Argus-Leader from Sioux Falls, South Dakota • Page 55

Argut Leader, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Sunday, March 5, 1995 BOOKS Lnffe TRAVEL HOW TO REACH US If you havt a question or news tip concerning the features section, call Life editor Jon Walker at 331-2333 or Venture editor Bob Keyes at 331-2317 ANNIVERSARIES Paul Buckowski Argus Leader (OA-' If 1U-J it: 1 Z. I nt: if SpH oJP 1 i 'K V' "One man in each century is given the power to control time. The man chosen to receive this power is carefully selected: He must be kind. He must be fair. He must be brave.

You have fulfilled these requirements, and we of the outer galaxies designate to you the wisdom of Solomon, and the strength of You are CAPTAIN" Captain 11 show opening Dedrick marks 40 years of galaxy travel Captain 11 today. ai rnnsn a Captain 11 In the 1950s. birthday, Captain 11 held me up and I was able to hit the big power switch. That was a big deal for me. I even have pictures of Captain 11 holding me.

There are only two things that have changed since then: 1. Captain 11 definitely would not be able to hold me now; 2. His belt size." Fans continue to arrive for Wednesday tapings. Late last month, Ellen Briscoe, who's new in Sioux Falls, brought her daughter to Captain 11 so she could be involved with other kids. Leah Gath from Luverne wanted her kids to do something she did as a little girl.

Ten Mullin from Hartford had her kids in for the show that she had visited when she was young. The Captain hasn't changed, she says. Dozens of people called and sent letters to the Argus Leader about their Captain 11 memories. Most Captain 11 See 3G Jack Palance movie in which a storekeeper says, 'Nobody gets to be a cowboy And I guess nobody gets to be Captain 11 forever, but I'd sure like to take a run at it. It's been so wonderful for me.

The love that he's received, I've stored. It doesn't leave me when I take the uniform off. I've still got those hugs." Captain 11 celebrates his 40th birthday with a show to be taped at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the KELO studios, 501 S. Phillips Ave.

Children from the area are invited. The show will be aired at 11 :30 a.m. Saturday. Captain 11 airs only once a week now, not daily. It's taped Wednesdays, not filmed live.

Thirty years ago, perhaps every kid in South Dakota knew of Captain 11. They flocked to the show for birthdays, and even teen-agers would stop in when the State basketball tournament was in something extra special, and it's free." The attraction in a Captain 11 visit hasn't changed much in 40 years. Kids on the show will be on television. "They get their shot at the glamour of show biz," Dedrick says. In the beginning, kids stayed for the half-hour show, watching cartoons between the local segments.

Vicki French from Brandon was on Captain 11 for her sixth birthday: "Back then there was a bread sold in Sioux Falls called Sunbeam bread and on the bread package was a picture of a little girl with blonde hair. He thought I looked like her so that day I was the little Miss Sunbeam girl and he gave me a free loaf of bread to take home." Rita Novotny ran home every day after school to watch the show and visited for birthdays: "One Sioux Falls. Today, the Captain competes with Power Rangers, V.R. Troopers, X-Men and Big Bird. In earlier days, Dedrick attracted as many as 90 percent of after-school television viewers.

In May 1994, the last ratings period that shows solid information for the show, Captain 11 attracted 3.4 percent of viewers 12 and older and about half of those ages 2 to 11. The test for KELO general manager Mike Braker is children: "Kids show up," Braker says. "He's a very popular figure to make personal appearances." Packed shows at the South Dakota State Fair show kids still want to see the Captain. Attraction hasn't changed Dedrick, also KELO's 6 p.m. weather forecaster, says he believes Captain 11 still fills a niche: "Giving the kids a shot at By ANN GRAUVOGL Argus Leader Staff The carpet is worn on the bleachers now, and the only moving gizmos left on the red, blue and yellow backdrop are two twerlitzers.

Two dozen toggle switches tame stuff in this era of computer wizardry provide the magic in this children's show. Flip one, and a cartoon begins. The man in the blue suit the man of the future who must be kind, be fair and be brave stoops a little when he walks. A creased and sagging face betrays his 66 years. Yet the little kids still smile when they see the big, blue giant.

No quitting now After four decades as Captain 11, Dave Dedrick can't imagine quitting. He remembers a line from a With addictions, there are often few answers TERRY WOSTER forget her place? Not so many years later, I learned the answers to those questions. She was an addict Feelings, place, life choices had nothing to do with it. I didn't know that the first time I met her, sometime early In her father's 1972 run for the presidency. All I knew was that she was one of the young people hanging around at a Democratic party function.

My first impression of this McGovern daughter was of a likeable young woman. In spite of her frequent experiences in front of large crowds, her manner hinted of shyness. Her voice was soft, and her smile, while dazzling, came and went like the sun on a March afternoon. She was the only one of the McGovern children I ever met, and during the course of several years, through a few, brief encounters, I came to like her very much. I didn't know, until much later, that she was struggling with alcoholism.

By the time I'd learned that, I'd discovered that I was deep into the same struggle, and many of the questions I'd once had about Theresa McGovern were answered I was working a night shift in sports at the Argus Leader one evening in 1968, when the Associated Press wire printed out the news that Theresa McGovem had been arrested in Rapid City on a marijuana charge. I recall thinking how embarrassed her parents, George and Eleanor McGovern, must be feeling. George McGovern, one of South Dakota's two U.S. senators, was a national figure, after all, a controversial anti-Vietnam War spokesman and a soon-to-be candidate for president. A couple of the older editors on the city desk that night chuckled at the news.

"Looks like the senator ought to spend more time worrying about his kids and less telling the country what's best for it," one of them said. The other nodded and grinned, getting a mild kick out of the McGovern family's misfortune. Or, perhaps he was thinking that a pol-tical figure riding the tide of social unrest was reaping a whirlwind partly of his own making. I liked those guys, but I remember wondering how they could in my own life. She no more wanted to embarrass anyone that long-ago night than I wanted to embarrass mine with tantrums and rages, or disappoint them by missing baseball games and school concerts and teacher conferences and days at the beach.

When I went through alcohol treatment some years ago, one of the experts startled us with the statement that only one in 36 alcoholics gets sober. The rest, he said, die drunk. Theresa McGovern died that way, frozen in a snowbank in the middle of Madison, Wis. I've been sober a while and pray to remain that way. Nothing I've learned or experienced in that condition, though, qualifies me to explain why I'm that way and she's dead.

News of her death tore away a lot of complacency that had grown up in my life, and for that I'm grateful. I only hope she died knowing her life was worthwhile. Terry osier Is an Argus Leader staff writer. Write to him at P.O. Box 1011, Pierre, S.D.

57501. 4 Todd Epp for the Argus Leader be so cruel to a kid in big trouble, which possession of marijuana certainly was, in the South Dakota of the 1960s. I wished the guys would have shown some sensitivity toward the plight of the child, even if they disagreed with the politics of the parent. My anger at the reaction of the editors was tempered somewhat, I confess, by my own feeling that Theresa McGovern should have known better than to get into that kind of trouble, should have realized ahead of time what public embarrassment a pot bust would cause her parents, should have made better choices. How could she ignore her parents' feelings? How could she Bryce is nice in Utah This Is one of the colorful scenes tourists can see while taking a winter hike along a trail at Bryce Canyon National Park In southern Utah.

The photo was taken from Sunrise Point. For more about the park, see stories on Page 4G..