Rain, rain, go away and ….

Rain, rain, go away and come back another day. I wonder how old I was when I first heard that remark. Of course, growing up we always wished for rain early on a Saturday afternoon. Not much, just enough so we had to quit making hay and could get at milking a bit early. Then off we go to Turtle Lake to take in the free show.

It was a bit unhandy as the screen was right next to the Soo Line Railroad tracks and sometimes a freight train would kind of interrupt the movie.

Especially if it was Tom Mix about to catch the bad guys.

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I have often questioned, why am I here, or what is my purpose? I found the answer the other day on Facebook. You are here as God is with me every step of the way. That’s for sure and I always take a moment each morning to make sure I’ve offered my thanks.

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There is something new here, at least I’m calling it new. It is mail call and every day just before lunch someone brings me my mail. Some days it might just be a newspaper, which I might add, is one of the five I read every week. That is, except the TRG and for some reason I haven’t gotten an issue yet. Well, that all changed just before supper. A young lady from the TP office in Abbotsford walked in with missing papers.

Then one day I hit the jackpot and several cards wishing me luck in my new home came. One was from Mona and Art Wehrman of Madison. Mona may let the cat out of the bag as to how old she is by telling of working at the Loyal Tribune in 1957, and ran the linotype machine. It was about to be retired when we came, but I understand why she called it “The Beast”. I hope she still doesn’t have scars from sudden quirks linotypes were well known for.

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The other night Channel 7 ran a story about what’s new in Marshfield.

One glance at the picture you knew right away they were wrong. I made a dash for my box of books I’d brought along, but my Guiness Book of World Records was not there. But then we all know the story about Steady Eddie and Travis and the fame they and their families have brought to the world about Loyal.

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There is another story about Eddie Wolf, at least I think it was Ed. At the time I just knew them as the “Wolf Kids” and Norm and Monica lived on the corner off Beaver Street and Highway 98.

Joe and Irene Poenelt had just built a new home next to Wolfs, up the street a bit from the home they lived in for many years. In between the two houses the city had just opened a new addition to E. First Street, which actually began some place near the front of Northside Elevator’s office.

Going west it is Spring Street and runs up the hill past St. Anthony’s Catholic Church.

It would have been the spring of 1975, as we had just moved into our new home next door to Poenelts the fall before. We had just gotten our popup camper home and Florence decided we should eat our supper in the camper. We were eating and to the east we saw some kids in an old car with the top cut off ripping around in the field.

I’d say about where Pete Rinka and Robida’s houses stand I watched as the car suddenly flipped over. I dropped my fork and ran in the house to call the ambulance. By the time I got back out to the camper the kids had the car righted and were off making more wheelies.

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Thinking about buying a house in Florida. I saw an item the other day about this real estate firm having 18 units for sale. They ranged in price from $380,000 to $13,159,500. I’ll bet if you dickered they might drop the $500.

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Just an update on Shelly. I got to see her one day last week. She is still a bit banged up from her fall, but just like Shelly, has everything figured out. She told me one day she was just going to move in with me. When I told her that wouldn’t work she was back to putting her thinking cap on. It is a bit hard for her as the rule about handicapped people,”It is the least restrictive place”, so decision making isn’t up to her or me.

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Every once in a while we hear the words “term limits” brought up.

Someonewillalwaysrespondbysaying it is a good idea. I’ll whole-heartedly have to disagree. I read too many newspaper stories of communities who have term limits having lots of troubles. They are generally a case of someone not knowing or aware of what caused or created the problem or situation.

While I may have overdone it, I just ended 53 years on the Loyal Housing Authority. In part it was kind of a joke. The Housing Authority began back in the summer of 1969. A number of communities were getting low-cost housing projects. When our city council looked into it they were told we had to organize a housing authority and determine a need.

That’s where government red tape began. We had to drive all the way to Milwaukee one time to convince the government agency in charge that Lawrence Davel, our city clerk/treasurer, and Paul Davel, the banker were two different people.

There was more. In our efforts to get something going a firm came along and built Hometown Village as well as the same type units in several other Wisconsin communities.

There was just one catch. At the time there were income limitations and that disqualified J. R. Thomas, who was serving on the Housing Authority from living there.

So it was back to the drawing board and we got lucky – sort of. The original plan called for a 40-unit structure and the land was secured. Then the plans began trimming back and some of the land was sold off and homes built on the land.

As it turned out we got an eight-unit building. At the time of signing for the loan, George Zuelhke was the chairman of the Housing Authority and I was the secretary. George questioned if we needed to read the document, but the lady in charge told us not to worry. The loan won’t be paid off until 2030. I piped up by saying, “What do you mean, I’ll only be 100 and plan to be here”.

I’ve only got eight more years to go and I just might make it.