Minding Your Business

What is it about women beyond a certain age?  I thought my own mother, bless her soul, was too outspoken.  I have followed in her footsteps, unfortunately.  For years I suffered listening to her and He Who Must Be Obeyed argue over big and little issues over our Sunday dinner table.  I swore I would never take on people that could out argue me with their tongues tied.  It was my own tongue that was tied securely for years.


Maybe as I close in on 80, being in the last half of the 70's, in the back of my mind I think what would it matter to express my thoughts.  This week I found out "the matter" at least three times; and because of the Internet it might matter as long as the Cyber-Universe does which is going to be after I am only an unpleasant memory in some descendent's mind.


The public embarrassment first happened when our city became inflamed over a mayor who is tax happy. I signed the petition for a recall.  The petition signers were published in our Omaha World Herald and are listed on the Internet by zip code.  There I am in print and online over and over.


On the afternoon of the Recall Vote two well dressed young men approached me on the sidewalk as I clambered out of the truck that is too difficult to get in and out of.  My first mistake was to quip in humor, that I could tell they were up to no good. Immediately the ABC affiliate television station camera was whipped out from behind one of the fellows.  In no time I had a microphone in my face and was smarting off answers to personal questions.  So much for the secret ballot.  My opinion was on the 5 O'clock news and the 10 O'clock news.  More people watch the news than I expected.


With a little research, I found my statements online in a video.  White hair not fixed, not one touch of makeup, brains in my back pocket for sure.  My tongue worked a little too fast, and I am horrified at the everlasting coverage. No, I am not going to give you a link to it and I hope that you can't find one.


 To make matters worse, I entered an on-line fray between my grown sons this past week.  As I type this, I would be well advised to mind my own business, sink underneath an afghan, and read a book while I can still see. I am looking for a nice pillow to comfort me under that afghan.  If I had capitalized that word this would have been a different story.

Band of Brothers WWII

On the front page of the Omaha World Herald this morning: "A brother and a hero dead at 94.   The old man of Easy Company is gone."  

Ed Mauser of Omaha, the oldest surviving member of the 101st Airborne Division's famed Band of Brothers unit in Europe during World War II, died at his home Friday. He was 94.Mauser's death leaves 35 known living veterans of famed Easy Company.  Mauser,  parachuted into France on D-Day and fought across Europe, .  “Ed was a good soldier. He went through his share of hell,” one of the Brothers commented.

Four of  my grandmother's six brothers  were soldiers in WWI.  Two of her sisters married soldiers of that war.  The get-togethers of the extended family happened fairly often; apparently I was off playing with my cousins and missed any conversations on their war experiences. My father and my grandpa both signed up for the draft but neither were called.  My dad said he was too old and perhaps that was the case with my grandpa as well.

My own wartime hero was a teen when my parents moved into Buffalo, SD when I was a toddler. Frankie's parents rented a small house to us and he lived with his parents in the house next door. Frank enlisted in the Army Air Corps, trained as a navigator, and was assigned to a bomber crew, flying B-24 Liberators on combat missions out of Italy. His bomber was shot down over Germany and he was a prisoner of war for six months.

Frank gave me a book he wrote called Five Combat Missions: Then Fifty More, in which he states "Like people featured in Tom Bowkaw's popular book,   The Greatest Generation, World War II was one of the "defining moments" of my life. 

The last time we saw Frank, he was one of the Military Honor Guards at my cousin's funeral. 

Ezra Kind

Quoting a paragraph in the Editor's Notebook  of the South Dakota Magazine, "The Thoen Stone located at the Adams Museum in Deadwood, is another prized museum piece with an interesting story. The stone is an 8 1/2 by 10 inch scrap of sandstone, purportedly found near Spearfish in 1887 by Louis Thoen. Inscribed on both sides is a message that is still the subject of controversy. The rough script describes how a band of seven men found “all the gold we could carry” in the northern Black Hills, and then were killed by Indian warriors — all except for the writer, Ezra Kind. Kind supposedly wrote that he was out of food, “without a gun and hiding for his life”. The inscription is dated 1834, 40 years before the Custer expedition into the Hills. The fate of Mr. Kind is unknown, as is the validity of the stone itself."  


In one of my memories of the treasured past is a graduate class through the Black Hills State University called "Ghost Towns and Gold Mines of the Northern Black Hills."  It was an on site experience which included a trip through the Adam's Museum in Deadwood, SD.  There we saw the last written words of Ezra Kind on a stone found near Spearfish by Louis Thoen in 1887.  A close and dear friend's father purchased the Thoen property which is now hers. One of her daughters lives in the Thoen home. It is located just across the Interstate from the place that the stone was found.  This is not the only history made real for me through that delicate entity called paying attention while living.  Below is another regarding shepherds.


The link to the Editor's Notebook above will show a photo of the Archer Gilfillan sheep wagon, a sheep wagon that my father incorporated into a couple of paintings of sheep.  Both my father and Gilfillan spent some years herding sheep in Harding County, SD for sheep ranchers.  The term "sheep herders" has a negative ring to it, I love the sound of "shepherd," however that was a term that was never used.  Too Biblical perhaps.


A little research came up with many links for the "Thoen Stone."  One of the more surprising is attributed to Black Hills Light and Power. Here one has a small history of the towns of the Black Hills.  The article midway down on Spearfish begins with the story of Ezra Kind's last legacy.

Violence With Us

History of the Indian Wars  by Samuel Penhallow is an amazing book; it is stark in its narrative, difficult to read, and is an account of the bloody and tragic relationship between the adventurous and aggressive colonists and the resistive Indians during the period from 1703 to the ratified peace treaties of 1723.

I read it aloud to my beloved either last winter or the winter before.  This was not our first experience with this typography. I had learned about it in a course called The History of the Written Word. HWMBO found it in Wisconsin history ledgers and church documents when he was researching his Norwegian immigrant Great Grandmother and her family.  If you click the underlined link above to see an example of pages 36 and 37 you will see how confusing it can be, not just to read silently, but to read aloud.  It took a while before I could sort out the 's' that looked like 'f'' and the odd capitalized words in the middle of a sentence.

"On the 8th of July, five Indians a little before Night, fell on an Out-houfe in Reading, where they furpriz'd a Woman with eight Children; the former with the three youngeft were inftantly difpatcht, and the other they carried Captive; but one of the Children unable to travel, they knockt on the head, and left in the Swamp, concluding it was dead, but a while after it was found alive."

To find out how the story comes out click on the above link.  I believe the entire book is available to read online. It is helpful to enlarge it with the + icon on the lower right.

Wonders of the Internet, wonders of online access to so many books.  Yes, Amazon provides Kindle on your PC no charge, at least they did a while back.  As much as I love the feel and smell of a book in my hands, some better than others of course, depending on the binding I suppose, still one cannot beat the availability of  information online.  Thanks to Project Gutenburg, Google, Amazon Kindle for PC (Free), LibriVox,

It is a Beautiful World

This sturdy little outfit no doubt has prevented a few heart attacks.  After pushing the snow off of our driveway this morning, the man of the house went across the street to plow out a neighbor lady's driveway.

The blade had to be replaced last summer.  It is amazing how the elements can rust equipment in spite of several paintings.  The photo reminds me of our little son's Tonka toy trucks of the 1950's.

Today my world is at its pristine prettiest.

Nation's Center News, Buffalo,SD

The Internet is a great thing to have in retirement.  I will never tire of researching every little thing that piques my curiosity.  Cruising around, I decided to Google my hometown newspaper, The Nation's Center News,  and did an image search.  I was startled to see my own photo.  I was a bit  taken aback when I clicked on my photo.  Anonymous, one is not.


A classmate retired in our hometown; he spent 20 years teaching in Saudi Arabia and was in the Peace Corps prior to that. Now he upholds the community with Lion's Club projects, prodded the locals to beautify the town for our centennial celebration, is active in our church, and writes a column for the hometown paper.  His column has been a source of information about topics from the Mid-East, old cowboys, to the town dogs of his childhood.  They were my town dogs as well.  Kids in small towns know the dogs as well as the people, probably better.


Last week his News and Views column was a review of my latest book:   "One of my favorite Christmas presents this year came to my mail box a few days before Christmas and was totally unexpected.  It was a book edited by my old friend Willo Sacrison Boe...about Willo's great aunt."  He did not miss a thing.   "I once read that no book of non-fiction is ever written without the comfort, moral support, and tangible aid of others.  Willo fully acknowledges this and that is why the title page says "Edited by Willo B. Boe."


Thanks for your kind review, Delbert.

For Want of a Switcher

Perhaps I am becoming less suspicious and more trusting in my age;  at any rate I purchased an new Sony television set for our bedroom.  But the 'modern millie' thing is that I ordered it from Amazon.  I even surprised myself.  It made perfectly good sense, no tax, no shipping charges and Sony is Sony.  We have had another similar set for a few years.

It came in two days.  I couldn't believe it.  Having it delivered to the door was a huge plus, as was not having to jostle through the post holiday bargain buyers.  Amazon's price compared very favorably with the Best Buy down the street or our famous Nebraska Furniture Mart a little further on.  So it came in the door and HWMBO put it on the wall mount that a son fashioned from steel and composite for the old set.

Following the instructions I found 26 channels that we can pick up in addition to the 28 we get from Cox on their now defunct basic tier.  We were grandfathered into that when we dropped the annoying cable news channels.  Cox no longer offers it but that is fine with us, especially with the many digital channels available on this sweet TV set.

I don't mean to sound like a commercial, but I am so happy with this new Sony TV and with Amazon.  And why did we get a new set?  The "switcher" (remote control) flew off the bed so many times that many of the functions quit working.  What good is a bedroom television without a switcher?  We could no longer lower the volume, Channel 4 stopped working,  Too often we couldn't turn it off without getting up to unplug the thing.

Read Books Online Free

Read Books Online Free