COLUMN: A community of giving

     Last Saturday I was able to spend the day with some great friends from our fire department. A local motorcycle club of firefighters, the Red Knights, organized and hosted a benefit ride for our fire chief, Don McCarthy.

     Motorcycles and vehicles spent the day in Eastern Iowa stopping in various towns sharing laughs, telling stories and helping a great member of our community and his family.

     The best part of the day for myself was seeing the smile on Don’s face and just to be able to spend an entire day with him. Our chief means the world to our department and his family is our family.

     Hats off to the group of guys that did all the planning and to all that helped put it together.

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     I would like to say a few words on behalf of my appreciation to those that follow my column. Sometimes I wonder if my rambling on about my favorite sports teams, hunting or my other personal interests are well received. And then I’ll have a couple people, out of the blue, tell me they enjoy my column. (Mother, you don’t count, you have no choice!) And many times it comes from someone I least suspect would be a fan.

     So my goal now is to try to change it up a bit. I’ll see if I can get a little less sports oriented and get some new topics. I’ll probably skip on politics though. I don’t want to alienate a whole bunch of readers!

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     Several years ago, when we moved into our current house, the first thing I heard from one of our new neighbors was that we decorate for Christmas on this street and you should probably fly a flag out front.

     Well she had no idea that I love Christmas lights. After year one, I trotted out whatever decorations made the move.

     Year two I threw everything but the kitchen sink into my decorating. Then a new neighbor moved in, Johnny Russ, and he got the same speech from me. Christmas decorations and a flag and you will fit in.

     Mr. Russ was fairly conservative his first holiday season but soon after, the challenge was on. He set the bar. I stole some of his ideas that next year as did another neighbor or two.

     We enjoy the challenge and love seeing the traffic every Christmas. This past spring two new neighbors have moved in. I informed one of them so far of the requirements of our neighborhood. The other new family I have not seen much of yet.

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     It’s funny how an idea will brew in my head and I will go in a completely different direction. My Christmas lighting anecdote was starting out about flowers and plants and completely shifted.

     This is what I was going to write about:

     Several years ago we moved into our house in the winter months. I discovered the late Marilyn Wilbricht planted a lot of flowers and plants as spring rolled around.

     I tried my best to keep up with the constant weeding and growth and I got some great tips from my next door neighbor, Mag Welter.

     Over the years I have had to eliminate a flower/hosta garden, donating the hostas to the golf course. We took out a fish pond and thinned the herd of stuff that seemed to just keep growing on top of each other but I never seemed to get ahead.

     Well this spring I made a point to get everything cleaned up and weeded. I’m finally done. A few hostas and lilies were given away. Many of Marilyn’s creations are still left but I have unfortunately ended the life of a few of her prized flowers over the past few years. Hopefully she would still be proud of her yard.