By Bob Simmons, CEO, Simmons Multimedia In case you’re unaware, this column appears in both of our co-owned weekly periodicals, The Borderland Press in Langdon and Valley News & Views in Drayton. I write from my home base, Bob Simmons World Headquarters, which is located in Langdon. For the most part, the same column appears in both papers each week, but when my writings are specific to Langdon, we run an alternate column in Drayton. The bottom line here is whichever paper you’re reading, I want to say THANK YOU for carving out a few minutes to thumb through these pages each week. As you can imagine, we occasionally receive tips from readers for feature story ideas, photo submissions, etc., and for those, we are grateful.

It’s been a tough week reading, hearing and watching the details of the horrific tornadoes that devastated parts of our beautiful state. The loss of three lives adds to the sorrow one feels after hearing the details.

Several years ago when Ella was still in elementary school, I picked her up after school to find her distraught. She’d had a tough day. At one point, she had called because she forgot a pair of socks for gym class, and I was out of town, so I don’t know what she ended up doing. Did she go sockless? Borrow a pair from a friend? I have no idea. On top of that, she had forgotten an assignment at home because that morning she had gotten up late and was in a rush to get ready for school. Overall, it was a very bad day for my little fifth grader. As we made our way home, Ella had a light bulb moment. She turned to me and said, “You know why I had a bad day? I didn’t make my bed this morning.” I started to laugh until I realized she was serious.

I had a wonderful weekend and especially loved attending the Walhalla Demolition Derby. I’m a bit ashamed that at my age I’ve never made it to one of these derbies.

“You’ve come a long way, baby,” the 1968 slogan for Virginia Slims cigarettes, acknowledged that great strides had been made for women, beginning with the right to vote over 50 years earlier. Almost as impactful was the passage of Title IX in 1972, which significantly expanded educational and athletic opportunities for women and girls.

On June 14, Governor Armstrong was censured by the leaders of the ND Republican Party for vetoing Senate Bill 2307, the recent book ban bill that was defeated due to the Governor’s veto. This censure means bills like SB 2307 will come back and our work at Right to Read ND must continue in earnest.

I’ve always been a bit of a ‘river rat,’ as we call them back home. A river rat is a person who spends way too much time on the water, either kayaking, rafting, boating, or all of the above.

By Bob Simmons, CEO, Simmons Multimedia Fishing season is here! I used to enjoy fishing when I was a little guy. While Mumz slept undisturbed, Dad would quietly awaken me in the middle of the night on opening day. After he made us greasy bacon and eggs, we’d gather our gear and drive up behind the Knightville Dam in Huntington, Massachusetts, and join hundreds of others along the banks of the mighty Westfield River to make that first cast at 6 AM for a prized rainbow trout. Dad saw to it that his boy was properly outfitted with a Fenwick rod, Zebco open face reel, (because Dad would say closed face reels are for Mary boys) and a new set of waders each season. Dad loved to fish and was excited to share that experience with me.

A lot has been happening in the Goodman household in the past few weeks. First up, Catelyn had her wisdom teeth taken out. Not everyone who’s told they have their wisdom teeth needs to have the procedure to have them extracted, but we went ahead with Catelyn’s for two reasons. The first reason is that they were bothering her, especially the bottom ones. The second reason is that we have spent, over the course of about eight years, roughly a million dollars, give or take a few thousand, on her teeth. Between expanders, spacers, two rounds of braces, retainers, and trips to Grand Forks to the orthodontist, there was no way I was taking the risk of those wisdom teeth screwing up her perfect, Dr. Danel approved, million-dollar smile.

June 21 is the Summer Solstice, better known as the first day of summer. Even though we’ve been enjoying the last few weeks of what seemed like summer, I say let’s cheer on the official date.