Nebraska

Brochure cover

This post will be mostly memories of my childhood.  We lived in Nebraska for about three years when I was young.  I started second grade there and moved to California when I was finishing the fifth grade.  I only have a couple of postcards from Nebraska so I’m hoping I can dig out some old photos for this post.  We lived in Grand Island, near the Platte River where my Dad let me go duck hunting with him.   There were many fields of corn and my parents would hunt for pheasants in the fall.   This was a great town to grow up in and I have many fond memories of my years there.  

We arrived at a time when the birds were beginning to migrate south.  There were flocks that would land in the trees nearby for a moment and then suddenly take to the air all at once.  Nebraska is in the line of the migratory fly-way for many of the birds in our continent that migrate each year and it can be thrilling to see this natural phenomenon.  Since I had never seen this before I was amazed to see so many birds at one time.

One of the most important things I remember about Nebraska is the severe cold winters.  You have to understand, this was a little girl who was born and raised in the south where it seldom got cold enough to snow.  To suddenly adjust to walking to school when the temperature dropped below zero was a shock to me.  One morning the radio announcer said that it was sixteen degrees below zero.   My mother told my brother and I that we needed to bundle up good because we had never seen it that cold before.  Well, of course I got about half way to school before my friend and I decided that it was too cold to go to school and we went home.  My mother promptly put me in the car, dropped me off at school and told me the only way I was getting home in the cold was to walk – that it was never too cold to go to school.  

We did adjust and learned how much fun it was to watch the icicles grow in size until they were taller than we were.  Snowball fights, sledding. snow cream and snowman building changed our feelings about the winter and cold.  The second winter we lived there was the winter of 1948/49 when severe blizzards caused widespread disaster to the herds of cattle in Nebraska.  The drifts of snow on our house covered the entire first floor, forming an air tight vacuum.  My Dad had to go out my bedroom window and dig down to allow air to circulate into the house through the windows.  

Old Soldiers and Sailors Home in Grand Island

We were snow bound once.  My Dad had to attend a business meeting in Denver, Colorado and we all went with him.  We visited the Capitol Building and some other tourist spots while Dad was at work.  When his meeting was over we started to drive back home.  We were told to turn round as the roads were closed because of a huge snowstorm.  Several days later we started home but had to stay in Julesburg, Colorado as the roads in Nebraska were still not clear.   On the third day there, some truckers made a path about 25 miles through the fields to meet the snow plows in Nebraska.   Some of the snow drifts left by this blizzard were over twenty feet high and had blocked large sections of the highway.  It was exciting to us kids but worrisome to our parents and I know they were glad when we finally reached home. 

Occasionally we would go to The House of Yesterday, a natural history museum in Hastings, a nearby city.  At the entrance of the museum was a display of black widow spiders in a glass case that both frightened and fascinated me.  There was a pioneer’s sod home as one of the exhibits that let me imagine what it would have been like to have been a pioneer.  On the third floor they had a Dodo bird’s egg which also amazed me. I have always enjoyed museums and I think it was because I fell in love with this one when I was very young.  This museum is now called The Hastings Museum and it is still the largest municipal museum between Chicago and Denver.  A large screen theater and a planetarium have been added to the museum.   Special events and traveling exhibits make this a great place to bring youngsters.

Nebraska Capitol Building in Lincoln

Another place we visited was Boy’s Town.  At that time it was still relatively new.  I no longer remember much about it except for the impression that it was a really good place for children who needed a home.  Tours are available and the town has expanded since my visit so there is much more to see!

The College World Series for Baseball is held in Omaha, Nebraska.  Lincoln is the capitol city. These are the two largest cities in Nebraska and both have a wide array of big city venues including museums, art galleries, zoos, night life and family attractions.  

There are many other cities and places to see in Nebraska.  Check out their website at http://www.visitnebraska.com