John Leeke:

I've been enjoying your stories, especially the ones about Nebraska.  This
past summer I had a connection with places near those you have written about
as I visited my brother in Blaine County which is more or less smack dab in
the middle of the state.  As part of his seminary school studies he was
helping a local pastor tend to three churches (Dunning, Purdum, and
Brewster, the three towns in the county) in the county of 865 or so people.
Dunning, the largest of the towns, had perhaps 100-200 residents living in
small houses on maybe 8 short streets--the other two were maybe half that
size.  Rural living to say the least.

I enjoyed meeting the down-to-earth people and my brother was enjoying the
Sand Hills culture, including something he called the Sand Hills Wave, a
ritual of greeting your fellow motorist as they pass going in the opposite
direction.  Some simply raise a finger off the steering wheel but most raise
up the hand and with the fingers slightly curled put a little wrist action
into the salute.  Some apparently (I never saw it) go over the top and lean
out the window in a big ole "Hidey yew."  Some just gave my brother a funny
"Who the hell are yew?" look as he drove by, which I decided was because he
was driving one of only three furren cars/pickup trucks I saw in my two day
stay there and it had Colorado plates, no less (of course there was me, the
complete stranger, sitting in the passenger seat).

We headed out to Burwell to take in an event known as something like
"Nebraska's Big Rodeo" though I find it hard to believe it was the biggest
in the state.  On the way we saw a sign announcing Blair and the mileage to
it which was one hundred plus.  We couldn't figure out what significance
Blair was at this remote intersection (a look at the map shows there must be
a stop sign or two in between).  The only thing that comes to mind is it is
the next big town on the road.  Of course Dana College is located there and
one of the young ladies in the Dunning church was headed there to start
school that Fall, as we found out at the Sunday church supper (she had been
in touch with her roommate to plan the colors for their room).

After growing up in a "small town" in the northeast (40,000 to 50,000, maybe
100,000 in the county, 40,000 college students) I got a completely different
perspective on what makes a community by visiting these small towns.  Very
interesting.