I stopped at my favorite sweet corn stand Thursday hoping the crop had improved from my last visit before we left for South Carolina. It hasn\u2019t. Apparently, farms around Adrian, Minnesota haven\u2019t had any rain either to speak of meaning a short harvest and short ears. I suppose it could be God\u2019s way of telling me sweet corn should not be on my diet anyway..but why punish all the others who wish to partake of the Lord\u2019s greatest gift to mankind since his only son?<\/p>\n
Lousy drought. Or is it drouth?\u00a0 Either is correct.\u00a0 I know because I looked it up in 1976..long before Google existed. We had a giant brown Webster\u2019s Dictionary that sat on a window ledge in the Keloland newsroom. \u00a0It was pretty tattered from excessive use because it was our primary source for correct spelling and definitions. It was the book I held up to Hemmingsen\u2019s face to prove that it was acceptable to say \u201cFeb-you-ary\u201d even though the second month of the year is spelled with a misplaced \u201cR.\u201d Steve never changed, though, and insisted then as he does now on saying \u201cFeb-roo-ary\u201dand considers the rest of us (Including the late Walter Cronkite) to be mispronouncing rubes.<\/p>\n
1976 was the worst drought year I\u2019ve ever personally experienced. (No, I wasn\u2019t around in the Dirty Thirties.) Aside from the Nation\u2019s Bicentennial, it was the biggest story out there; dominating our newscasts. Half the people we interviewed on the subject called it a drouth..so did half of our staff when they talked about it on the air. That\u2019s when our boss, Tom Sheeley, decided enough was enough and said we can\u2019t do anything about how the general public pronounces it..but we sure as hell better find some consistency on how WE do. So the edict went out\u00a0that we shall, from this time forth, call the \u00a0prolonged dry spell a \u201cDrought\u201d..dump the “TH.” Violators would be invited into his office to\u00a0receiveth\u00a0a gnawing on the posterior.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, we\u2019re in the middle of another one which will likely put the kibosh to several years of agricultural bounty for farmers. I wonder what kind of mood they\u2019ll be in when Mogen\u2019s Heroes plays again for the annual\u00a0Chamber of Commerce\u00a0Farmer Appreciation Day next Wednesday from 11 to 1 at the Sioux Empire Fair. \u00a0Hopefully,\u00a0the free barbeque pork sandwiches, music\u00a0and a few familiar fun songs from Jim Woster will give them a reason to\u00a0smile… for awhile anyway.<\/p>\n
My drums have been sitting in the garage for at least five years but I\u2019m going to dust them off and see if I can still make some racket with them for next weeks big show at the grandstand.<\/p>\n
Mogen\u2019s Heroes will also be playing on the Freedom Stage at the State Fair in Huron again this year but the band\u2019s regular drummer, Bill Hoffman, will be back for that gig so all I have to do is try to follow Woster and sing a few Elvis tunes. Shows are at 2pm and 6pm Thursday August 30th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n How in the world will I fill the hours between shows?<\/p>\n Oh, yeah..there\u2019s the wine tasting tent right next door and maybe former Governor, Harvey Wollman, will be there again to buy Steve Hemmingsen and me a couple of brewed beverages under the grandstand.<\/p>\n I only hope that between the two fairs I can find someone to sell me a golden ear of sweet corn that\u2019s so fresh the creamy kernels, bathed in butter and salt, explode in my mouth with a burst of divine sweetness.<\/p>\n Or, I may have to settle for a footlong corn dog with Ketchup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I stopped at my favorite sweet corn stand Thursday hoping the crop had improved from my last visit before we left for South Carolina. It hasn\u2019t. Apparently, farms around Adrian, Minnesota haven\u2019t had any rain either to speak of meaning a short harvest and short ears. I suppose it could be God\u2019s way of telling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11708,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173\/revisions\/11708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}