This is a Blog site created by Bob Reed (in Florida) for folks who live--or used to live--in Marcus, Iowa. Its purpose is to exchange notes, news, remembrances, and thoughts about life in and about Marcus, or news about one's family, friends or acquaintances.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
November 2005 discussion
This discussion thread is closed. You may click below to read and catch up, but go to the current thread to continue the conversation.
Baritone Bob or my brother, Kurt: Can either of you block "Digital Slob" from intruding on this blogspot? (And delete the previous post.) Looks like we have an unwanted visitor. Fred
I would like to say thanks as well. It is a great site for me to learn more about the history of Marcus. Since moving here 18 years ago I have gotten to know quite a few of the population but still haven't met everyone. Maybe some day when I retire from full time duties and slow up a bit I wil lhave more time to visit with the folks here. But for now I am destined to just read and type in a message once and a while. Ron Rosewall
Terry Mead: I'm more your generation (Class of '66) than my mother, Margaret Dorr who responded to your question about Lucy Yoshioka. I was in high school with your sister, Vicki. Tell her hi for me. Encourage her to attend our 40th Class Reunion next year.
I remember all the people you mentioned, although you guys were a few years older than me. I have no idea where any of them are now.
Where did your time in the Navy take you - pretty much all over the world?
My sister, Shirley (now deceased) lived in the Ashland/Medford, Oregon area immediately prior to her death. She, like lots of Californians, moved north and as they say on the west coast "Californicated" Oregon and Washington. I was never there, but she loved it. Sounds like you live in a nice area.
I remember your crowd, while in high school, as being the athletes and "tough guys", especially Pete Mathern.I was probably in 6th or 7th grade when you guys were seniors, but I remember who to watch out for, who to avoid in a snowball fight and to be vaguely aware of how close my house was (and the most direct route there) if you guys were on the "prowl". It wasn't as though I didn't bring some of it on, though. I remember one time after school walking home with a bunch of guys on a winter day when Mathern drove by with his "posse". As he drove past, I picked up a snowball and threw it at his car. He slammed it in reverse and chased me all the way home. I had the advantage of being able to cut through backyards. He stayed in the car and could only use alleys and streets. (I made it home just in time.) If I tried to throw a snowball now I'd probably dislocate my shoulder.
I've told the story before, but one of my strongest memories in high school is when your sister Vicki came to play practice crying and telling us that your brother-in-law Billy Kirchoff, was killed in Viet Nam. I didn't realize you had a tour there, as well. Were you in-country? If so, where and when? Did you get caught up in those Mekong Delta river patrols?
Terry: Sounds like quite a go of it for you in Vietnam. As people have now said many times over (but not at the time), you guys did great things for our country with, at best, a whole lot of uncertainty about your support back home. I was in the Navy from 1970-1972, as a Supply Officer on the carrier USS Independence. We operated out of Norfolk, so I was not in harm's way. We did a Med Cruise. Funny how the roles are now reversed. Before she was decommissioned not long, the Indy was back in the Persian Gulf several times supporting the Iraq/Kuwait action.
I live in Des Moines now, but get to Marcus periodically to see my mom and brother, Jon, who both still live there. I'll ask my mom to check the cemetary wall to see about Leonard Seggerman. (His sister Mary Ann was in the same class as your sister, Vicki and me.) And speaking of your good looking sister, Vicki - she was one of several in my class. They attracted lots of attention from upperclassmen and from guys from other surrounding towns.
Hope things are now going well for you. After serving as a forward gunner on a river patrol boat, I'd think it would change your perspective on most things. Again, my regards for your service, Terry. Fred
I spent most of the summer between my junior and senior year in high school living in Ashland with my sister Shirley. Shirley worked for a while in Medford at the Social Security office even though she was blind. She would ride the bus every day from Ashland to Medford for work.
That summer was one of the BEST ever. Lithia Park and the Shakespeare Festival are amazing and the downtown was so cool. I will never forget the concerts in the park in the mid 70's along with all of the hippies hanging out there.
Have you ever gone swimming in CRATER LAKE? I bet the dock hand prior to taking the boat tour I could stay in the water 10 SECONDS......well I lost that $10..........that water is flat out cold but man Crater Lake is amazingly beautiful.
Your sister who graduated in '74 got a ton of addresses and phone numbers when she was back for the ALL-SCHOOL reunion in the late 90's.........would you ask her how one can get access to that list to make sure everyone on it knows about the ALL-CATHOLIC SCHOOL REUNION this summer? It would be great if the likes of Jack Clarkson and Julie Meylor had access to those contacts!!!!
Did you ever run into Col. Bud Day while in Nam? He is from Sioux City and was in the marines and after he got shot down spent 68 or so months in the Hanoi Hilton. Amazing guys all of you and thanks for your service to our country!
Would love to meet u if u could ever get back for the Marcus Fair or such..........BTW I remember getting my hair cut by your dad and Jack Shea if I have it correctly. Great memories!!!
Just reading some of the old entries and remembering that Holy Name ballfield next door to the Dorr's. Maybe they Holy Name all-school reunion should have a ball game there for old time's sake. We played so many times there (but only when we were older ... the little kids had to play on the other side of the school) and then lots of kick the can when my grandparents lived down the street.
Terry: You mentioned Greece as one of your duty stations. Where you land-based there, or did one of the ships you served on port there often?
I ask, because while I was on the Independence we used Athens (actually Piraeus-the port community)as our home-away-from-home. We also had liberty stops in Crete, Corfu, Salonika and lots of other ports in the area, but we were in Athens the most. I have very mixed feelings about that area. Let me tell you the reason why.
I was the Disbursing Officer (payroll officer for non-military who read this) on the Independence, initially. I had a DKC (Disbursing Clerk Chief) career military type who was from Marathon, Iowa (near Storm Lake) working with me then. He was a great person. We worked closely together on the ship, much of it in and around Athens, and then I got out of the Navy after my three years was up. He stayed in and made a career of it.
Years later I was wathching cable news one night, back in the states. Terrorists had taken over a plane on the tarmac at the Athens airport. They found out that one of the passengers, a young guy, was American military. During the hostage negotiations they killed him and dumped him out on the tarmac to prove their seriousness.
The next day I was watching follow-up news about the events. The focus switched to Washington, D.C. where the father and mother of the dead serviceman were walking across the street from their suburban home to address the media about the death of their son. It was my friend, Dick Stethem! What a shock. It was his son Robert who the hijackers had killed. I believe it all happened in 1985.
I caught up with him a few years ago. We had a great talk. The Navy has now commissioned a destroyer afer his deceased son, the USS Stethem. I never knew the son, but the father was a great, great individual. Another small town Iowan who quietly made a huge difference in the world. You can google USS Stethem, or Dick Stethem, I presume and read more of the events.
Long before all of that happened though, Dick (and I) and about 5000 other sailors and pilots were in that same port - Athens - with no idea of the tragic events that would later befall him in that same part of the world. I have many great memories of Athens, but now they are all tinged with the horrific events which happened to my friend and his family. It's not quite the same anymore. Fred
Gary Sanow lives in Utah and is a trucker the last I knew. Running stories? I spent four years in track beside him, went to state with him three of those years and can summarize his running by saying that the entire track and field show shut down when it was time for Gary to run the 100, 220, 440 or 880 medley. The entire crowd rushed to the sides of the track to watch and 'listen' to him run. He had a very distinct breathing pattern when he ran, huffed like a steam engine. His typical day of training was repeated jumps out of the starting blocks and working that distinctive breathing pattern.I believe it was the day he set the state 220 record, nonetheless it was at the Tomahawk Relay in Cherokee and I recall he ran so fast that he sped off the track, up a slight embankment and crashed into the fence before he finally stopped-NASCAR style.
Gary was the youngest of the kids. His sister Linda lives near Paullina, IA. and his sister Sandy lives in Arizona, I believe, but returns to Marcus each summer and spends some time with her husband in their camper which they park one mile north of Marcus at the farmyard on the northeast corner of that intersection.
I'm just thrilled to find this site and blog. I visited Marcus decades ago as a young girl with my maternal grandmother. She was a Sanow, born on a farm near Marcus. The only Sanow relatives I remember are Danny and Robert Hansen. Danny may live in Remsen. I'd love to hear from any Sanows out there. My name is Laurel Johnson and I live in Fairbury NE. johnson@diodecom.net
I found this article quite interesting – and besides, it mentions one of our own. I’ve edited it for the sake of brevity. Bob
Op-Ed Contributor in the New York Times, November 23, 2005
Stuck in the Middle By DAN BARBER
...Supporting small farmers will preserve farmland, reduce the number of industrial farms and help us move away from an agricultural economy that encourages the production of commodities like corn, soy and sugar at the expense of just about everything else.
...American agriculture - its land and its immensely complex distribution system - is no longer in the hands of the small farmer. . . . [They] are simply not in the position right now to save American agriculture.
Giant farms won't either, of course. For the most part, these are the farms that grow a single crop or raise large numbers of animals in close confinement. To sustain their existence, these megafarms, whether they're raising crops or animals, require enormous quantities of pesticides, fertilizers and antibiotics simply to survive. The result? Pollution, erosion and diseases that spread easily among factory-raised, immune-deficient animals.
Sadly, these farms aren't going away. In a perverse logic that defies nature, a farm needs to get ever larger and more specialized to survive. The number of farms with annual sales of more than $500,000 has increased 23 percent from 1997 to 2002. American farm policy, with a dazzling menu of subsidies, will keep us on this path for the foreseeable future.
The answer to this agricultural puzzle lies somewhere in the middle. Actually, it lies exactly in the middle, with the nation's 350,000 midsize farmers. These farmers...cultivate more than 40 percent of our farmland.
Such farmers tend to be highly effective stewards of the land, with intimate knowledge of their farms....They are small-business owners - not corporations - and have proven records of being interested in protecting not just the economic health of the land, but its ecological health as well.
Unfortunately, these farmers are also on the way out. Midsize farms, with sales of $50,000 to $500,000, are declining rapidly. According to government figures, the number of these farms has declined 14 percent from 1997 to 2002, a net loss of nearly 65,000 farms....
Why should we care? Because our ways of farming are intimately linked to the...ways we're eating....
[Food] appears to be a world of variety, but look closer. The cookies, granola bars, crackers, chips, salad dressings and baby food all have one thing in common: they are made from derivations of corn, soy and sugar. About 70 percent of our agricultural land in the Midwest is devoted to producing these crops.
The farms that produce these single commodities average about 14,000 acres.... And the future? Thomas Dorr, under secretary of agriculture for rural affairs, has predicted that 250,000-acre behemoths will dominate agriculture. If they do, the number of farms in Mr. Dorr's home state, Iowa, would drop to about 120 from 89,000.
That shouldn't come as a surprise. "Get big or get out" has been what farmers have been told for decades. And big farms have come with one big benefit: inexpensive food. Americans spend a smaller percentage of their disposable income for food than anyone else in the developed world. But these savings are illusory.
A funny thing happened on the way to our cheap food system. The books were being cooked in a kind of shell game. The real costs were not being properly accounted for: those taxpayer-financed subsidies ($143 billion over the last decade)....
Midsize farms have the potential to be profitable without these hidden costs. [T]here's a large, existing market -- school systems, hospitals, local grocery chains, food service distributors - for varied, healthier foods....
...[These smaller farms] may be caught up in the commodity game right now -- trying to expand, trying to focus on single crops - but that's largely because that's where the incentives are. For many of these farms, racing to keep up will be their downfall.
We need to encourage these farms to do what they do best: grow a variety of crops, raise a variety of animals, resist the temptation to grow too much.
How do we do this? By shifting the money. Our government now subsidizes the commodity production of grain - mostly corn and soybeans. We need to pull farmers out of the commodity trap and help them make the transition to growing the kinds of whole foods - fruits and vegetables - that would benefit us all....
Make no mistake: this change will require us to change our ways. We're going to have to support a diet that contains fewer processed, commodity-based foods. We're going to have to pay more for what we eat. We're going to have to contend with those who question whether it's practical to reduce subsidies for large farmers and food producers....
These recommendations may seem bold to the point of audacious. But are they really? After all, what could be more audacious - or contrary to our rural heritage then [sic] great stretches of our landscape covered with 250,000-acre farms
(Dan Barber is the chef of Blue Hill at Stone Barns.)
Also from Bob -- A related postscript: According to a new book by former Senator George McGovern (D) and Bob Dole (R) titled “Ending Hunger Now,” there are 800 million people in the world who are hungry when they go to bed each night.
Regarding the op-ed thoughts of the chef, I would like to quote from a recent article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, THE RATIONAL HERD: "Acquiring information is costly and people look for shortcuts.. even intelligent people are capable of holding passionate views on matters to which they have given little thought or study." What's to explain this? "How do people come to hold faddish beliefs, even when those beliefs are at odds with other beliefs they hold or information they posses...it's called rational herding." This follows on the heels of "informational cascading" (when peple knowing little about an issue take their cue from others) and "reputational cascades" (involving the rational incentive to go along with the crowd). I've been farming north of Marcus for thirty years, have been daily involved in livestock production for every one of those years and whether or not you think I'm biased the chef is part of a 'herd' and has been 'cascaded'. In my earlier days we called it the 'lemming' effect. His un-unique come up woefully short but I chose not to refute them point by point, instead to try to show why he thinks like he does. The reality of agriculture is much different than he suggests. It is dynamic, ever-changing, rewarding, exciting. And on top of that, this time of the year I get to shoot pheasants, rabbits, squirrels and coons with young neighbors, old retired farmers and lots of them inbetween, alongside the dog they're trying to train! It's a great life and I look forward to tomorrow as much as I did when I moved back from the west coast to farm.
Bob: This will probably look like another Dorr brother coming to the side of a sibling - Tom - but when the NYT runs its usual ope-ed material I get a kick out of its take on "the experts" v. "us great unwashed" out here in flyover country who experience what most of them only write about. (Reminds me of the late '60's when all my "smart" college friends thought "moving back to the land" would be such a great liberating communal experience.) The truth of course, was that few if any of them knew what that meant, and virtually none had an understanding of how rigorous a life that may actually be. But it all sounded great sitting around some espresso bar with a folk singer telling listeners where to go for answers.
The same with the chef. If we would all only eat whole foods like he would like us do. Sure Wild Oats and Whole Foods make it in some larger metro areas, but check your local Hy-Vee (in Iowa) "natural foods section" - or if you live in a college town, reflect back on the "peoples' co-ops" of the 60's. Most struggle. Why? Because people like sugar and marbled meat and many of the foods the chef wishes we would avoid. And as to his shot at confinement units - one of the things that will best protect this country from Avian Flu, as much or more than vaccine, is confinement units. Wild birds infect "free range" animals, more readily than those in confinement (because the latter are inside). Think the NYT will congratulate Tyson Foods for helping to keep our poultry stock safer from disease? Of course not.
Yes, government policy influences business decisions a great deal. What drives markets though is demand. My "hippy generation" didn't all move back to the land on our individual plots of rural nirvana, where we had a few chickens, a cow and a big garden to sustain us, because those who did found out - it's a lot of work! (Not to mention this idea we are all the same didn't work out very well in practice either. Some people work harder than others. Some are more motivated, etc.)
These ideas run their course. I wanted turkey for Thanksgiving, not Tofu. Most people do. That's why there is a demand for turkey production but not near the same for vegetarian fare. The "foodies" would like to get us to eat what they think is best for us. The real answer - eat, in moderation what you like and get some exercise. If you want meat, sugar and soy products, you will typically buy what you like that is least expensive. That means that the market will try to find ways to produce it at the lowest possible cost. There are plenty of regulators and interest groups around to balance the social and environmental impacts of the pressure producers will put on the system.
In the meantime, those who romanticize how food gets to their table should best stick to writing about what they know best, which in most cases is not what happens on a farm or ranch. It drives the purists crazy, but people eat a Krispy Kreme because it tastes good. We all know that a fresh lettuce and vegetable salad with lemon juice sprinkled on it is best for you, but when put side by side with a creme brulee, which do most pick up?
So, eat what you like in moderation, walk daily, and be thankful that there are farmers and ranchers out there making it possible for all us "city people" to sit around our bountiful tables debating whether we should enact laws to wean people from sugar and soy products, and what the proper size of a farm or ranch should be.
Yes, I got my swine flu shot, I wondered about Y2K, and I read what Avian Flu can do to all of us. The older I get, though the more important I find it is to inject a healthy dose of skepticism. Much of the time the sky is not falling. Newspapers sell where they can generate buzz - oftentimes controversy. Personally, I like a small beef filet. I enjoy sugar-based products. If the chef doesn't agree, fine. He can promote to his crowd, just leave the rest of us to our options. I won't tell him what to prepare in his establishment if he doesn't sic the food police on me. Fred
Wow, it's always interesting to see the emotional power of words at work. I didn't see the comments of the chef as offensive to this country's farmers, but then I'm not so close to the argument.
I don't know his background, but he's presented himself as a chef of some (famous la-de-da? no clue) restaurant. So that's what he does for a living. Here's one man who spends his days handling food products from across the country, maybe from across the world. I think we can safely say that he might know a thing or two about the changing quality of fresh produce he selects daily for his business. Wasn't he just pointing out that the loss of the mid-size farm will be a detriment to our country's quality of food products? Isn't he simply worried about the loss of a variety of food products of high quality to limited products in quantity? He doesn't preach about what we should eat, but wny we should care, and what might need to change.
I think he's raising questions that the average American should ask, but doesn't because we simply take for granted that our supermarket shelves will always be filled with whatever our little stomachs desire, whether we're vegans or junk food junkies. No, we don't care where it comes from or the difficulties of the producers to get it there just as long as it is there, and even better that it's a sale item for the week.
Maybe if we could only buy soda pop on even days and potato chips on odd days or if Iowa pork chops doubled in price over the course of the summer, maybe we'd get a little frazzled. Only then would we jump on some bandwagon. That's where the lemming mentality comes in to play. Why are people who put the discussion on the table labeled as lemmings. Oh well...
Anyway, question of the day: Why does the big, pump-me-up breast meat on Purdue roasters now taste like fish? Shouldn't I, as a consumer, ask those questions? What the heck are they feeding millions of chickens to make chicken taste like fish? Of course, cheap fish byproducts: Remember, you are what you eat. All I can do, as a consumer, is stop buying them. Funny, free-range chickens don't taste like fish. And yesterday I just read a short article about the newest suburban craze in pets ... chickens ...
Julia: I've read this kind of thing from gourmet chefs for years. In their cloistered world in a New York City high-end restaurant it sounds fanciful to ask for wholesale farming changes to suit what they want and think others should eat.
You indicated that he wasn't preaching about what we should eat - but he was. He specifically calls for Americans to change our diet. He wants us to switch to whole foods - having farmers grow more fruits and vegetables and suggesting that we all get used to paying more for our food. He wants farmers to "not grow too much". He suggests that small is always better - can "save American agriculture"; while big necessarily equals pollution, erosion and disease. His article is loaded with code for, "Let's design an agriculture system which will best suit me and my New York friends' version of how Americans should eat, how much land they should be able to buy, what they should grow on it and how it should be priced."
The establishment he works in has a location in New York City and one upstate. How do you think he would respond to: 1. No free range chicken can be sold in either location, because they have a higher liklihood of being infected by Avian Flu. 2. No restaurateur should be allowed to have more than one establishment, as smaller is always better. 3. No meal on his menu should be priced over $5.00 as encouraging "exotics" is environmentally wasteful, elitist (and thus somehow inherently evil). That would necessarily mean he would have to take a pay cut, which I doubt he would support. 4. Anyone who frequents either of his places should be denied service if they don't drive up in a fuel efficient vehicle (if he's concerned about the environment, as he claims to be)?
I could start designing how he should operate in a way that might make more sense to me, but what gives me that authority, other than as a consumer, who can eat at one of his places or not, as I choose?
His article is loaded with his politics. Take away choice and replace it with additional restrictions on how our nation's food supply should operate.
He says farmers are "told" get bigger or get out. No, farmers make choices they see in their best economic interest, given their means. They don't have to be "told" anything, it's their livlihood. They pay attention because they need to.
As to Perdue chickens - I subscribe to the theory of not buying what I don't like. I don't buy a tomato in a store anymore as they have been turned into something I don't recognize. I am fortunate to have garden fresh available in the summer. When enough people react the same way, the market will change.
In the meantime, small is better sometimes, but large can be as well. I like to eat what I want to, not what someone else tells me I need to and I'm often suspect of what someone from one of the coasts suggests is best for me, while not likely wanting the same standard applied back to them. That's all I was saying.
My point: Ask your questions, Chef. Just don't be surprised if there is another view in the Heartland. Fred
Wow! Stirred up a nest here! I guess I'm now so far removed from the problems and lives of Iowa farmers that I miss out on the nuances of the politics of agriculture. I'm naive. I thought the op-ed piece by the chef was primarily calling for a return to the midsize farm and a reduction of the big farms that grow only one crop. I thought that was probably a good thing, as it might help save some of my friends' century-old small farms from extinction. And as a consumer, I guess I favor more fresh farm-stand variety of food and I'm willing to pay for it. Is there anything better than sweet corn and lettuce and cantaloupe from the field--even in a resturant! UMMMMM! But I've learned some things from this, thanks to the exchanges. Anybody got more thoughts on the subject? Bob Reed
Agriculture is changing every day just like all other vocations. Most of the changes are completely unknown to those outside of agriculture, and quite honestly, even to those of us who work in it but not in a particular side of it. This discussion could really get to be fun if someone on the inside took the time to pen a review of today's reality in agriculture. I'll give a fun example of this change. Did you know that large dairies now import wasps from California that are then released to eat fly eggs? From what I understand there are probably less flies around a modern 4,000 head dairy than there would have been around the 25 head dairy that used to be milked at the farm where I live.
I lived for seven years in South Jersey. For three of those years we lived in a little house in the country surrounded by acres of tomato fields (most went to Campbells in Camden) of the biggest and juiciest tomatoes you could desire and with orchards of peaches, cherries, and apples right next door. My daughter's first fruit was a peach filched from that field ... couldn't resist ... they were beautiful. Up here in Rhode Island the turf farms still surround the University of Rhode Island. I always fault my students for stereotyping other parts of the country -- farms still exist out here too and on the other coast ... big and small and in between. We aren't paved over completely yet... farming is a way of life that few understand, and fewer still have a chance to experience. I feel blessed to have grown up on one ... no matter what size it was! Julia Simpson
I think the Chef is getting a bad rap from Iowa. I don't feel he wants everybody to start eating sticks and seeds. He's just suggesting that maybe moderate size farms could take advantage of an increasing demand for organic and natural foods. This Blogspot has certainly varified that those with Marcus roots have a good feeling about their connections to small town America. Nevertheless, it is becoming quite obvious to many, including the Chef, that the billions going to crop subsidies are really accerating the trend to mega farms. Someone really should start thinking out of the box for a way to keep the farming landscape halfway palatable to the human eye and it would probably be at half the cost. Irv Deichmann
Nothing like a NYT writer to stir up the troops. Like Irv Deichmann I focused more on what the writer was saying about the direction that agriculture was taking (to mega-farms and animal confinement facilities). A year or so ago the same paper published a similar article decrying the fact that the small farmer was not the beneficiary of the massive farm subsidies doled out from Washington. In the late 50's the high school debate topic was "Should the government continue to subsidize farmers?". And I argued that it should because it would help save the family farms. 50 years later we still hear that same rational. But in fact it has not saved the family farms. For example, Marcus Township lost more than 44% of its farmsteads between 1952 and 1988. Ironically, I suspect that a steady income for many of the farmer's wives from the factory south of town helped keep more of them on the farm than the subsidies did. What subsidies have done is help raise the price of farmland to the point that a farmer cannot pay for newly purchased land with crop income. So it is driving investment out of Iowa. A recent article in Progressive Farmer details how two Iowa based groups are buying farmland in Brazil for $500 per acre rather than expand their landholdings in Iowa. Even more disconcerting to me is the aging of the industry. A few years ago I noted that of the 21 people I saw working the harvest none was under 35 years old. And if you look at the most recent graduating class from MMC only 3 of the 24 male graduates indicated that they have any intention in staying in agriculture. The trends are not positive for those who still like the traditional family farm. And I, for one, don't have the answers on how to change them.
It is Dec. 4th and another cold night in Marcus {-4 degrees}. The MMC Music Department is presenting it's 2nd Madrigal Dinner tonight at the Meriden Evangelical Free Church. The one last night was done really well. So many candles, great food and beautiful music; it was worth venturing out into the cold night. The Family Table is up on wheels and looks like it's about ready to head down the road to Ida Grove. It should be quite a sight and maybe a hitchhiker's dream if he's hungry.
Baritone Bob or my brother, Kurt: Can either of you block "Digital Slob" from intruding on this blogspot? (And delete the previous post.) Looks like we have an unwanted visitor. Fred
ReplyDeleteI deleted the spam comment, and activated word verification for future comments which might help.
ReplyDeleteBob
Thanks for your help in setting up this blog and "maintaining" it, Bob. Fred
ReplyDeleteI would like to say thanks as well. It is a great site for me to learn more about the history of Marcus. Since moving here 18 years ago I have gotten to know quite a few of the population but still haven't met everyone. Maybe some day when I retire from full time duties and slow up a bit I wil lhave more time to visit with the folks here. But for now I am destined to just read and type in a message once and a while. Ron Rosewall
ReplyDeleteTerry Mead: I'm more your generation (Class of '66) than my mother, Margaret Dorr who responded to your question about Lucy Yoshioka. I was in high school with your sister, Vicki. Tell her hi for me. Encourage her to attend our 40th Class Reunion next year.
ReplyDeleteI remember all the people you mentioned, although you guys were a few years older than me. I have no idea where any of them are now.
Where did your time in the Navy take you - pretty much all over the world?
My sister, Shirley (now deceased) lived in the Ashland/Medford, Oregon area immediately prior to her death. She, like lots of Californians, moved north and as they say on the west coast "Californicated" Oregon and Washington. I was never there, but she loved it. Sounds like you live in a nice area.
I remember your crowd, while in high school, as being the athletes and "tough guys", especially Pete Mathern.I was probably in 6th or 7th grade when you guys were seniors, but I remember who to watch out for, who to avoid in a snowball fight and to be vaguely aware of how close my house was (and the most direct route there) if you guys were on the "prowl". It wasn't as though I didn't bring some of it on, though. I remember one time after school walking home with a bunch of guys on a winter day when Mathern drove by with his "posse". As he drove past, I picked up a snowball and threw it at his car. He slammed it in reverse and chased me all the way home. I had the advantage of being able to cut through backyards. He stayed in the car and could only use alleys and streets. (I made it home just in time.) If I tried to throw a snowball now I'd probably dislocate my shoulder.
I've told the story before, but one of my strongest memories in high school is when your sister Vicki came to play practice crying and telling us that your brother-in-law Billy Kirchoff, was killed in Viet Nam. I didn't realize you had a tour there, as well. Were you in-country? If so, where and when? Did you get caught up in those Mekong Delta river patrols?
Good to hear from you on the blog, Terry. Fred
Terry: Sounds like quite a go of it for you in Vietnam. As people have now said many times over (but not at the time), you guys did great things for our country with, at best, a whole lot of uncertainty about your support back home. I was in the Navy from 1970-1972, as a Supply Officer on the carrier USS Independence. We operated out of Norfolk, so I was not in harm's way. We did a Med Cruise. Funny how the roles are now reversed. Before she was decommissioned not long, the Indy was back in the Persian Gulf several times supporting the Iraq/Kuwait action.
ReplyDeleteI live in Des Moines now, but get to Marcus periodically to see my mom and brother, Jon, who both still live there. I'll ask my mom to check the cemetary wall to see about Leonard Seggerman. (His sister Mary Ann was in the same class as your sister, Vicki and me.) And speaking of your good looking sister, Vicki - she was one of several in my class. They attracted lots of attention from upperclassmen and from guys from other surrounding towns.
Hope things are now going well for you. After serving as a forward gunner on a river patrol boat, I'd think it would change your perspective on most things. Again, my regards for your service, Terry. Fred
Terry:
ReplyDeleteI spent most of the summer between my junior and senior year in high school living in Ashland with my sister Shirley. Shirley worked for a while in Medford at the Social Security office even though she was blind. She would ride the bus every day from Ashland to Medford for work.
That summer was one of the BEST ever. Lithia Park and the Shakespeare Festival are amazing and the downtown was so cool. I will never forget the concerts in the park in the mid 70's along with all of the hippies hanging out there.
Have you ever gone swimming in CRATER LAKE? I bet the dock hand prior to taking the boat tour I could stay in the water 10 SECONDS......well I lost that $10..........that water is flat out cold but man Crater Lake is amazingly beautiful.
Your sister who graduated in '74 got a ton of addresses and phone numbers when she was back for the ALL-SCHOOL reunion in the late 90's.........would you ask her how one can get access to that list to make sure everyone on it knows about the ALL-CATHOLIC SCHOOL REUNION this summer? It would be great if the likes of Jack Clarkson and Julie Meylor had access to those contacts!!!!
Did you ever run into Col. Bud Day while in Nam? He is from Sioux City and was in the marines and after he got shot down spent 68 or so months in the Hanoi Hilton. Amazing guys all of you and thanks for your service to our country!
Would love to meet u if u could ever get back for the Marcus Fair or such..........BTW I remember getting my hair cut by your dad and Jack Shea if I have it correctly. Great memories!!!
Philip Dorr.......Chicago
Just reading some of the old entries and remembering that Holy Name ballfield next door to the Dorr's. Maybe they Holy Name all-school reunion should have a ball game there for old time's sake. We played so many times there (but only when we were older ... the little kids had to play on the other side of the school) and then lots of kick the can when my grandparents lived down the street.
ReplyDeleteTerry: You mentioned Greece as one of your duty stations. Where you land-based there, or did one of the ships you served on port there often?
ReplyDeleteI ask, because while I was on the Independence we used Athens (actually Piraeus-the port community)as our home-away-from-home. We also had liberty stops in Crete, Corfu, Salonika and lots of other ports in the area, but we were in Athens the most. I have very mixed feelings about that area. Let me tell you the reason why.
I was the Disbursing Officer (payroll officer for non-military who read this) on the Independence, initially. I had a DKC (Disbursing Clerk Chief) career military type who was from Marathon, Iowa (near Storm Lake) working with me then. He was a great person. We worked closely together on the ship, much of it in and around Athens, and then I got out of the Navy after my three years was up. He stayed in and made a career of it.
Years later I was wathching cable news one night, back in the states. Terrorists had taken over a plane on the tarmac at the Athens airport. They found out that one of the passengers, a young guy, was American military. During the hostage negotiations they killed him and dumped him out on the tarmac to prove their seriousness.
The next day I was watching follow-up news about the events. The focus switched to Washington, D.C. where the father and mother of the dead serviceman were walking across the street from their suburban home to address the media about the death of their son. It was my friend, Dick Stethem! What a shock. It was his son Robert who the hijackers had killed. I believe it all happened in 1985.
I caught up with him a few years ago. We had a great talk. The Navy has now commissioned a destroyer afer his deceased son, the USS Stethem. I never knew the son, but the father was a great, great individual. Another small town Iowan who quietly made a huge difference in the world. You can google USS Stethem, or Dick Stethem, I presume and read more of the events.
Long before all of that happened though, Dick (and I) and about 5000 other sailors and pilots were in that same port - Athens - with no idea of the tragic events that would later befall him in that same part of the world. I have many great memories of Athens, but now they are all tinged with the horrific events which happened to my friend and his family. It's not quite the same anymore. Fred
Gary Sanow..............
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have a Gary Sanow story they want to share re his running track for Marcus High.........
Just saw he was registered on "Marcus" Classmates.com and wondering where he was living and the like.
All I remember is that he was one FAST dude and everyone loved to watch him run!
Gary Sanow lives in Utah and is a trucker the last I knew. Running stories? I spent four years in track beside him, went to state with him three of those years and can summarize his running by saying that the entire track and field show shut down when it was time for Gary to run the 100, 220, 440 or 880 medley. The entire crowd rushed to the sides of the track to watch and 'listen' to him run. He had a very distinct breathing pattern when he ran, huffed like a steam engine. His typical day of training was repeated jumps out of the starting blocks and working that distinctive breathing pattern.I believe it was the day he set the state 220 record, nonetheless it was at the Tomahawk Relay in Cherokee and I recall he ran so fast that he sped off the track, up a slight embankment and crashed into the fence before he finally stopped-NASCAR style.
ReplyDeleteGary was the youngest of the kids. His sister Linda lives near Paullina, IA. and his sister Sandy lives in Arizona, I believe, but returns to Marcus each summer and spends some time with her husband in their camper which they park one mile north of Marcus at the farmyard on the northeast corner of that intersection.
ReplyDeleteI'm just thrilled to find this site and blog. I visited Marcus decades ago as a young girl with my maternal grandmother. She was a Sanow, born on a farm near Marcus. The only Sanow relatives I remember are Danny and Robert Hansen. Danny may live in Remsen. I'd love to hear from any Sanows out there. My name is Laurel Johnson and I live in Fairbury NE. johnson@diodecom.net
ReplyDeleteI found this article quite interesting – and besides, it mentions one of our own. I’ve edited it for the sake of brevity. Bob
ReplyDeleteOp-Ed Contributor in the New York Times, November 23, 2005
Stuck in the Middle By DAN BARBER
...Supporting small farmers will preserve farmland, reduce the number of industrial farms and help us move away from an agricultural economy that encourages the production of commodities like corn, soy and sugar at the expense of just about everything else.
...American agriculture - its land and its immensely complex distribution system - is no longer in the hands of the small farmer. . . . [They] are simply not in the position right now to save American agriculture.
Giant farms won't either, of course. For the most part, these are the farms that grow a single crop or raise large numbers of animals in close confinement. To sustain their existence, these megafarms, whether they're raising crops or animals, require enormous quantities of pesticides, fertilizers and antibiotics simply to survive. The result? Pollution, erosion and diseases that spread easily among factory-raised, immune-deficient animals.
Sadly, these farms aren't going away. In a perverse logic that defies nature, a farm needs to get ever larger and more specialized to survive. The number of farms with annual sales of more than $500,000 has increased 23 percent from 1997 to 2002. American farm policy, with a dazzling menu of subsidies, will keep us on this path for the foreseeable future.
The answer to this agricultural puzzle lies somewhere in the middle. Actually, it lies exactly in the middle, with the nation's 350,000 midsize farmers. These farmers...cultivate more than 40 percent of our farmland.
Such farmers tend to be highly effective stewards of the land, with intimate knowledge of their farms....They are small-business owners - not corporations - and have proven records of being interested in protecting not just the economic health of the land, but its ecological health as well.
Unfortunately, these farmers are also on the way out. Midsize farms, with sales of $50,000 to $500,000, are declining rapidly. According to government figures, the number of these farms has declined 14 percent from 1997 to 2002, a net loss of nearly 65,000 farms....
Why should we care? Because our ways of farming are intimately linked to the...ways we're eating....
[Food] appears to be a world of variety, but look closer. The cookies, granola bars, crackers, chips, salad dressings and baby food all have one thing in common: they are made from derivations of corn, soy and sugar. About 70 percent of our agricultural land in the Midwest is devoted to producing these crops.
The farms that produce these single commodities average about 14,000 acres.... And the future? Thomas Dorr, under secretary of agriculture for rural affairs, has predicted that 250,000-acre behemoths will dominate agriculture. If they do, the number of farms in Mr. Dorr's home state, Iowa, would drop to about 120 from 89,000.
That shouldn't come as a surprise. "Get big or get out" has been what farmers have been told for decades. And big farms have come with one big benefit: inexpensive food. Americans spend a smaller percentage of their disposable income for food than anyone else in the developed world. But these savings are illusory.
A funny thing happened on the way to our cheap food system. The books were being cooked in a kind of shell game. The real costs were not being properly accounted for: those taxpayer-financed subsidies ($143 billion over the last decade)....
Midsize farms have the potential to be profitable without these hidden costs. [T]here's a large, existing market -- school systems, hospitals, local grocery chains, food service distributors - for varied, healthier foods....
...[These smaller farms] may be caught up in the commodity game right now -- trying to expand, trying to focus on single crops - but that's largely because that's where the incentives are. For many of these farms, racing to keep up will be their downfall.
We need to encourage these farms to do what they do best: grow a variety of crops, raise a variety of animals, resist the temptation to grow too much.
How do we do this? By shifting the money. Our government now subsidizes the commodity production of grain - mostly corn and soybeans. We need to pull farmers out of the commodity trap and help them make the transition to growing the kinds of whole foods - fruits and vegetables - that would benefit us all....
Make no mistake: this change will require us to change our ways. We're going to have to support a diet that contains fewer processed, commodity-based foods. We're going to have to pay more for what we eat. We're going to have to contend with those who question whether it's practical to reduce subsidies for large farmers and food producers....
These recommendations may seem bold to the point of audacious. But are they really? After all, what could be more audacious - or contrary to our rural heritage then [sic] great stretches of our landscape covered with 250,000-acre farms
(Dan Barber is the chef of Blue Hill at Stone Barns.)
Also from Bob -- A related postscript: According to a new book by former Senator George McGovern (D) and Bob Dole (R) titled “Ending Hunger Now,” there are 800 million people in the world who are hungry when they go to bed each night.
Regarding the op-ed thoughts of the chef, I would like to quote from a recent article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, THE RATIONAL HERD: "Acquiring information is costly and people look for shortcuts.. even intelligent people are capable of holding passionate views on matters to which they have given little thought or study." What's to explain this? "How do people come to hold faddish beliefs, even when those beliefs are at odds with other beliefs they hold or information they posses...it's called rational herding." This follows on the heels of "informational cascading" (when peple knowing little about an issue take their cue from others) and "reputational cascades" (involving the rational incentive to go along with the crowd).
ReplyDeleteI've been farming north of Marcus for thirty years, have been daily involved in livestock production for every one of those years and whether or not you think I'm biased the chef is part of a 'herd' and has been 'cascaded'. In my earlier days we called it the 'lemming' effect. His un-unique come up woefully short but I chose not to refute them point by point, instead to try to show why he thinks like he does. The reality of agriculture is much different than he suggests. It is dynamic, ever-changing, rewarding, exciting. And on top of that, this time of the year I get to shoot pheasants, rabbits, squirrels and coons with young neighbors, old retired farmers and lots of them inbetween, alongside the dog they're trying to train! It's a great life and I look forward to tomorrow as much as I did when I moved back from the west coast to farm.
Bob: This will probably look like another Dorr brother coming to the side of a sibling - Tom - but when the NYT runs its usual ope-ed material I get a kick out of its take on "the experts" v. "us great unwashed" out here in flyover country who experience what most of them only write about. (Reminds me of the late '60's when all my "smart" college friends thought "moving back to the land" would be such a great liberating communal experience.) The truth of course, was that few if any of them knew what that meant, and virtually none had an understanding of how rigorous a life that may actually be. But it all sounded great sitting around some espresso bar with a folk singer telling listeners where to go for answers.
ReplyDeleteThe same with the chef. If we would all only eat whole foods like he would like us do. Sure Wild Oats and Whole Foods make it in some larger metro areas, but check your local Hy-Vee (in Iowa) "natural foods section" - or if you live in a college town, reflect back on the "peoples' co-ops" of the 60's. Most struggle. Why? Because people like sugar and marbled meat and many of the foods the chef wishes we would avoid. And as to his shot at confinement units - one of the things that will best protect this country from Avian Flu, as much or more than vaccine, is confinement units. Wild birds infect "free range" animals, more readily than those in confinement (because the latter are inside). Think the NYT will congratulate Tyson Foods for helping to keep our poultry stock safer from disease? Of course not.
Yes, government policy influences business decisions a great deal. What drives markets though is demand. My "hippy generation" didn't all move back to the land on our individual plots of rural nirvana, where we had a few chickens, a cow and a big garden to sustain us, because those who did found out - it's a lot of work! (Not to mention this idea we are all the same didn't work out very well in practice either. Some people work harder than others. Some are more motivated, etc.)
These ideas run their course. I wanted turkey for Thanksgiving, not Tofu. Most people do. That's why there is a demand for turkey production but not near the same for vegetarian fare. The "foodies" would like to get us to eat what they think is best for us. The real answer - eat, in moderation what you like and get some exercise. If you want meat, sugar and soy products, you will typically buy what you like that is least expensive. That means that the market will try to find ways to produce it at the lowest possible cost. There are plenty of regulators and interest groups around to balance the social and environmental impacts of the pressure producers will put on the system.
In the meantime, those who romanticize how food gets to their table should best stick to writing about what they know best, which in most cases is not what happens on a farm or ranch. It drives the purists crazy, but people eat a Krispy Kreme because it tastes good. We all know that a fresh lettuce and vegetable salad with lemon juice sprinkled on it is best for you, but when put side by side with a creme brulee, which do most pick up?
So, eat what you like in moderation, walk daily, and be thankful that there are farmers and ranchers out there making it possible for all us "city people" to sit around our bountiful tables debating whether we should enact laws to wean people from sugar and soy products, and what the proper size of a farm or ranch should be.
Yes, I got my swine flu shot, I wondered about Y2K, and I read what Avian Flu can do to all of us. The older I get, though the more important I find it is to inject a healthy dose of skepticism. Much of the time the sky is not falling. Newspapers sell where they can generate buzz - oftentimes controversy. Personally, I like a small beef filet. I enjoy sugar-based products. If the chef doesn't agree, fine. He can promote to his crowd, just leave the rest of us to our options. I won't tell him what to prepare in his establishment if he doesn't sic the food police on me. Fred
Wow, it's always interesting to see the emotional power of words at work. I didn't see the comments of the chef as offensive to this country's farmers, but then I'm not so close to the argument.
ReplyDeleteI don't know his background, but he's presented himself as a chef of some (famous la-de-da? no clue) restaurant. So that's what he does for a living. Here's one man who spends his days handling food products from across the country, maybe from across the world. I think we can safely say that he might know a thing or two about the changing quality of fresh produce he selects daily for his business. Wasn't he just pointing out that the loss of the mid-size farm will be a detriment to our country's quality of food products? Isn't he simply worried about the loss of a variety of food products of high quality to limited products in quantity? He doesn't preach about what we should eat, but wny we should care, and what might need to change.
I think he's raising questions that the average American should ask, but doesn't because we simply take for granted that our supermarket shelves will always be filled with whatever our little stomachs desire, whether we're vegans or junk food junkies. No, we don't care where it comes from or the difficulties of the producers to get it there just as long as it is there, and even better that it's a sale item for the week.
Maybe if we could only buy soda pop on even days and potato chips on odd days or if Iowa pork chops doubled in price over the course of the summer, maybe we'd get a little frazzled. Only then would we jump on some bandwagon. That's where the lemming mentality comes in to play. Why are people who put the discussion on the table labeled as lemmings. Oh well...
Anyway, question of the day: Why does the big, pump-me-up breast meat on Purdue roasters now taste like fish? Shouldn't I, as a consumer, ask those questions? What the heck are they feeding millions of chickens to make chicken taste like fish? Of course, cheap fish byproducts: Remember, you are what you eat. All I can do, as a consumer, is stop buying them. Funny, free-range chickens don't taste like fish. And yesterday I just read a short article about the newest suburban craze in pets ... chickens ...
Julia Simpson
Julia: I've read this kind of thing from gourmet chefs for years. In their cloistered world in a New York City high-end restaurant it sounds fanciful to ask for wholesale farming changes to suit what they want and think others should eat.
ReplyDeleteYou indicated that he wasn't preaching about what we should eat - but he was. He specifically calls for Americans to change our diet. He wants us to switch to whole foods - having farmers grow more fruits and vegetables and suggesting that we all get used to paying more for our food. He wants farmers to "not grow too much". He suggests that small is always better - can "save American agriculture"; while big necessarily equals pollution, erosion and disease. His article is loaded with code for, "Let's design an agriculture system which will best suit me and my New York friends' version of how Americans should eat, how much land they should be able to buy, what they should grow on it and how it should be priced."
The establishment he works in has a location in New York City and one upstate. How do you think he would respond to: 1. No free range chicken can be sold in either location, because they have a higher liklihood of being infected by Avian Flu. 2. No restaurateur should be allowed to have more than one establishment, as smaller is always better. 3. No meal on his menu should be priced over $5.00 as encouraging "exotics" is environmentally wasteful, elitist (and thus somehow inherently evil). That would necessarily mean he would have to take a pay cut, which I doubt he would support. 4. Anyone who frequents either of his places should be denied service if they don't drive up in a fuel efficient vehicle (if he's concerned about the environment, as he claims to be)?
I could start designing how he should operate in a way that might make more sense to me, but what gives me that authority, other than as a consumer, who can eat at one of his places or not, as I choose?
His article is loaded with his politics. Take away choice and replace it with additional restrictions on how our nation's food supply should operate.
He says farmers are "told" get bigger or get out. No, farmers make choices they see in their best economic interest, given their means. They don't have to be "told" anything, it's their livlihood. They pay attention because they need to.
As to Perdue chickens - I subscribe to the theory of not buying what I don't like. I don't buy a tomato in a store anymore as they have been turned into something I don't recognize. I am fortunate to have garden fresh available in the summer. When enough people react the same way, the market will change.
In the meantime, small is better sometimes, but large can be as well. I like to eat what I want to, not what someone else tells me I need to and I'm often suspect of what someone from one of the coasts suggests is best for me, while not likely wanting the same standard applied back to them. That's all I was saying.
My point: Ask your questions, Chef. Just don't be surprised if there is another view in the Heartland. Fred
Wow! Stirred up a nest here! I guess I'm now so far removed from the problems and lives of Iowa farmers that I miss out on the nuances of the politics of agriculture. I'm naive. I thought the op-ed piece by the chef was primarily calling for a return to the midsize farm and a reduction of the big farms that grow only one crop. I thought that was probably a good thing, as it might help save some of my friends' century-old small farms from extinction. And as a consumer, I guess I favor more fresh farm-stand variety of food and I'm willing to pay for it. Is there anything better than sweet corn and lettuce and cantaloupe from the field--even in a resturant! UMMMMM!
ReplyDeleteBut I've learned some things from this, thanks to the exchanges. Anybody got more thoughts on the subject?
Bob Reed
Agriculture is changing every day just like all other vocations. Most of the changes are completely unknown to those outside of agriculture, and quite honestly, even to those of us who work in it but not in a particular side of it. This discussion could really get to be fun if someone on the inside took the time to pen a review of today's reality in agriculture. I'll give a fun example of this change. Did you know that large dairies now import wasps from California that are then released to eat fly eggs? From what I understand there are probably less flies around a modern 4,000 head dairy than there would have been around the 25 head dairy that used to be milked at the farm where I live.
ReplyDeleteI lived for seven years in South Jersey. For three of those years we lived in a little house in the country surrounded by acres of tomato fields (most went to Campbells in Camden) of the biggest and juiciest tomatoes you could desire and with orchards of peaches, cherries, and apples right next door. My daughter's first fruit was a peach filched from that field ... couldn't resist ... they were beautiful. Up here in Rhode Island the turf farms still surround the University of Rhode Island. I always fault my students for stereotyping other parts of the country -- farms still exist out here too and on the other coast ... big and small and in between. We aren't paved over completely yet... farming is a way of life that few understand, and fewer still have a chance to experience. I feel blessed to have grown up on one ... no matter what size it was!
ReplyDeleteJulia Simpson
I think the Chef is getting a bad rap from Iowa. I don't feel he wants everybody to start eating sticks and seeds. He's just suggesting that maybe moderate size farms could take advantage of an increasing demand for organic and natural foods.
ReplyDeleteThis Blogspot has certainly varified that those with Marcus roots have a good feeling about their connections to small town America. Nevertheless, it is becoming quite obvious to many, including the Chef, that the billions going to crop subsidies are really accerating the trend to mega farms.
Someone really should start thinking out of the box for a way to keep the farming landscape halfway palatable to the human eye and it would probably be at half the cost. Irv Deichmann
Nothing like a NYT writer to stir up the troops. Like Irv Deichmann I focused more on what the writer was saying about the direction that agriculture was taking (to mega-farms and animal confinement facilities). A year or so ago the same paper published a similar article decrying the fact that the small farmer was not the beneficiary of the massive farm subsidies doled out from Washington.
ReplyDeleteIn the late 50's the high school debate topic was "Should the government continue to subsidize farmers?". And I argued that it should because it would help save the family farms. 50 years later we still hear that same rational. But in fact it has not saved the family farms. For example, Marcus Township lost more than 44% of its farmsteads between 1952 and 1988. Ironically, I suspect that a steady income for many of the farmer's wives from the factory south of town helped keep more of them on the farm than the subsidies did.
What subsidies have done is help raise the price of farmland to the point that a farmer cannot pay for newly purchased land with crop income. So it is driving investment out of Iowa. A recent article in Progressive Farmer details how two Iowa based groups are buying farmland in Brazil for $500 per acre rather than expand their landholdings in Iowa.
Even more disconcerting to me is the aging of the industry. A few years ago I noted that of the 21 people I saw working the harvest none was under 35 years old. And if you look at the most recent graduating class from MMC only 3 of the 24 male graduates indicated that they have any intention in staying in agriculture.
The trends are not positive for those who still like the traditional family farm. And I, for one, don't have the answers on how to change them.
It is Dec. 4th and another cold night in Marcus {-4 degrees}. The MMC Music Department is presenting it's 2nd Madrigal Dinner tonight at the Meriden Evangelical Free Church. The one last night was done really well. So many candles,
ReplyDeletegreat food and beautiful music; it was worth venturing out into the cold night. The Family Table is up on wheels and looks like it's about ready to head down the road to Ida Grove. It should be quite a sight and maybe a hitchhiker's dream if he's hungry.
Well I guess this site still works and it's getting colder [-7]. Irv Deichmann
ReplyDelete