Nebraska City was complimented this week with the announcement that Mr. and Mrs. Gene Mercer, recently of the Chicago area, chose this town because it not only offers the business potential but because they wanted to settle in a small town, the type in which they want to raise their family.
The Mercers purchased Rick Budd's Western Auto Store and will take possession of the store in September.
Welcome to Nebraska City and much success in your new business.
Up on the North 40.
Welcome also goes to the Fred Bakers who are now our next door neighbors. The Bakers, recently of the Union area, have purchased the Max Snodderly home. Max and Alice have moved to an apartment in Kansas City where he is service manager for an Oldsmobile body shop.
The Bakers don't know it, but by moving in next door they will adopt Tootsie, our cookie-begging Cocker Spaniel and Buffy the sissy tom cat. Both do a pretty good job of identifying themselves at the kitchen door.
We didn't do too much this year as far as a vacation trip. We had planned a sentimental trip to Hawaii, but that went down the drain when Keaton and Jeannea arrived. Then we decided that a California trip and relatives might be too much for the new arrivals, so we decided to just stay home and get acquainted.
And boy, have we had fun.
We moved into our new home on Labor Day, 1961 and had never broken a window. Hah! Flying objects seem to accompany boys and we were "initiated" with two broken windows the first two weeks.
Things have settled down now. Of course we had to install a basketball goal (a gift to Keaton from Steve Snodderly who will be a sophomore at UNO this fall), and buy ball gloves and a ball. And then there was the BB gun, and then Bob and Betty Toler sent night clothes to Jeannea and a rod and reel to our son. Jeannea likes fishing too, so we sat on the bank of the Burchard lake until 11:30, one night and ended the fishing and camping trip with a nice catch.
We've never done any camping and so decided this was the year to try it out. We borrowed Bus and Lou Wymore's tent trailer and went to the Burchard lake, a place we recommend.
Our camping nieghbors were the Walt Prestitos of Omaha, a cousin of Carl Lazzaro. We had an enjoyable couple of days, but were sure anxious to get home to get a "good drink of water," about the biggest craving of the passengers.
There's a lot to this camping bit, we found out. Surprisingly, many people who slip away on weekends to "rough it" spend the time in air conditioned trailers equipped with power generators for lights and TV.
Bus had a hard time convincing me that our family would be comfortable in his tent trailer, but we can attest we had a good sleep and enjoyed it very much.
We think now that next season we might do some more camping, perhaps in something like the folddown models with the iceboxes and stoves. We found on our first camping trip there are two things that are a must —An icebox or specially insulated ice chest to keep food cold and one of those nifty lanterns that burn six or seven hours on one filling of fuel.
We also found that storage space is a must and opening and closing a trunk for an item will drive you nuts.
The gift of the coronary care unit by the Sen. Jack Mullen family is a compliment to the facilities at St. Mary's hospital. The three-bed unit was put into service three hours after the installation.
We made a couple of flights during August, one as a guest of Company A at Fort Carson, Colo., during summer camp and the other to Minneapolis to visit the Shrine's hospital for crippled children.
The guardsmen just about wore us out, but at the same time they extended we intruders with the greatest of courtesy. The flight was interesting. We made the round trip in an Air Guard four-engine C-54 from the South Dakota guard base. As we came in for a landing at Colorado Spring, the Air Force's fancy flying Thunderbirds took off in a practice of what they did the next day to salute the retiring general of the Air Force Academy.
The Minneapolis trip was shared with the football players from the Shrine Bowl. The whole idea of the trip was to show the boys where the Shriners spend their money, the children's hospital. It was a sober visit, and an eye opener for all of us. Not so surprising were the children — they were the happiest we've seen at any hospital.
The nurses said the children look forward each year to meeting the football stars and the biggest problem is "calming down the children after they leave."
I had signed up for the flight several months ago when I thought some of our football boys would be selected for the Shrine teams. It was disappointing to say the least that none of the Senior High or Lourdes boys were not on the team so they could have seen and shared the same thing the other 66 boys did across the state.
Hopefully the high school coaches who do the selecting next year will look a little closer to the material mustered on Nebraska City gridirons.
The Colorado flight was a 200 m.p.h., at an altitude of 8,000 to 12,000 feet. The Minneapolis flight was at 492 m.p.h., at 27,000 feet.
(The Minneapolis airport is where the movie "Airport" was filmed.)