Mrs. Mary Bell, clerk in the City clerk's office, says it's true, Road Runners are running the roads in New Mexico.
We had never seen a Road Runner until last summer on a trip to and from Las Cruces where we visited briefly with our former neighbors, the Gary Grays.
Every time I tell someone we saw Road Runners in the desert, they ask.
"Do they go 'beep-beep'?"
I was hoping Mary would tip me off since she lived for a time in New Mexico, but she wouldn't come through. So, I checked with the next higher authority, Eddie Gerber, and he said the "beep-beep" is a rare sound, heard only by human ears . . . if you're running alongside a Road Runner.
We don't know what the birds thrive on in the desert, but they manage somehow. Mary says the desert is not so bad once you get used to it. She recalled that her first summer was pretty rough, but then she got accustomed to it.
Our friends, the Grays, wanted us to spend a day in the White Sands desert grounds about 50 miles from Las Cruces, but we weren't "used to the heat" so we begged off and hope to return and spend a few days seeing that strange, but beautiful country.
The Grays assured us that a night in the White Sands desert is camping out in "the rough."
And as Mary says, the stars are closer to Earth when you're on the desert in New Mexico.
Otoe County Clerk Jerry Schmitz is a mild-mannered man.
But this election year, he's got double trouble and his head is spinning with trying to keep up with changes in election laws.
It used to be that the towns held their own elections and the county held a primary, general and presidential election.
Now, Clerk Schmitz is in fact the sole authority (election commissioner of sorts) on elections May 9 in the County.
For example:
All village election results will go through his office and that includes schools, a job in themselves. On top of that the clerk must get all his election workers organized, supplies put together and put in the hands of election crews.
If that wasn't enough, he's got to keep tabs on the delegates to the national convention in addition to the county and state primary and the national ticket.
He will attend a special meeting March 9 to be briefed on election changes and will take the leadership in Otoe county on his return.
"I just wish we had more time," he said the other day. "I'd like to meet with the election workers at least twice to bring them up to date. But, we won't have time, so we'll just do the best we can."
The clerk is modest. He will do the job and it will be done right.
The News-Press election crew will be at his desk election night but if we have to go through another of those delegate tabulating nightmares again, I may renege.
Jerry can tell you why. It was the first time I've ever fallen asleep sitting on a counter stool tabulating returns. That was the election night we all pushed pencils until 9 or 10 a.m., the next day.
I did catch one brief snooze and it was pleasantly interrupted when Jerry returned to the courthouse with bacon and egg sandwiches.
Bill Wheeler, who served during WWII, much of the time volunteering his health for medical experiments, was a bit shaken the other day when he was involved in an auto accident.
Wheeler, route three mail carrier, received his three-year certificate last fall for driving without an accident. He had driven 85,000 accident-free miles.
It happened in Nebraska City.
A retail store clerk in Nebraska City won this week's recognition as the Top Sales woman when she paid for part of an item sold in the store.
The clerk sold the merchandise to the customer and rather than "run upstairs for change," she dug six cents from her purse to complete the sale.
"By golly," the customer said, "I've heard of salesmanship, but I've never seen anything like this."
"Now don't you put this in the paper," she said.