KELOLAND.com Blogs

Can you stand one more story about my old Lincoln..fondly dubbed, “White Lightning”?

When the air shock absorber system failed last Fall, it was the last straw; 900 bucks to fix. With the rust growing like melanoma on a mission, a finicky heater, faulty driver-side window, leaky power steering unit and 188 thousand miles, she was so far gone that even the places that advertise for junk cars in the Shopping News weren’t interested in hauling her away.

So, she sat in my driveway all winter buried in snow looking like a big deflated marshmallow.

A few days ago, I needed to get the Camaro out of the garage which meant having to move white lightnin’..so after scooping three feet of snow from the hood, roof and trunk lid. I hooked up the battery charger and, as expected, she fired right up. 
Okay, it's running but how was I going to get her backed into the street with no rear suspension?

As I was thinking about how hard it was going to scrape the pavement, I heard a pumping noise and to my astonishment I could see the back end slowly rising up like the Lord on Ascension Day.   

Not only that, the heater started pumping out warm air and, when I hit the button, the power window somehow grabbed on to the mechanism and rolled up tight.

I have no explanation as to how this car keeps managing to heal itself but it does.

On Tuesday, I drove her over 100 miles delivering tickets to area Sunshine Food Stores for the upcoming Rock and Roll Hall of Fame celebration April 24^th.

I was somewhere around Lennox when I suddenly realized..oops, I dropped White Lightning’s insurance coverage last December. 
So, I “carefully” headed for home and now face the same old dilemma; do I re-up the insurance and squeeze out a few more miles..or take her to Nordstrom’s under her own power..with some dignity instead of on the end of a hook?

I’ll let you know.

As I was saying, preparations are well underway for the second annual South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony and concert April 24th. 
Last year’s event was such a huge success that it’s being moved to the much larger Ramkota Exhibit Hall. Tickets are still 20 bucks and, in addition to being available at Lewis Southgate and the Hall of Fame website, all area Sunshine Food Stores have now agreed to sell them as well.

It’s an amazing line-up that will include two out of state inductees who rocked the Midwest during the 60’s and who will be performing (In my best Ed Sullivan voice) LIVE on our stage: The Fabulous Flippers and The Roarin’ Red Dogs.

In the coming weeks, I’ll have more on this year’s inductees.

Let’s start with Marlys Roe and The Talismen.

Based out of Brookings, The Talismen got their start in 1960 when guitarists John Murphy and Jeff Ferrell started compiling a song list. Soon, Pat O'Connell  joined the group on drums and Tom Hoy on bass guitar. Initially the guys played school functions, fairs, and street dances. Next they added Bob Tries on sax who was replaced later by Dennis Gerald..who eventually took over the Talismen and has kept it going into the 21^st century.

The first few years they were booked by the legendary Jimmy Thomas. By 1966 they were known as Marlys Roe and the Talismen consisting of Murphy, Gerald, O'Connell, Wynn Kanten on bass, Mike Cannon on keyboards, and Marlys Roe doing vocals.

Marlys Roe and The Talismen recorded at IGL Studios in Iowa and also in Minneapolis. Songs recorded included the popular "Remember September" and "Walking Proud" as well as "Whole Lotta Happiness" and "Missing Parts of my Heart and Soul". In 1968 several members of the group left but Marlys Roe and The Talismen continued to perform with numerous lineup changes into the 80's. 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of this phenomenal group and they’re anxious to take the stage again at the Ramkota April 24th.

Also being inducted in 2010 are The Cavaliers.

Their  first gig was August 20, 1966 on a flatbed trailer during Watermelon Days in Lake Preston.  There were six members between the ages of 15 to 17 all from the Lake Preston-Arlington area;Greg Shelden, Lynn Larson, Dave Cecil, Ron Nelson, Dave Scheller and Mike Peterson.

Throughout the mid to late 60’s, The Cavaliers were extremely popular and performed to big crowds all throughout eastern South Dakota.

In 2005 the band reunited and recorded a CD at the old Ford Garage in downtown Lake Preston.  Fans were delighted when they opened the show as the house band for last year’s Rock and Roll hall of fame ceremony.

They, along with seven other bands will reunite and be taking the stage again for this year’s event. (Click Here for more info)

Just goes to prove that there’s still plenty of spark in an old rocker’s heart.

Sort of like a 20 year old high mileage Lincoln I know that refuses to stop rollin’.

Investigators are crucifying the California guy who claims his Toyota Prius went nuts on him.  I have to admit, being a cynic, I found the incident somewhat questionable and convenient at the time.  “Reality show” crossed my mind.  However, investigators claims ring thinner than the driver’s story.  Not being able to replicate the problem under controlled conditions doesn’t prove anything.  If they could do that, they could fix it. After all, Toyota has been in denial on this since the first one sped over the back of the garage, so to speak. 

Your blogger…and campaigner for health care reform…can’t wait to see what’s in this miracle health bill, whether it’s a Trojan horse or just a barrel full of rodeo clowns dressed as self-serving congressmen.  Oh, well.  Like the commercial says be sure to call Princess Stephanie and thank her for saving us by voting with the Republicans…blah, blah, blah.  Well, she has a family…and an election…to think about. 

Actor Peter Graves has died.  I never met him but I knew somebody who did.  Former KELO News Director Leo Hartig went to college with both Graves and, if memory serves, his more well-known brother, James Arness.  Yep; both Mr. Phelps and Matt Dillon.

One night we were in the newsroom watching Mission Impossible as we worked on the ten o’clock news…everybody did…when I asked Leo, “Didn’t you go to college with him or something?”  Leo said he did and answered: “You know, I haven’t talked to Peter in a long time.”  Then he dug out his little black book, dialed, and the next thing you know was spending an hour chatting about old times with one of the biggest stars in America at the moment, and those things are momentary.  Just a couple of Minnesota boys chewin’ the fat…in prime time.    

That’s it.  This blog will self-destruct in five seconds; maybe more, maybe less. 

Tell me..what was your first thought when you received a letter from the U.S. Census Bureau urging you to be sure and fill out and return your 2010 census form which will be arriving in a week or so?

I believe Linda’s words were “I wonder how they can justify sending out all those letters (120 million of them) seems like a waste of money doesn’t it?

Yeah, that’s what I thought. You were wondering the same thing.

The head of the census bureau, Robert Groves, has been getting an earful too from the public over the letters but apparently isn’t phased by all the criticism.

Basically, Groves says we’ve always done it this way and that reaching out with an advance letter will actually SAVE money because if they prod just one percent of the households into completing their forms it will save 85 million dollars in operational costs associated with census takers going door to door following up on households that didn’t.

Well, it better because Minnesota Public Radio’s Bob Collins has been doing the math on the cost of those early mailings.

There were 105,480,101 households in 2000. At 500 sheets of paper per ream, that’s 210,960 reams of paper for the letter. It’s cheap paper though. At forty dollars a case from Office Max total cost is $843,000 for the paper.

Envelopes are another 6.3 million bucks. Finally the cost of mailing. It’s presorted first class meaning the total is $35,335,833.83.

For a grand total cost of sending you a letter to tell you you’re going to get another letter next week is 42.5 million dollars. Oh, sending a postcard would have been $15.8 million cheaper.

Obviously, this is no laughing matter but I did chuckle a bit when I heard one person say that maybe this is part of a White House stimulus package aimed at helping the U.S. Postal Service save Saturday mail delivery.

It just seems to me that the Census Bureau has absolutely no idea of how people would react to the perceived wastefulness of the letter and is another example of bureaucracy being “out of touch.”

Up until a couple weeks ago, Mary Josephine Ray had been planning her own birthday party but after hanging around this earth for 114 years 294 days, Mary finally gave up the ghost at a Westmoreland, New Hampshire nursing home on Sunday.

Mary Josephine Ray

Her granddaughter says she was a vigorous woman who enjoyed life and active pretty much right up to the end.

That leaves the title of oldest living American to Neva Morris of Ames, Iowa. At 114 years 216 days, she has outlived all four of her children except a son who resides in Sioux City and a 90 year old son-in-law who lives in the same care center  she does.

During my long stretch as a reporter with Keloland, I was always getting calls and letters from relatives of someone who was either turning 100 or celebrating a birthday in excess of the century mark. “Yeah, mom is a little hard of hearing,” they’d say,“ but she’s pretty alert.”

So a photographer and I would head off to some nursing home where we’d find that family members had fixed up granny’s hair bought her a new dress and propped her up in a wheel chair.

When we turned the lights on for an interview, she’d shield her eyes from the brightness which meant you couldn’t see her face and then I’d have to yell out questions to which I’d usually just get a confused yes or no answer.

Now, please don’t think that I’m making fun of the mega-elderly, I’m not. But the truth is most of the dear old things that I’ve tried to squeeze a few words out of..like the obligatory “What’s your secret to a long life?” just wanted us to turn those blasted lights off and go away.

So, that was my attitude in 1998 when I got a call inviting me over to Larchwood to do a story on George Schreurs who was about to turn 100. I’m not sure if it was his son being so convincing on the phone that peaked my interest or if I was just desperate for a story, but off we went.

It turns out that George Schreurs had seemingly discovered the fountain of youth because he managed to stop aging at 70 or so. He greeted us with a big smile on his face at the door of his own house where he lived alone. He had a Cadillac in the driveway which he drove everyday..either to visit his wife, Mildred, at a nursing home in Garretson, or to his son’s farm where he still helped out occasionally.

During the interview he wasn’t bothered at all by the bright lights and must have wondered why I felt it necessary to talk so loud. He told me about the ritual of fixing breakfast for his family every Sunday morning; his usual breakfast consisting of bacon and eggs with plenty of real butter for the toast. He also admitted to enjoying a little nip now and then. “Keeps me young,” he winked.

“What else keeps you going?” I asked.

“Well, I like to play cards,” he said. And with that he invited me to jump in his Caddie to go for a ride. He drove around town a bit, talked about his beloved wife and then parked in front of the pool hall. Inside, the place had been decorated up for his birthday and a big crowd of people had gathered waiting to yell “surprise” when George walked in.   

He joyfully posed for lots of pictures, ate a big slab of birthday cake and, I believe, was enjoying a brewed beverage at the card table with his pals when we had to leave.

I want to live a long time but, as George would say, it’s not the years in your life but the life in your years.

A few months after our visit, George’s wife of 69 years, passed away.

George finally moved out of his house and into a facility at Inwood but stayed active..enjoying all those taboo foods, a game of cards and a little nip now and then all the way to age 103 when he died.

Long after our interview that day, I ran into somebody from Larchwood and asked if he knew George and whether or not he was still among the living.

“Well,” the guy said, “ If you’re ever at the Casino in Flandreau, you can ask him yourself.”

I went to Hawaii and came back with a new weapon in my personal fight to reform the U.S. medical care system…if there is a system.  I found myself winding my way toward Hana with a mini-bus full of Canadians who decided to pass up their Olympics in favor of tropical warmth and sunshine.  
 

A rainbow eucalyptus tree on the Road to Hana.    The road itself as it hugs the mountain.

Our medical system is reminiscent of that narrow-bridged, switch-back rain-forested road on the edge of the dormant volcano (Haleakala) a thousand feet above the not-so-pacified Pacific Ocean.  And like that ocean, American health care looks pretty but can be deadly, at least financially. 

We’ve heard a lot of reasons, from delayed knee surgeries to brain tumors, why we shouldn’t have a national health insurance plan.  I have long ago concluded that most of the arguments against it have to do with fear, mental constipation or just plain greed. 

Here is the other side, right from the mouths of Canadians…and one guy from Chicago. 

Before you click play, keep in mind they also call their system Medicare, but everybody’s included…

When I go on Medicare in a couple of months, I will still be paying about their premiums.  Right now, on Cobra, I’m paying 440 dollars a month.  I’m not complaining; at least I have coverage.  My brother-in-law who lives in Northern Minnesota gets his U.S. made drugs by mail from Canada, saving something like half.  Is our system ridiculous or what?  What’s the issue here…other than pure greed? 

This isn’t a fix.  I have a witness.  Jim Erickson of Platte, South Dakota, was on the bus and was sitting in the middle of the whole exchange.  

Jim Erickson watches the breakers on Ho'kipa Beach.  Surf's up!

I'll fill you in on some more Hawaiian adventures, like how I damned near didn't survive the tsunami, when I get around to it.  Right now, I'm adjusting to not having to have my bags outside the door at four in the morning closely followed by me at five. 

I can understand why the post office may be cutting off Saturday mail delivery: it’s losing nine billion dollars a year. 
No real secret why; if people want to communicate these days they do it electronically rather than spend 50 cents to send a letter by snail mail.

Same with bills: I’m probably one of the few who still sends out checks once a month instead of paying on-line. More and more folks take care of it with a few clicks on the computer.

The post office is also losing business to the big name package delivery companies who do it faster and cheaper.

I think the public is fed up with annual increases in the price of stamps to make up for the deficit..so if the only financial option is to go to a five day work week, well, I can go along with that
What I CANNOT abide, though, is the prospect of losing my public television.

With the legislative session winding down, South Dakota Public Broadcasting says that it is on the short list of state agencies threatened with a major cut in state funding..or being dropped completely.

SDPB gets its money for programs and program-related services from the federal government and donations from viewers..including endowments.

Money for the nuts and bolts of SDPB’s operation; towers, equipment and employee salaries, comes from the state.

If that is severely curtailed or dropped altogether, the network says, its ability to reach a statewide audience will be critically hampered.(Read that..shut down)

No more Big Bird or Elmo. No more state high school tournaments..no more nightly coverage of the state legislature itself for cryin’ out loud!

SDPB says it has been a good steward of the state’s money and while every agency needs to tighten its belt these days, imagine what losing public broadcasting would mean to the people who rely on it each day.

That would most certainly include me. In fact, I heard about this while watching my DVR recording of Antiques Roadshow.  I never miss that program or Nova, American Experience, America’s Test Kitchen, the British comedies (even though I’ve seen them many times) Dakota Life, South Dakota Focus, This Old House Hour..History Detectives..Frontline..Red Green and on and on.

I tried to look up the size of South Dakota’s subsidy..but didn’t find it right away. 
It doesn’t matter anyway. SDPB is worth every penny!

So if, in fact, you lawmakers seriously believe that nobody will care one way or another if you choose to save money by bringing the hatchet down on Public Broadcasting, be prepared for a voter backlash in your e-mail,  post office box (except Saturday) or perhaps most importantly at the BALLOT box.   

I’ve always been fascinated by history..especially the history of the company where I worked for 32 years.

If anybody had a question..or needed information about the station’s background or its early celebrities, I was the go-to guy.

I first started rummaging through the Keloland archives in 1978 when I was asked to put together the two hour special celebrating Kelo’s 25^th anniversary.

I spent months going through old films and boxes of photographs. I did it again for our 35^th, 40^th and 50^th anniversary specials.

The point is, I thought I’d seen every film, video or photograph that was ever shot..so imagine my glee when I got an email from Michael Hartig wondering if I’d be interested in some pictures he had received from Ken Mills,another former Kelo Radio guy, who has produced a fine documentary on Midcontinent Broadcasting.

Michael is the son of Leo and Gena Hartig who were on-air personalities at Keloland for nearly 20 years. They were great people and I learned a lot from them both. Leo passed away several years ago but Eugenia is still going strong and looking great. She lives in Omaha now..close to all three of her boys.

When I received the disc and downloaded the images, I just sort of giggled at seeing so many for the first time.

I thought I might share a few of them here with you every once in a while.

The photo below is of Roger Russell going through some of the mail sent in from viewers of the Morrell Treasure Chest. He was one of several guys that hosted the nightly drawing. Roger also filled in on weather and news..plus he did lots of commercials and had a regular shift on KELO radio.

The Treasure Chest couldn’t have been simpler. Just pick the correct key to open the lock and receive a treasure trove of Morrell meat products.

I’m not sure if more products were added after each unsuccessful draw. Maybe somebody remembers.

The next photo I find especially interesting.(Try enlarging it on your computer to see the numbers better) It was taken in our new Kelo TV studios on election night 1960. I don’t know any of the ladies on the phones..but the guys doing the broadcast are..from left to right..news director, Doug Hill, Bart Kull, Will Carlson and Murray Stewart. 
1960 was the year when John Kennedy edged Richard Nixon for the presidency. (Not in Republican South Dakota, of course.)
It was the year when George McGovern tried unsuccessfully to unseat longtime GOP Senator, Karl Mundt. McGovern was later named by President Kennedy to head up his Food For Peace program. 
It was also the year that Democrat governor, Ralph Herseth (Stephanie’s grandpa) was unseated after just one term by Republican, Archie Gubbrud.

Both incumbent Republican Congressmen (yes, we used to have two) Ben Reifel and E.Y. Berry cruised to re-election that year.

Kennedy ended up carrying the state of Minnesota, but DFL’ers  weren’t able to get their man, Orville Freeman, re-elected governor. He lost to Republican, Elmer Anderson.

But Freeman wasn’t without a job long. Kennedy named him U.S. Secretary of Agriculture..a post he held until 1969.
Let me know if enjoy these pictures and behind the scene narratives..there are lots to share.
You can also find several old Kelo photos by clicking Keloland history down the left side of our home page.