RANDOM THOUGHTS - Friday, September 25, 2026

 Shade comes free with the tree … Costco displayed a pinball machine at $4999.99, so don’t expect one from me … Today in 1965, the ageless 59 year-old Satchel Paige pitched three innings of one-hit ball … One hundred years ago in 1926 Henry Ford announced an 8-hour, 5-day workweek for workers at Ford Motor Company … A balanced diet means having a cupcake in each hand … Can’t argue facts, but we can argue the conclusions drawn from them … Cronkite as a reporter said when assigned to ride a bomber over Germany, “Scared all the time,” George McGovern, a bomber pilot over Germany, told me he was “scared all the time” … Life gets mighty precious when there’s less of it to waste … A person who won’t read is no better off than one who can’t … We plan to check out the North Dakota Book and Arts Festival tomorrow …

⚑ ⚑ ⚑

Do you think the interstate highway system was always here? No? Here’s the story in a nutshell. In 1919 Lt Col Dwight Eisenhower led a convoy of 300 men and 81 vehicles cross-country fromWashington, DC to San Francisco, basically just to find out if it could be done. They found a very poor system which in some places was non-existent. Then in Europe during World War II Eisenhower noted and admired the great German auto-bahn system, and in 1956, when he became president strongly advocated to have one built here. The Federal Aid Highway Act was born in Congress that turned out to be the largest public works project ever attempted. Our economy had begun slowing after the Korean War and workers needed employment. Almost 48,000 miles was built and many people had been employed. The official name became the “Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.”

She Won Again

 AWARD WINNER, X 2

We attended the 50th Annual Family History Workshop yesterday at MSU in Moorhead and received quite a surprise. Mary received not one but two big awards judged as winners in their class. Her most recent book of Country School Education of Immigrant Children won the “Regional History Book Award” division and her Thomas Anderson and Helene Marie Vangsness book won the “Family History Book Award.” Oh, yes! She is at work on another that I don’t yet know the title of. Whatever it is, I’m certain it will be good because her inclination is to do excellent work. Since I’m her husband, I get to brag.

STORY UNDER A STONE - A. J. Manny Spiekermeier

 This “Story Under a Stone” will feature a person not buried in the Sheldon cemetery, but since he grew up and went to school in Sheldon and ran a hardware business in town, we’ll include him, A. J. “Manny” Spiekermeier. A brother to Paul and Tom, many of us knew him as the town cop who took his job seriously and made us behave whenever he drove around in his red station wagon.

     A letter he wrote to a friend in Sheldon appeared in the Sheldon Progress on December 25, 1942 that told of his activity while in Oregon titled “Life at a Munitions Dump.” On this date the U.S. military had begun stocking war materials in earnest to support our fighting forces. His obituary states he had joined the navy in January that year and been assigned there for a time. He went on to serve on submarines patrolling near the Japanese coast, including the USS Sailfin. This might have been a misprint because the Sailfin had been damaged before the war, but one called the Sailfish was in active combat receiving credit for sinking or damaging thirteen Japanese ships. Perhaps a family member can bring light to this.

     American submarines played a pivotal role in the Pacific by targeting Japanese merchant shipping and warships, dramatically crippling Japan's supply lines.  American submarine warfare proved decisive in undermining Japanese naval capacity and commerce. 

     While any service member experiencing combat doesn’t realize it at the time, he or she is living and leaving a story for us to wonder at years later. In later years Manny and his family relocated to Belle Fourche, SD, worked as a maintenance engineer in a hospital, and died in 1996. Burial took place in the Pine Slope Cemetery, Belle Fourche, SD.

September 11

 Twenty-five years ago the Twin Towers in New York City fell … I am saddened by the deaths of Wendell Berry, Dolly Parton, even Gloria Steinem … I keep wondering why they’ve built so many data centers so fast? Will they make my life better? … 40 trillion $ in debt, I can’t even imagine … Climate change is real. New York Times ran a chart showing the last decade in our part of the country where we averaged 32 days over 90 deg. compared to the previous decade with 20 days average over 90 … Tariffs have made enemies besides raising prices for us … 

〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️

Notable quote from David McCullough - “It is sad but true that we are raising a generation of young Americans who are to a large degree historically illiterate.”  There are those who don’t believe the Holocaust occurred or that dinosaurs once roamed the earth or that we landed on the moon or that vaccinations work or that election results are real or that we need government … 

〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️

September 11, 1958 - 68 years ago - Newspaper clipping - I share the date but not the year of the Twin Tower tragedy with my personal one. My life hinged on this event, but so many other lives fared much worse.

Story Under a Stone - Vincent “Vin” Meierotto

Today we’ll salute a man I greatly admired and is deserving of inclusion here. Unfortunately, many who read this do not have a living memory of him, so hopefully we can describe him in adequate terms. His grave marker can be found in the Sheldon Cemetery with the simple inscription “Vincent Meierotto 1903-1972.”  

     Without a picture of him in your mind, his severe physical handicap doesn’t appear.Vin went about living each day with a withered leg and arm on one side of his body. I don’t know the cause of his condition, whether it originated in birth, injury, or illness. Three of his sisters married into the Spiekermeier family, i.e. Laurence, Herman, and John, and possibly facts of it can be commented on by one of their descendants. 

     I remember him working at Eph’s garage where he fixed flat tires. Yes, I said he fixed flat tires. He would lay the tire flat to the floor and take up two iron bars with which he showed a mastery of manipulation. He would jam a flat end of one bar into the rim and lean into it breaking the bead. A practiced expert at working his way around the tire, he soon had access to the tube to pull it out. If there would have been such a thing as a contest fixing tires, he might have won with that one hand constantly tucked into his pocket.

     Noon time found him limping over to Ida’s Cafe for dinner and limping back again when he finished. He lived his life as independently as he could, and overcame his frailties with poise and self-assurance. When I close my eyes and find him in memory, he is reaching over to lift a bib overall strap that had slipped off his sloped shoulder and fallen to his elbow. Vin was a quiet man who minded his own affairs, another person who made his way into the fabric of the community.