I don’t remember much about Northside Elevator when it was located where Citizens State Bank of Loyal is today. I guess the big thing was seeing the farm trucks backing off Main Street to pick up their ground feed.
I do remember the night of the fire which destroyed the mill. I think it might have been the night before deer season, which probably paid a part in the firemen who showed up to fight the fire.
Then there was the weekly call at O.W. Trindal’s (now Vita Plus) to pick up their ad and seeing the effort put forth to help their competitor to the north. I guess it made me think we lived in the feed capital of Clark County. I guess you can say that holds true today, as I see the Northside trucks going by daily on their way to and back from their other new location in Stanley.
The move down the hill to near the old Soo Line tracks was apparently a good one. They started adding storage bins, almost on an annual basis and then the huge, make that humongous one north of 98. You might say they have taken over Loyal’s “northside.”
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The other day a news blimp came on that Tony Bennett had passed away at the age of 96. Normally I wouldn’t have given it a second thought. Just another movie star or singing legend dying. Then something caught my eye, so I looked it up.
He was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto and was drafted into the army at age 18. He was involved in the Battle of the Bulge and involved with the liberation of a number of German prison camps.
The article I read said he had studied music under the G.I. Bill and gives credit to Bob Hope for changing his name.
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It seems like we are getting a few showers of rain every day. They talk about a drought, but up here everything is nice and green. A year ago, I could see clear to the woods a good half-mile away. It was fun every afternoon and evening to watch the deer come out of the woods. I counted 20-some at one time.
Spring came and no deer showed up, but I do know there are big fields on the other side, so maybe the grass is green there or something. Then someone planted corn in the field. That has taken care of anything showing up. Maybe it will get chopped off, or at least picked so I can at least see a couple deer again. As many as I’ve seen in my life, it always excites me to see one. I recall one year we had three does running in our field just north of the house. One had a single fawn, one had two and the third, triples.
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Right now I’m watching the final round of the Open Golf Tournament. It seems odd enough to see the golfers out there in the rain, but seeing all the spectators is enough to make me wonder. I wonder how much money is spent on umbrellas every year?
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I did it. I keep a diary. Rather interesting to read back a year ago and see what I was doing. As I read, I found out my daily habit of walking around the Rehab Circle, as I call it. The Rehab Center is 34 rooms, but comes to a peak at the end where I am. The center is used for a dining area and storage or offices. So it makes for a nice circle.
As I read through my diary from a year ago, I discovered my effort to walk the circle ended when we were quarantined to our rooms. It seemed like parts would get open and others parts were not. But lately everything seems to be open and it was kind of a nice exercise. Kind of like my effort to take my book outside and read a while. Good way to get some fresh air and a little tan.
