tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20637018.post114779430641596334..comments2024-03-09T13:49:36.566-06:00Comments on Prairie Bluestem: District 44 at Johnstown, NebraskaGenevieve Netzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08004780820713448880noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20637018.post-1147821211700260612006-05-16T18:13:00.000-05:002006-05-16T18:13:00.000-05:00I'm so glad you are familiar with the exploits of ...I'm so glad you are familiar with the exploits of our noble Freddy, greatest of the talking pigs. It's encouraging.<BR/><BR/>Patrushka and I have driven that Route 2 you mention out to Alliance. I agree that it is a beautiful and peaceful drive. However, this trip we plan to turn south after Red Cloud and head for Lincoln County Kansas to see if we can find Amy Babcock's grave. <BR/><BR/>Some busy geneologists posted online the entire 1885 census for Lincoln County, KS and I was able to find my ancestors and determine which township they lived in. Pretty cool. So we are going to have a looksee.<BR/><BR/>I really enjoy your stories.Christopher Newtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03040506750850825847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20637018.post-1147814332218328502006-05-16T16:18:00.000-05:002006-05-16T16:18:00.000-05:00Tom, Betty, and Flip were imitation Dick, Jane, an...Tom, Betty, and Flip were <I>imitation</I> Dick, Jane, and Spot characters? Surely not! :D<BR/><BR/>By the way, I read dozens of "Freddie the Pig" books from the library when I was a kid. I even owned one called <I>Freddie's Perilous Adventure.</I> The reason I owned it was that I left it outside in the rain. <BR/><BR/>After you leave Red Cloud, Nebraska, (Willa Cather's childhood home), you should take Highway 2 from Grand Island to Alliance. It is a beautiful, soul-refreshing drive through the southern side of the Nebraska Sandhills.<BR/><BR/>Many things from my childhood seem old-fashioned and quaint when I write about them. But I assure you that one-room schools in the Nebraska Sandhills with only a handful of students still exist, and ranch families still live out in the hills, miles from even a paved road. There are just fewer than there used to be. <BR/><BR/>When I took my kids to Nebraska a few years ago, we were driving through the hills north of Arthur where it is still beautiful open Sandhill prairie, and we saw a road sign that pointed to a ranch 20 miles off the highway, somewhere out in the hills. The kids said they had <I>seen the sign</I> that pointed to the middle of nowhere, even if they hadn't been there yet. :DGenevieve Netzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08004780820713448880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20637018.post-1147800867266862642006-05-16T12:34:00.000-05:002006-05-16T12:34:00.000-05:00Thank you for this lovely little picture of what s...Thank you for this lovely little picture of what seems like a life lived long ago in a far away place. Yet it was in my own lifetime and I remember that same reader - with imitation Dick and Jane and Spot characters. I liked them anyway.<BR/><BR/>You have a direct connection to the world of Willa Cather and, before her, Laura Ingalls Wilder. How really special and wonderful.Christopher Newtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03040506750850825847noreply@blogger.com