Miss Wyoming -- A Class Act

I was delighted to learn that Jennifer McCafferty was tapped as "Miss Wyoming" for 2007. A resident of Laramie, where she's finishing her senior year as a Spanish major, Jennifer is a native of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. She's the daughter of Marty McCafferty and Kary McCafferty -- and granddaughter of good friends Jim and Naomi McCafferty of Whitney, Nebraska.

This is a beautiful young lady with great poise, as you might expect of a Miss Wyoming. She will represent her adopted state well in the Miss America contest. Jennifer has already demonstrated her commitment to worthwhile projects -- from expanding and improving upon foreign language education to raising funds for the Children's Miracle Network.

Jennifer was my guest on the “Live with Jim Thompson” radio show on Tuesday, July 24. The program aired on a variety of stations in the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana. It’s also archived on the internet at the program web site. The interview with Jennifer McCafferty is about half way into the program.

As I expected, she proved to be a delightful guest. She'll be a formidible competitor in the Miss America contest -- and whatever she chooses to pursue beyond college. She is.....a class act!

A Class Reunion is....FUN?

I could hardly believe it. It wasn’t even MY class reunion. It was Karen’s. After leaving blessed Chadron High School in 1962, her classmates gathered last weekend (July 13-14) in Chadron, Nebraska for a reunion. They came from far-away places like Clackamas, San Diego and Fountain Hills. But mostly, they came from Chadron and the surrounding area.

“What’s your brother doing these days?”

“Are you still teaching?”

“Sorry to hear about your dad.”

“Yup, we’ve moved…..again!”

“Guess you didn’t hear about Gerald?”

“Norm and Sally plan to retire next year.”

The names and circumstances are always a bit different, but the conversations are almost contagious and the fellowship is heartwarming!

I long ago gave up wondering why some folks don’t enjoy class reunions. Lots of people – especially locals – choose to not attend them. I guess it’s a character defect that I have, but I thoroughly enjoy them. Always have – always will.

And it’s not just to reminisce about pranks of the past or revive memories of youthful friendship. It’s also an opportunity to pay tribute to those who’re no longer with us. The CHS Class of ’62 has lost six of their members. Nancy. LaDonna. Neil. Bonnie. Rex. Karen.

Reunions are also a time to finally get to know those other classmates that we never really knew very well. What a treat that is!

I rather enjoy catching up with school chums -- learning where they live now -- although few of them have endured the number of “Adventures in Moving” that Karen and I have survived. I’m still looking for a cuckoo clock that must have fallen off the U-Haul truck somewhere between Ames, Iowa and Stillwater, Oklahoma 35 years ago!

We’ve even lost a few pictures along the way. So….I’m more careful these days. To help ensure that photos from the Class of ’62 reunion are preserved for posterity (and anyone else who cares!) I’ve posted a few of them at:

www.photographs.galeymiller.org/school

I wonder whatever happened to Rich….and Joyce……and Shelly…..and Eric….and…

I Never Liked Belle Fourche

It’s a warm summer afternoon. Soft breezes move gently through the trees. And the sun arches toward the western horizon as day nears end.

We’re at Herrmann Park in Belle Fourche, enjoying yet another pleasant surprise about our adopted home state. Barry Pitt, one of the regions top entertainers, is treating hometown folks to some down home music. Good friend Bill Kunerth had tipped me off about the free show, sponsored by the Belle Fourche Arts Council, the F. L. Clarkson Family Foundation, and the First Western Greater Belle Fourche Foundation.

A transplant from Kentucky, Pitt can do it all. He sings. He plays a mean guitar. And he knows how to pull together all the elements necessary for a good performance, making it look easy. And he does that not only in Belle, where is presides over the Center of the Nation Concert Association, but in Deadwood casinos, on the radio, and in other venues throughout the Black Hills.

His versatility is put to good use in his local recording studio, turning out projects for a range of musicians and cowboy poets. He also serves as theatre manager for the Belle Fourche Area Community Center.

But it’s not just Barry Pitt that catches our fancy. Herrmann Park is a real treasure. A splendid spot to kick back, have a picnic, enjoy the great outdoors, and appreciate what life can be all about in God’s country.

For reasons I’ll not divulge here, I never much liked Belle Fourche. That is, until we moved to Spearfish from back east two years ago. First we took our granddaughters swimming at Belle’s impressive community center. Then we found the rodeo. Soon we were munching lunch at Mish Mash, followed occasionally by an ice cream cone at one of the neatest Dairy Queens anywhere. Then last fall, Karen and I started joining old timers for golf at the Belle Fourche Country Club. And now – as of Wednesday, July 11th – we’ve discovered Herrmann Park!

All of a sudden, Belle Fourche has become a “destination” spot for the Millers. If you’ve not been there lately, you’re missing a treat!

Oh, did I mention the neat coffee shops?

Kudos to KBHB Radio

Extremely dry conditions in the southern Black Hills, coupled with hot temperatures and gusty winds, are hampering firefighters trying to subdue the “Alabaugh Fire” about five miles southwest of Hot Springs.

We’re saddened to learn that one person has been killed and two firefighters injured in incidents related to this fire. News reports say 27 homes have been destroyed by the wildfire, apparently started by lightning in Alabaugh Canyon.

We first learned of the fire Saturday night (July 7th) in Crawford, Nebraska, where we heard a public service radio dispatcher announce an appeal for assistance in fighting a wildfire in Fall River County South Dakota.

Sunday afternoon, as we drove north from Crawford, Nebraska to Spearfish, South Dakota, I listened up and down the radio dial seeking information about the fire.

I first tried the Hot Springs AM radio station at 580 on the dial. I heard nothing but country music. Switching to KOTA in Rapid City, I heard the CBS network news at both 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., leading their newscasts with information about massive wilfires in the western states, including South Dakota. They reported the death related to the fire near Hot Springs, but there was little detail. We heard no local follow-up on KOTA following the network news. Admittedly, I was hop-scotching across the dial -- hoping to hear something, and I may well have missed coverage by stations. But I doubt it. I was trying all afternoon, but with little success.

At 4:00 p.m., an ABC network news report over KBHB Sturgis told about the evacuation of homes in the Hot Springs area, along with an excerpt from a fire official with a few details. Following the network news, KBHB’s Gary Matthews provided the only substantive local information we could find about the fire. It included more depth and greater detail than contained in the ABC network report. And it was the ONLY local radio report about the fire that we could locate on our car radio.

Our hats off to KBHB in Sturgis for providing these reports (we heard subsequent updates) and for caring enough to provide news and information that affect residents of the Black Hills region.

I know the story was picked up by the Associated Press, and KOTA-TV, the KELOland stations, and others have undoubtedly carried the story, since there is evidence on their web sites that their stations have broadcast the story.

But Sunday afternoon, some 18 hours after the fire was first reported, radio listeners in western South Dakota were hard pressed to find ANY information about the incident.

Alas, lots of radio stations are largely automated, especially on weekends, playing music fed to them via satellite. They provide little, if any, local and regional news reports. We know of at least one Black Hills radio station whose newscasts rely on newspaper clippings – often from yesterday’s edition!!

It is sad that so many radio stations offer so little original news reporting.

Kudos to KBHB and Gary Matthews for recognizing that local news and public affairs reporting is a key ingredient in providing real service to their listeners – not just canned music and network programs.

Saying Goodbye to a Friend

Bob Gordon died last Saturday (June 30, 2007) in Jackson, Mississippi at the age of 69. He had been in failing health the last few months. He was a good friend.

A native of McComb, Mississippi, Bob was a graduate of Ole Miss and had a stellar career as a reporter, and later manager, with United Press International (UPI). He also served as managing editor of the Clarion Ledger in Jackson and executive editor of the Hattiesburg American.

It was during his early years with UPI that Bob covered many of the major civil rights clashes in the South, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s campaign in Birmingham, Alabama in 1962-63, and the church bombings that claimed the lives of four young black girls.

Bob didn’t talk much about those years, but in 1964 he covered the Freedom Summer campaign and spent much of the year in the Philadelphia, Mississippi area where three civil rights volunteers were slain. While covering school desegregation activities in Grenada in 1966, Bob was beaten by a mob. After several key jobs with UPI in the Carolinas and Washington, D. C., Bob decided to return to newspaper work in his native Mississippi.

His career in journalism was cut short in 1987, when he suffered a major heart attack. Bob was not yet 50 years old, and the prognosis was not good. Doctors were counting his future life span in months, not years. Fortunately, Bob overcame the odds and led a full – if somewhat less active – retired life for another 20 years. His obituary shares more detail.

In 1993 shortly after Karen and I moved to Jackson, Mississippi, we became acquainted with Bob and Jimmie Ray Gordon in a Methodist Sunday School class, and it was friendship at first sight! Bob and I enjoyed bantering back and forth about the media – Bob praising the glories of the print media, and I defending my broadcast brethren. Karen and Jimmie Ray became close friends as members of a ladies prayer group.

In the late 1990s, the prayer group ladies and their spouses began an annual tradition of an extended weekend away each spring – the first year on the Alabama Gulf Coast, and later in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee and the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas. These April gatherings became a very special time for all of us – a time when we could rekindle our friendships with good food, great conversations, and a chance to “kick back” for a few days. A few photographs from these gatherings – featuring Bob -- are linked to this site.

We’ll always remember Bob’s warm smile, quick wit, dry humor, and unique laugh, which we all came to love. He was a dear friend, and we’ll all miss him deeply.

Our thoughts and prayers go to Jimmie Ray, who knows better than any of us what a truly remarkable man this was. How fortune we all were to have known Bob Gordon – and to be able to call him our friend.