Lickin' the cookie pan
Your former Ol' Editor loves cookies. They are his downfall. He can resist tobacco, booze, and gambling but can't pass up a cookie — especially the oatmeal variety. However, good as cookies are, there's one thing better — licking the pan.
Grandma Jones was a fabulous cook with her wood burning stove that had warming ovens at top and a water reservoir alongside the firebox.
She baked cakes without a recipe, no ready mixes, and her oven had no automatic thermometer. Grandma would poke in a small stick of wood at the right time to keep a proper fire. She never had a failure. She also had a grandson wanting to "lick the pan."
When the FOE writes his book it'll be a compilation of short essays, mostly about a half-century of experiences in the small town newspaper business. We plan to tell about licking Grandma's cookie pan, our days of growing up on the lush Bluestem grass pastureland of the Kansas Flint Hills, a few of the rare humorous incidents of WWII in Europe, going to KU, but mostly about life on Luta Creek.
One of the "must" stories would be how Bud Hannaford and the late Alex Case, Jr., properly lowered Old Glory from the flagpole at our home late one night when we'd overlooked doing it. That is a story you'll enjoy reading as much as we enjoy writing, but not as much as the three of us had lowering that flag.
Rip Snorter down at Oursler is sick and tired of politicians on both sides of the fence and decided his vote will go to "none of the above" this fall. Rip knows how to pick a winner.
— BILL MEYER
