Grab your popcorn and a Coke-

Battle Creek Brawl aka Rumble in the Bronx

Year- 198?

Directed by- ???

Starring- Jackie Chan, and that Oriental Guy who always plays a kung fu master.

Hilariously implausible plot- as Jackie Chan battles the mafia in New York to save his family’s business, they take notice and force him to participate as their entry in the Battle Creek Brawl in Texas.  Jackie’s first entry into the American Market.

Memorable quote- “At the sound of the sireeen, you may commence fightin’.”

Rating- One and a half thumbs up!

I got the chance yesterday to visit a place I hadn’t been to for twelve years, a place where I worked for two weeks each in the summers of ‘95 and ‘96.  It brought back a whole flood of memories of those four weeks, so I think I’m going to do almost a mini-novel of my experience.  Here we go…

I drove into Dr. Kovarik’s yard yesterday, and the first thing I saw was the Hail Mary Swather.  Like an old lady at gymnastics class, she was trying to give the appearance that she could do a full days work.

The Hail Mary Swather was an old lady when I met her in ‘95.  My dad volunteered me to work on Dr. Kovarik’s ranch for two weeks that summer.

It was really fitting, in a way, because it was like paying for my birth Continue Reading

Let me get a big hell yeah…

This story is for my buddy Jim Thorp, who is very proud of the fact that he is the “only Yale graduate to work at Wall Drug.”

I too worked at Wall Drug.  I have always had terrible allergies to hay, which made summer very difficult for me on the ranch.  When I was a kid, I would mow the lawn, check cows and fix fence while everybody else hayed.

Of  course these days we have cabs on almost all of our haying equipment, but back then we didn’t.  So when I graduated from high school in 1997, I went to work at the world famous Wall Drug Store.  I worked there from June of ‘97 through the summer of ‘98, and again in the summer of ‘99.

As jobs at Wall Drug go Continue Reading

The biggest happening this week was on Wednesday, when the kind citizens joined several hundred other people at the Community Center in Union Center for Cheryl Simons’ funeral, presided over by the Rev. Harold Delbridge. After a reception in Union Center, more than one hundred people attended the burial in Elm Springs, and reception at the Elm Springs Hall. The Morris Linns hosted friends and family throughout the week.

Clyde, Chase and Connie Arneson joined the Ryan Elsheres at the Lonnie Arneson residence for supper Wednesday night. Continue Reading