Congratulations
. . . to Joe Voges on his selection as the Optimist Honoree of the Year. Joe said it was the first time to his knowledge that a Community Service award went for conservation efforts.
He took advantage of the opportunity to speak when he accepted the award by urging his listeners to join him to save the natural beauty of the earth and its wildlife.
The river tragedy.
The drowning of an Auburn man in the Missouri River the other day was a tragedy for his family and friends and for the Nebraska City community.
Steve Leslie and Larry DeFreece attempted to ride out the currents of the river from a rubber life raft. Leslie drowned when their raft was swept under a barge tied off at Consolidated Blenders.
DeFreece surfaced and made his way to the shore to summon help. It didn't take long for law officers and the rescue squadsmen to arrive and go to work.
While one group probed the depths of the water along the bank, Jim Chaney, who is a member of the newly organized water safety squad team and a lifelong river boater, headed downstream.
He returned after spotting what he thought was a life jacket. Squadsmen Craig Jordan boarded his boat and they returned downstream while water squadsmen Jerome Keran, Chief Harold Rowe and Don Hoyle searched the Nebraska City area. Chaney returned shortly to report the body had been found. Jordan stayed with the body until other help arrived.
The candidates
If you don't know who's running for what, then you've been staying home too much because it's election year and the candidates have been swarming into Nebraska City and all of Otoe county.
I even bought a ticket to the Democrat quarter beef drawing ( didn't win either).
It is an interesting election year because so many of the candidates or present office holders are well acquainted in Nebraska City. They haven't neglected the small towns in their campaigns.
The crash
The crash of the jetliner and private plane over San Diego was pictured in newspapers and magazines.
The picture of the flaming jetliner plunging to the streets in San Diego after colliding with a small private plane was snapped by a man who had a camera in his hand and was alert.
He snapped two pictures. The man is a county employe in San Diego and works in a public relations department. At the moment of the crash he was photographing a service station. He heard the explosion, looked up, focused, snapped a picture, ran to the corner of the building and snapped a second picture. The horror of the crash was shown clearly in the pictures.
Thanks to Mrs. Betty Housh for the loan of the San Diego papers which provided about eight pages of pictures and stories of the crash and the story of the photographer. The newspapers were sent from her sister, Mrs. Gene Bland.
We'll miss him
The resignation of Dick Miyoshi as manager of the Elks is felt by his many friends. He's that very warm and friendly person whom you've met at one time or another at the Elks, the former Transport Inn cafe or Catron-Miyoshi orchard or along a "krik" bank in the sandhills.
Dick said his plans are indefinite. Eldon Allgood, assistant manager, also resigned to go to work for the Kreifels brothers at City Wholesale Meat Co.
S.O.I.L.
The S.O.I.L. class at Junior High has been given the job of studying and making a recommendation of what to do about the birds and "droppings" at the corner of Ninth and First Corso.
Ben Hammerschmidt and his class have the job. Clyde Moore, retired editor of the Fairbury Journal-News and a fill-in, once-in-awhile reporter, wants to know the meaning of the letters.
"Study in Observing Interactions of Life."
Clyde recalled a similar bird problem next to the courthouse in Fairbury.
"The remedy was an informal waiving of the ordinance forbidding discharge of firearms in the city. The birdshot barrage on several evenings pretty well discouraged the feathered friends."