Amazing the way some things grow and others shrink.

While preparing copy for this week’s Nuckolls County Locomotive-Gazette, I read about the sale of the Mt. Clare pool hall. It’s been a long time since there were enough people in the Mt. Clare community to support a pool hall but evidently in 1920 someone thought there was and purchased the existing business. According to the newspaper account the seller was moving to Pauline where he planned to open a garage. Today Mt. Clare is a ghost town and Pauline is in decline.

Before this week’s rain came and I let a muddy road discourage me, I had planned to visit the Beulah community and perhaps take pictures of the Beulah cemetery. Though the church closed decades ago, the cemetery is still maintained with the assistance of generous donors. However, I am told the number of donors is declining and new ones are needed.

Elsewhere in this week’s newspaper, Kerma Crouse continues her series of stories about post offices that are no more. In some cases the community the post office was opened to serve has totally disappeared and the location of the post office can not be determined as historical records do not agree and there is no physical evidence left that will pinpoint the location.

I personally have been present for the closing of post offices at Angus and Lovewell. I have a postcard with a stamp canceled on the final day of the Angus office. I remember being in Lovewell to watch the dispatch of the last mail. And though I was not present to see the flag brought in for the final time, I remember when the offices at Nora and Bostwick closed.

While our towns have been shrinking and our population declining, other things have been growing.

While working at my desk preparing this week’s newspaper, I’ve observed traffic on Highway 14. This is the time of the year when custom harvest crews are making their annual migration south. Each year it seems their equipment is larger than the year before.

After a cool and wet weekend, when visitors to Lovewell State Park, loaded up and headed home, many chose the all paved route that brought them into Superior via Highway 14. I watched a steady stream of huge rigs pass by.

When my father started selling ski boats in 1958, some were 12 or 14 feet in length. Most were in the 15-foot class. During the 14 years he sold boats, he only sold one new 16-foot boat with an outboard motor. It was one of two boats he thought he would never sell. It was the fanciest boat and most costly boat he stocked and most shoppers passed it up, I worked hard trying to sell that boat because it was my job to keep it washed and waxed. When buyers realized it was 16-feet long and saw the price, their attention shifted to the smaller, less expensive 15-foot models. The most powerful outboard Dad ever sold produced 40 horsepower. If the people knew how to ski, a 15-foot boat with a 30 horsepower outboard could pull two skiers. Thirty-five horsepower was his most popular motor size.

While Dad sold a few 8-foot fishing boats, most fishing boats he sold were 12-foot in length with outboard motors of less than 10 horsepower. I made the mistake of buying some boats I planned to sell for fishing that were even smaller.

About the time we took delivery of my order, I had to submit the copy for his ad in the Superior High School yearbook. Looking for an idea, I decided to feature those little boats. I found two high school girls who were willing to serve as models. We carried the boats over the hill to a pond west of Dad’s store. There I planned to picture the girls sailing. With help to steady the boats, they were able to climb on board without the boats sinking. By sitting carefully without movement on a calm day in a protected pond, they kept the boats afloat long enough for me to snap a picture. But it was obvious the boats were not suitable for use as a fishing vessel. They were so unstable, a bluegill on a fishing line could have pulled them under. That was the only time I tried to put one of the boats on the water.

Instead of fishing boats, I promoted the boats as unique flower planters and eventually they disappeared.

Since the Blauvelts left the boat business, outboards have gotten more powerful and redesigned ramps at Lovewell Lake have made for easier loading and unloading. When compared to what we sold, many of today’s boats are enormous. Dad built display racks so boats could be stacked in his store. Do that today and a lift would be needed to place one of the big boats on a rack.

In 2017 there were nearly 4.2 million powered pleasure boats registered in the United States that were under 16 feet. There were more than 6.3 million registered in the 16 to 26-foot class.

In Kansas there were 83,775 registered boats (this includes both sail boats and boats with motors). In Nebraska there were 87,865 powered boats. At that time, Nebraska did not require the registration of sail boats.

Dad sold a few camping trailers of the pop-up tent style. They were so small, a motorcycle with a proper hitch could have pulled one. He promoted them as being better than sleeping on the ground where it was easier for the varmits to check out the camper’s bed roll. Today’s camping trailers are larger than the mobile homes some of the workers who constructed Lovewell Lake lived in.

While campers and boats are getting larger, I don’t see how today’s owners can have any more fun with them than I had with the smaller ones.