I was driving down the freeway one day when a thought came to mind. What would have become of Geneva if the freeway had not been developed, or if all of the traffic that currently goes down the freeway hadn’t continued to drive down "old 65" which goes through the heart of town? Hard to say.

Would this tiny town have become widespread and famously busy with businesses and people who kept things going? We will never know. It didn't happen. Most people going north and south through our little corner of the state now travel the freeway instead.

Before the freeway was developed, there were times it was hard to cross the street. The town had a reputation of being a good place to stop and eat as it had a restaurant that was open all night. Truckers liked it. The storekeepers had remarkable things to display and sell and everyone seemed proud to call it "our home town."

One thing is evident. It is still "our home town." When you look around you see homes, a park, a playground, a swimming pool, an appliance store, a meat market, a lumberyard, a bank, a gas station and loyal merchants selling necessities. You see a "coffee house" in the small grocery store, an apartment building, good places to eat, a bar and grill, and friends who gather to talk on the street.

Does it matter or make a difference? Of course it does — like a "Y" in the road of life. It is a case of choices and you have no idea which will take you where. 

Here your choice is made for you, except you can stop in this little corner of the world or travel the more traveled road — and you'll never know which way would have taken you where.

I love it here. This town, the oldest operating town in Freeborn County I do believe, is still going and growing.

It has gone from a "stage coach stop" to mostly a residential village where most of the people of employment age head out of town on the freeway to employment in the larger towns in our area.  They still come back home to this quiet, peaceful little town at the end of the day. Albert Lea and Owatonna are about the same distance away, about a half hour; and Rochester and Mankato are also about the same distance away too, about an hour.

Geneva needs more economy and people to shop locally, but sadly so many things are readily available at bigger outlets.

In "our town," you find the volunteers who do so many things to warm the city. It has a reputation of caring. Our hometown is set in the heartland of America. It is a town with a heart.

Do you ever have a song that seems to be in your head for no reason? It seems to stay there for a while, making you think. Lately I've been stuck on one. "The old home town isn't the same and there is no train (there never was a train) because time has changed things considerably — but one thing remains - it is still my old home town."

Changes over the years haven't changed my feeling for this place where I was raised and still live. Many times I relive those yesteryears in my mind. 

  There is the schoolhouse right beside me; only it isn't a schoolhouse any more. It is the Geneva Community Center. But the camera in my head still shows me in my little blue dress the first day I started school, pony tail neatly pulled back and pencil and paper in hand.

It brings back thoughts of "The Road Not Taken," by Robert Frost. If I hadn't settled here, where would I be? How would my life be different?

It is sad to say we aren't as proficient in knowing our neighbors as we once were. People tend to find this peaceful little village home that probably wasn't a part of their heritage, but they have now become a part. No matter where we roam, where we live and were brought up , it is home.

Would I have wished the addition of the freeway had caused our town to drastically grow and prosper? The correct answer should be yes for all the advantages it would have given, prosperity and recognition to so many things. But, for some reason in my mind, I am glad it didn't. This will always be a place of peace and tranquility where the buildings and smoking industry doesn't cloud the view and one can look into the skies and feel that God is really there watching over his sheep in this quiet pasture.

Besides being known as the center of generosity and people looking after each other, it is strange to say Geneva is home to many who are laid to rest in the cemetery here. A strange thing to talk about, but this reverent spot in Northern Geneva is a peaceful place of rest to people for many religions, neighbors all. 

It’s not so strange that many choose to return to this beautiful spot. Maybe it is the history of the school children who came, decorated and were a part of memorial services every Memorial Day many, many years ago, at a time when many cemeteries were neglected.

For me no other place would be the same as “my home town.” My heritage is here.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” (From the Road Not Taken by Robert Frost).

— — —

Birthdays and anniversaries:

• Thursday, February 23rd: Sharon Gasner Ramaker, Bernie Warnke, Josh Krueger, Markus Allen Misgen, Daniel Suelter, Dale Waltz, Tiffany Mischke, Daniel Walterman, Laura & Jamie Baudoin.

• Friday, February 24th: Jerry Hemingway, Rick Draper, Nathan Wayne, Roxy Menefee Ray, Sarah Zamora, Nancy Larson, Kathy & Daryl Reed.

• Saturday, February 25th: Berniece Farr Mattson, Colton Hagen, Brad Hagen, LuAnn Miller, Sherri Larson Fritz, Steve & Vicky Dobberstein.

• Sunday, February 26th: Sharon Menefee, Shawn Jensen, Becky Lassahn, Ray Coxworth, Ginger Cornelius, Mary Lou Spurr, Chris Sauke, Mike Glynn, Jeff & Robin Christensen, Joel & Peg Radjenovich.

• Monday, February 27th: Steve Pence, Jean Anderson, Garry Nordhorn, Doris Rasmussen, Journey Churchill-Malcolm, Erik Cooper, John Olson, Jayden Dakota Tonkins, Nancy Ingvaldson, Daryl Van Ravenhorst.

• Tuesday, February 28th: Troy Utpadel, Neil Pence, Jackie Miller, Steve Engel, Dan Nesdahl, Bennett Dobberstein, Atom Oquist, Sharese Lehmberg, John Marlin, Gerry Flim, Michelle Nelson, Michael Nelson, Tyler Titus, Tiffany Mischke, Michael Coy, Jim & Diane Butler.

As there were recent events at school, my mother and I started to talk about how education has changed through the years. For the better of course. We are in more advanced times.

My mother remembers starting school right after her fifth birthday, which is the 31st of August, because there were so few children in their little country school and nobody in 1st grade. It was a one-room school house with a big heater that “ate” wood or coal like it was ice cream. 

The windows were long, and of course nothing was insulated. The library of mostly old books and maps was the size of a small closet. The spaces between the windows were blackboards of slate and the windows offered opportunities for cleaning erasers of excess chalk. It was a two-way job. Sometimes given as a task for bad behavior or as a favorite activity for being good. 

Water was brought either by the teacher or one of the older students who lived close by and put in a "Red Wing" water jar with a little spigot on the bottom. That was modern in those days. There was a common dipper or the children used cups. 

The entry was where they hung their coats and put their lunches, most often packed in empty three pound lard containers. A few were fortunate to have a store-bought lunch pail. The school seats were joined in lengths so that they could be pushed aside for easier cleaning. They also featured a place to put a pencil and an ink well. 

There was an attached coal shed out in back of the school which held the supply of coal, wood, kindling and whatever the teacher needed to keep the children warm during the long winter months. It is hard to believe teachers had time to do all the things necessary to educate the children when they had so many other things to do as well. But they did. 

They even had the advantage of working with children from 1st through 8th grade. Back then, the teacher didn't just teach one grade, they taught them all, which provided the students opportunities to learn from each other. Often other students looked after and helped the younger students. 

And because toilet facilities were located outside, it involved a winter process of dressing for the occasion and equipment like a broom to sweep the snow or frost off the wooden board seats. When the winter snow arrived, the older students were delegated to take the little ones over the snowdrifts when they had to visit the outhouse. Also note: an up-to-date toliet would have holes with one low enough for tiny tots.

Yes, there were really Dick and Jane books. Imagine the thrill of just being able to read. Reading was wonderful. Maybe because there were no TVs, probably a radio. But, there were none of the electronics that children take to like glue on fly paper now.

Remember I said the library was small — so many books were read and reread and contained things of interest we might bypass today as interesting.

Physical education was the noon hour and recess times when games were played like “pump, pump pull away,” “stealing sticks,” tag, “anie I over” and most schools had a teeter totter and swings.

Adventure was sometimes traveling to and from school in the sled behind a team of horses. In times such as these, the children were wrapped in a blanket, homemade quilt or horsehair robes to help keep them warm. The dad driving the horses had a heavy long coat of sheep skin, and often he stayed long enough to help the teacher get the fire going. Teachers most often stayed at the home of some of the parents of the children who attended school, as the teachers were not married, most were very young women. 

The school my mother attended, District 133 and 96 was on the county line and had two counties to supervise it. The county superintendent would come quietly in and take a seat, observing the activity in the room. He made a report to the teacher for things that needed to be changed.

If attendance was small, every child had one on one attention from the teacher. Big events were the Christmas program and practicing the part to be played.

There is a school house right beside where I live — only it isn’t a school house any more — it is the Geneva Community Center. But, the camera in my head still shows me in my little blue dress the first day I started school. Pony tail neatly pulled back and pencil and paper in hand.

It brings back thoughts of “Fork in the Road.” If I hadn’t settled here where would I be. How would my life be different? 

Back in my mother’s day there were basket socials for the community often times for Valentines Day. Young men could bid on baskets of choice hoping to get the one made by the gal he was most interested in. The baskets or containers were decorated with crepe paper and construction paper and contained a delicious lunch inside to be eaten by two people. 

Crisp friend chicken, sandwiches, cakes, cookies, etc.. Everyone tried to out do the other. The big event at the end of the school year was a potluck picnic when everyone brought a picnic lunch to share. The picnic often featured ice cream packed in a metal container inside a well-wrapped canvas housing. What a thrill! Ice cream was a special treat back in those “good old days” as it was not as available as it is today.

In my grandparent’s day, school attendance was secondary to things that had to be done at home, which sometimes resulted in some upper class students that were larger than your average grade school pupil. A favorite family story was always telling how Grandpa Richard was placed under the teacher’s desk for disciplinary reasons. His size, or being cramped, or whatever — he raised up enough to tilt the teacher’s desk, causing an opened quart of ink to be deposited in the teachers lap. 

They were also at an age where there were tricks to be played. Grandpa attended school at Bath, which featured a waterway on the west side of the school house. A favorite trick was to see which one of the boys could manage to get his friends bike submerged in the creek first. 

Good old days? You might not think so but the memories linger on. The children learned to read and write “cursive” and find countries on the outdated globe, looked up words in a huge dictionary and had spelling bees. It was all part of the times.

If you run out of ideas to talk about, reminisce about what school was like when you were young. The things we forget. The things you remember now are bound to bring shades of laughter and joy. Unbelievable! Was it really that long ago? It is hard to believe things could have changed that much.

— — —

Birthdays and anniversaries:

• Thursday, February 16th: Delores Hemingway, Marian Horan, Jesse Lund, Wayne Jensen, David Peterson, Sara Miller, Sarah Nelson, Ian Oolman, Tanya Callahan, LeAnn Hanson, Donald & Dory Hunt.

• Friday, February 17th: Toni Wayne Smith, Nancy Johnson Erickson, Thomas Farr, Keith Wayne, Dave Von Gorkom, Dawn Pence Gross, Brian Dobberstein, Joan Richards, Joan Kaphers, Michelle Cortinas, Carolyn LaFave, Shannon Weckwerth Pacholl, Alvin & Cheryl Cooper.

• Saturday, February 18th: Kris Munson McDonald, Janice Waage, Zola Wayne, Jamie Kunkel Riley, Brad & Rachel Lerum.

• Sunday, February 19th: Abraham Peterson, Allison Schmidt, Eleanor Schember, Maklela Larkin, Deedee Hunt, Jason Jensen, Teri Ravenhorst, Marcia Halvorson, Marjorie Solberg.

• Monday, February 20th: Derek Flesche, Amy Shaunce, David Swearingen, Joyce Lageson Hoddick, LuAnn Sommer Granholdt, David & LeAnn Hanson, Jim & Nancy Cornelius.

• Tuesday, February 21st: Jeannie Worrell, Andy Butler, Phillip Ingvaldson, Bryan Dirkson, Leanna Peterson, Chris & Kim Jensen, Darrell & Cynthia Farr, Max & Marlene Jensen.

• Wednesday, February 22nd: Cheri Bergland, Shelia Nelson White, Carlie Thompson, Dalys Waltz, Joan & Marian Mast 

Sending you heartfelt wishes for a wonderful birthday!

It is surprising what things will come to mind.

There are times when we need to take time to slow down. In times like these, I like to get out a puzzle. It may have to sit out on the table awhile before I can get it completed, but it does help to get ones mind off other things. 

It’s an activity you can do and still carry on a conversation with others. It also can give you time to meditate, or like mentioned earlier, just get your mind thinking of something else for a while.

The puzzle my mother and I are working on now is extremely difficult. It is a maze of different shapes. Some are little, some big, some crooked, some curved. And seeing as it does not have a straight outside edge, it is definitely designed to give the brain some exercise.

We have discovered that things look impossible one way on our large piece of white cardboard, but for some reason, turning it and looking at it from a different direction gives you a whole new outlook. Compare that to every day living. If something isn't falling into place sometimes, it helps to turn things around and look at it from a different perspective. It doesn't always work, but inevitably at least a few pieces seem to appear and take their spot in completing the puzzle.

Like the puzzle, there are times I don't think all the pieces are there in my life. Nothing seems to fit together just right, but with patience and a little ingenuity, eventually the pieces seem to fall into place. Sometimes, it takes extra thought to see the shape of things and a little color helps too. 

Turning pieces around sometimes helps to make them fit, even though you swear you've found the right piece many times. Soon enough, you figure out otherwise, and then bingo — the pieces fall into place.

They say puzzles are good for the mind. Time spent isn't wasted because you have been exercising your thoughts, attention, eyes and it makes one intuitive. It’s a great brain exercise to teach us to not just look but see what is going on.

Children are usually good puzzle people. I believe that is because they see things quickly. As many of you know, I am missing part of one of my legs following an amputation back in 1982. Most adults ask how long I have been on crutches, never seeing the missing leg. However, children see it immediately and question why. Maybe they are on a different level and are more observant.

On the humorous side in regards to puzzles and such, my Grandma Hanson always used to say, “Give me a scissors and I'll make it fit.” We laughed, but there is some truth to it. We often go for the “quick fix,” which isn't always the right fix.

Life is a puzzle — put it together correctly and it turns out to be a beautiful picture, even if some of the pieces aren't shaped right or lack luster. Giving up results in only having a pile of pieces with lots missing. True too, with life, giving up makes one’s life less than complete.

The time element does/doesn't make a difference. Sometimes, it is easy and the puzzle progresses quickly. Other times, it takes a lot of work. Maybe that is what makes life interesting and sometimes difficult. We breeze along putting pieces of our lives together and everything seems so complete. But then, we hit a place in the puzzle (life) that has all the wrong curves and colors and we are tempted to throw it all back in the box so to speak.

That is not the solution. We're human. We have good days and bad days. We cherish the good times and we have to work to get through the bad, but it is nice to know it can be done.

Robert Schuller coined the phrase, “Tough times never last but tough people do.” My mother has it on card on her refrigerator as a constant reminder. It has been there “forever” but the message is still fresh as the day she put it there.

I’ve often wondered why would anyone cut a beautiful picture to pieces only to turn around and put it back together again. Such is life. Someone or something will always “cut up” our perfect world. It is a challenge to put it back together again. We can do it.

Like pieces of a quilt, it is how you put it together that makes it a masterpiece. But, that is another story.

— — —

Birthdays and anniversaries:

• Thursday, February 9th: Emily Eder, John Warnke, Donnavon Eaker, Laura (Edwards) Baudoin, Brad Lerum, Howard Goette, Kelly Lageson, Heidi Nelson, Karen Knudson, Tami Sorenson, Jay Wangsness.

• Friday, February 10th: Brooklyn Jo Baudoin, Brett Mitchell Kubiatowicz, Greg Hagen, Abbey Jensen, Tom Wayne, Dean Reiter, Michael Glienke, Wayne Osmundson, Rachel Strand, Judy Thostenson, Peggy Talamantes, Greg Nelson, Madison Johnson, Dick & Mary Ann Ewing.

• Saturday, February 11th: Helyn Langlie, Megan Pence, Jet Wayne, Neil Douglas Schmidt, Donna Wilker, David Dunn, Julie Christensen, Rhonda Thompson Christensen, Steve Gallentine, Earl Cleven, Teresa Knudson Pratt, Nadine Berg.

• Sunday, February, 12th: Gail Skroch, Joe Moon, Michael Hanson, April Van Riper, Rick Borchert, Eugene Kruckeberg, Travis Wayne, Jessie Olson, Greg Oswald, Taff & Jean Worrell, David & Carolyn Hanson.

• Monday, February 13th: Cobi Gowlland, Becca Spurr, Greg Spurr, Jim Brocker, Eric Olson, Linda Ingvaldson, Bonnie Jensen, Brian Rechtzigel, Anita Kes, David & Carolyn Nelson, Terry & Pam Roberts.

• Tuesday, February 14th: Happy Valentines Day! Angie Entwisle, Elsie Vander Stoep, Michelle Peterson, Matthew Reiter, Angela Westrum Lair, Lee & Jean Johnson, Bob & Mary Macko, Gene & Linda Pederson.

• Wednesday, February 15th: Kloe Renee Wacek, Nancy Cornelius, Patty Kunkel, Eric Olson, Adam Warnke, Ron Jensen, Michelle Hanson, Angie O'Byrne, Elina Butler.

May all the good wishes that you receive on your special day bloom in your heart and bring you joy!

You have to be a little older but you no doubt have heard of Kilroy. Kilroy was a figure sort of graffiti that could be found almost everywhere. It was easy to draw because it was like a bald headed man with big eyes and a long nose, peeking over a wall with both hands showing. Inscribed below the picture was "Kilroy Was Here".

He was as popular as any cartoon figure could be. The strange part was he wasn't really a cartoon figure. He was very much real. Recently my favorite cousin, Jim, sent me the real story of Kilroy and it goes like this.

Even if you never heard of Kilroy before, for the WWII generation, this will bring back memories. For the younger folks, it's a bit of trivia that is a part of our American history. Anyone born in the teens, ‘20s, and mid-‘30s, is familiar with Kilroy. People didn't know why, but they had lapel pins with his nose hanging over the label and the top of his face above his nose and his hands hanging over the label. No one knew why he was so well known, but they all joined in!

So who the heck was Kilroy?

In 1946, the American Transit Association, through its radio program, "Speak to America," sponsored a nationwide contest to find the real Kilroy, offering a prize of a real trolley car to the person who could prove himself to be the genuine article. Almost 40 men stepped forward to make that claim, but only James Kilroy from Halifax, Massachusetts had evidence of his identity.

Kilroy was a 46-year old shipyard worker during the war who worked as a checker at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy. His job was to go around and check on the number of rivets completed. Rivets were on piecework and he got paid by the rivet. He would count a block of rivets and put a check mark in semi-waxed lumber chalk, so the rivets wouldn't be counted twice. When Kilroy went off duty, the riveters would erase the mark. Later on, an off-shift inspector would come through and count the rivets a second time, resulting in double pay for the riveters.

One day Kilroy's boss called him into his office. The foreman was upset about all the wages being paid to riveters, and asked him to investigate. It was then he realized what had been going on. The tight spaces he had to crawl in to check the rivets didn't lend themselves to lugging around a paint can and brush, so Kilroy decided to stick with the waxy chalk. 

He continued to put his checkmark on each job he inspected, but added “KILROY WAS HERE” in king-sized letters next to the check, and eventually added the sketch to the chap with the long nose peering over the fence, which became part of the Kilroy message. Once he did that, the riveters stopped trying to wipe away his marks. Ordinarily, the rivets and chalk marks would have been covered up with paint. 

With the war on, however, ships were leaving the Quincy Yard so fast that there wasn't time to paint them. As a result, Kilroy's inspection "trademark" was seen by thousands of servicemen who boarded the troopships the yard produced.

His message apparently rang a bell with the servicemen, because they picked it up and spread it all over Europe and the South Pacific. Before war's end, "Kilroy" had been here, there, and everywhere on the long hauls to Berlin and Tokyo. To the troops outbound in those ships, however, he was a complete mystery. All they knew for sure was that someone named Kilroy had "been there first." As a joke, U.S. servicemen began placing the graffiti wherever they landed, claiming Kilroy was already there when they arrived.

Kilroy became the U.S. super G.I. who had always "already been" wherever "GIs" went. It became a challenge to place the logo in the most unlikely places imaginable (it is said to be atop Mr. Everest, the Statue of Liberty, the underside of I'Arc De Triomphe, and even scrawled in the dust on the moon.

As the war went on, the legend grew. Underwater demolition teams routinely sneaked ashore on Japanese-held islands in the Pacific to map the terrain for coming invasions by U.S. troops (and thus, presumably, were the first GI's there.) On one occasion, however, they reported seeing enemy troops painting over the Kilroy logo!

In 1945, an outhouse was built for the exclusive use of Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill at the Potsdam conference. Its first occupant was Stalin, who emerged and asked his aide (in Russian), "Who is Kilroy?"

To help prove his authenticity in 1946, James Kilroy brought along officials from the shipyard and some of the riveters to prove his existence. He won the trolley car, which he gave to his nine children as a Christmas gift and set it up as a playhouse in the Kilroy front yard.

So, now you know the story.

Birthdays and anniversaries:

• Thursday, February 2nd: Kia Jayann Buendorf, her 4th; Matt Davis, Addie Farr, Joey Farr, Michael Farr, Butch Otteson, John Fornberg, Robert Hanson, Jim Motz, Karri Bangert, Lillie Fenney.

• Friday, February 3rd: Bowen Gregory Jensen, his 6th; Lily Neitzel, Julie Hanson, David Johnson, Sherry Misgen, Tara (Stollard) Richards, Francene Pittman, Jeremy Hanson.

• Saturday, February 4th: Aaron Duane Bauers, Tyler Cerney, Tyler Sorenson (1994), Waylen Busho Jr., Billy Glynn, David Newgard, Roy Jensen, John Lent.

• Sunday, February 5th: Lila Long, Crystal Simonson, Blanche Kasper, Darrell Howell, Randy Reese, Ericka Johnson, Kylee Jace Wilson, Wesley Schoenrock.

• Monday, February 6th: Jean Klocek, Carolyn Hanson, Dean Jensen, David Kelly, Martin Bartness, Colleen Borchert, Troy Haddy, Jean Clausen, Sonja Thompson, Megan Stephoni, Todd Nelson, Brooke Burns, Kay Swenson.

• Tuesday, February 7th: Cheryl Boettcher, Ted Pelzl, Kelly Simon, Emma Lorraine Klemmensen, Karissa Dolan, Dorothy Katz

• Wednesday, February 8th: Lainee Ann Krohn, Erin Thompson, Terry Wacek, Dennis & Cheryl Sauke.

Let the good times carry you away on your special day.