Saturday morning we awoke to a strong (leftover March) wind rattling the storm windows and anything else that was loose enough to move. Predictions were for high winds and dropping temperatures with a possibility of light frost Saturday night. We should be getting used to the sudden changes in our weather pattern — but it is spring. When is the weather going to cooperate and act like spring? At any rate there is a change in our landscape nearly every day. One day it looks like it would never look any different. However, the next day you might think you were on a different road, but no, it is the same one. The brown fields have all been worked up, the pastures are green and filled with cattle casually grazing. The lawns have turned green — so the next job is to check the lawnmower. The farmers are working frantically on their machinery. Some fields have been tilled, but not many. They look just like they did last fall, except the weeds are dead. However, they have been replaced by a new crop of weeds that are all doing very well. They are all in bloom and I could pick a bouquet of them as they are nice and tall with tiny leaves and clumps of white blossoms on them. I think I will wait as the tulips will soon be in bloom and my iris is looking great. The lilac blossoms are ready to pick. Now, that should inspire me to get into the garden and have a change of landscape on my yard! With scenery like this we don’t need to take a very long trip for a change of scenery as we have one every day. Saturday afternoon Mildred Keunen, Joyce Aykens and Jo Aykens attended the retirement party for Paul Aykens in Orange City, Iowa. He has served 27 years as principal of the Orange City High School. Congratulations to him. They also celebrated Paul’s birthday while there. Norma VanWyhe and daughters, Jessica and Gwen, Lester, Iowa, visited in the home of her mother, Henrietta Heunink, on Mother’s Day.Mother’s Day guests in the Orrin and Bernice Aukes home were their children, Orlie and sons Bryan and Dan, Larchwood, Iowa, Steve and Nancy Willers and daughters, Shilo and Dusty, Fairmont, Lisa and Taylor Telford, Sioux Falls, Terry and Christi Aukes and sons, Logan and Dylan, Hills, and Clair and Mary Crawford, Beaver Creek. Joyce Bristow underwent surgery at the Surgical Center in Sioux Falls on Thursday. She returned to her home on Sunday. Steen Senior Citizens met last Monday in the Steen Town Hall. There were 12 present. Games and cards were played and lunch was served. Steven Bosch, son of Dries and Laura May Bosch, spent Mother’s Day weekend at their home in Steen. He arrived on Friday and returned to his home in the Cities on Sunday. Dries and Laura May were his Mother’s Day dinner guests in Luverne. Cheryl Hup and Melba Boeve attended the production of "The Monroe Crossing" at the Palace Theatre in Luverne Sunday afternoon. Others from the Steen area attending were Melvin and JoAnn Paulsen, Laura Paulson and Henry and Carol Zwaan. Malena Boeve entered Luverne Community Hospital last Sunday evening and was transferred to Mary Jane Brown Good Samaritan Center on Wednesday. She had fallen and broken her arm in several places. We wish her a speedy recovery. Mother’s Day dinner guests in the home of Greg and Michelle VanWyhe were Art and Henrietta Boeve, Glen and Ann Boeve and Matthew and Erin.Graduation exercises were Saturday for Christi Elbers, daughter of Marlin and Linda Elbers, and Erin Smith, daughter of Larry and Rhonda Smith, who graduated from Northwestern College, Orange City, Iowa. There was a dinner for the graduates following the ceremony. Audrey Winters, Little Rock, Iowa, was a Saturday afternoon visitor in the home of her mother, Henrietta Heunink.Darlene Bosch underwent surgery at Luverne Community Hospital on Tuesday and was able to return to her home on Thursday.Melba Boeve was a Monday Mother’s Day evening dinner guest of her son Brian and family at the Olive Garden in Sioux Falls. Erin Bosch, daughter of Paula and Diane Bosch, Brandon, graduated from the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, Saturday morning. A reception at Paul and Diane’s home followed the graduation exercises. Dries and Laura May Bosch were guests.National Music Week was observed May 7-14, 1967. That is a long time ago and I have never heard that there was a week set aside for music. I am not sure if it is still observed or not but I think it is a wonderful idea. I can’t help but wonder what has happened to our music. I have enjoyed music probably since the day I was born. I know it was when I was very young and my dad and mom would go dancing at the Ash Creek Town Hall. They would put me to sleep behind the piano and when it was time to go home my dad would wake me up and we danced the last dance before going home. The main objectives for observing National Music Week were to stimulate year-round interest in music and music education and to advance specific local music productions of permanent social and cultural values. What does music mean to you? Fun entertainment, relaxation or an emotional or intellectual experience in the concert hall? Or a chance for self expression? Your primary purpose, however, is a religious one. Music enables people to express feelings that cannot be put into words and to communicate these to others in a truly universal language. Psychologists have noted that some persons, who are entirely unmoved by other modes of religious expression, have discovered profound spiritual insights through music. Each of our friends has his own principal melody. He must be judged by that. It is not what he says or does now and then that is important. It is the melody that comes from his whole life. The harmony he may occasionally manifest may merely serve to give greater emphasis to the beauty of his life at other times. Let us hope that National Music Week will become popular and that it will be observed in many areas for we all know "Life is a song, so let’s sing it together!"
