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The Woodbine Twiner
August 10, 2011
Editorial
“A newspaper is a circulating library with high blood pressure.” ~Arthur Baer
CHAMBER CONNECTION WOODBINE MAIN STREET-CHAMBER MAIN STREET OFFICE
Volunteer rate: High in Woodbine, High in Iowa Thank you. Iowa Governor Terry Branstad announced this month that for the second year in a row, Iowa has achieved the second-highest volunteer rate in the nation with 37.9 percent of Iowans devoting time to help others in 2010. That surpasses the 2008 rank of fifth, according to the recent Volunteering in America report released by the Corporation for National and Community Service. “Volunteers are an amazing resource, and no state has more devoted or more passionate volunteers than Iowa,” said Governor Branstad. “I am honored to tout this recognition on behalf of all Iowans who are making a tremendous difference in our state.” Woodbine Main Street echoes that sentiment; the program simply doesn’t exist without the volunteers. With only one part-time staff person and a lot of activities (grant reports, agendas, work plans, market studies, minutes, reports, fundraising, planting, planning, promoting, designing, and building), a successful Main Street Community is nothing without its dedicated volunteers. Last week, due to volunteer efforts in every facet of the program, Woodbine once again met the criteria: WE’RE PROUD TO BE A 2011 NATIONAL MAIN STREET COMMUNITY. In Woodbine, it is almost a certainty that many of the people you meet coming out of the grocery or that you visit with in line at the bank are signed up for at least one volunteer commitment. Volunteering our energy makes our community and school sustainable…a place future generations can call home. The percentage of Iowans mentoring youth has increased from 17th to fourth in the nation over the last few years. Woodbine TeamMates, a wonderful organization which sprang from the Horizons Study Circles, matches students and caring adults one hour per day in the school. Those volunteers are making a difference; just one powerful example of Twiner volunteers in action. Iowans devoted a total of 93.4 million hours to volunteering in 2010 and provided more than $2 billion in services to Iowa. Twiners contributed their fair share to those statistics. Since Governor Branstad created the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service in 1994, Iowa has made persistent efforts to build and support a local infrastructure to support volunteerism and strong volunteer management. Nearly 150,000 more Iowans volunteer today than they did in 1989 prior to the creation of the commission. And the most amazing statistic of all? All these volunteers really need is a simple show of support and gratitude. You know who you are. . .and we cannot do it without you! Thank you.
www.woodbinetwiner.com
The Woodbine Twiner Published in Woodbine, Iowa. A Western Iowa Newspaper Group Publication of Midlands Newspapers, Inc. Nikki Davis – Editor ndavis@woodbinetwiner.com Loyal Fairman – SALES Coordinator loyal.fairman@woodbinetwiner.com Daryn Morriss – Account Representative daryn.morriss@woodbinetwiner.com Mary Lou Noneman – Production Supervisor marylou.noneman@woodbinetwiner.com P.O. Box 16 • Woodbine, Iowa 51579 Phone – 712-647-2821 Fax – 712-647-3081 E-mail – news@woodbinetwiner.com Official Newspaper for the City of Woodbine and the Woodbine Community School District. Periodical Class Postage Paid at Woodbine, IA 51579 USPS 690-340
SUBSCRIPTION RATES College/Academic (9 Months) – $24.00 Senior Citizen (62 or older) in Harrison County – $33.00 Harrison County, Panama, Portsmouth & Moorhead – $40.00 Rest of Iowa and Nebraska – $43.00 U.S. Outside of Iowa and Nebraska – $47.00 All items, including ads and news articles, intended for publication in this newspaper must be received AT the Woodbine Twiner office by NOON the preceding Friday. LETTERS POLICY: The Woodbine Twiner welcomes signed letters to the editor. Letters must include the writer’s telephone number for verification purposes and should contain fewer than 300 words. The Woodbine Twiner reserves the right to edit all letters. Send letters to P.O. Box 16, Woodbine, IA 51579, fax to 712647-3081, or e-mail to news@woodbinetwiner.com. The contents of this newspaper are protected by copyright. Other than non-commercial, personal use of a limited nature, no part of this publication may be copied and reproduced in any way without the prior written consent of the editor.
Do you remember when?
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ant to wander back with me to those days long ago (longer to some of you than will you remember)? Back when grass was what grew on the lawn, and coke was a soda? Back when the ice cream truck’s bell called young and old to enjoy a cold, summer treat? Back before cell phones, internet, i-Pods and even way back before air conditioning and TV? Well here we go! Remember when all the male teachers wore suits and neckties and the females sported dresses and high heels? Mom was home when the kids got home from school? Everybody sat on their front porch in the evenings and “visited” back and forth about the depression, the drought and what that idiot Hitler was up to? When it was a big treat to be taken out to a real restaurant with your parents? When a quarter was a decent allowance, and pennies were still saved? No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, and your doors were never locked? Nothing from the store came with safety caps and hermetic seals, because no one had yet tried to poison some kid on Halloween? Remember when being sent to the principal’s office was nothing compared with what you faced at home if you had misbehaved? Nobody feared for their lives from drive-by shootings, gangs, drugs, etc.? It was safe to walk around town with friends, or even by yourself? Remember Red Rover? Pom Pom Pullaway? Darebase? Catching lightning bugs and putting them in jars? Running through the sprinkler? Refreshing yourself with Kool Aid? Decisions made by “Eeny-meeny-miney-mo? Being toted on the handlebars of that cute neighbor boy’s bike? That that neighbor boy never came home from Omaha
MEANDERINGS LOU WAITE GUEST EDITORIALIST Beach? Race issues meant arguing about who ran the fastest? The worst embarrassment was being chosen last for a team? Water balloons were the ultimate weapon? Running through the dewy grass barefoot? Contemplating life from the old tire swing? Your first day of school and the shiny new shoes of which you were so proud? Learning to dance at someone’s house, where the carpets had been rolled back, and music was provided by a fiddle, a banjo, a guitar and maybe a piano? (The drum beats were provided by those musicians stamping their feet to the music)? Your first prom, and your anxiety that no one would ask you to dance? The thrill when some gangling, teenage boy did? Ah, I could fill the page. But do you ever wish you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace, the innocence, the youthful joy of living, the comfort of being loved and cared for, the surety that God was in his heaven and all was right with the world? How many time have I said it or written it: We remember the times that once were, and will never be again – not in the lives of we who lived them, and not on this earth. And to those reading this, especially you “youngsters,” someday you will reach the autumn of your lives, as I have. And as your winter approaches, as does mine, perhaps you will remember.
Of butter and more ...
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ay one of the Iowa State Fair and I splurged and sampled a deep fried butter on a stick! Yes, that is what I said – fried butter; the most recent strange foodstuff to grace the fairgrounds. Here is a simple recipe: take a stick of real butter and dip it in a cinnamony batter and deep fry it. Slather it with goopy icing and then eat it hot. Although that will likely be my last sampling of this “treat,” I will say it was at least edible … but you really, REALLY have to like butter. Picture a small cinnamon roll with a quarter pound of butter, and you get the idea. But what the heck, the State Fair only comes once a year, and particularly in this, the centennial year of the butter cow, it only seemed right to do. I went to the State Fair to judge 4-H exhibits in agriculture and natural resources. Six of us took two days to evaluate nearly 400 exhibits from around Iowa. That whole experience continues to impress me with the creativity of some of Iowa’s youth, and Harrison
County was well represented! Fair time also lets me touch base with old and new friends and to share experiences with them. State Fair also represents the peak of summer. That itself serves as a minor marker for a few things. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the Japanese beetles that were first reported from the county last year, and posed some questions this year. They will, no doubt, pose even more questions next year. I did get a couple agronomic (corn and wine grapes) questions about Japanese beetle feeding this past month. I mention this because in Iowa experience, there is one generation of beetles that damage plants and those adults die off about at the start of the State Fair. Because we are at the beginning of the Japanese beetle establishment, I can only share with you what has been noticed farther east. In about 2004, central Iowa saw their first beetles. The first two or three years’ infestations were pretty intense. Such an
EXTENSION OFFICE RICHARD POPE Harrison County Extension Program Coordinator ropope@iastate.edu observation is likely twofold: there are few natural defenders and even plant responses to ward off the onslaught, and it is a new thing to observe, which makes it seem more intense. After an initial few years, the beetle barrage seems to become more manageable, and daresay maybe tolerable. State Fair time is also when farmers go to the field and start to assess grain set and begin preharvest planning. I have been in a few cornfields with obvious patchy poor pollination. Likewise, I have been in other fields with really thorough pollination. The bad areas aren’t incredibly bad, just noticeable, and the good tend to be really good. My best bet is that any fields that were at the height of pollen shed and reception when the
week-long oppressive heat struck (think entry day of the Harrison County Fair) may have suffered, but thankfully only a little. Soil moisture is a little dry now but ok throughout most of our area, and irrigation is obvious in the valley. Depending on the next two weeks, most areas away from the Missouri River should be setting up in good shape for the fall harvest. On a final note this week, farmers can learn a bit about soybean leaf diseases that are pretty easy to find now. There is a new threefold publication we have in the office that is a great guide to the common foliar diseases of soybean. Best of all, they are free for now! For more information, contact us at the Harrison County Extension Office at 712 644 2105.
Letter to the Editor DEAR EDITOR: The Iowa State Fair begins Aug. 11 and runs through Aug. 21. I encourage all to attend the Iowa State Fair and see for yourself why Midwest Living magazine named the event one of the “Top 30 things Every Midwesterner Should Experience.” It ha also been featured in the New
York Times best-selling travel book “1000 Places to See Before You Die.” The fair has something for all ages from food, music, animals, exhibits, midway and much, much, more. From 2002 to 2009, Fair attendance was over 1,000,000 visitors each year. The fair educates and entertains people
from every walk of life. Did you know that the first fair was held in 1854 in Fairfield, with an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 people in attendance? It moved to Des Moines in 1878 and the fairgrounds and adjoining 160 acres of campgrounds are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Visit www.iowastatefair.org for more about the fair. This is a wonderful tool for planning your fair itinerary. Take a day or two out of your busy schedule, relax and visit the Iowa State Fair. You will not be disappointed! SINCERELY, Leonard Johnson Missouri Valley