Cornhusker football resumes two weeks from Thursday!
So, two more columns unrelated to the Huskers and then the resumption of football memories.
WHAT IF (okay, one mention of the Huskers) the Big Red wins at least ten games this season? How will it affect the program’s long suffering, yet dedicated, fan base?
I WISH to find out!
WHAT IF students did not return to school until after Labor Day?
The pools would remain open longer as lifeguards would not have to be in class. Those late August 90-plus-degree days would offer cool, wet relief for water lovers. Lifeguards would have earned more money for college, etc. We all know they are shorted funds when we hear the announcements in late May that the pool will not open due to cool outdoor and water temps. Yet, in the blistering heat of the year’s eighth month, the recreation and relief are no longer available.
Young people who work in the hayfields, the ranches, for the parks, for businesses and any other type of daytime employment are forced to return to the classroom.
“Fall” sporting events now are played on hot August days and nights.
The Box Butte County Fair ended on August 10. Alliance and Hemingford kids return to the classroom on August 14. So, hardworking 4-H and FFA kids get three days to decompress.
Please don’t tell me that the Box Butte County Fair should be moved to late July. The fair has been held in early August since dinosaurs were used to graze the Hemingford football field. It’s the school systems that are devouring more of summer’s shoreline.
The Alliance Spartans baseball season wrapped up on August 6. The baseball bats will have hardly cooled when their sluggers return to the classroom.
I have heard all the arguments why our kids need to head back to school in mid-August. I griped to the Alliance School Board and administration 15 years ago. All that I accomplished was alienating the administration.
At age 66, I hate back to school as much as I did at age 16.
I guess I am still a kid at heart.
On Sunday, August 10, I drove by Alliance High School and witnessed soon to be seniors painting their parking stalls.
On August 10, 1976, no one would have found me painting my parking stall. First, the driveway was gravel and second, I was probably in a hayfield working with my dad . . . or showing livestock at the Lancaster County Fair.
What aggravates me the most about the earlier back to school dates is that it was my generation that screwed up this whole thing.
I WISH we would quit stealing more of summer from our kids.
WHAT IF I had a penny for every wild sunflower that I observed while driving along Highway Two from Alliance to Broken Bow this past week?
I WISH I had it because it would be donated to Alliance food programs so that nobody would ever to hungry again.
WHAT IF the Nebraska Sandhills would have received ample rain this summer?
I WISH to inform you that I believe it did. While driving home from Broken Bow, I observed dark green grasslands and more hay bales that there are stars in the Grant County skies.
WHAT IF I won the current (as of this writing) 501 million-dollar Powerball?
I WISH I would. Because most of it would be given away.