A Postcard from Nebraska

[Dan Kelly]

I have been watching "CBS News Sunday Morning" since Week 1, 35 years or so ago, whenever I've been home. It's the only series I make a habit of watching contemporaneously.

Over the past 25 years, I have videotaped hundreds of the shows, and still have boxes full of them (watched, unwatched, semiwatched) in our "furnace room" (which, really, should be called the Golf Championships and Sunday Morning Videotapes Room).

BTW: If anyone needs a VHS tape of virtually any major golf championship of the part 25 years  (except for some PGA Championships), just holler. I probably have it.

At any rate, my wife -- for reasons unknown -- just ran across and forwarded to me a youtube link to a "Sunday Morning" report on Sand Hills Golf Club -- vintage 1996 or 1997, I'm guessing. I'd never seen it (it's probably in one of those boxes!), and don't believe it's been posted here, either. Apologies if it has.

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCXQmH48CZs.

Fun to see Jim Kidd's fine swing -- and fine dog, Gus!

Disappointing that Roger Welsch didn't talk to any visitors, and at least half-misattributed the architecture credit ... but no one's perfect.

[Brandon Urban]

Good stuff Dan. That place just breathes magic.
It reminded me of this clip that Jason Hines sent me earlier this year for a little inspiration. Who knew Nike would make the trek out to the Sand Hills.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIetRf0yFrw

[John Kavanaugh]

Everyone loves a Nebraska road trip.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orfLrBG68jM

[Adam Clayman]

Dan, While not as zealous as you, I watch Sunday Morning too. My favorite is at the end, with moment of nature.

They've even done a piece on Dannebrog. Which is no surprise since...

Postcards from Nebraska have been sent to Sunday Morning for ten years now, nearly 200 in all. They have come to symbolize the continuing saga of the small town in America as seen from the perspective of Roger's tree farm in Dannebrog, Nebraska, population 320.

[Terry Lavin]

I don't think I'll ever forget my first trip to Sand Hills.

Or my first trip to Dismal River.

The utter remoteness, the serenity and the pure golf all meld into an unbelievable experience.

[PCCraig]

That was great Dan. Thanks for posting. I'm also a huge fan of Sunday Morning...even when I'm out playing golf when it's on I usually make a habit of watching it on DVR.

I will say I got a good chuckle when the reporter, wearing a pair of jean overalls, goes "even to a non-golfer like me..." HA - no kidding!

[Will Lozier]

Fantastic Dan!  My dad had me up on Sundays watching every week from when I was about maybe 8 - being 40 now means I've maybe seen almost as many as you!  I do miss Charles Kuralt whom my father referred to as the greatest speaker (literally) there was.  My wife and I still watch it with our 19-month-old!

The overalls are hilarious and they could easily have used the course for the last 30 second nature feature - it's just too bad it isn't at least a minute long like I seem to remember from my youth!

Cheers

[Will Lozier]

Over the past 25 years, I have videotaped hundreds of the shows, and still have boxes full of them (watched, unwatched, semiwatched) in our "furnace room" (which, really, should be called the Golf Championships and Sunday Morning Videotapes Room).

BTW: If anyone needs a VHS tape of virtually any major golf championship of the part 25 years  (except for some PGA Championships), just holler. I probably have it.

Do you have the last Open at Merion!?!

[Dan Kelly]

Fantastic Dan!  My dad had me up on Sundays watching every week from when I was about maybe 8 - being 40 now means I've maybe seen almost as many as you!  I do miss Charles Kuralt whom my father referred to as the greatest speaker (literally) there was.  My wife and I still watch it with our 19-month-old!

The overalls are hilarious and they could easily have used the course for the last 30 second nature feature - it's just too bad it isn't at least a minute long like I seem to remember from my youth!

Cheers

Will --

The nature moments (NOT brought to you by either an inhaler drug or a stool softener!) generally were longer in the earlier years. In those days, they didn't waste 10 minutes every week telling us about the life and times of some graying rock star.

The show still has Great Moments, almost every week, but it's not quite the show it was.

Correspondents aren't nearly so uniformly good. A couple of the women are shameless flirts -- as is at least one male correpondent. Give me Martha Teichner every time! Her stories sing.

And, IMO, the latter-day "Sunday Morning" makes too many nods to pop culture, of which there's adequate coverage elsewhere.

Here's a tip: They post longer versions of the nature essays at cbsnews.com.

Kuralt was one of my very few heroes, till he died and the world learned that he'd been basically a bigamist for decades. He fell out of my pantheon overnight.

But what a writer, and what a voice! I should try to find a little piece I wrote about him, before the fall. You'd enjoy it.

Dan

[Dan Kelly]

Over the past 25 years, I have videotaped hundreds of the shows, and still have boxes full of them (watched, unwatched, semiwatched) in our "furnace room" (which, really, should be called the Golf Championships and Sunday Morning Videotapes Room).

BTW: If anyone needs a VHS tape of virtually any major golf championship of the part 25 years  (except for some PGA Championships), just holler. I probably have it.

Do you have the last Open at Merion!?!

Will --

I would have it ... if I could have afforded a Betamax (c. $1,500) in 1981!

Dan

[Bill_McBride]

Kuralt was one of my very few heroes, till he died and the world learned that he'd been basically a bigamist for decades. He fell out of my pantheon overnight.

But what a writer, and what a voice! I should try to find a little piece I wrote about him, before the fall. You'd enjoy it.

So Dan, I guess you weren't a fan of the Alec Guiness movie, "The Captain's Paradise!"

I met Charles Kurault at a cocktail party in New Orleans during a trade show where he was speaking the next day.  We reminisced about how much we both love the Swiss Hotel on the plaza in Sonoma.  One of his "On the Road" segments was filmed there.  We enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and then he pointed out that the tie I was wearing was a replica of a Confederate regimental flag.   I guess he thought I was an unreconstructed Reb!

[Jason Hines]

Everyone loves a Nebraska road trip.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orfLrBG68jM

I grew up in Kearney, how did they get footage of us shooting out of our car?  Oh the memories....

[Adam Clayman]

Dan. Does that mean you didn't care for Mo's piece, last week, on the A word?

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Dan nice post. CBS Sunday Morning is one of the best shows on TV period. I try to watch it every Sunday morning. Well I have enjoyed a few rounds at this most special place on earth. It will never be forgotten.

[Dan Kelly]

Dan. Does that mean you didn't care for Mo's piece, last week, on the A word?

The phrase "jumped the shark" passed through my mind during that piece.

[Garland Bayley]

So Dan, when are we going to see the announcement of Dan's lending library?

[Kevin_D]

This is fantastic! I also loved how the pro's dog was following him around. He was so well behaved!

It reminded me of the last time I had my dog with me on the beach in East Hampton, and he "decided" to go have some fun on one of the greens and tee boxes at Maidstone.  I had to run barefoot through the dunes to get him...I was mortified!  Thank god no golfers we out yet or they might have ended up with a mysteriously lost ball from the green!