There have been a number of columns written about my quest for Twins’ bobbleheads. In fact, they even form a section in my book. Maybe too many. However, as I got older, the fires that drove me to spend a day and hundred dollars for Kay and I to buy tickets, drive to the Cities, wait in line for two hours, have died down. Not only that, the bobbleheads were not appreciating in value.

They were for our grandchildren to maybe help a little in future school expenses. In comparing the rise in college expenses with the rise in bobblehead value, the bobbleheads lagged far behind. If I sold all the bobbleheads Kay and I collected, they might pay for a week of school. However, who knows what might happen in the future? There are still a great many bobblehead and Twins’ memorabilia collectors and prices may increase substantially in the years to come. And much like going to auctions and garage sales, the "thrill of the hunt" was still there. So when a good friend mentioned that the Twins were only having one bobblehead promotion this year, I was intrigued.

The Twins’ bobblehead was to have two figures on it: Kent Hrbek tagging Ron Gant out at first base during the ‘91 World Series. A controversial play. The last championship of any sort by a Minnesota big league team. Here was a chance to relive some of the glory of long past years.

The minute tickets became available, my friend was on the phone. Tickets sold fast and we were lucky to get four seats together. High up, but right above home plate.

A discussion was held as to what time we should leave Preston. We decided that 11 a.m. would be best. The gates open at 5 for a 7 p.m. game. In the past if you arrived two hours before the gates opened, you stood a very good chance of getting a bobblehead. Not assured, but very likely. Our thinking was that this was an unusual bobblehead and the only one this year. That collectors would be out in droves. We decided that arriving three hours before the gates opened would be prudent. We were going to leave at 11 a.m., stopping in Rochester to pick up a friend and head north with a quick stop at McDonald’s in Cannon Falls for lunch.

The day came and, right after breakfast, I went to where I had put the tickets. They weren’t there! I searched frantically around my office as did Kay. No tickets. I didn’t know what to do. My friend was due to arrive shortly and I didn’t have my tickets. Decided to call the Twins, hoping they would take pity on a poor old dumb guy. I called the Twins’ ticket office and got Marge. She was very understanding and said the Twins would print three more tickets and when I came I could pick them up at the ticket window. What a relief! It cost five dollars a ticket, but well worth it. We got off to a late start because of the lost tickets, stopped in Rochester and finally were on our way.

We weren’t sure of the best way to the stadium, but decided on 94 from St. Paul even though two lanes were closed, feeling that we were outside the rush hour times. Our friend had the route and parking ramp scoped out. He did a good job and we arrived at the stadium about 2:15. We looked at the long lines and hoped that we would pick the shortest.

Next week: Did we get the tickets and, more importantly, did we get there in time for the bobbleheads?

Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

“You’ve lost weight.”

“I started running. I don’t think anything of running five miles before breakfast.”

“I don’t think much of it either.”

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: actions speak louder than bumper stickers.

You are getting older if

1. You attend an organ recital at a hospital.

2. The image in the mirror is one of your parents.

3. You remember when there were dime stores instead of dollar stores.

Chores

One of my chores as a small boy was to walk through the potato plants growing in the peat ground of Mule Lake and pick off the potato bugs. I grabbed the pests and dropped them into a pail of soapy water. It was meaningful work and I was inspired by my love of potatoes.

One day, a bug crawled from the pail and dropped to the ground. I stepped on the escapee. It was a mashed potato bug.

Can’t coast through life

I was a whippersnapper when a friend told me that he turned off the engine of his car when he coasted into the driveway of his home. He wanted to park the car near the garage while making as little noise as possible. Parents are funny about late hours. Most of them said things like, “Nothing good ever happens after midnight.”

I thought about trying to coast into my yard, but the driveway was uphill from mailbox to parking place.

Baseball

A neighboring school had gotten a pitching machine. I’d never used one before, but when the opponents’ coach allowed us to try it; I found my way to the head of the line of batters.

“Put on a helmet,” the coach barked at me.

I did as ordered.

The machine’s first pitch hit me on the rear. I needed a bigger helmet.

A ministerial miscalculation

The pastor told me that he had been asked to visit a hospitalized parishioner who was not much of a church goer. He didn’t know her well, but was pleased to pay her a visit. He checked at the desk in the hospital, learned the room number, and knocked on an opened door before entering. He introduced himself and the woman seemed pleased to see him. They talked about the things you talk about in such visits — the weather, family, health. The pastor couldn’t believe how the woman had changed. She didn’t look anything like he remembered. When it came time for him to leave, he told her that he would be back and hoped he would see her in church when she got out of the hospital. The woman thanked him for visiting, but said she wouldn’t likely be attending his church. She never missed church — the Baptist church. The pastor was Lutheran. He had visited the wrong room.

The winds came early

The fellow from Glencoe shared a story of a tornado that had hit his farm. He said that he had taken down an old concrete stave silo right before the winds hit. A neighbor dropped by a few days after the storm. The visitor looked at the empty spot once occupied by the silo.

“Isn’t that amazing?” said the neighbor. “It took every block.”

The man said that he should have told his neighbor the truth and he meant to, but the subject never came up again. 

Thermostat wars

The latest peace talks ended this way, “Oh, you’re not hot. You just think you’re hot.”

A sign of the times

Seen on a small-town business, “Open as many as five days a week from 9 to 5, more or less.

From the friendly files of the Freeborn Frisbee

An article written by Les Seath for The Community Magazine in 1951. “The census of 1860 recorded…Hartland township had 434 acres under cultivation and grew a lot of wheat, 3127 bushels, (and) 1520 bushels of corn.”

Nature notes

The cicada killer is a solitary wasp up to 2 inches long with a black body marked with yellow across the thorax and abdomen. The wasps appear in July and August. Cicada killer wasps dig holes in bare areas of lawns, gardens, flowerbeds, golf course sand traps, and sand volleyball courts. The males do not sting. The females can sting, but are difficult to provoke. They feed on flower nectar and sap. Cicada killer females sting and paralyze cicadas. The female wasp straddles its prey, flies off with it, and caches it in a burrow. The wasp lays a single egg in the paralyzed, still living cicada and seals the tunnel. When the egg hatches, the wasp grub eats the cicada. Cicadas are large insects, sometimes improperly called "locusts," that drone loudly in the trees during summer.

Meeting adjourned 

Make a good day. Be kind.

SKI Vacation Part 2 of 3

The third night we stayed in Post Falls, Idaho at the Comfort Inn. At breakfast the next morning, everyone spoke with a Southern drawl. I remarked as to how I must be down south. One of the guys asked how far south I thought I was. I said North or South Carolina and he said close enough as most of them were from South Carolina. He took a vote and they all agreed I could have breakfast with them as long as I didn’t imitate their speech.

They were all there for a Baptist get-together in Idaho. Brady Cooper, the senior pastor at New Vision Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, TN, wanted to know about hunting and fishing in MN. When Genie told him that she went along deer hunting and she liked to fish, especially through the ice at Lake of the Woods, he became very envious. Brady told me how lucky I was to have a wife who enjoyed the outdoors and would go along hunting and fishing as his wife didn’t and wouldn’t. Rev. Brady, for your sake, I hope your great wife doesn’t read this!

The fourth night we reached our destination of Spokane, WA for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Women’s Triennial Convention. The total attendance for the three-day event was about 2,000.

Who are Joyce, Jaci, Gwen, Austra, Barb (the cookie monster as she stole two of my chocolate chip cookies), Bernice, Marjorie and Karan? They are either grandmas, aunts or moms of Awesome Blossom students, some of which we passed on I-90 just before South Dakota. The lades are members of First Lutheran Church in Blooming Prairie and they stayed in the same motel, the Travelodge, for three nights, as Genie and I did. Small world, isn’t it?

Parked in front of the Travelodge Motel was a van with McCabe Motors Rental, Owatonna, MN on the side. Eight ladies from Red Oak Grove Lutheran Church in rural Austin rented the van and took turns driving the 1500 miles to Spokane. They were going to travel by Amtrak but because of all the water in North Dakota, Amtrak couldn’t get through.

Marie Tesch of Waseca, an outgoing Women of the ELCA Officer, was there with her two daughters and one grand daughter.

Caroline Neale, Hazel Spiering and Paula Buendorf were some of the ladies from Albert Lea in attendance. Hazel and Paula are also on the Twins bus sponsored by Grace and Central Freeborn Lutheran Churches to Lutheran Night at the Twins.

Genie completed an early Saturday morning 5K Walk/Run raising $200 (I slept in). She attended the convention while I promoted LAMP (Lutheran Association of Missionairies and Pilots). We are both missionairies and have taught Vacation Bible School in remote villages in Canada. We do programs of our experiences if you’re looking for an informational real-life adventure program.

The last night of the convention I was lucky enough to sit next to Elizabeth Hunter, Associate Editor of The Lutheran and The Little Lutheran. She is the mother of two young sons and the person who the pastor of her Lutheran church obeys. She can really belt out a song and it was very enjoyable to sing along with her. By the way, her pastor and husband are one and the same!

The evening service the last day included communion. Genie was one of the communion assistants. Guess who had the pleasure of serving me communion? If you said Genie, you’re right. What a great experience for both of us. Thanks be to God.

We left Spokane Sunday, July 17th and drove to Tacoma, WA. While there, we visited Genie’s Aunt Alice Thompson and her daughter Linda and son-in-law Keith. We enjoyed a noon meal with Alice and Linda. The ladies visited about their travels and their times together in the Clear Lake, IA area. They talked about their times at brother Albert Juhl’s farm (uncle to Linda and Genie where the plane carrying Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Richie Valens crashed killing all three and the pilot). Albert Juhl guarded the wreckage with his double-barrel 12-gauge shot gun until law enforcement arrived.

— — —

Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent. 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. This is the Hanson’s 36th summer at Beaver Lake. They leave the lake in mid-October to go south — to Albert Lea — and return in April. Bob says if you enjoy his article, 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 wasted no time predicting the moderating temperatures and now they’re working on getting some rain back in the forecast. Will we get it? Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with highs near 75 and lows around 55. Thursday, mostly sunny becoming mostly cloudy with a chance of an evening shower. Highs 75 – 80 and lows 60 – 65. Mostly cloudy Friday with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs 75 – 80 and lows around 60. Partly cloudy on Saturday with highs near 75 and lows dipping to 55. Clear skies on Sunday with highs of 80 and lows of 60. Partly cloudy Monday with a chance of an evening shower. Highs once again near 80 and lows of 60. Warmer and a chance of showers under partly cloudy skies for Tuesday. Highs of 85 and lows near 60. The normal high for August 15th is 82 and the normal low is 59. We slip to under 14 hours of daylight for the first time since April 26th. The scurs think this may be the catalyst we need to spur on the chances for some of those April showers.

The Full Moon for the month will occur on August 13th and is known by several names. The fishing tribes of the Great Lakes called this the Full Sturgeon Moon as this was the time of year these large fish were most easily caught. It was also known as the Full Red Moon as the moon tended to be red from all the haze in the air when it rose. It also goes by The Green Corn Moon and The Full Grain Moon. The Ojibwe called this the Full Berry Moon as blueberries were ripe for the picking. The Sioux called this The Moon When Geese Shed Their Feathers. Judging by the number seen roaming area lawns, my guess is they’re shedding more than feathers.

Crop progress continues at a breakneck pace with some corn already in the milk stage. More pollination issues are evident although there are probably more issues due to tip back related to lack of precipitation locally. Soybeans are huge with numerous fields containing plants 4’ tall. They look nice but with the heavy canopy and cooler weather comes increased risk for white mold. There are some bona fide R5 soybeans out there so that should help. Soybean aphids continue to play mind games: Will they reach treatable levels or won’t they? Those levels are all over the board with areas where soybeans were planted later getting hit hard and others slowly increasing where planting dates were earlier and maturity of the plants is advanced. Some made prophylactic insecticide applications a few weeks ago and it will be interesting to see if the aphids make an encore appearance in these fields. Reported small grain harvest woes continue the trend set last week. Poor spring wheat yields in the 30 – 40 bu./acre range and oats yields of 65 – 70 bu./acre, about half of what they were last year. Factor in lower quality on both crops and without a pretty lucrative price, it will make it easier to forget about them next year. Sweet corn harvest is underway and so far there is some optimism. If we continue this dry trend that optimism may fade quickly.

After making some initial discoveries in the garden at the ranch, decided it might be a good time over the weekend to see what other vegetables might be ready. More zucchini of course in addition to the cukes and new potatoes. One variety of snap peas rallied to produce one more picking in spite of all the heat they’d been through. They were small but still very sweet none the less. Somewhat surprisingly, the sweet corn appeared ready. It had tasseled and silked less than two weeks ago. Checked a couple ears and sure enough, nice long ears filled to the tips with plump kernels begging to be gnawed on. The sheep always like this time of year. They get the husks and silks as well as the cobs once we’re done with them. The green and yellow string beans have started to set some pods so it won’t be long and they’ll be ready. The tomatoes are coming but if this year is like most, late August and September is tomato time. Lots of fruit set and the plants are healthy as a horse. 

The garden flowers are also getting geared up for the hummingbird migration. The four o’clocks are just starting to flower and the red salvia has really come on after a little watering as have the impatiens. The morning glories are climbing the pole and the hummers were seen checking out the tiger lilies one last time before they lose all their petals. The hummers like their nectar feeders to be sure however they like the real McCoy once in awhile too. We continue to host the oriole families and it is gratifying to still see the male orchard oriole occasionally. Seeing him makes me feel that all is right with the world even though the news may sometimes attempt to make one believe otherwise.

Made some time after chores last week to go see the Beach Boys concert in Albert Lea. Somehow over the years I managed to miss them at State Fair and other venues. Decided I’d probably better go see what’s left of them anyway or they’d all be dead. Oh sure, I’ve seen all kinds of “geezer bands” at the Freeborn Co. Fair such as America, BTO, and Three Dog Night, but few where one knew the words to most of the songs. In my younger days as part of a band we actually performed some of their tunes. My appreciation of their intertwined flowing harmonies is great so my attendance was a given. They performed all their wonderful oldies but they had me right away when they stopped to joke about taking an intermission along with a nap. My kind of band.

See you next week…real good then.

The funeral service for Neil Frederick Phillips of Hartland, Minnesota will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday, August 12, 2011 at All Saints Catholic Church, New Richland, Minnesota. Father Swami will officiate. Interment will be in Calvary Cemetery, New Richland. Visitation will be from 4-8 p.m. Thursday at Bonnerup Funeral Service, Albert Lea, and one hour prior to the service at the church.

Neil died Saturday, August 6, 2011 in Pennsylvania from a motorcycle accident. He was 60 years old.

Neil was born April 18, 1951 in Albert Lea, Minnesota to Fred and Marilyn (Sondergard) Phillips. He was a lifetime Hartland area resident. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Southern School of Agriculture, Waseca, in 1969. He then continued his education, graduating from Mankato Technical College.

A Hartland man died Saturday afternoon when his motorcycle crashed after he was hit in the head and upper body by a wild turkey flying across the roadway. 

Neil F. Phillips, 60, of Hartland, was killed in the 2:20 p.m. crash on Route 6 in McKean County, Pennsylvania, in the northwestern part of the state, east of Erie. He was wearing a helmet. EMS rushed to the scene but Phillips succumbed to his injuries before he could be transported.

Funeral services for Ronald Christensen of New Richland, MN, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, August 5, 2011 at the Community Lutheran Church in Geneva, MN. Pastor Carrie McElfresh will officiate. Visitation will be held Thursday evening from 4:30 until 7:30 p.m. at the Bonnerup Funeral Service in Ellendale, MN, and one hour prior to the service at the church. Interment will be in the Geneva Cemetery. Military honors will be accorded by the Ellendale Veterans Group.

Ronald died Monday evening surrounded by his family, August 1, 2011 at the St Cloud Hospital in St Cloud, MN. He was 78 years of age. He was born April 7, 1933 in Albert Lea, MN the son of Hans and Carol Christensen.

Ronald graduated from Ellendale-Geneva High School in 1951 and the University of Minnesota. He was united in marriage to Joanne Vangen on June 13, 1954 at the First Lutheran Church in Ellendale, MN. He worked in Albert Lea at Queens/Almco in engineering for six years.

Donald J. Hartwig, 89, of Owatonna, died Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at his home. 

Donald John Hartwig was born August 27, 1921 in Owatonna, Minnesota the son of John and Rose (Schwartz) Hartwig. Don graduated from Owatonna High School class of 1939.  He then worked with his father in the Recorders Office and later entered the United States Army on October 12, 1942 serving during WWII.  He received his honorable discharge in February 1946 and was awarded the American Theatre Service medal and the Asiatic-Pacific Theatre Service medal.  He returned to the recorders office.  He was united in marriage to Marion Dunker on March 25, 1947 at First St. John's Church in Owatonna.  In 1958, Don was elected as Register of Deeds and assumed the office in 1959 serving as register of deeds and register of titles until being promoted to Steele County Recorder until his retirement in 1987.