Could it be that today is already the first day of autumn? According to the folks that know, fall officially arrives at 5:23 p.m. today, the exact time of the autumnal equinox. Fun fact to know and tell, as well as a fun activity with your kids: at the time of the autumnal equinox, it is fairly easy to balance a raw egg on its end. Hey, if I can do it, you can do it. Try it. It's easiest at 5:23, and gets harder as the night progresses.

The harvest is underway, with some combines already churning away in the fields, bringing in the soybeans. It was a warmer and drier than normal summer, so it should be interesting to see what yields do.

I think that harvest is one of the far too many things we take for granted today. We simply believe that all will be well and we will always have a seemingly endless supply of affordable food. I truly hope that this will always be the case, but it is never a bad idea to take a moment to be thankful for what you have.

Celebrating the harvest, the completion of a year's work is a very old tradition, dating back to the Middle Ages. Many of our ancestors, who came to America and Iowa from Northern Europe, brought a tradition of a harvest festival with them.

In neighboring Remsen, where many folks from Luxembourg and Germany settled, they decided in 1975 to start an Oktoberfest celebration, to be held the last Saturday in October. In addition to celebrating the completion of harvest, Oktoberfest is a time of food, drink, fellowship and celebration of German and Luxembourg heritage.

Any celebration of this type invariably has royalty involved -- usually a queen and her court. Oktoberfest is no exception. Betty Homan was crowned the first queen in 1975, and a queen was crowned every consecutive year until 1999, where there wasn't enough interest to even have a contest. Katie Jo Ruhland, who was crowned queen in 1998 has had a very long term as queen.

A group of volunteers decided to revive the queen contest for Oktoberfest, and I had the honor of being one of the three judges that chose the 2005 queen on Monday afternoon and evening in Remsen. My fellow judges were Jolynn Goodchild, Plymouth County Recorder and Cindy Johnston, owner of Michele's in Sioux City.

As the father of two daughters, the last thing I ever expected to do was judge a contest, any contest -- especially a queen contest. But, to tell you the truth, it really wasn't that bad. There were 16 young ladies vying for the Oktoberfest Queen. Each candidate met with the judges and answered three questions: Tell us about yourself, why do you want to be queen and what ideas do you have to improve the image of Remsen in the minds of the youth? At the evening coronation ceremony, each contestant gave a speech on who they admired most and why.

Expressing yourself in front of people is not an easy thing to do. I prefer to write my words, rather than speak them. I admire all of the contestants for having the courage to enter the contest and being poised under pressure. It truly was a hard thing to determine a winner, and all of the contestants did a fine job. Remsen will once again have a queen reigning over Oktoberfest, thanks to the efforts of some dedicated volunteers and some poised young ladies.

That's something the community should be thankful for next month.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.