Our weather continues to have its ups and downs. This week we are experiencing cool weather with unexpected showers of rain. This is perfect growing weather but my garden isn’t doing very well as most of it is still in the sack I brought them home in. My mental garden is doing much better than the real thing. I do have my potatoes planted and some corn so with these showers of rain they should be up soon. I just hope it dries up long enough to get the other things in. Lately, when it is dry enough, the wind blows so hard you can barely stand up out of doors let alone plant tiny seeds! I have a feeling I am going to have a late garden.Things may be looking up, however, as the calendar says summer arrives on June 21. Hopefully, there will be better days for working out of doors before that.You probably all remember the old song, "Mr. Sandman Bring Me a Dream." And maybe that is what I am asking him to do. I would like to ask Mr. Weatherman to send nice weather so my dream of a good garden will come true or at least get started.Pastor Dan and Karen Ramaker spent last week on vacation. They spent some time at Branson, Mo., and also visited a few days with their son, Jeff, in Kansas City. Filling the pulpit in his absence was Cary Radisewitz from Luverne for both the morning and evening worship services. Kenny and Gwen Bodewitz, Valley Springs, S.D., were Wednesday evening callers in the home of his mother, Henrietta Huenink. Orrin and Bernice Aukes attended funeral services for James Vis Tuesday morning at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Worthington. He was the son of Doyle and Shirley Vis, Rushmore, and grandparents were Harry and Mary Vis.The Steen softball team played their first home game on Tuesday evening. They have played other games which were away games. I still have to get a copy of their schedule so we can keep up on how they are doing. Vacation Bible School began Monday in Steen Reformed Church. The theme this year is "Treasures of the Nile." It will be in session all week from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the church so drive carefully when coming into Steen. Mildred Paulson attended the Southwest Area Agency Region state insurance program coordinators meeting at Key Largo near Slayton on Thursday. Orrin and Bernice Aukes attended the Sioux Valley Energy’s annual meeting at the Community Center in Brookings, S.D., Tuesday evening. The meeting began with an evening meal. There were 1,800 in attendance.Melba Boeve’s daughter, Julie Springman, Rachael and Kaley, Melba’s granddaughters from Forest Lake, and Krysta Overlander, Circle Pines, are spending the week in the Melba Boeve home. The girls are attending Bible School in Steen.Isabel Bosch, youngest daughter of Tom and Amy Bosch, Sioux Falls, was an overnight guest in the home of her grandparents, Dries and Laura May Bosch, on Thursday. Friday they met Tom and his other daughter, Emma, at Beaver Creek Drivers Club House where they enjoyed dinner together. Isabel returned home with her father. Art and Henrietta Boeve, John and Jane Bosch and Ferd and Evelyn Tilstra left on Tuesday for West Long Lake Resort where they spent the rest of the week fishing. They returned home on Saturday and reported fishing was good. Dries and Laura Mae Bosch, Cornie and Darlene Bosch and Betty Boeve attended funeral services for their cousin, Joanne Le Laoex at St Catherine Church in Parker, S.D., on Friday.Looking at the calendar I discovered to my surprise that this week there is Friday, June 13. I don’t know how Friday the 13th got such a terrible reputation but I did find some tragedies that have happened on Friday the 13th with a brief explanation of how it got started. I quote:Among the most common of superstitions is that Friday the 13th is a day on which hard luck is apt to fall. It is not certain just what started the idea but a number of ancient beliefs have designated Friday as an unlucky day, and for centuries the number 13 has been considered an unfortunate number. It is no wonder that the combination of these two — Friday and the 13th — is thought to be an ominous day. To substantiate this belief, these tragedies are cited as examples of Friday the 13th bad luck. Friday the 13th of April 1906, a devastating earthquake struck Taiwan.Friday the 13th of September 1907, the steamship Lusitania began its ill-fated voyage. Friday the 13th of April 1923, a huge tidal wave hit the coast of Korea. On the other hand good things have also occurred on that fatal date.The first telephone line for business purposes was opened on Friday the 13th of April 1877. Electric lighting was first tried in London on Friday the 13th of October 1878.The first American unit pushed its way into Achney, Germany, on Friday the 13th of October, 1944.Since I am not superstitious we just have to have faith that everything will turn out right on Friday the 13th this year. We have to have faith and faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark. Good luck to everyone on this Friday the 13th!
