RecordNordheim
Nordheim News
GOD first...Heavenly Father, so many times we have misplaced something. It could be a letter or a cherished keepsake. Sometimes it will show up and it will be found and sometimes it will be lost forever. Lord, keep us from being lost. Help us find what is only strayed or neglected, so that we will find, thru Your Amazing Grace, the ever-powerful hope in Jesus as we pray in His name. Amen.
Pray for those who are grieving, ill, suffering, or are in harms’ way.
An army general call the battalion mess hall looking for a Master Sargent. A private answers the phone. “I don’t know where that fricking Sargent is. He’s probably kissing the Generals’ behind about now.”
The General flies into a rage. “That’s not how you speak to me on the phone! Do you know who I am?”
The private says, “Do you know who I am?”
The General says, “No, I don’t,” The private says, “Well, good.” and hangs up the phone.
A lot was going on these past few weeks. Before Christmas, my brother’ wife, Virginia, gives me a call and tells me that my brother Bob was taken to the hospital in Austin. All my brothers, sisters and spouses were going to meet at a place and celebrate at Christmas time as we usually did. Then a few days later, the doctors at the hospital said he had pancreatic cancer. They then moved him to a temporary center in Georgetown, where with my two sons, we went to see him on a Friday. They took him home for his final days and I went back on Sunday evening and he was still talking to me sensible and the next day, God called him. He was, the first one of six in our closeknit family, to leave us. He grew up as a Lutheran and when he got married, Virginia, his wife, changed him into a darn good Catholic. Memorial services were held last Tuesday at St. Helen Catholic Church in Georgetown.
Since the Twelve days of Christmas is almost over, I drove down Broadway Street reminiscing about what our town looked like back in the 1950’s. I thought of Mayor Walter Laging, Ed Wagner, Stirls’ Mobil Station, Broadway Bar, Shultzes Red and White, Charpentiers Confectionary, Schuenemann Western Auto, First National Bank, The old fire station, Jakes Backery, Amos and Andy Cafe, Janssen’s International Implement & Hardware, Kolodzielczyk Baarber Shop, C.B. Dean’s Tin Shop, Dr. Scheffler Dentistry, Rancho Grande Bar, Travis Semper Garage & Gas, Shooting Club, Nordheim High School, Dr. Boehtel Office, Emely Wolf Cafe, Rogge Gas Station, Si Lee’ Conoco Station, Fred Schueneman Bar, Lumber Company, and one or two I can’t remember. I parked in the middle of Broadway and looked at the beautiful Cedar Christmas Tree all lit up and standing so lonely all by itself.
It was a still morning on Jan. 8, the fog was thick for 2 mornings, but this morning at 5:30am, it was clear. No cars on the street. Just an eerie silence. I felt a deep sadness, but I thanked GOD for all the beautiful memories that still linger in my mind of all the people who were in Nordheim during that time.
As I drove to the Lutheran Parish Hall to make coffee for Kaffee Klatch, I thought I might get the 15 people that came this morning at 9 o’clock to ask them about what they remember but we’ve done this so many times before. A lot of them grew up here and I spent a better part of my life here too. Some had left but returned to be able to share their experiences and lives. Junior and Myrtle Janssen and I started Kaffee Klatch some 25 years ago and Myrtle’s mind is still sharp in her middle 90’s. What will the new year bring? Who knows?
See you next week.
