Nickname found for McCook; next, a song

Okay, I know this is premature, but my column-writing buddy, Walt Sehnert, and I have come up with an early favorite in the McCook nick-naming race.

Ready or not, here it comes:

Our favorite, after thinking about it long and hard and finally deciding to go public is: "Cookietown, USA!"

How do you like the sound of that, boys and girls?

To Walt and I, the handle that was given to McCook during CB days is the perfect way to describe the town we both chose as our home, back in the 1950s and 1960s, when it came time for us to make a living and raise a family. Besides that, Cookietown is such a sweet-sounding name and the visions of sharing it inspires are so very, very soothing,

"Why else," you wonder, "are you two old birds so taken with a title like 'Cookietown, USA!'"

Let's begin with the obvious. The truth -- as most of you know -- is that Walt is a baker in a family that has been in the baking business since 1521. You read that right -- 1521. That's a hard-to-believe family legacy going back 494 years ago to Germany, where the Sehnert family's baking tradition began.

Today -- just six years before Sehnert Bakery and the Bieroc Cafe of McCook celebrates the 500th anniversary of the family's baking beginning -- the bakery at 312 Norris Avenue is the only Sehnert baking business remaining in the world.

"My grandfather Sehnert came to the United States in the 1890s from Germany," Walt said. Then, in 1932, Walt's father brought the Sehnert baking tradition to Nebraska, settling in Plainview, where Walt was raised and introduced to baking by his father. McCook joined the Sehnert baking party in 1957, when Walt and his wife, Jean, chose McCook as their home and the site of their baking business.

At one time -- more than 50 years ago -- the Sehnerts operated bakeries in three states -- South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska. This, at one time, included Nebraska bakeries in Plainview, Kearney, Holdrege and McCook.

Now, sadly, those days are past. "Family bakeries are almost a dinosaur," Walt lamented. "I'm proud of my son, Matt. He has improvised, starting the Bieroc (another name for a folded-over, hand-held German pocket sandwich also known as a Runza); starting musical and comedy shows; and expanding the bakery-and-cafe's catering business."

That has allowed Sehnert's of McCook to be -- drum roll, please -- the world's only Sehnert's Bakery and the one-and-only home of a special occasion cookie called "The McCookie." Following up on an idea originated by Don Harpst, Matt and the staff at Sehnert's came up with a sugar cookie shaped like the state of Nebraska, topped with white icing and a red hot pin-pointing McCook's location.

Those distinctions, in Walt's and my opinion, qualify McCook to be "Cookietown, USA."

Add to that the sweet people who live around here and you have all the evidence you need to qualify for the copyrighted title of "Cookietown, USA!"

"Besides that," says Walt, a long-time song-and-dance man, "Cookietown's easier to rhyme with than McCook when you're writing a song about our town."

So get with it, guys and gals, that's your invitation. Walt and I have re-presented you with a nifty nick-name for McCook: "Cookietown, USA."

Now it's up to one of you to write the song that will etch our "Cookietown, USA!" nick-name into the minds of people all over this big, wide, wonderful world.