Another new page on the ….

Another new page on the calendar? How time flies. I just got back from my almost-daily trip around the countryside. My how things have changed in a couple of weeks. I’d mentioned then about all the brown ground showing. Well, that has changed and almost as if we can see it change.

The small grains have grown enough so those fields are green and the corn has popped through so there is no problems seeing the rows. Then, in a couple of fields, the cutting of first crop hay has begun.

Farming has changed so much from the days when I was growing up that I really need someone along some days to explain what is taking place. For example, there is a field just out of town and it appears to be grain heading out. Then I look at the corn fields and the rows are getting closer together and in some cases, almost side by side. Big change from the checked style I remember.

I always wondered why my Dad always used the checker wire for planting. With all the rock piles and hills it never worked out to be able to cultivate crossway anyway.

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The big day came, but I can’t say it is over yet. I am still getting birthday cards in the mail. Surely a welcome sight when I open the post office lockbox.

When the big day was coming, I was having problems saying or writing I was going to be 90. So Jackie and I came up with an idea. If we wrote 9D, that would hopefully throw everyone off. So with things going like they are, I’m at 9D + 10 and still going.

I got a card from a lady who lives in Madison whom I’ve never met. She explained that she grew up in Owen and still owns property there as well as Green Grove. After subscribing to the TRG she said she enjoys reading my column, which I’ve very happy to hear.

I also heard from someone who also has a birthday on May 22. He isn’t quite to 90 yet, but will get there soon enough.

The kids had plans for a big party, but with the virus epidemic that idea ended. I think it was just as well, because I did get a couple of nice meals out of it anyway, thanks to daughters Jackie and Sue. Then don’t forget the leftovers.

All the neighbors seemed to have gotten in the act somehow from treats to fancy signs and balloons.

Then all kinds of gifts and more money for strawberry sundaes and I should be set for the summer. Well, Father’s Day is coming soon, hint, hint.

It is sort of a funny gift, but Rupe and Jackie gave me my own sitdown garden. I was concerned this morning about my tomatoes freezing, which caused Jackie to shutter as she is planning on some of my over production.

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Then there is a gift of another kind. It was in last week’s Turtle Lake Times newspaper. Remember in early April I’d written about sending money to the Turtle Lake Community Scholarship Fund. It was a project I was involved in before we moved here in 1968.

When the PTA folded, no one would offer to take an office I suggested we had started a scholarship and hated to see it end. So we had money from a pancake supper and that was enough to offer (three) $300 scholarships the first year. I was hoping if we started a fund drive each year we could keep the program going.

Time marches on and this was the 55th year for the fund drive. The Times that came last week had a full page showing the scholarship winners this year. All 22 of them and the money has been raised to $500. That comes out to $11,000, quite an increase to the $900 we gave the first year. It just made me feel good.

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It is hard to keep current with the daily news. There were a few things said in the last couple of weeks that just need to be clarified or corrected. Someone commented that people should be more careful for all the things being said about the president. After all, this person said he was elected by the people.

Sorry to say that is wrong. He wasn’t elected by the people. In fact, he lost the election by some three million votes. It was something called the Electoral College that put the right numbers together so he was declared the winner.

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The other misquoted statement is how the president got the economy going again. The truth of the matter is it was President Obama, in 2008, who took over the country in some of the worst economic times in history. If you recall, that was a question of whether Congress would bail out the automotive industry, or just let things slide.

Not only did the auto industry survive, newspapers are full of help wanted ads and there seems to be no one to take. Not even now in our tough times with so many people laid off, yet the ads of help wanted remain. I doubt any of those businesses are just trying to be nice to the newspapers.

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I got two e-mails from Florence’s brother Joe and his wife Jeri who are living in Denver right now. The first was happy news. They said they will be here in 2030 to help me celebrate my 100th birthday. That was good news since I have something to look forward too.

The second came this morning and not such happy news. They live in an apartment building in downtown Denver, just a few blocks from the state capitol.

They told about walking to the capitol this morning to observe what should have been a delightful experience. The trouble was they got to see the leftovers from the demonstrations held for George Floyd of Minneapolis, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer a few nights before.

For certain, what was shown on television was a senseless killing of a man in handcuffs being held down by the police officer with his knee resting on his neck. Almost as bad was to watch two other officers stand by and let it happen.

The problem is that two wrongs don’t make a right. Certainly the officer appeared to be out of line and a court of law will deal with that.

But the demonstrations, vandalisms, looting and burning of businesses are not justified.

With the world going through a period of death by a mysterious illness, we surely don’t need the destruction we are witnessing on live television.