Wagner wins four individual events

UP AND OVER — The Panthers’ Emmy Hobbs clears the pole vault bar during the Gopher Conference track and field meet at Medford Tuesday, May 14. Hobbs finished second and so did the Panthers. (Star Eagle photo by Chris Schlaak)

By JIM LUTGENS

Editor/Publisher

The NRHEG girls’ track and field team gave it a run but came up one place short of United South Central/Alden-Conger in the Gopher Conference meet at Medford Tuesday, May 14.

USC/AC won with 250.5 points. The Panthers had 203, followed by WEM with 142.5, Medford 79, Bethlehem Academy 63, Blooming Prairie 54 and JWP 16.

“The girls tried their best, but came up short against a very good USC/AC team,” said Panthers coach Duey Ferber.

Junior Carlie Wagner had a perfect day with four events, four firsts. She won the 100 meters in 13.01 seconds, the 200 in 27.54, the 400 in 1:02.44 and the high jump at 5-2.

NO FEAR — NRHEG’s Tara Simon slides into third base during last week’s home game against USC. Simon had three hits and three RBIs. (Star Eagle photo by Chris Schlaak)

By JIM LUTGENS

Editor/Publisher

The NRHEG softball team played an unorthodox doubleheader Tuesday, hosting United South Central and Maple River at Legion Field.

The Panthers won the most important of the two, defeating USC 11-0 to improve their Gopher Conference record to 7-3. They fell 4-0 to nonconference foe Maple River, dropping to 9-4 overall.

NRHEG 11, USC 0

The Panthers started and finished strong, plating four runs in the first inning and getting five in the fourth.

By JIM LUTGENS

Editor/Publisher

It was a logjam for second place in the Gopher Conference boys’ track and field meet.

The NRHEG Panthers finished at the bottom of it.

USC/AC ran away with the title at Medford Tuesday, May 14, winning with 190.5 points. The next four teams were close, with Bethlehem Academy at 120, Medford 115.5, Blooming Prairie 113 and NRHEG 112. JWP and WEM brought up the rear with 96 and 62, respectively.

By JIM LUTGENS

Editor/Publisher

The NRHEG High School baseball team hasn’t had a whole lot of highlights this spring, but the Panthers packed about a season’s worth into Tuesday, May 14’s Gopher Conference game at Blooming Prairie.

Sparked by senior Casey Rosacker’s grand slam, the Panthers slammed the Blossoms 17-2 in five innings.

Rosacker’s homer put an exclamation point on a fifth inning that saw the Panthers plate 12 runs.

By JIM LUTGENS

Editor/Publisher

After a slow start, the NRHEG golf teams have been busy as of late, with three recent competitions.

Most recently, the Panthers hosted their only home meet of the year at Riverview Golf Course west of town Thursday, May 16.

The NRHEG boys totaled 196 strokes for nine holes to 180 for Blooming Prairie and 195 for JWP. USC won with 166.

Jake Langlie shot a 46 to lead the Panthers, followed by Colton Ryg 48, Cole Lenort 49, Kelson Titus 53, Macoy Schwierjohann 54 and Brenden Arnold 62.

The Trapper's Bowling/Golf 4-person tournament was held at Riverview Golf Course Saturday, May 18. The results:

Championship Flight

1st place: Nate Waldhauser, Ben Waldhauser, Derrick Iverson, Tad Salazar

2nd place: Stan Timmerman, Scott Timmerman, Gary Walstrom, Doug Bushlack

3rd place: Treston Robeck, Mike Stencel, Mike Schrader, Mike Grimley

I recently read news concerning Zonnebeki, Belgium. They are rushing to repair the nearly 12,000 head stones aligned in solemn rows of gloomy white. Beyond the walls stretches Flanders Field, serving as the stage of some of World War Ist carnage.

World War I centenary commemorations will take place between the years 2014-2018. The fields during World War I were steeped in blood, mud and iron. The stumps of burnt trees stood like charred matches as men and boys in trenches watched their feet rot and their friends die.

World War I broke out July 28, 1914. An estimated 10 million people died. But did you know there's more there than these graves still evident today almost 100 years after the battles? 

Did you ever hear of the trenches of the "Trench of the Bayonets" or the "Devonshire Trench"?  I didn't, but over 50 years ago, a teacher at the Ellendale School read and talked to her fourth grade class about this topic and made an impression upon one of her students

Do you remember your school teachers? All of them? Some of them?  Special teachers?

My cousin, Jim Hanson of Clarks Grove, who went to school in Ellendale through fourth grade, can name all of his teachers, grade school through high school.

Jim has taken the time to investigate the stories that were told while he was in school. Jim, has has traveled overseas 17 times. Every time he has learned a little more. In between those trips, he studied more. Evidence of these battles still remains in artifacts and ammunition still buried and exploded lying in the battle fields.

Here is Jim’s story that has spanned 57 years.

“My 4th-grade teacher was Mrs. Anderson. (sorry, I don’t have a first name. In those days, teachers were addressed as Miss or Mrs.) She was perhaps in her late 50s, meaning she was born about 1900. We would do the standard 3-Rs from the textbook, but she taught much more than that.

She would take a few minutes each day to read from a book or just to talk with us about anything she found interesting. (Perhaps the original Whatever Comes to Mind!).

She had an appreciation for history, and many of her talks were of things that had a profound influence upon her life - WWI, the Bonus Army March on Washington, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, women getting the right to vote, etc.  Each of these personal stories gave kids an insight into the responsibilities of an adult and isn’t that what schools are supposed to do?

I recall how she talked about WWI - the horrors of trench warfare, artillery bombardment, the new machine guns, the carnage and what a waste it was.  Rather than glorify the war, she gave us vignettes of tragedy and loss - the Trench of the Bayonets, Devonshire Trench, and America’s WW I hero, Sgt. Alvin York. For English class, she made us memorize poetry - In Flander’s Field about not forgetting the dead - Sandbergs I Am the Grass, which was about the futility of war - and lighthearted items like Pershing at the Front.

I belong to an ad-hoc group of history buffs. Every year, we try to visit a place that history turned a page - a great event in history. In 2001, we visited the Somme WW I battlefields in northern France. The carnage there was particularly bad, which included trench warfare and cavalry vs. the new mechanized warfare of artillery, machine guns, tanks, poison gas, flamethrowers and airplanes. 

As a result, over 1,250,000 men were lost in a relatively small area. Over 200,000 simply disappeared. The explosions left no body to be buried.  

I was determined to find some of the places Mrs. Anderson had told us about so long ago. I found the Trench of the Bayonets near Verdun, France (where another 1,250,000 men killed, injured, missing, or taken prisoner). Just as she had described, a company of French soldiers were poised to go over the top of the trenches and assault the German lines.

They had their long-barreled rifles, with fixed bayonets, slung over their shoulders.  An artillery shell exploded behind the lines, caving in the trench. The result: they were buried alive while standing. The only thing protruding above ground were the tips of their bayonets - all in a row. 

The French left them that way. The Americans, who were moved by the sight, created a marble monument over the trench. In 2001, seven bayonets were still visible. They have since rotted away; only the stubs holding them to the rifle remain. I couldn’t help but think to myself, “The old lady knew what she was talking about!”

On the Somme, I resolved to find the Devonshire Trench. During WWI, up to half of a company workforce, town enlistment or school class could enlist and serve together.  The Devonshires had been at the front for several months, and couldn’t advance because German machine guns protected the German trenches. 

The Devons had earned a short leave. Some took leave in Paris. Some went home to England.

They went through the usual round of parties in an attempt to forget the horror of the war. But, in the back of their mind, they knew that they would have to assault that deadly machine gun when they went back. 

Their commander, Capt. Martin, made maps and even paper mache models to try to figure out how to take the machine gun. Even so, they were convinced that with their exposed position, it would be a slaughter.

Saying goodbye to loved ones, they went back to the war and occupied the trench.  The command to advance came as expected. The whistle blew and they went over the top as ordered. 

As they expected, nearly every man was killed, all 135 of them. Following the custom of the day, they were buried together in unused portions of the trenches. It became a British rallying cry.

The Devonshires held this trench. The Devonshires hold it still! 

I looked for markers to find the Devonshire Trench, to no avail. I asked the locals. Each tried to help, but had no idea where to find it. My traveling companions wanted to go back to the hotel.

I offered to take them back and continue alone. They stayed with me. We finally found the little cemetery on a hill behind some trees. A wooden plaque said “The Devonshires held this trench, the Devonshires hold it still!” Once again, Mrs. Anderson had been right all along!

I went over to France again last year with other friends. This time, my wife, Maryalice, went with me.

This time, I had done more research. I checked British battle accounts, and hand-drawn maps of the area. If the cemetery was a trench, we should be able to find the continuation of the trench in the woods. 

Sure enough, we could make out the depression marking a silted-in trench. We returned this year in late March. Maryalice, my brother Bob, and Victor and Kellie Mrotz went with us. After more study of old maps, I was able to pinpoint the position of the German machine gun that cut down the Devonshires.

Since the grass was not yet growing, we went artifact hunting in the embankment in front of the trench and the fields alongside. Victor unearthed the hilt of a Trench Sword fighting knife (usually carried by British officers - all three of the Devonshire officers were killed.) Bob came up with the find of the day, an 8 mm German machine gun bullet found near the Devonshire trench.

According to both German and British records, the only machine gun in that area was the one that cut down the Devonshires. It was like a "cold case file," - 97 years after the incident. Fifty-seven years after I first heard about it, we solved it.

Mrs. Anderson was proved right again, 57 years later! Who knows what information a teacher imparts? A lesson that stayed with me and brought to life 57 years later - and 4500 miles away from Ellendale!

To be continued next week...

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Birthdays and anniversaries:

• Thursday, May 23rd: Stephane Paul Martin, her 4th; Will Richard Utpadel, his 6th: Ilsbeth Wayne, Jeanne Simonson, Melissa Shaunce, Burton Borchert, Orville Langlie, Karen Quam, Rodney & Peggy Sorenson, Duane & Janice Morreim, Jeff & Sara Miller, Rebecca & Tim Brekke.

• Friday, May 24th: David Christensen, Merlyn Swearingen, Marlyn Swearingen, Reta Draayer, Nina Widlund.

• Saturday, May 25th: Dakota Matthew Kath, his 8th: Riley Dean Disher, his 6th; Jack Harpel, Jackie Johnson Miller, Jim Pichner, Cara Christensen, Valerie Peterson, Richard Fetterly, Bill Nechanicky, Rick Miller, Deb Parks, Paul Reese, Troy & Kelly Utpadel, Dave & Barbara Van Gorkom.

• Sunday, May 26th: Jeff Wayne, Roger Wangsness, Natalie Hanson, Jim Cummins, Jennifer Beaber, Jeremy Beaber, Melissa Redmon, Karey (Kalakian) & Chris Shearman.

• Monday, May 27th: Eileen Bergland, Lisa Hanson, Steve Jepson, Shane Callahan, Stacy Wobschall, Rev. Beaber, Theresa Kasper, Rick Loven, Carolee Broitzman George, Tracy Marcus, Lisa Hanson, Steve Jepson, Michael Butler, Steve & Karen Quam, Megan & Joel Cooper.

• Tuesday, May 28th: Sara Beth Carlson, her 3rd; Lily Lee Olson, her 3rd; Madalyn Kehne, Madison Catherine Knudson, Susan Schmidt, Marie Fowler, Rick & Jenny Loberg, Gerritt & Kathy Molenaar.

• Wednesday, May 29th: Brent Peterson, Deb Farr, Odean Otterson, Gene Pederson, Mark Butler, Ross Lein, Colin Quimby, Rod & Sandi Serdahl, John & Susan Oolman, Lily & Jerry Neitzel.

May your special day blossom with many reasons to smile!

Another cold and windy fishing opener greeted most anglers this past weekend. I guess we should just assume that windy and cold will be the norm when venturing out on the fishing opener. On the other hand, finding open water to fish wasn’t quite as predictable.

The Governor’s fishing opener actually started on Thursday in the Park Rapids area with many planned events and it continued through the weekend. Some of the area’s lakes were open but most were at least partially ice covered. Everything that I have ever been told, read or experienced was telling me that fishing would not be that good right after ice-out. With this in mind I headed into the weekend not expecting much in the way of fish, but I was looking forward to learning about the Park Rapids area.

While attending the community picnic on Friday night I was impressed with the number of folks present. They were expecting around 2,500 people in attendance and I believe that there were easily that many. If you have ever been to Park Rapids you know that they have a very impressive downtown area. I always seem to get a good feeling when I see a community come together to take in the festivities and promote their area to the media. This wouldn’t be possible were it not for the 400 volunteers who put in a lot of work and time to make it all come together.

Tourism in Minnesota is a $12 Billion a year industry and towns like Park Rapids will see the population double during the summer. There is also currently a push to promote winter tourism in Minnesota.

I was very impressed with the Park Rapids area and the friendly people that call it home. The theme for this year’s opener was “Catch a Memory” and the folks in this area made sure that all the memories caught were good ones. I’ve said it many times before: it’s not about the catching of fish but about the experience of being there.

My friend Jeff Anderson of Watertown, SD who I have been fishing with for many years, and I were fortunate enough to be hosted by Brett Kent, an avid outdoorsman in every sense of the imagination. On Friday evening Jeff and I were sitting outside of the Park Rapids Armory waiting to go in and meet our fishing host when this nice couple passed by us and said hello. A little later we discovered that these nice folks were Brett and Brenda Kent and that Brett would be the one taking us fishing in the morning.

The next morning we met Brett for breakfast and he took us to a lake that he knew was open and had produced walleye for him in the past. It was a cold, windy and fishless venture but fun nonetheless. Brett suggested we get off the lake to warm up and seek out another lake to fish. While we were approaching the access two young guys were heading out into the cold and wind in a paddleboat. Brett turned to us and said “now those guys are tough to be fishing from a paddleboat. I mean really tough.”

It didn’t take me long to figure out that Brett was a full-blown outdoorsman and there weren’t many things that he didn’t like doing when it came to hunting and fishing. Brett and Brenda have a honey business appropriately called “Double B Honey” and they have 50 hives which produce about 4,500 lbs. of honey each year. He also traps minnows and leeches for local bait shops. Bait is not the only thing that he traps because he had an impressive collection of hides that he had from the past winter including bobcat, timberwolf, fisher, coyote and gray fox.

Brett has a nice northern hanging on the wall and after spending a short time with him I knew it would come with a story. It seems that he and some friends went to Lake of the Woods to ice fish and he was pulling a fish house across the lake when it lost its runners. He was so determined to get to the spot which was five miles out that he pulled the house bouncing along the ice until he got there. Brett had put a tip-up out and later looked out and noticed that there was a fish on. He went out and began bringing this huge northern in but it was almost too big for the hole. He called to the guys in the house to help him but they said “it’s too cold. You’re on your own” After several attempts he did manage to get the fish through the hole. Unfortunately the fish bit him on the hand and he had a huge gash which was bleeding pretty badly. Even that didn’t bring the “friends” out of the house to help. Another tale that he told was about the time his friend asked him to go trout fishing which Brett says is not his favorite pastime. While fishing and catching nothing he noticed two beavers nearby. He ended up setting two traps and caught both beavers which I suspect made his trout fishing trip a success. Brett also enters about four fishing tournaments during the summer with his son which Brett says is quality time that he enjoys spending with him.

Over the years I have fished with a lot of folks but I have to say that there have been none better than Brett. He is truly an avid outdoorsman and can tell a story like nobody that I have ever met. Oh, did I mention that his day job is that of a Minnesota State Trooper which he has been doing for the past 27 years.

Brett said that he was originally from the Twin Cities area but he knew from an early age that he wanted to live in the Park Rapids area. He told me that his wife Brenda once mentioned going on vacation and his response was quite simple: “People wait all winter to come here for vacation, why would we want to go anywhere else?”  I don’t believe that you could possibly have a better testimonial than that for the Park Rapids area.               

I did manage to catch a 21-inch walleye while fishing the open part of Fish Hook Lake in the afternoon. We had checked out the access that morning and the ice was on both sides but the access was open. We were the only boat out there for quite some time that afternoon but managed only that one fish.  It was a great experience not only meeting Brett and Brenda but learning about this great area of the state which I know I will be revisiting in the not so distant future.

Until next time; take some time to go out and enjoy some fishing on one of our many beautiful lakes.

Please remember to keep our troops in your thoughts and prayers because they are the reason we are able to enjoy all the freedoms that we have today.

Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

"I wish I’d have gone out for baseball when I was in high school."

"Why?"

"Do you know what I’d be making if I were playing for the Minnesota Twins today?"

"Sure. You'd be making everyone wonder why you are on the team."

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: I’ve never heard anyone, quarter or otherwise, singing in a barbershop.

I’ve learned

The best way to save face is to keep the lower half of it shut.

If I’ve seen one shopping center, I’ve seen a mall.

My opinion represents those of one seven-billionth of the world.

Mothers, purses and deer

My wife searched for something in her purse. She dug deep for the elusive item, only to discover that it was right at the top.

"If it had been a snake, it would have bitten you," I said. That’s one of the things we say in such instances.

Dad had one check in his wallet. Mom had money in her purse. She was always willing to give me some of her moolah at 6 percent.

Actually, my mother was willing to give her offspring everything.

Jan Jerdee of Albert Lea told me that deer are common sights on her lawn. This spring, a doe brought three young triplets to the yard. Because of the May snowstorm, there was little for them to eat. The doe stood up on her back legs to kick persistent crabapples from the branches of a tree. The fawns ate the crabapples. Jan added, "A mother is a mother."

The chickens weren’t wearing stocking caps

The caller told me he was unemployed. He had spent the winter in Arizona. He figured if he couldn’t afford to eat, he might as well go hungry in warm weather.

When the weather warmed in the spring, we opened the door to the henhouse, permitting the chickens to once again become free range. Tired of being cooped up, the chickens rushed from the henhouse like students coming out of a grade school at recess.

I enjoyed saying, "Gentlemen, start your chickens," when I opened the door.

A neighbor drew a line through the middle of the floor of his chicken house. That way, a hen could lay it on the line.

The chickens may be loose and the snow has melted, but in the middle of May, I spotted a pickup truck with a mounted snowplow on the front. He wasn't late for last winter; he was early for next winter. I’m not sure if the driver was pessimistic or optimistic.

When forks fly

My wife and one of her best friends, Linda Brekke of Owatonna, journeyed to Washington, D.C. Linda is a farm broadcaster on the radio and needed to be in our nation's capital for a convention related to her job. The two attended a function at the Chinese Embassy, where they were fed well. They were given plastic silverware. Linda was using her fork, when the plastic tableware snapped and part of the utensil flew across the banquet hall. Linda was worried that she might have created an international incident.

So far, so good. There has been no retaliation, but please, everyone, keep your fingers crossed.

The chair of the cemetery

I told a kind gentleman at St. John’s Lutheran Church of Elkton that I had done a radio show from the cemetery near that church. I’ve done countless radio shows from cemeteries. Graveyards are lovely places to walk and talk. He told me he had purchased a monument for his gravesite. It is a bench. That’s nice. It will offer his friends and family a place to sit a spell and visit.

Nature notes

Dead opossums acted as speed bumps on a rural road. Vultures were on the side of the road paying their last respects to a coot.

I sang to the vultures as I drove by, "One of these days, these coots are going to walk all over you."

To a turkey vulture, our roads are long buffet tables. Vultures are part of nature’s sanitation crew. The coyote is another that feeds heavily on roadkill. However, a study showed that in some urban areas, 40% of a coyote’s diet consists of cats. Any cat outdoors is subject to many threats — a coyote is but one of them. A coyote averages 30 pounds, but each time I see one, I reckon it larger.

Meeting adjourned

Be kind and place others at the receiving end of that heavenly combination, a wave and a smile.

It seems that a lot of readers like to browse, and a lot of browsers like to read. If this is your cup of tea, the Hospital Auxiliary has just the thing for you. They are having a book and gift sale on Tuesday, May 28 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 20 (next to the cafeteria) in the Albert Lea Hospital. (Genie and I are both volunteer Auxilians.)

The definition of a good volunteer is “a person with the inability to say ‘no.’” Genie and I both qualify! Following are some times we could not say “no.”

Reader’s Theater is a group of older aged men and women who read and act out stories to the kindergarten through third grade students in the Albert Lea schools. A great reward is when a youngster will walk up to you and say, “I know you, you did Reader’s Theater to my class.” (St. Theodore’s Catholic School honored us with a mass and a brunch.)

Genie and I ring the Salvation Army bells at Christmas time. A great reward is when parent and child sheepishly approach, wanting to know if the child can ring the bell again this year. (The Salvation Army honored us with an appreciation dinner.)

We both help with the Adopt a Highway program on a two-mile stretch of I-90 west of Albert Lea, sponsored by Thrivent Financial. The reward is a clean freeway plus an evening meal afterwards.

We both adopt the park at Beaver Lake. The reward is a cleaner-than-when-we-started park, plus any money, and cans and bottles that we recycle in New Richland, Iowa or Michigan. (About $10 in money found and about $400 in cans and bottles recycled.) We are allowed to add our garbage to that found and put it all in the park dumpster – thus no garbage bill. If any resident of Beaver Lake is interested in adopting Beaver Lake Park, please let us know. (Because we are no longer summertime residents at Beaver Lake, we would like to be replaced.)

Genie and I are both involved as Auxilians at the Albert Lea Medical Center – staffing the gift shop and the coffee shop, magazine recycling, helping with daffodil sales for cancer, plus a few other things. The reward is eating at the cafeteria plus a food Christmas gift, as well as talking to a lot of friendly people. Working there is just like sitting on a deer stand: sooner or later a deer will come by. Sooner or later every area resident will come by.

We are both active in Central Freeborn Lutheran Church: Sunday school teacher, door greeter, schedule a bus to the Twins (We’re going Monday, Aug. 1), schedule a bus to Christmas by the Lake in Clear Lake, Ia. (We’re going Saturday, Dec. 7), Valentine Norwegian Bingo, etc. The reward is Heavenly.

Readers, for your information, the volunteer activities are what we’re sending in to the University of Tennessee for Genie’s Doctor’s Degree and my Master’s Degree. (Our degrees are from there because Tennessee is the Volunteer State!)

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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.