Huckleberries: In the old days, this former TV idol made girls swoon in Anamoose, N.D.

Bob Ely is retired and living in the Rathdrum area now. But in 1970 he was a seventh-grade teacher in Anamoose, North Dakota. Among his marching orders, Bob was required to use the classroom bulletin board. So he told his students that they could decorate it any way they wanted, as long as it wasn’t obscene or defamatory. Bob describes what he found in his classroom the following day: “I looked up and had never seen that many pictures of David Cassidy in my life! The young ladies all had a crush on him as ‘The Partridge Family’ was one of the most popular shows on TV at the time.” That long-ago life snapshot was brought to Bob’s mind with the recent news that Cassidy, now 66, is battling dementia and has quit performing. However, he’ll always be heartthrob Keith Partridge to the Golden Girls of Anamoose. Which, according to Bob, is located between Drake and Martin – and means “dog” in a Native American language. Bob says that’s exactly what the town was.

Red Hot parade

Many of you know that Mikki Stevens, of Coeur d’Alene, and her Red Hot Mamas have been invited, for a third time, to participate in the Queen Mother of All Parades this year – the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Or to quote Mikki via Facebook: “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!!!! New York Baybee!!!!” Mikki, who once played the voice of teenage Pebbles of “Flintstone” fame, is getting the word out via Facebook and the broadcast media. She appeared on Good Day Fox 28 Tuesday morning. On the day before her TV appearance, MaMaMikki quipped via Facebook: “Trying to figure out how to iron my face for this program tomorrow!”

Poet’s corner

“I can recall warm summer days/of great beauty seen but rarely;/I can recall warm summer days,/but at this point only barely” – Tom Wobker, The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Memories in late winter”) … Overheard in the newsroom: “That was a pretty pleasant phone call right until it got real racist” – tweet from S-R colleague Rachel Alexander … A Huckleberry Friend knows how he wants to check out: “I’m going to have my remains put into an Etch-A-Sketch so my granddaughter can play with grandpa” … Poll: 61 percent of my Huckleberries readers say President Donald Trump was using the language of dictators when he labeled the media as “enemy of the American people.” Some 24 percent said he was right on … There’s an old North Idaho (and Montana) saying: If you don’t like the weather in North Idaho, wait five minutes and it’ll change. It has been true this winter. It has changed from bad to worse and back to bad since mid-December.

Parting Shot

Huckleberries may have committed a crime, possibly a felony in the eyes of Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger, who celebrated his 14th anniversary with wife, Mary, Wednesday. In relaying that information for blog readers, Huckleberries (with permission from Mary) used this line from a Facebook post by her: “Benny Wenny, I love our life, and I adore you!” Benny Wenny? Sheriff Benny Wenny? Your Huckleberries columnist had better check into the Witness Protection Program ASAP.