Graduates remember everything a speaker says as, “Blah, blah, blah.” I was at a graduation ceremony during a high school’s last roundup. The institution was down to its final three graduates. The salutatorian gave a talk before the valedictorian did her spiel. The one I was there to see grab a diploma didn’t give a speech. I knew where his class ranking was – last. He … [Read more...]

Part one of a two-part series Tourists arrived for a day or for a vacation from not only nearby towns and Winona but also from Austin and even Chicago. They came first by horse and buggy and later on passenger excursion railroad cars as well as on steamboats and ferries from La Crosse. The destination was the tourist town of Hokah, Houston County, Minnesota. The … [Read more...]

His handwritten works featured jittery penmanship. But it’s no wonder Honoré de Balzac was prolific. He published scores of novels, novellas, plays and short stories. The author had ink in his blood, but his blood might have been nothing but coffee. Whether it’s legend or simply internet malarkey, I’ve read that he drank 50 cups of coffee a day – 51 cups when he needed an … [Read more...]

Two men from Caledonia took their skill far from home and represented their hometown well during the 1940s. Each, in his own way, helped preserve democracy. One appeared in the company of some of the nation’s most prominent personalities. One contributed to one of the nation’s most impressive wartime achievements. Ed Lee “There must’ve been 30 of us from this area that … [Read more...]

I’d promised myself I wouldn’t cry. And I didn’t shed a tear at winter’s passing. It had no last words. My fath-er’s last dying word was “Robert.” Robert was my uncle, my father’s brother, who had died as a young man. They were close. When I was a boy, my elders told me of someone who had said “Hello” with his last dying breath. I believed them. With all the … [Read more...]