One More For The Road

As you all know, we love bicycle races. Especially bicycle races that end up like this....

One more for 2 3 24

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<title>🚧 One More For The Road: Saturday, February 3, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

One More For The Road: Saturday, February 3, 2024

 As you all know, we love bicycle races. Especially bicycle races that end up like this....

Bill Sniffin

Opinion

CSD Columnists

What a life! It has been an amazing 60 years.

My wife Nancy is dealing with a dementia diagnosis, but overall, is doing well. Tomorrow Dec. 15, she will celebrate her 79

 birthday. She is my best friend. We have been together since 1965. 

This is my love letter to my wife Nancy on her birthday. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Two Young Kids"}]

Our story starts with a tale of two young kids in Iowa a long time ago. For me, it was love at first sight.

We first met when I was an 18-year-old cub reporter in my first weeks on the job as sports editor of the local newspaper in little Harlan, Iowa.

My editor Dick Gilbert called me over and handed me a folder full of black and white newspaper photos.

He told me the high school yearbook staff needed some pictures to fill out their annual and would I walk over to the school, just down the street, and give them this folder? 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Off I went. "}]

My home town was 320 miles east of there. It was a tiny little town called Wadena. Back then it was a humble little town. A great place to be from.

Today, it has been rediscovered because of its towering hills and beautiful valleys. In 1964 it was Iowa’s version of Appalachia. I left there a week after graduating from high school. 

Back to my story: I walked into the Harlan high school building and found my way upstairs to an area set aside for the yearbook staff. There was the prettiest girl I had ever seen, sitting there, working on yearbook pages. 

She finally looked up and noticed me and gave me a big smile. I handed her the photos and she thanked me. I could not help but notice she had the bluest eyes I had ever seen. Then she went back to work. I turned and left. 

My head was swirling. My immediate thought was, that was the prettiest and nicest girl I had ever seen in my life. My feelings at the time are as clear today as they were back 61 years ago: “Could a poor guy like me from a funky little town ever have a chance to have a fantastic girl like that?”

No way, I decided, as I headed back to work.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"I Was A Little Older"}]

It should be pointed out I was just six months older than Nancy. But I looked much older. My boss made me wear a sport coat and tie and she assumed I was in my mid-20s.

Later, I was a lonely young kid sitting with my head down reading a book in a booth at a local restaurant when someone walked up and said, “Hi.” It was she. She worked there, and being the friendly type that she was, she saw me there alone, came over and chatted. She wanted to cheer me up. She still thought I was some older man.

A few minutes later her boyfriend showed up, a young man named Darrell who was wearing his letter jacket. I knew him as a star of the football team, which I had been reporting on.

Although we stayed on friendly terms, I realized Nancy was already spoken for. This went on for six months. She gradually realized we were the same age. We were starting to click and I finally asked her on a date. She said yes and we went to the movie Goldfinger. She ditched her old boyfriend the next day and well, the rest is history. Our history.

I got the prettiest girl and the nicest girl.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"What A Blessing"}]

I still cannot believe it. Lucky me. It is a blessing.

Later she worked at a small college so I could go back to school there. She always kept me going. She was Chief Financial Officer of all our businesses.

After six decades of being together, four kids, 13 grandkids, five great-grandkids, her bout of cancer, her lifetime of MS, we still feel a great sense of romance. Our song is the 1960s ballad Unchained Melody. Our kids love to play that song when we are celebrating something. 

Nancy has given me so much. I tell her: “I never liked walking in the snow until I walked in the snow with you.” And that goes for a million other things.

My life has been one of aggressive business and being super competitive. She has spent all these years taming me down and making me a nicer person. 

She brought stability to my life. We joke that she raised me as her fifth child. Men like me never mature until they are 60. 

Her life has been all about volunteerism with empathy and humility. She was awarded Wyoming’s Jefferson Award in 2011 for her exceptional community work. 

So here we are. If life is a game, we are nearing the end. Rather than thinking we are in the fourth quarter of a football game, I prefer thinking we are in the middle of the seventh inning of a baseball game and it is time for a stretch.

And there is nobody I would rather spend that stretch time with than Nancy.

Bill Sniffin can be reached at bill@cowboystatedaily.com

Sniffin headshot 12 13 25

<title>🚧 Bill Sniffin: A Love Letter To My Wife Nancy On Her Birthday | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Bill Sniffin writes: “When you have spent 60 years with your best friend, the person you love, it is appropriate to write her a personal love letter. This is my best attempt.”

Bill Sniffin: A Love Letter To My Wife Nancy On Her Birthday

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Wyoming Life

Entertainment

[{"type":"text","text":"The hunt for the Red October is over. "}]

If the Soviet Navy of the 1980s is still in pursuit of that nation’s rogue Russian Typhoon-class submarine, it will have to follow their quarry to Powell, Wyoming. One of those Russian submarines has already followed it there.

The Red October and a Soviet attack submarine are two of the large model submarines built for the 1990 blockbuster movie “The Hunt for Red October,” based on John Clancy's 1984 novel. 

They are now temporarily located in the office of Daniel Catone, an investment manager who fulfilled a lifelong passion by buying three props from the film during an online auction.

“I failed Algebra my ninth-grade year because all I did was read Tom Clancy novels,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “Winning the auction was a boyhood dream come true.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Small (Relatively) Submarines"}]

In Clancy’s novel, the Red October was a 175-meter-long Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarine that cost the Soviet Union more $5 billion to develop and build. Catone paid $15,000 for his 9-foot-long replica of the Soviet submarine and two other props from the 1990 film.

“My brother-in-law designs amusement parks worldwide and likes this kind of thing,” he said. “He sent me a text message saying that Planet Hollywood was auctioning off all of their memorabilia, and that one was the Red October.”

The 11-foot model Catone bought was constructed by Boss Film Studio, a special effects company that contributed to films like “Ghostbusters,” “Die Hard” and “Batman Returns.” One of the last films the company worked on before its 1997 closure was “Starship Troopers,” which was partly filmed in Hell’s Half-Acre near Casper.

The model of the Red October was built for the underwater exterior shots of the entire submarine. This was before CGI became more common and cost-effective for special effects in the industry.

Boss Films Studio created large models of the Red October and the V.K. Konovalov, a fictional Soviet Alfa class nuclear-powered attack submarine sent to pursue, and ultimately sunk by, the Red October.

After being used in the film, the Red October and Konovalov models ended up in Planet Hollywood’s vast movie memorabilia collections. When the franchise decided to auction off some of its collection, the model subs and a plotting chart used on Red October’s interior sets were placed on the block.

Catone was reading and waiting. He was determined to capture the Red October, once and for all.

While he never dreamed of owning the Red October, Catone’s life story parallels that of its protagonist, Jack Ryan. 

He remembers seeing the same model of the submarine he bought as a kid when his parents took him to Planet Hollywood near Fullerton, California.

Catone worked as a speechwriter for the United Nations before changing careers to become an investment manager. He and his family moved to Wyoming, “the best state in the union,” seven years ago.

“We were living in Northern California and were looking for a state that fit us culturally,” he said. “Wyoming was a great fit for us. We love it here.”

Catone already had a penchant for building 1/700th-scale models of famous warships, so acquiring the Red October model was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.

“I went on the auction website and waited all day for the auction to start,” he said. “It was good five minutes back and forth of bidding with another guy who was a professional prop collector. He messaged me on Twitter afterward saying, ‘Aw, shucks, you got it.’”

During the same auction, Catone went on to buy the Konovalov and the Red October’s plotting chart. He was “over the moon excited” when he secured the winning bids for the three props.

“I texted pictures of the Red October to all my friends,” he said. “One of my business partners thought I bought a real operational submarine. It took them a little while to realize it was just a model.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Family Fixing A Soviet Sub"}]

The 11-foot Red October model was shipped from Texas to Powell in a 600-pound crate, along with the 3-foot model of the Konovalov. The Red October sits on an unused desk in Catone’s Powell office, while the Konovalov is perched on some antlers for now.

Catone said his submarines aren’t in perfect shape, but they still look good, considering their age.

“The model is made mostly out of balsa wood and Styrofoam and painted in a really nice way,” he said. “There's wear and tear from the actual production of the movies, but they're fixable.”

Catone plans on using his model-building experience to make the necessary repairs to his submarines. His 17-year-old son, Thomas, has already offered to be Executive Officer Vasily Borodin to his dad’s Commanding Officer Marko Ramius (played in the movie by Sam Neill and Sean Connery, respectively).

[{"type":"text","text":"“We’re going to work together to rebuild the Red October,” he said."}]

When repairs are finished, Catone plans to hang the submarines from the ceiling of the conference room where they temporarily reside. He wants to pay homage to the film by dramatically recreating the story’s climax.

“I think I'm going to hang the Red October from the ceiling like it's turning and put the Konovalov off in the background like it's hunting it,” he said. “I don't have any immediate plans to use that office, so it’s the perfect spot to display them.”

It’s an exciting project and acquisition for Catone. For someone who described Tom Clancy’s novels as “life-changing,” the Red October model is as much a monument to his life and passion as a fun piece of movie memorabilia.

“The hunt for Red October is over,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier.” 

Red October IMG 7966 10 28 24

<title>🚧 Powell Man Buys Model Submarine Used In The Hunt For Red October | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Powell man got into a bidding war in an online auction but was ultimately successful in purchasing the 11-foot model of the Red October used in the 1990 blockbuster movie “The Hunt For Red October." He also purchased a model of the Soviet submarine and another prop used in the movie.

One More For The Road: Saturday, February 3, 2024

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