Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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I cannot remember a year like this. I do know that weather records indicate that we have not seen this before, however I do know that our ancestors suffered major droughts during the dust bowl days. I think of all the old homestead sites located in our area. All of the hopes and dreams of those people. Almost all of those sites of course were located on or near a water source, but even so there had to be times there was no water. Maybe there was underground water, but no electricity for pumps, no solar energy, or generators to be used, just...
Remember before Ziplock (and other brands) of storage bags? I still have a hard time throwing away a bread bag. I come from a generation that never threw anything away, as you might need it later. Plastic bread bags were a classic example. These were, of course, washed and dried for use another day. I remember many housewives used the cardboard roll saved from wax paper, etc., to roll these bags on. I am sure that others might have just stuffed the dried bags into a kitchen drawer for the next use. This, of course, was “before the green t...
School has started for some, or is about to start for others. I have noticed lists of school supplies showing up in various stores, as well as in our Courier. If you have taken a few minutes to glance over these lists, you are probably amazed at what children need nowadays for school. First, one needs to realize that the suggested lists are for the year, so the amount of pencils per se are not quite so out of line. I am sure some of the young parents shopping for these items have questions as to the why some items are needed, etc., but for my...
Sunday, my friend, my husband and I drove out to visit the Veterans Memorial located in Fort Peck, Mont. This is an absolutely wonderful monument, well planned out, lovely view and does a terrific job of honoring our veterans. Visiting this monument immediately brought to the forefront how extremely upset myself, and others, have been with what is going on with our historic monuments. Why is history of our past an embarrassment? History has made us what we are as well as helped us learn from past mistakes. And history does have a habit of...
Do you recall rodeos from generations past? I have had on occasion to travel Hwy. 2 a couple of times this last month and have noticed many pickups and horse trailers heading down the road. This made me think of earlier days. I am not going too far back when I ask, if you remember cars pulling a single horse trailer, headed for the weekend rodeo. If you looked into the trunk of many of these cars, you would find bareback riggings, rope cans, etc. If you were successful, and rodeo was truly your event, you might even upgrade to a four-horse...
Do you remember before bottled water? Can you even imagine what our parents and grandparents would have had to say if anyone would have mentioned a business of bottled water! Of course, if it was a business, there would have to be a charge for it and just who in their right mind would pay for a glass of water? I am sure that plastic bottles were unheard of, and if you did have bottled water, it would have had to have been in glass containers. And my question is, would glass bottles be better than plastic? Would there be more recycling with...
Online the other day, someone commented on how stressful it can be to travel with children when they can't have their electronics along. I remember the first time we transported a grandchild for a distance. Being “old generation,” we refused the parents’ offer of taking their DVD for entertainment. It is surprising what you can entertain a youngster with. The first thing that comes to my mind is my sisters and I singing “100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” I am sure this absolutely drove my mom and dad nuts, but they did endure it for quite a w...
The only thing that comes to my mind today is [that it’s] hot and dry and we are all depressed enough about that, so I am trying to think of other things. I recently made a trip to the Western part of our state, getting to see some family and friends. I am a flat land driver and do not like curves well at all, however making the drive did make me think of days gone by. I can remember making a journey or two during my younger days when living at home. The cars of the 50s: no air conditioning, but big and comfortable. Then my mind went to what t...
There are days when I find myself wondering why I even watch the news channels. The other day I tuned on TV, taking a break while I ate some lunch, only to happen upon the title of a talk show, “Breast feeding is not natural.” Now this might not be a good “remember” item, but just where would your mind go if you were to read that title? Never in the days of my generation would that have ever been a discussion. Of course, past generations were much closer to the land and reality of things. Basically, I decided the whole issue was the use of...
I know that there are still a lot of us around that remember the old cream separator. Many people started with the crank separator and later progressed on to the luxury of an electric one. In my mind the process of separating the cream from the milk, whether by hand, crank or electricity, was the minor part. Anyone who has the experience of separating cream no doubt can also remember the joy of washing this wonderful piece of equipment. Many of you have seen the old separator bowls that are mostly used as flower planters, and that was the easy...
O.K. readers, I lied a little bit. I have been fortunate enough to not have a second elbow surgery immediately, so will try to come up with a few memories. I have heard on the radio that our weather conditions are being recorded as the driest since the 30s. I thought the early 80s were bad, but like a lot of things, we find there are always worse situations. Those of us that make a living from the soil remember those years more than others. I know that we have areas locally that are drier than others, but I think that good crops, whether...
I found myself thinking about Sunday church services the other day. Many changes have come about since my Sunday school days. My Sunday school experiences was not related to one church. Growing up in a small community, plus several moves during my youth, gave me the opportunity to become acquainted with customs of several different religions. Do you remember attending a Catholic service when you were expected to wear a hat, or head covering to church? And if you weren’t Catholic, there were other things that were different for the young P...
Do you remember picking up the telephone and getting an operator? I only vaguely remember those days. If you have more accurate memories, please forgive me and feel free to give me a call. As I recall, once you picked up your phone receiver, the operator answered by saying “number please” at which time you gave her the number you wished to be connected to. If you lived in a small community, which had a local telephone office, you might not even have to give the number you needed. All you might need to do was ask to be connected to the loc...
I am writing this on May Day. Do you remember making May Day baskets out of construction paper and working on the project for a couple of days before May 1? I think that we might have gotten to make some of these baskets as our art project in school, and of course Mom was always a good resource. I think that they were supposed to be filled with flowers and given to someone, but if my memory serves me correctly, some baskets may have been filled with treats to be hung on the door knob, or left on the door step of a person you loved. Some place...
This is a more recent memory. Do you remember when community Easter Egg hunts featured real eggs? It does not seem like so many years ago that various organizations in communities got together an evening or so before the big Easter Egg Hunt and spent the evening cooking and dyeing eggs. Yes, real eggs. I am sure it turned out to be a fun event, dyeing all of those eggs. But that was all there was to it. You didn’t have to open each plastic egg and stuff candy, a toy or something in it before it was ready for hiding. Of course like now, they sti...
Do you remember the old wooden (probably oak) telephones that hung on the wall? I vaguely remember seeing one or two of these hanging in grocery or general stores of my early days, and later at auctions (maybe auctions or items of those very fore mentioned stores). These phones had two probably brass ring mechanisms and a mouth piece on the front, the receiver was a separate piece that hung on one side and the other side featured a crank that was cranked to connect you to the operator. I do know that there were other antique style phones, but...
Do you remember when the Glasgow High School had a Vo-Ag program and a FFA team. Glasgow still has some of those FFA members and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those “blue jackets” could be found in closets or trunks. I remember hearing young men commenting on particular skills that were learned during their high school years in the Vo-Ag program. These were and are skills that they used for a lifetime. I am excited to hear that Glasgow is actually considering offering this program again. I think that schools might have offered this progr...
I have written before about recycling and I admit I am at it again. We have all read the funny little articles about the “Green Thing” and nod our head in agreement. Yes, those of us of my generation and previous generations recycled so many things without giving it a thought. It was an everyday thing. Coffee cans were saved and many times used in the shop by the men to organize their nuts and bolts, etc., clothing was recycled by making over for the children, and so on and on. My husband and I took a few days off a couple of weeks ago to att...
Weather is the topic that has been on everyone’s mind these past weeks. Things like “Global Warming” and “Climate Change” creep into our conversations. This prompted me to wonder how many out there remember prior winters that were similar to what we are having now. That in turn prompted me to unlock my Grandmother’s diary and check out her entries for the months of March. Grandma’s entries were sporadic. She might have made an entry for the early 50’s and then skip to the 60’s but the reason for this family information is what I learned fr...
To those of you that faithfully read my crazy column, this article will be short and may be my last one for a couple of weeks. I managed to fall directly on my elbow last week and waiting to have surgery done. It had never entered my mind just how hard it is to type with one hand, so I will take a break, maybe come up with some new thoughts. Today I want to remember the days when the dimmer switch in your vehicle was located on the floor. I personally long for that feature. I will admit that one would think flipping a lever with two fingertips...
This morning, while gathering up things, I put away a Florsheim shoe horn. According to the advertising on this Florsheim shoe horn, Florsheim shoes were made for the “Man Who Cares.” I am going to guess that this item came from Friedl’s Men’s Wear. Yes, this was a men’s store only, and you could even have your suit of clothes tailored there! Does anyone wear tailored clothes anymore? Probably not in our area anyway. I can recall some wives tailoring men’s western shirts. I think it had something to do with hindrance when roping, but maybe it w...
"RECYCLE PAPER TOWELS AND NAPKINS," this headline caught my eye one day when I decided to browse the internet. You readers with any age on you, no doubt would have the same reaction as I. Remember when everything was reusable to some extent, and of course caused many of us to save everything for that future need? But recycling paper was basically done with catalogs and that wasn’t the true meaning of recycling. Now, back to paper towels napkins, and Kleenex. A garment or any absorbent fabric was always recycled, removing buttons, zippers, e...
Will our children, grandchildren or others ever get to see a circus? That thought came to mind when I heard the news that the days of the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey circuses will be no more after 2017. Those of us who live, and earn a living with livestock and other animals can understand this. Federal regs and PETA have hampered many livestock businesses, BUT THE CIRCUS. How many of you can remember the first time you saw an elephant and might have even gotten to ride one? How about a giraffe, and more exciting were the lion trainer...
Do you remember when everything old was referred to as “Antique?” This term covered most anything that might be older than you were. As with most things in our lives, terminology has also changed and the terms older people use do not necessarily mean the same thing to the younger generation. When we refer to antiques, we need to be aware that they might be “retro” or “vintage” or just “old.” Now, I kinda have a clue as to what the difference is, but I decided to Google it, just to be sure. So for any of you that cares, antiques generally refer...
Have you had the honor of being tagged as the family member that has everything? If you have I know that you can justify it easily. Do you remember when your kids came home needing a school project done by the next morning? That presents a problem even today, but yesterday you couldn’t go to the internet for information, or run uptown for whatever you might need, especially if you got informed of this after 5:00 p.m. BUT if you were lucky, you did know someone that might have what you needed. Books, everyone kept books and magazines because a t...