A mighty proud dad and his sun-tanned son.
This is a picture of a father and son with whom we visited for a few moments while waiting on main street in Syracuse for the beginning of the Otoe county fair parade.
The dad we knew right off but the son, well, that's a story. It's Albert Armknecht and his son Dennis who had a kidney transplant (from his mother) last spring in Denver.
Your couhty fair reporter was walking through the crowd with a camera over his shoulder and a pencil and notebook in his pocket.
And the reporter photographer was not particularly conspicuous except for an orange and green "railroader's" cap and shades, man, shades.
(I should have worn my maroon and white striped overalls.)
The sun-tanned young man called my name and stopped me on the corner.
I turned and saw him walking to me. Like most farm boys we know, he was brown skinned from the sun and flashed a smile a mile wide.
Did you ever get into a situation where you know the name of a man or woman but for a split second the name escapes you?
That was me. I blew it and swallowed my tongue in embarrassment.
"I'm Dennis," he said, "Dennis Armknecht."
It was my turn to smile.
Mrs. Armknecht, I honestly didn't recognize your son. He looked so strong and healthy I couldn't ever imagine him as the boy who was so ill for so long.
Well, we had a pleasant visit. Albert said his son does just about everything on the farm including fixing fence.
The family still makes regular visits to Denver, but everything is going along smoothly. Dennis weighs about 120 pounds now.
He is a senior at Nemaha Valley school. Betcha that first day of school with his classmates was a real bang up.
The Otoe county fair was just great.
We spent several days and a few nights on the grounds and except for being weary we certainly enjoyed it.
Somewhere in County Agent Marvin Hoffman's record books he's going to have to put it down that it didn't rain on the first day of the fair. It rained a couple days earlier.
And on Sunday preceding the first fair day, we attended the rodeo on what we surely thought must have been the hottest and most dusty day in the history of mankind.
Deanna Sands, a journalism student at the University, helped cover the fair this summer for the News Press. Deanna and I didn't know if we were going to survive on Monday, but when we entered the 4-H buildings Monday morning there were so many bright eyed and eager 4-Hers and F FA boys that we puffed up some energy.
If someone this winter asks Burton Copenhaver to keep the records on a judging contest of any kind, he'll probably flip. Burton was everywhere with a clipboard in his hands: livestock contest, judging events plus the 4-H horse show. And Burton, we at the News Press certainly appreciated your help and we sure hope you'll be around next year.
There are so many people who volunteer their time to the county fair that it would be impossible to recognize them all.
But for ail of us who attended the fair, we say thanks again in 1971 for making the fair successful.
The News Press particularly appreciated the cooperation of County Agents Hoffman and Mrs. Esther Chamberlain and their staffs for assistance and for the work space.
Among the most happy faces we saw were Kevin Landwehr, Palmyra, who won the FFA Holstein breed championship and Susan Trail, who won the grand championship with her crossbred steer.
One of the other most happiest faces was Janis Rieken, Dunbar, whose awards were climaxed with the reserve champion heifer ribbon. Jams also cried the most.
She's also a little hustler. As the 4-Her in charge of photographer for the 4-H newspaper, she rounded up 4-H council members and junior leaders at picture-taking time.
The carnival seemed much larger, but the attendance down, the grandstand shows were better and the attendance the same, the second annual rodeo was popular and with a little weather help, it will be more successful next year.