Can you believe it? Last ….

Can you believe it? Last paper for February. Gosh, that went quick. I went to Loyal yesterday and judging from the creeks and puddles in the fields, there has been a lot of thawing going on. It might seem a bit early, but I’m ready for it.

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I thought it was going to be a quiet week with not much going on to write about. I guess that just goes to show I’ve been thinking again and that isn’t the way it went. First of all, Lowell Roehl popped in to say he had just moved in and is just two doors down the hall. That was the room I had been in in January. I hope he can figure out that beacon on the tower that goes from red in the daytime to white at night, or is it the other way around? Anyway, it always puzzled me as it always appeared to be a few minutes when the color changed when there was no beacon.

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Then in the afternoon I was walking by and noticed Velora sitting in the room. I just popped my head in the door to say hi and she said she had something to give me. When I saw it, I had to wonder if she came to see Lowell or to give me something. It was a copy of the Loyal Tribune dated Nov. 23, 1933. Now that is old. Last week I wrote about 1948 and thought that was a long time ago. But 1933, that was 90 years ago. It was pretty yellow and pretty brittle, but I was able to get a few things of interest from it.

This was late November and the county board had just finished their fall session. Things were tough, but they did vote to retain the county agent. That followed a vote by many townships to let him go. The vote wasn’t announced.

Salaries for most county positions were cut from 15 to 35 percent, except the county agent’s cut was $1,000 a year. County clerk and treasurer were set at $2,700 and clerical help had to be paid out of that. Highway commissioner, $2,000 and another $85 a month for clerk. County school superintendent, $2,000 and $85 for clerk. County farm manager, $90 a month.

In other news, the special meetings at the Log Chapel in Spokeville were to be held at 7:45 p.m.

In the business directory there was an ad for R. L. Barnes, D.C., Doctor of Chiropractic.

Special advice — Dear Doctor: When I pound nails, I can’t seem to keep from hitting my fingers. My pop calls me Lightning because lightning never strikes the same spot twice. Answer: Hold the hammer with both hands.

And how is this for quick thinking? There was a crash in the kitchen. The mistress found the maid and little Margaret gazing at something on the floor. “Oh mother,” exclaimed the child, “just see the lovely jig-saw puzzle Norah made out of one of your new plates.”

Now back to the front page for this story — On Sunday, a class of 20 children will be confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church, by the Pastor H. F. Lesehensky. The service will be in the English language at 10 a.m. Confirmands are Henry Kuester, LaVerne Kronberger, Elmo Ratzburg, Roland Seenan, Harold Rusch, Arnold Jacobi, Armin Leschensky, Wilber Kehrberg, Leland Voigt, Oscar Rusch, Elroy Zimmerman, Jeanette Luther, Lillian Kuester, Virginia Dobbe, Vera Luchterhand, Adeline Luther, Irene Ziebell, Charlotte Ratzburg and Agnes Kronberger.

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Last week I mentioned March snowstorms and it took two days for the snowplow to come. There was a reason for this. Our township, the town of Johnstown, did not own any road equipment. They hired the county for their snow plowing, grading and other roadwork.

So when the county got done with their highway plowing, they would come out to plow us out. When the truck or Caterpillar arrived, they always made a stop at the town chairman’s farm. It was just the routine, I’m guessing, to get instructions or approval. Anyway, it made some people jealous, but none of them ever ran for chairman at election time.

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I mentioned at the start of the column about it being a quiet week. Well, you saw how I stretched one whole old newspaper, but then came the bombshell. A few years back, I came to the conclusion I was just getting too old to continue as guardian for my daughter, Shelly. So someone was appointed, but left me as financial guardian.

Everything was fine until the other morning the guardian called to say Shelly had been taken to the Neillsville hospital. Whether she did or not, she said she had also taken the medicine for another person living at the group home.

Somehow the story got started she would be checked out and sent up here. If it were my guess, she started the rumor herself; but don’t tell anyone I said it. Last year about the time they were closing the group home, Just Like Home, in Colby, she fell and was taken to the hospital in Marshfield. When she was discharged they sent her here, but she was in a room in the old building.

I did hear she had plans of moving in with me, but that might have just been a story. When she lived here before, I saw her every Friday for music and she always came and sat by me.