Normally the email sent to the blog email is forwarded to me but we hit a glitch in the system and I discovered this morning that no email has been forwarded since last June. No matter, since for the most part the email was mostly spam, or email I had already received - except for one, from a Jane Sapperfield:
Hi, I'm Barbara's little sister, Jane, now Sappenfield. I would like to be a member of your website. Please feel free to publish my email as well as I would enjoy hearing from Barbara's classmates if any of you have memories of her you'd like to share with me. I was only seven when she died and have no clear memories of her, just an overwhelming feeling that I loved her very much and that her death hit me very hard as she was like my second mom. My daughter, Lorra, discovered your website and recognized her aunt right away. She was amazed at how much I look like her. Anyway, hoping to hear from you soon and looking forward to connecting with Barbara's friends.
For those of you who are able to do so, please email me and I will forward your request to her. I'm concerned about publishing her email in an online forum. I am sure she will be looking forward to hearing from you. I have asked her to send more information about herself and will post that as it is available.
Marilyn Weidler Ulve has been digging deep - and found these "letters" written by classmates during that year. Shirley Mitchell was the teacher for many of us that year, and these memories will live in infamy. To view the letters in a readable size double-click the picture and it should take you to the online album where the pages are larger.
Apparently homecoming was just as important back then as it is today since several classmates mention the parade. Chuck Hendrickson mentions the first game of the year, against St. Ansgar, the traditional opener, and I know that we LOST that game. In one of my letters I reference staying over with my cousin Craig that Friday night, and for some reason I still remember, clear as bell, standing in their barn while he came dancing into the milking area, with a sing-song announcement that "St. Ansgar won their game last night! St. Ansgar won their game last night!"
Seven years later we played at St. Ansgar in another home opener, and he snuck out from his wingback position to cut me down from my defensive end position - several times. I never saw him coming for the first three or four times he did it. A couple years ago he was sharing the story at a family gathering. He thought it was really funny. Ha ha.
In one of those weird conversations that pops up at a class reunion, Jo Olson told me about a biology assignment she once had, and last week emailed me the full story.
A bit of a chuckle here - I had completely forgotten about the frog until I was talking with Maynard. We had a good laugh because he remembered too when we had the assignment to impregnate a female frog in class. I can't remember the details but my frog refused to get pregnant and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. After some discussion and investigation by Mr. Midtgaard, we discovered my frog was a male! Boy, was I relieved 'cuz I still got a good grade!!! Funny you should mention it - I just found a dead frog in my closet - gift of my daschund sophie (I assume). jo
Please note, Jo, the labeled parts of the female frog shown here. Just in case you get the assignment again.
Jim and Merrilee Reid came to town to visit last week, completing their trip around Lake Michigan following the Class Reunion, including a stop (for Jim) at the Packer Hall of Fame and Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
We enjoyed dinner at one of Hudson's fine downtown restaurants, then ambled out onto the Old Toll Bridge (also known as the Dike Road) that is a local landmark, where a passerby snapped this photo for us. At one point in time Highway 12 traversed across this bridge and on into Minnesota, the connection between Chicago/Milwaukee/Madison and the Twin Cities.
The lights in the background may be either boats or the I-94 bridge that replaced the section we were standing on. Minnesota is on the right, and Wisconsin on the left.
A little history may be of interest for you:
The Hudson Toll Bridge was built in 1913, and it closed in 1951 after a new US-12 bridge was built one-half mile downstream. Today, people refer to the bridge as the Old Toll Bridge. Toll income from the bridge resulted in City of Hudson residents paying little or no property taxes for many years.
The hill on the Minnesota side on which the bridge would finish was steep, causing problems for some automobiles.
Old timers recall that Ford Model T cars often had a hard time climbing the bridge on the Minnesota side. Those cars had a transmission with metal bands. As the bands wore down, they would begin to slip. Drivers often found that they could back up the hill since reverse was used much less and the reverse band in the transmission would not be wore down quite as far.
A point of information: property taxes may have been low or non-existent for years until 1951, but they have since caught up. Stan and Richard, the part about the Model T is for you.
And there's your travel tour for the day. Come on up and visit sometime!
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.
Thanks to the staff at the Yearbook for including senior photos, and Richard Holstad for his work in scanning them. We cheated a little bit in this video to include four schoolmates who graduated elsewhere, but it didn't require Congressional action so it's legit.
The fun part of the video is the insertion of a few grade school photos that were available, providing "before and after (HS)" shots. I am sorry we were not able to collect any grade school photos from the Kensett bunch. Maybe in five years.
You may recognize the background music, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" by Vince Guaraldi, composer and artist. That tune came out as a "B side" in 1962. Guaraldi is perhaps best known, at least by us, as the composer behind the Peanuts theme, "Linus and Lucy." That theme has an interesting origin: Lee Mendelson was producing an upcoming Peanuts Christmas special, needed the right music, heard "Cast Your Fate" while riding across the Golden Gate Bridge, and the rest is history. You probably enjoyed Guaraldi and Peanuts for years; he composed for 17 of their specials.
This music is light and uplifting, just as we felt as we were leaving NKHS 50 years ago, where our dreams began.
The Anchor's new format provides a very small font view so you will need to use a browser tool to be able to see the "fine print" used. There may be a pop-up magnifier at the bottom of the page, or you should be able to magnify the view by doing a right-click, then select "Marquee Zoom" - and click on the story to make it larger. Repeatedly, probably.
In any event, congratulations to Karen, who we can assume learned a whole lot over the 40 years she worked for the school district, and held a position of high trust for the past 20.
I happened to get notice of the report about Larry Holstad's retirement and found it online. Congratulations to Larry for his success at WSU. It was a huge leap from principal at Forest City High School back to his alma mater and he made a difference.
Read the full story at the Winona Daily News by clicking here . . . If you'd like to contact Larry email nkhs62@gmail.com and we will forward the request to him.
If you have news of other classmates making the big leap into retirement, let me know and we'll post it here. Personally, mine was not announced in the paper, but if yours was, I'd like to hear about it.
The NKHS 62 blog found life in June 2010, and the first posting was June 10. A review of some of the early postings reveals other contributors providing photos of favorite actors and shows. The full listing of July 2010 posts is available here . . .
(Richard Holstad and Marilyn Weidler Ulve added most of those, and are encouraged to add whatever else they can. If they don't, we will post their phone numbers so others can call them. During vacation time, somebody has to step up.)
That month we posted two stories of Billy Roberts, who will forever be known as Billy to this author since that's his reported name in the First Grade photo posted last March. Find it here . . .
The first posting was Billy and the Pea Shooter, in which our furtive efforts to "bomb" study hall with BB's led to a frustrating after-school BB hunt. Read that here . . . Chuck Hendrickson added to his legend by writing Another story I remember is a group of guys going golfing w/him. He was just nailing his drives - way outdistancing the rest of us. We wondered how in the world he could make the ball fly so far. He simply told us he'd drilled a hole into the driver and filled it with lead. That would do it!!! He was a guy who marched to his own beat!!
The following day we added more about Billy, who was clearly his own man. Read it here . . .
A YouTube video of a pool shark making the rounds prompted this story from SCA:
Seed and I actually skipped school one day and used my father's station wagon to go to Des Moines and pick up a pool table. My Father agreed, but never thought we would do it. I think he secretly wanted one for his own amusement.
We set it up at home in the breezeway and had many good times there. Seed, Bob Smith and I spent many late evenings perfecting our pool skills. However, we never came close to what is shown in this video. I made my youngest sister, Terry, a footstool, so she could also join in the game. I hate to say it, but she got so good, she could beat me. Ahh memories!!
Everyone wants the long story to get "short" but this one goes the opposite direction. Merrilee Reid mentioned a while back that she had once stopped with her family in Denver on the way to California (after they had moved out there) to visit with the Loan family.
Kiki Loan was a classmate and buddy who left with his family after 2nd grade. Long story short (bear with me here) Merrilee tracked him down in Port Angeles, WA (near Seattle), and a couple nights ago I had a long phone conversation with him about all the travels in his life. As Merrilee indicated in an earlier posting, his health will prevent his attending the 50th Reunion, but we've connected anyway.
Here's where the short story gets long again... Cynthia Vold Forde, '57, got involved, Richard Holstad got dragged into the conversation, and voila! We now have a photo of our first grade class with Miss Phyllis Stover as our teacher. The faces just pop out as clear and memorable as if it were yesterday. (And I understand why I never thought of Billy Roberts as anything but Billy, as he is named here.)
Miss Stover was a feature of a posting about a year ago, and I encourage you to read that story by clicking here... And thanks to Richard Holstad who has the world's greatest archive on all things Northwood including the 1951 Yearbook!
Mary Nelson Groe sent along, by way of Marilyn Weidler Ulve, this photo show from the Denver Post, and though the archives are mostly before our time, they are still of our time. Spend some time - there are 70 of them.
Even better - her comments about the era: I remember wearing shirts made of chicken feed sacks. Never wearing shoes in summer except to funerals or church. No shoes, no shirt,no service was never heard of. Child labor law??? Took bath once a week. Made dirt roads to play with toy cars. Most adult men smoked or chewed but tobacco was not laced with chemicals. What was an inside toilet? This was fun viewing my past.
Add to the list long-sleeved shirts worn to school to start the year that became short-sleeved in the spring. Sisters whose mother would sew dresses from feed sacks. Mud squishing up between the toes after a good rain - or even in the barnyard. Animals on every farm including the duke's mixture of cattle, hogs, chicken. Child labor? Free, and expected. Baths? Early on, in a dishpan. Tobacco? Practically every man and few women.
Know any of these people? They're all on the NKHS 62 Picasa Web Albums. If you have received an invite to add to albums you can do so by going to the website, click on "Add" on the page showing all the photos, then upload from your computer.
To restart these slideshows, click on the Viking logo in the lower left corner. You can also go directly to the Picasa Web Album page by double-clicking on any photo. If you are receiving this posting by email, you may need to go to the blog site to view the slideshows.
There are other albums at the Picasa Web to keep you posted on the era. Below find a quick album of the "Friends of '62" - we welcome any and all additions. Email nkhs62@gmail.com if you have photos you'd like to add.
And don't forget to check all the pages at right, for other slideshows, information about the 2012 Class Reunion, and so on.
Back L - R: Linda Hempen Lokken, Betty Ryan Matthews, Jo Tenold Moritz, Marilyn Weidler Ulve,
Karen Oakland Abrahms; Seated: Marsha Gaarder Hasseler and Vickie Perkins Hall
Marsha Gaarder Hassler was back in town and it became a reason for some of the women of '62 to get together for lunch. According to Marilyn they plan to do it again in Osage in the near future.
The Viking boys basketball team is on top of the North Iowa Conference with a record of six wins and no losses to date. Mike Lien and Phil Johnson are listed as number one and two in scoring for the conference. Some 17 cagers were maintaining averages of 10 points per game or better at this juncture in the campaign. Lien is averaging 20.8 and Johnson 20.3 points per game.
Those who live in California today need to be reminded on occasion of the beauty of winter in the midwest. Considering free desktop wallpaper from an online issue of Midwest Living, Merrilee Reid says:
It is beautiful to look at but I am a California girl and like the beach weather. This gave me goose bumps thinking about laying in the snow and spreading our arms and legs to make an angel - oh, the good ole days when you could get up by yourself when you were down on the ground!!
Incidentally, the bridge shown is a lift bridge that goes across the St Croix River between Wisconsin and Stillwater, MN, the final home of Jon Swenson. In this span the water is probably open year-round. Farther downstream folks from Hudson who work at the Andersen Window factory in Bayport drive across all winter, taking several minutes off their commute, and have designated individuals who plow their path open all winter. Click on the photo for a larger view.
Another conversation revealed that Bonnie Mack (also living in California) took organ lessons from the fabled Opal Randall at the First Lutheran Church, then relatively new:
I used to practice for an upcoming wedding on the pipe organ in that church, sometimes late evening or early nighttime. The organ was located in the balcony so the only way anyone seated at the organ could see the front of the church was by looking into a mirror that had been installed above the keyboards (like a rear view mirror). I recall seeing that flickering red flame (of the eternal candle on the alter) on those occasions and, if it happened to also be raining and thundering at the time, it created a rather eerie atmosphere. One time in particular, I was so frightened, I didn't even turn the organ off and went flying down the flights of stairs and out of the church. What had occurred, Opal Randall later explained to me, was that air sometimes gets into the pipes and creates a howling sound.........a very LOUD howling sound. It was like someone had lit a fire under my behind. Gosh, how the memories that surface at the mere mention of a single event.........or a sound, a song.........a fragrance like newly cut grass or hay, etc. can transport us back in time so many, many years!
Bonnie also corrects the ownership of the local drug stores. There were two in town, the Mack Drugstore owned by her family that was later sold to the Conner family (Eve, '63), and Veenker Drug, plenty of competition for a town the size of Northwood. At least there was no Wal-Mart then.
We got this pleasant surprise today - an email from Janis with their Holiday greeting photo of their beautiful family. They spent Christmas with the whole clan in Bradenton, FL. What better site for a Christmas photo than a sandy beach? We can tell it's not along the Shell Rock or at the Worth County Park - if that still exists.
We could congratulate Chuck for thinking of this and putting it together, but the rightful congratulations would be to say it's a darn good thing he married a woman with some creativity. Click the picture for a larger view.
Lonna and I are heading for the Bradenton area for the month of April and Chuck and Janis expect to be there again at the same time so we look forward to hooking up with them. And a Happy New Year to all of you!
Another adventure, though the goose being cooked is themselves, in the lives of the Notorious Blade and Seed, direct from the pen (use your imagination) of Stan Arendts:
The objective was to create the most elaborate science project in the history of NKHS. What could be more impressive that to put together a skeleton of a full grown goose? How many bones in a goose? Who knows. How to get the meat and feathers off? I guess you boil it. Details, were never a problem for the dynamic duo.
Grandpa Morse's Favorite Goose
First, you locate a goose. Arlyn's grandfather had a few on his farm, but he was not interested in donating one to science......Then you capture the bird, put it in a milk can, so the bones don't break and put the top on so the goose makes no noise, revealing the theft. What could go wrong?
It was a normal night, with a lot of dew on the grass and weeds leading to the goose pen. It was also a lot longer of a trip (one mile) than originally thought. Additionally, an electric fence surrounded the pen. When we got into the pen, the geese went crazy, the dogs started barking and lights came on. The goose we caught was too big for the milk can. A hasty retreat was in order. On the way back, we got tangled in the fence with the milk can in tow. The dew solidified the connection and thus we were jolted into reality.
This was our introduction into "Murphy's Law" We ended up getting a C on the project, which sans the goose, concentrated on the properties of electricity. However, our creative instincts were intact. Such is life.
The January 22 blog post reported one Stanton Carl Arendts was first alternate to be appointed to the Naval Academy. Sure enough, our very own SCA is the apple who fell not far from the tree. He confirms it was his father referenced in the 75-Year-Old Anchor News:
USS West Virginia Burning in Pearl Harbor
Yes, My Father had almost as many sea stories as me!! He did go to the Academy (The boat school / canoe club) and graduated in time to be on the USS West Virginia when it was sunk at Pearl Harbor. Fortunately he was on shore at the time.
His room mate was Bob Lim who went on to become the president of Philippine Air Lines after serving in the Philippine ARMY, as a general (I think). The Lim kids used to visit our family in Kensett during the summers.
While at USNA he, along with 2 other midshipmen formed a radio station and played music for the academy. When they graduated, they flipped for the records and my father won, ending up with hundreds of the old 78's. I used them as clay pigeons for skeet practice.His description of Navy life was much the same as my experiences. "Years and years of boredom, with fleeting moments of sheer panic and terror." Much has changed since I got out.
SCA
Rest assured the photo of the USS West Virginia is included here only with the greatest respect. The Class of '62 grew up in a marvelous era following what can best be described as a dangerous era.
Home for the Holidays doesn't mean quite as much as it did in 1962 when college kids were approaching the end of the first semester, which in those days did not end until mid-January, or maybe those who had enlisted and would not be able to make it home until they had earned a leave.
Whatever the case, hearing the Perry Como tune inserted here caused some reflection on that first Christmas after graduation. And I don't really recall a single thing about it. Who I saw - what I did - what gift I received - NOTHING! Bah humbug - maybe it's not all it's cracked up to be? Call me Scrooge.
What I do recall is coming home the first weekend after classes started, and off and on after that point, frequently by hitchhiking. Chuck Hendrickson and I did that often, and learned some lessons from it, plus picked up some life experiences.
We'd find somebody to give us a ride out to the main highways out of Cedar Falls, like Highway 20 heading towards Parkersburg. We always taped paper on the side of a suitcase with "Mason City" printed on it, figuring nobody knew where Northwood was, and once we'd get in a car we could somehow finesse the last 20 miles. Often the drivers were heading north on 65 anyway, so it worked out.
Some folks went out of their way to help us out and sometimes we wish they hadn't because we'd be crammed into the back seat with some kid with a sucker, or something like that. I think Chuck had a puppy throw up on him once and we'll have Janis grill him to find more about that - and add it to this blog.
One time I hitched over to Ames to see Phil Johnson and a semi driver picked me up. I could not believe how that cab bounced around, but I still appreciated the ride. I learned those guys probably retired with bad backs because it was really rough. Phil came to Cedar Falls on a return visit and while there wound up talking to Norm Stewart, then UNI's basketball coach.
We were touring the campus, walked through the Men's Gym, and ran into Stewart, who saw Phil right away, recognized him, and said hello. To Phil, not me. As I recall the conversation Phil said, "Do you think he knows me?" Of course he did, because he didn't greet me, that's for sure. We turned around, Phil found Stewart in his office, and thus started the process that made Phil a Panther forever. But that's another story.
I also learned that in hitchhiking you had to be instructive to drivers as to where they should drop you off. One time we got dropped on one of the farm-to-market roads between 218 and Greene, and I thought we might die of loneliness out there. Me, Chuck, a blacktop road, a gravel road, and lots of corn. But if you just found out what route the driver was taking, you could set yourself up to get out at an intersection with traffic. You always had to prospect.
On one occasion Denny Carnes and I hooked a ride home. Somewhere out on Highway 20 a guy driving a big, long-finned Cadillac picked us up. He pretty much looked like death warmed over. His sallow face had a greasy mustache, baggy eyes covered by sunglasses, and a constant cigarette. He regaled us with stories of Las Vegas, including his experience with Johnny Cash that we won't go into here, just to keep it clean.
To get back to Cedar Falls we turned the suitcase around with "Student to Cedar Falls" on the other side, and repeated the process. I don't know how many trips we made like that but we sure wouldn't let the grandkids hitchhike today. Too dangerous. We grew up in a much better time.
So here it is at last - Perry Como. This really looks like home, and it should take the Scrooge right out of you. It did me. Happy Holidays.
And if you have a wide-screen monitor, this newer and updated version is even better. Notice all the trains.
