Well, hello there.
We had a great time on our vacation. We visited my folks in Los Angeles and took a side trip to Las Cruces, N.M., to visit former neighbors, Gary Gray and family, and returned home anything but rested.
And as most of us agree, it's sure great going someplace and doing something, but it's a lot better to be home.
Thanks to Dale Chaney for his suggestion on routes.
Dale, we followed your directions and had good highways all the way. We even stopped, as you suggested, at Sullivan's Cafe in Cedar City, Utah, where the waitress put a loaf of homemade bread on our table.
I gave her quite a sales pitch in that you recommended the place, but it didn't make any difference in the dinner price.
As we returned to our car parked near the cafe, a long-haired, bearded, barefooted and bare chested young man approached us, asking what town was "11 county in Nebraska."
It turned out he is a native of the Cedar City area and will be married soon to a young woman from Table Rock. We probably flushed a bit in the face when we realized that his appearance didn't match his fine character.
As a matter of fact, we joshed him, suggesting that he walk the sidewalks in Table Rock on a Saturday night dressed the same as he was in Cedar City.
He got a bang out of that and said he hopes to visit his fiancee's hometown soon.
My dad is 67 years old and is endless with energy. The rest of us in the family asked him dozens of times to sit down so we could rest.
Grandfathers have a way of getting away with everything and at vacation time they lay it on thick. So, we were not surprised when the grandfather bolted into the kitchen waving tickets and announcing that he was taking all the grandchildren to the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Of course a couple of us "bigger kids" had to go along and look after the little grandchildren.
I've heard a lot, but did you ever hear of driving to Los Angeles to attend a circus within spittin' distance of super-dooper-pooper freeways?
It was just great. Dad took our family to almost every circus, carnival and car race in the area during those summer years in Kansas.
But we have never seen a circus with so much beauty and class as the Ringling show. You've gotta see it to appreciate it.
We marveled at the cleanliness of the three ring performance with a couple dozen elephants and 15 or 18 lions or tigers romping grounds.
Grounds! Ha! It was a concrete floor, covered with rubber mats, inside an air conditioned building where spectators were seated in comfortable padded theater-style chairs.
The building is called The Forum. That's the same building where the fights are held every week. If you watch them on Channel 7 every Sunday night at 10:30, you know what I mean.
It wasn't like the circus of old that we remembered.
It was wonderful.
I had to admit to dad, that the circus idea was the greatest and certainly something that the grandchildren would remember for many years.
But drive to Los Angeles to see a circus?
My wife will kill me for this but . . .
Among the items personally packed to bring home from the west coast were three gifts from my dad:
—A fifth of Scotch.
—A fifth of Bourbon.
—A pint of top dressing for the vinyl top of my car.
Guess what got broken and spilled all over the trunk . . . you're right, the pint of top dressing.
Mrs. Wilma Weber, formerly of the Union area, also lives in Los Angeles. She works for Western Airlines, the same company which employs a brother of mine.
Mrs. Weber relayed through my brother that she worked at one time for the News-Press quite a number of years ago. It seems she spent some time in the women's military service.
Maybe Connie Mullis will help me with some background on the ex-Union resident.
Chamber President Duane Hall asked for program suggestions for the annual banquet this fall.
I was doing pretty good with such suggestions as the president of a manufacturing firm, the official watchdog of UFO's (unidentified flying objects), and a representative of a teachers college.
And then the fella next to me at the coffee counter (he wears a flower in his lapel every day) shot me all to pieces by mentioning films from the pussycat theater.
"Wham! Bam! Boy," a voice was heard down the counter, "they'd say the Chamber was really doing something now!"
If you saw the Fifth Dimensions special on TV the other night, then you probably have an opinion.
I liked it. Their guests, The Carpenters, (brother and sister team) are particular favorites.
And speaking of music groups, how about those Mills Brothers? They're still going strong years after their hit, "Paper Doll."