Smoke Rings: Spring Rain, Summer Vacation

By Staff
Published on July 1, 1968
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ILLUSTRATION: GAS ENGINE MAGAZINE STAFF
Spring rain can't douse our smoke rings, and summer vacation won't interrupt them.

You know, I know you fellows especially will never believe it,
but sometimes–like now–it’s time to write my column and I
can’t think of a thing to say. I can just hear those men now
saying, “Oh yeah, imagine that, a woman not having
anything to say.” But ’tis true fellows, honest. So as I
was saying, I don’t know how it is all over the country but
our part of it has had more spring rain than we have seen in
years. And it seems even if it is a nice day and the sun is out, you can
be sure that in a few hours it will cloud up and there’ll be
another heavy rain. You know we humans are never satisfied though; I’ll bet a little later on in the year
we’ll probably have forgotten all these moisture-laden days and
blurt out, “Oh I wish it would rain!”

One thing about it though: all this rain has pronounced
God’s beautous wonders all the more. The countryside is
lush and green and the flowers are breathtaking.
Our rose garden is just blooming profusely. Reminds me of the
phrase in the 23rd Psalm” “My cup runneth over”–only I
could say “My cup runneth over with beauty”–referring to
the rose bushes.

Next week school will be over and we’ll plunge headlong into
an all too short summer vacation. Our 14 year old son Donald will be leaving
next Sunday for a Basketball Camp for a period of one week, and it
promises to be a good experience for he and the others that will be
attending. It will be his first trip out of the nest for that long
of a period anyhow–I’am anxious to see how well his wings will bear
the flight, but I’m confident all will be well. After all, some
of the instructors will be some of the world-famed basketball
players, and that is just most of his world today. What could be of more importance than that to a young
basketball player looking eagerly to the future?

And after too many anxious nerve-wracking days of waiting and
hoping and trying to guess “Will I or won’t I make the
cheer-leading squad?” we finally have the holy answer in the
affirmative–well almost anyway. Keli, age 11, (well, nearly 12–in
December Mom) has been dreaming of nothing else for weeks but to
become a cheerleader on the Midget Football Team in the fall and
has now been informed she has made it as the official Panther (The
black Panther is the symbol of our Teams in all school athletic
activities.) SO– she will not be wearing the official cheerleading outfit, but will be dressed in a panther costume and will
participate in the cheers and at other times will be doing
acrobatic gyrations. Isn’t that just wonderful? Or I guess I
should say “groovy.”

And Thomas Casey, who will be a big 4 years old in September,
keeps all of us busy just keeping up with him. Aren’t they
wonderful at this age though (or any age)? Such a challenge
to us who are trying to help mold the character of a useful
Christian adult of the future. Must tell you though, we have a
wonderful pastor at our church: the Rev. Truman Baker, a jovial,
sincere down to earth Dutchman, whom we all love. Much to our
regret, we have found that he must leave us in the near future.

Well anyhow, Tomrnie goes to Sunday School and church and in all
this time I’ve not been able to convince him that Pastor Baker
isn’t God–we’ve been telling him who he is and he is
slowly getting the idea, but still now and then he still speaks of
him as God. When I told him Pastor Baker was going to have to leave
us and go away and what do you think, he looked up at me with those
adorable eyes and childish face and said, “Mommie, is God going
back to Heaven?”

How about that? And you know, while we all know it is wrong for
him to keep calling the minister God, he really isn’t way off
you know, for there’s a little bit of God in all of us and to
Tommie I think Pastor Baker’s “bit” has shown through
that he just couldn’t help but see it.

A letter from Dean E. Wildrick, Cuba New York–this is actually a
letter from Dean to Roger Kriebel of Mainland, Pennsylvania, and
Roger sent it on to us. It is as follows:

“In reference to your
letter quoted in the May/June 1968 issue of Gas Engine Magazine inquiring for a source
of glass for oil drip lubricators; McMaster-Carr Supply Co. in Chicago, Illinois lists this item in their
catalog along with complete oil drip lubricators for gasoline
engines. This company is an industrial supply company which also
carries other items of interest to us gas engine fans like grease
cups and cast iron pulleys.

I hope this information is useful to you and I’m sorry that
I cannot help you with any information on your Ohio gas
engine.”

Hope that was helpful to a lot of you gas engine
fans. Another letter from Harry Bonnema of LeMars, Iowa
states:

“Just a few lines to tell you folks what a wonderful
job you are doing on the magazines. I do like the Gas Engine Magazine the best but
for the reason that I have some 50 gas engines.

I would like to tell all the fellows in the Midwest that a new
club has been started for the collection and restoring of old farm
machinery. The club has been named The Pioneer Machinery Club.
Meetings are held the first Friday night of each month at City Hall
in Merrill, Iowa. Merrill is located just 18 miles north of Sioux
City on Highway 75. So anyone interested, come join us.”

Lots of
luck to you folks with your new club. Roger L. Eshelman of College Springs, Iowa writes
us:

“A few days ago I received a booklet from Ruben Michelson of
Anamoose, North Dakota and have been browsing back and forth
through it ever since. The booklet is a historical gas engine and
gas engine manufacturers list of names from 1873 to the present
time. There are around 1300 names and manufacturers listed in
alphabetical order for easy reference. I don’t know if this
booklet has been advertised yet, but for anyone interested in gas
engines or gas engine history it would be well worth the price.

A lot of work has gone into the booklet and Ruben deserves a
high thanks for his effort.”

Well, that’s about it for this
time my good friends. And for not being able to say anything I
didn’t do to badly did I? Watch those remarks, fellas! And in
closing:

The toughest kind of climbing is getting out of a rut.

A
man who walks with God always gets to his destination.

Let’s
swap problems since all people know how to solve other people’s
problems.

A friend is one who know us yet loves us.

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