My doorbell didn’t ring. It had voluntarily chosen to leave the labor force. I opened the door anyway and a robed visitor accompanied by sitar music walked in out of the dimming twilight. The renowned mystic from the Far East part of the township, the fabled soothsayer, the seventh son of the seventh son of the seventh son, the oracle from just down the road; Swami Davis … [Read more...]
Pastor Devotions – Unprecedented?!
By Pastor Bridget Sheely Racine/Sumner Center UMC, Stewartville UMC Children’s Ministry Coordinator Well folks, the time has come around again where we close the door to yet another year, 2021 and open the window to welcome the fresh breezes of a new year, 2022. It is natural this time of year to reflect on what was and what is to be. As I ponder the past, there is one … [Read more...]
Butter’s not a right
Butter’s not a right There it was. I wasn’t expecting it. At least not before Christmas. I re-read the words my brain sluggishly computed: “Pay to the Order of...” Hoping to teach a 4-H butter-making class in my silo farm store, I applied for a Midwest Dairy grant, but I wasn’t expecting an answer until 2022. And here, as if whispering Merry Christmas, I received my … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past It was not always a “man” manning Root River traps
Caledonia took pride having one of the best markets for raw furs in southern Minnesota, according to the Caledonia Journal in 1911. Houston County native Dell Stewart, launched his fur-buying business about 1899 and was well known by every trapper and hunter in the county. He paid the same commission price as would any fur house. He was credited with always giving “a man a … [Read more...]
Einar’s Hardware had everything I’d be getting
The weather was up to something. It always is. My parents took me to town where Santa Claus (who resembled a neighbor named Merle Wakefield) set up shop at the Hartland fire hall. I’m not sure where he parked the reindeer. I was part of a group of humble, snot-nosed (we were snot walruses) children who needed to be prodded to ask Santa for things we weren’t sure we deserved. … [Read more...]
A little of this, A little of that
Math was never my best subject. My high school algebra teacher, Ken Denny did his best. By the time I figured out how to balance equations, it was time for geometry. It seemed hopeless. Why did I have to figure out proofs? I was willing to accept whatever had been already been proven! I have memorized this formula: Family (friends) + delicious food (and plenty of it) = … [Read more...]
The wooden pencil and an orange weren’t in a Christmas bag
When my father was a boy, he got a wooden pencil and an orange for Christmas one year. If he’d had low expectations, they might not have been low enough. He was from a large family and Grandma didn’t give him a gift receipt so he could exchange the pencil and the orange for black licorice. He was forced to do his homework on orange peels. Years later, Grandma gave me an … [Read more...]
A Goodly Heritage
My “Milky Whey” day Today went quite well. Early in the morning, my husband gifted me with a bucket containing about three gallons of raw, chilled milk and its cream. He carried it from the milk house ready for my use. Since my refrigerator was already filled with all of the milk and cream I could use, I skimmed off the cream and dutifully began making butter. Mixing the … [Read more...]
Back when I was hot stuff and then some
“What are you looking at?” I heard the man’s voice when I was in Anzalduas County Park, nestled along the Rio Grande River in Mission, Tex. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I was having a swell time looking at birds — clay-colored thrush, vermillion flycatcher, northern beardless-tyrannulet, gray hawk and tropical parula. The park was filled with people cooking and … [Read more...]
Peering at the Past Peddling while pedaling provided some money, plenty of hard work
Following World War II in the late 1940s and 1950s, the United States economy boomed, but not for many family farms and some farm communities. The business of family farming depended on all family members old enough to do chores. Sometimes, kids in town also had to help support the family. If the family did not have a business in town, the first childhood chore could be finding … [Read more...]