Words and memories from 1952, and time for spring cleaning

While strolling, I wondered whatever happened to Alfred Schlitt.

Happy birthday this week to Jill Hornback, Howard Campbell, Harold Landawee, Charles Westrich, Abby Seyer, Jill Pobst, Paula Hornback, Randy Buchheit, Mary Jo Barlow, Danny Terhune, Hillary Eichhorn, Samantha Montgomery, Jonathan Hendrix, John Menz Jr., Doris Moore, Robert Ward, Meagan Ruiz, Laddie Bridwell, Barb Griggs, Ken Keller, Lurline Crump, Donna Sadler, Judy Sanders, Ernie Duncan, Megan Steimle, Darlene Dumey, Ersell Robins, Sierra Miller, Randy Dunn, Rosemary Hendrickson, Candice Snider, Allissa Coomer, Tim Stone, Grace Givens, Allan Horrell, Dora Avance and Terry Lynn.

Happy anniversary to Liston and Coradell Mitchell, Delbert and Susan Horman and Tom and Janeene Cunningham.

Today is Palm Sunday and National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. Let's make a special effort throughout the year to support our local, family owned, mom-and-pop businesses.

Sale items sought

The Chaffee Nutrition Center is accepting items in good condition for its Annual Yard Sale next weekend. This is an important fundraiser for Meals on Wheels, and money raised will be matched by Modern Woodmen.

Sale hours are 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. to noon Saturday 7 a.m. to noon. Monetary donations also are welcome. No meal will be served Good Friday; an Easter meal will be served at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

The Chaffee Public Library Cookbooks are in and the cost is only $10. Proceeds will go toward purchasing carpet for the library.

The ground has dried somewhat and the lawn mowers are out and tuned up for the season! Richard saw a muskrat walking down the second block of Gray during the heavy rain earlier this month.

With umbrella and flashlight in hand, he checked it out as the muskrat made its way to the back of the Lutheran Church.

Grandmother memories

I recently discovered a lovely handwritten letter from my Grandmother Masters to my Mother dated Nov. 17, 1952. At the time, my grandparents were living in Jefferson City, where my grandfather, who was formerly Chaffee chief of police, worked as a guard at the state penitentiary.

They were looking forward to Thanksgiving, saying that a turkey was too much food for the two of them so they planned on having half a chicken. She mentioned she wished she could be in Chaffee to help my mother with her four young daughters, a couple of whom apparently had some childhood affliction.

My family visited them that summer, and I remember my older sisters picking cherries from the big beautiful cherry tree outside our grandparents' second-floor apartment.

It was interesting to read in the letter my grandmother's mentioning of their $25 a month rent, 24 cent per quart milk, 50 cent dozen eggs and the $1.33 per half-gallon of sorghum from Springfield, Missouri, they were going to have with their pancake breakfast.

She also wrote that my grandfather had been examined by his doctor, who said he was alright. As it turned out, my grandfather died a month later, a week before Christmas, of a massive heart attack.

My mother was very close to her dad, who gave her the nickname "Boots" at a very early age because of the buttoned-up boots she wore.

His body was returned to Cape to what was at the time Brinkopf-Howell Funeral Home at 536 Broadway -- now an antique store. As a little girl sitting in a funeral parlor for my very first time, I kept watching, thinking at any moment my grandfather would open his eyes, sit up and be OK.

My grandmother eventually moved back to Chaffee to her home on Elliott and later married her longtime friend, Fred Kurre, whom she survived.

Clean streets

It is hoped the street cleaners will be out, and one cannot help but think about now-retired city employee Mike Mantel. We often saw the hard-working Mike cleaning our streets with a big broom. We all are eager to get our streets and yards cleaned up and our fair city of Chaffee looking nice again.

Citywide cleanup is April 7 and 9, and a rabies clinic will be from 3 to 5 p.m. April 24 behind city hall.

Special words

Remember to tell those special people in your life you love them -- those three words mean so very much.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are missing loved ones, with our homebound, those in hospitals and nursing homes.

Email your news and comments to darbuck2@airmail.net or leave a message at 573-887-6430 or 214-207-7839.

And then ...

Then there was the return of the mail order catalog in this digital age.