Category Archives: History

2024, History, home, Kids, Uncategorized

Good Friends

19 Comments

When we moved to our neighborhood in 1988, it felt as though we had moved to and outpost of the Czech Republic. The Karskys, the Knopiks, the Kovash family, and the Dvoraks all lived next door or across the street. They were all somehow related to one another. Mrs. Karsky described us as “a nice young couple with a young son” to the other neighbors, information she had got from our real estate agent. Everyone was excited when we moved in, as most of the people on the block were older and/or retired. There were no children on the block.

36 years later, we are the older people on the block happy to see new and younger faces in the neighborhood. Only the Knopiks remain as the Czech contingent. There are lots of young children, especially on our side of the street. A couple of houses south of us lives a hard working family from Zimbabwe. They have a teenager who walks back and forth past our house most days during the school year to get to the Catholic High School, as well as several younger daughters and a young son who are friends with the Hispanic family on the corner. The other day I was driving past those houses when I saw the three Hispanic little girls, their brother, and all the Zimbabwe children sitting in a row on the curb. They had exhausted themselves in the enormous jumper house that the Hispanic dad had inflated for them all to bounce around in.

We share surplus garden vegetables with the neighbors, and everyone gets along. It is so nice to see the neighborhood continue to be a haven for young families and for the more mature, longer term residents.

What was your neighborhood like to grow up in? Any “bad apples” or nice grandparent-types as neighbors? Who were your best childhood friends?

History, Media, Movies, Mysteries, TV, Uncategorized

How the West Wasn’t Won

43 Comments

One of my friends, Jennifer, occasionally writes fan-fic.  I had never heard of fan-fic before she started writing it.  It’s just what it sounds like – “fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, movie, etc.”   There is actually an incredibly large fan-fic community – websites, writing groups, conventions and even awards. 

Most fan-fic writers focus on just one or two particular shows/movies.  Jennifer, who is a great reader of history and fantasy, writes from Lancer, a western that ran for two seasons in the late 60s.  She doesn’t have an answer as to why she chose Lancer – she says she can’t really remember what initially sparked her interest.

The “maybe I should watch the show that my friend has written for all these years” bug got into my brain.  We haven’t talked about Lancer for a few years and for some reason, my brain got Lancer mixed up with High Chapparal, another western from the same time period.  When I asked her if she had a DVD or video of High Chapparal, I was surprised when she said no.  But I didn’t ask and ended up finding the High Chapparal DVDs through interlibrary loan.  

As I was watching the very first episode, I texted her with some snarky comment about the wife/mother not lasting the first season and the following conversation was when we realized I was barking up the wrong western tree.  She laughed and said now she knew why I was asking about High Chaparral and I laughed now that I knew why she didn’t have a DVD or video of it!

I didn’t make it past Episode 4.  It was too stark and violent to my taste; I’m sure the makers were trying to make it “realistic” but I didn’t care for it at all.  And (SPOILER ALERT) the wife/mother didn’t even make it to the end of the first episode!   And Lancer didn’t do it for me either – a bit too much late 60s attitude applied to the 1870s.  After three episodes I decided that it wouldn’t damage my friendship with Jennifer if I didn’t watch another.  At least I now know enough about the background and the characters that if she ever asks me to read any of her fan-fic, I will have some clue to start with!

Are there any western tv shows or movies that you like?

2024, Family, History, Music, Uncategorized

Senior Romance

27 Comments

Husband and I were contemplating the possibility that we would have a bumper crop of eggplants, and sat down together in the living room to search the New York Times Food app and other on-line sites for eggplant recipes in the event our fears came true. Husband commented that it was such a nice thing to be able to sit down with one’s partner of many years and do something as simple and as satisfying as hunt for recipes, and that this was a wonderful example of senior romance. He then told me that he ran across a You Tube video of a song by Holly Williams, and that it reminded him of my parents. He played the video for me. It was quite sweet. She wrote it about her grandparents.

This brought to mind the Nanci Griffith number that I have always loved:

Both my sets of grandparents were married for more than 50 years, and were pretty devoted, but also pretty crabby with each other at times. I remember taking care of my paternal grandfather while my grandmother was having gall bladder surgery, I was about 17, and he needed care as he had a stroke and was paralyzed on his left side and had his left leg amputated due to diabetes. He was always pretty stoic, but told me out of the blue while I was helping him get his prosthesis on that “She’s a pretty good grandma, you know”, which was his way of telling me that he was worried about her and he wanted her to come home.

Who are the most devoted older couples you know? Other examples of sweet senior romance in songs or stories?

2024, animals, Fantasy, gardening, History, Kids, Seasons, Uncategorized

Viking Daze

39 Comments

After all the days of rain, YA and I couldn’t wait to get out into the yard and get dirty.  I decided that it had been too long since I cleaned up the edges of the yard and boulevard along our front sidewalk.  This is a two-part job.  First I run my edger along where I think the sidewalk should be ending.  Second I sit on the sidewalk and pull up the bits that are overgrown. 

So there I was sitting on the sidewalk when a neighbor from up the street, along with her son, stopped to chat.  Since they had their dog, who is on the small size, I stayed on the sidewalk to pet the dog while we talked.  Blake (son) and I talked about llama day, which had happened at the library the week before.  Blake had been to the farm where the llamas come from and knew one of the llamas that was at the library. 

We also talked about school finally being over for the summer and I asked him if he had any plans.  He’s 10 so his short “just camps” answer didn’t surprise me; I followed up with “what kind of camps this year”.   He mentioned a science camp and a viking camp.  I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know all the kinds of camps there are, but a viking camp seemed different.  I asked if it was a football camp or some kind of history camp.  He laughed and said “BIKING”.  If I’d had any liquid, I probably would have snorted it up on the spot.

When I was a kid you just hung around the neighborhood for the summer and bothered your mother.  Maybe if you knew someone who knew someone you might end up at a vacation bible study camp for a few days.  If kids were doing organized anything, I never knew about it.  So even though Blake will be biking for one of his camps this summer, I love the thought of viking camp.  Not even remotely sure what we would do at viking camp, but I’m positive I would love the outfits!

How did you spend your summers as a kid?  Any camp you WISH you could have gone to?

2024, animals, Farming Update, History, home, Nature, Uncategorized, work

Quackers

24 Comments

Today’s Farming Update comes from Ben

Sometimes, the day doesn’t go as planned, does it.

Our power went off Monday morning at about 6:30AM. I was leaving to take the rented post hole digger back when I met a truck from the power company on the other side of a down tree over the road. That guy cut up the tree while I went back home for the tractor, and I pushed the tree off the road. He and I talked about how to check the electric line. (Our house is the only house on the mile long electric line from the North road to the South road, and it’s through the pasture and across a creek, and up a steep hill). They found a tree down on the steep hill that took out the line, but they were able to get to a flat spot and cut the line and isolate it so they could feed us from the North end. One of the guys commented that this must be an old line from the first few years of the electric co-ops. (The Rural Electrification Administration, REA, was started by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935) My dad would talk about using horses to pull the electric lines and poles through the pasture in about 1940, and how they laid there until WWII was over.

Getting to the North end was a little more difficult for the guys. It was muddy, and still raining, and the first truck got stuck, and they had to get a ‘track style’ bucket truck in to make the connection and pull the first truck back out. Meanwhile, I got the generator out—hadn’t used that in 10 years, so it was a good time to make sure it still worked. As I was pumping up the tires with a cordless air pump, the power came back on. Of course. But I ran it for an hour anyway. Still works! It was 1:30PM. I teased the electric guys –they didn’t know what they were getting into when they stopped at that downed tree at 7AM.

I got my post holes all dug. Surprisingly, only hit rock in 3 of the 12 holes. Then down to the pole barn and dug some holes there to add support posts to three posts that are nearly rotted off at the ground. It has
rained most of the week. I haven’t got much done on the fence because I need to pack the dirt back around the posts, and it doesn’t pack when it’s mud or clay. My summer padawan has helped pull the first wire and tear out the old fence. Maybe next week, when it’s not raining so much, we’ll get back to installation.


We’ve gotten enough rain, for now, almost 6” for June, not counting whatever we get Friday evening here. Growing Degree Units are just over 1000, about 180 above normal. The crops mostly look pretty good.
The oats have some color change on the different soils, the corn is almost canopied, and the soybeans are coming along. There are some wet spots in some fields, but thankfully, that lake isn’t in my field.

Got the 4-wheeler running with the new carburetor.


Ducklings arrived Friday morning.


WOULD YOU RATHER GO WITHOUT RUNNING WATER OR ELECTRICITY?

2024, History, News, Uncategorized

Restoration

30 Comments

I read a lovely article in the Rock County Star Herald this week about Jim Brandenburg, the nature photographer who grew up in Luverne. Jim wanted to give something back to the community, as he has felt so supported by people there.

Luverne was one of the communities featured in the Ken Burns Documentary The War. Jim found an American jeep in a barn in France near Omaha Beach that had been driven during the D-Day invasion. The Jeep had been stored in a shed and hadn’t been used for 72 years, Jim sponsored the restoration of the jeep, costing about $100,000, in time for it to be driven on Omaha Beach for the 80th anniversary of D-Day invasion. Relatives of two local men who served in the war and who were featured in the documentary were there and drove the restored jeep through the streets of Normandy. The jeep, named Willy, will arrive in Luverne in September. I don’t know where they will display it. There is a military museum in Luverne at the courthouse, so perhaps there is room for it there. Here is a photo of Willy.

I guess that in France, the restoration of WWII memorabilia is quite a popular pastime. I know that people in Luverne are so excited about this jeep. What a wonderful gift to the community!

Ever restored anything? What would you like to restore if you could?

2024, books, Fantasy, History, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Hausgeist

35 Comments

Husband was at the local college library the other day and saw a book that he thought I would like. He checked out Hausgeister! Household Spirits of German Folklore, and it has been quite a fun read. The book details the various spirits that inhabit German folklore, and outlines the origins and changes in attitudes regarding these characters over the years. Most Germans believed that their homes, particularly farm homes, were inhabited by these creatures, and that the world around them was as well. It was easy to believe in them in the times when houses were poorly lit and were heated with fireplaces. All you needed to be mindful of was making sure you fed them what they liked to eat.

Most of the myths were about kobolds, male household gnomes who helped out with the housework and farm chores. Wichtel were spirits who lived in communities below mountains. They were also helpful. Draks were small fire dragons that could be either good or evil. They entered the house through the chimney. Holzfraulein were female spirits of the forest. Geldmannlein brought people money and looked like weeds.

The Brothers Grimm wrote extensively about these creatures in addition to writing their fairy tales. Tomte and Nisse are their Scandinavian counter parts. I think there is a Finnish character called Sit Behind the Stove. I think we have a kobold in our dining room who rolls the dog’s balls out from underneath the buffet. Something manages to do it. The ball rolls under, and a few seconds later rolls back out. A kobold is more fun to imagine than uneven flooring.

What hausgeist would you want to have? Favorite fairy tales?

2024, Food, History, holidays, Uncategorized

Never Down on my Chips

34 Comments

I may have mentioned that I have a Sandra Boynton-illustrated calendar that lists many very unusual holidays throughout the year. 

You’ll be happy to know that today is Chocolate Chip Day.  (Not chocolate chip cookie day, which is in August).  I haven’t looked too hard so I’m not sure WHY there is a chocolate chip day.  1937 was the birth of the chocolate chip – you’ve probably heard the story – when Ruth Wakefield chopped up a Nestle chocolate bar and added the bits to her cookie recipe.  A couple of years later, she signed a contract with Nestle which is why her recipe is still on the back of the chocolate chip package to this day.  She received a lifetime supply of chocolate.  Personally I hope she also got a boatload of cash.

I’m thinking pancakes sprinkled with chocolate chips (I have milk chocolate and white chocolate on hand)  for breakfast but haven’t decided how else to incorporate them into my day.

Any chocolate chip ideas?

2024, Food, History, Travel, Uncategorized

Food and Friendship

28 Comments

We are in Boston until Sunday, and are having a lovely time. I feel pretty spoiled to be on both US coasts in less than a month to sample great seafood in both places. The only thing better would be to eat homemade pasta in Bologna, Italy.

We had a wonderful encounter with the cab driver who drove us to the hotel from the airport on Wednesday. He was an East Indian man in his 30’s who has lived in the US for 14 years. He loved telling about the city and things we were driving past. He also was a great fund of information about good restaurants to try. Husband mentioned that I had made a good biryani recently, and I chimed in that I had made twenty chapati and almost all of them puffed up like footballs when I fried them. Our driver got really excited hearing that, and that we appreciated good Indian food, and he invited us to his Sikh religious community gathering on Sunday evening to try the food there. Were we not leaving early Sunday, we would probably have taken him up on his offer.

One story our driver told us was about the banning of Happy Hour in Massachusetts in 1984. Too many people were drinking and driving after work, resulting in several fatal accidents. The law is still on the books despite challenges from the hospitality industry. There are pretty strict rules about the size of individual drinks served between 5:00 and 7:00 pm, and how many people need to be at table per pitcher of beer during those times. It is not a problem for us, as I don’t think either of us have been to a Happy Hour in decades. Opponents of the law say it just reinforces the Puritanical stereotype of the State’s residents. The people we have met thus far have been helpful and friendly in the extreme, and not Puritanical at all.

Who have been interesting people you have met on your travels? What are your favorite foods you would like to eat in the places they originated? Do you still attend Happy Hour?

2024, animals, Food, History, Travel, Uncategorized

Where In The World Are Renee And Chris Heading?

32 Comments

Greetings from somewhere that I hope is not North Dakota. Despite all of us, including the dog, being under the weather, we got the dog to the boarding kennel yesterday and managed to get ourselves and our bad colds to Bismarck last night. If everything works out, we will be in the air winging our way to a somewhat far off destination when this posts.

I have to attend the world’s most boring psychology conference again, (all about licensure and professional regulation) and Husband tagged along to take in the sights.

We will be in the home town of an actor noted for the portrayal of an iconic alien. The first chocolate factory in this country was here, as was the first subway. A city park is famous for its role in a beloved children’s book about ducks, and the city is noted for its legumes. The header photo is a clue regarding the main ingredient of a famous confection named after a nearby suburb.

This should give you all some research to do.

Have you ever had to travel when you were ill? Who are your favorite Sci-Fi alien characters? Chocolate?