A throaty autumn wind rushed across the countryside, buffeting the old Buick, heading home from Madison.
Leaves and branches skipped across the rain-slicked highway. Great banks of clouds whirled in the black sky. The wind from this storm hit 70 mph. It was a wonderful drive.
What a night it had been. Three-hundred-plus conservationists were out for Gathering Waters Conservancy’s awards reception. Kathleen Falk got one, and her remarks were engrossing, as she read from a newspaper column by Mel Ellis, a venerable Milwaukee Journal outdoor writer of the last century.
Falk, former Dane County executive, said thanks by turning her policymaker-of-the-year award back to the people in the crowd, for their lifelong commitments to conservation. Then she read from Ellis. She had grown up with his kids near the Ellis Little Lakes retreat in Waukesha County. He was writing upon the occasion of her earning a law degree with an environmental emphasis, remembering back to the days his daughters and Kathy had a clubhouse. They were 10-ish, and had named their group the Conservation Club, devoted to the love of all things living, recycling and other important causes in the minds of girls and other smart people.
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