The selection across the state of Barry Reed of Peru State as the State College Player of the Week was good judgment.
We were among those who attended the homecoming game and saw senior fullback Reed and his Bobcat team riddle the Kearney unit 28-0.
We've watched Barry for two years and he's a strong and game player. He carried the ball 38 times against Kearney and earned 126 yards in two touchdowns.
Nebraska City's Terry Criger who was out for a time with a leg injury, was back as quarterback of the Bobcats and you'd never know he had a bum leg.
He put on an ole' high school razzle dazzle by racing to one side of the field, then to the other and then gave 'em the Criger shuffle. He didn't score. He must have run 80 to 90 yards in the see-saw action and he was just too pooped to keep the lead and was dropped a few yards from the goal line.
The Peru homecoming was a beaut. The weather was the greatest — we've all learned to appreciate sunshine — and the Oak Bowl at Peru was just gorgeous.
We don't know why the Nebraska City high school or Lourdes bands weren't among those in the competition and halftime show. We think they would have done well against the competition.
There were special visitors in the grandstand. Governor and Mrs. J. J. Exon attended the game and homecoming events.
We expected to see the chief executive of the state participate in the halftime crowning ceremony. Instead, the First Family of Nebraska stayed in the stands and Peru State President Douglas Pearson dressed in his special duds and fancy dan hat, handled the formal chores.
It was a good halftime show.
They tell me there were something like 3,000 people at the game.
We finished our work at the News-Press and got there in time for part of the first half. There were no seats available in tne concrete stands and since we had "been there" before, we took along a couple of blankets and joined several hundred other people who sat on the sloped hill in the sun.
Except for it being a little tough on the backside, everything was just great.
NOTICE TO PRESIDENT PEARSON — Next time the governor attends a Peru home game, hand him a blanket and offer him a choice on the side of the hill . . . who knows . . . maybe the allocation will go up enough to get some more bleachers . . . then start planning some devilment for a new gym.
We had one very interesting experience at Peru. Twenty-three years ago this December, Jim McKay from Lincoln was the best man at our wedding. I haven't seen him since he worked for Roy Berger and put down the floor covering at St. Mary's Episcopal church about 15 years ago.
He was at the homecoming. He works for Kearney State in the athletic department. He sent word via Kevin Stukenholtz that he was at the fieldhouse, so we got together for a time.
Our face is red.
The rescue squad has an "electronic secretary," a mechanical device which records a message when secretary Frank Bataillon is not at home to answer the phone.
Well, just for the heck of it we've played a joke or two on Frank and instead of being serious about the message, we slipped a little Amos and Andy, the squirrel hunt and the new Emergency.
That is, it was a joke until the other night . . . when Frank showed up at the Eagles dinner with a recorder and replayed those conversations for the other squadsmen and their spouses.
Now, what do I do, Tiny Schmitz?
A restaurant in Ogallala and a cafe in Wahoo were recognized by the Nebraska Wheat Division of the Department of Agriculture for excellence in baking and serving of bread products with meals.
The goodies included rolls, blueberry muffins, cornbread and homemade bread from baskets formed with white bread dough.
Fine, fine, but the state department missed a couple of good cooks.
The retired farm women who live on both sides of our home, whip up those kind of goodies.
Mrs. Fred Baker and Mrs. Fred Wusk whip up cookies, rolls and other pastries all the time. And since the women have to "trespass" to visit, I hold court and take my payoffs in pastries.
That works too, because just the other day I had a piece of huckleberry pie. In fact, I had two pieces of huckleberry pie and some ice cream.
Northside school will be six years old in November, according to the dedication program found the other day in a pile of stuff.
The building cost $455,913. The cost per square foot was $14.32.
The voters approved the issuance of $230,000 in bonds in October 1966. The district also had a chunk of money it had "saved" in a building levy over a period of four years.
So what?
So, the school board has talked about a new building program.
The school's financial report showed the district has $102,270 in its school building account. And the money is not idle. Business Manager Fred Coufal said the money is invested in U.S. treasury bills or time saving certificates. That interest is put back in the building account.
It's just a matter of time . . . and money.
Congratulations, Dr. A. E. Souders.
A Nebraska City dentist has been appointed to the board of directors of Otoe County National Bank.
He is Dr. A. E. Souders, a lifelong resident of the community. One of the initials was wrong in the story the other day. The dentist-bank director is Allen Ellsworth Souders. His father, the late, Dr. Guy Emerson Souders, practiced in Nebraska City until his death in 1940.
Just in case you may have forgotten, Dr. A. E. Souders was the man who went around town wearing bright red colors and sold memberships in the Touchdown club as the president of the organization. That was before the Bob Devaney years.