Leo O'Flaherty called the other day to say good-by.
"We're leaving in a few minutes on vacation."
"Yes, I know, your daughter told me that you were going to take a trip," I said. "We want to slow you down long enough for a story about Leo the Lion (with the big heart) as a retired school repair chief, paint scraper, machinist or mule skinner or whatever."
"Well, you'll have to wait awhile," Leo said. "We'll try to get back soon . . . mebbe about the middle of September."
Well, that sounds just like Leo. Nothing seems to bother him as long as the sun shines once in awhile.
The O'Flahertys are on their way to Alaska for their third trip. This time they will load their car and camping trailer onto a ship and travel about 1,000 miles.
The O'Flahertys have been "in all 48 states plus Mexico and Canada. And you can't drive to Nova Scotia or we'd go there."
"What about Hawaii and the hulu hulu dancers?" we asked.
"Naw, don't have any interest in going over there. I can hulu all I want right here in this country."
Leo is 67 years of age. The O'Flahertys have been married 44 years. Although they've been to many places and have seen many things, Leo says the reason for the trip is because "I've been working ever since I was 16. It's about time to take a long look at the country."
Best wishes to friends. Drive carefully and return to us before the frost gets the sweet potatoes.
Today's pet peeve.
"Ms."
Know what that means? Take a stab, sweetheart, because it could mean it's a "Miss" or a "Mrs."
We don't want to get into trouble with the lib gals, but it's a bit awkward to introduce someone as "Mizzzzz" Smith or Brown, or Heickendenhofer.
Wouldn't it be a lot simpler and more understandable to label a woman as single or married with the old fashioned Miss or Mrs.?
The best one we ever heard was that a gal doesn't like it because Mizzzz rhymes with fizzzzz and she's no fizzle."
The burns and trauma center at St. Elizabeth's hospital are available to people in the Nebraska City area, representatives of the hospital told rescue squadsmen and other guests the other night.
Carl Maltas, assistant to the executive director of the hospital, said the establishment of the center snowballed. A single fund raising effort at Pershing auditorium resulted in $19,000 for the center.
Then baseballers like Johnny Bench and other players from Cincinnati chipped in (the money is still coming in) and the center blossomed.
Mr. Maltas and Mrs. Pat Halberg, nursing team leader for the center, told of the severity of burns and the treatment of young and old. They said hospital staffers visited other burns centers to learn how to care for the injured.
The center was put into service sooner than planned, Mr. Maltas said. "We had planned on opening the center on January 2, but on the morning of December 31 a little girl was burned in an accident in her home."
He described how electricians and other workmen rushed to get the center into operation in a short time for the care of the child.
A little girl with burns was pressed to exercise. She was a bit hard to work with, Mrs. Halberg said, until Mr. Maltas stepped in and broke a rule.
The nurses wanted the little girl to exercise her burned arm during the treatment. Mr. Maltas penciled marks on a wall (a no-no) in the burns center. Each mark was worth 25 cents and at the top he attached a $1 bill.
"She got it," the nurse said.
Skin grafting is done at St. [illegible]lizabeth's and pigskin is used because it attaches so rapidly to human flesh. (Shriners learned this years ago at their burns centers across the nation.) The color of the pigskin makes no difference (or appearance when healed) but hospital personnel had a time trying to convince one youngster about that very thing.
Welcome to the Marcotte family.
Mr. and Mrs. Arvon Marcotte and their four children are looking forward to moving to Nebraska City from Superior. Mr. Marcotte is the new executive vice president of The Farmers Bank succeeding the late Mark Fullriede.
The Marcottes are native Kansans. "Don't put in the paper the names of our hometowns," Mrs. (Lu) Marcotte asked. "They are just small towns in western Kansas and no one will know the location. My hometown is Bogue, Kans. but no one here probably knows where that is," she explained.
Paul Knoll of Granneman Agency took the Marcottes around the community pointing out the residential areas.
The newcomers liked what they saw. They were not only impressed with the new homes, farming and business community, they particularly liked the many family recreation things they saw.
They are anxious to get moved to Nebraska City and become acquainted.
I hope that the welcome we gave the Marcottes was as warm as the one given to our family by the late Mr. Fullriede. We have never forgotten that and we reminded Mr. Fullriede many times of that impression.
Judging by the amount of information the Marcottes captured in their brief visit to Nebraska City, we recommend that Cousin Paul Knoll be hired, appointed or drafted as the town's No. 1 tourist chairman.
(I sure hope he didn't tell the newcomers that fish story . . . the time he hooked a river catfish from a mud puddle on Central Avenue. Even Neal Martin wouldn't believe that story.)
They're going to have to change the rescue meetings to Savings and Loan or the Presbyterian church. The excitement at the fire-rescue complex "shakes" the crews.
Again the other night there was a "Baaaaaaa" (fire alarm). The most heard comment from the volunteers (a number are also firemen) was:
"Don't you guys eat up all those hamburgers before we get back!"
Firemen and rescue squadsmen hold their monthly meetings in the "barn" part of the station. That means that they set up folding chairs around fire trucks and rescue vehicles. So when the alarms are sounded the chairs are emptied pretty rapidly.
There is one consolation for the volunteers.
Jack Brust Construction and his crews are only two or three weeks away from completing the addition to the fire-rescue complex. And, as a result, the volunteers will take over the present city clerk's office space for a meeting room.