Strolling . . . strolling . . .
We drove to Cook the other night to see what was going on at the B & B Lounge.
We had to walk a block because the Saturday night crowd had most of the parking places close to the Lounge. Oh, well, we didn't mind . . . until we caught a a whiff of steaks being grilled.
The woman at the checkstand directed us to a table where we recognized friends Mr. and Mrs. Darrel Bane. We knew why they were there . . . son, Lonnie, was standing at the mike, playing his guitar and singing.
We also saw some familiar teen-age faces and it looked like the youngsters were having a grand time.
Ken and Jackie Kraenow were on the dance floor, but I was disappointed when Fred Viox sat out the next set which included "Wipe Out" or something like it.
The Rock Country Revival band was organized during the winter months by Lonnie Bane. (He even used the News-Press want ads to get a drummer.)
The other bandsmen are Jim Nichols, guitar (his wife, Linda, also sings with the band), David Ullsperger on the drums and a young man with a lot of courage, Verlin Tiemeyer.
Verlin lacks the sight to read music, but "he's cool," his friends say, and we can vouch for his bass guitar music. He knows the music and is good.
Why all the attention to a band? Oh, no particular reason except they're high school kids (except for Mr. and Mrs. Nichols).
. . . and you might be interested in knowing that the parents take turns chaperoning the kids in the band. Of course, that means a little wiggling and . . . shake, rattle and rock, rock, rock.
Oh, you want to know about "Strolling . . . strolling."
Well, that's a dance where you and your partner get on the dance floor to do your thing between lines of other dancers.
It's really fun and very simple. You just swing and sway as you stroll down the floor. And you have a long line of cheerleaders to help you.
The owner of a large department store was walking through the packing room one day when he saw a boy lounging against a wooden box, whistling cheerfully.
"How much do you get a week?" the boss demanded.
"Fifty dollars, sir," was the meek reply.
"Then here's a week's pay — now get out!"
After the boy had gone, the boss summoned the foreman.
"When did we hire that boy?"
"We never hired him," the foreman said. "He just brought in a package."
Joe Barry called the other night to correct us on the location of the Stevenson Coal company. "It was on the south side of the street, across from where the Utilities service building is now," he said . . . Chick Chandler took one look at the rain runoff from buildings in the alley behind Memorial Building, and the pools of water in the alley and wondered if there would be additional work if a public restroom was ever built next to Memorial Building.
TGY, a discount store company, has reportedly looked at South Eleventh Street property as a location for a store in Nebraska City. (The company will build a store at Auburn).
We don't know much about TGY, but we know someone who does — John Ehmke. His son, Norman, has been with TGY since 1964. The Norman Ehmkes make their home at Fort Smith, Arkansas.
TGY means "Thomas-Garrison-Young." The company has headquarters at Oklahoma City.
Norman and his wife, the former Mary Lou Gude, daughter of Mrs. Mary Gude, have four children "and they all play ball, the girl included," John says.
Bradley had a pretty good year last year and has moved into the Legion ranks this year. His grandparents in Nebraska City will likely make a few trips to Fort Smith to see some of his baseball games.
When the defendant's name was called in court, to everyone's amazement, he stood in the jury box.
"What are you doing there?" barked the clerk.
"I was called to serve on the jury," he answered.
"But you must have known that you couldn't sit on a jury and judge your own case," the clerk snapped.
"Well, I suppose not," the defendant admitted. "I did think it was a bit of luck."
Election night.
Otoe County Clerk Jerry Schmitz kept us all hopping on election night as he checked in election reports and handed them to Marcina Cody, Mrs. Les Kinnison and Mrs. Jim Polston to put in the books for tabulation.
The clerk made special trips to polls in the county during the day to make sure that everything went as planned and reports would be turned in to his office in the best time possible.
The election workers did their jobs well. The first report came in about 8:30 p.m. and the last three hours later.
We didn't do so hot and neither did Clerk Schmitz's crew. Because of the large number of write-ins and the reporting of village and school elections to the county clerk, we got behind in our work.
In fact, we were way off course most of the night.
The clerk kept a running tally of the few contested elections to inform voters as rapidly as he could while the rest of us with pencils and reporting books trailed.
We used the same type of book to record results as the clerk. We work line for line with the clerk's crew and generally we all keep up with reports as they come in.
Not so, the other night. When the last report came in, we still hadn't had a chance to sub total the first four precincts. In fact, we never did get to the adding machines until several hours later.
Meanwhile, we jotted down results of city and county races and telephoned them to the News-Press so residents could call there and get the results as soon as they were available.
Then we also telephoned Nebraska Election Service (NES) in Omaha to report results of state races. The NES crew worked through the night reporting results so you could get them on television and radio election night and for the papers.
The courthouse election crew went home shortly before 4 a.m. Wednesday, and was back on the job four hours later.
If we had to summarize election night at the courthouse, we'd have to repeat what another worker said.
"I drank a lot of coffee. I ate a lot of doughnuts. I got a headache."