Articles written by Bill Blauvelt

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 By Bill Blauvelt    Columns    March 14, 2024 

Editorʼs Notebook

There is both good news and bad news to report this week. The good news to report this week is the owners of the Agrex Elevator would like to expand and that is also the bad news. The elevator company would like to purchase an acreage near First and...

 
 By Bill Blauvelt    Columns    March 7, 2024

Editor's Notebook

Hopefully, the lack of an operating jail in Nuckolls County is an indication that Nuckolls County folks have become law abiding citizens. In the early days of the county, the jails were busy places. And in some communities among the first public...

 

Editor's Notebook

In this week’s From the Files column it is noted this newspaper’s mail processing crew set a record 50 years ago of 85,00 pieces of mail processed in one week. I don’t remember what all we did that week but in those days it wasn’t unusual...

 

Editorʼs Notebook

Many folks think our weather is behaving strangely. Some believe global warming is changing weather patterns and attribute global warming to the use of fossil fuels. A century or so ago the appearance of Halley’s Comet was blamed for undesirable...

 

Editorʼs Notebook

I firmly believe people who don’t read newspapers are missing out on things they should know. Some people call me a historian and if I am it is because I like to read. It was while reading old newspapers on the weekend that I got the ideas for the...

 

Editor's Notebook

When I began work at The Express, several pieces of equipment more than 70 years old were still in use. Typesetting equipment in daily use ranged from 40 to 50 years old but the process had begun to update the typesetting department. I remember...

 

Editor's Notebook

Saturday evening I was looking at a Jan. 18, 1934, issue of the Lawrence Locomotive, I was surprised to read a story the Locomotive editor had written about a good luck piece that appears to have...

 

Editor's Notebook

I’m trying to learn to write 2024 but as usual it isn’t going so well. When I started to type these notebook entries, I said 2024 in my head but typed 2023 and had to go back and correct my typing. It is safe to say I am a slow learner and slow...

 

Editor's Notebook

This week, while looking over the Jan 7, 1904 issue of a Nelson paper and preparing a story for next week’s issue of the Nuckolls County Locomotive-Gazette, I read a brief story I didn’t expect to find in the county seat paper. It said Will...

 

Editor's Notebook

We can not talk about the sounds of Christmas without mentioning Christmas bells. Many of my younger friends often share their memories of riding around Superior with Santa Claus on his motorized sleigh. Of course that sleight had a sound system...

 

Editor's Notebook

We have a good news story to report this week. In early November the Hebron Journal-Register newspaper published a sad story about a missing cat named Simba. Simba was described as a domestic short...

 

Editorʼs Notebook

In September, a reader of this newspaper shared her concern that today’s students do not understand the significance of September 11 for her son had been wished “Happy 9-11.” She considered such a wish to be inappropriate and said the schools...

 

Editorʼs Notebook

Editorʼs Notebook By Bill Blauvelt While my father would later advertise that he offered tankwagon service, that was a misnomer. Dad offered tanktruck service for his bulk delivery tank was mounted on some kind of truck. His earliest Dodge truck...

 

Editor's Notebook

I enjoyed Saturday’s spring-like weather and appreciate the rain which followed but I am not looking forward to the colder temperatures and the possibility of snow which conclude the forecast for this week. That might be different if I had plans to...

 

Editor's Notebook

Producing a paper has been a bit of a challenge this week for this old editor. I approached Monday with great enthusiasm. During the weekend, I had assembled some interesting copy and I thought I would enter the new week with a good handle on this...

 

Editor's Notebook

Our Kansas subscribers had an opportunity to go to the polls Tuesday and select those who will serve on school boards and city councils. This is an off-year in Nebraska and the polls were closed. That wasn’t the case in Nuckolls County in 1903....

 

Editor's Notebook

Elsewhere in this issue is printed the obituary for Gorman Foley, a retired pastor I have much respect for and former resident of this area, I was in high school when I met Gorman at the Polk Bible Camp near Polk, Nebraska. At the time, he was pastor...

 

Editor's Notebook

Change may not be fast but it does happen. This year I have heard farmers talking about the small, but well developed corn they were harvesting. In at least some of the fields, the ears had filled well but were about the size of the early Fourth of...

 

Editor's Notebook

I’m sure harvesters bringing grain into Superior this fall have been real frustrated by road construction caused delays. While local officials could not require a pre-harvest completion date, they had asked for one and had been told to expect one....

 

Editor's Notebook

In last week's Notebook, I wrote about spelling. I thought the correct spelling was syphon but my word processing program's spell checker changed it to siphon and the dictionary agreed. After reading last week's Notebook entry, a faithful reader and...

 

Editorʼs Notebook

This week the Good Samaritan Society sponsored a fishing program for the residents of their Superior home. I wasn’t there to see it. So I can only guess how it was done. I suspect it was similar to carnival games where the players tried to hook a p...

 

Editorʼs Notebook

The United States Postal System keeps changing. Sometimes for better but not always. Seventy-years ago the post office was flirting with discontinuing twice daily mail delivery in Superior. From reading back issues of this newspaper, it appears the...

 

Editor's Notebook

This week I looked through what was once the main entrance to Brodstone Memorial Hospital but it didn’t look the same. I didn’t see a Gray Lady sitting in the hall welcoming visitors and giving directions. Neither of the Jeans were in the...

 

Editor's Notebook

Mike Combs, a Superior High School classmate of mine, shares my interest in history. Over the years, we have had many a conversation about the history of this area. I have questions about who were the Light Guards of Superior and why. I’ve asked...

 

Editor's Notebook

Last month’s illegal raid by law enforcement officers on a Kansas newspaper has made national news and will long have repercussions. I expect a steep price will be extracted from those who caused the raid. In Nuckolls County, a visit to a Nelson...

 

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