Another Letter to the Editor

I was pleased to see the photos from the parade in the Anchor last week, especially the entries for the NKHS Class of '62 including the '62 Anniversary Gold Impala holding the four NKHS Homecoming Queens, '58 to '61. Unbeknownst to your staff, the caption missed a great story since it did not identify the queens who were, in the front seat, Gwen Hillman Hanson, '62, and in the back seat Julie Nelson, '62, Serena Shields Holstad, '62, and Betty Ryan Mathews, '62. Not only was our basketball team undefeated, our queens were, too. One of the starters on that basketball team, Larry Holstad, was driving the car. The attached photo taken Thursday evening features the four remaining starters from the 61-62 team reading newspaper clippings about their season. Seated left to right they are Holstad, Chuck Hendrickson, Phil Johnson, and Gerry Pike.

thoughts following the reunions

There's a whole lot of things that will run through your head before, during, and after a 50-year reunion.  Here are some examples.

Most of us would wonder why we did those stupid things that we did in HS.  Chuck Helgeland has become known for apologizing, but like the rest of us cannot undo what has been done.  Linda Loken is a world-class historian with scrapbooks of practically every event of our four years, and I found in them the "senior interview" we all did for the Anchor.  I read mine and was embarrassed by what I wrote.  Somebody should have slapped some sense into me, but it's too late now.

Lonna's class had a float (created by Richard Hrubetz) for the Lake Mills Jubilee on Saturday, so we were there for the parade, and I noticed the Class of '52 had a float in the parade as well.  Imagine this - There we will be, 10 years from now...  Are you ready?

Their lives were certainly different since they lived through and likely can recall World War II and the Korean War.  So then I projected in a different way - backwards - to realize that in 1962, it was the Class of 1912 that would have been celebrating their 50th!  That may change your perspective.  It did mine.

The Lake Mills reunion was pretty much a one-day event, confirming even further that with holding a four-day affair, our class is pretty unique.  I have heard from NKHS grads both before and after our time who say their reunion is pretty much a three-hour meal and that's it.  I described to some folks on Saturday our four days together, and they just kind of stared at me like, "ok, really?"  Think of this: would any class ever purposely try to arrange either style, limiting itself to the three-hour dinner or creating the four-day gathering?  Probably not.  Either one just sort of "happens."  The design flows from the people and their relationships, though I think the Lake Mills folks might enjoy an extended reunion, too.

Do you realize we had classmates returning from Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, and numerous points in between?  And Dick Brunsvold who lives in Norway, missed it.

Our classmates have experienced a pretty good level of success, but so have the LMHS grads.  Makes me think that Norwegian ancestry may have a hand in all this, although I once knew a fellow from Kansas who graduated in a class of four.  Three of them earned doctorates while he was a successful business owner.  That sets a pretty high standard.

"Butch" Pederson

Saturday evening I had a chance to visit at length with Wayne "Butch" Pederson, the Lake Mills shooting guard with the high-arching shot that probably was inadvertently blocked at one time or another by the arches in our gym.  Butch lives in Chicago where he was a teacher/administrator for a number of years.

Like the other players on the floor for those games in '61-'62, he recalls the high level of competition between NK and LM that all agree made everyone better. "You know, it started in junior high and just carried through," he commented.

His memories of our final game have a little different perspective.  "We trailed, what, 18 - 4 at the end of the 1st quarter?  I thought we were done.  I did.  Then in the 3rd quarter I got hot, shots going in that I couldn't believe.  And I won't forget my 2 free throws with 15 seconds left.  We were leading by four and I knew how important they were because it could be the game.  I hardly recall the ball leaving my fingertips, and it just floated in."

Paul Charlson was quoted in an earlier post about his own memories of the season, and you can read his story here . . .

Just before we left, Butch and I looked around and hypothesized about our common future, what with the incidence of cancer, heart disease, tumors . . .  Some of the people attending their reunion - just like ours - won't be there next time, and that's a sad reality.  Until then, let's stay in touch.

a Bulldog 50th

Another Reunion has gone by, this one held at Rice Lake Country Club last weekend for the LMHS Class of '62.  Paul Charlson reports he has set up a Facebook page for the group, so if you're a Facebook user you could probably enjoy their photos.  If not, here are a few that we took, and I'm sure you will recognize many faces.

Paul is a good man and has been the organizer of the past few Bulldog Reunions.  This year they very appropriately copied our recognition of classmates no longer with us.  Two names in particular struck me - Arlen Stensrud and Allen Holstad, both members of their basketball team and good athletes, well known to Northwood athletes.

I don't have a headcount but I believe their turnout was about the same as ours, with several classmates returning for the reunion for perhaps the first time.  I also discovered that one classmate, David Rosheim, is a "writer of history, short stories, articles and poetry . . . and is Norwegian by descent . .  . "  We purchased Old Iowegian Legends (what a classy, memorable name, eh?) and will be quoting from it from time to time, I suspect.  Lonna tells me he is familiar with Dan Sorenson, the Iowa Farm Boy, and the two  will surely provide more for the grist mill.

I flipped open the book and found this story on page 113:

In late summer of 1962, the administrators of Luther College finally came out of their long established fortifications against student dancing and at long last decided to allow the once taboo activity to become a legitimate student recreation.  When I heard this I was surprised.  I had been rocking and rolling and bopping along at sock  hops since 1957 and was amazed to know that the college I had chosen had not been permitting it.

Those of you who were Norsemen will remember those days, and the rest of us will scratch our heads but recall that times were indeed significantly different 50 years ago.  Change is good.

The Week in Review

Four days?  What in the world will you be doing for four days?  Well, it went by pretty quickly, and having a variety of events to attend with a variety of classmates meant a chance to visit in a casual but lengthier manner, unlike the quick conversation at a stand-up cocktail party.

So here's a "picture" of all that went on during the week, starting with the lineup for Northwood's 4th of July Parade.  Click on the photo for a larger view.

The Class of '62 was represented by three entries in the parade, all shown on this photo: Robert Hall's flatbed '46, the '62 Chevy carrying the four Homecoming Queens from our class, and trailing the queens in the background a white pickup carrying members of Project McNamara.

The day was warm and did not improve much in the shade of the shelter house for the picnic.  You can see by the smiles from Jo Moretz and Dave Skellenger that we nonetheless made the best of it.

Thursday afternoon the members of Project McNamara met again for Ann Johnson's "Getting to Know You" party at her home.  The sign was created by Nancy Hengesteg and her 9-year-old granddaughter, Carly, and used as sideboards on the white pickup she drove in the parade.

Thursday evening we met at Worth Brewing Company to quaff a brew and take in some local history.  Providing their own history, these four starters from the undefeated 61-62 Viking basketball team were reviewing scrapbooks kept by Linda Hempen Loken.  Sadly, the 5th starter, Mike Lien, is no longer with us.

Friday was the "open" day but as it turned out, it, too, was busy.  Several classmates and teachers made it out to the golf course, while some traveled to Mason City to view the Historic Park Inn, Music Man Square, and Meredith Willson boyhood home.  Trivia question of the day: who did the window coverings for all 31 windows in the Willson home when it was refurbished?  Answer: our own Dianne Taylor Byerly!  Shown here in the Mezzanine of the Historic Park Inn are the classmates and spouses who did the tour.

We don't have photos of the Music Man tours nor the golf outings held Friday and Saturday (Gerry Pike won longest putt!) at least for now.

The banquet included a Necrology Service, a commemoration of our departed classmates.  Cheryl Grube Calabria did the ceremony by lighting a candle as she cited each lost classmate's name.  Quietly, we all remembered.

Emcee Larry Holstad said it best when he said "I knew some of you very well, some of you pretty well, and some of you not at all.  These reunions have given me a chance to know each of you better and I am glad to have had the chance."  For more photos from the reunion, check the slideshow embedded in the Tuesday post.

The 2017 Reunion Committee will include Robert Hickman, Linda Hempen Loken, Lee Leidal, Jo Moretz, and Gerry Pike.  The 4th of July in 2017 is a Tuesday, so consideration is being given to holding the reunion in conjunction with Northwood's Founders Day in September.  If you have an opinion on the date, please email nkhs62@gmail.com.

The Saturday Night Banquet

Here's an early look at the busy party at the VFW last Saturday evening, the banquet for the 50th Reunion of the Class of '62 at NKHS.  When time allows we'll be adding some captions to identify what's happening, particularly regarding the Jack McMullen story about the "religious kid."

The slideshow should start by itself; to start it again, click the Viking logo in the lower left corner.

Come back to this for another view.

An Email to the Reunion Committee

Five Teachers Attending Class of '62 50th Reunion

Hey, all.  Super job with the party.  I needed another four or five hours to talk to everybody Saturday night but my body was telling me I didn't have the time, if you know what I mean.

Larry, you did a terrific job as emcee.  You were kind in speaking of the blog and I totally failed to tell you in return that what you did to lead the program was top-notch.  Thanks for doing that, even if you weren't able to make a career out of music.  (an inside joke - you had to be there.)  And by the way, if I could get a copy of that DVD I'd sure appreciate watching (probably for the first time) one of only three games we won in '61...

Karen, you'll notice I do have your email address, but I suspect I have not added it to the NKHS 62 Google account.  I will get that done, probably tomorrow.  I have a lot of fixin' to do and names/emails to be adding so we can keep it current, and am hopeful all our classmates will stay tuned in when their addresses change so the roster will be forever current.  They can email any changes to nkhs62@gmail.com and we'll stay on top of it.  

Robert, thanks for bringing the power pack (that I didn't need, but if you hadn't brought it I would have) and both you and Vickie for your local leadership, Karen as well.

Cheryl, I appreciate your compassion.  It's part of the reason our class still hangs together after all these years.  The necrology service was very touching and one we should continue.

Serena, I know you did a lot of the heavy lifting, and the souvenir book was great to read when I got home.  We do indeed have a story of success in our class, and saluting those teachers was appropriate.

I didn't catch who all is going to be on the next committee so if someone could forward that list to me, I'll get it up on the blog to retain for future reference.  It's a sad thought that comes to mind that some of the people who were in the room last night won't be there in 2017, so as long as we can, let's stay in touch through the blog.

Great job, all of you.  The week is a great memory.

Lee

Post-Reunion Huzzah!

We're back home again following four days of 50th Class Reunion activities, and found this YouTube had been forwarded to me by my daughter, whose husband is farming not far from us.  The whole story can be found at this Yahoo page by clicking this link . . .  Seems very appropriate for us Iowa farm kids.  They call it a parody music video promoting agriculture, and it is.

Coming soon - some reflections on the great week back in Iowa, where the tall corn grows!

Remembering the 45th Reunion

Looking ahead to next week becomes a bit more enjoyable when you take a look back at the Reunion 5 years ago, in 2007.  And before this month is totally gone, we'd like to commemorate the two-year life of the NKHS 62 blog.  What better way to do it than with this playback?  Note this is a revision of many of the same photos posted earlier.

Next week we'll have two more videos online to commemorate the life and times of the class.

Will She Be Here?

It was apparently called the "updo bow" hairstyle.  No confirmation has been received that this style or the classmate who would have worn it will be represented at the July Reunion, but the list of returning classmates is growing.

At the latest count 37 classmates have confirmed they will be in attendance.  That includes a few who were in the class at one time or another but graduated elsewhere.

The committee also reports several former teachers will be in attendance including Jack McMullen, Maynard Midtgaard, Lowell Gangstad, and Bob Wilder.  Wilma Helgeland may or may not be able to attend.

Don't you feel like you've finally grown up when you're able to call those teachers by their first names?

See you in July!

The Parade, The Picnic, The Party

Here's a remake of the photos available from the 45th reunion, which included participation in the 4th of July parade, golf, and a variety of parties.  Altogether they tell the story pretty well.  It's a YouTube so you can click the corner icon for a full-screen version though it gets a bit blurry.

If you're receiving notice of this post by email you will likely need to go to the blog site to be able to view this.  Tell your friends, post it on your Facebook page, and spread the word that #50 is coming!

Reunion Plans Announced

Vickie Hall has sent out notice of preliminary Reunion Plans:

The Northwood-Kensett Class of 62 will have our 50th Class Reunion starting Wednesday, July 4, and continue on with the banquet, Saturday, July.  More information to follow.


Area motels include the Holiday Inn Express across from the Casino, the Country Inn and Suites attached to the Casino, and the Royal Motel in town.

Dance Party Plus

In the far left corner of the photo below – the brunette is Connie Valens – Richie Valens sister.  At the Surf on Dance Party weekend, you are bound to run into people like Connie.  She has come to be a welcome and much appreciated guest of the Surf.

She gets right up on stage and transfuses energy to the bands who are playing Richie’s music.  Last weekend the goal was to sing “La Bamba” so loud that Richie and the rest could hear us up in heaven. So we did.

The man with the broad Smile is Paul Charlson of Lake Mills '62 – he played basketball against you guys in HS.  The woman in the black and white striped blouse is Lavonne Forland Welch (NKHS class of 1963).

I have seen Mr Charlson at the Surf Winter Dance Party several years running now.  We never had reason in particular to visit.  LaVonne and Paul know one another pretty well from church and from having worked together on a large church improvement project.

Turns out Paul knows the Northwood 1962 BB team pretty well too as he played against you guys “back then”.  I made a comment to Paul that we all liked the Lake Mills guys up until they came to Northwood and started dating our girls.  Paul was pretty quick to point out that Leroy L. went so far as to marry one of the LM cheer leaders.

I said to Paul that truthfully I was impressed that he knew most all the names of the 1962 NKHS BB team.  I wonder if the Northwood guys know the Lake Mills guys names that well.

It was all fun “back and forth banter," especially when Paul made the comment that in Lake Mills, the NKHS athletes were all regarded “gentlemen”.  In my vocabulary, that is a pretty high complement.  If you guys know Paul, I want to verify that he is “out there” offering some very nice compliments in your direction

For me, this kind of encounter really warms my heart. There are lots of wonderful people “out there” we cross paths with them all the time every day.  This past weekend at the Surf was extra nice in my opinion that way …. best described as not so much “glitz and glamour” as in the past.

Just the ordinary people doing what really is the spirit of the Surf and the mid west.

I love what goes on there; the fun; the friendship; the plain old good times.  The photo above embodies a lot of these feelings.

--Richard Holstad

I run into Paul at Rice Lake Golf Course every once in a while. We always enjoy talking about the NK and LM BB teams from 1962 – great memories. You can’t find a better guy than Paul. Maybe some of the NK BB team could challenge some of the LM BB team on the golf course in July!!! It’s a thought anyway!

-- Chuck Hendrickson

I do recognize some of the names.. Richard, who I just met, Larry, Phil and Chuck and of course my newest friend LaVonne. It was fun to meet Richard who was escorting LaVonne to the Surf and of course he knew all the NK guys and is a cousin of Larry. It was fun and interesting to talk to both Richard and LaVonne about the old days. I learned a quite a lot about NK and some of its graduates.

I am impressed by the good rapport and apparent contact you guys appear to have. LM '62 has not had as good contact, at least not by our BB team. But we do have some good reunions. And I do enjoy seeing Lee and Lonna, our class mates, the golf outings and the good discussion.

Since retiring, I golf Northwood on Wed and LM on Thursday , so I see Coach Maynard Midtgaard frequently and we have fun discussions and banter and what a great guy, good coach and he can play some really good golf. At LM I see Chuck H at times and you all know he is a super dude, but he golfs left handed and does so well.

I look forward to seeing you, Lee and Lonna in July and I hope Northwood has a very successful and fun 50th anniversary the week before.

-- Paul Charlson, LMHS '62

Yes he knows all the Northwood BB guys, and is indeed a fine fellow. I now see him every 5 years at the LMHS Class of '62 reunion and have thought about emailing him for some thoughts on the NK-LMHS rivalry for inclusion in the blog but never have.

I have always enjoyed going to the LM reunion and spending some time with Paul, Wayne Pederson, Denny Hall, David Heltne, and others. In spite of our high school competitiveness, or maybe because of it, they're pretty good guys. They have always made me feel very welcome there.

The LMHS 50th Reunion is scheduled for July 14, a week after ours. That's an awful lot of celebrating for folks our age but we'll do our best.

It is a small world and yes we had some very memorable games with the Bulldogs in the “old” days. It was such a pleasure playing on the “stage" in the Lake Mils auditorium (where the circles intertwined) and trying to stop Butch Petersen from launching ¾ shots and trying to keep Paul, Al Holstad and Arlen Stensrud off the boards if he happened to miss one. Or taking the ball out of bounds on the sideline and not hitting your head on the radiator, or running up the wall on the side baskets during early warm-up and dunking before Coach Midtgaard came up and stopped us.  

Mike and I talked on the bus ride over the night of our senior year about a couple of phone calls we received just before we left home wishing us good luck and that we had this feeling that at least a couple of people in each community had more than just community pride on the line. If I also recall right, Mike didn’t have a typical game for him that night in Lake Mills, (I believe it was something about a Bulldog trying to date his girlfriend, does Mr. Charlson know anything about that?) but he stepped up with the game tied and made two free throws at the end to win the game for us.

We also respected the Bulldogs tremendously and knew they were good guys, it was just easier to get up to play them if we said we didn’t like them. But just to let them know there is still a few hard feelings that after they beat us in the tournament, they let everyone down by getting beat in the next round. Our feelings were if you were going to lose you could have lost to us and let us try to advance. 

 Seriously, it was a fun rivalry (and hard to believe that it was 50 years ago) and brings back so many memories, some painful but all good.

-- Larry Holstad

Reunion Plans are Underway

We've just heard from Larry Holstad that the reunion plans are underway.  The committee has selected Yacht Island as the location.  This awesome facility is now being transported from the Caribbean to the mainland by way of the Gulf of Mexico.  By next March it will be heading up the Mississippi, fighting the chilly waters of dethawing ice.  Once it reaches the mouth of the Cedar River it will progress on up to the Shell Rock, arriving in Northwood by mid-June.

Utilizing its Blue Class Color, the Class of '62 has plans to turn the muddy Shell Rock into a beautiful Aqua, and paint beautiful clouds in the sky with its other Class Color, White.  Given the Class Motto, "With Courageous Hearts, Nothing Is Impossible", the Reunion Committee has determined the mission will be a slam dunk, to honor Mike Lien.  No word on whether the Island Yacht will be seen in the 4th of July Parade.

Ready for a Reunion?

From an email sent by Larry Holstad recently - 

One of the things I was thinking about the other day is how, through the reunions, I have really gotten to sit and talk with some of you that when we were in school were actually only acquaintances. Because of my failure to take the time to really get to know you during the school years, I have now realized that I really missed out on. As I get on in years and really look upon the things that have made a difference in my life, I find that  it is all about the people that one has gotten to know and be associated with. It is the people and relationships that give us riches and so many memories to carry with us. NKHS was a special place for me (one who moved in) and the thing that made it special WAS the people in our class.

I will stop rambling now, as  I don’t know if this makes any sense to anybody but me,  but I would like to ask anyone that has ideas of what types of activities we should/would/could do at the reunion to help celebrate this big  milestone, and suggest ways as to how to get to know each other even better after 50 years.  Please get them to me or other committee members and then let’s begin working on getting all available classmates to attend this historic event by checking the list and make sure everyone knows when and where we are getting together.  Let’s have a record turnout and the best time ever.  Thanks for listening and Go Vikings. (At least those in Red/white & blue). Looking forward to a great get together.

So if you're reading this and you have an idea, contact Larry or email nkhs62@gmail.com and we will pass it along.

Congrats to the Class of '61

Click on the Picture for a Larger View

Having been away on vacation for a couple weeks (a road trip west) I've fallen behind, and will try to catch up in the next few days.

The Anchor reports the Class of '61 held their 50th Reunion last month.  There are many faces and names to recall here, and they had a pretty good turnout after all these years.

Our congratulations to all of them.  To help commemorate the event, click on this link to enjoy some music - and thanks to Merrilee Reid for forwarding the link.

One Year and Counting

We don't know when you started viewing this blog and in fact just discovered the first posting on the blog occurred a couple months earlier than we recalled, on June 5, 2010. The posting was titled The Northwood Swim Pool and read:

Found by Marsha Gaarder Hasseler in the ancient news section of the Northwood Anchor:

May 19, 1960
Four lifeguards were hired for the Northwood swimming pool for the season and are Craig Pangburn, Sharyl Knutson, Harry Rogers and Craig Ensign. All have earned the senior lifesaving certificate of the American Red Cross. Donna Davenport and Jane Pacey will be lifeguards at the wading pool.

Today it seems that was a lightweight story to kick this off but it is what it is, and now we are close to 150 posts later. And in need of more stories from all you readers. Most blogs last no more than 90 days, so there's a little bit of pride here, that we're one year and counting, and many of you have been extraordinarily helpful to float reminders of what we enjoyed 50 years ago, thus keeping this alive. And we ain't done yet, especially if you submit your own stories and photos.

The blog started out kind of by accident. After a few emails flew back and forth a year ago, Marsha sent a couple to us including notice of the above big event from 1960, with a note saying, "Wouldn't it be nice if we had a place to store all these stories so they're available at our 50th reunion in 2012." From that suggestion and a few personal questions like, "What if I . . . ?" we discovered the Google blog system is relatively easy to use, photo friendly, available for others to expound on any topic while restrictive in who can be let in, and best of all, free. And if you've been following the blog, you now notice a new background template - celebrating the first year.

We have heard a planning committee met last week to begin the process of the 50th so we can indeed expound on any of these topics and brag - if we want to. Bob and Vickie Hall, Cheryl Calabria, and Karen Abrahms met in Northwood and have since had communications with Larry Holstad. We're sure to hear more from them as the planning moves forward, and in the meantime you may want to mark your calendar for the four days of July 4 - 7 as they narrow in on best possible dates.

You might also contact them or nkhs62@gmail.com with your ideas on how you'd like to celebrate. A variety show? That's what Merrilee Reid suggested once. Well, maybe not exactly a variety show, but she can fill you in. Personally, we think a Kangaroo Court is imperative, if for no other reason than to finally bring Stan Arendts to justice for his flagrant violations of the - er - law.

We're kind of rambling a little bit here, from the blog to the history to the committee to the reunion, but all of it leads us back to the same place, where we grew up - and dreams began.

Lee Leidal

BlogMaster

45th Reunion

45th Reunion