Our weather continues to be unpredictable! This last week we experienced several days of below zero temperatures. Fortunately we did not receive the heavy snow that had been predicted for this area. We did have about an inch of snow that gave us a blanket of white for several days. The roads remained in good driving condition, so we lucked out there. I love birds but I have never learned their habits, or when they know it is time to go south for the winter or when spring is about to arrive. However, I am still seeing flocks of birds gathering together and I am wondering if they are just getting ready to go to their winter homes. Whatever it is, they are not keeping it a secret as they are chattering nosily to each other. We have many residents who prefer to wait until after the holidays to go south. Perhaps these birds are like them and decided to wait until after the holidays! Who knows!Steen Senior Citizens had their January meeting on Monday afternoon at the Steen community building. Lunch was served by Cornie and Darlene Bosch. The afternoon was spent playing games and cards. Jo and Joyce Aykens were guests in the Paul and Carole Aykens home in Orange City, Iowa, on Friday to help Jo’s great-granddaughter, Jadeyn Veldkamp, celebrate her third birthday. She is the daughter of Susan Veldkamp of Orange City. Other guests were Bill and Ann Mihnick and sons Noel, Will and Paul, and Marilyn Vander Kooi and daughters. Dorothy Bos underwent same day surgery on Friday, Jan. 9, at McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls. We wish her a speedy recovery. Dries and Laura May Bosch were Sunday evening supper guests in the home of their son, Paul and Diane Bosch, at Brandon. Other guests were their son, Eric, and Nathan and Erin Bosch, Sioux Falls. Our deepest sympathy goes out to the family of Bernard Van Batavia who passed away recently in Arizona. Funeral services for him were at the American Reformed Church in Luverne on Saturday. Norma VanWyhe, Lester, Iowa, was a Sunday afternoon visitor in the home of her mother, Henrietta Huenink. The sacrament of baptism for Kenadi Jo, daughter of Kathy and Randy Fick, was in Steen Reformed Church Sunday morning. Ken and Gwen Bodewitz, Sioux Falls, were Saturday evening supper guests in the home of his mother, Henrietta Huenink. There is something about the holiday season that brings back many memories of the days gone by. Many refer to them as the "Good Old Days." When I think back, they really were good even though we had to do without many things. There was no electricity in rural areas. Most of the rural roads were not even graveled. People from those years were not in a hurry to get things done. What they did care about was doing things well. Many of us can remember going to the confectionary (ice cream parlor) where there were always fresh candies, salted nuts and of course, the best malted milk shakes in town. Many made their own ice cream from scratch and people would come from miles around to purchase their favorite flavor. The owner knew everyone by name and made it a point of being there. The saying was "Nobody runs a business like the owner," which everyone strongly believed in those days.Those years money was a very precious commodity and also very hard to come by. Consequently, they had the strange habit of paying cash for things. Credit was very hard to come by. There were no easy payments or interest charges. It was just plain cold hard cash. They paid cash for their cars and some even paid cash for their homes. The philosophy those days was "if you can’t pay cash for it, you can’t afford it. My, how times have changed! Nothing was thrown away during those years. If you were driving a nail into something and it bent you did not throw it away — you straightened it. I can still see my father doing that. I tried it once but I didn’t have the right know how. People those days had a way of looking you right in the eye when they were talking to you. However, it made some people uncomfortable but it was an honest way of communicating. In other words it was hard for someone to purposely deceive you when you were eyeball to eyeball. More people in those years had morals. They were curious, friendly, not rude, thoughtful, not callous. They are and were, in short, more human — and not as computerized as they are today.So, even though we do not long for the "Good Old Days," sometimes we long for the "Good Folks" from those "Good Old Days."
