I received a letter from Laguna, California from Karen (Dempsey) Dennis. (Thank you for the letter!) Her grandparents had the “Dempsey Hotel” that was the Central Hotel at some point in early Marcus history. She sent a picture of her grandmother Mary (Meylor) Dempsey in the garden by the hotel where she raised food she used to prepare for boarders. In the background of the picture, “Dan Collins” name is seen on the next building. The name “Collins” was mentioned and there are 2 sisters (Collins) living in Marcus—Bonnie (Collins) Means and her sister Betty (Collins) Seggerman.
She is looking for a cookbook from the 1930’s that had some food her grandmother prepared for the boarders as well as a sugar cookie recipe her Aunt Lillian had. Zachary did e-mail her that there were books on Fran Zembsch’s sale but not sure if they were cookbooks. I called Bonnie (Collins) Means and asked her if she would happen to have a 1930 cookbook. No, she didn’t. I called the executor of Frannie’s will and asked if there were any cookbooks from the 1930’s on this auction. She said there weren’t any cookbooks that old on the auction. (I know 1930 is quite a few years ago but somewhere there are cookbooks from the 1930’s. Let me know if you might have one.) If you are interested in knowing anything about your family’s past, a local newspaper is really the place where you might find it.
I had a call from someone looking for Larry Mullally’s address in order to send a card to Jo Ellen. I thought they went to stay with a daughter when they left Marcus, but the address that came up was not an address for either of their daughters living in Storm Lake. Zachary got in touch with the funeral home that said to send correspondence to them and they would forward it to Jo Ellen. (I suppose Hippa Act wouldn’t allow them to tell the address!) The address is: Fratze & Jensen Funeral Home 1615 W Milwaukee Ave. Storm Lake, Iowa 50588
Monday was not a good day for me—it was the 13th and you know how anything bad that has happened to me was on the 13th and not always on Friday the 13th! Zachary had some chicken breasts thawed out and I asked if I should put them in the slow cooker. No, he was going to cut them up. (It would have been easier cutting them up after they were done rather than when raw.) He had gotten a recipe from on-line. The cut up chicken went in the 4 qt. slow cooker, 2 boxes of chicken broth and 1 can of chicken broth, cut up baby carrots, onion, and celery as well as a package of frozen noodles. That is when I let him know the noodles would be “mush” if put in this early. The liquid was one inch from the top of the cooker and the ingredients hadn’t even started to cook! I told him there was too much liquid and that I had had a beef roast cook over (all over everything) so I knew there had to be some liquid taken out. I also told him that the vegetables could have been cooked ahead of time as baby carrots are not the same as other carrots. Well, this is what the recipe called for and it wouldn’t cook over.
When he went outside, I took 4 cups of liquid out of it. Before we were ready to go to Sioux City to get vehicle parts, he came back in and put the 4 cups back in. This did not make me happy! When we got down to Hoefling’s corner, he started to go east. He had an apple to give to someone in Cherokee. I reminded him that I had a City Council meeting and wanted to be there no later than 4:45. He would be back well before that time. After leaving Cherokee, he went the back way down through Quimby, etc. to get to Sioux City. Now I was wishing I had stayed home. When he reached the auto shop, it didn’t take him but 5 minutes and we were on the way home—I thought. I was worried about the crock pot. We arrived at the meeting a couple of minutes before 4:45 and glad it was a short meeting. Hurrying home, I found nothing had boiled over, but this will never happen again. This person that put this recipe on-line evidently didn’t know to mention what size of crock pot, and that all of this recipe could have been shortened up by pre-cooking some vegetables ahead of time. Also, I was glad he didn’t put the frozen noodles (like the recipe said) at the very beginning. This recipe of his when served didn’t have much left over, but what was left did turn to mush. Years ago, someone in the morning had brought soup with noodles in it for Lenten Soup Supper to church. That night, no one took of this soup as the noodles had turned to mush. The person that brought it said that because no one had taken from her soup, she wouldn’t be bringing any more soup!
I see where the MMCRU students are collecting denim unwanted/used items to be sent into Cotton.org for recycling into cotton fiber insulation? Blue Jeans Go Green.” They are to be delivered to the High School office by February 24 (Friday). I am going to get rid of whatever I cannot use for patching. If YOU have anything denim you don’t want, now is the time to find a place for your denim.
The MMCRU Royal Girls lost by one point to West Sioux (47-48) that ended their basketball season. With just seconds left, Royals were under the basket hoping for a foul but the buzzer went off and the game was over. It was a good game no matter who won!
After shooting down what was said to have been a Chinese spy balloon, U.S. fighter jets shot down three smaller objects over Canada, Alaska and Lake Huron—the first known peacetime shoot downs of unauthorized objects in U.S. airspace.
Officials stated the search for the small airborne object shot down over Lake Huron stopped and nothing was recovered. Canada and the U.S. failed to recover any debris so far from the other two objects shot down over the Yukon and northern Alaska. Due to their small size and the remote areas where they were shot down, officials state that recovering debris is unlikely.
But who do these smaller objects belong to? An Illinois hobby group wonders if one might have been their radio-equipped balloons. The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade declared one of its exploratory “pico balloons” was missing Wednesday. The last they heard from it came from 38,910 feet above the Alaskan coast on Feb. 10, and was headed toward the Yukon Territory. It was the next day that U.S. officials said an F-22 had downed an object floating over the area at 40,000 feet.
Pico balloons do bear a resemblance to the other two objects that were shot down. They can be as cheap as $12. But the cost of shooting down the unmanned balloons could cost as much as $450,000!
Remember in your thoughts and prayers those who have lost friends/loved ones to death; have had their lives changed, have health problems some of which are terminal, are struggling to make ends meet even though they have a job, help those who desire wants rather than needs that prestige isn’t everything and be with those who are still trying to shorten the distance between family/friends to build a bridge instead of a wall. Count your blessings.
I will close with this quote from Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) American scientist, “We pass through this world but once.”