Can’t you imagine the tremendous job of downsizing your home to apartment living? It’s often done in stages. We bring on the initial visit what we really need and then keep going back to get more. At present we’re giving Alice a bad time. She’s in the process of getting ready for an auction. Every time her family takes her to her home in Larchwood, she comes back with a chair, an armload of clothes and lots of little treasures she’s sure she can’t be without. We have been fortunate to receive lots of garden produce but we’ve no pan to cook them in so Alice, on her last trip home, brought us a big canner just right for sweet corn. She didn’t forget me either. I sew lots of fabric together to make quilt tops for Lutheran World Relief. This makes linty clothes so Alice solved that by bringing me those big aprons of yesterday that cover wonderfully. No more threads to be picked from shirts or slacks. Great.As you know we’re going through old Crescents helping Erma with her museum scrapbooks. This is so time consuming for we have to read all the time and then share with the others what we learned. Here’s an interesting quote from the Crescent regarding 1899."The people of Hills were surprised and deeply grieved last Thursday afternoon when the news came over the wire that F.C. Hills, after whom our town was named, had died at his home in Sioux City, Iowa, at 2 p.m., his death being caused by a grievous mistake in eating breakfast food mixed with arsenic for the purpose of poisoning rats.Fredrick C. Hills was born at Bethersden, England, Jan. 23, 1842, and came to America with his parents in 1849. He received a good academic education. He remained on a farm in New York until the age of 15 when he served an apprenticeship at the carriage trimmer’s trade. In 1862, when the Civil War broke out, Mr. Hills enlisted as a volunteer and after serving for three months was discharged for physical disability.In March 1864, he came west to Sioux City. Mr. Hills soon won his way to the front as a successful railroad man, and in 1889 when the Sioux and Northern Railroad Co. was organized, he accepted the position of president and general manager ... It was during his reign as president that the Sioux City and Northern was built from Sioux City to Garretson S.D., and when the new station, now known as Hills, was located the farmers adjoining the station were given the privilege of naming it.Oslo was agreed upon, but it was soon learned that there was already a town by this name in the state. In the meantime, the railroad officials had named it Anderson after Goodmund Anderson who was taking a good deal of interest in the new town. This, however, displeased some and a new meeting was called and the town renamed Hills after Fredrick Clark Hills."The piano man is here. Dave and Alta’s son Miles is visiting. How we enjoy his noon hour concerts. On one occasion he had a couple silly words for Sioux City Sue."Her hair is greenHer eyes are redI wouldn’t change youFor Uncle Fred."Or how about"Her hair is redHer eyes are greenShe’s the darnest messI’ve ever seen."The Olson’s have an attendant occasion. One is Evie Kephart who brought her young son Harlan Kurrasch to meet us. He had just returned from spending two months on the streets of Iraq. He will return to Fort Benning, Ga., until his discharge in December.Emil Feucht has moved to the Tuff Home for he is in need of more care. We’ll miss his jokes and tootsie rolls but we’ll see him often and am glad he’ll get good care to help him get better.I’ll keep you posted.
