Bob M
Well-known member
#339 FRIENDS AND FANCIES
by Bob M
Arliss' daughter, De Ann, asked me if I had just started writing recently or if I liked to write since childhood. I looked for a poem that I wrote at a pretty early age which Mom saved. I didn't find it but it concerned my brother, Stan, and me being totally impressed with the large "weather balloon" rising into the atmosphere, in fact stratosphere, from where it was launched near Rapid City. It looked like a very small moon with the sun shining on it as it floated over our area in the mid thirties, I don't remember it's altitude but I believe higher than any previously occupied
Probably due to that event, which gained national attention,
we decided to do some exploring in the area of making a parachute. We figured we had the necessary equipment with an old tarp which was square, eight feet each way, and a roll of binder twine. We tied a link of the twine into a brass ring on each of the four corners and another from the rings in the center on each of the four sides, measuring carefully so that each was the same length and tied the ends all together. We were proud of the end product and couldn't give it a try soon enough.
We climbed up a ladder to the roof of the shop. Stan spread the tarp as best he could. I took a running jump so the tarp would clear the edge of the shop. The tarp and I landed in a heap.
Mom and Dad had gone to a party or something. I wrote about our high expectations and failure, before we went to bed, and left the poem on the table for them to read when they got home. Mom saved it for posterity. I wish I could find it. I doubt if it was all that good.
This has to do with my only other early recorded writing: In February, 1945, there was a supper and livestock meeting held at the Merriman Town Hall. I think the County Agent organized it and asked us to bring ideas, suggestions, stories or entertainment ahead of time. I never have been comfortable speaking unless I could read from a written paper. I found it among things that Dad saved. These were my thoughts:
Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, holds that free trade will mean cooperation and that having tariffs on foreign trade will mean isolationism. He believes that an easy flow of commerce should be the basis of post-war international cooperation.
In my opinion this might work if the cost of production of various products was the same in every country but that isn't the case.
As we are primarily interested in beef production we will take up that phase of international trade. Latin America could sell beef in our own markets for from 3-5 cents per pound at a profit. This low cost production is due to their cheap labor, cheap land, undeveloped taxation, low cost of living, fattening value of their grass etc.
This compared to our high cost of living, high taxation and high operating expenses is adequate explanation for the difference of cost of production between us and our Southern neighbors.
By the end of this war the industries of South America will be developed to the point that they can compete for our own domestic market.
Low cost of raw material and labor would attract our own industries down there. Manufacturers could and probably would go down into South America and make bigger profits if our markets were in common. We don't want to lose our high position among the industrial nations of the world.
We must keep the strength of our great nation intact. We will have ships in every sea and can play a major part in world commerce by distributing the goods between other nations without unfair profits. Uneven distribution of world goods should be a thing of the past.
I believe the only way we can possibly meet our enormous war debt will be through holding up prices which will keep our national income high and by levying tariffs which have always been an important source of revenue.
We must run our government on a business basis and elect practical minded leaders. Waste must be abolished, synthetics used where they are more economical and more efficient management employed.
We will win the war and we'll win the peace not by luck but by the Grace of God, hard work and clear thinking.*
*Written and presented by Bob at the Merriman Town Hall Meeting in February 1945.
by Bob M
Arliss' daughter, De Ann, asked me if I had just started writing recently or if I liked to write since childhood. I looked for a poem that I wrote at a pretty early age which Mom saved. I didn't find it but it concerned my brother, Stan, and me being totally impressed with the large "weather balloon" rising into the atmosphere, in fact stratosphere, from where it was launched near Rapid City. It looked like a very small moon with the sun shining on it as it floated over our area in the mid thirties, I don't remember it's altitude but I believe higher than any previously occupied
Probably due to that event, which gained national attention,
we decided to do some exploring in the area of making a parachute. We figured we had the necessary equipment with an old tarp which was square, eight feet each way, and a roll of binder twine. We tied a link of the twine into a brass ring on each of the four corners and another from the rings in the center on each of the four sides, measuring carefully so that each was the same length and tied the ends all together. We were proud of the end product and couldn't give it a try soon enough.
We climbed up a ladder to the roof of the shop. Stan spread the tarp as best he could. I took a running jump so the tarp would clear the edge of the shop. The tarp and I landed in a heap.
Mom and Dad had gone to a party or something. I wrote about our high expectations and failure, before we went to bed, and left the poem on the table for them to read when they got home. Mom saved it for posterity. I wish I could find it. I doubt if it was all that good.
This has to do with my only other early recorded writing: In February, 1945, there was a supper and livestock meeting held at the Merriman Town Hall. I think the County Agent organized it and asked us to bring ideas, suggestions, stories or entertainment ahead of time. I never have been comfortable speaking unless I could read from a written paper. I found it among things that Dad saved. These were my thoughts:
Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, holds that free trade will mean cooperation and that having tariffs on foreign trade will mean isolationism. He believes that an easy flow of commerce should be the basis of post-war international cooperation.
In my opinion this might work if the cost of production of various products was the same in every country but that isn't the case.
As we are primarily interested in beef production we will take up that phase of international trade. Latin America could sell beef in our own markets for from 3-5 cents per pound at a profit. This low cost production is due to their cheap labor, cheap land, undeveloped taxation, low cost of living, fattening value of their grass etc.
This compared to our high cost of living, high taxation and high operating expenses is adequate explanation for the difference of cost of production between us and our Southern neighbors.
By the end of this war the industries of South America will be developed to the point that they can compete for our own domestic market.
Low cost of raw material and labor would attract our own industries down there. Manufacturers could and probably would go down into South America and make bigger profits if our markets were in common. We don't want to lose our high position among the industrial nations of the world.
We must keep the strength of our great nation intact. We will have ships in every sea and can play a major part in world commerce by distributing the goods between other nations without unfair profits. Uneven distribution of world goods should be a thing of the past.
I believe the only way we can possibly meet our enormous war debt will be through holding up prices which will keep our national income high and by levying tariffs which have always been an important source of revenue.
We must run our government on a business basis and elect practical minded leaders. Waste must be abolished, synthetics used where they are more economical and more efficient management employed.
We will win the war and we'll win the peace not by luck but by the Grace of God, hard work and clear thinking.*
*Written and presented by Bob at the Merriman Town Hall Meeting in February 1945.
