People who "do something different" have always drawn my admiration.
Today the noteworthy attention goes to Mrs. Thelma Barr, a rural school teacher, who is well known and liked by many friends in Nebraska City.
While most people looked to the skies with awe as the mechanical "birds" appeared, Mrs. Barr was logging hours as a pilot in a single engine aircraft.
She was issued a pilot's license in the 1930s.
More exciting than that perhaps, are the 35 parachute jumps she has made from 7,000 and 10,000 feet, many of which were made after she climbed from the cockpit onto the wing and leaped into space.
Her feats included two seasons of 'chuting with the national air show at Detroit during those same years.
There's a lot more to tell of this energetic person but her modesty holds back much of which the listener yearns to hear and put into print.
Meeting and talking with her is a pleasure.
The real hope, of course, is that some of her "push" will rub off and be absorbed.
ELECTION NIGHT.
The returns at County Clerk Ed Harshbarger's office in the courthouse came in spurts as they usually do, so during some of the lull, conversation drifted to party likes and dislikes.
And in another room where the Democrats outnumbered the Republicans in the conversation, there was un uproar now and then as the state reports came in giving the nod to President Johnson and Governor Morrison.
The real peace between groups was kept by Mrs. Jessie Head, deputy clerk, who made sure everyone was supplied with coffee and doughnuts.
Mrs. Head also handled the over-the-counter receiving of ballots, and Clerk Harshbarger recorded the results with his office clerk, Mrs. Maxine Romjue.
The real peace came at 1:10 a.m., when all returns were reported and the clerk locked the door.
The late Jerry Fenstermacher, who was employed for several years at the U. S. Corps of Engineers office in Nebraska City, is a cousin of Mr. and Mrs. Del Sutherland, who moved to Dunbar recently from California.
Jerry provided towboat and weather information on a daily beat at the Engineers office. He died about two years ago following a heart attack.