40 Comments

Rabbit!, Rabbit!, Rabbit! Thanks for the continued lessons on shaking off gravity and insights to a brighter day. You rock, GK! Here's a link to some tunes to start the day. Enjoy & thank you!

https://youtu.be/fjLE8Bf5_u8

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The DQ experience is indeed unique and universal one for all us midwesterners. Your last picture of the humble store with monumental nuances portrays for me its depths and complexities. Is that a new day's sunrise behing the picture taker, a harbinger of blue skies? Or, is the sunny day past with storm clouds bringing on a stormy evening?

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founding

We understand the feelings an old Mustang can bring to long ago memories, we still have our 64 1/2 red convertible. Love hearing others say, "I had one of those, wish I'd never gotten rid of it".

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Thanks for the reminder of Universal Summer plans,goals,and solutions . The nhames have bheen changed tho protehct the innochent.

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I love Dairy Queen. One of my favorite memories as a Teen in the fall of 1975, was driving my 1965 Thunderbird with my best friend Dave and stopping at DQ to get a cone and looking for girls. But we were nerds and girls didn't like nerds. We were goofy and had fun in our own way and that was unattractive to the attractive. We also lived on the south side of town, the other side of the tracks and all the cool kids and cute girls live on the north side. We didn't care, we were having fun. We didn't care about politics, who was called what or what country was mad at what country. We had Mt. McKinnley and the Montreal Expos, I had an 8-track player in my T-Bird but Vinyl was still king. Vietnam was coming to a close and Nixon was a packing his bags. We didn't worry about a thing, we thought about what we'd do after high school and that's about it, gas was 57 cents a gallon, there was a telephone on the wall and if you wanted to talk to someone you called a house, we had 13 TV channels to watch, the world was much quieter then. Life was much simpler and complaints were muted but we went on with our lives. I miss the 70's, even the 80's but I can only imagine how grand life must have been in the 40's and 50's when everything was new. Lucky you.

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Thank you for that brief visit to the past and your visit to the DQ. Just what I needed to start my Friday going into the Fourth of July Weekend.

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Yup! Got to enjoy Summer while it’s here. This brought back many loved memories. Watching my grandchildren now in their mindless Summers, and always smile at their complex emotions. I think I will search out a milkshake this weekend.

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I read this today and relish your memories of the time "back then," as my wife and I celebrate our 55th Anniversary, and our 59th together, as we "started" during our senior year in high school. Memories merging into today's reality...what a gift.

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How could you have had access to a Mustang when you were twenty? Surely you were at least a couple of years older than that?

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"Another perfect Summer" I agree Garrison. We are having a good Summer and, indeed, I am surprised at how good life is for my family and close friends. The news media is full of doom and gloom and lots of terrible things happening in this country and overseas.

There is a lot to be gloomy about if one wants to be gloomy. I think that we contribute a lot to our happiness or unhappiness by our outlook on life and the media that we choose to follow, etc. In many ways, what one looks for in life is what one finds.

The operative word for the federal government seems to be dysfunction. The Congress has been pretty much dysfunctional for twenty or thirty years.

If the President thinks of doing something, someone will file a lawsuit and some extremely right wing federal judge in Texas or Louisiana will issue an injunction putting a stop to it.

Now the Supremes are getting into the act. I actually think that many of their decisions are calculated to create dysfunction and confusion.

Take the New York gun case. Justice Thomas seems to think that America is a terribly dangerous place and that everyone should carry a gun on his/her person for safety. He thinks that we should all carry a gun because people could do that in 1787 when the Second Amendment was written. He has forgotten that in 1787, 90% of Americans lived in rural places and the guns they had were single shot muskets and pistols. My thinking is that people should be able to carry a musket for safety because that is what they could have carried in 1787. There were no automatic or assault weapons in 1787.

Consider also the case about the football coach who prayed at the fifty yard line. What is it about high school football that makes people want to pray? My feeling is that God knows who is playing and God knows who he/she wants to win, so lets leave it at that. Let God get on with it without our trying to sway him/her one way or the other. Around here, prayer at high school football games is something people love to go on about. The Supremes are never going to resolve the issue regardless of what they say.

Well, enough negative thoughts. I want to get back to thinking positive and productive thoughts and possibly do something constructive today. So good bye for now and best wishes to everyone for a wonderful fourth of July.

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My folks grew up on farms with big family's in Minnesota.

One was born in Sout Dahkoda and the other in Nort Dahkoda

Swear that that's how they always, and I still do, pronounce the names 'ah douse Staytes'

I normally use what them guy's would think of as their states proper spelling.

As for the point of your column, I get a bit bent too when "righteousness" becomes "indignant" but, I'm still cool with people digging up the past to point out crimes that misshaped justice.

I always liked history

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So many thoughts go with this piece! I was back in my 1964 Corvette.....

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So glad you have returned, your humor scratches where I itch.

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Dear GK:

I got a blue raspberry freeze and my wife got a cone with sprinkles last night at that very same DQ on Broadway. We drove around in the dark as we passed the Sample Room on Marshall and then home listening to the radio. Inspired post today, Garrison. Thank you. (Randall)

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Never thought I'd have a way to possibly help you, GK. I'm an old computer nerd and if you'd like to use pretty much any textual special character, go to the magnifying glass icon located on the taskbar, type in 'character map', find the one you're looking for, highlight it and then press the copy button. Right click the area you want to use it in and select paste. This works with Windows systems but I'm not sure about Apple products. I would imagine there's something similar. I hope I didn't make your eyes glaze over like I do when saying gibberish like this to my wife. I do enjoy your columns and stories.--Stan

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Jul 1, 2022·edited Jul 1, 2022

"Live and let live" is fine, but live and let thrive is better. What's in a name of a lake is what those long before us likely named it. If we believe in God, as you do, He/She may have named it too, as were the animals that led to man and woman. Those of us with strong beliefs may remember the famous Tower of Babel, when because of the climbers' arrogance of naming led to babble.

We are still stuck on it babbling our own beliefs. All of us have failings and our next generation will likely point them out far better than we ever would. Calhoun was more likely a person of his own world where their current judging wasn't the morally superior judgement we have from our rear-view mirrors today. Numbering lakes and statues and other beliefs might prevent endorsement when all it really is is simply our own babble.

Let's go easy on each other and include our forebears. even here, we're all still a long way from perfect. Although being in a red Mustang with a good kisser is in the right direction. The best is a good and understanding hug of others and also ourselves.

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