Remember that childhood song, “Rain rain, go away, come again another day”. When will it stop raining? The poor farmers trying to make hay. One of the wettest Julys on record. It appears that apples are dropping early this year. I told someone that last night and they said that the squirrels were knocking them off the trees. I don’t agree with that. I think they are simply dropping early.

The missing cow I wrote about two weeks ago is still experiencing unbridled freedom. She tends to go between Gabriel Road, Burr Road and the Ackermann farm on Moller Road and likes the Krantz pond on Burr Road. She was last seen a few days ago. Please contact Dave Slater if you see the cow. The cow is easily spooked so please don’t try to capture her yourself. We need to give this cow a name.

Get well wishes for Eileen Brey, and Happy Birthday wishes as well.

The Kenoza Lake United Methodist Women will meet on Monday, July 19th, 7:00 pm at Marguerite Brown’s house. The Kenoza Lake Firemen will have their chicken barbeque on July 24th. The Jeffersonville Boy Scout troop will be holding a Chicken-barbeque on Saturday, July 17th.

Background: Former Kenoza Lake resident Leslie Loeffel and I attended then Jeffersonville-Youngsville Central school and graduated in 1975. Leslie now lives in Utah where she is the Director of Davis Learning Support and Student Services at Weber State University.

A few Sundays ago, I ran into Leslie as I left the Kenoza Lake United Methodist Church weekly church service. Leslie was headed to the Kenoza Lake Cemetery to clean up some of the headstones, that had lichen growing on them. (By the way, lichens harm gravestones, however, that is a topic for another column.) Leslie has taken a keen interest in the history of Kenoza Lake.

We discussed that as George Slater has unofficially appointed me the Mayor of Kenoza Lake, that I could unofficially appoint Leslie as the Kenoza Lake Historian. Leslie said that she would like to periodically write about Kenoza Lake history and suggested that we call it “Kenoza Lake History Highlights from Leslie Loeffel”. I thought this was an excellent idea and so with this column, I am including Chapter One, July 2021, Kenoza Lake History Highlights by Leslie Loeffel:

1. In summer in the early 1900s, Kenoza Lake was bustling with activity. The boarding houses were full of city visitors ready to write home about the wonderful time they were having swimming, boating, dancing, and attending parties. Becker’s Drug Store on the lake corner across from the Kenoza Lake Hotel (site of Snedeker’s garage) offered “1000 different kinds of postcards.” Both William Becker and Wirt Moulthrop “published” postcards of local scenes to be sold in their stores. The local druggists and novelty store owners took photographs and sent them to Germany where postcards were printed with advanced technology, leading to the high quality of these early postcards. This “Golden Age of Postcards” lasted until the lead up to World War I when a tariff was imposed and German printers were no longer used.
2. In 1906, you could have danced the night away in Kenoza Lake all summer long. Weekly dances were held at the Kenoza Lake dance hall owned at that time by Philip Behrmann and George DeLap. Gents, you would have paid 15 cents, but ladies, you could have entered for only 10 cents. Music was furnished by the Kenoza Lake Orchestra. This may have been the same group that was sometimes called the Home Orchestra made up of Cora Osterhout on piano, her brother Arthur Osterhout on trombone, and Andrew Kohler on violin, joined at least once by John Puerschner on cornet. Cora Osterhout (later Cora Fuhrer, mother of Bernice Fuhrer) went on to be the church organist for the Kenoza Lake Methodist Church for over 30 years.

Full moon, July 23rd, Buck Full moon. Whitetail Deer antlers are still in velvet and still growing until August 10th, the last day that antlers grow. If you want to read some fascinating information about buck antler growth, go to: https://community.legendarywhitetails.com/blog/whitetail-deer-antler-growth-cycle/

Did you know that antlers can grow about 1/8 inch daily for yearlings and about 1/4 inches daily for adult bucks? That is as much as 1½ inches per week for adults!