With an angry Russian Bear upsetting world affairs, it is difficult to follow the usual format for Notebook entries. Hopefully, the current war can be contained in Europe but it could easily become WWIII. With much of the West focused on what the Russians on doing, Iran may decide now is a good time to invade Israel, North Korea could use the same logic to go after South Korea and Communist China could invade Taiwan.

But we must be careful to not worry ourselves sick about what might happen. We must remember God is in control and we must wait to see what he allows to happen.

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So lets look back on a simpler time after the conclusion of World War II. A time when young men were expecting a great future and the state basketball tournament was being played in Lincoln.

It was a Friday evening in March of 1949. Some of the Hardy High School senior boys grew tired of shooting pool at the Hardy Pool Hall and decided on a quick trip to Superior to check out the girls.

Dane Edwards, Lawrence Bouray and Leon Jensby piled into Spud Hobson’s 38 Chevrolet and headed for Superior. They cruised about Superior but it was Friday night and the town was pretty quiet. The headlights on Spud’s car went out but young guys didn’t see that a problem. It was a moonlight night and at the best the lights on a 38 Chevrolet were not good for that model of automobile did not come with sealed beam headlights.

From my early days at my family’s gasoline station, I remember the box of assorted headlight bulbs kept on a high shelf in the northwest corner of the station office. They looked much like what we today use for parking or tail lights. They were a little better than the acetylene gas lamps the Model T used for headlights or the kerosene lamps used for side and tail lights but nothing like the LED bulbs of today.

I suspect the Hardy guys were used to making do with lights we no longer consider to be adequate.

They weren’t worried as they left Superior and headed to Hardy on what I suspect was the graveled South 3 Highway. The talk turned to the Nebraska State Basketball Tournament. The finals were coming up the next day.

As it was after midnight, they all decided it was time to find their way home....but then there was another suggestion...how about going to Lincoln to see the tournament finals?

The car had nearly a full tank of gasoline and the moon was shining brightly... they could make the trip without headlights.

They found their way east to Fairbury, then north to Highway 6. If they saw a vehicle approaching, they pulled off onto the shoulder and waited until it passed. The only excitement was when a train traveling on the track beside them suddenly crossed the highway in front of them. No headlights equated to not seeing the warning signs but they got stopped in time to avoid a car-train collision.

They arrived in Lincoln in the wee hours of the morning, found a hotel where they could rent a cheap room and slept until game time.

By mid-afternoon, it was starting to get cloudy which meant no full moon so they all piled into the old Chevrolet and headed home, without lights of course.

Their story reminds me of a 1974 Chevrolet I had. It was the newest vehicle I have ever owned. Though I was the second owner, it had less than 500 miles on the odometer when I drove it off the dealer’s lot.

The car ran well but it was hard on headlights.

I could fill this entire page with stories about times when that vehicle’s headlights failed. Some people travel with extra tires or extra oil. I learned to travel with extra sealed beams. Once while returning to Superior from watching the Nebraska Cornhuskers play the Kansas State Wildcats, a trooper pulled me over west of Miltonvale to report I had a low-beam headlight out.

I assured him I had extras in the trunk and I could soon fix the problem it he would turn his patrol car around and let me use his headlights.

He didn’t think that a good idea for he was eager to get home after being called to Manhattan to help with traffic control. He suggested I just take it easy and go on to Concordia where I could change headlights under that community’s street lights.

Another night I was in Nelson covering a football game when both low beams burned out. All I had to go home with was high beams and Highway 14 was closed for construction.

I had planned to take a back road home but was afraid my high beams might blind an approaching driver. So I drove around the barricades and travelled the closed highway. Had to watch for construction equipment and construction locations. I found ways around the obstacles and didn’t meet another car on the road home.

Another time I was in Ruskin for a football game when I discovered the alternator (or perhaps the vehicle was old enough to have a generator) was not working. I tried to drive home on just the battery. Thankfully it was a moonlight night for by the time I reached Superior I didn’t have much more than candles for headlights.

Another time an officer stopped me for not having tail lights. He saw my brake lights as I slowed to pull over and allowed me to continue on provided I kept watch in the rearview mirror. Whenever a vehicle approached, I was told to signal my presence by taping the brakes.