We received an air mail letter last week and where the postage was supposed to have been attached, the writer had simply written "Free."
We knew that this was from a serviceman in Vietnam.
Capt. Mike Roddy, son of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Roddy, Jr., Nebraska City, said he has returned to Vietnam from Japan and has taken command of C company, 404th maintenance battalion.
We knew him better as "Butch" when he was a student at Nebraska City Lourdes.
Butch said his company is operating a forward support detachment in support of the Second Brigade, Fourth Infantry Division. The unit provides automotive, artillery, small arms and radio repair. Their landing zone is near the ocean.
"It is quite hot — about 110 degrees. It gets down to about 80 at night," he writes. He keeps in contact with the happenings in Nebraska City and said at the moment he'd like to take a plunge in Nebraska City's new swimming pool he's heard about but has not seen.
We wish you were home, too, Butch.
The other night we accompanied No. 1 'son to learn about scouting offered during a special event at the schools. (We shuddered as we walked to the door realizing that at least once in the coming months Dad's going to have to sleep in a sleeping bag on the biggest rocks in the campground.)
The scouts put on a fine program and tossed a "special." Bruce Schultz, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bob Schultz, had on the goriest makeup depicting a person severly injured.
The little fellows enjoyed what the "big boys" were demonstrating and when the act was over and Bruce stood up, he towered several heads high over some pretty big eyes. That was a pretty good piece of salesmanship, the boys seemed to beam.
Talmage is one of the most unique towns in the state.
It gets things done.
Its latest project is practically unheard of in many communities —all streets have been hard-surfaced. Midwest Blacktop was the contractor. It is a similar surfacing that City Street Commissioner has initiated on about five blocks in Nebraska City.
The Talmage board contracted for 45 blocks of surfacing at $330 per block. The two and a half inch coating has been supported with a six-year maintenance program, according to the Talmage Topics. "Two years from now the streets will be coated with five-eighths of an inch. This will be done every second year in accordance with the plan."
An article in the September 13 issue of the Christian Crusade Weekly caught my attention. It is called Survival: The Natural Way.
Among the thoughts were:
Wars are fought with the intention of not winning and the very idea of victory is denounced by the nation's leaders; the Catholic church is becoming more Protestant and the Protestant seminaries are turning out men who are more interested in politics than in religion; farmers are paid for not farming, vagrants are paid for not working, policemen are ordered not to ists by the dozens are set free to do their thing which they do with the lusty assurance that reigning psychologists think punishment is a crime.
Life is value so highly that the only executioners are criminals and the only condemned are their murder victims. Law and order is decried as primitive while civil chaos is applauded as progressive.
The answer? Nature's first law is self preservation.
Things like winning wars, (or staying out of them) and punishing criminals and putting smart aleck kids in their place and discouraging sexual perversion and arresting or deporting revolutionaries and getting rid of judges who can't define pornography and making wilful vagrants work for their money — that's what you call natural things.
Terry McGinnity, the writer, said we're ordinary people and naive enough to love our country and we're going to save it. "Let's listen hard for men who make sense (there are a few in politics) and support them no matter what party they're in."
"The seventies can be a magnificent decade if we take charge of it. Nothing (but our own apathy) can stop us."
The black minister who preached at the Methodist dedication program last week was much appreciated by the congregation from most reports.
Nebraska has a black Methodist bishop and the Rev. Emmett Steete who spoke Sunday is one of the district superintendents (or bosses) of the Methodist churches in the state.
His talk was brief and full of pep. There were times we thought the old stained glass windows were going to shatter under his booming voice. We enjoyed his message (thought also we were in a good old-time Baptist church for awhile) and hope he comes back.