North Missourian publisher Darryl Wilkinson sees similarity in two tree plantings on the courthouse lawn that are 30 years apart.
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by Darryl Wilkinson
Last week’s tree planting on the courthouse lawn to help us focus on the efforts of the Green Hills Women’s Shelter also turned my focus to a similar event which occurred over three decades ago.
As you know, our staff is working on a Year 2000 book describing local events and developments that influence what we are as we enter a new millennium. That puts us into scrapbooks, our bound newspaper archives, and other records and photographs shared by many. Some may think things hardly ever change in a small town, but those someones haven’t tackled this kind of project.
For instance, the late Eddie Binney left several stacks of memorabilia and scrapbook items for the Daviess County Historical Society. Among the Polaroids still preserved was this picture of a man digging in the courthouse lawn. It’s one of those pictures you might unwittingly toss. But proper identification reveals a tidbit of knowledge that enhances a stroll around the square or makes you appreciate a shady seat under a tree during Chautauqua even more.
The photo of this tree planting was taken in 1967 when Gallatin still had its own nursery. The thin sapling being planted was a tulip tree for a reason.
Nurseryman Ivan Wilder planted a tulip tree purchased by University Extension and 4-H as a memorial to Miss Georgianna Ethison who served as secretary for the Extension Center some 30 years. A tulip tree was choice since Miss Etchison was especially fond of flowering trees.
Folks new to Gallatin probably don’t remember Ivan Wilder. The nursery building still stands east of Prater Chiropractic Clinic, east off South Main Street, though now vacant. But the tulip tree in the southeast portion of the courthouse lawn still serves its purpose and flowers a tribute to Miss Etchison each season.
I wonder how many other examples of Ivan Wilder’s work you could still find throughout Gallatin?
#*@&^
We’ve received unsigned letters to the editor expressing fear over Y2K and the coming new century. We also receive letters and predictions of optimism.
This week brought a press release – from Hollywood, so consider the source – about an anthology being published which features predictions by winners of the 15th Annual L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards. Evidently, Hubbard established the writers contest in 1983 as a measure of discovering the best new writers of speculative fiction.
By the year 2009, ordinary pens will be equipped with nanodevices that can detect – and correct – errors of spelling and grammar …voice operated computers and word processors will be commonplace …and commercial passenger spaceflight to earth- orbiting hotels will become a reality…
And medical science (drawing on a global, Internet-linked pool of instantaneous new research and development data) will have produced alternatives to hormones and pesticides as well as a cure for cancer… or so say the fiction writers.
One writer specifically forecasts “the discovery of the cancerless cigarette, ending the Tobacco Wars of 2004-2007.” Another writer says nanotechnology will be the great science of the coming decade. “The ability to move atoms and molecules,” he writes, “will enable machines to produce any object they’re programmed to build, regardless of how simple or complicated… even dust could be restructured into a computer.”
Does today’s fiction become tomorrow’s reality? How many absurdities in yesterday’s comic books are tools in use today?
I dunno. When it comes to computers, I can’t figure out the software and hardware I have now. My only prediction is that computers will become eight times faster, cost one-fourth as much – and still won’t come with HELP files you can understand.
I’m not sure that computers always help mankind in the search for peace. Peace for me is pushing off the power button. I don’t know the future. I can’t even say with certainty what’s to happen in the next minute of this life. But, if you’ve read this column this far, rest assured that you’ve come to the point in my work week when I rise from behind this keyboard and leave in…
Peace.