You don't see many of these water wagons around anymore. This one appeared one day not far from where I live, so I made sure I got a picture of it. The present owner must think it will make a fixer-upper for display. It surely comes from the old steam engine days on the farms when they needed to take water to slake the thirst of the boilers. Fully loaded, I'm sure it was a heavy load to pull for a team. Not much got said about these wagons by my Dad or any of the other old timers I've listened to.
The parade in Mandan was a big one. It is claimed that 5,000 people take part in the parade itself; that's not counting the thousands lined up on the street to watch. The route is over five miles long and there are so many entrees in the parade that the beginning has already started returning to the staging area before the tail end of the parade has left. I never fought the crowd - it was televised live.
The Bismarck Tribune published another one of my book reviews yesterday: Hard Country. Set in New Mexico from 1875 through 1918, it followed a family making their living on a harsh country ranch. The who the story swirls about was left motherless as a baby and the father could not care for him. It was four years before he could come to claim. By then the boy had developed feelings of abandonment and aloofness which affected him the rest of his life. It was a good read.
And there's time for one sick joke: Minnesota's worst air disaster occurred earlier today when a Cessna 152, a small two seater plane crashed into a Norwegian cemetery here early this morning. Ole and Sven, working as search and rescue workers, have recovered 123 bodies so far, and expect that number to climb as digging continues into the night.
