L & P Miles : Rodney Johnston 86th Birthday Surprise Party

Monday, June 22, 2026

Rodney Johnston 86th Birthday Surprise Party

67º with heavy overcast here in Clarinda, IA at 4:00 pm Sunday. Dumped 2.3" rain from the gauge mid-morning. Rained most of the night from about 6:30 pm Saturday when we were at Jay's Pizza & Steak House in Clarinda for a gathering of more than 50 people for surprise birthday party for Rodney Johnston.

Rodney Johnson & Teresa Babcock visit while waiting for
our food orders.

Teresa did not tell Rodney about it, and had quite a time getting him to pick her up to go eat out. He had planned on going to Maryville, MO, but with the weather building was convinced by her to "just eat in town". She had invited friends he had made in his 86 years from work, church, many associations.

Tereasa had asked me to take pictures, which I did, and I also set up a video camera which ran all the time, including when she suggested, while we were waiting for our food, that each person or couple introduce themselves and tell how they were acquainted with Rodney.

I took the video camera off the tripod and followed around the room as each spoke. Now, I am working on the photos and videos and discover I have 19 video files, each running between 10 and 11 minutes - which is normal, but have not been able to open any one of them. Have worked for six hours and still no remedy. The camera takes in AVI files, which is an older format that I have converted to the modern MP4 for over a year with this camera. However, not today. I had passed a paper around for everyone to sign their name and email address so I could send a link to look at the videos and photos on my Google Photo program. As of now I will have the photos, like the one above, but am bamboozled about getting the videos to work. Just tried new 20 second video and it doesn't work -- changed SD cards took a 20 second video and it works fine. Guess was bad SD Card!