The Arbor Day committee in Nebraska City is to be commended for its selection of Ira Glasser as the honoree for the 1971 Arbor Day celebration.
Mr. Glasser is superintendent of Arbor Lodge State Park and as such he has the job of maintaining the beauty of something in which Nebraska Citians have a lot of pride.
And he does his job well.
We were pleased to have the opportunity to visit with Mr. Glasser to find out about him and then tell the story of the honoree. The story appeared last week and another story will appear in a special Arbor Day section this week.
Mr. Glasser said he joined the State Game and Parks Commission 25 years ago because he thought it would give him a chance to do some hunting and fishing, sports that he had neglected as a farmer for 21 years.
The neglect for the sports still exists, but Mr. Glasser doesn't fuss — he likes his job very much, so much in fact that he's in no hurry to retire and the state department is going along with him.
Sen. Calvin Carsten, Avoca, called the other day and in the course of conversation, we asked him to address the legislature on April 22 with a message appropriate on the birthdate of J. Sterling Morton.
Thanks to Senator Carsten for going much further. He proposed (and it was approved) that a statewide Centennial observance be proclaimed in 1972.
For shame, ole dad.
We read with a great deal of interest the other day that a lot of Vietnam veterans dressed in their fatigues and brandishing toy weapons, demonstrated at the Capitol.
We've read about peace demonstrations to the point where we're pretty well fed up with some of the yahoos.
But the demonstration against the war in Vietnam by many of those veterans caught our attention.
And then we saw the first picture of the veterans.
Well, we agree that some fine people wear beards and have long hair and that they're not hippies, yippies or such.
But we'd just as soon that the "civilians" in the U.S. don't consider that all veterans dress and act like the bearded ones camping out at D.C.
We may have been called "skinheads" when we wore dress blues, but no one ever called a sailor "dirty."
And speaking of the military, there's a sticker on the bumper of the News-Press Mustang that doesn't belong there.
It's some sort of an advertising program for the Marine Corps Reserve.
The boss didn't put it there 'cause he's partial to the Air Force, Pat Osbon and myself are ex-swab jockeys, we've got a couple ex-National Guardsmen and Larry Parker is ex-regular Army.
So now we're getting down to the nitty gritty part — placing the blame.
I guess when the Navy has ordered you to change uniforms (same color of skivvies, we are told) to Jungle Green Marine, you would have some salesmanship pride, eh what, Rev. John?
Richard Whitehead will open his half mile dirt oval Sunday at 2 p.m., for the 1971 racing season.
He's optimistic about this season and so are the men in the auto parts business in Nebraska City. If you don't think so, visit some of the parts stores and notice the display of racing gear.
We have never attended the big Indianapolis 500, but we understand that this year, we'll go.
So will a lot of other people — it's going to be on TV.
We were particularly all fired up about attending a couple years ago until we read The Big Bore, a story of 500 miles of boredom for the fans at the Indy.
And this year, our Saturday afternoon Wide World of Sports has been carrying most of the big races live, so we're getting more than our share of racing entertainment.
The auto racing people claim that more people attend auto races than another sport in the country. I can understand that. Take a look at Whitehead Speedway Sunday afternoon.
And speaking of sports, it doesn't bother me one bit that the cigaret smokers are going to foot the bill for the Big Red fieldhouse.
I quit smoking cigarets several years ago and have since learned why people say "whew" when a cigaret smoker lights up in a car.
Henry Brandt, Nebraska State Fair manager, said in Nebraska City the other day that he'd like to enlarge the state fairgrounds with the hopes of building revenues from the race track.
Mr. Brandt said Nebraska is unique in that it has been conducting the horse races over 30 years authorized by the legislature.
Now is the time to expand facilities while Nebraska is in the lead, because he fears that if the Iowa legislature approves pari-mutuel racing and locates a track in Council Bluffs, the State Fair race receipts might tumble or worse yet, collapse.
Mr. Brandt is quick to point out that the revenues from the horse racing are poured back into the State Fair and related areas, such as awards to 4-Hers and FFA exhibitors.
He's got a good sales pitch and illustrates his talk with a map and projected growth of the Nebraska State Fair.
It's an area in which we should all be interested.
Mr. Brandt also spoke of troubles managing a state fair, such as (shudder) rain during the grandstand shows.
We know what he's talking about — it happened to our family two consecutive years, once for the races and the other for Al Hirt.
So now at home they say.
"Good ole' Dad, he sure knows how to pick 'em."
(Hmmpf! They're just jealous 'cause I'm the only one smart enough to take along a raincoat).