Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

"I sing while I exercise."

"What do you sing and does it help you lose weight?"

"Fat chants."

Driving by the Bruces

I have two wonderful neighbors — both named Bruce — who live across the road from each other. Whenever I pass their driveways, thoughts occur to me, such as: whenever you attempt to catch something falling from a table, you’ll always knock something else off it.

I’ve learned

To never believe anyone who calls me skeptical.

Sometimes things have to fall apart in order to fall into place.

Each discovery brings mysteries.

The news from Hartland

Township erects Opossum Crossing, Skunk Crossing, and Raccoon Crossing signs near Deer Crossing signs.

Moses Lawn says, "If you can afford a power lawnmower, then mower power to you."

No year is perfect

Summer causes some to wonder if they’re here only to suffer mosquito bites and to complain about the weather. Last year was dry. This year, not so much. Each day brings charcoal skies and distant rumbles of thunder. It reminds me of the old saying, "Shake and shake the ketchup bottle. None'll come and then a lot'll." Last year, trees leaned towards me, recognizing me as a source of water. I don’t melt in heat or rain. I’m thankful for that.

She outgrew half an outhouse

Many outhouses contained holes of different sizes — larger holes for adults and small holes for children. Children learned not to sit on a bigger hole unless they wanted to fall in. I preferred to visit an outhouse alone. I’m not shut-mouthed, but I don’t know what the two of us would find to talk about. A reader told me that when she was a small girl, her father built a new outhouse and used her south end as the dimensions for the small seat.

Tilting at wind turbines

We have so many wind turbines in the area that Don Quixote would tip over from exhaustion from tilting after windmills. Not everyone is a big fan of the big fans. I talked to a fellow who said he’d like them better if he owned half of one. I’m not exactly sure what he meant by that, but I thought of "Pudd’nhead Wilson" by Mark Twain. There is a scene in the novel in which Wilson is sitting on a bench with others. A nearby dog is barking persistently, and Wilson says, "I wish I owned half that dog," and when asked why, he says, "Because I would kill my half."

I’m waving on the inside

I try to smile and wave as often as I can. A friend, Darwyn Olson of Hartland, claims that I never wave at him. If I don’t wave at Darwyn, I want it on record that my waveless existence in his presence isn’t intentional.

Bob Hanson, a friend who lives at Beaver Lake or in Albert Lea, dependent upon which neighbors will put up with him, told me that he and his wife were traveling through Montana when they spotted a man involved in some aspect of baling hay. Bob honked the horn in his car and they both waved at the rancher, who, in turn, paused in his endeavors, and climbed to the tallest spot available to him. From that vantage point, he waved briskly while wearing a huge smile.

Oddments

Although impossible to prove, Steve Dalkowski might be the hardest-throwing pitcher in baseball history. In an extra-inning Eastern League game, Dalkowski struck out 27 batters and walked 16 while throwing 283 pitches. The 5-foot-11, 170-pound Dalkowski never made it to the majors and finished with a lifetime win-loss record of 46-80 and an ERA of 5.59 in nine minor league seasons, striking out 1,396, walking 1,354 in 995 innings, and throwing about 230 pitches per nine innings.

A Public Policy Polling national poll found that 61 percent of voters own pets. Dogs were preferred by 52 percent, 21 percent chose cats, and 31 percent let their pets sleep with them. Americans are more afraid of snakes than any other animal. Bambi was the favorite movie animal, followed by Lassie, Garfield, Nemo, Free Willy, and Jaws.

Nature notes

I stopped on a hot day to get some iced tea at a fast food restaurant situated near the highway. I watched house sparrows flutter about the parking lot. Some of them flew in and out of the grilles of automobiles. Those are good places for the birds to find fried insects. House sparrows make themselves so much at home around fast food places that they could be called burger kinglets.

Meeting adjourned

Everyone has a bad day. Don’t share yours with everyone else. Be kind.

I enjoyed a busy fun-filled four days of Vacation Bible School held at Edgewater Park in Albert Lea. It was sponsored by Trinity Lutheran Church and Salem Lutheran Church of Albert Lea among with Central Freeborn Lutheran Church of rural Albert Lea.

Coreen Johnson from Trinity, Terry Olson from Salem, and Genie Hanson from Central Freeborn were the leader-organizers (now you know how I got recruited).

The week started out with pizza and root beer floats Sunday evening at Trinity Lutheran Church in Albert Lea. All the attendees plus parents, grandparents, and any other interested parties, were welcome.

The Okoboji Lutheran Bible School counselors who did a great job of teaching God’s wonderful doings to 3-4-5 year olds and grades 1 through 6 were: Philip Berthelsen, Graham Christopherson, Rachel Gustaftson, Macie Wagner and Adam Weeks.

The teaching ended with an excellent smorgasbord serving everything from KFC to Domino’s Pizza, and green cupcakes on Thursday evening. That was followed by a program put on by the counselors and attendees. ‘Twas then we realized how much the kids enjoyed the counselors’ teaching. Thanks, Okoboji team!

One of my main Vacation Bible School jobs was to take Spencer and Samuel Christensen to their swimming lessons at the pool in Geneva. I hadn’t been to Geneva in about a year, so when the sign coming from the west said the population was 100,000, I panicked. I managed to find the pool, left the boys there, and got lost. Somehow I found my way out of Geneva, going north by the Spiderman painted on the garage. I then realized the rapid population increase must be due to a Spiderman fan club.

On Wednesday of the VBS week I attended the Security Bank in Albert Lea Customer Appreciation Luncheon, with an old-time band as entertainment. In looking around, the only people I saw under age 60 were employees. I then realized older people had the money and they liked waltz music.

Wednesday evening of the same week, I agreed to be Greeter at the WELCA (Women of the Lutheran Church of America) Guest Night Salad Lunch at Central Freeborn Lutheran Church. The celebration was in honor of WELCA’s 25 years, with music and message from the Three CD’s (three lady choir directors form Southern Minnesota). The 92 ladies arrived in all white, all tan, all black, all green, with the prettiest being all blue. From my standpoint, the blue was love at first sight. The only problem was, I knew Genie would object. Now you know why we didn’t have a VW Love Bug!

In my spare time this week, I managed to give Toni a tour of our Albert Lea house. She had many questions, of which I managed to answer most. Toni is a great lady to be on the good side of. Toni is a very capable property appraiser!

Now you know why a retired person doesn’t have much time to be retired. I will admit to being tired at the end of weeks like the above.

Coreen Johnson, VIP at Trinity Lutheran Church in Albert Lea, you earned it, you deserve it, you enjoy it. “Happy Retirement.”

———

Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent, currently working on his master’s degree in Volunteering. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in Volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in Vermont. Bob says if you enjoy his column, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of wisdom: There is always room for God.

The scurs finally got the sun to shine and not a moment too soon. Will we continue to see old Sol for another week? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with a high in the upper 70s and lows near 60. Mostly sunny Independence Day with highs in the upper 70s and lows in the mid 60s. Partly cloudy Friday with highs in the low 80s and lows in the upper 60s. Saturday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm overnight. Highs in the mid 80s and lows in the upper 60s. Sunday partly cloudy with lows in the low 80s and highs in the mid 60s. Mostly cloudy on Monday with a chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the upper 70s and lows in the upper 50s. Mostly sunny on Tuesday with highs in the mid 70s and lows in the mid 60s. The normal high for the 4th of July is 83 and the normal low is 62. By then we’ll have lost 6 minutes of daylight since the summer solstice and the sun will be setting before 9 p.m. for the first time since June 18th. The scurs will be bribing the fireworks police and sticking pins in their Mark Dayton doll to celebrate.

Conditions finally turned favorable, at least from a temperature and precipitation standpoint. Windy conditions unfortunately were also part of the equation, making spraying legally difficult. Thanks in part to the wind, some of these fields can now be crossed without getting stuck. Too little too late in many instances, but it should help make preparations to establish a cover crop easier to accomplish if the forecast holds. Much of the corn planted (that actually came up) in the four-day window in mid-May is well over knee high and will be closer to waist high by the 4th. Some of the early June planted corn will be close to knee high, so there remains some optimism at this point that planting it was the right thing to do. Soybeans planted during the mid-May window of opportunity were flowering last week; as you may recall the days were already becoming shorter. Some are continuing to plant soybeans, not surprisingly. The experience of peas after soybeans in the area makes it a viable option until at least the 4th. Small grains were heading out and pea harvest was supposed to get underway this week. Alfalfa harvest was largely completed where it survived the winterkill. Tonnage in some fields was surprisingly good, although the calendar date probably had something to do with it.

Parts of the garden at the ranch dried out enough to allow operations there to proceed. There were several dozen budded buttercup squash transplants that made their way into the ground along with several dozen tomato plants, some with fruit attached. Some early sweet corn and string beans were planted along with cucumbers and peppers. One thing about it, with the days getting shorter the plants will push themselves to reproduce as they know the clock is ticking. In the flower department, four o’clocks were seeded for the hummingbirds. Mrs. Cheviot got the planters all established around the house before she left on a sheep show/sale junket. Upon her return she put the salvia transplants in under Ruby’s close supervision.  Between the salvia and the planters, the hummers should have plenty to keep them occupied. Parts of the garden still remain wet however, and it’s unlikely those areas will be planted this year, not unlike many area farmers fields. One can only plant/give away so many winter radishes.

The hummingbirds apparently have recognized that there are flowers and nectar to be had as they are becoming increasingly more frequent and active in our yard. They’ve adapted to the new oriole feeder, something I wasn’t sure they’d do given that it had little ball valves to keep the ants and flies out. The orioles too have resumed eating jelly like it’s going out of style, although they’re still getting lots of assistance, especially from the catbirds. There has been no sign yet of the new hatch of orioles yet at the feeders though that day has to be coming soon.

Even the mosquitoes seem to have relented somewhat. The windy conditions this past week helped and the shallow puddles some of them were reproducing in have dried up to no one’s chagrin. The first firefly of the season was seen at the ranch on the sliding glass door on June 24th. There have been many more to follow and they increase nightly, competing with the solar powered hummingbirds, butterflies and sunflowers on the patio.

My Mom’s passing on Friday has left me raw and hurting inside, to the point that it’s too soon to write much about her given the circumstances. Suffice it to say she was my most faithful reader and I received many phone calls over the years regarding articles I’d written. I’ve mentioned in the past she had a New Richland connection as her best friend, Marion Lingenfelter, had grown up in this area. As I was planting garden Sunday afternoon, I was thinking about Mom and the visits she and Marion had made to our place, not to mention the vegetables we’d send their way. Even though I’d scrub the veggies pretty well, Mom always remarked that Marion said she could tell they’d been grown in that good black New Richland dirt. Marion passed away back in November and now with Mom recently gone, there are suddenly two fewer people to share our garden produce with. Despite the fact that they’re both gone, I know Mom would’ve been disappointed if I hadn’t at least attempted to plant something in that garden to share with others. I know both she and Dad would have. And she would’ve been even more disappointed if I didn’t continue to write this column each week, also to be shared with others. Thanks for reading and allowing me to share.

See you next week…real good then.

I’ve always been glad I was the oldest child in my family. There are any number of reasons for this, but the strongest one is that my parents followed me with three girls. I shudder at the thought of being the youngest in some alternate universe.

Being the oldest always gave me a few advantages. Realistically, parents are making it up as they go along with the first child. You can read all the books you want, but with the many contradictions you find among the so-called experts, who’s to know what to believe? As the oldest child, I can look back and feel like I had a few “Get out of jail free” cards that I was able to play since Mom and Dad hadn’t anticipated a situation.

My sisters followed me and might not have had the same luck. Our parents had most likely figured out a few of my tricks by that time, so those didn’t work for my siblings. They had to come up with some new strategies to get away with things.

Now don’t get me wrong; it’s not like I was some rapscallion who was nothing but trouble. But I did manage to finagle my way out of some tricky situations and even to herd the blame in the direction of one of my sisters if I was especially on my game. (Sorry, Kim, about you getting blamed for taking all those cookies.)

I recently read an article in Parade about the impact of siblings on each other. We all have heard about how birth order is thought to affect how we turn out with labels given to the oldest, the middle child, and the baby of the family. However, this article went deeper. Apparently, the oldest child in a family is, according to this study, the most intelligent.

Well. I’ve admitted to my ego relating to my intellect. And now I have proof!

Regardless of who has the biggest brain, I know I always used to lord my intelligence over my sisters. I may have set a treacherous standard as I went through school by getting good grades in everything except handwriting. (Psh! Who cares about that anyway?)

As a teacher, I know better than to judge a student based on an older sibling, luckily for some! Still, there’s always something in the back of your head that tells you, “Wow, he/she is not nearly as bright as the older one!” or the opposite.

I sometimes feel bad that my sisters may have faced a “Mark prejudice.” I know my sister Kim, who is only two years younger than me, worked her tail off through school. Even if her GPA wasn’t the same as mine at the end of high school, she had a clear advantage in college. She had learned that strong work ethic with homework, whereas I had many things come easy to me. That came to a screeching halt in college, and Kim had an easier time than I did because of it.

That article also talked about what an impact the oldest child has on younger siblings, whether conscious or not. Younger children look up to the oldest and see what he/she is doing and often pattern things after that.

Okay, let’s go with that. I’m a teacher. I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was a freshman in high school. Kim’s husband was a teacher when they got married. My sister Angie is a teacher. Oh oh, maybe it’s true!

Oh, wait. Then there’s Mandy. She’s the baby of the family, and if you go with traditional birth order theories, she fits them to a tee. The baby of the family is often spoiled, and even Mandy will admit to getting more of what she wanted than we did.

The youngest child is supposedly also more of a rebel and a wild child. Check. Check. Mandy may not have any connection to education, but then I wasn’t around for long after she was born before I headed out of town. Mandy has always forged her own path, currently shown by her occupation as a mortician and her “hobby” of playing women’s tackle football with the Minnesota Vixen.

It’s tough for all of our schedules to mesh these days, so the rare occasions when Mom and Dad have all four kids in one place are worth celebrating: we’ve all turned out pretty well!

In the end, no matter how much influence I may or may not have had on my sisters, I’m still glad I was the oldest. I would rather have staged wrestling matches with their dolls than had them make me play along with them!

Word of the Week: This week’s word is longueur, which means a long, tedious passage or selection, as in, “The columnist hoped his readers didn’t feel as if they were reading a longueur when he dabbled in articles about his family.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!

How well do you know New Richland? For the next few weeks, test your knowledge against clues that might lead you to the hidden Farm and City Days medallion and the prize of $50 in New Richland Bucks! Another clue is added each week, right up to the big July 11-14 weekend celebration. Clues will be posted in the Star Eagle, and by 10 a.m. Wednesday at local businesses. Happy hunting!

Clue No. 3:

To my south I see oh some water way higher than me!

To my west I see beyond the buildings and houses a place called home to dear Pastor Espe!

To my north I see people of this fine city come to recycle and keep our city clean!

To my east I see a future sitting room with lovely furniture donated in memory of Don Hamilton, oh a great man was he!

Clue No. 2:

In the city we have two, it seems to be that time to make them both “anew.”

Figuring out the right one is the key to lead you close to where I’ll be.

Funeral services for Ronnie G. Deckard age 77 of New Richland, MN, will be held on Saturday, July 6, 2013 at 11 a.m. at the Hartland Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hartland. Pastor Shawn Stafford will officiate. Burial will be at the Hartland Cemetery with military honors accorded by area VFW and American Legion. Visitation will be Friday from 4 – 7 p.m. at Bayview/Freeborn Funeral Home and one hour prior to the services at the church. Online condolences are welcome at: www.bayviewfuneral.com.

Ronnie died on Monday, July 1, 2013 at Regency Hospital, Golden Valley, MN.

Betty Bernard died Friday, June 28 at the Ostrander Care Center after a lengthy bout with congestive heart failure. She was born Betty Lou Durfey to Phineas and Lillian Durfey in Merrill, Iowa on September 7, 1925. The family moved to Chatfield where Betty graduated from high school in 1943.

In October of that year, she married John W. Bernard, a local farmer, and took up residence on a farm in Pleasant Grove Township. Five children joined them there. John and Betty were solid partners in life and on the farm. They raised their children to be involved in school and community. They themselves led by example becoming active in school, church, and community organizations such as 4-H.

Dorothy Irene Root passed away peacefully after a long illness at her home in Canutillo, Texas January 11, 2013. Dorothy was born May 19, 1923 in New Richland Minnesota the youngest of six children (brothers Elmer, Richard, and Raymond Rosacker, sisters Elsie Boettger, and Lola Nesdahl) born to Minnie Sarah and Wilhelm Rosacker.

NRHEG School Board

By REED WALLER

Staff Writer

Farewells

Monday, June 17 was the last NRHEG School Board meeting for departing superintendent Kevin Wellen and retiring high school principal Paul Cyr. Wellen is a 25-year education professional who is seeking a position elsewhere after six busy years with NRHEG, and Cyr has served NRHEG 26 years as math teacher, wrestling coach, middle school and high school principal.

Cyr will be meeting with incoming high school principal David Bunn July 1 through 3.

Construction in New Richland

The June meeting was held at the Ellendale Media Center, while the New Richland Media Center is being partially dismantled for the new cafeteria/commons area.