March 24, 2020

The Corona Virus issue has us all a bit off schedule and on edge. Last night I had the luxury of staying up late and starting a new book….. A new “old” book and it was great… Willa Cather’s O Pioneers….. Since I have been researching our Seward County History for the last two years this was like frosting on the cake….. She had the most poignant statement in about the middle of this book that is staying with me all day….. “The history of every country starts in the heart of a man or a woman”!

I’ve been thinking that aren’t we incredibly fortunate that those of us at a certain age can remember our grandparents telling about when they actually came to this wide open prairie when there truly was not any type of permanent settlements here…. Nothing…. Right or Wrong very few people in the whole world have that close ( 3-4) generations of connections with the settlement of a country.

Then that made me think of a guest I had here 4-5 years ago, Diane Vasquez, from Arizona. They were on their way to check out cemeteries near Hastings and Red Cloud. Her great grandmother was Anna Pavelka! I ran right down to Chapters and got a copy of My Antonia and asked her to sign it and keep it on the shelf in the Bed & Breakfast

*Author David Laskin and Nicholas Kristof have comments and harsh facts on this attempted settlement. In the 1970’s there were fewer people on the prairie than there were in the 1950’s. It will be interesting to see the data from the 2020 census.

We have such an epic story - - - This is why I love Nebraska………