Someone asked the other day what it's like to be the father of teenagers. It's great.
It's even greater to be the father of teenage daughters . . . Mother gets the job of those little conversations that Dads aren't supposed to be aware of, and who look long and into the distance when he isn't wanted.
You parents of teenagers don't experience the same situations I'm sure. Who am I kidding!
I confess as a father, that I don't know a heck of a lot about match box cars or sissy bars and banana seats for bikes.
But, I'm an authority on hair washing at 11 o'clock at night, the "battle for the bathroom," those dainty things seemingly always hanging over the towel rack, culottes and panty hose.
I've often threatened to do something about the Nebraska City Optimist club and perhaps Ivan Boerner and Virg Hastings will give me a hand.
We are among the faithful who attend the meeting at Mary Ulbrick's and stuff ourselves on fried chicken or noodles and stand as Optimists . . . Friend of the Boy.
So . . . they got something against girls?
Well, just stop for a few moments and think about that.
How many service clubs are there in Nebraska City and any place else in this country for that fact, for the sole purpose of benefiting the girls?
Someone asked me one time to help with a Boy Scout troop. I told him to go to pot. We've done our volunteer work with the Girl Scouts.
I always ask that father if he's ever helped a Brownie sell Girl Scout cookies. (That's one conversation I can always win).
At the 4-H fashion show Friday night at Senior High we had an opportunity to again say hello to Peggy Peoples of Syracuse and her mother.
Peggy has a dog named "Blackie" the pup of our now aging Tootsie.
There's been some question about the age of our dog and Mrs. Peoples shed some light on it. She recalled that Peggy was only a year and a half old when they got Blackie. Peggy is now 16 years of age.
Mrs. Peoples estimated that Tootsie must be getting pretty close to 16 years of age. Seems strange that our "old grandma," as we often refer to her, is that old.
There'll be a sad day in our house some time.
Aldean Grundman keeps looking out the window of his house toward his garden with itchy hands. He says it's about garden planting time. Potatoes go in after Good Friday, he says.
We've been "farming" part of a lot owned by Al Gibbs, Up on the North 40. Along about the middle of August we decide this is the last year. But at this time of the year we start thinking about radishes, tomatoes and lots of roasting ears and decide to call Al and ask permission to take over his lot . . . like they say . . . "just one more time."
John Kuch, who spoke at the County NFO meeting the other night, stopped in the office the next day to tell us how much he enjoyed his visit to Otoe county.
Mr. Kuch is outspoken on Nebraska and hopefully, he meant Otoe county. "This is God's country," he said.
It's refreshing to meet someone who says everything these selfish ears want to hear.
We've heard many compliments from our readers about the red, green and blue colors we've been using on highway maps, line drawings and headlines.
No, we're not establishing a trademark of any sort. It's just that our pressman, Chuck Johnson, likes to try something different occasionally and when time during the day permits, we use what we call spot color.
About the toughest job Chuck got into was printing green on a map for every super highway in the U.S. We're pretty proud of the result but we decided we're going to do that an easier way the next time and with the same quality.
Chuck's helper is Wes Fritschle, son of Mrs. Margaret Fritschle, Wes worked for us in the mail room for a couple years and since graduating from high school, he is our cameraman and assistant pressman.
There's a movie coming out called "Patton" about the famous tank general of WWII. The general, who died in an auto accident near Heidelberg, Germany, was an interesting wartime character.
The movie hopefully will show his fiery, go-to-hell attitude.
A question came up the other day as to where the general was buried. Louis Genoa confirmed it is in the Luxembourg American cemetery.
The general, according to Louie, has asked to be placed near his men. There are 5,076 white crosses marking those graves of men, many of whom were with the general in the Battle of the Bulge.
It would seem that hesitancy would be the rule before any more bond issues are offered to the voters of Nebraska City.
They gave their approval for $225,000 for a new swimming pool but a request for an additional $60,000 to build a bathhouse went down the drain by a 2-1 margin.
Nebraska City Volunteer firemen are sincere in their studies for the need of a new city hall, fire department, police station, jail and rescue squad quarters.
The question is, what will the voters decide? It could be that a $200,000 or $300,000 City Hall will have to be junked and something less than $100,000 be asked for a fire station.