Finding Out What Friends Are For

By Dennis L. Morgan

Publisher 

Old friends go together like bookends.

I think it was Paul Simon or Art Garfunkel who penned those words more than 30 years ago and they seemed appropriate this past weekend when our friends Tim and Kathy came to visit us.

This isn’t the first time they’ve been to Elgin, and I’m sure it won’t be the last, but it was one of those weekends none of us will forget for awhile.

Our friendship is one of the long-lasting variety, dating back 24 years to the day Tim walked in my office and asked me to attend a Rotary meeting over the noon hour on a Wednesday in Grant. For any of you who don’t know what Rotary is, it is a service organization made up of business persons in a community. Started years ago by a man with the name Paul Fellow, Rotary was formed to allow business people to meet one hour a week for fellowship because, as a rule, they are very busy and don’t have the time to get to know their counterparts up and down the street.

Anyway, the friendship grew from those rather humble beginnings. We took vacations together, followed the Huskers together, shared ownership in a boat at Lake McConnaughy. We’ve survived our political differences, choosing to focus on common beliefs as opposed to those which separate us.

They came to Elgin Friday so Tim could play in a golf tournament down in Albion on the Review golf team. Golf comes easily to him, not as easy to me, and its a work in progress for Christy and Jenny from Neligh who rounded out our team.

Why wise adults will play 18 holes of golf in heat and humidity is a question non-golfers ask often in the dog days of summer. I don’t have a good answer, but I think its all about trying to master a game which can never be mastered. To hit a golf ball and make it do what you want it to do requires a perfect swing, good balance and a degree of good fortune depending on where your ball is sitting on the grass. By the end of the afternoon, our team’s golf bags’ had precious few good shots left in them. But, another thing you learn about golf is it’s not about winning or losing. Teams who don’t win have just as much fun as the teams who do win, especially when its’ all for a good cause.

The wives spent Saturday doing what ladies do best — shopping. Going from one store to another, always looking but not always buying. The whole day was spent talking about this and that, talking about friends in common and strangers either one or the other has never met. One likes to play golf, the other not as much. Both like to see us play golf because that means while we’re away, they can do and say whatever they want.

What they ended up doing Saturday night was making red raspberry/jalapeno jelly while we lamented what had transpired at the Albion Country Club, vowing to do better next time.

On Sunday morning, after breakfast and a few more exchanges of stories and ideas, they headed home. They were impressed by Elgin. But, then again, who isn’t impressed with Elgin? After all, some towns are bigger, some are smaller, but none are better.

******

As we have announced in the last few editions of the Elgin Review, we are a new dimension to the newspaper in a new direction in order to better serve our loyal subscribers.

First, in the coming weeks, we will be initiating a new program whereby persons who subscribe to the print edition will also be able to view the complete newspaper online. Currently, our website, www.elginreview.com, features a sampling of what’s in the paper each week. Beginning soon, all will have an opportunity to log in and view the paper. After a trial period for all to see what we’re talking about, it will only be available to subscribers. Persons wishing to learn more about on-line subscriptions can contact the newspaper office for further details.

The second initiative for all to participate in will be the ability to view and purchase newspaper photos online from dotPhoto. Each week the newspaper shoots a large number of photographs of which only a fraction appear in the newspaper. However, with the addition of dotPhoto, all newspaper photos will be downloaded so that readers can go online, view photos they would like to have, then order them on-line.

Currently there are pictures from Vetch Days, the St. Boniface School Alumni Banquet, and Bartlett’s Q125 parade which can be viewed. When school starts back up, there will be sports photos to pick and choose from each week. These innovations weren’t available when we purchased the Elgin Review more than three years ago from the Dickersons. 

Now, we’re glad to provide these services to our readers. Check’em out!