Dick Nachbar

June 14, 2021

That Idaho Avenue cabin on Big Bass Lake north of Highway 2 was honored with a short stopover visit by an old friend along with his bride from Idaho this past week. An afternoon and overnight stay are too short for old friends; however, for this old adventurer and his long-term bride this visit brought a welcome infusion of good Idaho memories spanning some 35 years—nearly half of their lifetimes.

Visitors Grant and Deborah are driving cross-country from Idaho’s Treasure Valley to Vermont for a family wedding. Highlighted stops along their way include North Dakota’s Badlands and Wisconsin’s Apostle Islands, in addition to Minnesota’s Northland.

Grant has been a large part of the Idaho Outfitters & Guides Association (IOGA) for decades. He’s had key roles in many Idaho land/water/wildlife management decisions. He and this former mountain sheep hunter once co-managed a project on Idaho’s “Bighorn Highway” designed to reduce Bighorn road kill fatalities, educate the public on wild mountain sheep management requirements, and foster cooperation among IOGA and Idaho Wild Sheep Foundation members.

Here, that project resulted in greater respect for, and appreciation of, those outfitters and guides who live and work in Idaho’s Salmon River country. Recollections of common-ground back country adventures passed too quickly but were clearly stimulating for both old timers. Ladies quickly got acquainted by sharing common background memories from medical professions. The novel and rustic outdoor camp shower first drew close interest, then appreciation, and finally praise from the visitors.

A Bass Lake walleye fish fry capped this wonderful visit before an early morning coffee departure for the next leg in the travelers’ cross-country adventure. They were here just a little too early to see Minnesota’s state flower, the Showy Lady Slipper, one of several dozen native orchids.

Tapping into one’s “Friends Fund” to recall good memories of past adventures in life is opening a treasure chest with ease and joy. There’s no resentment, deceit, or arrogance in that chest. Wide and deep, appreciation and gratitude aplenty, a welcome and neat “Idaho Infusion” once again as age and years between such pleasant infusions grow larger.

Tom Purcell

Need to learn how to unclog a shower drain, jump-start a car, shave your face without bleeding to death or successfully address dozens of other practical adult daily activities?

Rob Kenney offers this kind of basic “dad advice” and millions are tuning into his YouTube channel “Dad, How Do I?” to hear it.

Kenney, who promises his subscribers he’ll do “my best to provide useful, practical content to many basic tasks that everyone should know how to do,” told Buzzfeed he began making YouTube videos after his 27-year-old daughter would call him “with countless ‘adulting’ questions.”

“Every day she was calling me and … I thought, ‘What do other people do when they don’t have that resource?’ ”

Kenny was painfully aware of what it was like to lack a fatherly resource. His parents divorced when he was a child and his father won custody of Kenny and his siblings.

But when his father walked out on the family in 1978, when Kenney was 14, he and his brothers and sisters had to learn “the ropes of adulthood” by themselves, reports the HuffPost.

Prodded by his daughter’s endless “how do I” questions, Kenney created a YouTube channel that teaches young adults the basic life-lessons he missed out on growing up without a father in the house.

Boy, did his video posts strike a chord.

In only a few weeks they went viral. Kenney currently has nearly 3.5 million YouTube subscribers, proving there’s clearly a hunger for the simple “dadvice” that he provides.

My father will be 88 soon and he still tells me about the hunger he has for his father, who died in 1937 when my dad was only three — a hunger I’m unfamiliar with because I am still blessed to have my dad in my life.

After his father died my dad’s mother had to work full time to afford their modest apartment and, unsupervised, my dad was getting into mischief until the football coach persuaded him to join the high school team.

The coach became my dad’s father figure and helped shape him into the solid, reliable dad he would one day become — as well as one heck of a great running back, who would later be inducted into his high school’s sports hall of fame.

My mother’s father also helped shape my father. Grandfather Hartner was a pattern maker and highly skilled with tools.

He understood everything about cars and houses — how to keep a car in tune, fix light switches, repair plumbing, etc. — and he taught my dad the useful skills he’d one day need to keep his busy, 8-person household running smoothly.

My father in turn passed those handyman skills down to me as he helped me to renovate my first house, a complete fixer-upper I was not afraid to buy because of the resourceful dad (and mom) I knew I could rely on.

My dad also taught me how to make sensible decisions managing and saving money and dealing with people — sometimes not very honest people — in business situations.

I feel bad for the kids who lose their dads early, as my dad lost his. I applaud Rob Kenney for helping such kids learn the basic daily skills they need as adults.

I’m eternally thankful for being blessed by my dad’s powerful presence and the practical knowledge he still gives me on how to navigate life’s challenges.

Dad, thanks for teaching me how!

Purcell is an author and humor columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com. Copyright 2021 Tom Purcell, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Minnesota first passed a seat belt law in 1986, requiring the driver and front-seat passengers to wear a seat belt.

And yet, during a two-week seat belt campaign, from May 24-June 6 which included extra patrols and awareness efforts, officers, deputies and troopers reported 2,070 seat belt citations and 91 child seat citations.

Buckling up, for most, is a habit; an easy and right decision. But for some, the decision not to belt up puts family and loved ones at risk.

Minnesota law states that drivers and passengers in all seating positions must wear seat belts or be in the correct child restraint. Occupants must correctly wear seat belts low and snug across the hips, and they should never tuck straps under an arm or behind the back.

Clearly some are still making decisions to remain unbelted, and that contributes to a preliminary overall traffic fatality figure of 177 compared with 125 reported in 2020 year-to-date, reports the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which organized the annual statewide Click It or Ticket campaign.

Highlights, or perhaps a better description would be low lights, of the two week campaign include:

• Dakota County Sheriff’s Office cited a driver where a 3-year-old was standing in the backseat and looking out the window.
• Polk County Sheriff’s Office stopped an unbuckled driver with two children who were not in child restraints.
• Red Lake Police made a DWI arrest along with citations for the unbuckled driver and four young children unbuckled in the back seat.
• St. Paul Police cited a speeding, unbuckled female driver. The officer also cited the driver for violations including holding a phone and using FaceTime, and for three children not in child restraints in the backseat.
• Zumbrota Police cited two juveniles in the same vehicle for not wearing seat belts. One of the juveniles was the driver.

The decision to wear a seat belt can help make all the difference in a crash, the department reports.

• In 1987, 4,176 vehicle occupants suffered severe injuries in Minnesota traffic crashes. That number dropped to 1,056 in 2020.
• In crashes from 2016-2020, of the 15,670 children ages 0-7 that were properly restrained, 88 percent were not injured while another 9 percent sustained only possible injuries.

On the bright side, is a 2019 Minnesota Observational Seat Belt Survey that shows most Minnesotans are making the life-saving decision to buckle up: 93.4 percent of front seat occupants are wearing their seat belts.

It's an old message, but one that remains true: Seat belts save lives.

And the message now carries with it motivation beyond saving lives: If you are unbuckled, expect to be stopped.