1953 Columns, January - June
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Roaming in the Gloaming

With Bob Forrest

Things Material and Immaterial

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January 1, 1953
   Chatting with Harvey Butterfield, the local depot agent, the other day we learned that Bill Schumaker, agent here and mayor of the town during the waterworks days, is still at Henderson. Frank Christie, former agent at Hadley (he married a Fresk girl) has retired. Johnny Johnson formerly at Slayton is at Windom. Harold Johnson, popular depot agent here a while back, is holding down Shakopee. Bob Hager, former agent at Woodstock, is in charge of the depot at Ashton, Iowa. ---    Not matter how smart you are or how brilliant a speaker you may be, there comes a time in your life and perhaps it has, when one can’t express their real inward feeling. You want to say something that you really would like to, but can’t. ---    Will Minnesota let down the bars on colored oleomargarine at the coming session: forty states barred colored oleo some years back. Today there are only six states that have this ten cent tax on colored oleo. Worst of it all is that it does not fall on the rich and the tax does not aid the dairy industry, as it goes in the general fund. Butter prices are being kept up by the government at a 70 cent level, but the U.S. will have to buy 25,000,000 pounds next year and from the looks of things there will be a curtailment in butter production. There has always been butter and always will, but oleo is making bigger inroads in the market each year. ---    We’re a queer people. We get excited at some freak story full of human interest and forget real tragedies. Last week the country was all het up over the severance of Siamese twins, forgetting all about the air crash in Wisconsin, when 87 of our soldier boys went to their death. People are funny. ---    While experts strive vainly to arrive at the cause of so many plane accidents, there is one condition in plane accidents and in fact all other accidents that we can’t get away from: the human mind is more responsible for accidents than defective machines. ---    Is anything going to be done this coming year towards investigating the cost, etc. of maintaining the level in Lake Wilson? You never miss the water ‘til the well runs dry. ---    Last week in the Pilot there was an annual Christmas greeting from Louie and Sylvia Kaplan. They started in business here and have never forgotten to send the greetings back to the little town in which they made their start. Louie has been in poor health for over a year and his friends will be glad to know that Sylvia wrote last week from Miami, Florida saying how pleased she was that Louie was able to make the trip. Here’s hoping the Florida sunshine, the oranges and the bathing beauties will give him added vigor and vim. ---    Over in Denmark they made a woman out of a man: and women are selling at a dime a dozen over there. ---    When you go to Minneapolis, better take your scooter with you: street car fares are twenty cents now. If the fares are to be increased much more it might mean the building of small stores of all kinds in the residential section. Forty cents is quite a lot to pay to go down town to do your shopping. ---    The early country schools were rather different than they are today. Over in Leeds twp. there were classes that had men 13 years of age, 16, 14, 10 and 6 all in the same class. Out in Cameron, Otto Brush and Pete Wrigg went to teachers younger than they were. Down in Chanarambie, Joe Nett, 22, father of Frank and Eddie, went to school to a young teacher. How did this come about? Foreigners who came here were mighty anxious to learn the language and it did not hurt feelings to sit in classes with kids. ---    Minnesota is to have a literary censorship of books, magazines, etc. Beginning at the wrong end, folks. What does a kid think when his parents load him u p with Hopalong Cassidy revolvers and Roy Rogers tommy guns. Let’s do something for ourselves, seems as if we always have to get a law passed so that we will be good. ---    Wild life, animal that is, is still with us. An auto killed two deer near Garvin last week and a beaver family has backed up Beaver Creek for about a mile. ---    Another old timer, Mrs. Jannette Campbell died last week. The Campbells started the Tepeeotah Summer Resort back in 1907. ---    Our admiration goes out to Cardinal Spellman, leading man in his church in the United States. For the second year in succession he has taken time to fly to Korea to bring inspiration and faith to the boys at the front, where death is always around the corner. ---    The sweetest flower that grows is not honeysuckle or orange blossoms. It is the humble alsike [pink clover]. So Emil Ring told us Monday. Emil has a thousand hives of bees and naturally he knows something about the business. In the summer time he keeps his bees where there is alsike. In the winter he trucks the bees to Mississippi where there is plenty of blossoms. Emil, by the way, is an old timer here. He was born in Ellsborough twp. His uncle, a. Reinholdson, built the log cabin in Skandia twp. that now stands in the Murray county fair grounds.
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January 8, 1953
   May the coming year bring you health, happiness and a generous rainfall next spring: we’re going to need all three of them. ---    The Mpls. Tribune is putting on a stunt that brings happiness to all concerned. When your car stalls on you in that city and you need aid real bad, finally someone comes along that you never saw before and helps you get your car going again, what a real lift that is. The unfortunate driver gets the number of his benefactor’s license and sends it in to the “Courtesy” column in the Trib. where it appears the next morning. Both men are happy and this little gesture has prompted aid to many a stranded motorist. ---    The Calif. game and fish dept. head is trying to get a law passed in that state that is going to cut down the number of deer hunters. Whoever injures or kills anyone while hunting deer will have his license canceled in comparison to his condition and his “unsafety” actions. If the hunter was only slightly to blame he gets a year or so, but if he had been drinking he will probably do his deer hunting for the rest of his days in another state. ---    Uncle Sam is giving funds to Japan for a defense army. Why not go further and give the Japs a couple of the billions that are going to Europe? If the war is to be fought and decided in the far east, that’s the place to place a corner stone. ---    If all the charges they have against Warden Utecht of the state prison are the ones published, we think that when one remembers the prison riots, murders, destruction of property in many other states Mr. Utecht is to be complimented. Running a place with 1,000 prisoners trying every scheme to get out is not like handing out pop and ice cream. ---    Fifty years ago if anyone said that an Englishman would some day be the second most popular man in the U.S. he would have been dubbed plum crazy. But it happened last week when Mr. Churchill was voted the second best. In the early days each party had a big gun election argument. The republicans waved the civil war flag ‘til it was tattered. The democrats had a lot of professional Irish politicos and in order to keep the boys in the big cities in line, they twisted the lion’s tail until it cracked. There was nothing too mean for those political speakers to say and they did engender a lot of hate. Time does bring many changes, doesn’t it? ---    We followed the New Year’s radio program over CBS. There was a succession of dance bands from the big cities from east to west from 10 p.m. until one in the morning. Not once was there a church service, one of thankfulness for the past year and hopes of peace in 1953. We are supposed to be a Christian nation, aren’t we. ---    Our congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Les Oberg of Lowville twp. on the celebration of the 25th wedding anniversary. They both came from early settler stock. The late Albert Oberg came here in 1887 and the late Fred Carlson in 1889. Mr. Carlson operated a store in Lake Wilson a while back. The Roamer was 18 then and clerked in his store. Our congratulations may be a little tardy but none the less sincere to this worthy and progressive couple. ---    John L. King of Jackson sold his Pilot last week, for over a half century one of the leading papers in the state. John is the last of the old time newspaper men left. John and the Roamer are the only two that are left of the old Second District editorial association. A grand man is John and a sincere friend. Those newspaper men of the early days were bound together by a fraternal spirit not exceeded by any of the national fraternal organizations. Meetings were always looked forward to with eagerness and in spite of our many differences in politics, we always met upon the level and parted the same way. ---    One of the outstanding figures in the United States in 1952 was Judge Pine of Washington, D.C. When he ruled that President Truman could not take over the steel industry with a stroke of his pen, he did both the country and Mr. Truman a real service. That move on Truman’s part reminded one of an echo of the past: “The King can do no wrong.” ---    While we were on the penicillin circuit last February, we had a real honor conferred on us. Happened to run on to it when going through our “Memoirs” at Christmas time. While waiting for the surgeon we received a communication (can’t give it all so will give you parts: “Dear Bob: as inmates of the Memorial hospital we are constantly reminded of the unselfish services rendered by the nurses, etc. We feel it would be a noble gesture on our part to give them some recognition. We feel that you should select a “Miss Enema for the year 1952,” and we unanimously select you as a national chairman to make such a selection. We will act as judges, etc.” Signing the document were the following inmates or rather patients who were awaiting the surgeon’s knife the same day that we were. The communication was signed by Mel Resting, Jit Lowe, Earl Busch, W. T. Hewman and Henry Magnus. The leaves of the rather length letter were appropriately fasted with a safety pin. We could not make any selections, boys, due to the fact that they were all experts. So if you are agreeable we will call a special primary election. We don’t know much about nurses anyway.
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January 15, 1953
   Forty years ago the election of state fair officers was an event. It often turned out to be a bitter fight and the convention was dubbed the greatest political battle in the state. Merry-go-rounds and acts were far in the background. The biggest men in the state would be there to add their oratory. We did not attend it, but a good one was when the late Frank Day was secy to governor Johnson. Underwood was on the losing side, so Frank started out organizing the Green Tulip, the Freckled Sweet Pea club, the Shrinking Pilot club, etc. Each society had three votes: enough for Underwood. In the Craig and John Furlong fight, John was a fighting Irishman and we insurgents were all for him. The Minneapolis Journal came out with a special edition of the election day, saying that Craig had been elected, and the election had not yet been held: when it was, it was Furlong who won. Another election we can vividly remember was the Murphy Sivright fights. Murphy, a lot of you Murray folks will remember him. He took part in the big ditch fights. Frank really wanted the job and hired a whole floor of rooms for his delegates to see they were not tampered with: one even went up from Murray county. The election was a real hot one. As we had been supporting the Irish long enough, that year we supported Bill Sivright of Hutchison. Best guy in the world, but for a Scotchman he had queer ideas. We were in charge of the headquarters and he gave me a small sum of money to take care of the delegates, but he said, “Bob, don’t spend one cent for cigarettes.” we had a lot of help and rounded up enough delegates. Talked to his manager Frank Millard of Canby and we both went up and saw Frank. It was a bitter blow, but I agreed to get a resolution through, endorsing him for secy. of agriculture in Hoover’s cabinet. That was O.K. We happened to be chairman of the resolution committee. On this committee was Otto Neuman of Wheaton. A bitter foe: he said no, he’d fight. Finally we got him to agree to stay away from the committee meeting and that’s how Frank Murphy got the endorsement. Them were the days when men were men and fought out in the open for a job that was worth only a thousand dollars a year, and carnivals and acts meant nothing. It was a grand experience. ---    Was at the meeting of the Minnesota state fair association last weekend and had the distinction of being the oldest member at the meeting. Had my picture taken with President Frank Thorton and J. Doran the next oldest member. ---    Fairs, state fairs that is, just ain’t what they used to be. Years ago the elections of officers was the main question, now it is carnivals. Don’t make any difference who you have for state officers if have not a carnival: seems passing strange, doesn’t it, that they should be a must. ---    Now the federal government has clamped down on the clam diggers. They were the little machines that were seen at gatherings. For as little as a nickel you could try and work the big clam digger around and dig up some little knick-knack, but the good prizes were either too big to grab or too far away: about the only real lottery left is marriage. ---    The legislature is now in full swing and every member and senator is so primed full of economy that they are almost bursting: they generally are. But wait and see what the score reads at the end. A growing state like Minnesota must expand and improve. ---    If we were a senator or a house member the first thing we would do when we got our first pay check would be to subscribe to the newspapers in our district: comes in mighty helpful sometimes when a member gets intrigued in some big problem and wants to know what the folks back home are thinking. ---    Kenny Gowin writes, “We haven’t seen the sun for seventeen days.” He adds, “Say Bob, won’t you thank the folks through your column for their Christmas cards. They were certainly fine, but I have not the time to answer all of them.” ---    A. Herbert Nelson is doing a fine job as fire marshall. The General hospital was a terrible fire hazard but he kept at the Mpls. council and is getting many improvements made. He is now trying to get some more safety devices installed and fire hazards removed in the Anker hospital at St. Paul. As usual he is meeting with opposition who fully realize the dangerous condition of the building. But Nelson will win out, which will mean more safety for patients. Nothing is more horrible to the human than a fire in a hospital filled with sick and injured. Nelson is doing a swell job. ---    See where the big natural gas mains blew out in Wisconsin bringing annoyances to many a home in eight below zero weather. Gas was their only source of heat. That’s what comes of all your eggs in one basket. ---    Over in So. Dak. seventeen liquor salesmen were permitted to go back on the road. They had been offering bribes to managers of municipal liquor stores to push their brands. All of which speaks well for the honesty of the liquor store managers. ---    The state prison row which occupied so much space in the papers has fizzled out. It was really a shame to bring those charges against Utecht. Looked like one either went off half cocked or was after political glory.
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January 22, 1953
   See where Harry Terry, or rather “Pop” Terry, is handling the Golden Gloves boys again. Ever since we can remember, Harry has devoted long periods of time to athletics. He did it for the pure love of the sport and the building of youth. Some men build up fortunes. Harry built up clean athletics. Can’t forget his brother Duz, a little guy, weighed less than a hundred pounds but every ounce was full of pep and grit. He caught Doc Juel here one afternoon in the long ago. Doc was a former Chicago White Sox pitcher and had more speed than any of them. He burned them in that day and Duz took ‘em all. He ended almost a physical wreck, physically but not mentally. The game was played where the Gannon house now is: we lost one to nothing. ---    Morse, the republican senator from Oregon who repudiated the republican party during the heat of the last campaign, was repudiated by both parties last Wednesday. The way of the political transgressor is hard. ---    Every day or so we read of the “biggest” jet victory over in Korea: but we never seem to get anywhere in spite of all those air victories. ---    Years ago when we used to go to work in the morning or noon, we passed a house and in the yard were kids playing. One was always behind the rest, he crawled on his hands and knees. We found out that the little chap was a victim of infantile paralysis (polio, these days). We certainly felt sorry for him. But the youngster was full of vim and sparkle. He kept going, however, and grew to be able to play basketball and now is one of the top insurance men in Minneapolis. His name, a lot of you folks in town remember him, was Mahlon Lane, son of A. G. Lane, former depot agent. ---    Reading the traffic court reports in Minneapolis each day, one gets tired of the same old $100 fine or thirty days in jail. Why don’t one of the judges have sand enough to say, “Mister, for the next year you will not be allowed to drive a car.” That will keep some of them at least half sober. ---    Had a peculiar happening last week. Was in Minneapolis. Did not get the early morning bus. Bill Leebens was there and he said, “I’ll get you to Slayton.” The bus leaves at eight. We left the Radisson at 10 after 10. We got to Tracy for lunch and bill got to Slayton in time, so we rode the bus home after all. ---    Wonder why the men folks out here never took up the game called curling. It is played on the ice and is almost the same as bowling. It’s an old game, cheap and pretty exciting at times. Charley Hart of Pipestone keeps us informed on all events, and in one of the clippings the players did not finish until four in the morning. ---    We made a tape recording a while back on the early history spot in Murray county and it has been making the rounds of the 4H clubs. ‘Twas nice of little Miss Marion De Griselles of the Cameron 4H club to write and tell us that the members enjoyed it. ---    Alice (Jones) Nelson of Pasadena, California sent us a copy of the beautiful pictures and story of the Rose Bowl tournament. It came on Friday and while the pictures were alluring and beautiful, they made no dent on the six foot snow banks around our house. Her father Evan was postmaster in Lowville twp. on the west side of Bear Lake in 1879. Alice is the widow of Lake Wilson’s first butcher. She is also the aunt of Oran Jones and Mrs. Ernest Miller. Thank you, Alice. ---    They are trying to get rid of Golling, the public examiner, and put a political organization in his place. Golling has done more good for the state than the public ever dreamed of: he sure put the fear of God into a lot of those guys in public office that were milking the public. ---    That Mrs. Gavle of Albert Lea who poisoned a guy with stuff she had put in a whisky bottle for her husband has a lot of nerve asking for a pardon. If she had not been loving with the hired man for eight months she might have pulled the drunken husband stuff. If they let her go free, what about the poor hired man that is serving a life term, the man she coaxed into the mess: you know how women are, and what they can do in the days of 1953: pardon him and let them live together happily ever afterward. ---    The first blizzard of the season hit this section Thursday. It was a sort of baby blizzard, it lasted until the afternoon. But it was a local affair. We got daily papers. It had all the earmarks of a real blizzard, high winds, drifting snow, dropping thermometer, snow drifts that a man could walk on, but the darned thing petered out. For which we all are thankful. ---    See where E. C. McCormick of Akron, Ohio purchased a half interest in a Hereford bull: was just wondering which half of the bull he got. ‘Twould make a difference. ---    Governor Anderson’s budget was pretty conservative. Folks out here won’t mind a little raise in taxes if it goes to the handicapped and the mentally afflicted.
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January 27, 1953
THE POOR FISH   Lack of rainfall and continued cloudy weather threaten fish life in every lake in this section of the state. The water in the lakes due to lack of rain is in a deplorable condition and tests in most lakes show a lack of oxygen. In south Lake Wilson, Burton Fowser said last week that there was seven feet of water in spots, yet the water was filthy. Joe Thuringer fishing in Lake Shetek the first of the week said the deepest spot he could find was six feet and the water in the lake was green and filthy. The water condition in Shetek could have been better perhaps if the private parties had put the planks in the dam at the Mason place. This has been remedied by the state and the park supt. and state park is now in charge of the water level. Sooner or later the fishermen in southwest Minnesota must face the fact that a greater depth of water is needed at Lake Shetek. To accomplish this end, land that would be overflowed must be purchased by the state. Action along this line should be taken at once and the state asked to make a survey of conditions. Shetek furnishes more sport and recreation than any other lake of its size in Minnesota. In the northern part of the state fishermen do all their fishing from boats, in Shetek 95 per cent of the fishing is done from the shore. The state has received enough money out of the rough fish in Shetek to build a three foot retaining wall around it. ---    Years ago folks liked to make fun and criticize Gov. Dewey’s mustache. We thought they were pretty small potatoes, but we are voicing a dislike to Mamie’s bangs. She’s not a bad looking woman and a nifty hair dresser could work wonders on her. Sixty years ago bangs were all the rage, it was a cheap way of fixing the hair and some of the girls looked as if they had waited for sheep shearers. ---    The most deadly financial disease that strikes us today is polio. When a real case strikes a home, that home is financially ruined. Some of the worst cases have cost $45,000 and the end is not yet. So far the March of Dimes has been able to keep things going fairly well, but if polio increases the burden may become too heavy a strain for even the March of Dimes. The costs in a severe case of polio are staggering to the mind of the average layman. ---    Say what you will, we--of course, that does not mean you--have an ingrown gambling instinct that time, sex, age and breeding do not seem to be able to squelch. It seems to start with playing marbles and ends with dignified dames who are bitterly opposed to gambling in any form, trudging through the snow to the store, party or show that is giving a door prize. Dress it up as you may, it is the lust to get something for nothing that lures us on. ---    Cheer up, the winter will soon be over. Five more weeks will bring us into March. With March comes winds, snow, rain and ducks. We’re going to need a lot of rain this spring: some of our fields are pretty dusty; now is the time to plan that garden. ---    Colds, flu and grippe have been busy in this section and very few families have escaped the ravages of one or the other. None of them appear to be real serious but they are mighty uncomfortable and hard to shake off. ---    Never heard of it before and don’t think you have. Three brothers are the highest officers in one of our fraternal organizations. They are the three York boys. Jay is master of the local Masonic lodge No. 262, Don is junior warden and Rex is senior. Something very unusual not only in fraternal but in any other organization. ---    Well thank the Lord they have done away with the platoon system. It was an abomination. Most football fans have all they can do with remembering the names of the team and its substitutes without adding another fifty names: can’t ever imagine a platoon system in baseball. ---    Guam is a gardener’s paradise. You can grow stuff there every month of the year. So says Sea Bee Larry Zieman who is home on furlough. The temp. runs from 71 to 91. There is about sixty inches of rainfall and garden stuff grows so well you can pick your roasting ears any day of the year. Plenty of bananas and palms but no oranges or lemons. Another Lake Wilson youngster is going to be stationed at a historic spot. George Manderscheid is going to Casablanca, Morocco, Africa. Casablanca, by the way, is bigger and wickeder than Minneapolis. ---    Had a card from Frank Mihin last week. He is vacationing in Wyoming. The card had a picture of the Cocktail Lounge of the Wort Hotel at Jackson Hole. There are 2,032 silver dollars embedded in the floor: looks like a woeful waste of money. ---    Pheasants and deer have about eleven months’ rest each year, but the fish in our lakes are harried summer, winter and fall. How in earth can you expect them to ever supply enough young ones to satisfy the multitudes? ---    Mrs. Henrick Mattson of Avoca was Murray County representative at the inauguration. There’s a woman that through sheer force of ability has climbed to the top.
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February 5, 1953
   The Missus and the Roamer will not need to buy vitamin B pills for a while at least. Doug Weld sent us a basket of juicy oranges and grape fruit last week from Florida where the Welds are spending the winter. We folks up in the North sometimes get a wrong impression of Florida. We think it is a land full of resorts, bathing beauties, sunshine and fiestas. Yet Forida has more milk cows than Minnesota and more oranges and grape fruit are raised in Florida than in all the other states combined. The South has come up a long ways in twenty years. ---    As was expected, Prudence Cutright went down to defeat in her campaign for regent of the Minnesota U. When Jerry Mullin, Archie Miller and Roy Dunn are dead set against you in the Minnesota legislature you might as well take your dolls and go home. These three don’t need any defensive platoon. Minnesota is represented in the legislature by two factions, the conservatives and the liberal fanatic faction. Karl Neuimier the new elected belonged to the old guard for eight years. Sentimentally we were for Prudence, but common sense tells us that in the election of Neuimier the people have selected an agressive, open minded regent. ---    Alex Lowe died in St. Paul last week. His death removes another of the old time pioneers. For over a half century Alex devoted his time and energy in helping build the county. He helped build the railroad west of Tracy, broke up thousands of acres of prairie sod, helped paint the first building in Lake Wilson, was a witness to the signing of the deed from Charley Norwood to J. E. Wilson. There was not a phase in pioneer life that he was not connected with. His was a well spent life. ---    The fair city of Worthington has evidently come to a fork in the road. Worthington has one of the finest municipal electric power plants in this section, they are proud of it, yet it seems that all or rather a lot of the tax money goes to maintain the plant in new machinery, etc. and only the leavings are left for other city purposes. Take for instance the street lighting system: has not been changed in forty years. The parks are still unimiproved, they have no swimming pool, etc. and a lot of the citizens are urging the city to sell the plant to the Northern States Power company. If the city sells its plant to the Northern States, it will get quite a bank roll and don’t forget that after the sale, the power company would be the largest tax payer in Worthington. ---    Chas. Wilson has finally been accepted as top defense man, that is providing he will sell all his General Motors stock, which is as it should be. Other appointees have to dispose of their holdings. How far can they go in this line of thought? You want to remember our congressman, Carl Anderson, is head man on the farm committee and he has livestock, grain, etc. to add. Senator Thye also raises a lot of hogs, etc. on his farm. To be consistent, will these men have to sell their holdings? ---    The lower house of North Dakota has passed a law that requires every person to list their personal property themselves. That will save the assessor many a visit. But what’s going to happen when the town board or village council says, “This does not look right to us,” and tells the assessor to go out and make a list of the property. In theory it looks good but in practice, well when the assessor goes out and finds a little bigger value then the tax payer will be called before the board or coucil and neither boards nor councils want to sit day after day on tax adjustments. ---    Jimmy Flannery who now lives in Washington, D.C. sent us a copy of the Washington Times Herald with a full account of the inauguration parade. It certainly had everything, with pictures of the three elephants to the eight top ladies in their inaugural gowns in color. It was a blueprint parade, everything clicked and it lasted three hours and a half. Parades are as old as civilization and the one last week would hardly compare with those of early days. Caesar back in 47 B.C. had one that lasted four days. One afternoon the huge triumphal car in which Caesar was riding had a flat tire or something. Anyway, the parade was held up several hours. Darkness came up and Caesar, who had forty elephants in the parade, got up in front of his car, put flaming torches in their probosces the historian says, (we call them trunks) and the the parade had a glorious ending that day. Evidently that was the first republican parade of record. ---    In the last Sunday edition of the Madison, Wis. State Journal is a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Iver C. Moen of Lake Wilson, who had just celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary. Mrs. Moen is one of our oldest settlers, coming here in 1879. The Moens are spending the winter at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Olson and are enjoying every minute of their stay and their daughter notes, “We are glad to have them with us.” The Moens have seven children living. They also have 11 grandchildren and 28 great grandchildren. In their picture in the Journal they look hale and hearty. The Moens have a large circle of friends here who have known them down the years, who express their congratulations to the couple, who celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary last week. By the way, that’s a long time to be married to one woman. ---    The boys have been having some fine walleyed pike fishing in north Lake Shetek the last week. Where all these fish come from is a mystery: we thought we got them all last fall. ---    The annual Legion Hog Feed will be held Saturday evening February 7th and the boys issue a cordial invitation to all. Chief on the menu is a 230 pound barbecued hog, donated by ...[missing] Ranch.” (Dr. Suedkamp and Louis Pl...[missing]...lamb donated by Marshall Fowser for which the boys are truly thankful. Nice going, boys.
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February 12, 1953
   This has been a grand winter so far. Have not had a real cold spell yet, of course there’s plenty of time left. Remember back in 1936 when the thermometer did not get above zero for 30 consecutive days. ---    The second book in the Bible is named Exodus, and that’s where Lake Wilson is this spring. Five families that we can ill afford to lose are leaving. Among the first to go is Omer and Mrs. Brink. A grand couple well liked and esteemed, but Omer just can’t stand the winters any more. He canvasses for the Watkins company and when snow comes it’s bad going. They are going to Missouri and will start farming again. Omer’s father by the way was a cousin of Oliver Wendell Holmes, a former supreme court justice. ---    The prices on beef and dairy cattle have shrunk alarmingly the last month and that makes a lot of difference to many a farmer in the vicinity. There seems to be a surplus in both beef and dairy products. The south is beginning to horn in on both beef and dairying and that makes a lot of difference. Twenty years ago no one ever anticipated this was coming. Dairy cows have dropped 50 per cent in value. ---    You’ve heard for several years that individualism is gone, that there is no opportunity for the young man. We’ve found out that depends on the young man. Two years ago two of our young married men, lured to Greenland by really fabulous wages, went up there and spent the winter. They, or rather their wives, banked the big wages. What happened: both are now in business for themselves. One of them, Eddie Mortensen, has the Standard oil station at Slayton and Don Babcock the Standard oil interests at Woodstock. Just shows that if you’ve got it, you can go places. ---    The last federal government did a lot of commendable acts: one of them for the small business man. For years they had been paying social security on their employees and when the small business man came to the end of the road he had no place to go. This was changed at the last session of congress. Now the small business man is entitle to social security even if he is business for himself and has no employees. The headquarters of the federal administration of the law is at Marshall and hundreds of small businessmen and other elderly folks who are entitled to social security receive sympathies and kind treatment which has helped a lot of people, so that the sun shines better than it did two years ago. In charge of the office is Harold N. Larson with an efficient staff of employees who tend to smoothen out the tough spots in the road. ---    The president did a fine stroke of business last week when he commanded the U.S. fleet to stop guarding the land of Communist China. For two years now we’ve been fighting Commies at one end and then protecting them on the other end: that is a sample of Acheson diplomacy. ---    Talked to a lot of folks of late about having the Nationalistic Chinese doing battle with the Commie Chinese and everyone seems to back the president. Every Asiatic, and that includes the Japanese, should be given the chance to take a crack at the Chinese troops that have brought a lot of grief to many a U.S. home. ---    A bill introduced in the North Dakota legislature to allow 18 year old youths to vote was voted down by a large margin: come to think of it, the boys couldn’t vote any worse than a lot forty, fifty, yes and even 80 year olds. ---    Herbert Morrison, top man in the British Labor pary criticises Mr. Eisenhower for taking away the U.S. fleet from Formosa. He wants the U.N. to carry the White Man’s burden. Now Herbert, don’t get silly, any time you want to save a Chinaman, grab a musket and fly to Korea and if you’re as good as fighting as you are in talking, the war will soon be over. ---    Seems odd doesn’t it, but the group of men that make laws for you and I are about the worst lawbreakers in the state. The constitution requires that the state should be reapportioned according to population every ten years, yet every legislature since 1913 has bypassed the proposition. A bill is up this year to reapportion the state legislative districts, yet will remain in a pigeon hole as all the others did for the last forty years. Two reasons. Members don’t want to legislate themselves out of office. The other is that the rural members are afraid that the three big cities would dominate all legislation. ---    When the “woman” gets the flu and takes to bed, leaving the humble husband in charge, first that perplexes him is where do all the dirty glasses and dishes come from. Another thing that puzzles the husband is does the sick wife get well on account of the fine, healthy vitamin-stuffed meals you serve, or is it because she can’t stand your cooking any longer? ---    Top medical men met with the president last week to ask him how the doctors could get people to pay their bills. Best way we know of is to cut the bills down to fit the patients’ bill folds.
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February 19, 1953
ARE WE NEUROTICS? The three murders at Hutchinson wreathed a lot of excitement, so much that the authorities had the following item in a daily newspaper: “The remains of the three may be viewed at the Dobratz at Hutchinson.” The mass viewing of the dead is a relic of barbarism that we cling to tenaciously. Some folks we remember got a real kick out of attending funerals and viewing the remains of people they never knew or heard of. While the custom still prevails it is not as bad as it was in the early days. In those days the casket was placed between the pastor and the family. It was always the custom to say nice things about the deceased, whoever it happened to be, he would be lauded to the skies. One day it was over a man that had left his wife and kids for four years and pastor put it on so thick, the story goes, the widow nudged the boy sitting next to her and said, “Look and see if that is your dad that is in the coffin.” Then at the close everybody in the church would march to review the remains. Some women would hold up their four-year old kids to get a look. That custom while on the wane is still followed. Why people view the dead can only come from a neurotic or morbid trend. We don’t refer to relatives or intimate friends. Sixty per cent of the people evidently view the remains from curiousity or the purpose of indulging in criticism. You’ve heard them say, “Gosh he looked swell.” “I never knew she was so thin.” “He looked the cleanest he ever did in his life.” “What happened to that black spot on his cheek?” “I never knew that his nose was so big.” “The undertaker certainly did a wonderful job,” etc. and the question comes up, did they go for reverence and respect or just to see? They are going to say the same things about you and me. People go to view the remains that would not go two blocks to see the departed when he or she craved a friendly visit, a kindly touch of the hand or an inquiry if they could be of assistance. We must be a nation of neurotics. ---    There’s a bill before the legislature now that should get your sincere support. The Sullivan bill provides that a railroad can close its depot when carload freight and passenger tickets fall below $8,000 a year. This bill would close every station on the Pipestone branch at the will of the railroad company. The passenger tickets on the branch is down to as little as $20 a year. The freight shipments are only a dribble. If you are interested in keeping the depot open in Lake Wilson, every civic body and every other organization should voice their disapproval of the measure by writing Senator Hans Pederson or Rep. B. W. Llyod at the state capital, St. Paul. Don’t wait until the horse is stolen. ---    Korea seems to be the graveyard of to many American generals. ---    In the death of John S. Jones, the farmers of Minnesota suffered a distinct loss. For years he has been their leader and kindly advisor. Mr. Jones helped sell the first memberships in the Farm Bureau in Murray county. Two former county agents, Frank Brown and A. G. Merenes, were among the pall bearers. ---    Can’t understand Gov. Anderso firing Herbert Nelson, state commissioner of insurance and fire marshall. Few men have done as good a job. Of course when he insisted that hospitals in Minneapolis and St. Paul obey the law and give suitable protection to the sick, injured and dying, he stepped on the toes of big city officials and some taxpayers. He was death against out of state accident and health insurance companies who were not registered in Minnesota. Seven people we know were skinned by out of state companies. Nelson was more to be admired than fired. ---    The drop in beef cattle should not come as a surprise; the demand is less, there is an increase in the number of cattle fed, something that always follows high prices. The union men are getting the same wages and we notice that every strike is still settled by granting an increase. Whe beef cattle get scarce, the prices advance. At present when beef cattle are plentiful, prices go town: there are 91,000,000 in the United States. ---    It’s not remarkable that the Game and Fish Dept. is under a storm of criticism all the time. When you stop to think that the dept. publishes the names of violators in the Sunday papers each week, sometimes 136 of them, is it any wonder that the dept. gets worked over every day in the year. ---    The lights went out Thursday night, and undressing in the dark and trying to find the hole in the nightgown to put hour head through is harder than a crossword puzzle. It was all on account of a truck driver and a combination of an icy road that was the cause. He went slap bang into an electric pole on the road a mile north of Currie, and the pole came tumbling down to cause shorts. The men hurried out and in 33 minutes the lights came on again. ---    For years we’ve all believed that the log cabin was the product of the American frontier pioneer. Such is not the case. The first log cabin was built by the Swedes in 1638. It was the type of a house that the Swedes used in their homeland.
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February 26, 1953
   With prices tumbling how can labor keep striking for more wages? We live in a strange world. ---    An innocent appearing storm last Thursday ushered in the worst snowstorm the following day. Visibility was almost down to nothing. At times you could not see forty feet. It stopped everything but the clocks: the Northern States kept them running. It did not come in the category of a blizzard: you can’t have a blizzard with the thermometer standing at twenty above. ---    The action of the opponents of oleomargarine in the various legislatures reminds us of King Knute, the Danish king who had such a good opinion of himself that he tried to sweep the sea back with his broom. This ten cent tax is a tax on the poor, rich folks don’t use oleo. Members of the legislature will vote for this tax and at the same time vote for a sales tax providing that all food be exempt. Not much logic in that. ---    Don Pattinson, who is wintering in Florida, writes Florida does not have nearly as many milk cows as Minnesota and most of them are poor scrawny critters. He does say, however, that Minnesota ranks 12th in beef cattle and Florida 13th. According to the Tribune library Minnesota ranks third in the nation outside of the sunshine (and we suppose the bathing beauties). When we say we’re from Minnesota to one of the natives, they start shivering. ---    The John Ericksons are now located at Hot Springs where they are taking the baths, twenty-four in all. Effie says the flowers are blooming and the grass is green and that they are feeling better. ---    All personal property taxes must be paid by March 1st. If you think your taxes are too high, pay them anyway and apply to your local board or to the county commissioner for a refund. ---    See where a tavern keeper at Long Lake in Hennepin county was fined only $50.00 for selling two cases of beer to a bunch of youngsters. Out here if a guy even looks enviously at a pheasant before the season opens, he is fined more than that. ---    The price of gasoine is being raised. Evidently the gas business is just the opposite of the cattle business. More gas is in storage than there ever has been before and new wells are brought in and immediately capped. ---    There’s a reason for the movement for a sales tax in Minnesota. The three big cities are seeking a gas tax, and if that ever becomes a law there wouldn’t be much of a chance in ever getting a statewide tax. ---    The governor says he will veto a sales tax and the legislature so far is not inclined to raise the tax on ore, and the feeling between the executive branch and the legislative is far from cordial. ---    After the heaviest snowfall in this area in the last thirty years a lot of us expected to be shut in for several days, just the opposite happened. Clarence Erstehd was out in the morning at 5 a.m. and by ten had every street and alley opened: the law relating to the cleaning of the sidewalk was not very rigidly enforced Saturday. ---    Just where all the rubber comes from nowadays puzzles us. Must be the synthetic rubber has pushed Mother Nature to one side and taken over. The amount of tires for instance on the farms of today is really surprising. Talking to Ernest Reese of Cameron twp. Big operator who was given up for dead ten years ago, but came through, he has 270 tires on his farm. Of course he needs a lot as he operates 1,700 acres this coming year. The Reeses and the Kruse families are early settlers in Cameron. They came here in the late eighties. ---    Talked to Eugene Lane last week. Gene is a son of A. G. And a grandson of W. I. Both well known in Slayton and Lake Wilson. The Lanes operated a store and A. G. was the depot agent. Gene is inspector for the fire Insurance companies or Underwriters assoc. in Minnesota and he gave the village the once over, found our waterworks and fire equipment in first class shape, and told us that there would be no increase in fire insurance rates, which is good news to the business men. ---    John David Weber, editor of the Murray County Herald, has been elected president of the local Civic and Commerce assn. We extend congratulations to both the vilge and John D. who was born and raised there. No resident of that village is more civic minded. He believes that Slayton can do no wrong. That’s the kind of a spirit that is needed in every town and organization. Keep harping on the good points, there’s enough that will tell you of your faults. ---    Last week the Ashton hospital at Pipestone was given to the county. For years it has been operated by a civic minded committee who worked for the years to keep it going. On the committee were Ed Ludsik and Shas. Gillin, old friends of ours who spent days of their time keeping the institution going. The Murray County Memorial hospital closed another year in the black, due to the fine management of John Joy and the loyalty of Murray county folks.
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March 5, 1953
   Give all credit due to the men and women who traveled to the Chandler air base last Thursday to give a pint of blood. Some day you will find out what this effort means, not only to the men in the service, but to you and yours. We had the experience a year ago of receiving some of the Red Cross blood when we sorely needed it and whether it was Holland, Irish, Norwegian or German blood we did not question, but we do know that it kept us alive long enough to write this item and voice our appreciation. ---    Senator Gillette of Iowa calls for action to end all floods: while you’re at it senator, why not include blizzards in the bill. ---    Can’t understand how an astute politician like Senator Humphrey ever tossed the Slayton postmaster job into the laps of the republicans. It is the best paying federal job in Murray county but evidently the local bosses and Hubert did not see eye to eye. Mr. Bolin the acting postmaster is giving efficient and courteous service, but that does not mean anything in politics. We notice that twenty-five candidates took the examination for postmaster at St. Cloud. ---    We are mighty pleased this week over the statement by County Agent Hagen that the members of the 4H clubs would assist in arranging for markers for the historic spots in Murray county. If we can only get the 4-H club members in every county in the state to follow, it would do more for local history than has been done in the last sixty years. ---    There was quite a little criticism two weeks ago in this village because the municipal liquor store declined to give a donation to the March of Dimes. The March of Dimes is a very laudable project but no village or municipal liquor store can appropriate money for private institutions or organizations. There is no provisions made in the municipal liquor store law that allows it to give donations. ---    The Klondike gold rush has nothing on the incredible rise in residence lots in this village the past three weeks. Some they say reached $1,000 for two lots, others asked from $500 to $300. A member of the equalization board in the village asked us, are we sure we did not assess or value them too low? ---    The heavy snow of late has been a boon to the farmers and fishermen alike. We only hope there is more snow or rain so that waters of the Des Moines can back into Lake Shetek. This will give us a real opportunity to get the lake stocked. ---    A real colored movie fan is Don Weck of Slayton. He has the latest in camera, screen, etc. He invited Fred Gass and the Roamer down one night last week and what a fine collection of colored movies he presented. Movies of hunting and fishing in Canada, northern Minnesota, the Shetek Park and one at Keely Cure Island. In the last picture, Fred and the Roamer starred, with our bullheads. Don said, “We will now have some in black and white.” We opened our eyes and here was Frank Weck coming up the sidewalk in his rolling gait, laughing and coming to greet us. The next was Vin Weber with his short snappy steps; as he came near me he lifted his hand in salutation (and we could almost hear him say, “Hi Bob,” as he did in the days that were). Then came Jimmy Ruant, the maker of the Gazette, in his slow almost measured steps. There were several more and last was Joe Farley. What a wonderful way this was to remind you of your relatives and friends that have been called. Lots better than looking at a cold grey monument of granite or a look at them after they have been stilled in death. The black and whites were taken by Don Roberts many years ago on an 8 centimeter film and Don had them enlarged to a sixteen. ---    Friends of George Grim ask us why don’t we ever hear him on the radio any more? George is now on TV and has a lot of other work and engagements. George happens to have a kindly friendly voice, no bluster or bravado about it, but it has a tone that folks like to listen to. He has built up a lot of friends here, a lot of them GI’s who get a kick out of his word pictures of the various places he has been in. He’s always entertaining as he is the most widely traveled man in Minnesota. ---    Heard a guy say the other day, “That’s what you get for electing Eisenhower. First thing he did was to let New Zealand cattle in and down went the market.” That trade agreement was made with New Zealand long before Ike ever thought of running for president. We want to sell American goods to New Zealand “down under.” They raise sheep, apples, butter and cattle. Nobody in this country eats mutton, we raise plenty of apples and some butter. Cattle were at the highest price known in history and no doubt that is why the New Zealand beef came in. ---    See where the air men in a Newfoundland base sent $35.45 to the Red Cross: it was for fines they imposed on themselves for every oath they uttered. Swear words at five cents look might cheap to us. We’ve seen times when we hit our thumb with the hammer that we would cheerfully and willingly boost the ante to six cents. ---    The school lunches throughout the country have a quiet way of getting into your taxes. Last year the government donated 24 million pounds of butter to this worthy project. It’s a lot better to use it for our youth than to send it to foreign countries who use it for axle grease. By the way, the government had more than fifty million pounds of butter on hand on January 1st.
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March 12, 1953
   A young lad was beefing to us the other day about being stuck in a snow drift when he was coming home from a party. Reminded us of fifty-five years ago, when Charley Willey and John Wescott borrowed Ole Clauson’s horse to get to a dance at Chandler. The horse by the way had a habit of balking and when the young got into the buggy to start for home, the horse would not move. They poured oats into its ears, tied up one foot, pounded it with clubs, said words that would make a mule skinner blush, but Jim stood still. A man in the always helpful crowd said, “Build a fire under it.” Straw was brought from the livery stable. They did. The horse walked a couple of steps. The blaze was then below the buggy which began to smoke. The crowd lifted the buggy to one side out of the ‘fire zone,’ then gave up and Charley and John started on foot for Lake Wilson: life had its dark moments in the early days. ---    Willis Godfrey left for his new home at Lorenz, Iowa last week to take up a new job. Willis has been a guiding hand in the development of the Farmers Co-op here. He served on the school board and also on the village council. He was especially valuable to the village for his work in the board of equalization, the best member we have had so far. We are also going to miss his wife. Not since we’ve lived here, and that’s back in the hazy past, have we known a woman that has given as much of her talents and energy to the village as she. In the church, in the Auxiliary, the schools and in every line of civic endeavor she has given her best. It’s been grand having you here Eva Belle. Good Luck to you both and to your fine family. ---    We always thought that the Kiwanis clubs were a sort of stuffed shirt organization that oozed culture and polish and wore dress suits. Was invited to give a short talk before the Slayton Kiwanis group last week, to have dinner with them and give a short talk. Sure was surprised: didn’t see a white tie, not even a finger bowl. They were just a bunch of Slayton professional and business men. In fact their members composed the cross cut section of the village. They have the same aim as everyone should have, that of being of service to their community, county and state. They want to be of some service to their fellow men and the youth of today. Something that all of us should strive for. They are kind and forbearing too: they listened to us for twenty minutes. They also endorsed the 4-H club movement to replace markers at historic spots in the county and then went on and made us an honorary member, and said nice things about us. To us it was an experience we cannot forget. After all a guy gets more of the perfume from flowers when he’s living than when he’s lying cold and still. ---    How are the pheasants standing the winter is a daily argument among sportsmen. There is one quiet reserved farmer near here that has solved that problem. He left six rows of corn unpicked on each side of his grove and the pheasants are coming through in fine shape. His name by the way is Ted Hill. ---    Remember about the “sportsman” who shot a deer in Bear Lake last fall in the closed season. We see by the Herald that his car, a Mercury, is being offered for sale by the state. This will do more to discourage illegal hunting than a mile of “Keep Off” signs. ---    Joe Stalin died last week and contrary to most people’s opinion we secretly admired Joe Stalin. Any man that can outwit Roosevelt, Truman and Churchill must be smart. Remember the agreement about Berlin: Joe gave a the U.S. a large section of Berlin, but surrounded that section with Russian territory. No farmers in Murray county would even accept or buy a forty in the middle of a section unless he had a road out. ---    The Pope last week excommunicated Father Feeny of Boston for consistently preaching and advocating that no one but a Catholic could go to heaven. If the Episcopalians had intestinal fortitude enough they would kick this red dean of Canterbury out of their church. What the Red Dean should have is a good swift kick in his pants. ---    See where they administered leeched to Joe Stalin in hopes to improve his condition. Leeches were common three generations ago. We remember going into our father’s office in Scotland when we were nine years old and saw three jars of those awesome critters. They are used for the purpose of taking blood out of the system. They are overdeveloped blood suckers and would stick like glue. Did you ever stop to think that those leeches were the first blood mobile. ---    See where Ralph Rickgarn spoke over the radio the other day and made a fine job of it. Ralph is a grandson of the late Carl Rickgarn who used to be our neighbor when we lived in Cameron. Carl would have been mighty proud of his grandson when he spoke last Saturday. ---    Thirty years ago yesterday the Twin City hospital for Crippled Children received its first patient. What a wealth of comfort and happiness this institution has brought to thousands of kids in Minnesota, and there’s no nationality, color or creed there. A worthy institution if there ever was one in Minnesota. ---    The leaven on the sales tax is working. Advocates say it will remove the state income tax. All well and good but the small guy, the one that has the little family, will have to pay more taxes than ever to help the boys that pay large taxes. If they need more money to run the state, pass the sales tax bill and leave the income tax as it is.
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March 19, 1953
   The strike in one of the Rochester hospital-hotels ending in the usual rise in wages brought an ominous feeling to a lot of folks; it will soon be cheaper to die than to be doctored. ---    What a farce it is to talk about making a state out of Alaska. The whole territory of Alaska contains a few thousand more people than the population of Duluth. The largest town, Anchorage, has only a population of eleven thousand: we have too many pocket boroughs now. ---    We are the most nervous irritable people in the world today. Nearly fifty per cent of the people suffer from nervousness. The two main causes of our nervous troubles are breakfasts and cigarettes. Back in the early 1900’s we used to go to a restaurant across from the old Astoria hotel in St. Paul for breakfast. We had oatmeal (grapefruit had not been discovered), ham and eggs or steak and eggs, fried potatoes, toast, coffee and finished with either buckwheat or wheat cakes with real maple syrup, at a cost of thirty-five cents. When a man or woman got that menu under their belts they were not watching the clock so that they could get out for coffee and a coffin nail. They were fit to work from seven to twelve. Their nerves today are unstrung, they crave coffee and a coffin nail with more eagerness than a drunkard craves a drink. They’ve got to have them or their system will suffer. Just watch a cigarette smoker. They take a quick puff, lay down the cigarette, in a minute they are back for more. They are as tense as a banjo string. The only one that woos “My Lady Nicotine” and gets relaxation out of her is the man with the pipe. He gets solace and peace, dreams and sees visions. If the no-breakfast and too many cigarette habit keeps up, there won’t be enough butterflies to fill the nervous tummies in 1955. ---    Everybody attended the Stalin funeral but God. But we should not criticize. He is not even in our Constitution. ---    The women of Minnesota must be a catty lot. With thousands of young women attending the university and who have no representation on the board of regents; the women in city and country seem to be too jealous of one another to select a representative on the board of regents. In 1918 they shouted, “Give us the Vote. We’ll show Them:” why don’t they? ---    Congress is fast losing the respect of the people. The senate passes a resolution unanimously condemning Stalin: that means war in any language. Then the members find out that there was a shortage of ammunition in Korea and every one of them want to get on the committee to stir up more stink, which will avail but little. The people are getting sick and tired of investigating and want action. They want congress to see that we get ready for war with plenty of ammunition and material. Let’s start on the job ahead, instead of doing so darned much talking. ---    A bill in the Minnesota legislature would require every person between the ages of 21 and 25 to buy a $3.00 license and identification card so that he can buy beer and liquor, or have it in his possession. What bunk. Why not require every man and woman in the state to take out a license. If they are able to drink liquor they won’t miss the three dollars. Funny some tax minded legislator has not thought of this. Another thing to remember, the young man of today knows just as much as his father did when he was fifty: at least he thinks he does. ---    Did you read that list of stocks the late President Roosevelt had when he passed away? He had interests in every big company in the country. These stocks had been in the family for years, but the thought came if a president could hold stock in that many companies why couldn’t Charley Wilson hold a block of stock in one company. ---    We lived in the days when communism came under a different brand. The followers of revolution then were called anarchists. They were a hard bitten lot, just the opposite of the present collared and cultured followers of today. They staged a demonstration in Chicago on May 4th, 1886. The police were met, not with lawyers and the “I refuse to answer, it might incriminate me” line. Those birds were the real McCoys. They met the police with bombs and when the smoke cleared away seven policemen lay dead and there were sixty wounded. It was about that time that Chicago had another spotlight. A butcher and sausage maker by the name of Lutvert did not get along with his wife. She disappeared. The police investigated. Detectives found in the sausage room a piece of human bone about two inches square. He confessed that he had killed the old girl, undressed her and put what was left through the sausage grinder. He was hung, but there was a time in Chicago when it was hard to sell sausage: even the dogs wouldn’t eat it. ---    Charley Smith, the Cameron twp. farmer who talks with a Yankee drawl, is planning on being in the parade when Slayton has her “Days of 1887” doings. Charley came from Indianny, the state where Abe Lincoln lived in for a while. He is building a covered wagon of Lincoln’s days with Maw in the front seat wearing a sun bonnet and a Mother Hubbard, and of course he will have a cow tied behind the wagon. This old and ornery Charley still has a lot of pep. ---    Say, Missus. Want to get rid of that man of yours? Got a good chance. The Community club is having a rummage sale and basket social on the 24th. They’ll take anything at the rummage sale from a two-legged box elder bug to a dead elephant. Your man ought to fit in there somewhere. The girls should pretty up their baskets. A basket social is like matrimony: you never know what you’ll get. ---    March 26, 1953
   You guys that have been cussin’ the Game and Fish dept. for the lack of water in Lake Shetek must change their sights to the Division of Waters, state conservation dept. We wrote Frank Blair two weeks ago stating that we had been over to the dam, found the Clifford Mason farm flooded with the gates on the dam closed tight. He replied that the whole matter rests on the Division of Waters. Our humble apology, Mr. Blair. Whoever is in charge of the Division of Waters is a nut. Was told the other day at the courthouse that he had replied to a phone question, stating that there was plenty of water in Lake Shetek and that the dam would not be opened. Why men of this type get a position of this kind--has not even been out to the lake--can even venture such an opinion is unthinkable. Governor Anderson should be informed of conditions and a legislative inquiry made by the legislature: and we yell our heads off at Stalin. ---    You don’t need to get your husband ready until a later date. Marshall Fowser said about the 7th for the coming rummage sale. ---    About the only way we can cut taxes is to raise more taxes to pay for the cuts. ---    This probing epidemic is getting worse. The chairman on the Unamerican activities says he would investigate the clergy. Then along comes mouthy Franklin Roosevelt and says he should be deposed as chairman. Then along comes an official of a big church group and says that four of the men who assisted in the rewrite of the Bible were members of a subversive group. Now comes another group that wants to probe Senator McCarthy. Most folks wish the probing hysteria would get into low for a while so that we could center our efforts towards maintaining a sufficient armed force supplied with enough ammunition. ---    When you read the increased taxes brought in by oil wells in North Dakota it looks as if it would pay Minnesota to offer a bounty of $500,000 to the company producing a paying oil well. We pay bounties on foxes, crows and gophers, why not oil wells? ---    See where a while back the legislature killed the bill that wants to revise the state constitution. Good thing. We don’t know anything about it, neither did the legislature. Why revise something we don’t know anything about. ---    It’s a grand thing for Eisenhower that he is receiving such fine support from a group of democrat senators. The republicans have been away from the trough so long that they all want to pitch. ---    The legislature is faces with countless bills asking for more appropriations, but none for additional taxes. We want schools, roads, state buildings, raises in pay for employees and every other thing imaginable. How are we going to get all these things unless we raise more taxes. We can dip into our educational funds, but that won’t last forever. Some day we will come to the end of the road. ---    The annual Minnesota mass hysteria came to an end Saturday night when Hopkins won the championship. What is there about this game to arouse such frenzied excitement and uncontrolled nerves. It’s a disease that spreads to towns that look up when the team is on the up grade. More tears are shed by the youngsters at the big tournaments than were ever shed for the boys from their schools who gave their lives in World War I and World War II so that the youth of today could enjoy life at its best. Every school has glass cases full of basketball trophies: how many of them have a Roll of Honor with the names of the service lads that are gone? ---    Last week countless millions celebrated the birth of a famous Scotchman. He was born in Dumbarton, Scotland and when a lad was captured by a bunch of Irish pirates. He spent his life bringing civilization to the Irish and whatever they can claim in the matter of religion, culture and learning they owe to that humble lad that was born in Dumbarton. Did you know that Scotland is the oldest nation in Europe, and again we hear somebody over our shoulder adding, “And the tightest.” ---    If you are thinking of buying a monument for that cemetery lot just to keep with the Joneses, don’t do it. Instead buy a colored movie camera. Then start taking pictures of your wife, the youngsters, grandma with the baby and grandpa with his pipe, all walking towards the camera with smiles on their faces. Then have the oldest girl take a picture of you. Also snap some of your warm friends. There will come a day when those films will be the most precious thing in your home. You or they will see the family and their friends when they were full of life. They will bring back pleasant memories that will really thrill you. Just the opposite of that last look you took of your dead when they were cold and motionless in the coffin. ---    During the past month ten people have looked at me sort of pityingly. The men say, “Gosh, you’re getting fat.” The women, a little bit kinder, say “You’re fleshier.” Some men poke their fingers into me like a doctor does when you’re flat on your back in the hospital. So we had to hike home and put on the girdle. Strange thing is, we weigh the same as we did two years ago. On occasions wear a suit that was made for me by Tink Thompson in 1927. But the odd thing of all is: eight of those folks who gave me the once over will never live to be as old as we are now.
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April 2, 1953
   Measures are lagging in both houses of the state legislature. Better get your spurs on, Elmer, and go to it: it’s later than you think. ---    Looks like the U.S. senate has two well known breeds of animals, Morse the skunk and McCarthy the wolverine. ---    Down at Austin, members of the Masonic order and members of the Knights of Columbus are presenting the Passion Play: there are still some intelligent and tolerant people in the world. ---    See where the legislature is threatening to investigate the game and fish department. The people, that is the sportsmen, should investigate the legislature and ask them why it took $500,000 out of the game and fish funds. ---    As a general rule we are a mouthy lot. We cuss and swear at certain bills, but how many of us take two minutes to write a brief protest to our senator or representative. We’d rather stand and holler, “Why don’t they?” ---    Young man, would you like to be a cadet at West Point? If you do, write Congressman H. Carl Anderson at Washington, D.C. This district has a vacancy. Get your pastor and school supt. to endorse you and send it to Carl. You don’t have to be a top notch football player this year. ---    You’re face to face with a sales tax in Minnesota: a three per cent tax general sales tax. The proposed tax if enacted into a law would mean the abolition of all personal property taxes. Which means that only the real estate, that is lots and the buildings, would be taxed. Everything sold will be under the new plan, with the exception of beer, gasoline, cigarettes and whisky. These items are now paying a sales tax. You ask how will we be able to run our villages, townships, etc. The plan provides that each village and township will receive out of the sales tax the amount that would have been assessed. ---    Never seen the ground so darned dry: eight foot snow banks don’t run off as in some years. They are absorbed by the ground underneath. ---    Feeling highly incensed by the way the state conservation dept. has been handling the water level at Lake Shetek, our favorite fishing spot. The entire official staff of the Shrinking Violets visited the dam at the Mason place last Friday. Found all gates shut, no water going into the lake. We nodded our heads and said they were right, those criticisers. We drove on to the main dam north of Currie, the one that determines the water levels. What did we find? The water running merrily over the dam and bullheads, suckers and Northerns fighting their way up the dam and getting into the lake. The club had believed what they had heard, that there was no water in the lake and that the department would not allow more water in the lake. We all feel very humble and extend our apologies to the Waters Division for all the mean things we said or wrote. Dead fish are appearing at the edge of the lake: a common occurrence every spring in prairie lakes. ---    Well, they just got through renovating the Bible again. The wording has been changed to make it easier to read. It was easy enough to read before, if you would just try. The way to the Cross is just as simple, kindly and friendly as it has been since the beginning. This is the way we must all walk some day and one that we must walk alone. ---    We live in a mysterious age. Take the case of Gus Brieberg. He came from Latvia several years ago. He was a corporal in the gallant 10th Division that fought so well in Korea. He came back and some official found out that he had only been here on a visitor’s permit and that had run out. After a man offers his life for a country, what more can he do. He offered his life for us, yet how many of us will even invest two cents in a post card to tell the war department of our sentiments. ---    Now don’t get hot under the collar about this proposed sales tax in Minnesota. You don’t know anything about it, neither does the Roamer. But just let this soak in. Thirty-three states have sales taxes, running in size from New York to Utah, and we have read of no insurrection in these states to abolish it. Just wait a while. ---    Was glad to hear from 1st Lieut. Howard Nepp last week, and so will 197 blood donors. His letter appears in another column. Letters of this type are what we have needed for several years. ---    The death of Rev. Olson brought a pang of sorrow to the Roamer. Few men advanced so rapidly in his profession and few did it so modestly and earnestly. He was a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Olson, pioneer residents of this vicinity. ---    Wesley Roberts of Kansas has resigned as national chairman of the Republican party: ‘tis well. ---    Remember the days when every other man wore a big emblem attached to a willowy watch chain across his tummy, or a big pin on his coat lapel. Remember the Woodmen, the Royal Arch, Odd Fellows, the Masons with the square and compass, the Knights of Columbus and the Elks, whose pride and joy was a double elk tooth. Nobody wears a vest now, so there is no room for emblems.
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April 9, 1953
   People must be changing their eating habits. Right now the U.S. government has 150 million pounds of butter, 7 million pounds of cheese and 56 million pounds of dried milk. We fully realize that oleo has hurt the sale of butter, but what about dried milk? This surplus comes at a time when the experts advise dairymen to produce more milk to be made into the dried product. ---    Best thing that we have heard out of Washington for a long time is that the senate appropriations committee just offered General Van Fleet the job of being staff military advisor. The country needs him. The Pentagon does not stand too high in the estimation of the average citizen. Here you can find brass hattism at its worst. ---    The Roamer had George Grim’s column in the Mpls. Tribune last week. One Trib. official wrote, “Your column was wonderful.” Then we thought of a short paragraph from St. Matthew: “A prophet is not with honor save in his own country or in his own house.” ---    On the Pipestone road one day last week, a Lake Wilson man had a flat tire. It was muddy alongside the highway. The jack would not work. Cars whizzed by him, didn’t even look. A small truck went by. Drove to the corner and turned around, and the harried motorist was surprised to hear, “Can I help you?” The man with the truck was Roman Beelner of Lake Wilson. A kind deed like that on a rainy day or any other day lingers a long time in a man’s heart. It’s the little kindly deeds that count. ---    It costs the Northern States Power Co. a pretty penny every year to keep the trees trimmed that threaten their wires. The Wright Tree Service was here last week trimming and cutting down trees. A fine bunch they are. They must all be married men. They clean and haul away every little twig and branch. By the way, old trees are like old men. When they are young they are a thing of beauty and joy. When they are old nobody wants them. Did you ever drive along the road and see the dead trees lying in the pastures? Nobody wants them. ---    Four young Minneapolis squirts got what they had coming last week. A bunch of them, running around 17 and under, had been stealing autos. They made the fatal mistake of taking one across the state line. Judge Norbye sentenced them to a federal prison for boys where they will remain until they are twenty-one. ---    Here’s something worth thinking about. Iowa has no iron ore. Neither has South Dakota, yet they manage to get along as well as Minnesota with the biggest ore mines in the world. How could we get along without the iron ore tax? ---    The effort to extend the length of trucks from 45 to 50 feet died aborning in the Minnesota legislature. A mighty good thing. Three of these big trucks in a line makes passing hazardous and helps add more deaths to our highway toll. ---    From the way changes are being made in Washington, D.C. it begins to look like Civil Service is only a “scrap of paper.” ---    When the words, ”Let us exchange our wounded and sick soldiers” cause a drop of two billion in our stock markets, what will the one word “Peace” do? ---    Instead of looking forward to listening to Cedric Adams in his ten o’clock news, a lot of folks turn off their radios. Those southern stations push WCCO off the air like a snow plow in the winter time. We need an Iron Curtain to shut off those southern stations. ---    Minneapolis sports writers are agitating a movement for a big league baseball club. They feel that the twin cities could support one. Time was when the rural districts were ablaze with interest in the Mpls. and St. Paul teams. Fans had their favorites, they knew their batting averages, etc. without batting an eye. “On to Nicollet” cavalcades were all the go. The rural fans had become interested in the teams via the radio. Then the brass tops stepped in and shut off the baseball story. The teams have become farms for the big league. There is no more interest in twin city baseball out here in the sticks as there is in a dead carp. ---    Let’s forget about the sales tax for another two years. It was the ace card of the group that wanted to get the members economy minded: it worked. ---    If a kid that rides the bus to school and during the day aims spit balls at the teacher and hits her, he gets into trouble and his sentence is: stay after school. The bus man drives up and if the youngster is not there he does not need to wait. We can just hear the howls when this happens. History could repeat itself. Remember once in the old days when the man that built the yellow house in block three ran amok. His boy came home and yelled, “The teacher whipped me.” The old man started on the run for the old schoolhouse, burst in and took Pat McSheary apart by bits orally with plenty of gestures. After the smoke cleared away the teacher, who was a peace-loving Irishman, called in the constable, there was a trial and the judge fined the irate father $7.00 and costs. He did not have the money and had to mortgage his only cow to Matt Lang so that justice would be appeased. It furnished plenty of talk in the hot stove league that winter.
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April 16, 1953
   It’s up to President Eisenhower to get busy at once on the Pentagon. The service that outfit has rendered the nation is worse than disgraceful, it’s almost criminal. In the most highly boasted country in the world our boys that are shedding blood in Korea did not have sufficient ammunition. An investigation should be made at once and men responsible drummed out of the service.. The Pentagon is a network of old soft bellied service officials, each sitting on his own little dignity. Before an ammunition order can get through, it must go through the hands of 42 agencies and 200 individuals. There are times when a dictator is necessary in a democracy. ---    Here’s a bill in the legislature that has no more chance of passing than a night crawler a jet-bomb auto. The bill really was for the purpose of smoking out a lot of senators and a few representatives who have for years been paid to look after the interests of certain interests big and little. You’d be shocked at the list of senators who are officially lobbying all the time for some certain interest. ---    Summer resort owners in Minnesota are urging the state to do more advertising of its lakes, streams, etc. Another good way would be for the resort owners to keep clean sanitary places at a moderate price, and see that your lakes are stocked so your guests can get a mess of fish. ---    Murray county will have a new representative at the next regular session of the legislature, or perhaps before that if there is a special session. Rep. B. W. Lloyd has purchased a controlling interest in the new State Bank at Heron Lake and will move there about May 1st. We feel that the people of Murray county will regret his leaving the county: pretty decent sort of a man. ---    This new fishing law permitting a fisherman to use two poles is really a snorter. You can use two lines if you’re fishing for pan fish, but if you’re fishing for big fish you can only use one. And how is the poor fish to know, unless the legislature sends some signs to hang on the fishing line near the sinker reading, “This is for pan fish only.” The heck of it is, the fish hain’t been to the legislature so can’t read. There’s been a lot of funny game and fish laws. This one is a Jim Dandy. ---    Rev. and Mrs. George P. Larson and family leave this week for their new home in Sioux City, Iowa. We are sorry to see them go, as both have fitted in so well with the life of the village. Rev. Larson has the unique distinction of filling his church too well. There are not enough seats in the church if they all come at one time. Seems like it was the day before yesterday that the Lutheran Ladies Aid and Rev. A. M. Nelson started the present church. They had many critics who said, “How are we ever going to fill it?” Rev. Larson’s work in taking care of the three parishes was trying at times. We all join in extending to Rev. Larson and his wife our sincere good wishes in the days to come. ---    We could be wrong, but we have a feeling that Jarle Leirfallon is just a little too big for his britches. He knows a lot things that ain’t so. He has to throw T bone steaks to murderers and thieves in the penitentiary to get them to be good and go to bed. We’re not “inmates” down here yet, but if you have a couple of T bones left, send them down, Jarle. ---    One of the things that was going to do so much for your old house was insulating. Seems as if it turned out to be a dud for everyone except the paint manufacturers. ---    We are sincerely sorry for those young men and women who in their youth were enticed by the communist siren (both male and female) and later recanted and left the organization. Youth does many things at times which they would not do in later life. We’ve all been darned fools at one time or another in the exuberance of youth that we have bitterly regretted: that is, all except you, and you know a lot of people that have. ---    The fishermen and the hunters of Minnesota are nothing but a bunch of sapheads. When the legislature raised the license fees a few years ago we all paid them cheerfully. A good sized fund was raised and the legislature that lacked guts enough to propose legislation to raise taxes, reached out and stole--not, that’s hardly the word--but it appropriated over $800,000 out of the game and fish fund and put it in the general revenue. We had hoped that some day Murray county could get enough out of this fund to pay for land around Lake Shetek so it could be raised two feet: something that is badly needed. ---    Gosh, this column reads like a fish column this week, but while we are on the subject we wonder if there is any more to this oxygen water tests than there is to water witching with a willow crotch. Last winter we were told that all the fish in Lake Wilson would die on account of lack of oxygen. Here comes spring and only three dead fish have been found along the shores so far. Makes a guy wonder sometimes what it’s all about. ---    Here’s another gentle touch. Some nutty senator in a mad scramble for new funds wants every car to pay a dollar to enter a state park. So next time when that cousin or uncle from Iowa comes to visit you in his new car (no doubt one of the prime reasons he comes is to show off his new car) and will want to drive you the state park, it will cost him a dollar. He will do a lot of thinking, won’t he. We fool fishermen, pay for the water we fish in, and now they want us to pay to stand on the land: some day they will tax us for the air we breathe and a license for our angleworms, unless they come from the legislature.
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April 23, 1953
   Snappy cold weather last week put a crimp in farming, but the men on the tractors are making up for lost time this week. ---    On May 7th, 1921 a group of Cottonwood County farmers organized the first cooperative oil company in the United States. ---    Can’t help but feel that Governor Youngdahl jumped on the wrong boat when he listened to the siren and took that federal judgeship in Washington, D.C. Two years ago he was a power in the republican party, now he’s only a kind of a shirt tail relation. ---    Allen the top member of the Minnesota appropriations committee, said last week “There has been no stealing of the game and fish funds. We only took bigger chunks this year.” ---    Economy always seems to start with the lowest paid men in the service. The P.O. department is readjusting the Star mail routes. You know what that means. Take the case of the Star mail carrier who carries all mail from Pipestone to Slayton and intermediate offices. He gets $10.34 a trip. Not bad, you say, but he has to get up at 4:30 in the morning to meet the Great Northern, gets to Slayton at 8:30, gets stuck there until five p.m., home at six thirty. In the winter this is quite a trip for $10.34. ---    Don’t expect taxes to come down much, even if we have peace. Naturally there will be a drop in everything. We’re going on the theory that if war stimulates prices on everything, commodities will naturally go down. There will be so many changes that it makes one dizzy to think about it. Take the Boeing air plant company with 60,000 employees, what will the men and women do, take the manufacturers of farm and other machinery that are running on war contracts? And then there are the boys that want to start farming. What for? The government has all the chickens, butter, dried milk, turkeys, hogs, corn, etc. it needs. It’s going to take a lot more thinking to arrange national and local conditions than it did to declare war. ---    That talk on Peace by President Eisenhower “was heard around the world” and served notice on friend and foe alike just what the United States stands for. ---    See where Ike has suggested that the government should sell the synthetic rubber plants that were erected at great expense during the last war, to private parties. He should go a step further and offer every government dam for sale: making a provision for rates and while he’s at it he should advertise for bids for the operation of the postoffice department. A keen business organization could handle the mail more efficiently and make money at it, while the department loses millions of dollars a year. A democracy nearly always loses money every time it goes into private business. ---    A lot of the time of the legislature was devoted to our public school system, mostly in the discussion over more aid. In our humble opinion we are spending too much money, when you consider Minnesota’s low scholastic standing in the nation. She’s away down in educational standing in the nation, so far down that you’ll read the name “Minnesota” first if you start at the bottom and read up. There never was a time that Minnesota could not devote more time to a better school program. The fault lies entirely with the parents. There is a large group that wants to go a little too far and places basketball, football, etc. ahead of education and then there is another type that says, “The little country school was good enough for my father and for me and should be good enough for my children,” then hops on his tractor with top, heater, and lights. Forgetting that Grandma threw an old harness on a team of horses and walked behind the drag all day. These two groups must get together before we can improve our schools and raise the standards of Minnesota. ---    Some of the kids in town have been playing heck with the big electric globes. The kids forget that for every one of those $9.00 globes their dads have to pay part of the damage. If you want to shoot, there is plenty of room in the park. But if you want to be mean and ornery, don’t bawl and hide behind Mama’s skirts when John Law gets you. ---    Rudy Brummer was elected last week for the office of manager of the Farmers Elev. and Lbr. Company. A very good choice. Born in Lake Wilson, has his home and family here, has had a lot of experience in the business, has a good knowledge of the patrons, has a good personality and will give the company his best efforts. Another Lake Wilsonite, Frank Nett who followed in his father’s footsteps in the grain business and has been doing a good job, has been retained as manager of the elevator end. Good luck to both of you lads. We’re always glad when the home boys get a chance. ---    Sam Briggs was telling friend about the late Wm. Helmke of Cameron twp. Same rented some land from Bill one year. Busybodies said to Sam, “You’ll find him hard to get along with.” Bill came over to the farm one day and said to Sam, “You’ve got a big pile of manure there. I want it hauled out,” then walked away. Sam said he did. In the fall Bill came over and said, “I want my cash rent.” Sam had it. Bill says, “How many loads of manure did you haul out?” Sam said, “Eighty-four.” Bill said, “That’s .12 a piece, worth a dollar a load, here’s $12 for my share.” Old Bill Helmke, we call him old because was much older when we neighbored with him, but what a grand guy he was.
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April 30, 1953
   Assessors do not raise or lower taxes, we were told at the assessors’ meeting last week. They merely list the various articles at what you and they think is fair. The figures go to the township boards or village councils where they are either raised or lowered according to the wishes of a majority of the board. From there they go to the county board for equalization purposes. then from there they go to the tax commission and the state board of review. ---    See where a British engineering company had a bid in on a piece of construction work for the U.S. that was the lowest bid by nearly a million, but they did not get it. The law says it has be 20 per cent lower than any U.S. bid before it can be accepted. How is any nation every going to pay anything on their debt if we won’t let them? ---    We have some law breakers for neighbors on Roosevelt No. 1 ave. Last week they trespassed on our lot. One afternoon Margaret and Lawrence lugged a big long ladder, set it up against a big tree and Margaret scampered up the ladder on an errand of mercy. A Mama robin had been busy gathering some material for her new home and in some way picked up a long piece of white cord. The wind blew this cord around a tiny branch and Mama robin was trapped. She could only try and beat her heart out, because she had something important ahead of her. The Amundsons saw her plight and went to her rescue. Margaret had a small hatchet and a safety razor blade. Mama Robin flew to the ground and filed the air with a carol of joy. Only one regret is that the boys with the .22’s and the air guns who illegally cut down the number of songbirds each year were not there to see the rescue of Mama robin. It might have made them think. ---    The members of the Lake Wilson Saddle Club were out on their horses during the fine weather the first of the week. This organization continues to grow and it should. When it comes to diversion, what sport is cleaner, what sport brings you in closer touch with Nature at its best, and what animal responds as quickly and proudly to the human touch as the horse. The Roamer for four years was hardly a day out of the saddle and we know the genuine feeling and understanding that can exist between a man and horse. The club has a lot of activities ahead of it for the summer. Meetings that brings them in closer touch with other towns and widens the circle of friendship. If you have a horse, now matter where you live, why not visit and join the Lake Wilson Saddle Club. ---    The Roamer can see no reason for censuring or rebuking Gov. Anderson for vetoing the law that permitted some judges to get a raise of as much as $1,500 while the same legislature refused to grant a five dollar a month raise in pay to the lowest paid employees. Don’t sound sense. The legislature received a well deserved slap on both wrists. ---    Was down at the courthouse one day last week. Was a little early for modern time so we sat and looked at the courthouse. Some day, but not in my time, there will be a move for a new courthouse, but it will be an office building. The romance of a courthouse is gone. The high ceiling, wide and spreading stairways, dormer windows, poor ventilation will be missing. What will be needed will be a trim neat office building with just one large room to hold, say 100 people, to hold court. Farmers used to drive teams thirty miles to pay their taxes, now they pay them at the local banks. Some folks even hate to go there for a marriage license. The federal government should donate, as we seem to be getting tied up with it as the years go by. ---    We still believe that a small portion of the program should be devoted to First Aid work and Practical nursing. Henry the Eighth and his many wives, Cleopatra and her loves, as well as a lot of the problems in Algebra, gradually flit out of a girl’s life, but the need of the basic rudiments of practical nursing is always with her. ---    A deputy sheriff in Arizona got a call lately. Wife had been shooting at her husband at a distance of ten feet. Missed him six times. Two days after, ten women in a southern Arizona town organized a pistol club. Two of them were single. They probably wanted to learn, in case the old man with his shot gun wouldn’t be available when needed. ---    We certainly have a peculiar line of thought. We cuss various styles of words at the Soviets because they are trying to gain control of the world, and that’s just what we have been doing in the commercial and mechanical world. Auto, tractor, sewing machine, typewriter, etc. plants can be found in every country in the world, crowding out local plants to give the country the benefits of a modern machine age and civilization. Ain’t we a little bit inconsistent at times. ---    When you are getting closer to the end of the road you begin to reminisce with yourself. You often think of the things you did not do, the things that you should not have done, and some of the things you did that were of service. Strangely, the thought of the wrongs you have done come uppermost in your mind. Take the Roamer, for instance. One of the things he is sorry for is his actions in the war of 1918. With the pack, we said things about the Germans living here who were not actually disloyal in a sense to this country but a generation that still clung too much to their land of birth. After 70 years of residence, we cannot qualify as a 100 per cent American, nor can any other man or woman that is born abroad. If Scotland had been at war we would have sulked, wondered if the war was necessary. Norwegians would have been the same, young ones would be fleeing to Canada to get in the fight. If we had declared war on Ireland there would not have been...[rest is missing]
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May 7, 1953
   Assessing time is here now and a taxpayer asks, “Can a business man move part of his stock outside the village limits?” Yes he can, but if he does not maintain an office on the place in the country all his stock must be assessed in town. Can a farmer live in town and farm a quarter in another township and pay taxes on the machinery in the township? Yes. Can a business man who lives in town and owns a farm in the next twp. be assessed for his personal property in the village he lives in? No. Can a town man who has a well drilling machine or a road outfit have his personal property assessed in the township? No. ---    Art Warren got a lot of nationwide publicity the past two weeks. His grove and buildings are recognized by experts as one of the finest in this section of the U.S. Art has worked hard and intelligently and his efforts have brought forth fruit. Congratulations. There’s another Warren grove close by his place that the trees and the rows are pretty crooked. When his grandfather took up a tree claim on that quarter, you had to have so many living trees on the quarter at all times or you could lose your rights. A prairie fire came along one fall and got a lot of the young trees. A neighbor, Sargeant, came by the grove one day. Saw what the prairie fire had done and he hiked to the land office and filed on the claim, claiming that there were not enough trees. The land office man said he would drive out the next day. No autos at the time. A little bird whispered to Ben, and all that afternoon he and his brother Tom were busy hauling water in barrels. They then dug all the young trees they could find, some out of their own groves. When darkness came, the Warrens sprang into action. Both Mrs. Ben and Mrs. Tom helped. The men dug the holes, the women planted the trees and carried water, until the trees were planted. Come the next day the official arrived; he found enough trees to satisfy the legal limit. That’s why the darned rows are crooked. They didn’t even have a flashlight in those days. ---    Over at the Travis Air Base in California, one Lake Wilson young lad is getting a real experience in handling the ex-prisoners of war. They are landed at Travis Field, a majority are held there for 24 hours. After this stop, the 150 1st Air Transport Group, and Staff Sgt. Kenny Gowin belongs to this group, takes the boys to the hospitals nearest their homes. Kenny wrote that the preparations taken for the returned G.I.’s were wonderful. All the major television outfits are here, up and down the coast folks have been collecting fruit, books, cigarettes, etc. Phone calls with homes have been arranged for the ex-prisoners the moment they arrive, with the loved ones at home. Kenny expects to be home in June. ---    Saddened we were to hear of the death of Louis Kaplan, a former resident here and one of the finest we have ever known. Louie came here with Sylvia twenty-five years ago. Starting business, you may say on a shoe string. They did not have much faith in the community and in themselves. Ever since Louie came to Lake Wilson he has grown in stature and in ability. Clean, shrewd, he grew better each year until the blight of the Klan came. He moved, but still began to increase in the business world with headquarters in Sioux City. Overwork brought on a strain on the heart and he was compelled to retire from active business. He went to Florida last year. Came back this spring, but passed away suddenly Friday from a heart attack. Louie was one of the men who never forgot their friends and though it has been over a score of years since he left, he never forgot to place a greeting in the Pilot, greeting the folks who had started him on the road upward. We will cherish his memory and always remember him as the man that did not forget his friends. Sylvia knows that she has the keen sympathy of the Roamer and a large circle of friends. ---    This is the big week the T.V. folks have been waiting for. The Sioux Falls station started operating the first of the week, and snowstorms will be fewer and visitors will be plentiful. What a wonderful future there is for T.V. Not perhaps a very pleasant sight, but some of you will see your sons in battle, volcanic eruptions, scenes from the north and south poles, naval battles, football games from the old country: the breadth of the T.V. empire staggers the imagination. ---    See where they have a new chemical that put on a big stump, the stump disappears. Began wondering what this chemical would have meant to clearing the west, etc. How cities would have come to birth fifty years earlier. Then we looked at the price: $1.50 a stump. ---    In the Star Journal each night is a column, “Test Your Horse Sense.” Thursday night the question was, “Which one of these terms is most suggestive of the feminine gender: Chisel, Bobbin, Micrometer, or Lather?” The word that won the prize was Bobbin (sewing). A skinny wrinkle-faced fellow thought he had won. He had scratched down the word, “Chisel.” ---    We’ve seen a lot of weeks in this vicinity, but last week took all prizes for being the gloomiest: with its sodden and leaden skies, fog and rain spells it was in a class by itself. Wasn’t it grand when the sun shone in all its glory for a little while Sunday morning? It’s no wonder the heathens worshipped the sun.
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May 14, 1953
   Minneapolis is in the throes of a city election. Palmer says, “Clean Up The City.” Mayor Hoyer says, “We have a clean city.” The day before, both city papers carried paragraphs stating that four Minneapolis aldermen had refused to testify before a grand jury over a liquor license deal because it might incriminate them. Out here in the sticks when a man takes that stand he generally has two strikes on him when he comes up for re-election. ---    The installation of the new TV cable at Sioux Falls has not brought the anticipated improvement to the local sets, but it will some day. The TV has already pushed 500 local movie theatres out of business in the east and many more will follow this year. The radio business is already feeling the effects of TV sets. ---    We’re scraping the bottom of the tax barrel these days. Dogs worth two cents or less start at $15 true and full evaluation, and if they have pedigrees they can go as far as $60. Power lawn mowers are in the aristocrat class. They flutter along between twenty and sixty dollars on the schedule. Next session of the legislature, bikes will reach the selected class. How they have escaped so long is a mystery. A kid said the other day, “Here I have a mangy car and am assessed $15. A kid whose dad has money and has a bike, which doesn’t have a place on the assessment sheets. T’aint fair.” You’ve got something there, bub. ---    While on taxes, remember there’s a difference on real estate taxes and personal property taxes. Real estate taxes follow the land and personal property the man to whom it was assessed. Of course if the man sells his personal property or wants to move it to another state, the county auditor can send out the sheriff and stop him until the taxes are paid. ---    The stores of how our prisoners were ill treated is dying down somewhat. We will never have a war in which our prisoners are not mistreated. First of all they are fed the best of any army in the world and the come-down to rice naturally makes them gaunt and irritated, and let’s be honest, a GI is about the cockiest man in uniform and has a tendency to say things to his captors that only ...[several illegible lines]... Andersonville prison ... [more illegible lines]...Sentries would mow them down. Wirz who was in charge of the prison camp was arrested, tried and hanged after the war was over. Southern gentility was dormant those days. ---    Lake Wilson is going to have a resident doctor: Doctor Thomas Harada bought the Vluege[?] house last week. This will be good news to many Lake Wilson folks and to many ... [illegible] ... community. The doctor and his wife came here a year ago. They were new to country life but during a year’s residence here have grown to like us. The doctor has built up a lucrative practice and both he and Mrs. Harada like the town and its people. There are few towns the size of Lake Wilson that have a resident doctor. ---    Well we’re not going to have a real depression this year, at least. The administration gave the go ahead sign on six billion dollars in war work. That will keep the ship of state on a level financial keel for another year. ---    Congressman Judd got a little hasty last week when he informed the press that Ike had asked him to run for U.S. senator from Minnesota in 1954. The two best bets we have in Minnesota in a political race are Val Bjornson, state treasurer, and Ancher Nelson, present federal R.E.A. head. These men have the necessary mental facilities and also have the magic name of “son” at the ends of their names. ---    This 2 pole fishing idea must have been invented by a Scotchman. Keeping your eye on a warden, two can fish just as cheaply as one. ---    The Lake Wilson nursery has been doing a fine business and the Roamer is mighty glad of it. Our memory goes back to 1883. A “Christmas Tree” was needed. Evergreens were unknown and they drove a team to Bear Lake and got an ash. Times changed, trees were planted and the time for another change is here. Most of the old trees in Lake Wilson should be sawed down and replaced with straight new ones. Our old trees here remind us of the old men, unshapely, wormy and lots of rotten branches. They have about the same value: practically nil. Drive along a farm grove these days and you’ll see line after line of old dead trees. No one will even haul them away. Getting back to the nursery, we just want to present Howard Ottilie with an orchid for donating the evergreens around the soldiers monument that will be dedicated on Memorial day. ---    The Mpls. Trib. is carrying a series of articles this week on the U.S. mail service, that should be read by everyone. The mail service is running $750,000,000 behind each year and the service is getting worse. It takes longer to get letters between here and Worthington than it did forty years ago. It’s a cumbersome ill-arranged and ill-managed and has been so for forty years. Some folks say it would never do to let private concerns handle our letters. Why not? Phone companies handle your calls, what can be more personal. For service, we point you to that given by the Mpls. Star and the Mpls. Trib. We get the Trib. in the morning with all the news, including baseball games, etc. before we do on the radio.
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May 21, 1953
   Mighty glad to see the interest taken of late by the Murray county historical society, Miss James, the county supt. of schools, and the 4-H boys and girls in the early history of the county. We have just as much history and romance in Murray county as there is in the east. Take Paul Revere’s ride. Paul got on a horse and rode ahead of a lumbering column of British infantrymen that could not make two miles an hour. Yet he got a poem and a monument. J. Brown living between New Ulm and Mankato rode to Fort Snelling for help and to arouse the people. Where Indians lurked at every ford and clump of bushes; bet you never heard of it. That was part of the day’s work. Charley Hatch ran and rode over the Shetek settlement on August 22, 1862 warning the settlers. He did not get a poem, either. ---    A request has been made to congress for higher rates on postage for newspapers, magazines and advertising matter: funny thing, no matter how much the rates may change back and forth, the waste paper basket at the postoffice always remains full. ---    Few men have as many friends as Cedric Adams. Born and raised in southwestern Minnesota, he has through his own ability grown to be one of the leading men of his profession in the nation, and it’s not been by stepping on anyone else, either. Good luck to you Cedric and may you kiss the Queen. ---    One of the most pathetic of all wild life pictures is the one of the lake up north in the late fall sunshine. You can see that the big flock of ducks, yellow and gold, have been swirling around the lake. At the edge stands one lone duck looking vainly and hopelessly as he stands with a broken wing. Come Saturday, the fishing season opened, and the Roamer was not there. We know how that duck felt. Something went wrong with our “ticker:” been on high too long. ---    This was written for the folks in Lake Wilson and vicinity last Saturday, before the school election. We have no children to attend school, and this is written to urge both factions on the school problem to make an effort to get together on the one thing that means so much to the boys and girls. Both sides should give up their little differences if they have any, both should sit down at the table in an earnest manner, for they are gambling for pretty high stakes. Our schools are full now, you have the answer in your hands. You folks are more fortunate than you realize. We, Mrs. Forrest and the Roamer, are qualified to speak a little on school matters. When our oldest children were ready for high school they had to go by train every morning to Slayton, and back at night. There were no heated busses, no hot lunches and no state aid. It is one of the things we look back to with pride. That same spirit is still with you folks, so forget all your little spites and hates long enough to settle down and arrange for a school, not a gorgeous affair but a building that will be adequate for the needs of the community. There is not a member of the present school board that we could work with for the development of the school system. We all worked together when were digging the village out of the earth. That same spirit is still here. The Forrests have paid school taxes longer than any other family and we hope to keep on doing so. ---    Senator Hans Pederson slipped back to his home in Ruthton recently from a winter at the legislature, and we can truthfully say that Hans is growing into one of the top lawmakers in the state. ---    They took the lid off the Pentagon one day last week and a lot of generals who had been there long enough prepared to leave. It was high time, as an investigating committee found there was a shortage of ammunition in every branch of the service. This man Wilson, the secy. of defense, really means business. ---    We can remember back when there was another big business man in politics. It was in McKinley’s time and his name was Mark Hanna. He ran Mac’s political campaign. All he had to do was to guarantee the working man a full dinner pail. If Mark was back here he’d have to guarantee him a full frigidaire, a deep freeze and a box for cubes. Times do change. ---    If it wasn’t so pitiful it would be ridiculous when one thinks of the exchange of prisoners in Korea. Here we were killing them at one end of the line and exchanging them at the other end. Does this sound like common sense to you? ---    The up in the increase on hogs has done a lot to keep the smile on the face of the farmer during the last two weeks. ---    We hope the legislature left enough money in the game and fish till so it could buy a new oxygen tester for the lakes. Last winter the young guy with the tester had all fish and vegetable life as dead in Lake Wilson as it is on the moon. Ma Nature pulled off her curtain of ice and the waters are covered with shoals of young bullheads, and some of those who tried their luck cam home with a nice mess of good sized bullheads. ---    This is Slayton’s big annual day. How we do wish they have good weather and a good crowd. There’s something about those “days” that every village had in the early days that brought out all the neighborliness and the friendliness of the prairies.
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May 28, 1953
   The sun shone in all its glory last Thursday afternoon and the county seat with the assistance of the other villages and townships made the “1887 Day Parade” the largest and finest in the history of Murray county. There were bands galore, floats to burn, surreys, covered wagons and every other kind of a vehicle from a wheelbarrow to a limousine. Prancing horses, including the Lake Wilson Saddle club, gaily decorated males and females, in fact everything that goes to make a real parade was there: and the county is proud of it. Unfortunately the Roamer was not there: inclemencies of old age kept us at home, but we do hope to be there next year. ---    Royalty week is coming up: in last Thursday night’s Star there was a picture of Casey Stengel giving a baseball to the Duke of Windsor. Casey gave us a baseball with his autograph on it one afternoon in the St. Francis hotel, but we did not get our picture took. That was the year George Pipgrass, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were with the Yanks. They played St. Paul that afternoon. We’re going to the Coronation too: Margaret and Lawrence, our neighbors, have asked us over when it comes over TV. We want to see the new queen’s mother. We were born in adjoining counties in Scotland. And then we want to see the new Queen, because back in 1882 we saw her great grandmother, Queen Victoria, in Stirling. The stationmaster at Stirling was John Brewster, a brother of my mother’s. He was called up in front to meet Victoria, and again we lost out. Say, we ain’t getting old, we are old. ---    The finest car in town this week is driven by the Halsnes. Bet neither Florence nor Hank ever dreamed of this when they came to Lake Wilson over a quarter of a century ago. No couple is more richly entitled to it. No pair has worked harder than they and no couple has given more in honest value. Getting up at 4 a.m. in the morning is a hard grind, but they made it and their friends enjoy their success. ---    Just a suggestion to the school board. Why not arrange for a conference with Supt. Almen of Balaton. He is the best informed man in the state on school laws pertaining to village and country schools. Has been in the senate for twenty-five years and is in a position to give you better advice and information than any other person. Because he has had both the technical knowledge as well as the legal knowledge. No man in our day has done as much for the village and country pupil. He is thorough, honest, sincere and can do you a lot of good. By the way, we have not seen or heard from Mr. Almen but have confidence in his willingness to help. The senator was raised in Skandia township hence knows your conditions. ---    Nineteen hundred and fifty-three can go down as the year of the long winter. Last winter ended April 20th. This winter is still going good on May 25th. Furnaces have been going later this spring than any other we can remember. Apple blossoms have never been as late. ---    You Can’t Beat Iris,” writes an enthusiastic writer in the Household News. Did you ever try quack grass, Irene? ---    “Dear Robert Forrest” runs the start of a letter we received from a good looking female one day last week. This lady does not approve of the free movies and suggests that roller skating replace the movies. We dutifully laid the letter before Polly Parrott, president of the community club which is in charge of such events. Polly said, “The club tries to do its best to satisfy the majority with the limited funds it has, but we will be glad to lay the matter before the directors at the next meeting.” You ask, how did we know the lady was good looking? She forgot to sign her name. ---    Just thinking: see where a court of appeals at Washington, D.C. has decided that the government could set the price of natural gas. If so, why not do the same on water? Why should federal taxes be put into expensive dams? Why not sell the dams to private companies as long as we can regulate the price of power? Now is the time we seem to be needing the money. Why keep on making dams to irrigate more land to raise more crops, when we’ve so much food stuffs now that they all have to be bolstered up? They say the postoffice dept. will run behind in the neighborhood of a billion dollars this year. How much does the operations of the huge dams run behind? Where or how is it all going to end. ---    We notice that two post offices in Murray county cost more to operate than they take in. One is Hadley and the other is Dovray. Hold on a minute, don’t get misled by these figures. The big loss in postal revenue out in the rural areas is not at the local post office. The huge loss comes on rural free delivery. Take it out of Lake Wilson, the rural route service must come to around $25 a day. How much do you think the mail men sell in a day. If they average $2 a day a piece that’s doing better than they used to do. But do you hear anybody want to economize on the rural route services? On with the dance and let joy be unconfined. ---    This has been one of the wettest seasons in many years, but little outdoor painting has been done. ---    Atty. General Burnquist says: Real estate no longer needed for village purposes may be sold without an election and without advertising for bids, but council members cannot purchase it.
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June 4, 1953
   Lake Wilson and community observed Memorial Day this year with a deeper significance. At the conclusion of the usual services at the lake and at the cemetery the dedication of the monument for the boys who gave their lives in World War II was held at the park. This monument which had been arranged for by many friends was dedicated by the members of the Auxiliary and Legion. The address was delivered by Rev. Clifford Lindberg of Slayton, one of the finest speakers in southwest Minnesota. It was one full of sympathy for the relatives, and full of timely thoughts of those of us that are left. Those young lads were friends of the Roamer. We knew everyone well. Knew the grandparents of a lot of them and the passing of these fine young men still brings poignant memories to us. The names on the monument are: Howard W. Bedford Harold J. Hanson Gordon B. Olson Herman John Nett Marvin C. Kahnk Harold J. Johnson Edward W. Beers Duane Alfred Dahlquist Matt Ver Does Henry John Oldenmeyer “These heroes are dead. They died for liberty--they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, the ceaseless waves. They sleep beneath the shadow of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or storms, each in the windowless palace of rest. Earth may run red with other wars--they are at peace. In the midst of battle, in the roar of conflict they found the serenity of death.” ---    One of the most unique country newspapers we have ever seen was the Fulda Free Press last week. Al Johnson had been in the hospital for several days and got out, but not in time to get the paper out. So he set the heads for his articles, left the spaces below the heads blank, and asked his subscribers to go fifty-fifty with him that week and write their own articles to suit themselves. ---    Of course you read Cedric Adams’ column in last Sunday’s Tribune. At the end of his story he tells of the petrified body of a medieval man in St. James’ Church. He also gave you the inscription of the cupboard door where the body was: Stop Stranger Stop as you pass by. As you are now, so once was I. As I am now you soon will be, so pray Prepare to follow me. Cedric did not need to go to London to read that inscription. When he was down at Magnolia recently he could have driven over to Lake Shetek to a churchyard on the west side of the lake and read the same inscription on the tombstone of James Drew.--It’s a small world after all. James Drew by the way was the grandfather of Mrs. M. E. Lang who lived here for forty years. ---    Got a new linotype girl this week to take the place of Sam Schulz who is now working at Heron Lake. She’s been here before, May Ann Kenen, a schoolma’am is taking her vacation with the Pilot. Full of pep, ginger and vitality; you’ll not see any more errors in this column. ---    Here’s an orchid this week for Bob Frazer, the ornery old Scot who takes care of the local cemetery. Never has the grass looked greener, the hedges better kept up and the grounds more beautiful than they did last Saturday. Bob has been doing this for several years, not for money, if it had been he would have owned the grounds. With him it is a work of pride. So on behalf of those who have loved ones there and those who take pride in our village and community, we extend this little token of esteem and appreciation. ---    The revelations of the congressional investigating committee investigating the ammunition conditions are not exactly fair. It blamed the democrats from Truman down. Let’s be fair and admit that Gen. MacArthur’s statement, “The war will be over by Christmas” was a lot to blame for ammunition conditions. When the boss says it’s all over, why pile up ammunition? ---    Memorial Day brought another resident back for a short visit and glad we were to see her. Jean Reha is a young woman of more than ordinary ability and charm. When she left school here she entered the bookkeeping department of the New York Life in Minneapolis. After a few years she was promoted to the Portland, Ore. office and recently she was placed in charge of the bookkeeping dept. of the Bingham Pump Co. at Portland. Jean says out on the coast everyone starts out with an umbrella no matter how sunny the morning be: come to think of it that’s something we never see here. ---    We have always in this country looked upon the British as being slow and lacking pep, yet they put on the greatest show in the history of the world Tuesday. ---    See where a Rochester man took seven shots at his wife before he killed her, and five shots at her gentleman friend. Moral: the wages of sin are death, or no wonder there’s a shortage of ammunition in Korea. ---    Today (Saturday) there is still more water in the sloughs north of town than there has been in the memory of the oldest resident, a week after the storm.
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June 11, 1953
   Staid old Collier’s Magazine has a western story this week that is a diller for misinformation. It tells of a cowhand that gets caught in a cattle stampede and has to ride for his life. It tells how the stampeded cattle are leveling age-old cactus into dust and the crackle of horns and pounding of a thousand hooves. Here’s how one paragraph reads: “Behind him was the sharp clacking of horns, brittle and terrifying, the earth shaking, the pounding of a thousand hooves and the nearness of death.” Stop and think. A thousand hooves mean only 250 steers and there ain’t a cow pony on earth that could not get away from 250 critters. As for smashing age-old cactus trees, the steers would have to bunch pretty close, and when they were doing that the poor cowboy could crawl into a nearby badger hole. This stampeding business has been overdone. We herded over five hundred cattle for three seasons in Cameron twp. and know just about how far a critter can run at full speed when it is fed green grass. ---    Had a chance to visit with Clint Gass when he was up from Lincoln, Nebr. for Memorial Day. Clint is one of the Lake Wilson lads that made good in his profession. After graduating from the local school, he entered Gustavus Adolphus at St. Peter, graduating from there Magna Cum Laude in Mathematics. After graduating from there he got a scholarship at the University of Nebraska getting his M.A. degree the following year. He is head of the department of Mathematics now in the Wesleyan University in Lincoln and will complete his Ph. D. degree this summer. Clint was telling us he has the chance to go to Florida next year. Hope he locates in a town near the ocean where a guy can fish from the shore with a cane pole: we’ll probably make it by February. Clint, by the way, put in a two-year stretch at Los Alamos in World War II. ---    No matter what the financial barometer says, there seems to be a general feeling throughout the country that things in general are far from stable. Listened to four elderly men, successful at that, and they were all of the opinion that the U.S. needs a first class depression or a panic to purify itself. ---    The papers blared last week, “Even if we have a truce in Korea it will not bring the troops home;” we all knew that. This country reminds us of the colored ball game. The bases were full, one, two, three and four balls were called on the batter and the umpire called him out. “Why?” shouted the batter. “The bases are full and there ain’t no place to put you.” ---    The glamour and the color and the excitement of the coronation is over, but one thing remains: the deep loyalty of the subjects of Queen Elizabeth. Loyalty of this type cannot be found in the U.S. or any other country that is a melting pot of all nations. For example, in the election last week at Minneapolis one candidate was advertising that he was of ___ parentage. It will take about five hundred years before we fall in line with the old countries. ---    If you bought a farm or a house in town since last May, 1953 and are living there now, don’t fail to notify your assessor. Your homestead rights mean a considerable saving in your real estate taxes. ---    The members of the Lake Wilson Saddle club will hold their annual horse show on the afternoon of June 14th at the athletic field, and are making arrangements to take care of a large crowd. The Saddle club has always been generous in attendance at neighboring towns. The big day in the early days was the “Farmers Day,” Lake Wilson specialized in baseball, and what crowds. Slayton and Lake Wilson always hit pretty well. A train service that was made to order was one of the reasons. Remember on one day 130 tickets were sold at the depot here for Sept. 7th at Slayton. The Omaha carried three extra coaches. The next year we saw the late Vin Weber: he was just a young man then, but he said, “We’ll be up, and we’ll have 50 autos.” That was a lot, so he said, “Stand at the depot and count.” We did that day when they came in with their horns blowing. There were 51, and that was a lot of autos. What a din the horns made, from the guy that had one with a big rubber bulb to the up-to-date one, but the sounds and wails all seemed to say: neighborliness. “Them were the days.” ---    President Eisenhower is fishing in the Black Hills this week. The last republican president to fish in the Black Hills was Coolidge. Cal was having bad luck so we sent him a can of angleworms from the Lake Wilson Angleworm hatchery. They did the business and brought back a letter to the Roamer from Mr. Saunders, the president’s private secretary, acknowledging the gift and said Cal also alluded to the letterheads of the company as being humorous. The secret service men said it was the first time Cal had smiled for two years. The hatchery, known in 44 states back in 1927, with an intriguing list of worms, from the Brazilian sweep, 40 feet long that came on spoils, to the one-eyed deep carnelian worm that lured the bass away from the next with a flutter of its eyelid and a tremor in its sinuous hips, have all had their day and are now in dreamless dust. ---    The greatest statesman of last week was a woman, Clare Booth Luce, who said it behooves us to keep our powder dry, our resolution firm, our vision clear and our hearts clean while we wait to see if Malenkov’s fair words will be followed by fair deeds. ---    Pork chops were selling for 93 cents a pound at Worthington last Saturday. The law of supply and demand is one law that always seems to be effective.
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June 18, 1953
   It feels good to be at the head of the procession. Last week’s Time said that the Ford was the most popular car in America in numbers. We’ve known that for several years and we’ve been slowly waiting for the procession to catch up: our Elizabeth is of the vintage of 1937, never had a coronation but is still going strong. By the way, this car of the Roamer is the only one mentioned in the Bible. In Revelations, if you go in that deep, you will read about the Beast whose number is 666: well, that’s been the number of our Lizzie for 16 years. ---    See where Byron Allen of Detroit Lakes is stunned because the South is sending up money to help Senator Humphrey: seen the time when Allen was not quite so particular just where money came from and what color it was. By the way, the republicans in Minnesota will have to get a big leaguer into the race and his name will have to end with “son.” ---    Makes a guy sort of mad to pay $1.30 for a fishing license and know that the next legislature will take at least half a dollar of it and put it in the general fund. The $1 tax to peek into a state park is backfiring. This is another of the mad rushes to gain more tax money by the members of the last legislature. They pared everything but their own salary. ---    We have no right to dispute such an eminent authority as Hoyde, the veteran weatherman of Minneapolis, who in an article in the Mpls. Star said: “Records on Minnesota tornadoes go back to 1874. The worst year for loss of life in Minnesota tornadoes was 1946 when 11 persons perished. In 1939, the year of the Champion-Anoka storm, 10 lives were lost and 222 persons were injured in the Anoka storm.” On June 22nd, 1919, a tornado that struck Fergus Falls killed 55 and injured 200. On Aug. 21, 1883 a tornado at Rochester killed 35 and another tornado at Tyler killed 35 on August 21st, 1918. A tornado, the Rochester one, was the start of the most famous hospital in the world. The local Catholic sisters’ academy was made into an emergency hospital with Dr. William Mayo in charge: this was the beginning of the famous Mayo clinic. ---    Now we find there’s a brand of Communism we can live with and trade with: that’s the Tito brand. This Communism reminds us of the late Teddy Roosevelt. We heard him speak in the old auditorium in St. Paul one afternoon. That was the time when the “Trusts” were the main, and about the only, political issue. Clenching his fists and baring his teeth he said, “I am against trusts when they are bad and for them when they are good.” All of which left us in the dark as usual. ---    Don’t blame Singman Rhee too much. He’s trying to make the best deal he can. He knows full well that the southern Koreans will not carry on the fight alone. ---    President Eisenhower seems to gain in popularity in spite of his three lamprey friends: McCarthy, Taft and Knowland. ---    Some of the European nations are being a little pessimistic over the aid they are getting from Uncle Sam. Some of them feel that the aid is like getting the pigs ready for butchering. All the money they are getting for ammunition, airfields, etc. is for them to be slaughtered first if the Reds start moving. They feel they will be wiped out as usual while this country waxes rich. ---    The loss caused by the heavy rains is going to cause a heavy damage to the crops in this vicinity. A lot of water still remains on the land and these sections are not going to produce much crop. ---    Last week was the muggiest we’ve ever seen her. Every day was the same: soft, muggy and hot. It was tough on human beings but did a lot of good to the corn. Some of it is well up to the average, but there’s a lot of woefully weedy: been a great year for quack grass. ---    The Roamer is not a “nut” on history, and you have not a “hobby” for saddle horses, nor are you “buggy” about fishing or “crazy” about hunting or a bridge “fiend.” We merely have complexes. Psychologically speaking, a complex is a set of ideas with a strong emotional tone. ---    Owing to the rains, Fulda did not receive any mail from Saturday until Wednesday. Here we are kicking because the mail was three hours late. How we do like to kick. ---    “Down under” in Australia a Merino ram sold for $11,000 last week. Remember when this section of the state was full of high priced hogs and cattle. Bulls even brought up to $50,000. You never hear about these any more. ---    Our hat is off to the Lake Wilson Saddle Club for the fine parade and show they presented here last Sunday afternoon. More cars were in town that day than ever before. There was color and bands in the parade and heading the Slayton contingent was John David Weber, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Judge Kolander, sec’y. of the organization. Over 100 horses were in the competitive events. ---    If you have not received your copy of the laws passed by the recent session of the Minnesota legislature, just forget it. It’s too big and clumsy. There are 65 pages of 8 columns, making a total of over 500 columns. If it is necessary to publish the darned thing, why don’t they make a synopsis of the law as they do when they come up at the fall election, and make them into 12-inch booklets.
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June 25, 1953
   There’s some pretty good guys left in the world after all. One of them is Anton Nelson who owns the old B. M. Low farm in Lowville twp. When he heard that the 4-H Club members were going to erect a marker at the site of the old American Fur Co. he not only offered the land and post, but took his bulldozer and worked half a day leveling off the ground. Helping him was J. M. Low, who was born on the farm. Arrangements are being made for the dedication sometime within three weeks. ---    See where Russell Wiggins, managing editor of the Washington Post, addressed the Minnesota Journalism class a week ago. Russ for a while edited a newspaper at Luverne and was well known in 2nd district circles. From Luverne he went with the St. Paul Dispatch. Not tall nor heavy, but you only had to visit with him for two minutes to know that he had “it.” What’s all this got to do with Lake Wilson, you ask. Nothing much, only Russ spoke to the graduation class in the local high school back in ‘37 and we knew some of the folks would be interested. Anyway, Russ made the top rung. ---    The Omaha railroad, for generations our real lifeline, has never been as sorely stricken as it is today. The flood put it out of business. Here’s a road that once ran 12 passenger trains a day, not able to move a passenger. From Ashton to Sioux City the road is a complete washout. Crew after crew is working night and day to repair the damage. It will need 800 car loads of gravel to repair the track, and two weeks ago the company was hauling gravel from Sterling, near Chicago. The floods this summer have caused the company more loss than all the snow storms and blizzards in its history. The company will probably start running trains the first week in July. ---    This Rhee squabble in Korea seems like another of our diplomatic failures. ---    The government is raising the parcel post rates 36 per cent starting August 1st. This will be tough on Ward and Sears. They got a crack this past year, and with this coming increase there will be a loss in patronage. ---    Dr. E. P. Burch of St. Paul talking before the Canadian Medical society at Winnipeg last week said, “Half of our eye ailments are imaginary.” Isn’t that true about most of our ailments, physical or social? ---    Pipestone seems to be in real danger of losing the Indian school. The U.S. senate recently ordered the place to close on July 1st. Time was when the Pipestone folks did not take any more interest in the Indian school than they did in Eton, except when it had some good ball players. Times change with every generation. ---    The Post Office department is raising box rents again. They are now .50. And no ...[illegible]. Folks don’t know the history behind box rentals. When the Roamer was postmaster here he had to furnish all equipment, including boxes. During that time we paid the government nearly $2,000 in box rent, money collected from boxes that he had paid for. ---    Here we’ve been wrong for sixty years and never knew it until last Thursday. For years we have religiously watered our flower gardens in the late evening, somewhere along the way we heard that was the right way. George Luxtion, Minneapolis Journal flower expert, says “Flower gardens always should b watered early enough so that the ground will be dry by evening.” ---    The Rosenbergs met the death they were entitled to under the laws of the United States. “As you sow, so shall ye reap.” ---    Rev. Lindberg is coming back to the Methodist church here: good man. ---    Most of you folks remember the Hogans that lived here. Bill, you remember, ran a grocery store with Alfy Brown. Bill married Stell Reha and later moved to Lismore where they are running a grocery store. Nothing new or astonishing in that, but we wanted you to know that this couple has a record that is hard to beat. One of their boys, Wayne, is attending West Point and the other, Larry, has been named for Annapolis and just passed his June examination. Something to be real proud of. ---    Some corn is knee high, potatoes are in bloom and so are some of the peas, so it looks like most of the garden stuff is well up to the average in spite of floods. ---    See where labor is getting another 8 1/2 cents an hour raise from the steel industry. The marching song of labor should be, “Excelsior.” “Some day the silver cord will break.” ---    Years ago farmers had hand corn planters, and after the corn was in and started coming up, the farmer or his boys would take the hand corn planter and fill up the vacant spots in the field: evidently they have stopped making the hand planters. ---    If we continue feeding Europe, the nations should furnish their own grain bins. They could build a group in the corn and wheat states and have them ready for their share of the crop.
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