Vacationing With Family

Hello Folks! — We are back from our vacation and a fine one it was. It is one that the children will never forget. Romping in the Badlands, driving along roads full of switchbacks, hairpins and pigtails. Going through long tunnels where the kids tried to out shout each other and failing that, insisted on having the horn honk so they could hear it echo through the tunnels. Visiting museums. Sliding down snowbanks barefooted and having snowball fights. Camping out and having picnics in the mountains. Swimming in the hot springs until they were tired. Renewing acquaintances with cousins and getting acquainted with others. Visiting lumbering camps over 9,000 feet elevation in the mountains and a host of other things makes this summer one to be remembered.

This was a vacation where rest was almost at a premium there was so much going on. The night we go home the children went right to bed and slept until late the next morning.

Grandpa and Grandma Barnes celebrated their Golden Anniversary. It was a grand success. The families of each one of the eight children put on the program and entertained with poems, skits and songs.

There is a lot of talent in the Barnes family and they proved it. I was asked to MC the program. The show lasted one and a half hours.

The work was waiting for us when we got home and we are back in the swing of it. The children are already getting up ideas for another day.

On our trip we spent a good half day in Cody, Wyoming. It is one of the most progressive cities I have ever seen.

Any one visiting the town should plan on spending at least a day there. It is named after William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody and much of its history is tied up with him.

Cody was a showman and I don't believe that he intended for a minute that the town should ever forget him. I don't mean that to be a slam, for he was truly a man of high order. He left a heritage for America that we can all be proud of and to tell of his many accomplishments would fill a number of books.

He established a museum in Cody that is the finest anywhere. A full day could be spent there viewing all the relics and sights to be found in the four large buildings occupying the sight.

Another benefactor of Cody is Mrs. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. She sculptured the "Buffalo Bill" statue at the west edge of town and bequeathed a wonderful museum that is worth anyone's time to visit. It is a huge thing and many hours could be spent there, profitably.

Today's great benefactor of Cody is Glenn Nielsen, founder and president of Husky Oil Co. Through his generous contributions the Whitney museum has received many valuable art and museum pieces.

Also as a result of Mr. Nielsen and the deceased artist Edward Grigware Cody has another important art attraction.

Dropouts A Problem

HELLO FOLKS — Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil: Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, h o p e t h all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. —Corinthians, Ch. 13.

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I HAD PLANNED for the next few columns another topic. Then it occurred to me that there is a much more important subject that needs to be taken care of before I delve into this other.

The one that I am going to dwell on now is the subject of school dropouts.

In every one of our communities there are young citizens who get discouraged with school, then by quitting it doom themselves, for the most part, to a life of mediocrity and low income.

By quitting at that age they often become discouraged with themselves. They they get a poor outlook on life in general. This affects the community and eventually the nation as a whole.

We cannot afford such an attitude. The very reason we have people on relief rolls and on unemployment is because we haven't developed the attitude of continuous education and re-evaluation.

There is a lot of talk about the Gross National Product and how we can increase it. Here is the only sure way: Get every boy and girl back into school, get them to realize the value of proper attitudes and training. Get them to realize that there are millions of people depending on them to direct the future of society. There are a lot of things each of can do to contribute to solving this problem. Parents are of course most directly concerned and too often we do not give the problem the attention it deserves. As parents we should be constantly on the alert to see that our children are working up to their capacity; that their attitudes toward learning are good and that they respect their teachers and school.

For each one of us we can take an interest in the youth of our community by getting better acquainted with them, by encouraging them to better deeds and let them know that we are expecting great things from them.

We have a lot of senior citizens who could help out with loans to students at low interest rates. The satisfaction derived from such projects would give more real joy than a lot of things the money could be used for. This could give a number of young people the courage to go on to higher learning.

Next week I am going to tell you about three young fellows who could have ended with the ranks of discouraged youth but who by their own efforts practically lifted themselves out of the ruts and are on the way to being real successes.

I am inviting others of you who know of someone in your community, who has picked himself up from mediocrity and gone on to success, to tell about it in this column.

Mama, Please Read A Book

HELLO FOLKS! — Giving children the privilege of telling parents what they can do is placing an awful burden of responsibility where it does not belong and cannot be directed.

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MY SISTER Erna has four handsome sons. One day I heard her say something that impressed me deeply. I asked her to put it in writing which she rather reluctantly agreed to do. Erna's husband Bob teaches in the Albert Lea Schools. Here is what she wrote.

MAMA, PLEASE READ ME A BOOK?
By ERNA BERTHELSEN
"Mama, please read me a book? This is the question often asked by my three-year-old son when I am busy with some household chore. Only a mother can know the joy of seeing a little boy's big blue questioning eyes turn to happiness when the answer is, "Yes, I will."

This little boy knows which day his older brother will bring home a library book just for him. Even our one-year old boy knows the joy of story time as we sit in the big rocker to share this favorite book together. I have learned that in no other age can I make them so happy with so little. So that household chore has been delayed; but two little boys have received the loving attention they needed and Mother has rested.

Five or ten years from now, no one will know that the refrigerator wasn't cleaned, the dishes weren't dried, or the floor wasn't swept, but my boys will know that I took time to read to them."

P. S. — I believe that if every mother everywhere would take a few minutes a day to do the above described duty, wars would soon end, crime would cease and man would soon be at peace with his fellow men.

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I totaled up the rainfall for the month of May. It reads as follows. Three and seven-tenths inches, with almost half of it falling on the 25th and 26th of the month. The only other large amount was on the 5th with 0.7 that day. The month of April gave us 3 inches.

I am aware that this figure is tremendously different than what was received in many other parts of the county and elsewhere. We had only one storm which slowed up field

Our Influence On Our Children

HELLO FOLKS —
Sons and daughters—in their teens Think their parents—don't know beans.
Which would not be—hard to face
Were it not—so oft the case.

--o--

PARENTS AND people in general wonder what the coming generation is going to amount to.

It is becoming increasingly clear, to anyone who observes, that we are literally creatures of habit. To often we overlook the maxims 'like father like son' or 'like mother like daughter' when we might add, 'only more so.' For the most part our children grow up to be just what we teach them to be; and that teaching happens to be more by example than anything.

Republican parents genera11y have Republican children. Democratic parents generally have democratic children. Roman Catholic parents have Roman Catholic children. Protestant parents generally have Protestant children.

But whether they have good Republican, Democratic, Roman Catholic or Protestant children is another matter.

There are enough proofs given to show that strong tendencies can be built into children by strong parents and weak tendencies can be built into children by weak parents.

Man by nature tends to degenerate. We have to counter this by being continually on guard against our weaknesses — to bestir ourselves when we find weak tendencies in ourselves or our children.

The parent who realizes that he should do this or that or correct this or that in his son or daughter and fails to do so does not only himself and his family a disservice. He is a liability to the whole human race in varying degrees. The reason for this is that anything we do tends to help or hinder all those around us, just as weeds in one farmer's field tend to blow or creep into another farmer's field.

It seems to me that many of our children tend to be better than their parents. I believe the reason for this is that our schools, churches, teachers and public spirited citizens have a great influence on them.

While there arc a lot of signs of a degenerating society, there are more signs of a regenerating society. Perhaps we are entering a period of greater extremes. Certainly we have mounting problems, as our world shrinks, but we are solving them pretty well, I think.

In the surveys taken of teenagers, most of them think that parents do not give them enough leadership. They think parents are too weak. They want parents to restrict them in their questionable. activities. They don't really want to get into bad habits, but without the restraining hand of the parent they full into the traps against their own will.

It all points up the importance of good leadership in all phases of our society. We need our extremes but the extremes must never be in control, whether they be the fanatics of religion or the dross of the mobs.

Words Worth The Saying

HELLO FOLKS — Came across a few clever sayings that are well worth repeating. They have lot of sense to them.. Here they are:

Life is a journey, not a camp.
Snap judgment, like a bear trap, may catch the one who baits it.
It is no use trying to shine your lamp if you. do not take time to fill it.
A used mind is one item that has more value than a new.
Some of us do not need a bushel to hide our light; a thimble should suffice.

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THE FREEBORN County fair has come to another successful conclusion. There are a few observations I would like to make, as one seeing it from the outside.

First, the weather co-operated 100 per cent. It was not too, hot nor too cold. There was no rain yet it was not so dry that it detracted from the joy of the fair.

I don't recalls year that there have been more total exhibits. Certainly the 4-H exhibits were at a record. And the quality of them were never better. While speaking of 4-H; Eldon Senske and his gang are certainly to be complimented for their grand work. They can't possibly be on an eight-hour schedule; more like a set of three, eight-hour schedules during fair time.

The quality of livestock has greatley improved through the years, and fairs have certainly done their share in helping improve them. Freeborn County has an abundance of beautiful riding horses. The hogs have improved hog of today is a far cry from the old fat lardy type of 20 years ago. And the cows of today will double the production of th show winner of twenty years ago.

Thehmidway was the biggest I have seen. While we were parked at the top of the Ferris Wheel I tried to get a count the many rides available. I believe there were at least 20 of them.

Congratulations to the, fair board and all who had to do with the success of the fair.
—o—

WITH A family as big as ours there are bound tobe exciting moments at the fair. We stopped at a stand to get some hamburgers; Mark (aged four) got tired and decided to go to the car. We thought he had gotten lost and started hunting for him. After a 20 minute search we found him asleep in the car. The same thing happened to Zina, only when we looked in the car she had decided to go look for us.

Jared and Ann had their first time at exhibits. They were very excited and learned a lot. Ann was really thrilled when she got a blue ribbon on her pig. Dana never got enough of the fair. I think he could have lived there and not gotten tired of it. He still has two years to go to be able to exhibit.

Family Finds Its Own Fun

Hello Folks. — The Barnes  Clan is a close - knit family that likes to go on picnics. They must know every canyon, gulch, creek and stream in the Gallatin Montana Empire. When they decide to go on a picnic it seems to me that the first one finds the picnic spot and the rest just scent their way; at least they can go to the most out - of - the - way spots and somehow they all find it and usually in time to get in on the food.

They think nothing of going to places that a greenhorn like me would swear the rest of them couldn't find and that if they did they might ruin their car in so doing. And if and when we do get there you couldn't get the car turned around to get back.

Yesterday we went to such a spot and when we got there sure enough the canyon widened out just enough for a picnic and to let us turn the car around. We ate fried chicken, beans, salad, jello, and watermelon until most of it was gone. then a bunch of them went somewhere to pick huckleberries; they seemed to just know were to find them.

When they got their containers full and still wanted more Nella took off her shoes and they filled them too. I don't think she minded walking barefoot. She is pretty much of a Mountain William anyway; in fact if the truth were known she was probably 17 or 18 before they caught her and put shoes on her.

I don't know if the shoes influenced the huckleberries or vice-versa but we are going to have a party tonight and we will be eating huckleberry pie and ice cream. The whole gang will be there and Ben says if there aren't enough berries to make the required number of pies to just put in a little more thickening as the huckleberries are plenty strong anyway.

At the picnic Neal had a good supply of his homemade juice he makes it out of chokecherries, lemon and pineapple. It is all strictly legal too, no added spirits or sugar. He made 50 gallons of it last year. It is really good too, especially the thick stuff in the bottom.

At the parties there is always plenty of playing, singing and dancing. The Barnes used to have their own orchestra and still do a little pinch - hitting for others. Neal has a $300 steel guiter that he really knows how to play. That guy has more talents than you can shake a stick at ... work shop with almost every known tool in.

Speaking of the party — it is going to be held in the old house. With the family growing like it is these parties are getting pretty crowded. There are the eight children, 27 grandchildren and a couple of great - grand children, ...eside all the in-laws of whi... m one.

One unique think about th... ...here is no smoking or drink and about the worst cuss word you here is heck or darn.

The family was discussing building of the new house. Wh... they got around to the heating they talked about forced - air. Grandma couldn't figure out why anyone would want four stairs in a home.

Just Short Hops, These

HELLO FOLKS — "That's what I hate about these locals," complained one jet passenger to another. "We've stopped at Chicago, Minneapolis and now Salt Lake City." When a girl starts counting on a guy it only means that his number is up.

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My wife is on real friendly terms with several fairly handsome males. Calls them her boy friends and they seem to feel the same way about her. One big "Stand - up and - bawl - for- mush' even goes so far as to say that he likes to kiss her because her lip stick tastes good.

I am not the jealous kind or I might not stand for it, but I do have a solution. I figure that what is good for the goose is good for One gander. So — I have a few choice gal friends too. Let me tell you about some of them, I won't give their names, for that would be telling.

There is one who is a real beauty. She is graceful as she is shy. Her kisses are divine and she is pretty generous with them.

She has a good friend who I am on good terms with too. She has a perfect figure and loves for me to put my hands around her waist so I can tell her how slim her middle is. Also is proud of her muscles and wants me to feel them.

One other that I must tell you about is a real petite blonde. She has natural curly hair and is a real joy to be around as she always has something to have fun over. She is seldom unhappy and loves to tease.

As you may have guessed by now they are all our children. They all love to tease and are all very lovable.