A four-year-wait, as Time goes by

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By Bill Wundram | Friday, July 4, 2008 9:27 PM CDT | () comments

It's four years later, but Kathryn Bohn’s picture has finally made it into Time magazine.

“Hurrah,” she says, which is exactly what she is hooting in the middle of a Page 27 spread called “Patriot Games.” She is holding up a sign, “God Bless America And Our Troops.”

“It’s a miracle that the picture finally made it into print,” says Kathryn, a Davenporter remembered for her Christian concert efforts and as a television news anchor and producer.

Four years ago, President Bush was running for office again and was speaking at LeClaire Park, Davenport.

“I had a strong desire to be there, 6:30 a.m., even though he wasn’t to speak until 1 p.m.,” says Kathryn. “I was determined for President Bush to see the sign because I wanted to produce a concert in the park with Lee Greenwood (‘God Bless the U.S.A.’). I thought the sign would spark some interest.

“I inched my way next to the stage and spied a guy with a big cowboy hat and a smile to match. He said, ‘Stand next to me; my nephew is a photographer with the press corps. When the president comes off the stage, I’ll be the first to shake Bush’s hand and maybe we’ll get our picture in Time.’

“Sure enough, after the speech, President Bush stepped into the crowd and the cowboy stretched out his hand. Bush said, ‘I always like a guy who wears a cowboy hat,’ Snap, snap, snap, pictures were taken and I was in the middle of all of them. The president even autographed my sign.”

KATHRYN HAS BEEN waiting for four years to see her picture in Time. This week she got an excited call from the guy in the cowboy hat, Dave Dobbels of Cambridge, Ill.

“Just as he had foretold, the picture is smack in the middle of eight other patriotic pictures, part of the Time cover story, ‘The Real Meaning Of Patriotism: Why both parties get it wrong.’ ”

It’s the July 7 issue. Flags are all around Kathryn, and right alongside her is that guy in the cowboy hat.

Gnats, the scourge that won’t go away

Update on the pests: “We did a small science project last night on the gnats,” e-mails Bob Dodds, Lee County extension education director in Donnellson, Iowa, a place also plagued by the bugs. “We tried DEET (a component in bug sprays), clothes dryer sheets and vanilla extract. Vanilla was truly the winner.”

OUR RESIDENT Nature Boy, Steve Gottschalk, Lowden, Iowa, has departed from weather forecasting to report on the gnats. He says we’re in the second crop of them, worse than the first. “They are really black flies, not buffalo gnats,” he says. “Instead of the hypodermic needle-like bite of the mosquito, the black fly has scissors-like biting parts.”

As if they aren’t bad enough, now we learn they are a scissors.

Sitting at ‘C’ level

A bunch of teachers, past and present from J.B. Young Intermediate School, Davenport, gathered for old-time’s sake. Lots of laughs when Gene Soehl told of one student who was not exactly a scholar, but managed to get all Cs and one B on her report card. He thought she would be honored to rate a B in one subject. She stormed into his room: “I don’t like that B; I want to be like my friends who got all Cs.”

Gene obliged and lowered her English grade to a C.

She left the room, showing off the card to friends. “Now, we’re all the same.”

Bill Wundram can be contacted at (563) 383-2249 or bwundram@qctimes.com.