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Editor's Notebook by Bill Blauvelt

A Different Slant by Chuck Mittan

Country Roads by Gloria Garman-Schlaefli

Letters to the Editor and other columns

Editor's Notebook, by Bill Blauvelt
Thirty years ago last February, fire destroyed the Superior Elks Lodge.
The Nuckolls County Livestock Feeders were meeting in the lodge that night and I had been there a few minutes before the fire was reported to cover the crowning of the organization's queen. At that time the lodge consisted of a series of buildings.
The south room, where the crowning took place, had once housed Roy Ellsworth's tire shop. When it was a tire shop, Ellsworth took telephone calls for my Grandfather Blauvelt. When grandfather had a message to pickup, a flag was posted to signal his need to stop. The system apparently worked but it wasn't nearly as speedy as the modern cell phone.
North of the tire shop was the Bon-Ton hotel and cafe, a business my grandfather once owned. He never talked much about his foray into the hotel business other than to take credit for bringing Dorothy Seever to Superior from Lebanon. Mr. and Mrs. Seever became saavy Superior business people. Cecil operated a Pontiac and GMC dealership and Dorothy managed a number of popular cafes before operating a ready-to-wear store.
North of the former Bon Ton building, the Elks were in the process of completing the construction of a new building with plans to use it as a dance hall. Though not finished the Lodge had held a New Year's Eve dance there.
It was a bitter cold night and after leaving the feeders' meeting, I walked home past the Pride Auto Wash on west Third Street to make sure the boiler was keeping the water system from freezing.
I had just gotten home when I heard the radio call came asking firemen to check on a possible fire at the Elks Lodge. I dressed in the warmest clothes I had and went back down town. It was to be a long and cold night.
When the lodge first came into view, I saw smoke pouring from the lodge buildings and I thought of the stories about fire burning entire blocks of a town. I wondered how much of the Superior I had grown up in would be standing when day broke.
An estimated 200 to 250 persons were in the club when the fire was discovered. The evacuation was orderly and no one was injured. However, many were reluctant to leave, apparently believing the fire was not serious.
Elks employees, officers and several volunteer firemen, present when the fire was first suspected, helped direct the evacuation. The fire spread slowly. All had time to retrieve their coats before leaving. At least one club patron, perhaps more, carried a plate of food outside so they could finish their meal.
The fire was discovered near the latter end of the dinner hour. A dance had been underway only a short time, the Holdrege High School basketball team had entered the building minutes earlier to eat after finishing a game at Superior High School, the feeder's meeting was concluding and the club had its normal run of Saturday customers. Members of the band had time to remove their instruments but the feeders lost their records.
When the normal lighting system failed, a new emergency lighting system install in the previous month worked.
The first sign of trouble was when the automatic fire control system in the hood above the grill tripped dumping chemical onto the charcoal grill. It was thought the automatic system put the fire out but when it was determined that wasn't the case, a hand held extinquisher was used to fight the fire. Customers gathered around the grill to watch the fire fighting effort. Then firemen reported the outside wall was burning.
The first alarm was sounded at 9:50, a second shortly after 10 p.m.
Firemen from Republic, Hardy, Davenport, Edgar, Deshler, Nelson, Guide Rock and Red Cloud answered the call for help. Other firemen visiting Superior and retired firemen joined in battling the fire. Forty-four of the Superior department's 47 members reported for service.
Below zero temperatures quickly froze the spraying water. At the time of the fire, it was thought the temperature was 12 degrees below zero.
Deputy State Fire Marshall Dallas Jugert said he could the see the flames from five miles north of Superior.
At least five firemen were injured. Three, Kent Jensby, Marvin Smidt and Monte Dominy were taken to the hospital when the front awning fell. An estimated 12 to 18 firemen were underneath the awning when the weight of the accumulating ice sent it crashing to the sidewalk. Dozens of volunteers from the crowd which lined the sidewalks to watch the progress of the fire helped lift the awning off the firemen.
Two other firemen, Howard Olson and Ron Springer would be taken to the hospital before the night was over.
The lodge had opened 18 years earlier in one of the buildings. As it grew, additional buildings were occupied until just prior to the fire it was operating in four buildings. Large openings had been cut in the walls separating each of the buildings. In keeping with its past as a hotel, the upstairs was divided into a series of small rooms. Thus it was easy for the fire to spread and difficult for the firemen to contain.
The fire was a hard blow but members of the lodge refused to give up. After meeting in temporary locations including the Superior City Auditorium and the former Hilltop Cafe, a new facility was constructed in the same place as the previous building complex.
Immediately following the fire there was some talk of salvaging some of the structure. That proved to be impossible.
The Thursday following the fire the north brick wall of the original lodge building fell. No one saw or heard it go but it was thought it must have happened about 2 p.m. A large wrecker was then brought in to pull down the front wall before it fell onto the street.
The streel structure still being completed was dismantled and moved to the country where a farmer used it for a shed. The maple dance floor was salvaged. Eventually I bought the flooring and used it in four rooms of an apartment my parents occupied above the present Total Fitness.
The salvage floor made an interesting addition to the apartment and a conservation piece.
When it was being laid in the apartment, the wood was covered with black ness from the fire. We didn't now until it was sanded what we would have. Most of the boards look as good as new, others show the scars left by the major fire which raged through the lodge.
When I wrote the orginal story, I noted the Elks Lodge fire was the worst fire to strike Superior since a fire in February of 1946 destroyed the former Bossemeyer Elevator. Thankfully there hasn't been another fire of the magnitude of either of those.

A Different Slant, by Chuck Mittan
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) is trying again to garner support for his effort to replace Ulysses S. Grant with Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill. He apparently has the support of at least 12 more Republican congressmen.
This is not the first attempt to honor the former U.S. president and California governor who died in 2004 by putting him on coin or currency. Democrats objected to an earlier proposal to put Reagan on the dime in place of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Tennessee legislators objected to a plan for Reagan to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill.
McHenry's angle is apparently that every generation has its own heroes that deserve to be "fiscally" honored. I agree with the part about generations having their own heroes, but I wonder what criteria should be used to define a hero. For the sake of symmetry, let's explore:
I think it's fairly clear that Grant was honored by having his face on U.S. currency not because of his presidency, which was lackluster to say the least, but for his service to the Union Army during the Civil War. Indeed, the Union may not have survived at all if not for Grant.
I would put Reagan's presidency in the same category as Grant's ­­ lackluster ­­ so it would be safe to say we'd be honoring Reagan for accomplishments before his presidency, when he was an actor in "B" movies.
So, Civil War hero or "Bedtime for Bonzo." You make the call.
I'm not saying there aren't similarities between the political careers of the two men. They both achieved the presidency because of accomplishments in fields other than politics, and both were by all accounts genial souls who surrounded themselves with corrupt administrations that ill-served the citizenry that elected them.
Maybe it's time for our first piece of currency with the faces of two former U.S, presidents. They did move Grant to the left a little when they redesigned the $50 to make it more difficult to counterfeit, so there would probably be room for Reagan on the right if we would move Grant just a little more (they could be transposed, of course, but it's hard to imagine Reagan being to the left of anything). And if the faces were made small enough, we could probably squeeze Bonzo somewhere in between them.
On a serious note, I think there are more deserving modern-era U.S. presidents, should we ever decide to start replacing the faces on our currency. Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower come immediately to mind.
It would be nice if Congress would spend its time trying to help American people make and save more $50 bills, rather than spending large amounts of money changing the appearance of the money itself for no good reason.
That's my two cents ­­ and former president Abraham Lincoln's on both of them.

Country Roads, by Gloria Garman-Schlaefli
While cleaning out a cupboard in my kitchen, I discovered two small glasses tucked into the corner. As I pulled them out to look at them they
brought back memories. They were small and of clear glass, with star burst designs cut into the glass. They were jelly jar glasses.
As a child visiting my grandmothers, they always served us grandchildren orange juice and Kool-Aid in those special glasses. Glasses that came free when jelly was purchased. They were not just any old jelly jar glasses, they were so heavy that if you dropped them they would not shatter the way the modern juice or water glasses do. They were meant to last. At the top of the little jelly jar glass is a lip where the metal lid was once sealed into place. I remember it was always a job to remove the lid to get to the rewarding grape jelly.
My mother also used the free jelly jar glasses and I remember the only thing about those that I didn't like was when they were washed, it was hard to get my hand and rag down into the glass to get it clean. The same happened when it was time to dry them.
The most popular jelly jar that every child enjoyed was the decorated kind. Those mostly came from Welch's. I learned that Welch's made 26 different sets. Their earliest jelly jar glasses showed the favorite television character of every Baby Boomer, Howdy Doody, in 1953. There was Howdy Doody in living color, on those glasses, and of course everyone had to have one. It seems that Welch's became a sponsor of the Howdy Doody television show in 1951. What a promotional idea! After Howdy Doody there was the Davy Crocket jar showing another famous television character brought out of the pages of
American history.
There were the clear glass jelly jar that was called "Early Amercian Prescut Oatmeal" pattern and on ebay these jar glasses are now worth about $8 each. Of course I never had the idea of saving those glasses and collecting them, but it would be a good idea that if in the back of your kitchen cupboard you had a Howdy Doody glass, you should treasure it as it's now worth about $25.
There were the Welch's jelly jars that featured the characters from Archie Comics, Tom and Jerry characters, and there were even those for adults that had printed colorful horses pulling carriages, and tulips, or daisies all around the glass.
In the 60s Welch's came out with the Flintstone jelly jars and in the 70s there were the glasses that featured the characters of the Looney Tunes, including Foghorn Leghorn, Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. I sure remember those. I remember purchasing the jelly and keeping those for my boys to drink out of.
In 1998, the glasses showed the Muppet characters, and in 1995 the Welch's company featured 12 endangered animals on their jars of jelly. The following year, they had the Dr. Seuss jelly jars.
As recently as 2000, Welch's came out with yet another jelly jar with Pokemon, and it is thought in time it too will increase in value.
Somewhere out there is a jelly jar that should be treasured and it is a rare one ­­ Clark Kent changing into Superman ­­ with a recent high internet auction bid of $130. Just think, that was once a free jelly jar.
I quickly put the two small jelly jar glasses back into my cupboard. I think I will keep those.