Gone

Phooey. My friend Mike Hendricks and his “Mike at Night” column have departed the area. Gone back to his home in Russelville, Arkansas and back to family. I’ll miss his acerbic wit used to razz me and all us of conservative political bent. I was pleased to read in his final column for the Gazette a nice tribute to your humble columnist for the jousting that we have done over the years. Blessings to you Mike, friend. May the rest of your life be in pleasant surroundings of family and friends.

Several friends have been razzing me about having no Democrat to challenge my conservative point of view now that Mike is gone. Actually a positive benefit of our entire political system in this country is the give and take of differing opinions. Opinions shared without rancor. At the moment it isn’t quite that way on the national scene but hopefully things will change for the better in the future. Now on the local scent surely there is a reader or two that will challenge my conservative views, as Mike did, on a regular basis. Any takers?

Many of you dear readers know that a good group of volunteers gather in our unheated garage to pack the boxes that Grannie Annie sends to her seven adopted Chaplains deployed to political hot spots around the world. Somehow the weather outside does not always cooperate and it gets cold in our humble garage as well as outside. I envisioned a solution and went to beg the use of an infrared heater from Todd Cappel of Cappel Sales Inc. Truck & Equipment. You may have heard Cal Siegfried’s catchy ads for the business on the radio. “Joe Biden on a skateboard“ and Rosie doing equally improbable things all in jest and good fun.

Well Todd did not disappoint and in short order one of his brand new efficient infrared area heaters appeared in our garage set up and serviced by a couple of his employees. Good on ya Todd. That isn’t the end of the story however. Being no longer a farmer or cattle feeder I had not been to Todd’s place of business in years.

What a pleasant surprise. Along the highway just short of Perry one can notice his array of hay handling equipment and cattle feeding machines sitting on a neatly groomed yard. In his shop and place of business about a mile north one finds a friendly office and adjacent clean and neat shop with everything, tools, spare parts etc. all arranged neatly and attractive to the eye. Immaculate. Well done Mr. Cappel and crew.

This column is written at the close of a busy Veteran’s Day. Grannie Annie and I attended the McCook Central School, Grade School and High School veterans’ events all of which were very well done.

I’ve been thinking that during my days of school Veteran’s Day was no big event. It was remembered in passing but I recall no special events as we had today. Then came the Vietnam War which was marked by riots and demonstrations by mostly cowards and draft dodgers who selfishly and violently resisted being drafted and sent to defend our country. Those same malcontents then “cut off their pony tails, donned a tie and went to Washington D.C. to run our government” (I borrowed that one!) and we have the dysfunctional mess that we see regularly on the nightly news. Impeach our duly elected president is their current aim. The far left candidates that they have put forth to be our next president are of a socialist bent just like the Communist government that we were fighting in Vietnam. In my opinion about any of them will be a disaster for our way of life if one of them gets elected next year.

There is a glimmer of hope and it lies with the youth that I noticed in all the Veteran’s Day events that I observed today. Veterans of all stripes, old and not so old, were recognized for their service. There were no anti-war protesters present or even alluded to. All was positive and upbeat.

Hopefully the upbeat appreciation for all those who served will leave a positive impression that our youth of today will carry with them when they become the politicians of our future. One can only hope.

That is the way that I saw it.

Dick Trail