If you have photos, we need them

We knew when Laura Camp?bell came to work at the Free Press a little more than two years ago we wouldn?t have her here forever. But we hoped all along we were wrong.

She tells us now she is moving back to Wichita and getting married later this year.

Laura is wise beyond her years and capable of anything we asked her to do. She even filled in admirably as editor of the Hesston Record while we were in transition there. We know she will be a success in whatever she chooses to do and wish her the best in the future.

I?m glad Marion County Fair time is almost here because that means grandsons Alex and Louis will be in town for about 10 days later this month.

They?re in Florida with Aunt Mary and Uncle Jeff right now, so they?ll be used to being on the road. I know they won?t be homesick because right after Amy and George dropped them off in Tampa, Louis was asking them when they were leaving.

Maybe while the boys are here we?ll visit the other Tampa.

Last week for some unknown reason I thought it was time to repaint the front entrance of the office. As I was walking toward our building scoping things out, I noticed we also had a drop-through slot in the north door which we haven?t used for five years.

Inside, we have a bookshelf in front of the slot, so I got to thinking that someone may have dropped something in there we might want. Sure enough, there was a month-old check lying back there along with a basketball score sheet from January 2003 and a proof from a book I produced about five years ago.

Al Gore?s ?Live Earth? concerts around the world didn?t make me aware of the global warming issue?or probably not many others either. You?d have to had lived under a rock not to know about the issue, but the set by Pink Floyd (Roger Waters) did remind me how much I liked the song, ?Another Brick in the Wall.? And if the people attending the concerts didn?t walk or ride a bike to them, the temperature of the earth went up a little.

You can find a link to that Pink Floyd song in this column on our Web site this week.

If you ever had sewer trouble many years back, Harley Koop was a good guy to call. He came as soon as he could get there and stayed until the job was done. He did it with a sense of humor and made the problems go away.

His shop was behind the house at 206 S. Date St. He also made those wooden tulips with a metal stem that would wave in the wind. He owned the land where Hillsboro Heights is now prior to its development.