As Jackie Gleason used to say, “Fall, how sweet it is, orange you glad?”
In our recent travel along I-90 to the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming and back, the crops looked the best we’ve seen in our forty years of going there. There were cornfields with corn next to the Badlands of South Dakota. Ranchers were cutting their third crop of alfalfa. Hay bales, both round and square, were vey plentiful. The only fields that didn’t look good were in Freeborn County due to the wet spring and not being planted.
My farming (gardening) ability is next to zilch. A vine started growing in our lawn that looked very much like cantaloupe or watermelon. It had very pretty yellow flowers so I faithfully watered it. (Some days I could taste the cantaloupe and other days the watermelon.) Even bumblebees were pollinating the pretty yellow flowers. The flowers develop into a pod with very sharp stickers on the outside. ‘Twas then my taste buds went to store-bought melon. (I am still watering the vine as I want to see what the seeds inside the pod look like.)
In regard to the above, I called to see if there would be any financial help to eradicate the noxious weed. For Freeborn County my request was too late in the growing season.
Genie and I attended the RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program) Pavilion in Albert Lea.
Pre-dinner music, which was very danceable, was played by Millard and Ken. Genie and I danced a waltz and a two-step before the meal was served. We would have danced more but a sad-faced lady we didn’t know came to us and said she would like to dance “just one” waltz. She was wearing a blue type RSVP vest, which told me she was probably a VIP-RSVP. She did tell me her name was Eleanor, her husband was Steve, and they lived in a border town.
I danced a waltz with her and was very surprised, as she was an excellent dancer.
Just prior to the meal, a young lady came over to us and told us she remembered Genie and me from doing readers’ theater at her school in Albert Lea (Lakeview). Readers’ theater is an RSVP program where we read and play-act a book to youngsters in local schools. Shelby, the young lady, was helping her mom and older sister serve the meal. Thanks, Shelby.
Somehow our table was the last to go through the serving line. To make matters worse, I was the only male at the table. Thus I was the very last of about 200. Just as I got my plate, they ran out of beans. The servers (Hillman and Hillman) politely told me I’d be okay without beans as I was full enough with hot air gas!
I was putting up a Soup and Pie Supper flyer for Central Freeborn Lutheran Church at Wagner Foods in New Richland,when a lady wearing a bandana started talking to me. (My first impression was, a friendly Harley rider.) She told me she and her hubby were involved in the area farming community. She apologized that she couldn’t make the Monday Soup and Pie Supper, as Monday is her chemo day. Please join me in praying for her – especially on Mondays. Cheri Possin, you made my day, thanks.
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Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent, currently working on his master’s degree in Volunteering. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in Volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in Vermont. Bob says if you enjoy his column, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of wisdom: There is always room for God.