"D.C. Resident" Dashcle to Visit South Dakota
Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle will return to the State of South Dakota next month. Mr. Daschle plans to hold receptions in Aberdeen, Sioux Falls, Rapid City and even on some American Indian reservation to thank supporters. He has also been invited to lecture at the Farber Forum at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. Daschle, a three-term Senator who led the Democratic party in the Senate for 10 years, lost the nation's highest-profile Senate race in November to John Thune. Daschle has continued to live in the Washington area, with no plans to move back to South Dakota anytime soon. All of us here at the Holabird Advocate can understand that. As far as we know, his wife, Linda Dashcle, is still a lobbyist for Boeing, and must be taking over the payments on that $3 million house. Nice work, if you can get it.

Former Holabird residents, Smokey and Janet Kopecky, went down south to Pensacola, Florida to see their daughter, Michelle. Janet sent a picture of the three of them along with a gentleman named Jay. The group is holding an alligator, and Jay has the head. Michelle better not let him get away. Anybody that will handle a dangerous critter like that long enough to have a picture taken can do just about anything. All of us here at the Holabird Advocate salute you, Jay. The United States Marines could use a few more like you.

Ben Hanten of South Dakota 123 has been sending pictures of his European Vacation. So far, he's been in Germany (the southern part judging from the landscape) and Paris, France. He must be doing pretty well for himself to afford a fancy trip like that. Ben and his wife Katie Hunhoff Hanten will be away for a spell, but they'll be back with some stories to tell. Have fun kids, but don't eat the kartoffel zalat. It tastes the same coming up.

Once upon a time, there was a man....CAPTAIN 11-TODAY'S MAN OF THE FUTURE. Yes, it seems that it has been 50 years since those forces from the outer galaxies gave the kind, fair, and brave Dave Dedrick the power to control time, as well as the wisdom of Solomon and the strength of Atlas. That's the legend, here's the facts:

Dedrick and a man named Murruy Stewert were called to the office of the legendary Joe Floyd. He wanted a volunteer to check out this show kiddy cartoon show in Minneapolis. Neither volunteered, so a coin was tossed. The rest is Keloland history.

Captain 11 was an institution in itself for 41.5 years until Dave Dedrick retired in December of 1996. At the end of the show, Dave, as the Captain, said to his audience, "Mind Mom and Dad. Eat everything they tell you to eat. And say your prayers before you go to bed. The ACLU, I'm sure, tried to stop him from saying that, but they never did.

I never got to be on the Captain 11 show. Sioux Falls, back then, was like the other side of the world to my family and me. I bought Dave Dedrick's book. I liked it so much that I bought it again, just to have him autograph it. That copy of the book has sealed in plastic and hidden away and will remain so until the next Captain 11 is chosen. I even got my picture taken with him when he came to Highmore for the Old Settlers Day parade. As it says in the last page of that book, "My cup runneth over".

I was able to see the Captain 11 set at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. When I arrived, there were two other people sitting on the bleachers watching the video of the last episode of the show. They were a married couple. The husband was completely unemotional, the wife wept openly. When the video rewound on the loop, I said to him, "You're not from here are you, Sir." he said, "No, I'm from Salt Lake City" The wife said that she had indeed grown up in Keloland. I knew that I knew that because he reacted as I did at the close of the show when the Captain blasted off to return to the outer galaxies where he came from.

One thing that I have learned from knowing Dave Dedrick, albeit in a limited way, is that as he put it, " A man never stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child". May we all learn that from you, Dave, wherever you are. In the words of Bob Dylan, "May you build a ladder to the stars, and climb on every rung. And may you stay forever young."