Report from Waverly

Dear Editor,

We hit the 100-day mark last week and it is time for a report from Waverly. Seeing the weather reports from Red Willow County has us thinking about McCook these days.

We hope that everyone is safely riding out the storms. Our rough weather was in June when average temperature was hottest since 1934 -- not to mention the HUMIDITY.

We watch the news, weather and sports on ABC Channel 8 in Lincoln and got a pleasant reminder of McCook area when we noticed the co-anchor is Megan Conway from Indianola area.

We got to know her family when they attended Our Savior Lutheran Church in McCook. She does a great job. I didn't have a chance to talk to them but I also saw McCook's trio (Rambali's and Stevens) singing the National Anthem at the Cornhusker State Games. They did a super job.

We stayed quite busy the first 6 weeks here getting settled in and finding things. Reality set in in July when we licensed our vehicles and now have UBP for prefix instead of the familiar number 48, a twinge of homesickness slipped in on us. I always thought the alphabet prefix was for city folks.

I joined the Lincoln East Rotary Club and now get to experience the heavier traffic. Lincoln is now twice as big (140,000 to 280,000) population as when I went to college here.

There are new streets and places that I never knew existed. An example is going to the UNL Innovation Campus which is where the State Fair used to be located. Diana doesn't venture to Lincoln much as she was asked to join a Waverly Ladies Club and she can walk to church. We are exploring Lincoln now and have been to several Salt Dogs baseball games and also visited a couple interesting museums.

We have also been to weddings and birthday parties in Iowa and South Dakota and also drove to Wakefield and Norfolk. We have seen our families a lot more now that most of us are more accessible. We have even had visits from good McCook friends.

Waverly is a nice town with a lot of friendly people but because it is a Lincoln bedroom community , there is really not much of a downtown area or common gathering places. It seems to be growing west towards Lincoln along Highway 6.

There is talk of Waverly getting a Mexican Restaurant which would be good for us. We were a little spoiled in McCook. I also miss the McCook YMCA, McCook Community College, George Norris House and other amenities offered in McCook. It seems odd cheering for the Waverly Vikings football team, but we will still follow the Bison.

Speaking of football, I didn't realize how totally saturated the media is with the Husker football and volleyball every day and everywhere. Oh well, it is a good distraction from all of the political hoopla.

Well, I will say it again, McCook was a great place to live for 20 years. Diana and I had a lot of good times and good experience there. McCook folks have a "get er done" attitude and have built an amazing little city out on the Plains. Lots of interesting, talented and bright people live there and they are always striving to make McCook better.

We plan to get out there again before the snow flies and see what we have been missing.

Duane Tappe,

Waverly, Neb.