another cheesy story

They're the official curds of the Minnesota Twins.  And now we discover they're also the curds featured at the Minnesota State fair.

It's official:  Minnesota State Fair's Cheese Curds are from . . . Wisconsin!  Be sure to watch the video.

My contribution to the gathering for Project McNamara on July 5 was a couple of these one-pound packages, fresh from the factory.  It's a 50-mile drive round-trip but well worth it to say they are "direct from the factory."  And it's pretty amazing that they have found a way to keep that creamery hopping over all these years, although the land throughout the area is more suited for dairy than crops, given the hills and woods throughout.

Makes for an enticing motorcycle ride for some, and a place of employment for many others including a "spokesperson" for the creamery, something pretty far-fetched for the creameries supported by 200-acre dairy farms, such as they were in our era. The Farm Boy's wife Shirley could tell you even more about that part of the world.

I couldn't recall that we ever sold milk to the creamery in Northwood, and discovered why we had not when I found this report on the creamery online.  Apparently it had discontinued operation in 1951and to be honest I don't even know where this building is located.

Family connections meant the creamery at Deer Creek Valley was more familiar.  My dad worked here for a time after he and mom were married, and it was about a mile or less from this creamery to the farm of my grandfather's.  Since he milked a few cows (by hand up into his 70s) and had milk to sell, this is where it went.  I went there often enough as a youngster to remember the smell, which was pretty much that of spilt milk a few days later.  At Ellsworth you don't notice that.

Perhaps they made cheese curds at Deer Creek, I don't know.  I do remember whey, a by-product of the processing, consumed by pigs and probably a few cats, and more importantly, I remember the Deer Creek Store located just across the street.  It was worth behaving yourself to have a chance to go along to the creamery, because that improved your chances of a candy purchase across the street.

A sign is posted at the store location now and that's all that's left unless you poke around the premises and find the original foundation that remains in some places.  The sign says the store was built in 1895 by Mr. Blecksrud, and in addition to the groceries up front, the rear of the store was once a tin shop/hardware store, and a community hall was upstairs.

Now there's nothing left on this plot along the state line but memories and the remnants of the cheese factory, shown here when my brother Kevin and I were on tour a year ago.  Only progressive factories with their own spokesperson can make the grade anymore.

Kevin snooping around the remnants of the Deer Creek Valley Creamery

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!

Kensett #4 - More Memories

The photo of Kensett #4 brought back some memories.  The building was still there a year ago.  Karen Oakland probably remembers the log I dropped on her ankle way back then.  She probably still has a scar from it.  We used to have some great recesses!  In the winter we built awesome snow forts and had snow ball fights at recess.  As I remember it was always boys against the girls.  Some time in the 5th grade I had just sharpened a wooden pencil and was holding it with my left index finger on the point.  Somehow the point became embedded in the tip of my finger, still have the evidence on the finger after all these years.
After 6th grade we went to junior high in Kensett.  There we merged with the "townies" and those from other country schools.  The principal, Mr. Boggess was one to be feared.  Just the threat of being sent to his office was enough to change any behavior.  Our junior high boys basketball team was unremarkable.  I remember 1 game that we lost 17 to 2.  The only basket being scored by Stanton Arendts, as I recall.  The first semester of 7th grade I received the only "F" I ever had in any grade in school.  It was in math.  Must have been the change from country to city school.

Kensett #4 ca 1954

If you attended a rural school, this photo probably has a ring of familiarity.  Marsha Gaarder Hasseler sent it along as a grade school memory for the Reunion.  Here's her description:

This is probably not what you want, but it is the easiest one for me to find. I sent it to some Kensett # 4 friends after Dick Brunsvold gave me a copy four years ago when Bob and I had visited him and Gerd at their home at Torpo.
The photo includes the students and families at the end of year picnic. I guessed it to be 1954 and could err.
Karen Okland is just right of center in horizontal stripes.
Dick Brunsvold is on the left, the "tall" slender guy.
Ron VanSteenburg is mostly hidden on the right side of photo. He is standing beside Norma Berge. She was our teacher for grades 4,5,6. And she continued the following year as the school remained open, but we four had been transferred to town.
I am at the center bottom, faded.
Karen, Dick and I had six weeks of spring kindergarten, then went to first grade in the fall. In fourth grade the VanSteenburg family moved to our area, and Ron joined us, making us the "largest" class.

Marsha, that's exactly what I was looking for, and thanks for forwarding it. Perhaps it will prompt others to find and forward similar pictures.  These township schools were quite popular, probably very inexpensive to operate since children would have walked to them and only one teacher had to be paid, and phased out about the time we were in grade school.

My own experience was a 6-week stint at the Grove Township School, later used by the church for Vacation Bible School and ultimately torn down.  It formed many memories for those who attended for any period of time, and was a social center for the farming community, much like the Grange in earlier times.

If you look at the class history that is reported in this blog (at least for the Northwood kids - Kensett kind of got left out of that document) you will notice new classmates coming in from time to time as the rural schools shifted to the "metropolitan" flavor.  I recall Duane Mielke once saying it was tough to be in school in town because if somebody hit you in the stomach you just could not get your breath.  It's too closed in.

He was probably right.  Marsha, thanks for the memory.