The Graduate

This week Stan's nephew, Adam Jerdee, got his Associate Degree in Business Information Systems. His employer, Wells Fargo, paid his tuition. He did most of the classwork on line through his local Des Moines technical school. The school had recently created this degree in computers so Adam is one of their first graduates. This he did with honors (top in his class) and thus wore a gold stole, braids, and tassel to the ceremony, with a proud wife and parents looking on. Congratulations, Addie.

In other Des Moines news, Stan's sister and brother-in-law, Rebecca and Al Jerdee, have officially returned from Florida for the summer. These snowbirds have much better timing than Stan and Kathleen.

Hunter Underwood played a baseball game and enjoyed an overnight with his Grandma and Grandpa Jerdee.

Today Becky and Al are dressing in Ante-Bellum attire to attend a Kentucky Derby party with some Des Moines friends. They'll bet on horses, sip on mint juleps and buffet it up.

You be careful out there. They make those drinks with bourbon, you know.

Still an excellent driver

We always knew Mom was a better driver than Dad. Maybe because she drove a lot faster than ol' Double Nickels did when piloting the family Edsel. Maybe it was because Mom told us that she was the better driver. Whatever the reason, today we have confirmation from Mom's Clearwater Suites companion, Michelle, that Mom's fine skills are not being wasted, even though she sold the Olds.

Here's our dear, trusty Michelle's report:

Hello,
Thanks for all the emails. We are looking forward to seeing Linda this Sunday and Monday. Today we made our way to the grocery store in the wild wind and picked out our necessities. (Ensure and candy). First time in a long while. Bev got to drive the electric cart and did a fantastic job of not hitting anything or anyone. We had so much fun. She is a great driver still. Had to watch my feet though. =) Great way to spend an hour on a windy day!
Have a wonderful weekend,

MOM and Michelle.

We do so appreciate Mom's lovely companion and helper. And her sense of humor is wonderful. Mom will be 88 on May 23. Please send her a greeting -- Beverly Rolfsrud's email address: brolf@rea-alp.com

Michelle will download it and they'll enjoy reading your note together. Mom will really love to hear from you.

New career as Lunch Yenta?

Linda Rolfsrud Letnes and Bev Roers Korkowski introduced themselves today at the Coon Rapids Green Mill. All accounts of the inauguration of this exciting new North Suburban chapter of the Ladies Who Lunch were most positive, including Linda's review of the venue and salad. Stan's retired sister moved to Blaine from Colorado a year ago. Bev is Stan's high school classmate, a "Rolfsruds & Friends" fan, and just happens to live a few miles from Linda. Both grew up in rural Alexandria. Bev thought it might be fun to meet Linda, and Linda wants to establish friendships in her new community. The match was made.

Bev writes:
Well, the "Ladies Who Lunch" Group #2, officially kicked off today at the Green Mill in Coon Rapids! Linda and I had a great time; we actually were the last people in the restaurant after eating and talking for a couple of hours. The waitress was very patient with us and was happy to take some snapshots for us. It was almost as if we've known each other for a long time. Our next activity, within the next two weeks, is walking the trails over near Linda's house.

Linda writes:
I had such a fun time, we started talking before we even introduced ourselves! I am delighted to find a walking partner and both of us are partial to shopping in Coon Rapids. The timing was perfect. I had been thinking that it was time for me to find someone to walk with. And then Bev popped up!So thank you to both of you. Looking forward to our next meet-up!
Linda

(Personal note to Bev: If my dear sister was a touch grouchy today, please forgive. She normally is a very positive, upbeat person. It is just that this Minnesota winter and "no show" spring has ground her down a titch. So thanks for anything you can do. This is my first experience as lunch yenta and I do so hope all will go well.)

Dateline: Stanley, North Dakota

Fox Business News Reports on Bakken Shale
The oil boom which threatens to make our North Dakota relatives rich was the subject of a series of Fox Business News Reports from Stanley, North Dakota, last week.

(You can see the complete reports on the Bakken Shale strike in western North Dakota by clicking on the Bakken Shale blog link, below left.)

With oil at over $100 a barrel, it is now practical to capture crude from the huge reservoir buried two miles below all those Norwegian farmers.
The North Dakota oil is locked in shale and has to be teased out. This is expensive, but oil companies are now merrily digging like prairie dogs. Any time oil sells for over $50 a barrel, drilling is worthwhile in North Dakota, experts say. See how the drilling is done in the Fox reports.
A big advantage to drilling here is that the local population appears quite friendly and passive, so it is unlikely the government would have to subsidize the oil companies by sending planes, troops and bribes to protect their operations.

A Master of the Persuasive Arts

My foster mother was the greatest child psychologist I have ever known. She never had any children. Neither have I. But our lives have been filled with the love and responsibility of many who were conceived by others. And we do know something about raising them.

Ruby wasn't actually my foster mother. But my birth mother and father made more kids than they could conveniently manage, so from time to time they would farm some of us out for extended periods. Thus Stan spent a number of summers under the care of Ruby and Al Korkowski on their 160-acre farm north of Lake Chippewa near Brandon. It was a glorious time.

Around 1951, when I was about to turn four years old, I carefully steered Al's red Farmall around his hayfield in super low gear as he walked alongside, tossing hay bales into the trailer. The Vickermans across the road had a yellow Allis Chalmers. Nice, but certainly no match for a powerful Farmall, Al and Stan smugly agreed. When we parted at the end of the season, Al paid me $1 as hired man wages. I was stunned and immensely proud.

Last week, my classmate Bev Roers Korkowski sent me a picture of that very hayrack with Ruby seated just behind where the horses would be hitched, her nose in a potentially unfortunate location. (Subsequently, the front wheels were removed and the rack modified to trail behind the new tractor.) This bright red rack also served as my jungle gym and teeter-totter.

Born in 1913, Ruby was teaching country school by the time she was eighteen. That was eight grades of children at once. After she married Al, she quit teaching and they worked the farm together. That's when I came into the picture and I have floods of memories of our happy life there.

Ruby never raised her voice, but she always got her way. One afternoon, I did not wish to go down into the chilly farmhouse basement to shower. She asked me kindly, but I used my most wily pre-schooler tactics to avoid taking that uncomfortable journey down the stairs onto the cold floor, stubbornly preferring to remain dirty.

Ruby would have none of that. She looked at me with an absolutely straight face and said, quite matter-of-factly, "Well, if you don't wish to go by yourself, I will take a shower with you."

Horrified at the thought of being seen naked by a naked lady, I soon found a towel and took my modest little self down the stairs for a scrub.

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Top photo: That's Ruby with genuine Lutheran Church Ladies. She's the one with the white collar. Her sister, Josephine Elness, is second from the right. She was my sister Sosie's "Mama Jo." The school building in the other photo is District #48 where Ruby once taught.

Photo, left: On our way to the movies at the Andria Theatre in Alex on Saturday night, we'd all sing the Albert and Stanley song in honor of Stan and Al.

"I'm Albert, I'm Stanley!
We love to bring you cheer,
By painting signs that remind you of
Grain Belt Premium Beer."

Albert and Stanley were cartoon characters for St. Paul's Grain Belt Brewery. Not sure if my abstaining parents would know anything about that... or even approve of the song, so I guess we were being sort of naughty when we sang it.

We saw Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in "Partners." They played cowboys. There was baled hay on the movie set, and as an expert in hay baling, I knew that this was a mistake, because during cowboy times there was no such thing as a modern hay baling machine. Al agreed. Ruby and Al also took me to my first cartoon, "The Lady and The Tramp." I could not understand why the sad, skinny little rat terrier didn't just walk through the bars and escape from the dog pound.

Coming soon: Al explains to Stan why he keeps a bull on the farm, even though you can't milk it.

Three candles and a back scratcher

A birthday present for M'Liss highlighted the April Ladies Who Lunch event at the Richfield Champps today. Kathleen and her childhood chum spent three and a half hours just to "catch up." Would have been longer too, but the birthday girl had to go play racquetball at the Jewish Community Center in Highland Park. The competitive Ms. Switzer, who last year broke a collarbone going after a low shot, usually opens up the place. The ladies also discussed poker happenings (M'liss hasn't been getting any cards lately so her winnings are down) as well as the usual old business, husbands Stan and Chuck.

Kathleen's gift was three candles and a back scratcher. Romantic tub time for the Switzers?

Poppies, turtles, casinos, lacrosse

It was encouraging to see some tiny seedlings breaking through the potting soil in Hai Dang's dining room window this morning. True, there is nothing close to actually growing in the Dang's extensive Prior Lake back yard garden (unless you count Andrew) but it is very nice just to see the baby poppies and try to imagine all the bright colors spread around the whole Dang yard.
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Andrew is getting huge, dwarfing his skinny pop, who is actually pretty tall for an Asian. His mother, Thuy Nguyen, is shorter than Kathleen, so it is a wonder to see big, strong Andrew, presently on the attack line of the Laker lacrosse team, growing up like a weed.

We dropped by after breakfast this morning to collect an antique computer that Hai has loaded with some fun card games. We'll deliver it to Midtown Danny soon.

Dan enjoys playing cards and challenging video poker games at Mystic Lake so we're sure he'll get a kick from the standard Solitaire, Hearts and Minesweeper games that come with Windows software. Yes, you know, the very same games that you and the rest of working America have been playing on the company dime.

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(Speaking of Mystic Lake, Kathleen was recently mailed a special invitation to play Blackjack at the casino, along with a certificate for $5 cash. Fortunately, Stan was able to buy it from her for only $20.)

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Hai keeps an eye on our house when we're in Arizona. We bought him a Mexican garden turtle as a thank you. He has it outdoors, trying to get it acclimated to Minnesota. Not sure how that's going. When he placed the turtle out in the yard last month, it had a short tail. When we looked today, it was gone.

No surprise there, this has been one cold spring.
This, of course, is our all-time favorite photo of Andrew Dang, shot by his Dad during his "welcome back" vacation adventure to the jungles of Vietnam. The dour water buffalo are quite genuine and so is the smile and the shirt.

At times like this...

April 26, 2008

You take your sunshine where you find it.
It has been a month and a half now since we departed Arizona for the springtime delights of Minnesota. A few promising rain showers fell early this week, and quickly turned the grass a verdant green. Our spirits were buoyed by this long-awaited event.

Today we awaken to snow on the ground and promises of below normal temps and clear to partly horseshit.

We're finding things to do inside these days. Went shopping at the Goodwill with Em and found some steak knives for Danny. There's a Halal butcher with beautiful fine grained steaks (no chops) who just opened in the Midtown Market. The tubby, be-aproned Mideasterner, just call him Achmed, earnestly proclaims in his broken English, "I have good meat for you. You will like. If there is a bone in it that is not straight, you call me right up. I take care of you."
It took me a few beats to figure out the guy is just kidding and doing a fine parody of an old-fashioned, fat-thumbed butcher.

I like Achmed. We'll buy some of his steaks and grill 'em up with Danny on the rooftop barbeque. . . if the sun ever shines again.

Photo: Isn't it is nice when the baby carries her own toiletries?

Stan got a new watch today

Kathleen bought Stan another new watch today. It was about $50 on sale at Macy's, the usual investment for her man who breaks and loses things.

Whenever Stan gets a new watch, these two memories return:

The only kid to ever wear a real wrist watch to our country school was Rodney Karrow. He was actually a town kid whose parents moved to their new little rambler in the country and found themselves in a rural school district.
He started in the middle of a term and lasted only one day with us. He had a wrist watch and everyone was very impressed, asking him if it was "real." He patiently assured us that it was and seemed to check it from time to time, even though a big black and white school clock hung in front. He also had butch wax in his hair and wore starchy pressed blue jeans rolled in wide cuffs above his ankles like Opie Taylor. The girls thought he was very cute and quite unlike any of the farm boys.
That night we snooped in on the party line and learned that Rodney had fallen off his stool at home. This upset his mother so much she decided to return him to Washington Elementary until the fall. (Washington was cool. They had an inside gymnasium and that's where we went to get our polio shots.)
He rejoined us country kids in fifth grade, I think, and apparently never fell off a stool again. He became a good friend and ended up as a jeweler in Alexandria.

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My father would hold my hand and pause in front of Hedine Jewelry in Alexandria to look through the window at watches displayed there. He didn't own one. Sometimes he went inside to look closer and ask questions. One year my mother bought him a watch for his birthday. It cost her $50. He cried when he got it.