1953 Columns, July - December
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Roaming in the Gloaming

With Bob Forrest

Things Material and Immaterial

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July 2, 1953
   One of the recent Gallup polls disclosed that most of the people in the U.S. believe that the “A” bomb explosions are the cause of so many tornadoes. Could be, but we lived up in Cameron twp. in years gone by and remember seeing three different tornadoes in as many years. Funny thing, everybody called them cyclones and every farmer had a “cyclone cellar.” One of the tornadoes took away a church. The other one we can still remember well. It swept the barn off the foundation on the Jim Bell place (Dale Ohme) slick and clean. Gallagher the art goods peddler, who made this territory for years, was at the Bell place that day and the tornado wafted his dry goods emporium into the skies. When it dissolved, there were dry goods hanging to the barb wire fence between the Bell and John Hein’s place and there were other things hanging there besides dry goods. For instance, a corset hanging by one barb was flashing back and forth, dry goods pieces forty feet long waved in the breeze and there were articles of underwear that you don’t even see these days. ---    Whatever became of the old white China egg; and why were there never brown ones? ---    The opening of 130,000 federal jobs that were put in the civil service with the stroke of the pen is receiving a lot of grilling, especially from those who at heart claim that the competition examination is the only method. Forgetting that these men did not have to take the examination: they were pushed in. Don’t be perturbed if a republican happens to get a post office these days. Remember there was not a single republican postmaster out of the 40,000 on Jan. 1st. ---    Few speakers tell the truth as vividly as a young Wisconsin youth last week. He told his girl friend “I’ll drive this car 105 miles an hour or kill myself:” he did. More speeders should follow his example. ---    More and more the weak spots from the rains are showing up in the fields. Corn shortage is larger than anticipated. But some fields are looking wonderful. George Scotting said the other day that he will have one field “laid by” by the fourth. ---    Can’t hardly blame Syngman Rhee of Korea. He may be fighting for a principle. His people seem to be united in continuing the war and Rhee sees it as his duty to follow them. The whole Korean situation is deplorable. It should never have started if there was no intention of following through to the end. Looks like the UN sent a fire company over there and then called it home before the fire was out. ---    The $64 question is how did the U.S. ever get along for 150 years without Senator McCarthy? ---    The members of the Lake Wilson fire dept. and the business men are sponsoring a very worthy project. They are arranging for a program of fireworks for Friday evening in the athletic field on the evening of July 3rd. The band will play. More power to you, boys. The show is over. ---    Saw in the daily last week where A. M. Loeken of Winona had been elected grand commander of the Knights Templar of Minnesota. The name brought back memories of the days when Ad taught school here in the one room wooden schoolhouse in the middle of the street. Gosh, that was a long time ago: before there was a building on the north side of the track. Among his pupils were Vera and Florence Burke and Lilly Case. Another early teacher, the former Miss Hattie Thompson, is now living in Germany. Hattie taught here and in the rural districts for over ten years. She married Bob Peterson. She is an aunt of Mrs. Elmer Nepp. ---    There does not seem to be a “law of averages” that applies to human beings. Hard to believe, but only four percent of the men were the “average” shoe. In fact, there is not such thing as a law of averages. It does not even apply to females: all our women are way above the average. ---    Look for a lusty boot in real estate taxes next spring. That heavy rain did six thousand dollars worth of damage in some nearby townships, and then don’t forget the legislature added the money that was going to be derived from the sales tax on the real estate levy: all of which is not very encouraging. ---    Seems as if the government did faster work on the Rosenberg cases than it did on Harry Bridges. His longshoremen’s union has still a life or death hold on the shipping industry on the west coast. ---    See where President Eisenhower has declared three of the southwestern states disaster areas and urges congress to appropriate money for their relief. Why not include the Omaha railroad, Ike? This road which started running trains again Monday has just gone through the worst disaster period in the history of the midwest. ---    Rain this season don’t come in showers: the one we had Friday evening brought two and a half inches of water and it was duly appreciated by the farmers.
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July 9, 1953
   Another fine young Lake Wilson man who just got a job in Iowa is Maurice Wall. Maurice is now head of the lumber department with the Elevator Company where Willis Godfrey works at Laurens, Iowa. ---    The Farmers Union is accusing Ancher Nelson of “purging” the R.E.A.: isn’t that what the Union is trying to do to the Farm Bureau? ---    Happiest man in town is Bunt Adams: Bunt has been more indoors than out the past year. He got a TV set for Father’s Day and now revels in baseball and “wrestling” matches. Nice going, John and Elsie. ---    You’d never believe it from reading the daily paper the last two years, yet the U.S. lost 1,145 planes in the unpleasantness in Korea and the end is not yet. ---    “Aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Casco at Sea-- ‘Regardless of the weather, the guys on these weather ships expect--and get--three square meals a day,’ grinned Chief Martin C. (Cutter) Nett, (CM) USCG, as he tilted back in his chair and studied a lengthy grocery order. ‘A sailor can take a lot of gruff,’ continued the chief, ‘But he looks forward to his food and we’ve got to give to ‘em.’ The Casco is one of many Coast Guard vessels in the publicized weather patrol. She operated out of Boston and takes an assigned position in the North Atlantic for a period of at least 30 days. She sailed from Portsmouth Monday after being at the Naval Base for repairs. Chief Nett’s job is planning meals and figuring supplies for 150 men.”--The Portsmouth Herald, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. ---    Martin was born in Lake Wilson and is the oldest son of Mrs. Henry Nett. Here is a recipe for a small group due here soon, Sour String Bean Salad. You will need a can of string beans, one ounce of flour, a quarter ounce of vinegar and a quarter pound of bacon. Remove the string beans from the can, put in a pan saving some of the juice. Fry out the bacon. Add the flour, make a roux, and reduce it to the right thickness with the juice and vinegar. Season and serve hot. When you get back home again why not put on a feed, Martin. ---    Quaint little spot is New Hampshire, yet quite American: their hospital at Exeter went in the red $8,700 but it should worry: it has an endowment fund of $1,453,000. Another item was about a hospital doctor that was on call one Saturday afternoon. A kid was hurt in an accident. The doctor was notified, but he finished out his round of golf first, and was the populace made, just spitting mad. The city, the medical board and the press took it up and called him everything and threatened dire vengeance. The story had the usual ending. The kid was not hurt near as bad as the doctor. ---    Another story before we leave New Hampshire. Browsing through the Herald we came across this in the Wanted columns. Now don’t run, boys, walk. “Woman would like someone to share apartment and expenses with her. 264 Hanover St.” ---    One of the oldest couples in the village, Mr. and Mrs. Phil Flannery, observed their 45th wedding anniversary last week. What a grand couple they are and how loyal they have been to the town and its people. In sunshine or in storm the Flannerys were always there, and they should be too as it was the Roamer that introduced Phil to Mary over fifty years ago. ---    What’s all this bother about burning books? Nobody reads books nowadays, why not burn them? Bet there ain’t over seven men in Lake Wilson that read a book last year. Every house in town has books in them that have not been opened inside of thirty years. ---    Hear that “Doc Chris,” former register of deeds, has just undergone two operations at Phoenix, Ariz. Doc resigned last year and went to Florida and landed in Arizona in May. He is getting along well now. Look for him back this summer. ---    Glory Be: they’ve started drilling for oil in Marshall county, which may help to end our tax problems in Minnesota. ---    We had no idea of how low cattle had dropped. Last week Wilbur Strom purchased young steers in Sioux City, Iowa for as low as 8 1/2 cents--others at 12 1/2 and 14 cents. Of course they were thin, but there’s a lot of grass this year. ---    Remember the murder case at Rochester where the husband wasted ammunition killing his wife. He also shot the Casanova but he survived. He is paralyzed from the hips down. Better he would have died. Living with one’s conscience for years is a punishment worse than death.
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July 16, 1953
   Those folks who worry about the atomic bomb bringing the world to and end have another worry now. A nice old lady who lives in Tillicoultry, Scotland says, “Television will eventually mean the end of all things.” This lady, who must have had a glorious youth, says, “TV sets are deadly. Young folks watch the pictures when they should be courting.” No sparking, she added, means no children and no children means no more world. (Yes, there is a place called Tillicoultry in Scotland. Like the guy in the Miss MacConnell show, “We have been there.” ---    We note that Supt. Maloney is going to have a column on school affairs in the Pilot each week. A fine idea, and one that will be appreciated by the taxpayers as most of our tax dollar goes into our schools. Good luck to you, Supt. Maloney, but don’t ever tell in your column the name of the smartest kid in school. ---    If that pay raise of $1,500 for judges in the state gets the O.K. of the Supreme Court, it’s not going to be so good for future judges when they come up for election. Why a legislature would refuse a $60.00 annual raise to the lowest paid worker for the state and then grant well-paid judges a $1,500 raise is really hard to explain. If these judges don’t like the salary, why don’t they resign? Judges today are not elected on their ability. When a vacancy occurs there is a sort of a popularity contest. The governor sends out blank votes to the lawyers in the district and naturally the most popular attorney gets the nod. The ablest men are never the most popular. Judges are just like you and “I”. When we pass on, someone will take our place and the world will roll on just the same. None of us are indispensable. ---    From disclosures from Russia of late, one gets the idea that things are not coming so well under the new regime. The vacant spot caused by the death of Stalin aroused thoughts of advancement in a lot of hearts, and sooner or later caused trouble. The new outfit in the Kremlin will have a lot of purging before it finds itself secure. ---    And speaking of Russia, did it ever occur to you that Syngman Rhee knew more about what was going on behind the iron curtain than we did, and thought this was the time to strike a blow? ---    If the government can go into the business of producing electricity, why should it not go into the oil producing business. At the present time we notice that even though more oil wells are brought in, the price of gas goes up. The government should go into oil first, for oil today is the breath of life to all our activities. ---    We may have a few low spots in our fields and there may be places where some seed was washed away, but folks you may not realize it but you live in the Garden of Eden in Minnesota, as we saw it last week. We drove over 700 miles and in no place did we see corn as tall, beans of the same rich color or pastures that equalled ours. Even our oats were sprouted, taller and had a better color than any we saw. Alfalfa seems to be on its way out. Flax was a rarity and soy beans unknown north of Brainerd. The oat fields up there are thin and scraggy, some of them heading at five inches. Yet they seemed contented and happy, for the north has a crop, a regular oil well that spouts and spends money like a geyser. The towns are ablaze with tourists, folks with money to spend and they spend it. They come from every state, clad in every color and shape of garment, some of them with the gaiety of second childhood, obese women of middle age prance around in shorts, for “we girls” must keep up with the youngsters. One of those ladies passed us and we heard Fred murmur, “I wonder how that woman ever got into those things.” What was troubling Ed was, “How will she ever get out?” The tourists buy Indian relics made in Japan, and knickknacks made in their own home towns, and send them home as souvenirs. At night the towns are lit up like a Christmas tree and continue until the wee small hours of the morning; so they tell us. ---    We, meaning the Roamer, went fishing last week with the other members of the Shrinking (not stinking) Violets club. It was the worst in the history of the club. Fish just were not biting in the lakes we were at. Of course there were sporadic spots where they were biting but we did not find them. The first morning out, two members of the club fished. They were Louis Ostergaard and Fred Gass. They fished from 7 to 12; total results one drowned worm, no bites. Sort of disgusted, we drove to Walker in the afternoon. The story was different this year. It used to be, “Gosh, if you had only been here yesterday.” Now it was, “They have not been biting for the last two weeks.” Drove to Lake Garfield at La Porte. Story the same. Folks there from Park Rapids and Bemidji to get a mess of fish: nothing doing. In the evening the full front string of men in the club, Ed Engebretson, Louis Ostergaard and Fred Gass went fishing: we did the dishes. Net result: another worm gone, but only one good minnow. While the boys were enjoying fishing and mosquitoes, the Roamer strolled down to the Dr. Thorburn place. Mrs. Thorburn was the former Rose Woodgate of Slayton. Doc fishes at night but he had no results. Gave me a jar of maple syrup from the trees in his lot, so our trip was not in vain. Thursday we visited at the “Joe” Thompson home at Aitkin. Joe taught school here for twelve years. His wife also taught here. We also visited with Ernest Thompson and Ad, former Ruthton teacher. The brothers have the Security Bank in Aitkin and are doing well. The bank holdings are over $2,000,000. The roads are jammed with detours and men with white Sam Brown belts. While at Pine River we enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Ted Hill (Mrs. Hill was the former Mrs. R. J. Forrest); they also have a DF, that’s why we were able to bring a few fish home.
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July 23, 1953
   The oat crop this year is not going to be up to expectation and the Scots may have to eat barley; rust has appeared in 95 per cent of the fields. But remember our corn lookout has never been better and we seldom have a good corn crop and a good oat crop in the same season. ---    The spirit of indifference seems to have spread to the two most patriotic holidays of the year. Take Memorial Day, once a day of significant observance, has about gone. The attendance at the services were far below normal, even the boys in uniform were not here in any number. On the 4th of July only two per cent of the homes took the time to display a flag in honor of the birthday of the nation. Down town the story was the same. Only one flag being displayed, that by Ed Bopp. Don’t think that this indifference is confined to Lake Wilson. At Woodstock there was not a service man in uniform. On the 4th we were in four towns, and the display of flags and bunting was worse than it ever was. There is only one holiday that maintains its interest and Big Business sees to it that this one is kept before the public for months before. ---    “How to Talk to your Wife” is the title of an article in Colliers last week. Most of the better talks to the little woman are generally made when the guy is halfway down town. She does not hear them and the man gets rid of a lot of excess steam. ---    Princess Margaret is having a time with her love affair. She fell in love with a commoner, divorced at that. It was not the thing to do for a princess. So the powers that be sent her to Africa and transferred her lover to Holland. They should have taken a leaf from David’s diary and sent him to the front line in Korea. ---    The worm has turned and sportsmen, instead of berating the Game & Fish Department are razzing the legislature. While the fishermen and the hunters increase their license money, the legislature grabs the money that the boys thought would go into pike, raising ponds, etc. Before next election it would be wisdom on the part of the sportsmen to find out how the candidate stands on these matters. ---    The Korean war has cost the taxpayers over $16,000,000,000. Seems as if we did not get value received. ---    There was a lot of criticism here last week when eleven trees in the park bit the dust. Newcomers in the village evidently failed to realize just what the part meant to the folks who have watched it grow from a rubbish pile to a thing of beauty. To them it was the finest and best thing in the village and naturally they cannot be blamed when they feel that the work of trimming and cutting trees should have been left to a competent tree surgeon or trimmer. Only God can make a tree. ---    “Mouth” Hagen of Minnesota is trying to follow in the footsteps of Senator McCarthy. Last week when a cabinet member was invited before the committee, congressman Hagen would not let him speak. No wonder Ike has to take up with the democrats. ---    Taking a page from Henry Wallace’s diary, next year there will be a cut in wheat acreage of twenty per cent. Why not get some common horse sense and stop work on the dams, and if the men need employment let them build another lane in every concrete road in the U.S. This movement would save many lives in a year, while those darn dams are only making more headaches for generations to come. ---    We know so little that is almost pitiful. Remember those fierce looking white grub worms that used to play havoc with the Shasta Daisies and the Delphiniums? Well, they’re not worms but beetles. They spend three years in the ground and then develop into those vicious June bugs that have the speed of a jet. We know so little about the things that are close to us. ---    See where Mrs. Dora Harvey is to be honored at the coming state fair: may we add our mite of congratulations. She has been one of the outstanding teachers in the history of Lake Wilson and the youngsters when they leave her room carry with them the imprints of not only the three “R’s” but how to conduct themselves as ladies and gentlemen while out of the school. She does not harangue them, but “tells” them in a quiet friendly tone of the value of a clean healthy body and mind, and to keep it that way. The Roamer gets this from some of her pupils during the last five years. She’s one teacher that teaches because she loves to, and she is not only an instructor but a character builder. ---    Here’s a new thought. An old farmer told me the other day. when you die be so poor that the kids will have to throw in $50 or $75 apiece to bury you, and you will go down with them as a hero and they’ll tell their friends what a grand guy you were. But if you give one a quarter section, the other a half, one $3,000, etc., they’ll fight among themselves and end up cussing you for an old stinker as long as they live. ---    Uneasy thoughts haunt the minds of some of the members of the late “economy” legislature of Minnesota, and some of them are returning the checks that in a fit of big heartedness they voted themselves last winter. You shouldn’t have done it, boys, it wasn’t cricket. To add this bonus to your three thousand salary, while the poorest paid Minnesota employee was refused an increase of $60.00 a year. ---    Here’s something of interest along the school line, ... [missing]
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July 30, 1953
   Bear Lake Post Older Than United States   For the last thirty years the Roamer has been keenly interested in the history of Murray county. From the many French names of places in the country we tried to find out just when the French were here and it is rather peculiar that just a week before the 4-H will dedicate “La Grande Lisiere” post at Bear Lake we find that there was a fur trading post there before there was a United States. We have paid several visits to the state historical society in the past and written many letters, but we never were able to find out exactly when the trading post occupied by the American Fur Company was built. We received a letter from the state historical society last week stating that it had written Dr. Grace La Nute, eminent Minnesota historian and author, and here is an excerpt in the letter: “Dr. Le Nute said that the places in Murray County were named by early French voyageurs but she has never come across any evidence of any post being there prior to 1763. A trader by the name of Martin had the post in 1750, but there is no evidence of a post being built at that time.” ---    If you are a “has been” baseball fan or a present day fan, get one of those baseball booklets from Polly. Twelve of the top notchers in baseball have articles in it. It’s a must for a baseball player. ---    Don’t know what’s the matter, but there’s not as many flies as there used to be, nor potato bugs either. Bird life seems to decrease yearly, meadow larks are a rarity and it’s a long time since we’ve seen one of the sturdy little king birds take after a hawk. Gophers are on the wane. Years ago they were a menace. Some folks think that all this poison spraying of the land is having a detrimental effect on wild life--that is among animals, not humans. ---    You have heard the saying “What goes up, must come down” all of which is true, but contrary to many opinions it does not come down as fast as it went up. Shoot a bullet into the air, it does not come down with the same speed that it had going up. Drop an object from the height of 1,000 miles and it will not go any faster than seven miles a second; at least that’s what scientists say. ---    A cowardly congress refuses to raise the postage rates. Postal rates should advance just as fast as any commodity. ---    Every vacation taker should use the last three days, more if of old age, to try and get back to normal. The hustle and bustle of planning, getting everything ready and the long trips, more hours a day and sometimes at night is telling on the average human system, which is already stepping it off, just a wee too much. ---    One of the rarest and best things in life are friends. We don’t mean the slap you on the back variety or those that shake your hand with as much enthusiasm or warmth as there is in a dead fish. There are no friends like old friends. The kind that understand you, your caprices and your failings and still like you. Friendship is not a hothouse plant. It is one that develops through the years. It takes time to grow for its roots are deep. ---    Why should congress adjourn? A farmer does not go on a week’s vacation when he’s got hay down. Too much time is taken up with McCarthy’s investigations. Why not have him do his ghoulish work during recess? ---    The Korean war is over, thank Heavens! It was the most disastrous in the history of the United States. Those darned Chinese drove five of our top generals out of the box and at all times they seemed to have the ball on our ten yard line. It cost the United States too many lives and too much money. ---    Had a letter from Rogdes the other day. They are taking it easy at Anaheim, Calif. Anaheim is growing like a weed. Reuben was formerly bank cashier here. How’s the fishing? Another letter from an old time Pilot reader, Mrs. Henry Carney. She says, “I have moved back to Minneapolis and now live at Morton’s at Austin.” By the way, Mr. and Mrs. Arvid Carney at Indianapolis have a new son. ---    Fishing is still poor at Shetek, but Marshall Fowser got a bunch last week, but he was not at Shetek. He and Missus were up in Canada where the thick shouldered tasty ones live in deep cold water: mighty good, too. ---    See where Gov. Anderson has warned his officials against being too callous with the public. He told them that the public should be served courteously. All of which is timely. A few officials are inclined to be indifferent to public wishes, but there are few in the state. Remember the days when the railroad men were the worst in the world. They would slam the window in your face and bark at you like a dog. The baggage men were along the same line and took a fiendish delight in busting your trunk or package. They were called “baggage smashers.” A change came, or rather a miracle, and you can’t find a more suave, courteous or fair spoken guy than Harvey Butterfield, present depot agent. Sad part is that he don’t have ticket buyers to slam the window on.
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August 6, 1953
   Jelling in Lake Wilson is a movement to hold a Gala Day in 1954. A splendid idea and it should be linked up with a “Homecoming Day.” No town in the state has as fine a part for this purpose. The park is a half block from the business district. There is room for a horse show of 300 horses, a baseball game, three softball games, a horseshoe pitching contest, three tug-o-wars from the six adjoining townships, a band contest, a clay pigeon match, races and games for the kids and even a rolling pin throwing contest for the elderly women, and if there is enough demand for a small carnival they can all be going full blast in the park at the same time. How can it be financed, you ask? Charge fifty cents to get into the park and sell big buttons through canvassing. Have the day about the middle of June. Start off with a big parade in the forenoon and you’ll have a dish of fun and merriment that you won’t forget for a long time. Only one thing is needed to make the day a success: Cooperation! ---    This man Senator McCarthy should not go back too far in his investigations. If so, he’ll have the bones of Washington, Jefferson et al before his committee. Just pretty hard to admit, but they were revolutionaries and traitors, but won and became heroes. ---    Emissaries from the soft drink industry visited Lake Wilson last week and when they left they took away from the kids their five cent pops and added 30 cents to the price of every carton of soft drinks sold in the village: and we bellow our heads off about the Iron Curtain and how the poor Russians are regimented. How long will it be before the cereal companies, the canned goods industry, etc. swoop down on a village and say, “Here it is, Mister, or else!” Free enterprise? Bah! ---    You’ve heard the song, “California, Here I Come.” Lake Wilson has a song, “Come on, California,” when it comes to vegetables. Here we live in a section with a good season for vegetables, yet the stores here carry onions, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and strawberries from California. The cabbage comes from Texas. We asked, why not local stuff? Female buyers seem to like stuff put in cellophane sacks, and potatoes that have no Murray county dirt on them. ---    The story is now that Princess Margaret’s love for that captain is going through the cooling period. Nothing wonderful about that. Few girls ever married the young lad they raved over when they were in the teen age. There is always better fish in the sea than the one you got. ---    In the death of Senator Taft, the U.S. lost its greatest statesman. Able, brilliant, sincere and honest, he was always respected by his bitterest opponents. These critical times are the days when we sorely need men of the Taft standard. ---    A former Murray county teacher whom we have a great admiration for is Mrs. Chloris Harmsen who is visiting at the home of her parents in Leeds township. She started life anew in Detroit, Mich. with two small children. She first had a position doing substitute teaching for teachers in the Detroit schools. Became interested in teaching the deaf. Attended night school, continuing with special training at the Wayne University for the Deaf. She received her Master’s degree last January and is now on the staff of the Detroit School for the Deaf. ---    The little piggy that went to market last summer pushed the old cow of the high spot over the moon. In Minneapolis bacon has been selling at from 85 to 95 cents a pound, and center cuts of ham brought $1.70. See what Ike is doing to the farmer. ---    Mrs. Mel Harman, Lake Wilson’s gifted poet and song writer, was heard over the air Tuesday. Mrs. Harman’s song which she wrote was the “Housewives Polka.” She composed the song, which was set to music by W. Peterson of the WCCO staff. A member of the radio station sang the new song. Congratulations, Mrs. Harman. ---    The present trend: we heard eight people worrying one day last week over the condition of Arthur Godfrey, but not one said a word about Senator Taft. We live in an indifferent world of today. ---    The members of the Lake Wilson Saddle Club are getting ready for the day at the county fair on Aug. 23rd. The boys are currying and brushing their horses until they shine like a nigger’s heel. That’s the proper spirit, boys, but now let’s all remember that every member must follow suit, as one or two unkempt horses just spoil the others’ chances. What applies to the horses also applies to the riders. We’d like to see top money come to Lake Wilson this year. ---    Death lurks at every cornfield that grows on the crossroads at this time of the year. Be careful, folks, it’s too hot to go out. ---    Pete De Greeff who bought the Bee Hive last week is going to tear it down when the oats are in the bin. Pete was a poultry dealer in Holland and used to deliver chickens and sometimes pheasants to the late Kaiser Wilhelm when he lived in Doorn.
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August 13, 1953
   That $1,500 raise in judges pay keeps bobbing up. A lot of folks just can’t understand why the bill was ever sent to the governor if it was not necessary for him to sign it. ---    Internal trouble in the Gopher League last week is not going to help amateur baseball. Last spring the clubs signed a solemn contract in regard to outside players, but it was forgotten during the season by some of the teams. They met to wash their dirty linen last week, but all the signing of contracts and agreements made last spring were thrown out the window: ‘tain’t good for amateur baseball, boys. ---    Marvin Ottilie of Washington, D.C. was here last week visiting relatives. Marvin is with the personnel in the navy dept. and has a fine position. He was Lt. Commander in World War II. Another Lake Wilsonite soon to be promoted is Miss Antoinette Ostergaard who is at present stationed with the air force at Rapid City, S.D. The Roamer is always glad to see Lake Wilson young folks forging ahead. ---    Petite Judy Wilkinson will represent Lake Wilson at the coming 4-H show at the Minnesota state fair. Glad to see her win the opportunity to go. ---    Sweet corn has seldom been as late as it is this season, in spite of the rainy weather. By the way, if the darned rain doesn’t stop, the corn will keep on growing instead of ripening: seems as if there’s always something. ---    Dick Haymes the radio crooner is going back to Argentina at the request of the FBI, who claims he would not register for the draft because he was not a citizen. Dick claims he tried to enlist but was turned down twice on account of high blood pressure. How a guy who has high blood pressure can start necking with color blind Rita Hayworth is the $64 question. Of course we are growing old and would not know. ---    “It’s easy enough to be pleasant When the world goes by with a song, But the man worth while is the man that can smile When Everything goes dead wrong.” ...We never run across this poem but what we think of Johnny Harmsen, or rather J. J. Harmsen. He was farming in Cameron township in those grim days of the depression of ‘29 to ‘32. He dropped into the old P.O. one day and said, “I’ve taken the battery out of the auto, disconnected the telephone and removed the battery from the radio, and told the folks we lived without them before and could do it again.” The future looked bad. What happened? Not much, only John J. now owns the old John Low farm in Lowville township and has a bunch of swell White Faces, large enough to keep Murray county in steaks for a week. ---    Congress adjourned last week. No matter what was on the docket the boys just had to go. They had their reservations arranged for the land, sea and air for the annual congressional junket, and when you’ve got to go especially when you, Mr. Taxpayer foots the bill. They go to nearly every country in the world where there is good eating and drinking, and are wined and dined and entertained until a lot of them really forget what they went for. In most cases the “boys” had better stayed at home and sent a trained observer. The committee men generally see more sights than they do facts. Our present congress is too unwieldy and should be cut in half. Take Minnesota, for instance--we have one republican and a democrat senator. They consistently vote against one another, consequently we ain’t in the Union. Too many men go to Washington with the fixed idea of trying to vote so that he can get enough votes back home so that he can be re-elected. One of the really funny things about senators and representatives: no matter what they are back home, they immediately become experts on everything from international law to the proper size of an atomic bomb when they get to Washington. ---    For a number of years the Roamer has been fortunate in retaining the same auto number (666), but Mrs. Mike Holm, secretary of state, tells us that if we want to retain the number it will cost us 35 cents extra this year. That’s what you get for putting a woman in office. But seriously, we’re mighty glad to pay the thirty-five cents. How many folks with six-number cars can give their number offhand? Three numbers are about all an old guy can remember. Back to Mrs. Holm. No one in our memory ever faced stronger opposition than she, when she ran for office last fall. The cavalry, heavy artillery and even the submarines of her party were against her, yet she won. No officer in the state capitol has made as fine a job of operating her office than she has. Good Luck to the Missus. You have another twenty years ahead of you. ---    The butter problem is still with us. The new plan now is for the government to give the dairymen a subsidy of 13 cents a pound for every pound of butter. This looks like a sensible plan. Only give them enough subsidy so that butter can retail at fifty cents a pound and there will be no butter to dump in the ocean. ---    The state has planted 150,000 pheasants in Minnesota this year. ‘Tis well. Plan on planting 250,000 birds next season. This is the only sensible way to handle the pheasant situation, and the game and fish department is to be commended for this assurance that the hunter will have something to hunt, anyway.
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August 20, 1953
   Don’t care whose plan it is, Republican, Democrat, McCarthy, Morse or the UN, the idea of making Korea a “Show Window” with American labor and American material stinks, and that’s putting it mildly. There’s not a village, town or city in America that does not have old people or widows with two or three kids living in shacks on the edges of town. Why not give them some comfort and some of the necessities of life instead of making a “show window” out of Korea. Common sense, like charity, begins at home. ---    Have not heard much about the corn borer this year: must have left us, at least for the time being. Funny when one looks back. First pest we can remember that was going to crush the farm was the Russian thistle. Dire alarm was felt that this was the end. They left and there was the yellow mustard seed; what farm man or woman can forget trudging through the fields picking or rather pulling the mustard plants. Then came the quack grass, the hardest of all and some of it is here yet. Then there was the Creeping Jenny and a lot of other deadly weeds with names that the ag men could never pronounce. But the farmer took them all in stride and is still here. One thing the farmer cannot curtail or eradicate and that is Jack Frost, and while our corn is the best ever, we’re going to need a lot of hot dry weather to ensure a crop. ---    The “hired girl” of days gone by seems to have joined the buffalo. Remember when they used to work the year round for two to three dollars a week, and what became of the girl from the country that used to work for her board while she went to school? Times bring some changes. ---    The wheat crop will be under government control this year; the farmers voted for that method last week. Time was when wheat was our main crop here. Prices went down as low as 33 cents a bushel and yields were as low as five bushels to the acre: farmers were forced to go into dairying and corn. ---    Could be that our taste buds are growing stale, but the chicken of today lacks the flavor of those of years ago. They are fed scientifically with prepared foods and when they are prepared they look beautiful, pale, wan and stark. There’s an absence of those yellow globules under the skin, the fat: the fat that gives a bird flavor. The birds of today don’t taste like the birds which enjoyed the freedom of the farm yard with its corn, oats, wheat and a few grasshoppers, even an occasional beetle or angle worm. Those chickens had a flavor that lingers: some of them also had hips. ---    A Lake Wilson youngster, Miss Sonja Anderson, did the painting of the historical sign for the marker at Bear Lake. Did a fine job and donated the work. ---    Our good friend Fr. Wm. Gorman of Avoca sent us an interesting booklet containing the history of the Church of Saint Rose of Lima, at Avoca. This village and church were founded by the late Archbishop Ireland in 1778 [1878?], who was one of the foremost colonizers of Minnesota. ---    Had the opportunity to ride No. 172, the new Diesel electric engine on the Pipestone branch of the Omaha last week. The road here is always the Omaha to all the old timers. What a fine bunch of power there is in the new engine: 1,600 horsepower. Enough to haul all the cars on the branch at one time, even if the side tracks are full. Three of these new engines were added to the Omaha last week and Jimmy Watt and his steam engines got another jolt. It’s a far cry from the Diesel of today to the little tea kettle engine on the branch when Dick Gage, engineer, and Frank Johnson, fireman, with the black smoke coming from the bell shaped stack. Engines were pretty dirty in those days but Joe Wolf sat in his engineer’s chair: everything as neat and clean as a pin. “Curley” Ventioner, an old time brakeman on the branch, was handling the train. We are deeply grateful on being remembered by the Omaha folks. ---    A young matron who used to live here twelve years ago was visiting here last week and said, “Remember when I used to come into the old post office and you would shower me with advice? One of the things you said I’ll always remember. Came in one day with some of the new idea of women’s wear and you said, ‘Why don’t you go home and put some clothes on?’ What do you say now?” Don’t run the post office, my dear, but I’ve found out that a lot of them crowd the border line of decency, but we ought to be thankful they are not nudists. ---    The oat crop this year is punk. Disappointing to the farmer as well as the railroad folks. Up to this writing the shipment of oats has been a fourth to what they were last year. ---    You read about France last week. The whole country lay absolutely dead owing to a nationwide strike. How long will it be before the same thing occurs in the U.S. Don’t say it can’t happen here: it generally does. ---    The fight to retain the Indian school at Pipestone which has been fought bitterly for many years is almost over and in a short time there will be no Indian school at Pipestone: the employees of the school have been ordered to apply for transfers to other institutions. ---    Pipestone is getting quite metropolitan: last week a So. Dak. guy was fined a hundred bucks for drunken driving, and he did not get a cent off for cash.
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August 27, 1953
   The twin cities are all het up over a national league baseball team. All they need is a $2,000,000 stadium and attendance. Baseball of today is suffering from a lack of competition. One of the teams in the American league is forty games behind the leaders. In the national the Pittsburgh team trails the leader by 44 games. Too much difference. The baseball moguls should see that the players are more evenly divided. If the twin cities had a team 44 games behind there would a baseball field for rent. ---    Youngdale, who has been among the also rans in this congressional district race for two heats, asks Benson of the dept. of agriculture to resign following out his own line of reasoning. Jimmy should quit running, but he won’t. ---    The sedate Mpls. Star had a Scotch story last Sunday about the officer on a steamship asking the passengers if there was a MacIntosh that would keep two ladies warm, and up comes a voice saying, “There’s a MacPherson down there that is willing to try.” We heard that joke back in Stirling, Scotland seventy years ago. If you stand still long enough, the world with its joke will catch up with you. ---    Val Bjornson, state treasurer, has a spot on the radio Sunday afternoons about Scandinavia. He tells of the happenings in Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark. Mighty interesting, and as the old prospector used to say, “Thar’s gold in them thar hills;” there could be votes in Val’s noonday chats. ---    Senator Humphrey speaking at the county fairs is loudly advocating granaries filled to the top at all times. If you read the history of Peru, you’ll find the ancient Aztecs kept full granaries, and going back a little further a man by the name of Joseph, who lived 1,715 years before Christ was born, originated the idea. ---    You did not know it, but Lake Wilson has the best depot on the Pipestone branch: also the only water tank on the branch, which by the way is only a memory in these Diesel days. ---    Some folks said the village flower shows would hurt the county fair exhibits. Not so, fortunately. This year the Murray county fair had the finest and largest exhibit in it history and the women interested in flowers brought that pep and zeal that every fair needs. ---    “It can happen twice in the same place,” at least that was what two former Lake Wilson ladies found out recently. Mrs. Alice Nelson of Pasadena, Calif. and her sister Mrs. Kathryn Cuckler also of Pasadena were visiting a friend in Lake Crystal. On August 6th, Mrs. Nelson tripped on the last step of the stairway and broke two bones in her ankle. The next day her sister tripped on the same step and she sustained a fractured hip. Both ladies are now at the St. Joseph hospital in Mankato. The ladies are aunts of Mrs. Ernest Miller and Oran Jones, and are daughters of a pioneer family. Their father was postmaster of Lowville twp. in the ‘70’s. ---    Those folks who have been waiting for the Dr. Kinsey report with the tongues hanging out had their moronic tendencies sated last week. Really, it’s a sordid tale of broken commandments and transgressed wedding vows. No one can say that it has made the human race one iota better and the world would have been just as well off if there had never been a Kinsey report. In the final analysis no man has ever understood woman or ever will, from the days of Adam down to the present time. ---    Luciow, well known here, hit the Mpls. Star last week for his work with displaced persons. Said he was forced to teach so that he could aid those unfortunate people. Said he “taught history in Southwestern Minnesota” last year. ---    When a government employee refuses to answer the question, “Have you ever been or are you a communist?” on the grounds that it might incriminate him, he has three strikes on him, and the only place for him is on the bench. ---    What has become of the Hampshire hog that used to supply us with bacon that had a streak of fat, well balanced and flavorful eating? The bacon of today is really deplorable and a sort of a skin game: you pay sixty cents for bacon and it ends up in 80 per cent fat, worth about 10 cents a pound. You get enough grease out of two slices of bacon to keep the pans greased for a week. There just ain’t any need for Spry, Crisco or oleo if you have a slice or two of bacon in the house. ---    From the number of busted contracts, agreements and rules that is claimed were violated or annulled by baseball clubs to suit their own viewpoint, it does not add a rosy hue to the 1954 season. Southwestern Minnesota baseball should have a seat on the UN. ---    Flax is another crop that got a severe going over in spots. One farmer when asked the reason said, “It was blown over, frosted and then drowned out.” His crop went about four bushels to the acre.
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September 10, 1953
   Now that Russia has a super bomb, let’s start making a super duper bomb. Got to keep raising the ante each year or so to maintain our prestige and sustain the morale of some of the folks. ---    Bert Strom and folks returned Tuesday from a three day auto-jet trip. They visited Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. With the exception of Iowa, the other states are suffering from a want of rain. It was a dry trip in more ways than one for Bert. He said he would not give a handful of Leeds twp. soil for a farm in the arid region. ---    Best thing about the county fair is the interest shown by the 4-H club members when their calves are being judged: not even Marilyn Monroe could lure them from it. ---    Don’t jump the “Stop” signs either in town or country highways. There’s a bogey man watching you. He may not have a uniform or a state highway sign on his car, but he’s there. Just a common every day guy like you are. He don’t get any pay, he’s a reliable cuss and all he’s doing is to help you from getting killed. There are over a hundred men in the state that are watching. Better be good. All they do is take your number and send it in. You might not know it but it does not matter whether the cop saw you or not: you’re still guilty. ---    Howard Spaeth, Minnesota’s tax commissioner, is after the income tax evaders. He has a fleet of tax ferrets out right now, jogging the memories of those who forgot. Good idea would be to publish the names of all income tax payers in the various counties and the amount they paid. You’ll be agreeably surprised. It works like a charm on personal taxes. Nothing like pitiless publicity to jog memories and make folks squirm. Anyway we would get to know just who is paying that $5.00 soldier bonus each year. ---    The humble oyster is not so humble after all when it comes to replenishing the earth, or rather the sea. When it comes to reproducing he’s out in front. When he’s a she he can produce 114,000,000 eggs at one spawning. The oyster has this advantage over humans: he or she can change sex at will. Dr. Kinsey is getting out a book next year on the sex life of oysters, maybe. ---    In our humble opinion, Governor C. Elmer Anderson could be elected senator at the next election. No man in our political history ever received the rebuffs and insults from the old guard in Minnesota, republicans and democrats alike, than C. Elmer. Yet he pursued his duties as governor in a modest and effective way and has won the hearts of the people: good sensible man, one that does not play to the galleries. Val Bjornson, present state treasurer, is top man on the republican list for governor. Here we have a vigorous young man, a splendid speaker, one that knows what he is talking about and tells it to you in a way you can understand. Mighty able Minnesotan. ---    Over at Mitchell, S.D. there’s a girl that is in a fix. In 1950 she married a soldier boy. He went off to the wars. Was captured by the Reds in Korea. She did not know whether he was dead or alive, but 14 months after he was captured she married a cab driver. Now the soldier boy is back home. She says she can hardly remember what her first husband looks like. This is a cross section of some of the present generation. Kipling was evidently right when he wrote, “A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.” ---    Some of you folks remember Wally Sonnenschein of Pipestone. He used to live north of Lake Wilson. Well, Wally was one of the close runners up at the Grand American handicap shoot at Dayton, Ohio last week. Get this: there were 1,949 entries and Wally came within four shots of tying for the Grand Championship. Wally is recognized as one of the best in Minnesota. ---    Instead of knocking their neighbors, some folks should praise them: you’ll feel better. ---    Tomatoes are at their peak right now, and there has never been a better crop. Charley Smith the P.M. had five the other day that weighed five pounds. Too bad that science has not yet found a way to keep tomatoes in a freezer so we could have them for Christmas Day. Nothing adds as much to the dinner table as a platter of big red tomato slices. ---    Saw a list of the ten most beautiful words in the English language last week. They contained of course love and begonias, etc. One of the seemingly important words today is hardly recognized. Last week a man was telling us that his aunt died, but he said “We were expecting it.” His wife two hours after told us that their daughter was expecting in October. So it looks as if expectin’ is the Alpha and the Omega of this present civilized generation. ---    What’s the matter with the Murray County Fair? The income does not come near balancing with the outgo. All fair receive state and county appropriations. Yet they were not enough to keep your county fair alive. The tremendous increase in prices of amusements and entertainment and rise in material of all kinds and the increase in labor which jumped from $3 to $12 in one year could not be balanced by an increase of 25 cents in grandstand tickets. In one session the grandstand grossed $67.50; the cost of the show was $200 [?]. The weather has never been better than it was for the fair, yet the grandstand did not take in enough to pay for the program. Murray’s is not the only fair to get into that cycle. Windom had the t... [missing]... the state, yet it passed out. So did Luverne, but both are ... [missing] ... back. Size of town does not make much difference. The smallest fair town in this section keeps going. Every one from gate keeper to night watchman work for nothing. In the Murray county fair everyone gets paid.
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September 17, 1953
   The Lake Wilson businessmen can save a day on their outgoing mail if they will mail their letters before 8:30 a.m. Mail in the post office by that time will make connections via Chandler and Miloma. The Chandler train connects with both day trains on the Omaha at Miloma. Letters going to the west coast or the east coast or intermediate post offices will make as much as 24 hours in time than when left to the 5:30 truck. ---    That darned Senator McCarthy has been striking “oil” in the government printing office at Washington, D.C. The best catch in the haul was an employee that ran a gambling outfit right in the office. When some men and women lose heavily in gambling debts they become an easy prey for those who seek to get information secrets. Man or woman, when their money runs out and they and the family get hungry, will betray anyone and their country as well. Man before starving will eat his dead mother or father in his lust to live. ---    The per capita liquor tax in Minnesota his year is $1.87. This is your share of the state tax on liquor which is divided in rural, village and city. Out of the cigarette tax your share is 87 cents. These amounts are forwarded by state auditor King to the various units. Those folks who excoriate and detest liquor have little conception as the amount of taxes made by John Barleycorn. If you had to pay as much in proportion as John does on his mountain dew, a $2,000 auto would cost you $18,000. ---    A congressman has asked the U.S. postal department to bar the Kinsey report on females from the mails (mails, remember, not males). He must be working for the genial doctor, who is making a fortune exposing so-called weaknesses in the human female and male which has been with us ever since the world began. If you want to increase the sale of a book, magazine or paper just ask Uncle Sam to bar it from the mails. We’re the most curious animals on earth. ---    The Truman budget was set at $64 billion. Ike cut this by $10 billion. The lower house in congress cut this $4 billion, but the dignified senate added a billion, leaving the figure at $51,017,000,000, if you have the slightest idea how much this is: we haven’t. ---    Cheer up, boys and girls. The United States today has a book value of $635 billion. We have borrowed about $325 billion, so you can readily see, kids, that you’ll be busted when you come of age. Never was there a better opportunity for someone, man or woman with a pruning or paring knife, but who seems to care. On with the dance, let joy be unconfined. We’re taking Tom Moore’s advice: “As we travel through life, life let us live by the way.” ---    See where a man named Stevenson, satellite in the republican party in Washington and other places, is accused of selling his patronage on government contracts. Put the boot to him Ike, get him out of there. ‘Twill save you a lot of trouble in the days to come. Men in high government jobs should be like Caesar’s wife: above suspicion. ---    The dates for the duck season this fall seem to warrant a staggered season. If Humphrey carries as much weight as he thinks he does, why doesn’t he do something about the duck hunting. Ducks, as we understand the law, are under federal jurisdiction, yet South Dakota gets behind an Iron Curtain and says, “You can’t hunt them in our state.” The Sunshiners also have an early season for local pheasant hunters. If we can’t live in harmony and peace with our neighbors just across the line, how in heck do you expect us to get along with Russia? And when we’re on the subject, we just want to say that we have not heard of one hunter that believes there should be an open season in Murray county this fall. An open season would set us back three years. ---    We folks who live out of the beaten path of the airplane little realize the development in air travel. For example, one company in Minneapolis has twelve flights daily to Chicago. Another really astonishing fact is that more people cross the Atlantic by plane than go by ship. ---    Main Street or rather “Broadway” underwent a face lifting operation last week that has been sorely needed for years, and what a wonderful job the old street received. The Minnesota Valley Co. of Granite Falls is the most efficient company we have ever seen in Lake Wilson. All modern machinery operated by men who know their business. The street work here the last two weeks has made more apparent than ever the necessity of another railroad crossing. ---    Say, you men have got to learn to wear the long red ones, and you girls will have to wear wool snuggies. If you don’t that little lamb that followed Mary will soon be with the buffalo and passenger pigeons. Wool consumption has declined for the last seven years, and Uncle Sam has half of last year’s crop of wool in his warehouses. Price supports on wool as cost the taxpayers $91 million in the last ten years. The largest price loss in any storable commodity.
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September 24, 1953
   The Fish Calendars that give you the days when to fish and what hours to fish have had a bad year. For all the value they are, you can use them any time and still be wrong. ---    Bert Strom was buried last week. Bert was a staunch friend of ours for nearly fifty years. He had one fault, we all have them, but we never heard Bert tell a filthy story, slighting remarks about women, curse or swear. He was a good neighbor, honest and sincere and was not a double crosser. Bert was raised a Quaker and attended the same church at West Union, Iowa that the Hoover family did. He was a neighbor to a brother of Herbert Hoover’s. Some of the Quaker teaching remained with him through life. May he rest in peace. ---    The stamped envelope price is also boosted. You used to buy two envelopes for 7 cents: now they are 4 cents straight. You can save money by buying them in twenty-five lots, where the old price prevails. ---    Several times of late we notice the San Francisco papers play up stories of the G.I.’s that arrived and found their wives unfaithful, implying somewhat that women were worse than males, but they never said a word about the G.I.’s who fractured their marriage and sweetheart vows. In spite of the Kinsey report, women are better than men. Without them there would be no churches, no schools, no Sunday schools and no children. ---    Lake Wilson will have another apartment house in a few weeks. Pete DeGreef who bought the old Lane store tells us that he will soon be wrecking the building. It is conveniently located. ---    Another improvement is that by Cy Koob. He has recently installed a large gas storage tank on the site of the old stock yards. E. J. Gustafson, formerly of Slayton, is the agent for the gas company. Glad to see the improvements of this type come to Lake Wilson. ---    What a wonderful crop of corn we have this fall: some farmers say it will be the second best crop in the history of the county. ---    Joe Ball, former U.S. senator who committed political hari-kari that pushed him into oblivion, is back in the news once more. He was recently appointed assistant secretary of the U.S. Marine lines. ---    “Slayton, Minnesota September 5, 1953
   Dear Mr. Forrest: Please answer these questions in reference to an item in your column: (1) If men can’t understand women, why do they marry them? (2) Was Adam weak when he listened to Eve? (3) I think women are weak if they agree with your statement. G.W.” ---    Dear Miss or Missus, the Roamer is hardly in a position to pose as a jury on women, being altogether too young, but with the pep and assurance of youth would say to question (1): that’s the real 64 dollar one but we are getting better dear, Solomon had 300 odd females, we have but one, the law says. (2) There wasn’t a younger one to listen to. (3) Haven’t met a woman that agreed with us on anything, except those we tell how nice they look or how well they carry that additional pound. ---    The Chandler school district is out of debt which will be good news to the taxpayers of that district, but not quite as much as it will be to Joe McGlashen who really was the father of the school. He pushed, begged and pleaded for it, and went through a lot of burning criticism during the depression days as Chandler had the highest school tax rate in the country. “Not the only fine thing Joe has done for Chandler,” said a lady to us the other day. ---    A lot people, especially the republicans, are slowly beginning to feel the loss of Senator Taft. The country needs a man of his calibre right now, but his shoes are hard to fill. Too many senators and congressmen are so busy pinning medals on their many breasts that they seem to have forgotten country and party. Best man for top place in the senate is Senator Dirksen of Illinois. He has all the attributes of a great leader. ---    Gov. Anderson was pretty well pleased at State Auditor King’s report last week: it showed that the long term indebtedness of the state has been reduced $6,000,000 the past year. ---    Petitions are being signed in this locality asking the Game and Fish dept. to close the pheasant season in this county this fall. The heavy rains in the spring and early summer liquidated the nests and the home crop is practically nothing. The state put in some pheasants here a while back. We should keep those for a nest egg next summer. ---    At a meeting held in Chicago last week by the big wigs of the Democrat party, Truman issued a blast saying that the Republican party is tearing down everything and that we are on the road to ruin. Adlai Stevenson, last year’s candidate, quipped, “It’s funny how many of us had a hundred dollars left to attend the banquet.”
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October 1, 1953
   Folks, that is some of them, raised their eyebrows last week when they read of a baseball umpire’s decision causing a riot in the Hagerstown, Md. prison. The convict teams fought among themselves, tore out all the furniture and plumbing before tear gas and cold water calmed them down. Something funny about baseball. In our young life we have seen the game wreck communities and friendships and build columns of hate that have lasted for fifty years: one town came pretty near going broke over the game. Baseball is a great game, but in spite of its greatness has brought more real grief to the average prairie town than the county seat fight. ---    Now they tell us that it is too late to close the pheasant season this year. No matter how few birds we have they’ve got to be shot. Don’t seem sensible. ---    A recent Gallup poll said that Ike still has the confidence of 76% of the voters in the U.S. With the team he has behind him, that is a wonderful proof of the faith of the American people in a good man. ---    Comely and placid Lois Engel is attending the big Omaha Livestock show with her prize Hereford. What a lot the 4-H clubs have brought and are still bringing to increase the education of our farm youth and to extend their knowledge to other fields. ---    Our sympathy goes out to Casper Rademacher who lost his wife last week. We have known them for fifty years and no couple were more humble, kindlier, more sincere nor worked harder than they. Sickness came upon them. Arthritis seized most of Casper’s energy. He can hardly walk, let alone work, in his garden where he spent every minute he could spare. He loved that garden, thrusting the pitchfork into the soil with his hands; arthritis will not let him life his legs. Casper has gone to Minneapolis to live now, but his heart is till in the little patch of ground he loves. Though miles away he can still see every clump of soil, every ridge of land, which will be more painful than you ever dreamt of. All of us carry a load towards the end: Casper has had his for years -- some loads seem to be heavier than others. ---    The Roamer has lived here seventy years this month, but we have never seen as good, sound, well-filled ears of corn as there is this year. ---    Paul Hubbard, publisher of several of the California “desert” papers, sends one that has at its masthead, “This paper is not entered as second class: it’s a first class newspaper. Ten years $50. Asbestos copies will be furnished in case you don’t make it.” Paul ran the paper at Holland in its palmy days: the days when it had two banks. ---    If we were elected to the legislature, next session one of the first things we’d do would be to ask the state to furnish a pheasant hatchery in Murray county with a production of 5,000 which would be distributed in the county during the summer. We would charge ever hunter in the county $1.00 extra towards the upkeep of the hatchery and we would also ask that the first five days of the open season be restricted to bona-fide residents of the county. ---    Sorry to hear that Al and Eunice Reha are leaving town. They’ve lived here for years and have a lot of friends. Al is the oldest businessman in service here and Eunice has been interested in church and club work. May they both be happy in their new home. ---    Have been reading ads lately about the airplane being the safest way to travel. Last year the railroads in the U.S. carried 470,000,000 passengers without the loss of one passenger’s life. Even planes cannot beat that record. ---    When you walk across the street at a crossing, the law says that you have the right of way, providing there is no traffic control signal. So you can walk with your chin out, but brother you’re just as liable to be killed when you’re wrong. So keep your eyes pealed and look both ways. ---    Worlds get as topsy-turvy as humans. Ten years ago we were yelling, “Kill the Germans, they will ruin the world!” Today the universal cry in a large majority of nations is, “Save Germany so we can save the world!” ---    Here’s a family record. Ruth Harmsen was telling us the other day that they have had four weddings in the family since last December. ---    We’re going to see lots of planes here soon. The grapevine tells us that the big shots were giving the Chandler air base the once over last summer and there will be a good sized air base there before long. The valley with its wide reaches appealed to them, and so did some of the highlands. ---    [Incomplete]
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October 8, 1953
   We think we’ve had it dry up here and we have, but nothing compared to what it has been in Texas. S-Sgt. Chester Ginn who is stationed at Laredo, Texas was telling us last week that no rain fell in that section for a year and a half. It did start this spring, however, and it poured for days on end. Laredo is on the south edge of Texas. ---    Another Lake Wilson boy, A-1c Merrit Oelrich arrived in England last week with his outfit. He took his car along and is planning on doing some sight seeing when off duty. Says he’s planning on going up to Scotland to look up some of the Roamer’s relatives. Hope he does. Am sending him their addresses. ---    “Cut Down the Auto Death Toll” is the slogan today. Most of them that do the crying fail to realize that we live in a different cycle than ever before: “The Speed Cycle.” We’re all in a hurry. A sort of a nervous tension has seized us. To get there first seems to be the new motto and the auto is the quickest and easiest way and naturally the death harvest increases. You know, we’re sort of nuts anyway. We drive down the highways and cars keep coming at us at 75 miles an hour and we never blink an eye, forgetting that if a man would shoot rifle balls at you as close to your head as the oncoming autos, you would have him arrested. Yet the auto is just as deadly a weapon as a rifle. So push your pedal down to the floor board and be happy. ---    A mental photo of the cycle we live in is found in the poll taken last month by a national magazine. It asked what changes should be made to improve the auto. You guessed it. Most replies wanted a more powerful engine. ---    See where a man was sentenced to hang because he butchered the guy that stole his wife: it would not have cost him any more to shoot them both. ---    More farms will be posted against pheasant hunters this year than ever before. Shortage of birds and the dislike of having city hunters coming down and killing what few birds are left, is the main reason. ---    The brief period of fine weather that we experienced almost every fall is called “Indian Summer” by some, and has been called that for years. Why, no one seems to know. The Indians had no special designation for it. The season always comes in October and November and lasts about two weeks, seldom more, and is one of the most delightful periods of the year. Europe has this same spell of weather. The folks over there call it “Old Woman’s Summer,” some “St. Luke’s Summer,” etc. ---    The greatest problem that has confronted this country for decades is the surplus farm crop problem. The government is now holding three billion dollars of surplus crops and has no place to put them. In corn alone it has 540,000,000 bushels and with the bumper crop coming up, that amount will vastly increase. At present we are paying $400,000 daily storage on our surplus crops and the best brains in the country cannot offer a solution to the problem. Farmers around here, some of them real conservative, when asked what they are going to do, most of them answer they are going to ride along with the government in price supports as long as the wagon holds up. They all realize there’s a bitter awakening some day. ---    Mr. and Mrs. Fish have us all stumped this year. Last season the fishing was the best ever in the county and state, this year it has been worse than lousy. This is true not only in the state but up in Canada. Arnold Nissen was telling us the other day that he was fishing in the remote country a while back. Had to fly in the last part of the trip. Even the fish up there were not trying to push them out of the boat and they worked hard to get their limit of decent sized fish. ---    The high school youngsters are getting ready for “Homecoming Day” next Friday. Will have a parade and talk: full of pep and vinegar, the way youth should be. A lot of grey haired folks look down their noses at the proceedings and mutter, “We’re putting too much money in sports and not enough in education,” forgetting that the kids of today learn quicker than they did fifty years ago. As they say in Scotch, “They’re quicker on the uptake” By the way, go to the game Friday afternoon and cheer for the team. If you can’t go, do the next best thing and buy a ticket. ---    We once thought that the Brannon plan would settle our surplus farm product woes. His plan was, take butter for instance, sell it at fifty cents a pound and then have the government send the producer a check for the balance between that price and the support price. Looked like a fine idea until we found out that the government had 225,000 pounds of butter on hand, which was not so bad, but Uncle Sam also has six billion pounds of vegetable oils on hand. Just what will the answer be? ---    In one of the Ford plants at Detroit, Mr. Ford and the male labor unions connived to fire about 300 women workers, asserting that they were not as efficient as males. The women came back with the cry, “They fire us on account of our sex.” Could be, maybe the big shots just heard of the Kinsey report and feel they can’t be too careful. ---    What a wonderful fall we have enjoyed so far. Big mountains of yellow corn are beginning to show up and a fine crop of soy beans are on the way to market. We certainly can find time to pay homage to the One above for His goodness.
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October 15, 1953
   The Minneapolis sport editors are doing their best to ruin a fine young bunch of football players, and it looks as if they have succeeded. For months they have been lauding Paul Giel, a clean young player, to the skies. He was everything. They lauded him so much that a national magazine gave him the title, “Minnesota’s One Man Football Team.” If you were on the team, even in one of the humble spots, you just would not like it, even if you did not squawk. After all, we’re all human beings and you can’t give your best if your heart isn’t there. ---    The little bird is saying that the male folks who have their eye on the legislature job better get on their toes, as a female has started primping for the place made vacant by the removal of W. W. Lloyd. Some folks are criticising Lloyd because he quit the legislative post: we don’t. He had a business opportunity that meant more to him than a political job and he took it. Who wouldn’t? ---    There’s more to the 4H club movement than most folks think. Here’s an item taken from the Minneapolis Tribune last week that will give you some idea: “A leg injured in a football game didn’t immobilize Robert Born, 16, Woodstock. The Lake Wilson high school halfback who has been out of play for two weeks was on his crutches while attending his Hereford steer at the 4H South Saint Paul Livestock show.” ---    “Red” Parker of Pipestone is running again. We saw him run here in 1934 when he was running for the Pipestone bakery. He was full of pep and vim. Ran between stores to get finished to go to the next town. Now he’s running for an auto. The Pan-O-Gold folks are giving an auto to the salesman who sells the most bread. Been a long time since “Red” started here. In business were Louie Kaplan, Nels Christensen and John Sayer. ---    Was genuinely surprised at the Minnesota poll on the small town. Over sixty percent of those polled thought the government was right in closing some of the 4th classes. It’s not the closing of the offices that hurts, it is the implied sentiment that the small town is on its way out. It won’t take place tomorrow, but just look around and see how they are fading out of the picture. We’re living in a changing world. ---    Did you see where a woman had just taken unto herself her thirteenth husband. She runs an inn and over the door should keep a perpetual sign, “Where Angels Fear, Fools Dare to Tread.” What a wonderful fund of information she must have about the male sex. All Kinsey would have to do would be interview her a couple times and start a new book. ---    ‘Twas a grand and glorious Homecoming Day for the youngsters who attended the Lake Wilson school The weather Friday afternoon was tailor made, the parade was the best in history, the girls the prettiest, and the football team brought fame and glory to the traditions of the school when they a walloped a good looking football team from Hendricks by a score of 54 - 6. ---    The Brotherhood of Railway engineers and conductors and what have you, are asking for an increase of pay from 30 to 37 percent. Holy cow: do they think we’re made of money. By the way, where is it all coming from. Won’t the keg ever run dry? ---    Saw a picture in the Mpls. Star the other day of a beautiful school room and the students sitting in chrome chairs with blue leatherette cushions, discussing world problems. Then we thought of the young lads in Skandia township who hired Miss Myrna Manchester to teach school for three months. They paid the bill with muskrat and mink pelts from Bear Lakes and Lake Oscar. Time does bring some changes. ---    A Baptist, cultured and educated, in full possession of his senses (he says) broke his vows to the church, his wife and family and announced he was going to divorce his wife and marry the “deacon’s” wife who would have to divorce the deacon. When cultured and educated folks change their minds let us not be too critical of the few lads of immature age in Korea who think they would like to be communists. ---    Drew Pearson, the columnist who delights in unburdening his mind on everything, had to back up the other day. He settled a libel suit for $40,000. You can’t scatter your stuff from a fertilizer spreader without getting on someone’s flower bed. ---    Mrs. J. Slovak of El Camp, Texas, despondent over the death of her son, deep froze herself in a frozen food locker. A painless way of shuffling off this moral coil and one as old as man. Even now in Eskimo land, when winter comes and the food grows low, Grandma who is unable to travel undresses, goes out without a stitch in the storm and throws herself into a snowbank, and that is the end. The backward tribes still observe the old custom which is not confined to the females. The survival of the fittest has been the motto of humans for thousands of years. ---    Duck season opening was bad. Lloyd Fowser, who has more duck hunting experience than anyone in this vicinity, said “It was the worst ever.”
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October 22, 1953
   You youngsters of today who see the monster machines moving dirt will hardly be able to realize that railroads were built with horses, mules, scraper and men with wheelbarrows. A lot of the grading on the Omaha here was done by men with wheelbarrows. Among them was the late Martin Gunderson, father of Oscar Gunderson of this village. Those were the days of blood, sweat and tears. ---    Railroads are offering bargains in travel these days. The Union Pacific says if father buys a full fare ticket, he can take the wife and children under twenty-two at half fare. Kids under five free. Good only on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The roads will find that fare reductions will bring them more business than glass-domed windows, Idaho potatoes or Yakima Valley apples. This is one way for railroads to be real competition for the busses and planes. ---    The sales tax is always a threat to shake at the opposing party at the political hustings. No tax is just and equitable, never will be. There’s always two sides to a question. The sales tax is no exception. One thing that seems to be in favor of the sales tax is that it is a law in 33 states. It was fought bitterly in each state, but has never been repealed. The thought comes: if it was so unjust and unfair as its opponents assert it is, why hasn’t a state repealed it? ---    Every woman, from the bride to 64, should be interested in the Social Security law. In the first place, it is not a pension but life insurance, which the husband pays as long as he lives, that is up to 65. Should he die before that age his widow is not able to get a cent of the insurance until she is 65. When the husband passes on, naturally the widow applies for the life insurance. She has no children and is depending on it to aid her on the way to the setting sun. But Uncle Same says “No, not until you’re 65.” So she has either got to eat parsley or ask for relief from the county. What you females should do is to sit down right now and write both your congressman and senator and ask him to use his influence to amend the law so that the widow could collect at sixty or sooner. Five women writing in from each voting precinct would turn the trick. You may have a good sized pile of chips in front of you now, but one never can tell what will happen in a few years. Write now, and girls remember that there is $18 billion in that fund right now. See that you get your share. ---    When you listened to the Word Series, remember the announcers saying not once by several times “Water is the only substance that will soften your whiskers.” Looked at my Colgate tube this morning and it said, “Note how this fine lather softens the whiskers.” Then there is this brushless stuff that softens the beard, and then we remember fifty years ago when the barbers would go after your face like a plasterer, only your nose could be seen. The barber stood by with his arms folded, then took a hot towel, sometimes yellow, gravely washed off the lather and added another coat of lather. Boy, it was almost an initiation into a secret order, and you were really somebody when he got through; the cost one dime. Shaving used to take a half hour, now but five minutes. We don’t know much about the mysteries of shaving, but we’re doing it quicker. ---    Say Ike, when a baseball pitcher gets knocked out of the box, the manager always puts in a new one: he generally has a couple warming up in the bull pen. ---    Here’s bad news for you old guys. A doctor who has kept track of over 2,000 heart attack cases found 23% occurred during sleep, 29% while at rest, 24% while walking moderately, 9% during moderate activity and only 2% during unusual activity. Come the first heavy snow storm, can’t you hear Maw saying, “Better get the shovel Paw and clean the walks, you’ll live longer than if you were just setting around.” ---    The democrats elected a congressman in a farming district in Wisconsin last week. The first in twenty years. Conditions are such in these nervous excitable times that the average farmer is going to vote for the party that will guarantee him the best prices, to it’s up to the republicans to come out with something definite in its policy. We all want good prices for farm products, but do we have to go into socialism to get them. ---    Farmers don’t need to ponder on the prices of hogs during the next seven months. That has been taken care of by 36 experts in and around the Sioux City stock yards. In their own opinion, here are the prices hogs will be on the Wednesday nearest to the middle of the month: October 21 $22.50, November 18 $20.71, December 16 $19.95, January 13 $19.88, February 17 $20.49, March 17 $24.04, and April 14 $31.70. ---    The man with the specs always peering into the unknown has had a lot to do with the low price in lard and other fats. Every day as you listen on the radio you hear about a new detergent on the market. But they are not made from natural fats but from alcohol sulphates and sodium phosphates. Detergents are what we think is a new soap compound to keep my ladies things clean and bright. ---    Is Lake Wilson to have a new store? The story now is that a super market will be built within a year on highway No. 47. It will be an up to the minute joint. The lure is not Lake Wilson but the new air base at Chandler. There’s one spot that pays cash to its employees every month. Few people realize the pay roll at the base who...[rest missing]
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October 29, 1953
   You can bear down on that man of yours at home, gals, but don’t try to do it when there’s a bunch, especially at a convention. India Edwards, bell ewe of the Democrats, did that last July at Chicago. She rebuked and mildly scolded the delegates for talking too much when the orators were doing their stunt. We notice the Democrats did not rebuke her. It just dissolved the branch of the party in which she had worked so earnestly. Evidently India took in a little too much territory. Men when driven to it, providing there are enough of them, have a tendency to revolt. ---    The calves for the 4H club boys and girls came from Nebraska this fall. A fine looking bunch they are and combined with the local calves will make us a swell showing next fall at the county fair. Come to think of it, this 4H club movement is what puts hops in agriculture in this section of the world. ---    The Octobers have not always been so “delicious” as they are in 1953. On Oct. 15th, 1880, a blizzard struck this section, leaving three feet of snow in its wake, paving the way for one of the worst winters in the history of Minnesota. That was the year they put a sack of wheat on a hand sled and dragged it to the mill at Currie. ---    On November 5th, 1875, women in Minnesota were given the right to vote at school elections: the opening wedge for “Women’s Suffrage.” Last week owners of some of the saloons in Minneapolis told the city council they would have to close if women were not permitted to stand up at the bar and drink like a man. We’ve got to have Equal Rights, even if we have to drink for them. ---    See where a nationwide poll states that there are television sets in half the homes in the U.S. There are about 50,000,000 homes in the U.S. Television sets cots about $200 apiece which brings a total of five billion dollars. A lot of money. No wonder the movie houses in the big cities are going out of business. ---    Years ago the railroads were compelled by law to install safety devices to cut down the number of accidental deaths. We can remember three: the safety coupler, the air brakes and the electric headlight. Now is the time for law to step in an force auto manufacturers to make similar changes: every car should be equipped with safety belts, floor of cars made air tight to keep out poisonous gas, build sturdier bodies, get some of the cigarette lighters, throttle, etc. off the dash board, and do some padding in various parts of the car. Fifty percent of the deaths occur in the car. The most dangerous spot to ride in is the seat alongside the driver, and for heaven’s sake cut down the speed of the engine. ---    A bunch of purple and red orchids for the members of the Lake Wilson high school six man football team. For the third time in succession they have been undefeated in the Tri-County conference, and they have no Paul Giel either. ---    See where Harold E. Talbot, air force sec’y, says the nation’s radar defense screen may become obsolete. A new device by incoming planes blocks out the radar outfit. Does this mean that the Chandler radar station is on its way out? ---    Forty high school students, a bus load that is, invited the Roamer to go with them Friday forenoon for a visit to Lost Timber, a historic spot in the west end of the county. They roamed over the ravines looking for the Jesse James hideout and the caves of the French trappers of two hundred years ago. When they got back to the bus the Roamer gave a short historical talk on Lost Timber. Kids seemed interested: at least well behaved. One thing the school has, just about as classy a bunch of girl singers as you will hear in years. Their happy, cheerful tuneful music carries pleasure and happiness. ---    Hope the abnormal crop this year will not tempt too many of our farmers to try for longer ear varieties next year. You don’t often see two falls like this one in succession. Play safe. Don’t put all the eggs in one basket. ---    This is going to be a sad winter for many folks living in this area. For years we’ve listened at 10 o’clock for Cedric and the news, and when he was finished one could see the lights go out in the homes. Got to find a new spot. Southern stations just crowd WCCO off the air. Sherman did not go far enough in his march to the sea. ---    See where the village of Watkins is investing $75,000 to get a well. We’re lucky here in Lake Wilson. For years our water system was cluttered with sand in the flowing wells. Never knew when there was enough water for a fire. Since putting in our three feet well, we’ve been sitting pretty. Thanks to Kenny Anderson who pushed through the wide well idea. ---    You read so much these days about the “Carnival of Death” on the highways and how youth must be curbed. We should all drive slower and with more care but don’t blame youth for all of it. Kids under 18 are responsible for only 3 per cent of all accidents, between 18 and 20, 9 per cent. Adults between 25 and 40 figure in 52 per cent; and kill or main 9,000,000 people. In ...[missing]
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November 5, 1953
   An orchid to Gov. Anderson of South Dakota for turning thumbs down on an endorsement on the “Calamity Jane” movie. In our youth we knew a U.S. soldier, G. Bishop, who fought in the Indian wars after the Shetek massacre. His intimate knowledge of Calamity Jane, Bill Hickok and other so-called heroes of the west gave an insight of the type of people they were. The men we killers and brave frontier women who were morons, were anything but ladies. Bishop was a relative of Peter Hoye, homesteader in Leeds twp. ---    Don’t think we’re crazy, but Ike lost a lot of support by spending too much time playing golf this summer. There are millions of voters in the U.S. today that think that a man that plays golf is a “nut.” Little things count in politics. We remember when Frank Eddy, a congressman, wanting to boost Jake Jacobson for governor said, “What if he does eat pie with a knife?” Town women in that still Victorian atmosphere were shocked at the thought of a governor of this fair state eating pie with a knife and they went to work on their hubbies with telling effect, especially at the polls. Jake was beaten. ---    The annual county fair meeting at Slayton last week was the best in twenty years. In ordinary years there have been from one to five members in attendance. This year there were three times as many members as there were directors: something that has not happened before, and they are keenly interested. They asked questions, voted, and were not awed by the cost of the fair, which was about $4,000 last year. They said the fair was educational, same as schools. It was a healthy vigorous meeting and all seemed to be in favor of continuing the fair. Art Warren was elected president in place of Ed. Engebretson, who refused to become a candidate. Brent McBeth of Cameron twp. was elected a director. Clem Lieser was elected treasurer and Ed Rausenberger a director. Let’s not lose sight of one fact: if it was not for the 4H clubs, two thirds of the fairs in Minnesota would be closed. ---    Do you know where a surveyor starts to survey a township? We didn’t until last week. All township surveying starts at the southwest section, No. 31, and ends in Section 6 in the northwest corner. Section No. 6 is where you’ll find the short quarters. ---    Why is that some small towns survive? Many a town that was a real bustling village years ago have declined. Take Woodstock, it had a newspaper and a bank once, both gone. Holland had two banks and a newspaper, all gone, Iona had a bank and a newspaper: gone. Avoca, Dovray and Hadley had banks that are now gone. Lake Wilson fortunately has been able to hold both the bank and a newspaper. A bank is the heart of a small village, and the newspaper the soul. ---    Now that the government has gone into an economy mood in the post office dept. it should discontinue printing stamped envelopes for big business places. It has been doing it at a loss for years and at the same time been a set back to many a struggling printing office. ---    It begins to look as if Ike had lost the ball. Could be a fumble and it all depends now on who falls on it.
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November 12, 1953
   All our sweet young life we’ve been hearing about the lucky man or woman who found a pearl in the oysters they were eating at some restaurant and how the proprietor claimed it. The authorities in the US say “No true pearls are found in edible oysters.” ---    Now they are having a glamorous grandma contest at Hollywood and a lot of good looking shapely dames will vie for the title. Say maw, don’t they have a glamour contest for grandpas? ---    See where a medic of good repute says that the old fashioned liniment will do more god to that arthritis and rheumatic pain than all the newly discovered drugs with high sounding names. Remember that Sloan liniment of your young days. It was good for man and beast and had a sting like a wasp. The odor was strong and far reaching, but it helped. What woman of today would go around the house with an old sock around her neck soaked in Sloan’s liniment in this day and age: an operation would be preferable. ---    The cattlemen from the dried out states took a trek to Washington last week to see Sec’y Benson. It had the aroma of being more of a political nature than anything else. How in thunder will raising the price of beef on the hoof increase the sale of beef in the butcher shops? It’s one of the many things we don’t understand, do you? ---    In case you’re interested, a hundred and thirty-three years ago November 5th, the first white child was born in Minnesota. Her name was Elizabeth R. Snelling. ---    Pheasant hunters stormed the corn fields, the road sides and every place else Saturday afternoon and most of them came home with long faces: it was the worst pheasant season since 1888 and there weren’t any pheasants here then. ---    An interesting event to many Minnesotans this month is that Longfellow published his work, “Hiawatha,” on November 10th, 1855. Strange to say, Longfellow never saw Minnesota. A Boston traveler made a picture of Minnehaha Falls, showed it to Longfellow and this started the poem. Strange world, isn’t it? ---    Yesterday was the anniversary of the big blizzard of November 11, 1940. ---    The state of Minnesota is a lot better state than most of us think it is. For instance, Minnesota is second in the number of homeowners. Only state that beats us is Michigan. Lowest state in number of house owners is New York with 37.9%, Michigan has 67.5% and Minnesota 66.4%. ---    Reports about radar becoming valueless continue to grow. The secy of air defense said last week, “It might be necessary to rely entirely on ground observers completely,” so who knows that we’ll not all be top of Buffalo Ridge when the next war comes. It will be the highest observation point in the state.
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November 19, 1953
   The farmers missed one point last week. They denounced everything but irrigation dams. Why spend money to put more land in cultivation at an enormous expense when we have too much land in cultivation now. ---    Talked to a man the other day that never had a doctor call on him, never been to a dentist or an eye doctor. He has shot more game and trapped more by far than any living man in western Murray county. Used to shoot for the market, trapped in South Dakota and has lived in Bear Lake timber for the last sixty years. His name is Charley Aspelin. By the way, he is a bachelor and knows something of the joys of life. ---    The surveyors found every section stone on highway No. 91 from the lake to the Lyon county line. The stones are what we called “nigger heads” years ago, and four of them had chisel marks “XX” on them. These markers were placed there nearly a hundred years ago and to us clears up the mystery of the famed Kensington Runestone. Some surveyors on a Sunday afternoon years ago found a flat stone and went to work. Remember the Cardiff Giant found in Iowa abut Barnum’s time, a huge man. Barnum exhibited it all over the country. Later it was discovered that the “Giant” had been made out of cement four years before and was “found” by a man starting to dig a well. ---    Last Sunday’s Denver, Col. Post had a cut with a likeness of our oldest grandson, James B. Forrest. Jimmy while with the army of occupation in Germany studied commercial art. Did well with it. Got a job with a Denver adv. agency and was given a certificate of merit for outstanding work in 1953 by the Rocky Mountain News. He is doing mighty well and naturally the old man is proud of him. Jimmy’s father was editor of the Pilot for two years. ---    We know that some city scribes think that a small town is just a wide spot in the road and is not deserving of any recognition when it comes to sports activities. The folks down here feel that they have been unkindly treated by Ted Peterson, sports editor on the Mpls. Sunday Tribune. Our high school football team has won every conference game for the past three years and naturally has three trophies to show. Not only that, the teams made 177 points in conference games to their opponents’ 38: not a bad record. This information has been conveyed to Mr. Peterson three times. Instead of saying, “Sorry, no room,” he did not answer. In common decency Mr. Peterson should have replied. Country kids are just as susceptible to praise as a man named Paul Giel.
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November 26, 1953
   Looks as if the internal machinery of the Republican party needs a mechanic to put it in running order so that the various parts will work harmoniously and intelligently; Ike is the man that can do it, but he’s cot to crack down harder and if necessary get rid of those men who think they own and control the party. This stirring up of graveyards about spy networks isn’t going to get anywhere, no matter how big the headlines are. You can’t build up a party on dry bones. Get out and do something is the way to win confidence and esteem. ---    Good news for us fat folks comes from Dr. Keys, top notcher in Public Health work. He said fat does not always shorten life unless there is too much of it. If you get to be fifty pounds overweight then you’d better be doing something about it. Just travel the way you are, but don’t stuff yourself with fat pork and chocolate sundaes, etc. They only hasten your introduction to St. Peter. Don’t tell your wife this, it might snow next month. ---    Next week brings Thanksgiving Day and we certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year. Minnesota’s first Thanksgiving was observed on December 26, 1850. The second one on Dec. 18th, 1851. Then President Lincoln got into the act in 1864 and set the fourth Thursday in November a national holiday. ---    We’ve been living high the past week. “High on the hawg, “ as they say in the south. Arnold Nissen brought us a 10 pound capon. Just tops in eating. Makes both your eyes and teeth water. Most folks know Arnold. He’s an amateur magician and has given more free shows in schoolhouses than any other guy in the county. His greatest feat of legerdemain is in taking a measly chick, about 4 ounces big, and making a fat juicy capon out of it. Closely connected with the Pilot are the Nissens. Arnold’s grandfather subscribed for the first copy back in 1901 and ever since then it has been going to the Nissen home. ---    The bill that was passed at the last session to increase the salaries of the judges and which was vetoed by the governor was up before the supreme court last week. Lawyers for the measure claim that the bill did not require the governor’s signature. Every law in Minnesota has had the governor’s signature (except the ones passed over a veto). Gov. Anderson has made many additional friends by his stand on this measure. He asks why add $1,500 to a judge’s salary and refuse to give the lowest paid workers in the state a $6 a month raise. ---    The oil men, with oil fairly running out of the ears and with more capped wells than ever before in history, continue to sell their products at top market prices. Uncle Sam is in the same condition as the oil men. He has surpluses of every kind of product that comes from the soil and he can’t even give them away. Better put a couple of oil men at the head of the U.S. sales department. ---    Many of the voters in the western part of the county have been urging Dr. Suedkamp to become a candidate for the legislature. Both Slayton and Fulda have been well represented and the folks here feel that it is time for the western part to be represented as long as they have a man that is both capable and qualified. The doctor is one of the top citizens in Lake Wilson and is active in business as well as in professional lines. He has a fine farm adjoining the village, with much livestock, has a filling station and has been publisher of the Pilot for two years.
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December 5, 1953
   A real Thanksgiving Day was what we had last Thursday. It reminded us of
“Over the river and thro’ the woods,
To Grandmother’s house we go.
The horse knows the way to pull the sleigh
Thro’ the white and drifted snow.”
and one thing to be really proud of is that the traditional spirit still exists. Back in the early days here, Thanksgiving Day was the first day of winter; that was when we started the hard coal stove. ---    Vote for a tiny tax that will pay for the Christmas decorations on the main street. It brings a touch of Yule Tide that we sorely need at a very little cost. Just hope they have enough money left to extend the idea to some of the residential districts. ---    Down in Chicago, Ill. is Judge Harrington. He has an idea how to curb the auto death toll. Mrs. Peritti, age 32, who has two small children, was arrested twice for drunken driving, and the judge banned her from ever driving again in the state of Illinois. If there is no law in Minnesota that allows a judge that right, one should be passed. Sentences of this type would do more to curb auto deaths than all the Safety First conventions and yellow posters would in fifty years. ---    The annual school carnival is now on and the youngsters are getting a lot of good out of it in one way. Persistent soliciting for votes for their favorite king or queen is bringing them some experience and education that is not in any school curriculum. Wish they could all win. ---    Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Smith of Cameron township on their Golden Wedding Day. They are a fine liberal minded couple, always willing to help and aid in every civic project. Charley is about the only real Yankee left in this section who has that nasal twang. It was to that old determined Yankee spirit of his that the Lake Wilson Saddle Club got its start. ---    You’d be surprised to know that there were big corn crops as far back as fifty years ago. The late John Heins stepped into the Pilot office Nov. 19, 1901 and said, “I believe my corn will go fifty bushels to the acre,” and it did in one field. John subscribed for the first issue of the Pilot and it has been going to the same address: the southeast 1/4 of section 25 in Cameron township, ever since. ---    The drop in beef prices should feel lighter to the cattlemen when they learn that the average American ate 148 pounds of beef last year, breaking all records. If beef maintains the present prices for the next three years and people are able to buy at the present rate, there won’t be a critter left. ---    Lots of you folks fail to realize that you have a wonderful heritage in this little village of Lake Wilson. No small village that we know of has ever made as fine a comeback as Lake Wilson. It is a heritage of grim men and courageous women who fought side by side during that awful conflagration o May 11, 1911. It was wiped out that day, only two buildings were left on the north side of the track. Without any fire equipment, men and women fought bravely. Everybody was trying to save something. The Pilot and post office were in a little building south of where the doctor’s office is now. The heat from the burning frame buildings across the street was terrific. The women folks saw the danger and they got pails and carried water from the flowing well tank. Dr. Simpson, a traveling eye doctor, was here that day. He donned a heavy rubber coat and as fast as the women brought water he doused it on the little building. His coat smoked at times, and the women had to throw water on his coat so he could keep on working, and it was through the efforts of those women, most of them gone, that the Lake Wilson Pilot was saved. When the sun rose the next morning there was one advertiser left. ---    With this issue the Roamer leaves for a new field. We have been a part of the Pilot for so long that there’s just a little twang in our heart at leaving. No, we’re not going far, just over to the Herald at Slayton. Might state that, strange to say, in spite of the crabbiness of the Roamer our relations with Dr. and Mrs. Suedkamp were very agreeable and will continue to be.
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End of Lake Wilson Pilot Columns, Start of Murray County Herald Columns
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December 10, 1953
   It is really fitting that we come to this column in our sunset days, as we started in the newspaper business with the first paper in Slayton, the old Slayton Gazette. It was in the old B.A. days (before autos) that we were a correspondent from the thriving village of Lake Wilson. The job was neither trying nor arduous. Our items were short and sweet. Here’s how they ran. “W. S. Pattinson was a Slayton visitor, Saturday. Ben and Tom Warren had a car of sheep on the Chicago market. Rolf Harmsen was transacting business at the county seat, Tuesday. B. I. Weld, the Slayton land man was here Tuesday. Frank Weck was over from Slayton Monday helping Col. Sprague on an auction sale. Geo. H. Woodgate was looking after his phone interests here Saturday.” Items of this type are gone. It’s generally “Mrs. O. O. Smith had coffee with Mrs. Y. Y. Smith Tuesday afternoon.” ---    Can’t remember when conditions in Washington would affect the election of a governor in Minnesota as they will in 1954. Gov. Anderson seems to maintain his popularity with the voters, in fact has increased his standings, but two or three fumbles of the ball at Washington and the political thermometer will start dropping. ---    “Is the cigarette going to cause more deaths in the near future than the auto,” is a moot question these days. Honest and sincere scientists say that cigarette smoking is and will cause more deaths than ever in the near future. Those who have the best chance to go first are the confirmed inhalers. They inhale so much smoke that the lungs become irritated and cancer follows. If you must smoke don’t inhale. The scientists say smoke five or six a day and you’ll see more sunsets. Always bear in mind, that all tobacco is poisonous. ---    At church a couple of Sundays ago we received a lot of sorely needed spiritual advice and, thrown in for good measure, was a secular thought that we also sorely needed. “Why do you when using comparisons about yourself, always compare yourself to the ones who have fallen or slipped; the lower five. Why don’t we compare our selves with the leaders in the community, the folks that head religious and civic endeavor for the betterment of humanity”: food for though here. Five hundred mentally ill children in Minnesota that need skilled treatment are kept at their homes because Minnesota has no place to put them. One day last week the regents of the university let a contract for a $500,000 laundry: little ones whose senses are dead and their hopes gone are of less value in the state of Minnesota than a dirty shirt. --- There’s a big black cloud hanging over the United States and it is called “segregation.” The fate of this bill may remake the nation politically. There may be a strong third party, that would be able to wag the elephant’s tail and the donkey’s ears. Funny thing about it is: we have a republican president and a supreme court that has seven democrats and two republicans. ---    Mrs. Bonnie Brown Heady, collaborator in the most brutal kidnapping murder in history and who leaves this world Dec. 18th, has ordered a tombstone. She don’t need one. She has done enough evil in this world to warrant a place in decent citizens’ minds for several generations. One guy said “she’ll go to Hell.” We doubt that very much. There are people in hell who have some pride and principle left so they tell me. ---    There’s been a lot of change in the last seventy years, that’s when we entered the picture in Murray County and the biggest change of all is in the youngsters. What a green timid bunch of kids we farmer kids were in the 80’s. We got a chance to go to the B. M. Low, Murray county’s first surveyor. We three kids were a large-eyed, meek-looking outfit. Some of us should have had blinders. It was our first big outing. They had good fairs at Currie. Folks came by oxen, cart, buggy, surreys and lumber wagons. There was pacing, trotting and running races on the program and the usual wheel games for the unwary. Father Ireland spoke. He was one of the foremost colonizers in Minnesota and later became archbishop.
   At one of those early fairs a real snow storm hit. It was seeping into all the sheds, but did not daunt the pioneer women. They carried their needle work, canned and baking goods to Currie’s hall. The Currie editor waddled through the snow that afternoon. Funniest thing he saw was a man in a dog skin coat and a fur cap selling ice cream with a six inch icicle hanging from his nose. We think of those days when we go the present county fair and see the boys and girls of the 4-H clubs. Keen and alert, always interested in every phase of farm work, dress and walk like city folks; they know where they are going. ---    We’re not in the Lonely Heart or helping hand business, but girls, whatever your age may be, try and get a job with the Lake Wilson Pilot. Two maidens who worked there this year were wed within a week apart. We’re just trying to help. ---    One hundred and fifty years ago your Uncle Sam bought this land that your are on from the French for seven cents an acre. He did much better with the Indians. ---    While there’s so much talk about beef these days it will be interesting to know that the first shipment of beef cattle made from the young state of Minnesota was from Rochester to Boston, Mass., on Nov. 17th, 1859. There were 45 cattle in the shipment and it took three stock cars to haul them as hay, straw, etc., were packed in one end of the car. ---    A Minneapolis hunter is real lucky. During the hunting season his retriever went bad on him. His wife went with him hunting, when he shot a duck, she pulled off rather kicked off her shoes and sox and brought in the ducks: women of this type could help cut down the number of divorces. ---    Intensely interested in Baylor College is H. Cullen, an oil millionaire. The football team lost to Houston and the boys felt pretty low. He gave the college another million to heal the wounds: better have bought a half a dozen good football players.
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December 17, 1953
   The supreme court of Minnesota okayed a law two weeks ago that means a lot to every homeowner in the state. The janitor of the Mound Hospital at St. Paul threw some live ashes on the rear of the lot owned by the hospital. Some kids came along, one fell in the ashes and was severely burned. The parents sued the hospital, and a jury gave them $15,000. The hospital appealed and the supreme court cut it to $10,000. All of which means, Mr. Home Owner, if you allow children to play or congregate or cross your lot, you’re in the danger zone. If you are digging a hole to plant a tree on your lot and a kid comes along an falls into it, you’ll pay for the broken arm or leg. If you leave the garden rake teeth up and a girl steps on it, you’ll pay. Looks as if the average home owner will have to put a cyclone fence around his place to avoid going to the poorhouse. ---    A friend said to us the other day in a low voice, “That Farmers Union is getting stronger.” What of it! These movements that come along so often are a part of our American life. We’ve seen the People’s Party, the Populist Party and the Farmers Alliance come and go. We never voted their tickets, but all of these organizations left their mark by improved laws for the masses. We also noticed that men we knew that were pushers for the organizations became “radical” conservatives. We also noticed that when the liberals would get some idea up to the busting point, either the republican or the democratic party would put it in their platforms. Most of the Socialist platform of 30 years ago is now on the law books. ---    The breath of life in the homes, stores, etc. is electricity. Whenever that goes off there is gloom and despair. When Ma Nature goes on a rampage in the winter time that’s when it really counts to the old people, as most of the homes are wired for electricity. But we felt a little more sure of no unpleasantness when we saw those big poles go out to the Northern States power line which is being rebuilt and replaced between Lake Wilson and Pipestone. Those poles are 65 feet long, cost over $150 and are put there to insure better service. We’ll feel better and sleep better this winter knowing that the power line is in better shape than ever, even if it did cost the company $60,000. ---    The government for years has been giving subsidies to the planes for getting mail in an hour or two earlier. We’d rather see the government subsidize television sets. What a world of good they are doing in bringing the family back to the home. You’ll find not only the kids but ma and pa and sometimes the neighbors’ kids there, watching and listening. It’s doing more to cement family life than all the magazine articles or long-winded talks could do. ---    See where a bunch of women were arguing that all married men should wear a wedding ring, as a sort of “Stop, Look and Listen” sign to meek and bashful young women who have matrimony on their minds. One said that a ring was not prominent enough, and wanted some other device. They could put rings in some men’s ears, and in others a ring in the nose. ---    Of all the Christmas hymns, none excel “Holy Night.” You old folks will remember how we used to wait to hear Madame Schuman Heink. You heard it at its best. A wonderful hymn. Learn it by heart and you’ll have something worthwhile in your memory chest. ---    Leave Gov. Anderson right where he is. He’s not a spell binder but he is doing a mighty good job as governor. The party seems to be running around in circles. First thing it should do is to make a circle so that the Barkis’s willing boys will know where to throw their hats. ---    The Minnesota U Quiz team, the brains of the student body, lost to Brown last week. But they had won eight straight before that, beating Notre Dame by a score of 385 to 65 (that’s a better record than any football team we ever had), yet the home team failed to hit the front pages or the flattering praises of Halsey Hall or Charles Johnson. ---    A former young woman of Slayton is running a real chatty women’s column in the Brewster Tribune. She is the former Peggy Terry. ---    Over in Singapore, women are asking for a change in the Moslem church laws. They claim a man should have only one wife even if the church regulations say they can have four, but the fool men are fighting for the church law to be left as is. Some men don’t know a good thing when they see it.
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December 24, 1953
   “Never a Christmas Morning, Never the New Year Ends, But Someone Thinks of Someone, Old Days, Old Times and Old Friends.” ---    Bread, the staff of life went up three cents a loaf last week. When the light, power, phone or telegraph companies want a raise of two or three dollars a year, there has to be public hearings by the commission. It’s different with the bread barons. Instead of even using the Jesse James act they say, take it or leave it. This raise means over twenty dollars a year to some families: generally the ones that can ill afford it. A raise of this percent is entitled to a public hearing, to which the farmers who raise the wheat, the bakers and the public are invited to attend. Years ago bread was “The Staff of Life” today it is an imported ebony cane with a solid gold top. ---    Bet a cookie that Wes Fessler is glad to be shut of the coaching game with Minnesota. He had the hardest job of any coach in the U.S. Here he was trying to weld together a fine bunch of boys, while the sport writers in Minneapolis were doing their best to undermine it and did. Fesler was trying his best to get out a team and the sport writers kept saying “We have not got a team, only one man.” All agree that Giel was an outstanding player. If you belonged to a family of eleven boys and when a visitor came the old gent would say “Here’s John, he ain’t the oldest but he can do more work than all the rest put together” what would they think about it. They would say “O.K. let him do it.” You can see the job Fesler had in trying to keep up the spirits of the other ten men and sometimes he was unable to do it. ---    The Democrats are now claiming that the Republicans have coddled the Reds in this country more than they ever did: does that start before or after Truman’s Red Herrings were born? ---    Eisenhower’s speech on what was really a bid for world peace, echoed throughout the land and if there is one thing that should bring the so-called Republicans in Washington, into a united party it is this message of hope to a world over which dark clouds of war hover. ---    Was a guest at the 4-H 1953 Achievement Award program at the high school auditorium at Slayton last Thursday evening. County Agent Hagen opened the meeting then turned it over to Kenneth Buse a bright young lad from Chanarambie twp. He handled the program like a veteran. He introduced Ralph Rickgarn of Lowville twp. Ralph is the top 4-H radio speaker in the state. He has poise, knowledge and delivery: he’ll go places. Then came Osgood Magnuson, assist. state 4-H club leader in an inspiring talk to both the kids and the parents. Then came the Roamer, with a short talk on Murray county history. Then there was Myrna Ballinger, who carries the 4-H load in the county. She presented the awards (sorry, we can not give them as they were not on the program). Also receiving an award or rather a gift was the Roamer, which was deeply appreciated, not so much for its intrinsic worth as it was for the sentiment it brought to an old man. There was plenty of singing of Christmas carols, Miss Erna Barstad of Mason twp. did a swell job at the piano and little Miss Sandra McDonald of the Lucky Ace club, a tiny lass with flaxen hair received rounds of applause for her singing. A fine lunch followed. We met a lot of friends we had not seen for years: for us it was a well spent evening. ---    Get ready for an additional gas tax when the next legislature meets: it could be put on your license, but it will be someplace. The cost of upkeep on good roads is really appalling, but they are something that we’ve got to have in this day and age. ---    Every day there is something new. Now it is a palatable oyster stew in cans. Just heat and your stew is ready in a jiffy. It’s canned in Seattle, Wash. What would we do without cans? Heard one young matron say the other day, “Why don’t they invent an electric can opener then all my hard work would be over.” ---    Hope you hunters remember the pheasants on Christmas Day. Funny thing, and one that old hunters can’t understand, is that there are more pheasants than there were two months ago and best of all most of them are hens. ---    A Merry Christmas to you and yours and a healthy New Year. Health is the foundation of all happiness.
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