by Elaine Rassel

Wasn’t that wind something the other day! It wasn’t surprising that Nebraska was getting tornado and bad weather reports. It was so strong that you really had to hold on to a door (house or car door) or lose it. It was colder also and it was time to turn on the heat for a little bit, just enough to warm up the house.
I read in a local newspaper of a former resident, Sara Olson, who was honored in Des Moines during the Iowa Tourism Awards Luncheon as part of the Iowa Tourism Conference recently. Sara graduated from MMC in 2010 even though it doesn’t seem that long ago! She has done well as education director for Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux City in spite of COVID in 2020. Congratulations to her! (After I had sent this article to Marcus News, I opened up the S C. Journal and saw there was a story there about her, also.)
School events are winding down. Thursday (May7) the MMCRU (Marcus) Elementary classes TK-4th grades had their Spring Concert. I was told the program would start at 7 p.m. Steve and I decided if we were going to get a place to park/sit in the gym, we would have to be there at 6 p.m. When we arrived at that time, there were cars all over! Inside the gym, there were people everywhere. We thought this was unusual to have that many people there that early. At 6:30 p.m. the music director had the Tk and Kindergarten kids line up on stage. All the other classes stood up and we all began to sing the National Anthem. After that, the program began. It was a 6:30 p.m. program, not a 7 p.m. one. We were thankful we were there that early.
The kids did well. For me, it was hard to understand what they were singing, as they were all wearing masks. Their words were muffled. I was glad they had programs that we could follow that named the names of the songs. Some songs, they weren’t singing but made use of sticks, etc. to make music.
Friday from 3:30 to 6 p.m., the FFC students were having a sale on the greenhouse plants they had been growing. We could also check out their shed north of the greenhouse. I didn’t get to the Friday one and on Saturday, it was raining so didn’t get to this one either.
Zachary and Bethany were mowing and trimming later on so I had plenty of time to get supper ready. I made the French Onion recipe we had at the Marcus Fair Community Cooking School (2019). After I had everything in the oven that would take over an hour to be ready, I decided I was going to call Sandra Johnson. She is the person that this recipe came from. I tried to call twice and (on my end) couldn’t even get a phone tone. I wondered if long distance wasn’t working so I tried another long distance call to another person and this time it worked. I don’t know why I couldn’t even get a a”ring” to Sandra except sometimes there are too many calls for the circuit. I had forgotten that there were probably “Mother’s Day” calls to many people.
The Industrial Tech students are going to show the public what they have made during the year. Outdoor projects included a garage (right across from the school) and a play house that made a little girl very happy. They are going to have this open house on Saturday, May 15 until Noon.
I was reading The MMCRU Insider and saw Tyler Rueter’s picture. His write-up had something that we don’t see very often_never having a detention throughout high school. I wish my kids could say that! You might think it is only boys that detention happens to_well, girls can be guilty of that, too. It brought back a memory of when Floyd took Jennifer to high school one day. That night he sat out in front waiting for her when a boy came along and said she hadn’t been in school so he wouldn’t have to wait for her. That did it!
The next morning, he took her again but this time shut off the car. She asked him what he was getting out of the car for. “I am going to visit school,” he said. Once inside, he went to see Principal Bride who let Floyd know that Jennifer had left school after he had left her off. She and a relative had been seen a few places (out of town) that day by other people that worked at the school. She was called into the office while Floyd was there. She had to serve detention for 3 days and count bricks in the wall! She was upset with Floyd and all he could say was, “You made a fool out of me, and now you can serve the consequences.”
Jesse went to Bensen’s kindergarten class on Monday with his “bee” equipment along as the class was on the “B” letter. I understand they could taste some honey that Amber had brought along. The kids got to go up in his truck that he had brought along.
I was at a well-known restaurant in S.C. the other day. We hadn’t been there ever since COVID came. After a couple with a child (sat in a high chair) left, a person came along and wiped down the table, then to the high chair, then to the table, again and then to the booth seats_all with the same cloth! There was another booth that received the same “wipe down”. The kids think it is stupid that I put a napkin on the table under the plate. I don’t want to have someone else’s hind-side on the table. One of these days a health inspector (incognito) is going to let this place know about using the same cloth.
It was Mother’s Day today. Here’s hoping you were remembered. I never want anything wrapped and tied with a pretty bow. My kids know what I want more than anything I hope it happens before it is too late.
I will leave you with this quote from Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet:
“Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.”