And then I wrote...
by Dick Schilling, Editor Emeritus
... that this is being written on Memorial Day, and if there ever was an argument for climate change, today provides it. It seems the climate is changing about every half hour. Rain, sun, then rain, then sun again.
Used to be, when I was active with this newspaper, that the weather Memorial Day would be of concern to me. Would rain stop the parade? The cemetery ceremony? Would it be too hot for comfort? Cold enough to call for a jacket? It required newspaper coverage, come what may.
Then in later years, since I had been living with jet aircraft for over three years with the Navy, the fly-over by the Air National Guard jets out of Des Moines was the highlight of the day. An anti-military national administration took the jets away, in favor of drones, and somehow, a drone fly-over wouldn’t excite me.
In fact, the Des Moines Register this morning reprinted a pair of front page cartoons by the late Ding Darling from 70 years ago showing a group of ghost-like soldiers looking down, with the caption asking if “they come back remembering what we alas forget.” Still a good question.
I had occasion to travel though parts of Allamakee County one recent day, and the beauty of a spring in the area was vividly reflected. “How many colors of green” the poet once asked, and scenic Allamakee in the spring could answer countless. And the colors of green, while not as spectacular and gaudy as the changing leaves of fall, are as beautiful in their subtlety. And there are lots of acres of woods remaining, much on hillsides which don’t easily lend themselves to other use. Although home builders evidently are trying!
If an area is not wooded, it nevertheless provides a crazy quilt-like pattern, with some fields showing only plain dirt. Elsewhere, the newly germinated corn plants were sending tentative leaves above ground with sufficient growth to define rows. Oats fields show growth which holds promise, and some alfalfa hay had been cut and some looked ready for cutting. ‘Tis the season.
And also the season for nature’s young. From a bridge over Village Creek, we saw three families of geese, with broods of goslings ranging from a low of six to as many as 10 or 12. They were fighting current in the rapids and had not lined up in a row to make them easier to count.
The creek was at normal level and running clear as tap water.
Poor folks in Texas, where the River Blanco rose 26 feet in an hour and caused terrific damage. That’s after rains which in one place have measured 27 inches so far this year compared to four inches all of last year! Talk about change!
Speaking of seasons, The U of Iowa’s choice for starting quarterback on the football team this fall may have doomed the season. C.J. Beathard has his flowing locks cut off. Wasn’t there a Biblical story about a guy named Sampson who lost his power when he lost his hair?
