Jesse (forked tongue) Parker, the Nebraska City post office employe who retired and moved to Lincoln, said he is enjoying his retirement.
Jesse kept the PO boys going with an occasional exchange of words (flattering or otherwise), weathered 15 years or so as adjutant of Legion Post No. 8, then told us all to dig our own ditches and pulled stakes.
His ever-present wit and friendship are missed.
He hasn't been idle. A dedicated Legionnaire, he answered a call on Memorial Day and was the principal speaker at three programs, Douglas, Palmyra and Unadilla, all the same morning.
And in the Parker Tradition . . . he gave a different talk at each program.
Here's a flowery note, the type Nellie Gude and I always got a bang out of from Jesse:
"In any event dear boy, I am enjoying my retirement immensely, occasionally lending my talents to Mr. Brandeis in the operation of his parking lot and the Santa department."
His address is 5100 N Street, Lincoln, zippety zip 68510.
Mrs. Paul Stevenson called the other evening to ask if we could remember the names of any of the Jaycee pageant winners.
"Oh, Mary," we answered, "we can remember lots of names of pretty girls."
(The Jaycee and Jaycee Jaynes will sponsor a county pageant July 13. The winner will go the 1975 state contest.)
We remember 1957 . . . Genene Brandt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Brandt, won the local contest held at the National Guard armory.
Genene married Jerry Gude, son of Mr. and Mrs. O. A. Gude. Today, they live in Torrance, Calif. Jerry will soon open a new night club and Genene is teaching in an elementary school in the Torrance area.
The couple has three children, Jeff, 10; Tim, eight and daughter, Jil, six years of age.
The committee for the pageant that year was Deryle Seefus, Roger McCreary, Bill Gangel, Bus Wymore, Bill Dawson, Vaugh Hickman, W. R. Yates, Les Beames, Kenneth Walker, Bill Schulz, and Mary Porter.
Hello there, Herr Oberdieck.
I know a lot of fathers who have a lot of patience, but there is one man who is outstanding — Bill Oberdieck.
Mr. Oberdieck came to this country as a prisoner of war during WWII. He was a German soldier. Through the help of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Kimmel he came back after the war, brought a bride and the couple has worked with determination since. They now own Kimmel Orchard and are still working with the same zeal.
I'm telling you this background because there may be a number of Cooper Station, American Beef and other newcomers to Nebraska City who are not acquainted with the Oberdiecks or their three good-looking daughters.
This is cherry picking time and many youngsters are earning wages (25 cents a bucket).
Bill greets the youngsters at the orchard each morning at 6 o'clock. He makes sure each of his pickers has a belt and hook for the bucket, and assigns them to trees.
Bill spoke to his crew the other day:
"You are very lucky," he said. "If you speak English, I understand. If you speak German, I understand. But we have Mexicans here, so when you want someone to move your ladder, just shout 'LADDER'."
He explained how the checking was done for each picker.
"Is there any limit on how much we can pick?" one person asked.
"Pick all you can," he answered, "and report to the checker."
"It is better to pick with one hand?" another asked.
"The Lord gave you two hands. Use them."
I turned to a little girl standing with the group and said "see, you can earn enough money to buy a 10 speed bicycle!"
"But I already have one," she answered.
Little Bucks
. . . Attended the movie, "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" or whatever. Didn't learn any new words, just remembered what Uncle Wayne said when ole' Bessie stepped on his foot while he was trying to milk her when the temperature in the barn was something over 100 and she swatted him in the face with a you-know-what matted tail. There's a lot of happy people in Burr. The state is starting the grading on the long-awaited surfacing job of the Burr spur east to No. 50. There's bound to be a celebration when the job is completed. Best wishes to Rod Rehm, Neb. City and Syracuse attorney who is moving to Lincoln.
Did you see the picture in the paper the other day of the wedding of Debbie Snodgrass and Ricky Shallenberger? We're sorta partial to Debbie. She is a News-Presser, and the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. I. E. Snodgrass. We remember the Snodgrass family and the PTA years at Southside school.
Debbie's brother, Dave, is in the Marine Corps. He also worked for the News-Press and he always stops in the paper to say hello when he's on leave.
We suggested that he wear his dress blue Marine uniform to Debbie's wedding. "It'd sure make Debbie proud," we suggested.
"I guess so," Dave said. "She's already told me I have to wear it."
There's a brother and sister closeness in the Snodgrass children that we could all learn from.
We're looking forward to football season at Peru State. Head Coach Bob Riley has been doing a lot of recruiting and it sounds like the Bobcats have every intention of getting in the win column.
Athletics run in the Riley family. The News-Press has been taking pictures of the teams in the Legion and Jaycee leagues and that has included Peru teams. So it was no surprise when we wrote down the names of the children to come across two or three Rileys on the teams.
And while we're on the topic of sports.
We don't intend to know anything about the rules of girls softball games, three outs, nine batters or 10 runs or whatever, to end an inning.
The point is, the Jaycees ought to either change the rules or put cushions on the bleachers errr . . . errr at least that's what Don Wolfe of Union said.
Well, mebbe it wasn't him but you know it isn't too wise to rile the people from Union or Percival, or Peru.