Short Story: Florence and Estelle's First Encounter

This post marks our blog's 190th post since we've started back in 2011. Why the significance? If you believe in numerology, this weekend we also celebrated a dear friend, mentor and adopted Grandma's 90th birthday. I met Florence some 20 plus years ago when I started dating our food blogger, Brian Brown. I would come to be very close with her over the years. She is not just a friend, but family to The Brown, Bohan and Mayer families. At every wedding, graduation and holiday gathering--Florence is there along side her best friend of 80 plus years, Brian's Grandma Estelle. To commemorate Florence's 90th birthday--I've penned a short narrative called: "Florence and Estelle's First Encounter." What follows is a fictional account of the duo meeting for the very first time in Nebraska.

From left to right: Brian, Grandma Estelle, Becky & Florence
at The Brown's recent 20th Anniversary party.

It’s 1924, and like any Nebraska summer-time, makes for longer day light hours to converse with friends and family. This July the sun still lay across the horizon with rays sparkling off of silos filled with what is gold in these parts, wheat. On this late afternoon a Studebaker barrels down the dirt road—kicking up pebbles and other debris all the way. The car is going fast, but not too fast; since, precious cargo rides inside. The final destination The Mitchells, who happened to be best friends of The Fransems. It was a special occasion, The Mitchell kids will be meeting new baby, Florence, for the very first time.

The Studebaker pulls up and as the dust clears all the doors open, but one. The children all pile out and roar to The Mitchells with excitement. The matriarch of The Fransem family gets out, brushes the dust from her skirt, as she makes her way around the car. She grabs the warm door handle and opens the car door discovering where newborn Florence lay in a basket.

With eyes glistening, she softly says, “Well there my precious is.”

Baby Florence responds with a flash of a smile and huge happy shriek.

Florence’s mom whisks her out of the basket and with the basket now in the other hand makes her way over to the picnic goers. Along the way kids in various ages race over to her and begin jumping up at her like wild dogs clambering to get a look at the newest addition of The Fransem household.

“She sternly barks back to the kids—calm down—you’ll all get your turn to say 'Hi' to Florence!”

One child in the party is not in the group; one-year-old Estelle. She lays on a quilt steps away from the picnic table with her feet and arms flaying in the air. Her eyes glued on the white puffy cloud floating by up, up, high in the Nebraska sky!

Florence’s mom makes it safely to the others with little baby Florence in hand. Of course upon her arrival, “Aww’s and oooh’s!” are uttered off the lips of adults and kids in attendance. “Let me see the darling!” says a rather robust woman with wire framed glasses. In a swoop Florence is passed around from person-to-person for 20 minuets until someone yells, “It’s super time!” Those three words being said for a second drowns out the cicadas signing from the trees nearby.

A phantom breeze carries the smells of sweet corn, steak, pork, macaroni and cheese from the picnic to where Estelle lays.

Florence’s mom takes Florence from a stocky man in a crisp short-sleeved plaid shirt and blue coveralls and walks over to where one-year-old Estelle lays. She gently lays Florence on the quilt as she says, “Estelle meet your new best friend, Florence.”

No words could be more true. This first encounter indeed would not be the duos final. Both intertwined in each others lives like the fabric of time itself. Their friendship would span decades. Both would remain best friends, their husbands in count would also be best buddies, too. Their kids would grow up knowing each other. They would live through splendor the birth of their children, grandchildren and heartache the loss of their husbands together. Indeed, this would be the start to a beautiful friendship.

(Editor's note: Happy 90th Birthday Flocey! I presented a very special version to Flocey on her special day. Hope you liked the story too? It will be included in a short story book that I'm putting the finishing touches on now. If you're intrigued with Estelle's and Florence's 80 plus year friendship? A bibligropthy of sorts--to chronicle their many adventures together--is in the works too. So, stay tuned.)

-population-we™ blog post by Becky Bohan Brown

© 2014 population-we, LLC 
If you enjoyed this post, make sure to leave a comment, 'Pin' or 'Like' it.

Pin It

Fishing Outside Your Comfort Zone in Nebraska

It finally seems that the cold wintery weather has disappeared. Since we’re well into a late spring, my biggest fear is that it’ll turn into a hot summer in a very short amount of time, which would leave some windows open for a short time to catch specific fish at specific times. Right now, we’re taking what we can get.

Fishing on a lake in Nebraska. 

Water temps across the central Nebraska region have slowly been rising, only to be pushed back down at times by cold fronts. We recently had a few outings that showed the temps to be in the upper 50s, almost creeping into the 60s. This is a good thing, as some of our summer trolling patterns start in the low 60s range.

At Harlan, we found water that was in the 60 degree range and tried trolling, just to see if it would work. It turned out to be a great day for us as we boated 19 walleyes, the largest being 20 inches. The best part was, we caught most of these fish with nobody else around. All fish were over 15 inches. Throw in some nice white bass, a few drum and one wiper, and it was a fun day to be out.

The next day we returned to closer water at Johnson Lake. The water there is a bit cooler, but we tried trolling anyway. We picked up two saugers, and saw very few other fish caught. We decided to hop over to the Tri County canal, only a few miles away. We ended up picking up three more saugers, a couple of real nice crappies that were in full pre-spawn mode, and a few more white bass. I had a real nice fish on that came undone with about 20 feet of line to go. Even though with water temps around 63, I figured it might be a bit early for the flatheads to be real aggressive, but I’m sure that’s what it was. Flatheads are built for power and strength, so even a 10 pounder feels like a beast.

The good news is, the water temp is rising. The bad news is, it probably is not rising much this week on account of our temps barely being over 60 degrees most of the time, with lows dipping all the way down to 30 degrees. I try to look at the good part of this, which is if you have a pattern that’s working, it’ll keep working for a while longer. Maybe longer than usual, with this weather. I know lots of fish are being caught using crawlers now, instead of minnows, which means the fish are only becoming more active and aggressive. Sometimes we get in a rut and try things that we’re used to, and force those tactics to work, and then they just don’t. So don’t be afraid to try different things with these fluctuating temps. A perfect example is that previous to this past weekend, I went away from my plastics and crankbaits and actually used live bait, which is something I used to do exclusively. I ended up getting a limit of walleyes in the Tri County Canal near Johnson Lake, with two smallmouth bass, two more walleyes and a sauger being added by my friends. Never hurts to try things outside of your comfort zone.

-population-we™ blog post by Brian Robinson

© 2014 population-we, LLC 
If you enjoyed this post, make sure to leave a comment, 'Pin' or 'Like' it.

Pin It

Nebraska Students Take on Shark Finning Legislation

If you live in the Midwest you’ve probably consumed more oxtail soup than shark fin soup. Kudos to you--if you’ve only ate oxtail soup. Why you ask? Because sharks are on the endangered species list and oxes are not. One would think they would not be selling shark fins in Nebraska; however, a group of local students have discovered differently and have decided to do something about it. If they get their way, Nebraska may be the ninth state to outlaw buying, selling or having shark fin products.

Believe or not these students are taking their message all the way to Nebraska’s state capitol in Lincoln. Enter Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium Zoo Academy, No Fins No Future, student-run initiative.

“I am a teacher at the Zoo Academy and they’ve put together under my supervision a Facebook page called No Fins No Future,” said Pat Purkhiser, a Zoo Academy teacher and a master scuba diver instructor at DiVentures in Omaha. “We’re trying to educate the public with snippets about shark finning, shark problems around the world, and it seems to be going quit well."

Shark fins obviously are a product people want here in Nebraska even though the state is land-locked. This group of 80 students is dedicated to stop the sale, trade, and possession of all shark fins and shark related products in Nebraska and beyond.

“The Zoo Academy is comprised of both the Papillion-La Vista and OPS school districts,” said Brett Homme, a senior at Papillion-La Vista South High School.

The Zoo Academy is completely student-run from the creation of the No Fins No Future logo (shown above), blog posts, as well as Facebook and Twitter updates.

“We want to be the next state even though we’re land-locked to pass a bill banning all shark fin products; fin sales, possession, anything like that.” said Purkhiser. “Obviously places like the zoo or even aquariums, as long as their attached--we can obviously live with. “

Scuba divers have a very special place in our hearts for all underwater creatures, and sharks are no different. I guess it surprised this blogger a bit when interviewing Zoo Academy students recently to find out they’ve never swam with a shark or even gone scuba diving.

“The students have gone out, gone to markets and found cans of shark fin soup. They’ve found sharks lying on ice, dead. It’s pretty devastating,” Purkhiser said.

Purkhiser added: “We’ve looked at the cans and there’s just a couple ounces of actual shark fin in there. But shark fin if you analyze it, it’s very un-nutrious and very tasteless. Look at the can it will have crab meat, chicken broth, chicken parts, clams--things like that. So, obviously they’re putting some taste into with something else; shark fin has no taste.”

After interviewing for this post it was announced January 8th on @Nofinning's Twitter:

“All the students at the Zoo Academy are behind it,” Homme said.

It is gruesome what poachers do to these sharks. The poachers capture the shark--shear off their fins--and throw them back in the water alive. What is more devastating is the long-term affect this act has on our oceans. Though Nebraska is a land-locked state, the effects of the ocean ecosystem becoming unbalanced will some day be felt everywhere--not just in coastal states. The students believe every little bit the Zoo Academy can do to prevent that from happening will help.

“Main thing, people don’t know about it [shark finning]. I think because it’s Nebraska people just don’t think about it. I didn’t know about it until I started Zoo Academy," Homme said. "After talking to Pat I now realize what an important issue it is and what an impact it is going to have. We need to do whatever we can to stop this.”

Like the Zoo Academy students, you too can take action. If you live in Nebraska you can do something by contacting your state senator about Legislative Bill 921. Contact information for Nebraska state senators can be found at http://nebraskalegislature.gov/senators/senator_list.php. Nebraska residents can also fill out an online petition from www,bornfree.org highlighted above. If you don’t live in Nebraska--you can still take action and help these students take a stand against shark finning. Show your support and “Like” No Fins No Future official Facebook Page, follow the group on Twitter @Nofinning or visit the group's blog at http://www.nofinsnofuture.blogspot.com. Keep diving!

-population-we™ blog post by Becky Bohan Brown

© 2014 population-we, LLC 
If you enjoyed this post, make sure to leave a comment, 'Pin' or 'Like' it.

Pin It