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Rick's Blog

I add to this when I can, or when I feel inclined. Let me know if you love it... Or hate it... as if it would make any difference... It's mostly copies of emails to my brother and sister, but I try to be interesting to everyone who reads. Rick's current Blog Happy 4th of July 2010 I was hoping for a little more straw and a little less museum.   I will someday post photos to my Walgreen's account and send you the link.   The Straw Bale Museum in Carthage is the *Carthage* city and county museum, with all the attendant student trophies and dusty athletic uniforms, and dusty military uniforms, decades of (unprotected) old newspapers, replica Dr's office, post office, etc...   all of which happen to be housed in a building constructed of straw bales with a poor plaster coat outdoors. The roof / ceiling is metal, with roll insulation and a plastic sheet below. They do have in-door plumbing and use corn for heat.   The ceiling fans that they say "keep it real cool in the summer" don't work all that well. Gramma Jean got warm.   There are three places interior where the inside wall is opened to expose a view of a strawbale.   Otherwise, precious little on the structure itself. I was hoping for more...  how do they handle bugs, summer - winter humidity... in a place like that? Has corn gotten to be more expensive than heating oil yet? How often do you have to re-plaster?   I thought for sure we'd be the only people there, so was surprised to see the front door propped open and several cars at the curb. A family reunion group was exploring the place for old memories. And, to be truthful, this museum is really good for that.   But, the HS closed in 1983 and the remaining kids bus to either Howard or DeSmet. The HiWay population sign says 187. You do the math.    The three old folks who showed us around the place dearly love that museum, and when the reunion group left we had them ALL to ourselves. Since the place has only been open a few years, they didn't have many answers to my above questions.   Probably the most interesting thing... they had a small historic kitchen set-up, with the absolute oldest electric range I'd ever seen.   Mom stopped at that for a minute and said "We had one of those in White Bear Lake when I was a kid.  One day, I was running around with a wet toothpick or something in my mouth, and stuck it in there."  (Pointing to an electrical outlet just below the burner controls.)  "I don't remember, but I must have got a good shock because everybody came running and I never did that again."   We dragged Main a couple times, trying not to miss anything, and drove around Lake Carthage. The lake's only campground was full of expensive 5th wheel campers, almost all with nearby plates.   Remember, Carthage had a part in the movie  "Into the Wild."    One of the women at the Museum said she was the first in town to shake hands with Sean Penn.   Too early to eat, (on these trips, Mom likes to dine about 4 PM). Looked for supper  in Howard (all closed) and nothing again until Mitchell, at 5 PM.  Our first choice, Pirogues, was closed for the 4th, and on our way to Ruby Tuesdays, got side-tracked by Arbeys. Good enough!   Happy 4th of July! Rico. year 2008 year 2007 year 2006 year 2005 year 2001-02 year 2000 blog             Free counters provided by Andale.

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