Category Archives: History

2026, Family, Government, History, Travel, Uncategorized

Lawrence In France

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The State of North Dakota gives out the Rough Rider Award annually to native North Dakotans who have been influenced by living there to achieve excellence in their respective fields or endeavors. It is the highest award the State endows.

The plaque is fairly small, with a 3-D bust of Teddy Roosevelt in the center. The recipients are given honorary rank of Colonal in the Theodore Roosevelt ND Rough Riders. They also gets their portraits painted and hung in the capitol building. Past recipients include Louise Erdrich, Bobby Vee, Peggy Lee, Louis L’ Amour, Roger Maris, and Eric Severeid.

The first recipient of the award was Lawrence Welk in 1961. I should remind Baboons that Lawrence Welk is a particular interest of mine since my paternal grandfather’s first cousin married Lawrence Welk’s daughter, Shirley.

Imagine the consternation in ND last week when it was reported that a ND couple traveling in Brittany, France went into a thrift store there and found Lawrence Welk’s Rough Rider Award Plaque. The woman in the couple stated she saw this 3-D silver image of Teddy Roosevelt on the plaque, and was astounded to see the inscription regarding Lawrence Welk below it. How on earth could this happen?

Why in France? Did Lawrence travel much in France in the 1960’s and 1970’s? Were the Welk’s so hard up after he died they sold all his memorabilia? Did the woman and her husband somehow get the plaque and bring it to France and claim they found it, thus to increase its value? It is a mystery. I hope we can find out what really happened.

What mysteries would you like solved? What award would you like to receive?What would you like your relatives to do with your things after you are gone?

2026, Gatherings, History, Uncategorized

Reunion

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Last weekend we attended my 50th high-school reunion. Boommate and I were in the same class. There were two parties-one on Friday night at a local brew pub, and a catered dinner on Saturday night. The Saturday night party was held at The Lake, a small spring fed pond that has been converted into a picnic and camping area with indoor spaces for dining.

The Friday night party was held out of doors at the brew pub. Our class had tables reserved, but it was open to anyone in the community to come and hear the live band, get a beer, and eat at the Polish food truck that had pulled up. Much of the evening was spent trying to figure out who was who. The women were easier to identify than the men since male hair loss and beard growth really changed the men’s appearances. I could hear frequent exclamations of “That’s _______? You’re kidding!”

The Saturday night gathering was fun. Husband noted that not a single person smoked, even though much of the time was spent out of doors. The main organizer had displays of our class pictures from elementary through high school. We were the largest class to graduate from Luverne High School, with around 110 students.

I had only attended our 10 year reunion prior to this one. Some had been to every reunion in the past. For some, this was the first. It was interesting to hear people confess how anxious they were prior to the Friday night party, wondering if people had changed, worrying that the same cliques would be evident. I admit that I was somewhat uneasy to begin with, as was my friend Mary, who has an M.Div degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and another female friend who was a community organizer and mediator in North Carolina, and who has worked for years to get minority individuals registered to vote. The early lessons are the hardest to unlearn, I guess, no matter what you experience later on. I am happy to report that the cliques had disappeared, Everyone was happy and friendly and incusive. Phone numbers and Facebook addresses were exchanged. As one classmate commented “I think we finally grew up”. After 50 years I should certainly hope so.

Have you attended any class reunions? Why or why not? Are you in touch with high school friends?

2026, books, education, History, Movies, Mysteries

Rebel with a Clause

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A couple of weeks back, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go see the world-premiere of Rebel with a Clause at the Main Cinema downtown.  I’d never heard of this but my friend is a writer, super funny and super curious and super intelligent so without so much as even “bing-ing” it, I bought ticket online and that Sunday, off we went. 

Explaining it doesn’t even begin to do it justice, so here is the trailer:

It was SO funny, mostly because the idea of her quest is funny and a lot of the folks in the clips were hilarious but also because the audience was also hysterical.  The movie is split up into chapters.  For example, The Comma was a bunch of clips about comma questions.  In fact, when “Commas” came up on the screen, there was a huge reaction/laugh/groan from the audience.  Clearly grammar and usage hit a spot for many people and the audience obviously knew what those hot spots are!  This happened several times.

I have never been what you would call a stickler for grammar but for most of my adult life I’ve lamented about the sad state of English.  Even having studied Shakespeare and Chaucer and knowing that English has evolved, I stood my ground.  And then I had one of those life-changing reads.  The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson (what a great title too).  He was so effective in mapping out the path of our language that by the final page, I was completely converted.  The grammar that we were taught in school really is just arbitrary made-up rules and communicating is what’s important, not whether we’re splitting infinitives or not.  (And I’m really hawking his book – interesting and funny.)

This doesn’t mean that I have thrown grammar to the wind.  I still like to speak well and I certainly appreciate it when someone uses the subjunctive correctly.  I also still cringe when people mis-use reflexive pronouns, which seems to be more often than not these days.  But overall, I’m trying to let all that go.

Ellen Jovin clearly comes down on the side of not holding people’s feet to the fire over their use of grammar even though she really knows her topic.  (This is not a spoiler alert by the way.)  Turns out that in addition to setting up her Grammar Table, eventually, in all 50 states, she also wrote a book about the experience.  I have it on hold at the library. 

So…. (VS acknowledges she is using the ellipses incorrectly) I’m highly recommending both Mother Tongue and Rebel with a Clause.  And, if you’re here in the Twin Cities, the movie will be showing again at The Main Cinema on September 21 and September 24.  Highly recommended!!

Do you remember learning grammar in school?  Any grammar rule/s that you feel warmly about? 

2026, books, Family, History, holidays, Uncategorized

You Call This A LIbrary?

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This week we have encountered two external references to our former region of ND. At church on Sunday we spoke to some fellow parishioners who had just returned from a cattle buying trip to Montana. They stopped in Medora, ND on the way there. Medora is about 40 miles east of where we used to live. It is a small town of about 120 people adjacent to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and home to the newly opened Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. Daughter’s best friend’s dad owns a ranch there, and she spent a lot of time there as a kid. It is also home to the Medora Musical, an outdoor theatre that has a cast of singers and dancers all summer for shows every night. The various attractions of the place have been promoted by a foundation started by Harold Shaefer, the manufacturer of Mister Bubble.

Our church friends were quite disappointed by the library, due to the pushy crowds and the fact that they saw no books in the library. We thought that perhaps all the books were digitized, but had no other explanation.

The other Medora connection was an article by Rachel Monroe in the August 17 edition of The New Yorker describing what is was like to be there during our current president’s visit on July 4th. It was, of course, a disaster. The musical had to be cancelled because the tech crew couldn’t got the stage ready in time to support heavy protective barriers for presidential security. She had much better experiences at the Mandan Rodeo and the 250th Celebration at the Sisseton Wahpeton pow wow. I encourage you to read the article if you can.

I know there is a special Teddy Roosevelt department at the university in our former town. Maybe they have some books. Who knows?

Ever been to a Rodeo, a pow wow, or a presidential library? What sort of books might Teddy have had?

2026, animals, Family, Food, History, home, Kids, Uncategorized

Time With Oma And Opa

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Our grandson is spending a few days with us this week while his daycare is closed. We plan to take him swimming and to the local library. I also plan to bake with him and we will make Franzbrotchen, a Hamburg pastry. I want him to learn about where his ancestors came from. He loves to bake and cook and is an excellent sous chef. We will have Pasta Carbonara, one of his favorites. We also will enlist his help with some gardening. He loves to grow things. We are Oma and Opa, to distinguish us from his Grandma and Grandpa on his mom’s side of the family.

I spent time with both sets of grandparents in the summer. My father’s parents lived on a farm outside of Magnolia, MN. That grandma was a great lover of cats and had a regiment of them. She loved to feed them buttered sweetcorn cobs after we were done eating the corn kernals. I would help her collect eggs and work in the garden. The hens pecking at my arms as I took their eggs were scary. I liked talking to the cows and pigs. My grandfather was partially paralyzed from a stroke. He had a wonderful library of history books, and we would talk about his recent read and the history discussed in the book. He really liked talking about Napoleon, someone who had such an impact on his family in northwest Germany.

My maternal grandparents lived on a farm close to Hatfield, MN, a small town with a notorious dance hall, near Pipestone. That grandma (who we called Omie) and I would bake sweet rolls and cook wonderful suppers together. She was a great story teller and related lots of reminiscences from her childhood in Hamburg, Germany and her teen years in New York City. Grandpa was a really quiet guy who kept busy helping my uncle on the farm. His English was somewhat limited and we didn’t talk all that much. He was kindly and gentle.

I hope our grandson has positive memories of his time with us. We have books, a garden, fancy food, terriers, cats, a library, and a really nice swimming pool. What more does a kid need?

Who were your most memorable older relatives? What did you learn from them?

2026, books, History, Uncategorized

The Boys

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Ever since Luverne was included as one of the four US communities featured in Ken Burns’ The War, townsfolk have been intent on highlighting veterans and their stories.

It was with great excitement that we heard about the heroism of yet another local veteran. Writer Nina Willner recently published a book called The Boys In The Light, the story of how her teenaged father and a teenaged companion were saved by a Luverne local after they had escaped from a Nazi death camp.

Elmer Hovland was a 23 year old Luverne native and a commander of a tank unit. They were rolling through northern Germany in 1944 with instructions to stop for nothing and no one, when Elmer spotted the two emaciated teens along the side of the road. Despite orders, Elmer immediately stopped the tanks and picked them up and took them along. He discovered that Nina Willner’s dad, Eddie, spoke English as well as German. He convinced his superiors that Eddie would make a great translator, and he was put to work doing just that. Both Elmer and Eddie survived the war. Elmer returned to his immigrant Norwegian parents’ farm near Luverne. He became a carpenter. Eddie eventually immigrated to the US and built a successful life.

The two men didn’t meet again until decades later. Nina Willner attributed Elmer’s actions to his Norwegian heritage and the values that were important to people from Luverne. I vaguely remember Elmer since he attended the same Lutheran church as I did. He died in 2012 at the age of 90. Very few people in Luverne knew anything about this story until the book was published late last year. It is next on my reading list.

Any notable people from your town? Any books written about your community or residents?

2026, Food, History, Mysteries, TV, Uncategorized

Let’s Cook?

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I blame Survivor.

It came out in 2000 on CBS and for reasons that I don’t understand, although it’s been 26 years, there have been 51 seasons.  I never watched it; it just didn’t pique my interest.  There was some reality tv prior to that, but I think of Survivor as the true onset of what is still just a bleak landscape to me. 

Technically I had watched reality tv for years – all in the form of cooking shows.  After Survivor, slowly competitive cooking shows began to make an appearance. Not like any competition of the past in which a few folks cooked and there was one winner.  That was it.  No throwing someone off, week after week until just one is left standing.  I hate this.  Truly hate this.  If I see any of the following words in a cooking show title, I’m not watching – bake-off, cook-off, battle, class, contender, wars.  There are probably others but this is what I can think of off the top of my head.  I did make an exception awhile back; so many folks assured me that The Great British Bake Off was “different” that I watched a couple of episodes (the season with Nadiya Hussain).  It wasn’t different enough for me.  The whole “throwing one person off” is just too brutal for me. 

What this means is that I don’t watch much Food Network or Cooking Channel these days – almost everything seems to be some sort of competition.  Throwing someone off still seems to be all the rage.  What’s left?  Shows like Carnival Eats, Pioneer Woman, Girl Meets Farm and a small handful of “how is it made” types of shows like Food Factory and “where should I eat” shows like Cheap Eats. 

I was kind of hoping that there would be a swing away from these competitive shows after two+ decades, but it doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon.  I’d even watch Julia Child’s French Chef if I could find it!

Do you watch any cooking shows?  (It’s ok if you like The Great British Bake-Off – I know I’m in the minority).  Do you ever try out anything you see?

2026, animals, History, home, pets, Stories, Uncategorized

All Fluffed Up

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Today we brought our pups to Brandon. SD to be groomed. Our Cesky Terriers have a very specific hair cut, leaving them with a shaved back, tail, head, and ears, with a fluffy beard, eyebrows, chest, and ballerina skirt on their front and sides

Their longer fur is very curly and prone to matting. Last night I noticed lots of mats on Mitzi’s legs, so I grabbed my bottle of corn starch and the grooming comb I got from the breeder. The cornstarch really helps with detangling. I was able to get most of the mats out, so I hope today’s grooming won’t be so traumatic for her. She was so good and patient during my combing. The only problem with squirting the dog with cornstarch is that you can’t let them get wet afterwards.

My first haircuts were by Kay Aanenson, a rather flamboyantly gay barber on Luverne’s main street. I don’t remember this, but I was told that I cried the whole time, and Kay just stuffed chewing gum in my mouth to keep me quiet. Kay was a noted dancer of the Charleston, worked as a dancer on Atlantic cruise ships in the 1920’s and 1930’s, and wore very gaudy, colorful suits to our Lutheran church. He came to church every Sunday until he passed. I remember those suits.

I really need to brush out our dogs on a more regular basis. Mitzi loves to plunge in the water feature in our backyard, and I think that leads to more matting. I need to invest in more cornstarch.

Where was your first haircut? Have you had dogs who needed grooming? What is your favorite production of Anything Goes?

2026, Art, Family, History, Kids, Nature, Uncategorized

Small World

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On Saturday, Husband, I, and Boommate met up with our son and his family for a Father’s Day hike at the Pipestone National Monument, aka The Pipestone Indian Shrine. (I don’t think 47 would like to see that name.) It is almost equidistant from both Luverne and Aurora, SD, where son and family live. Here are some park photos.

My mother’s family is from Pipestone. My Uncle Harvey’s old farm abuts the park. It is an odd place, consisting of a quartzite quarry surrounded by prairie with a creek. For hundreds of years, native tribes would come from all over the contnent and get rock for ceremonial pipes. It is a holy place, and there were many cloth prayer bundles tied up in the tree branches. There continue to be native carvers at the visitor center who make pipes. Husband’s is in the header photo. We bought it several years ago. Boommate made the case it rests on. We keep it in its case, as our native friends say it is disrespectful to display it.

On our hike through the park we ran into a graduate school friend of DIL who heads a program at SDSU for disadvantaged students to help them transition to university. The students were with him. He and DIL hadn’t seen each other for some time, and it was nice for them to meet up.

We have a Hidatsa Indian friend from the ND Fort Berthold Reserve who attended the Pipestone Indian School. It closed many years ago. He also worked briefly at the park visitor center as a pipe carver. All the staff at the visitor center are native, and Husband took a chance and asked the older woman at the checkout if she knew our friend, Leo. Well, of course she did, and knew his wife’s name and the name of the band he played bass guitar and drums in. She was so delighted she gave us a bunch of free bumper stickers!

It is a small world, and it was fun to feel connected in so many diverse ways.

When have you felt the world is small? Ever been to Pipestone?

2026, animals, Business, Family, Food, History, Mysteries, Travel

Where in the World Are VS & YA?

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It’s been a few years since YA and I traveled together.  This is a four-day weekend trip that we’ve talked about for a few years now.  Here are some interesting facts about our location:

  • Nearly half the residents of the US live near here
  • The gate to hell is hiding underneath North Street
  • Part of the Berlin Wall can be found here
  • Woody Harrelson was arrested in this city in 1982 before hitting it big in Hollywood
  • The Anthony Thomas Company makes 50,000 pounds of chocolate here daily, including their famous candy named after a state tree
  • The NFL was headquartered here from 1927 until 1938
  • Jack Hanna is Director Emeritus to one of the largest attractions of its kind in North America here.

Where in the world are we?  (Bonus points if you can say WHY we’re here!)