MUSCODA - During my growing up years, Memorial Day programs in most small towns were big deals. That was a time before plastic and silk flowers became available. Folks usually decorated graves with homegrown blossoms. I recall my parents picking iris flowers and putting them in water-filled fruit jars to decorate grandparent graves.

Perhaps the Memorial Day I remember the most is one when it snowed several inches prior to daylight. Farmers were concerned because new growing corn plants were covered with snow. The subject of most rural graveyard conversations centered around, “Will the corn be alright?” Then the sun came out bright and warm and the snow was mostly gone by midmorning and most of the young corn survived.

A June 7, 1945 edition of this newspaper carried a front-page story about a late freeze striking this area. It noted - “Already hampered by cold weather, farm crops in this vicinity received two setbacks during last week in the form of flood and frost.

“Friday night’s deluge of rain caused untold damage to corn fields that had already been planted but are now washed away. In many cases farmers had already delayed planting their corn due to cold weather this area experienced during the month of May and so far in June.

“Monday morning a biting frost hit most of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, doing considerable damage to truck gardens and fruit. Many potatoes, which were already up, were frozen by the sudden drop in temperature.

“The Village of Blue River suffered a double dose of damage from the downpour of rain last Friday and Saturday.

“A log dammed up the creek east of the village and in so doing diverted tons of water and mud into the village, causing damage to many homes. A number of basements were filled with water and many of the village streets were covered with mud. “

Perhaps the lesson of this story may be “Farming is never a sure things.” And it reminds me of the late Romel Rasque. She was the unofficial Muscoda person who people could go to for flower advice. She was noted for saying, “To be safe – don’t put house plants outside until after Memorial Day.” @font-face {font-family:Arial; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073711037 9 0 511 0;}@font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}@font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝";}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝";}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}