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Here's a little note from Bob Rickard, from Linden, as he renewed his Dodgeville Chronicle. Note to the Reilly Boys: "I remember Russell Kessler gave me a ride in his J3 Cub. After that I owned and flew many airplanes."  Bob Rickard "P.S. He got me interested. I will never forget him."
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A little history - Russell Kessler was owner of The Dodgeville Chronicle and was Pat's and my uncle. He died before either one of us was born, so we never knew him - just the stories our aunt (Lillian) along with other people told us. He loved to fly airplanes and we were told he never had a pilot's license! Here's a little history on the J3 Cub (see photo above): The Piper J-3 Cub is a small, simple, light aircraft that was built between 1937 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. With tandem (fore and aft) seating, it was intended for flight training but became one of the most popular and best-known light aircraft of all time. The Cub's simplicity, affordability and popularity invokes comparisons to the Ford Model T automobile.
The aircraft's standard chrome yellow paint has come to be known as "Cub Yellow" or "Lock Haven Yellow".
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Sunday was the 25th anniversary of the Dodgeville Swimming Pool, now known as Comer Pool, after the late Gary Comer, president and CEO of Lands' End who donated the lion's share of the money to build the pool back when he owned the company. The weather looked like it could rain any minute around 1:00 p.m., but it held off and the 3:00 ceremony went off without a hitch. Speeches were given by Terry Edwards, BMO Harris Bank, who was treasurer of the fundraising for the pool, and current Mayor Todd Novak. Master of Ceremonies was Mary McKinley, who has donated her services to the pool for some 20 years.
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To say that we had a little rain over the weekend would be putting it mildly! I heard anywhere from 5-9 inches of rain throughout the county. Former Mayor Jim McCaulley (Land Conservation Department) and I toured a good share of the county south and east and north and east Saturday morning to check on the damages. There was water in places he had never seen before and in places not seen since the flood of 2008. He was most interested as to how the dams his department and the DNR had constructed were holding up. We found all of them in good shape. As for some of the corn and bean crop along with some hay that was down - that was a different story!
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And then poor Boscobel. That city got hit hard with a bridge going down. Plus homes were evacuated in Crawford County.
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Son Michael and a friend (Chris) went to the Atlanta Braves/Milwaukee Brewers baseball game Saturday. It happened to be Michael's birthday. Chris's wife had gotten him tickets for Christmas and the two of them were planning to go, but her pregnancy held her back, so Michael gladly filled in! Chris is a Braves fan and Michael a New York Yankees fan. They sat just a few rows behind the Braves dugout and got to see Dan Patrick (ESPN) and several former baseball players, including having Terry Pendleton almost right in front of them. Michael is kind of a Brewers fan, but not Chris, but both agreed it was a good game - Brewers won 2-0 and they got to see some great pitching and defensive plays. Oh, and they ran into some of the rain on their way to Milwaukee. They had to pull over on the interstate because they couldn't see ANYTHING!