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1961 Columns, September - October
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Roaming in the Gloaming


With Bob Forrest

Things Material and Immaterial

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September 7, 1961

   Had short enjoyable visits with Vic Born and Cliff Thompsons, the Polly Parrot family from the home town, Lake Wilson, last week and there was also Oran Lang from Des Moines, Iowa. Oran’s dad Matt owned the whole half of the town at one time, which had only the elevator and the blind pig. It was tough on blind pigs in “them” days. There was no such thing as refrigerators.
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   Have you a safety belt on your auto? The state of Nebraska will install 1,000 of them on state owned cars and will sell them at cost to employees.
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   Officials in villages or counties that operate their own jails should read and read about that case at Northfield. Last week a drunk was thrown in jail. It does not seem to matter how he got the matches, he’s dead and his estate is suing Northfield for $35,000 for these defects. It left the jail unattended, there was no fire alarm of any kind. A furnace was found burning. The old day of “Throw him in jail, let him sleep it off” is gone. A drunk is now a human being.
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   Nations have day dreams too. France and Britain are talking of a bridge across the English Channel. Our dream is an artificial river from the frozen edge of the Arctic then south across the big fresh water lakes and rivers to the Rio Grande. What a lot of land could be made to bloom.
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   We are always seeing quoted numbers of deaths by auto each year, but seldom do we see quoted the number of Parkinson’s disease. At the present time there are 300,000 cases and no preventive is known at this time.
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   You remember an item in this column about vandals at Grand Marais filling some of the washer bins with dead fish, etc. and tattooed ripe plums at the wall. John Law caught up with 3 eighteen year old youths who live in Steele county, a southern county, and Cook county is a northern boundary county. Seeing Minnesota from one end to the other is quite a novel vacation.
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   An interesting trial is being tried at Albert Lea. The State of Minnesota is trying to bar the Holland Furnace Co. from doing business in the state. They were the alleged crooks that got into the basement and when they left the furnace was not much good.
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   If you play high school football next year you will have to wear a tooth protector. It is a fitted flexible mouth and tooth protector. Some 825,000 players will be affected by this new rule if they belong to the National Federation of State High School Federations. It has 625,000 players and each mask must be made for each individual. Who is going to pay for them, the players or the school?
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   This is the most miserable time of the whole year for those who suffer from what is called “Hay Fever.” It comes from the pollen of the ragweed and actually drives thousands of people from their homes every fall. The disease called Hay Fever is a swelling of the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, etc., and the only good thing about it by driving north into cooler weather or climate. ‘Tis no news to tell you what will cure it. Long before this calendar was in use they suffered from it--they still are.
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   In the good old days this friendly lady could have had a job in the sideshow in Ringling’s Circus. A lady in Cleveland, Ohio gave birth to two babies at the same time and not twins. One doctor said, “It could not likely happen again for 752 years.” Who is going to sit up?
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   There’s a new type fan for the market. It has jet type fan blades that spread air evenly to prevent direct drafts.
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   One of the county fairs that has a ticket sale stimulator is Carlton. It gives adults 6 grandstand performances for half price if you buy them a month before the fair. You can use them in a group or one at a time. This plan was used last year and was a success.
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   The College of Jefferson at Philadelphia, Penn. changes its customs. Last week it admitted 8 female students: the first time in the history of this school and the last school to lay down the barriers to women.
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   Not a very good crop for the fall months. Highway patrolmen assisted by local Moose Lake officers “held up” 121 autos one night last week. Found 71 defective, from the hours of 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
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   Here’s one that should hold us up for a minute or so. If you want to stop being bitten by mosquitoes, just stop breathing for a while. Your Dept. of Agriculture of Washington, D.C. has discovered that it is the carbon dioxide from the human that attracts the mosquitoes.
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   The demand for fallout shelters grows, but most of the buyers are still timid about publicity. One of the Milwaukee builders guarantees quietness. Says its trucks will have no marks or signs. Reasons: buyers don’t want their shelters jammed in case of an alert.
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   Here you long lanky good looking guys come a-running. The Marlboro cigaret company is recruiting manly looking young fellows by giving pretty maidens and $50.00 Know any better bait?
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   This will jolt a lot of us. Ever since we saw the first movie we always assumed the U.S. was still the leader. Today China is still the leader with India second. This is a changing world.
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   And Lo the proud strutting gobbler that led the poultry yard band can’t even hold the music for the snare drummer. Turkeys are now retailing for 29 cents a pound up here. Last year ninety-five million were raised--this year 25 per cent more birds. The turkey men are asking Freeman to get a law passed so that the government will control the number of birds raised and the price; isn’t that what we’re all after?
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   It’s scrap paper time, kids. Now if you have a special cause, get busy. No. 1 scrap paper is reaching $10.00 a ton in the market.
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   Remember the cranberry grower of a while back. He had an enormous crop and he hit the jackpot for yield. But a frost came along: they still have 350,000 barrels left over from last year. Old Mother Nature does more price making than we realize.
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   A village in Northern Minnesota can prove there was a drouth. Bears have been hanging around the garbage cans and they are long, lank and lean, not that they will attack anyone, but a two year old toddler might be badly mangled.
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   Here’s a guy you hunters will appreciate. The editor of the Kittson county paper got fighting mad at the men who are saying there are lots of game up there, when it is the opposite. He tells of one farmer who had only seen one hen and 5 chicks all summer. He said the drouth was to blame.
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September 14, 1961

   Here’s one that isn’t so bad. A constable confronted a cute young thing on the beach. She was wearing the shortest Bikini. John Law said, “What would your mother say if she saw you in that outfit?” “She’d say plenty,” admitted the girl. “It’s her suit.”
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   Those who liked the hum of the threshing machine in the old days should have attended the bee near Olso last week. It was threshing bee time and lasted for three days. It is a big show. It shows memories of farmer bees and you have to buy a ticket. It is the big social event of the fall. It is a historical day. A souvenir button is the admission fee. All the old timers are there. They have a museum on the farm you can look at for 35 cents.
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   If you have a $20.00 bill in your billfold, look at it carefully. There are some fakes in circulation and unless you can remember where you got it you are out $20.00. Take it to a bank and get their opinion. It might help if the G. man asks for a look.
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   One of the counties in the state putting on a real Civil War program is Norman, and the big show will be at Twin Valley. Relatives of Civil War vets are being urged to bring in their names so they can appear on the program. All the sums raised will be used to remodel and renovate one of the very old schools and put it back as it was.
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   Two years ago we had an item about an auto that traveled on air. Gone a long way since that day. Your United States Government will furnish the money for the sea going ship.
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   Cook county, up in the point on Minnesota, did not do so well at the county fair last month. Last month there were only 97 against 145 of last year. They specialize in fish, all kinds from sturgeon to minnows. Cook county is one of the pioneer counties of the state.
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   The Army folks at Washington, D.C. are certainly doing nothing to calm our nerves.
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   Over in Wisconsin a county organized fuel dealer says, “Old oil fuel order accounts must be paid up before you can get fuel oil this fall.”
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   This item might save a life. An old logger got under his auto--the jack he had been using slipped.
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   This looks like a good winter for home talent plays. The Carlton county fair is offering cash money. And is open to all amateurs who play the fiddle. Two hundred dollars is the top amount. Now there’s some sense in keeping that amusement money at home, it will be encouraging to the home grown men young men and women. Old age registers here: if you are over 80 you get into the fair and the grandstand free. Patients of county hospitals are admitted free and for the first time in 25 years there was horse racing at the county fair. We think it would be a pleasant change: not a whole program, just enough to spice things up. You can’t drive the love of a horse out of a man with a Rolls Royce.
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   One of the worst fatalities of the county fair season was at Staples when a youth and four trotting horses were burned to death.
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   Some things we want to get back to and that is archery. The State Bow and Archery annual was held at Finlayson last week. This is a sport that every one can enjoy. The slogan of the Bow heads is “Keep Minnesota Green.” They are really organized now and want nothing more on a Gala Day in some neighboring parade. Fifty members of a nearby band wearing the uniform of the late Robin Hood band of Sherwood Forest.
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   If you ever wanted to go into the gardening profession, take a look at Koochiching county. Last week Mrs. Bellenz had a garden full of 2 1/2 pound tomatoes. She got the seed from Italy. The county exhibit took a red ribbon at the state fair--and think of the wall eyes in Rainy River.
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   To keep the water fowl north as long as possible, two thousand bushels of barley have been spread on the Thief River refuge. Barley has been allotted to the Roseau reserve: that’s a real sensible way to help ducks coming in the spring, if they are not shot in Mexico.
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   If you are investing money in stocks, stop, look and listen. Air outputs went in the red $13 million in the first half of 1961. They, the airlines, are in the worst shape since 1947 and another big accident will send the stocks plunging.
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   They are rushing the season over in Wisconsin. See where a turkey shoot is slated for Sept. 17th. They have two caliber ranges.
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   For years a group of people in the South west spent their spare time eating sunflower seed. Later it was claimed the seed has more vitamins than other seed. Things were going good until this new expert got in the play. This Dr. Ferm says, “Like string beans and some seeds containing most B-vitamins, one B vitamin, PABA (a para amino benzoine acid) occasionally darkens one’s hair. Sunflower seeds add little to the vitamin B rich American dish, so forget sunflower seeds, except to look at in the summer.
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   This vacationist from Illinois had a lot of nerve. Never bought a license. Careening off the road into a cabin and killed a sleeping woman. The accident was near Backus.
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   You youngsters who like to shoot and hunt get on the good side of your Dad and have him take you to the North American Shooters event at Vandalia, Ohio. There are events on the program for boys, and a 13 year-old Minnesota boy from West Concord placed sixth in the National. Even in the father and son event made a good showing. In one event Craig shot 68 birds without a miss.
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   Good news we saw in a northern paper was that North Dakota has not had a case of polio this year.
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   In Wisconsin, hospitals and nursing homes run advertisements. Here’s a sample. “River Falls Nursing Home Rated Best. This new home is rated the best in the area.” The best Nursing Home in the area.
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   Under the U.S. whiskey law, whiskey must be aged in new barrels. So the American dealers knock them down, ship them to England and they come back full of Scotch whisky.
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   If you keep bees or have bees near you the doctors say it will pay you to wear white clothes. Never mind if you do odor a bit, don’t use perfumes or oils, they attract the bees and this fellow says that leather infuriates bees. If it comes at you, back away slowly. If one of them does land, remove the stinger and soak the spot with a calomine lotion. It might be a good thing if you live near bees and have youngsters to have this lotion in your medicine cabinet.
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September 21, 1961

   Small hospitals have a hard time making it pay. The thriving city of Sleepy Eye has a municipal hospital. It did a gross business of $198,000 and ended up with a $7,000 loss: not enough people being sick and too high priced labor.
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   If you live close to a lake don’t try to improve the shore line. A resort owner tried it and served 30 days in jail. No one in Minnesota can change the shore line or river line without getting permission from the state department of conservation. Kuluvar was fixing up the shore line of his resort and went out a little too far on each side.
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   Murray County is starting a movement to build a Home for the Aged. It is only following the heels of many a county. Every progressive movement has its opponents. A good thing, then you get a chance to discuss the proposition out in the open. No one can tell what the future has in store for us and every precaution should be taken to ease the blow.
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   The germ is working. A Battle Creek, Mich. man has built an armored truck for transporting seven employees and their children to a $35,000 fallout shelter at his home in case of an air attack. The State of Washington has had printed 750,000 ration cards.
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   The Japs have found that a chromium plated steel can be made cheaper than tin and a battle is in the offing for the tin can business.
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   Sharp business men are placing the ad names on the banana so you can tell the difference. Odd thing, did you ever see canned banana?
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   Here’s one school district that has its own liquor and cigaret laws. If you are found on the school grounds with liquor or cigarets in your possession you will be suspended a week. The second offense will be a month. Drinking on the grounds means a suspension of a month. The second offense at Burnsville school means that you take your books, ink well, etc., for you’re not coming back.
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   “Could you publish some way of purifying cooking oil which has been used for frying, so that it can be used again as often as possible? For every quart of oil allow 4 ounces finely minced raw beef, the white of an egg slightly beaten and the broken up egg shell. Put these items and the unstrained oil into a clean sauce pan and bring gently to a boil, stirring continually. Let simmer for a half hour, skim. Then strain through clean butter muslin which has been wrung out of boiling water.” This was taken from the Sunday Times of Johannesburg, West Africa.
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   Fall and winter will soon be here and so will influenza, and the chances are for an epidemic of Flu. Now is the time to take shots, says the U.S. Public Health Service, and once it hits it is too late, so get your Flu shots now.
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   First open season on the splate and the grayling was mostly good. These two new varieties were planted in northwestern Minnesota two years ago. They are about 13 inches long. They should be good eating. Gogebic Lake can only be reached by canoe.
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   Should be in every home. A small plastic foam mask which slips over the mouth, protects you from dust when you sweep and insecticides when you spray. The fall winds will soon be here. This mask costs only $1.98. The pollen days are here-- “The :Lord helps them, the man or woman, that helps himself.”
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   A headline in a Minnesota paper last week read, “Women Needed for Civil Defense.” We are all in a dither on Civil Defense. Some of them really organized. One county is doing this, another doing that. Counties should be organized, which will include farmers. They are still human beings. “In union and in information there is strength.”
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   The olive harvest will soon be on. They harvest by vibration. One of the machines ambles up close to the tree. It has vibration that will drop the ripe olives very gently and a rougher vibration to drop the unripened ones, with less damage than hand picking. But the price of labor keeps the price up.
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   Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Lane, former Slayton and Lake Wilson folks, paid us a short visit last week. The Lanes live at Austin. He was a member of the famous old Slayton band.
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   Barnum, a village of 344, must have a good band and a lot of friends. At the Carlton County Fair the Barnum band stand took in $1,155. A fine record and what cheerful sweet looking mothers they must have.
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   Last week 257,590 workers started a complete strike on the General Motors et al. That should give the auto companies time to clean up the 1961 stock.
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   The price of land the past year has not increased except in portions here and there. In California parts go up and the rest just don’t move. Speculators are not doing so well in some of the cities. A Chicago firm cut one price $600 an acre. Wonder what it was before?
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   For downright cussedness read this. Down near Lakeville a gang entered a pasture and without killing a two years old Black Angus, attacked it, and while living the hind quarters were removed. This is the second animal killed in this pasture. The gang also used good sized rocks.
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   You’ll get a real thrill if you attend the Minnesota State Championship Bareback Riding Contest at Effie on Sept. 24th. This will be the last rodeo in the state in which bareback riders will compete. Youngsters also have a part in the show. There will be jack pot riding, calf riding, girls’ barrel racing. If you like rodeo, you like ‘em, it is the last one of the season.
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   First frost of the season was reported back in the timble along the north shore in the last days of August in Minnesota.
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   Is the cougar back to Minnesota? A story is that a dog killed a heifer about nine months old which looks as if it was the work of the cougar, as the farmer has had several cattle molested.
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   “Build your fallout shelters now” is the slogan on the front page of the Dakota County Tribune: you’ll find the same line in many Minnesota county papers. This one adds, “When you build it, see that it is stocked with food, water, radio, shovel, pick and don’t forget to pray to God.”
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   What will they do next? Scientists are trying to develop a chemical that will retard the evaporation of water in lakes. Water has always been a problem in the west. Now it has two ways offered, retarding by means of evaporation and the rain makers.
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   You hear a lot about someone being allergic. What is allergy, you ask. It is an unusual hypersensitivity to certain foods, pollen, dust, etc., and your doctor is the one qualified to diagnose and prescribe.
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   You’re soon to have good phone service when you go up to the north shore to Grand Marais hereafter. The Northern Bell is putting the phone cables under ground. They are on the first step of the 28,000 section.
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   The youngsters are getting a real break, the big plane companies have cut their regular rates for young people 12 to 21.
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September 28, 1961

   What makes some people have a disagreeable odor? Not a popular item to discuss, but experts say that body odors some time get in high gear making odors that are hard to beat. Nothing unusual about it, as it has been with man ever since he “drug” his better half into the next cave home by the hair of her head. It was quite a tussle, both started sweating, hence the odor which sometimes can indicate the disease you have. Old time doctors could smell typhoid, cholera and smallpox a block away.
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   At present if you go to Canada the north shore way through Grand Marais, you find the bridge across the Pigeon River closed in the evening. A movement is afoot to keep the bridge open 24 hours. It is hoped to get the new bridge next year.
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   The royal city of St. James must be a mighty good place to eat, at least it turns out a lot of food. The Tony Downs Food Co. got a contract from Uncle Sam which included turkey loaf, boned chicken, chicken and noodles, and a lot of other dainties.
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   There will be more swimming pools on the farms next year. The youngsters have also realized what a valuable aid it would be in case of fire. When the village or city truck runs out of water, all it has to do is to back up to the pool.
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   When they talk about good things to eat, smoked turkey tops the list and brings this to thought. If smoked turkey is so good why not smoke the common barn yard chicken. It would sell. There must be a clot of chicken along the Wahtonwan river as a contract calling for nearly six million cans was made last week.
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   More ladies must have taken up pipe smoking. They have good sense. After all is said and done you can smoke cigars and cigarettes all day long but when the shadows fall long on the lea, a good pipe makes a foundation for a perfect day. A new pipe in the ladies section is a beauty, called “Milady,” black as ebony with a silver band, costs $2.95 and the rich smooth mysteriously aromatic tobacco to fill the pipe costs $2.00 per pound.
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   For the first time a man has cut through a hunk of steel five feet thick. He did it in Sheffield, with the aid of a British invention which will bring a revolution to the art of carving steel. It is a new cutting gun which uses not the familiar oxy-acetylene mixture but oxygen and propane, the industrial version of the gas which thousands use for cooking and boats.
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   If you want to stay beautiful the year long, the New York Antonic Bonnillo Co. will give you a contract for $500. The lady will get all the haircuts, sets, and shampoos she wants.
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   Johnson & Johnson, the big medical accessory dealer, says they have sold an increase of 25 per cent first aid surgical aid kits the past two weeks. General Mills has sold 30 per cent of multi-purpose food and Quaker Oats and National Biscuit are planning new survival foods to take with you to the cavern or wherever you are going.
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   We should think they would: a Toronto gas station says it doubles its business after giving coffee, diapers and a pretty uniformed girl attendant.
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   Texas highways are going to get a little boost. The license fee is going to be raised from $2.00 to $3.00 There’s a lot of gas used in Texas and a 30 percent rise is quite a lot.
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   While we won’t all get our “fallouts” this year, an expert at Baltimore, Md. says there will be space for 30 million by fall, and not a darned one knows what for.
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   The A.M.A. in a late number said one of the most dangerous stories is to tell children that aspirin is candy. There were 94 “accidental” deaths when children under five had been told they were candy.
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   Down in Wisconsin there is a “fallout builder” with a healthy outlook. He will build you a shelter “fallout” and give you five years to pay for it.
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   Here’s a boon to housewives and a blessing to the men. The Maine potatoes are being processed into potato salad. You buy a box of the processed “taters,” drop the slices into boiling water, then add salad dressing, etc. to suit your taste.
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   This is the way it is changed: “It is better to have loved and lost: much better.”
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   Some states have detectives taking note of the alleged cars that are smuggling cigarets from Oregon into Washington. Oregon is one of the few states in the union that does not have a cigaret tax.
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   We know so little about nature it is pitiful. That big storm Carla from the Gulf of Mexico reached Minnesota through the waters of Lake Superior. The under waters raised heck. When one commercial fisherman set his net, the buoys went out of sight immediately. Jack Scott had out 12 gangs of nets, on one the current in the lake was so heavy he couldn’t lift it. another fisherman had 2 nets out, one was driven in one way and the other in the opposite direction--so said the Grand Marais News.
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   Nature is wonderful but so is man at times. It’s the eternal fight for fresh water. Man uses pipes to get fresh water out of salt water by forcing it through pipes even narrower than a human hair. Another plan is to use heat electrically through it, getting it hot so the salt can be filtered out. The Dow Chemical Co., assisting in the work, has developed tubes that are narrower than a human hair--strange things are done. De-salting experts from every nation in the world are meeting at Woods Hole, Mass., working on the problem. Where is the water used in the U.S.? Industry 47 per cent, takes a lot of water to manufacture some things. It takes 660,000 gals. of water to help make a tone of synthetic rubber, 240,000 to make a tone of this paper and 65,000 gallons of water to make a ton of steel.
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   Countries in the world that are not on the decimal system to want to change. New Zealand, one of the three, is anxious to make the change but just can’t afford it. It says it would cost eight million pounds. The government says that there is that much alone in books, laws, etc. that will have to be changed before they can have nickels. Even staid old England wants to get on the decimal, but what are they doing to call the new money?
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   There’s happiness in northeastern Minnesota. Four inches of rain fell last week, which assured the folks up there of a good crop of tourists, fishers and hunters, and it kept down the hazard of any forest fires.
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   Now is the time to get a chimpanzee cheap. They used to be $850 but at the great annual fall sale they are $650. They are good to help with the housework. They can mop and sweep and not talk back.
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   One of the big personal injury law suits of the year will be tried in the district court at Ulen. The plaintiff is asking for $73,000 for damages in an auto accident.
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   Up at East Grand Forks, if you get arrested for speeding you’re really stuck. They have an electronic speed timing device that records them, so there is no argument.
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   The burning sun takes more water out of our lakes than any other means, and scientists are busy devising some method to halt this evaporation. They are trying to make a liquid to place on top of the lakes and reservoirs in the states of Utah, N. and So. Dakota, Montana and other western states, which lose 29 million acre feet of water through evaporation.
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   The talk of fixing football games is already here and it does not include the pros. Rigging a pro football game would mean the loss of millions of dollars to Americans. The investigation under effect brought up the name of Minneapolis as the home town of Leo Hirschfield who on the witness stand “took the Fifth” and just would not answer. Used to run one of those gambling sheets showing the scores and the winners and odds.
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   Omaha, Neb. certainly believes in cleanliness. It has an ordinance that makes it illegal for two people to use the same finger bowl.
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   Here’s how you can make ginger ale. You can make ginger ale or ginger beer with root ginger or ginger essence, and without cooking. With root ginger put into a large container 2 bottles of cold water, one package cream of tartar, 1/2 cup of raisins, 8 cups of sugar, 1/2 cake of yeast, 1/2 cup of root ginger. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours then strain through a muslin bag and bottle. Be sure and tie with a cord as the ale will pop--so says an item from a West African paper: don’t know what to mix with it to make it palatable. Do you?
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   How much do you think Mrs. J. Smith talks a minute? You talk 200 words a minute.
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October 5, 1961

   If you have been unfortunate in love affairs you’re a poor customer for the man that runs the restaurant. He says they eat and eat. They forget easier with a full stomach.
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   Traffic experts say this country is at the threshold of a lot of new traffic laws. One of them singled out for change is the car with only the driver. These conditions do not hamper auto traffic in the rural districts but there are sections in congested areas where it does. Take cars bound for the stadium: a large number have only the driver.
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   Wisconsin is one of the up and doing states. It is the first state that has a law that compels every auto to have front seat safety belts. The law does not go into effect until 1962. One odd thing to us about Wisconsin is that it has no Sunday. You can buy groceries and everything else all day Sunday, and that includes whiskey.
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   Horsemen show real comradeship. A fire benefit show was to be held at Staples last Sunday but was transferred to the county fair grounds at Wadena. It was for the benefit of those whose horses were burned to death at the county fair at Wadena last fall. The fire benefit is being sponsored by the Central Minnesota Saddle Clubs.
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   The white oleo bill is on its way out if Gov. Anderson has his way. He says the farmers raise all the ingredients used in both of them so the law cannot ignore them.
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   That storm that hit the Gulf States lately was the daddy of them all. Just think, the insurance firms had over 4000 adjusters on the job trying to straighten things out. Some of the adjusters came from New York. The damage will be over $200,000,000 and some of the companies are going to have a hard time staying in business. One company received 700 notices the first day. Some companies area being forced to sell their Gov’t. Bonds. Some of the losses hit over $200,000. See what Ma Nature can do when she wants to?
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   New Richmond, Wis. is planning a co-op, non profit nursery class. The class will be for 4 and five year olds who will begin Kindergarten next year. It will be held three mornings a week. It is to sort of break the kids in for what is coming. Only fly in the idea is that the mothers will run the school.
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   Hogs were selling in the Chicago market last week for $19 a hundred. The wise ones say the markets will go down.
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   Here’s a carpet that got the top advertising plan of the year. To test a new nylon carpet a salesman for E’Counel Carpet Mills is walking from New York, N.Y. to Houston, Texas, in shoes soled with the carpet.
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   Fur coats, that includes mink, will be cheaper this winter. A coat that cost $3,500 can be had now for $2,900 and here’s the worst thing about it. The National Retail Merchants Assn. says that mink for years has been the choice of the upper ten but has lost its place and the mink coat is just a coat.
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   The past summer has been full of woe for a lot of hotel men. Take the manager of the Roosevelt at New Orleans, he says it is the worst in 40 years. Chicago did not have any summer conventions. Houston only had one convention and is wailing: evidently what the country needs is more conventions and fewer jet planes.
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   Scotch highballs, cocktails, etc. will take a short vacation. The Japanese introduced its first liquor to the U.S. last week--you’ll never guess what it is distilled from: green tea.
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   There’s plenty of sunny days coming that a hornet or wasp can take one of those vicious jabs in passing. If he hits, the best thing you can do is to see a doctor as soon as possible about getting injected for “desensitization.” Bee and wasp stings have brought death to many people.
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   The way people are going wild over pro football, you’ll soon be able to see it the year round in an air conditioned stadium. If built in a highly populated center, it would be a busy spot. Four or five teams of football could use it, be tough to get away from some of those long hit baseballs. Unless they give a home run for every time you hit the ceiling.
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   A retired broker had a minor auto accident. He was notified in twelve days by his insurance company where he carried insurance for 15 years that it no longer wanted his business, and gave him the name of a company that had insurance for unlucky drivers but the price was about four times as high.
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   Where seconds and dollars really count in this day and age is with TV. Programs that cost you $21,000 in 1956 now cost $30,000 and the program is only 20 minutes long.
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   Three deck railway cars are here and the Lackawanna has had to completely make over its right of way tracks under bridges, lowered a foot; and another bridge completely replaced.
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   Despite the fact that raccoon hunting is getting a number of raccoons they continue to increase. Some day this sport will be one of the social hunting events along the Beaver, with the raccoon treed, a bonfire burning cheerily and the dogs barking fiercely, the moon breaking through the clouds, a well filled lunch box. What more do you want? Pelts taken in Minnesota last year amounted to nearly $2,000,000. Only 8,543 trappers licenses were sold. Times have changed the trapping spirit.
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   See where a woman lost $50,000 in jewels. They were stolen. She deserves to lose them. Any woman that has that much money should get a set of imitation jewelry made, put the real ones in the bank vault. None of her friends would ever know the difference. They would Oh and Ah when they looked at them the same as ever.
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   There’s a new show and a new sport number in Southern Minnesota since we were boys. First one is called Gopher State Royal Merit Quadruple Cat Show, and was held at Mankato last Saturday and Sunday. The working class cat was judged at 2 p.m. After that there was the main debate. Which makes the best ratter, the fancy house cat or the mangy worn coat?
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   You folks that bought Maytag washers 50 years ago would really stare at the service they give now. When something goes wrong and you call for help he shows up in a gleaming white truck, wears a snappy uniform, a visored hat and red bow tie, and carries a white tool box with a can of spray cleaner. He also carries two small red carpets, one to cover the appliance, the other to prevent your floor from getting dirty. When he gets done he sprays the machine and leaves it sparkling, and then gives the housewife a post card with questions about the service given.
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   Up at International Falls last week Lloyd F. Frenson was given a $25 fine for permitting an unlicensed driver to drive his auto. Some fellows were fined $25 or 10 days for shooting grouse and then came Ronald Wall with some venison and did he get the works: $100 fine or 90 days in jail.
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   The Forty and Eight cut all rights with the American Legion with its “only whites can belong to the Forty and Eight.” Will they forbid the colored boys from fighting along side of them when the next war starts?
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   Here’s a new one for the tax payer. Welfare boards in Florida and Georgia are accused of shipping some of their “guests” to New York and giving them funds to live on for a while, at least until they become eligible.
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   You’d never think that one of our local owls could cause $6,000 in damage by just flying around, but he did in a turkey house near Truman. In some way he got inside and got scared, started fluttering around, young turkey poults got scared and piled up on top of one another: total dead poults 5,287 out of a flock of 12,000. This was what is known as the Horned Owl: he needs dehorning.
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   California is going to do its part on the anti-smog campaign. Every auto must have a device in the crank case that will take out the deadly fumes. The device will cost $6 if installed in a new car, but if you put it on your old car it will cost around $40.00. You will be offered one of two devices. Does not say anything about cars of visitors, but there is a deep seated movement to get away from being called the Smog State. The law will not go into effect for a year.
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   Lights are tough on birds sometimes. A northern flight on its way south was blinded by the lights at the Duluth Airport and flitted around half blind. When daylight came, city workers hauled away a truck load of dead birds and hundreds were fluttering around with broken wings and legs. Twenty different varieties were counted.
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   Daylight Savings time expired last Sunday in Wisconsin. Seems odd the two states, Minnesota and Wisconsin, could not have got together on a date, and the editor of the New Richmond News asks, “...and in the meantime just what good did daylight saving time accomplish?”
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   Something sudden and soon hit the Ford Co. It has offered shorter hours and more pay two weeks ago. It has 45,000 employees and everything was well and happy ‘til the notice came. Serious and adverse economic conditions during recent months. British Ford sales are away below that of last year, and orders were off. What happened to John Bull?
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October 12, 1961

   Residents up in Kittson county find the reason for having winter--because the animals and some birds like it. A man at Humbolt picked up a new born jackrabbit. He took it home, put a nipple on it and the baby jack is a member of the family. H. Curtis also has a Jenny Wren nest that has ten eggs in it. Curtis says animals and birds can foretell weather. Beavers build higher dams and muskrats always build bigger houses in colder months.
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   When we came up here there was a pretty good place called the Biltmore. The dining room was on the second floor. The late Cedric bought it. The restaurant was changed to the name Cedrics. Cedric died. The restaurant closed the next day and is still closed.
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   Australia is not going to stop using the Salk polio vaccine and try the oral method (through the mouth). The National Council of Australia says it was outstanding in reducing the prevalence of polio in Australia.
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   “Cream is deep frozen and sold for winter supply in several of New Zealand’s larger milk treatment stations which are short of milk over the winter months. There was no problem last winter. But wouldn’t it help out a little if more cows were added to the herds?” This was taken from the New Zealand News.
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   The hospitals are on the way up again and some of the big ones are taking queer methods to hold things down. A 250-bed is being built at La Jolla, California. It will have no kitchen. Having no kitchen will cut down the costs about $750,000 a year. Most of San Francisco hospitals get the food from cafeterias. The “Chicago” says hospital costs are growing at the rate of over 5 per cent a year.
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   The A & P, biggest supermarkets in the world, are making both the groceries and tobacco. Men scratch their heads. Story is that the A&P is getting out its own brand.
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   If you have a baby, thank those Japs. They have devised a diaper cover wired for sound. The dampness sets off its transistorized buzzer alarm.
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   This country is full of young men who want to know if the army pay will be enough to keep his wife and family, pay his life insurance or payment on the auto.
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   This new party in Norway is going to have a lot of trouble. For the first time in 20 years the Labor party was voted out of office. But it was a close election. In the election in September the Labor party lost 4 seats. The Labor party was beat by jealous members of the party.
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   When you get scared enough to sleep below the bed, just remember that your good old Uncle Sam has 20 times as much war time as the man that walks like a bear.
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   The Montgomery Ward store company is asking to trade its stock with Inter-State Department Store. Wards still owns and operates 655 across the nation.
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   If you like brook trout for dinner, phone the Star Rainie Trout farm just across the line in Wisconsin. The price is only $1.25 a pound.
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   An agent in Kittson county says that on 621 soil bank contracts in the county over 400 were withdrawn from cultivation this year.
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   The Supreme Court of the United States opened up the winter term of court last week. There are nine justices in the court. The docket is jammed full of cases that will never see the light of day, probably.
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   Doctors in the tobacco cancers brought out this report. The death rate is higher for smokers than for non-smokers and the more you inhale cigarette smoke the sooner you’ll die.
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   Here’s some cheery news about the fallouts, if part of it does come from Russia on the request of the American Medical Society. The consensus was that the increase coming from a fallout is very small and there is no proof that distant fallout ever caused a disease in a human being.
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   Bad news for the sugar beet raisers in the Red River Valley. Their acreage has been cut 17 per cent for 1962. They are mad at the Swiss government. The Swiss also want legislation against the American potato. If the Swiss keep on, we’ll all be buying German clocks.
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   Lots of good hunting, both birds and animals, is the report from northern Minnesota. Grouse and partridge are the best in years and hunters have reported seeing deer and moose and sometimes a bear.
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   Alabama has a peculiar divorce law. Naturally it has a residence clause but it does not say how long you have to live in the state. Trouble about the divorce is, you have to both live single until death.
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   Have any of the insurance companies started issuing policies for fallout damages yet?
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   Uncle Sam is going to give each one of us a present. It is a number all your own. Under your number list all your income, salaries, dependents, crop, etc. You must list the number on your income tax report. If you don’t do it, you will be fined $5.00. Gosh, we sure are getting tied for $150, and during the summer season.
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   Fallout shelters are not very costly: you can build one in your basement and use it for tornadoes in the summer time. It will cost you $150 and holds six people. Uncle Sam will send you a booklet for 10 cents.
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   “Death by Accident” is still a growing company. You can now get a policy for $250,000. Annual premiums (16-64) are $1.25 per $1,000. No medical examination needed.
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   Here’s a real boon to the people. a drug that has been used to curb consumption can also be used to prevent it.
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   A curious female asks a doctor, “Do raw eggs make pure blood?” The answer was, “Not any more than fried, boiled or poached.” This legend has been in the rural districts for over 50 years and is still untrue.
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   The big construction project near Mentor in Northern Minnesota will not be finished until next year. Two years ago, engineers started surveying a piece of land a block square. They then started testing the ground. The hole is 500 ft. deep and the only way you can get to the bottom is through the 50 inch hole. Working now at the bottom of this big gas storage tank are 55 men on three shifts. The tank will hold 300,000 barrels. Might be used in the fall out days.
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