This is Mr. and Mrs. Richard Owings, 811 Third Avenue and their "singleton," Shannon, two and a half; twins Tracy and Matthew, 15 months and yup, twins Richelle Angelic and Danielle Marie, three weeks.
The Owings family is a busy family.
The picture was taken during the lunch hour. "I've already had two wash loads," Mrs. Owings, the former Marla Chamberlain, said.
Among her family duties are preparing 16 bottles of formula each day for the twin daughters.
They've had a bit of a problem with digestion and the family has been switching formulas. Aside from that, the babies are healthy, happy, noisy and . . . wet.
The family bought a new washing machine and a dryer last summer (thank heavens, she says). She doesn't know for sure how many diapers the family owns.
But she knows how many she washes. And it seems the washing machine is running all the time, "I don't even count the diapers. We had about six dozen left from the other children and we got six dozen new diapers."
The first set of twins, Tracy and Matthew, have been walking for four months. Mrs. Owings is not sure how she'd done it if they were "slow-walkers."
They were taken off bottles about two weeks ago.
So, now all she has to do is sterilize and prepare formulas in 16 bottles each day. The bottles of formula are placed in refrigeration and are taken out two at a time.
The family lives in a five-room house and is getting along fine. The washing job is big and consistent — every day. She often uses her new dryer, but prefers to dry clothes outside.
(I forgot to ask her how she managed to look after the youngsters and run outside to the clothesline a dozen times).
The family car? Well, they had a Camaro with bucket seats, but that just didn't work out with the second set of twins so now they've got a four - door Oldsmobile sedan.
Richelle Angelic's first name was taken from her father's name and Danielle Marie's middle name is the same as her mother's.
Perhaps the most outstanding point of the story is the general attitude of the young couple — they're happy.
And that makes a visitor feel good.
The Born Losers.
This week's Born Loser award goes to all the kids in Nebraska City who used Steinhart and Wildwood parks as a lover's lane or necking alley.
They ain't gonna be no mo!
The Parks and Recreation board whanged the gavel and ordered that gates be installed on the entrance and exits of the parks and that they be closed when park activities end at night and opened in the morning by police.
Actually, the youngsters are not the target. The park board has had to hire and pay for damage done to the park by vandals. The idea is that if the park is closed, that'll cut off the traffic and hopefully the damage to public buildings and grounds.
Oops, I forgot to tell you. Last week's Born Loser award went to Tom Hickman for pointing out a "leak" at the poker party up on the North 40.
It's okay, Tom, I never told anyone . . . just printed it.
Happy Birthday to Harold and Rose.
Harold and Rose Halm will celebrate a birthday this month — 20 years as owners and operators of Joe's Cafe and that's a lot of hamburger.
Congratulations to Fred Haase and Earl Freeman, adult leaders of Scout Troop 353 and 346 on being selected to the Order of the Arrow the other night at the Scout Reservation at Humboldt.
We attended our first "OA" ceremony at the invitation of Don Eschen, who camped the week with the boys.
Fred will always remember scout camp a year ago when he sustained a severe back injury. But he's healed and returned to volunteer time to help the boys.
Earl is a tireless volunteer. He's also a sentimental man and he certainly warmed a lot of other adults with his remarks after being selected for the honor.
They are very deserving recipients.
The boys received into the Order were Bret Harpster, Gary Gilman and Doug Haase, Fred's son.