The Outdoors is My Passion!

I got a flood of e-mail (one) asking why I had not written a column for months.

Many readers want to know what happened to former Lorimor residents. Others want to read about what happened in the "good ol' days" in Lorimor.

Quite frankly, since I have not lived in Lorimor for so many years, the well has pretty much run dry on those subjects. Yes, there was a time when Lorimor had three bars, every building on Main Street had a store in it and people came downtown every Saturday night just for the excitement. Yes, there were square dance lessons by Frank Adams, there were three full service gas stations, two grocery stores, a bank, movie theater, drug store, variety store, grain elevator, lumber yard, hardware store, other businesses and more churches. The town was self-sufficient.

While those days are gone, the new Lorimor remains vibrant, but in different ways. The new community building is the perfect example. People still come together in Lorimor. They keep the town clean and peaceful and provide a nice place to live for people who work in Afton, Creston, Winterset or even Des Moines. The parks are well maintained.

It is a blessing there is no Wal-Mart, no parking meters and no crime. There are no annoying stop lights or traffic jams.

The community enjoys its church bazaars, its own newspaper and other special events.

Shifting gears to personal notes, retired brother Jack recently visited mother. Mother's knee is still recovering from replacement surgery, but she walks a mile each day. Dan is happily remarried in Lansing, Ia., where he enjoys his banking work. Me, I still work for a company that provides nearly 150 fancy corporate newsletters. Of those, nearly 100 are for railroads.

I travel for a week at a time to places such as Nashville, Cincinnati, Louisville, Kansas City, Topeka and St. Louis. My associates travel around the country from California to New York and from Texas to Canada. We don't just print newsletters, we go to the railroads and gather news and photos. We talk to railroaders, writing the story on a laptop computer on the spot. Then, we touch up the grammar when we return to our cubicles.

It's an interesting job.

My main hobbies are hunting, golf and making knives. If you would like to see the knives I make, and hopefully buy one, use advanced search by seller on eBay - randy7514. All the knives I make have deer or elk antlers for handles, or moose tines. I have also used deer jaw bones for handles. I have currently run out of jaw bones, but archery season starts Sept. 15.

Hopefully, not only will I have two more jawbones for knife handles, but some tasty venison. I also have a permit for firearm season. Here in Nebraska, we have rifle season, and are not limited to shotguns as in Iowa.

Then, you can get "Season Choice" permits where you can shoot does only - as many as you want buying a permit for each deer. I presume you have a similar season in Iowa.

I hope you will contact me with your news so I can write more frequently.