Congratulations to Jim Johnson, band director of the Wisner-Pilger band, for his group being selected to attend the Orange Bowl in Miami on New Year's Day.
The invitation to take the 70 boys and girls from the school was received during the Thanksgiving holiday and it didn't take much coaching for Jim to accept or for his community to get behind him.
It's a double congrats. Jim is the son of B. A. and Mrs. Johnson of Syracuse. B. A. and his Rockets attended the Orange Bowl two years ago.
And, they sought the help of not only the Syracuse - Dunbar - Avoca communities, but throughout Otoe county to get the money to foot the bill.
They got it, made the trip and had a grand time.
Jim hopes to be as successful as his dad.
The Auburn band also received an invitation to attend the bowl and we understand there were a number of parents with mixed feelings about the youngsters making the trip.
Those few parents were in the minority, but still they were not too hot on the idea. Regardless of what they said at a meeting in Auburn, the majority ruled and $16,000 or $17,000 is now being raised to finance the trip.
One parent said he felt that if that same amount of money was applied elsewhere in the band program, it would do more good; another parent said that the trip will wash out any more trips to bowl games for four years because of the high cost.
And, a parent said it will take a week for the kids to recuperate from riding a bus down there and back.
No doubt it will be a tiring trip not only for the kids, but for the sponsors. But we are sure of one thing and that is the enjoyment the kids will get out of attending such an event.
Nebraska City is making plans now with the hopes of attending some such event in a couple of years. The school board gave its blessing to such an idea. Superintendent Jim Withee said it will be in a couple of years because Director Roger Lueders wants to get his youngsters into more contests in preparation. And he also wants to use some of Bill Jenkins' Junior High youngsters.
Well, if all that is said comes true, then you're about to meet an expert in the field of bowl trips, because by that time we will have a Tommy Dorsey trombonist and a female Louie Armstrong trumpeter in that band.
At this point, I'm all for it . . . providing I don't have to ride a bus to Miami and back.
So, I'm going to form my own organization of durable parents and with strong backs to practice sitting and sleeping in a chair while 30 or 40 kids whoop it up day and night.
If you're interested in joining The Club, call me so I can get an order in early for a supply of Excedrins and rubbing alcohol.
We are waiting anxiously to see the result of the ecology contest sponsored by the Optimist club and under the direction of Ivan Boerner.
From what Ivan has told us, the ideas are great and the results are exciting.
The contest requires students to photograph an area of their choice, then come up with a drawing on how that area can be beautified.
It sounds simple and Ivan says the first entrant he received came up with a dilly of an idea. "And it was so simple." Unfortunately the chairman won't share the idea until all entries are in and the judging completed.
If any of you students want to get in on the action, see the man at Jessup's. The contest ends the middle of January.
Oscar Adams, Peru, one of the new dispatchers at Sheriff Russ Seals' office in the courthouse, says that the new communications system in the county is really something.
Oscar trucked hogs and cattle for years on the highways to Omaha and had a hobby of a citizen band radio. He's no stranger to handling a microphone and two-way radios, but he says the Sheriff Seals' communications system is way out and right on!
The dispatchers were given special instructions on the use of the complex electronic gear and Oscar says his head was spinning for the first two weeks.
In addition to the massive communications board and microphone, the dispatchers in Otoe county also have two telephones, a teletype and a special tape machine that records all messages taken over the sheriff's telephones.
Then in addition to that, the rescue squad will install another telephone and an electronic device that will enable the dispatchers to monitor all emergency calls and dispatch the rescue squad if for some reason there is a breakdown of communications at the new City building where the rescue units will be housed.
It's a new and changing world we're all living in and if you don't keep up, then you're caught cleaning up behind the gang.
Dr. Neal Gomon, who retires next month as president of Peru State College, will be missed by us here at the News-Press.
We've had many years of association with Doctor Gomon and he has always been helpful and at the same time he was promoting and trying to build his college.
As was said the other night at a banquet, just about all of his projects have been completed. The one sore spot is the gymnasium. He had hoped to have a new building. Perhaps Dr. Max Smith, acting president, already has his goals set and that just might be one of the projects.
A lot of years ago when James Oil company was at Fourteenth Street and Central and the late Bonnie Cooper was the night service station attendant, we talked with Doctor Gomon about schools.
At the time we were thinking about a junior college for Nebraska City and one night we visited with Doctor Gomon at the station. We stopped in to see Bonnie after attending a late night meeting and Doctor Gomon was returning to Peru after attending a meeting at Lincoln and stopped at the station.
He didn't care too much for the idea of a junior college in Nebraska City and made it pretty plain what was really needed was a trade school.
Now, about 15 years later everyone is trying to get into the trade school business.
Doctor Gomon was right, and I often wonder today what growth there might be in Nebraska City today if the town had built its own trade school.
Dr. Herman Glaess, professor at Seward of Concordia, spoke at the Chamber banquet recently and listed his Ten Commandments of human relations.
We've had a number of readers who particularly liked those 10 points and asked to read them again.
So here they are from The Buck's neat and orderly notebook in the special penmanship. (Yuk)
I — Thou shalt love people, not just use them.
II — Thou shalt develop understanding.
III — Thou shalt compliment more than criticize.
IV — Thou shalt not get angry.
V — Thou shalt not argue.
VI — Thou shalt be kind.
VII — Thou shalt have a sense of humor.
VIII — Thou shalt smile.
IX — Thou shalt practice what thou preachest.
X — Thou shalt go to the headmaster of the universe — Jesus Christ.