When I was growing up on a small dairy farm in Adams County in the 1950s and 1960s, we got the Milwaukee Journal newspaper every day. With 20-20 hindsight I can now state that it was the golden age of newspapers, but we didn’t realize that at the time.
Everybody’s favorite part of the Journal (as we called it) was the Green Sheet. Mom did the crossword puzzle, and I mostly just looked at the comics, but I also remember the "Slightly Kloss-Eyed" column written by Gerald Kloss. While a few of his columns passed right over my head at the time, most I enjoyed for his off-beat sense of humor and total irreverence when confronting facts and events that others took way too seriously.
Truthfully, there is no way that I can describe his writing that will do it justice. For those who never got a chance to read it in the old Journal Green Sheet, I can only recommend the archives of that great newspaper. But I offer this short poem by Mr. Kloss as a teaser:
“But after 40 years of hirement
Plus 25 more in retirement
I’d like to say my Journal years
Were high in grins and low on tears.”
Gerald Kloss was 91 when he passed away on Thursday, February 4, 2016.
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