MACA girls extend win skein as Dietz tosses 1-hitter

Tigers 10, Minnewaska Area 0
It's ten wins in a row! MACA softball is making up for lost time (lost due to the late spring) by stringing together wins. Success came by the overpowering score of 10-0 on Tuesday (5/8). On the losing end was Minnewaska. Our ten runs came on 12 hits and we committed just one error.
Liz Dietz was in command as Tiger pitcher, throwing a one-hitter at the Lakers. Michele Stai had the only Laker hit. Dietz was nearly perfect as she issued no walks. She set down three batters on strikes. Rachel Erickson was the pitcher for Minnewaska and she got roughed up as she allowed 12 hits and ten runs (all earned) in her five innings. She struck out one batter and walked one.
Dietz contributed offensively with a hit and two runs-batted-in. Bailey Marty attacked 'Waska pitching for four hits in as many at-bats. She drove in three runs and scored three. Jen Solvie and Mackenzie Hockel each connected for a double. Whitney DeMaris had a two-for-three line. Riley Decker was most in the groove, going three-for-three including a double. Decker scored three runs and drove in three. 'Waska had two errors in the field.
We finished strong with seven runs scored over the last two innings.

Tigers 11, New London-Spicer 1
Beating New London-Spicer is always a plum for MACA girls athletics, given how the Wildcats excel so often in winter. Well now it's spring. Fans at our home diamond watched as MACA went to work on a one-sided win over the Wildcats. We upped our won-lost to 9-0 with this win by an 11-1 score. Indeed, we won by "the rule" (ten-run rule).
Liz Dietz had impact as both hitter and pitcher. With the bat, Liz connected for a two-run home run in the first inning. We had quite the perfect line score: eleven runs, eleven hits and zero errors. The only NL-Spicer run came on a homer off Courtney Hanson's bat in the top of the first. NL-Spicer was limited to five hits and they committed four errors.
Dietz finished with three hits in four at-bats and drove in five runs. Jen Solvie went two-for-three including a double. Mackenzie Hockel also had two hits in three at-bats. Karly Fehr socked a double in her only at-bat. Bailey Marty, Whitney DeMaris and Abby McNally also hit safely. Five different players contributed the five NL-Spicer hits: Courtney Hanson, Katelyn Nordmeyer, Emma Hanson, Shea Oman and Courtney Caskey.
The pitching story had our Liz Dietz working all five innings and striking out two batters. She walked none and allowed five hits. The Willmar paper is so doggone stubborn: they keep referring to us as "MCA" while no one else does. It's "MACA." Whether you like it or not, that's how we are identified.

Tigers 10, Minnewaska 0
The Tigers and Lakers have gotten real familiar with each other lately. The Friday (5/4) story was a 10-0 MACA win over our rival. Here's another game where Liz Dietz was at the fore with her pitching. In this rout she had six strikeouts in her five innings, while walking no one and allowing just two hits. The losing pitcher was Rachel Erickson. The two 'Waska hits were by Meghan Cerney and Elizabeth Murken.
Standing out in our boxscore were Jen Solvie and Mackenzie Hockel, both with three-for-three numbers. Other MACA hits were off the bats of Bailey Marty, Emma Bowman, Dietz and Abby McNally. Our hit total was ten and we overcame three errors. 'Waska had no errors.
We got a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Our big inning was the fifth when six runs came home.

Girls golf in WCC meets
The Meadowlark Country Club in Melrose was the site for a West Central Conference golf meet. The Tigers of MACA placed third among the seven teams. Minnewaska Area was the top team. The meet's top individual was Madi McGinty of 'Waska who shot a 39.
Here's how our Tigers performed: Hannah Zimmel (45), Megan Kirkeide (55), Peyton Hennen (45), Miranda Hesse (46), Mackenzie Stahman (56), Chloe Mogaard (52) and Shayla Kill (66).
The Tigers vied at Greystone Golf Club in Sauk Centre in other recent action. We tied for third in this WCC affair, among seven total teams. BOLD was No. 1. Minnewaska was second, and we tied for third with Benson-KMS. The top individual was Ashley Trongaard of BOLD.
Here's the MACA roster for the day: Hannah Zimmel (48), Megan Kirkeide (56), Peyton Hennen (47), Miranda Hesse (56), Mackenzie Stahman (54), Chloe Mogaard (61) and Shayla Kill (67).
I had to straighten out some incorrect spellings of names from the Willmar paper.

Boys golf at Olivia
Our male Tigers got out on the nice green links at the Olivia Golf Club on Tuesday. Minnewaska was the champion among eight total teams, while our Tigers took fourth. Minnewaska's Isaac Burgess was top golfer with his 39 score. These Tigers did the driving, chipping and putting: Chase Engebretson (45), Brady Loge (46), Dalton Koehler (53), Brock Peterson (45), Tyler Buss (51) and Easton Hacker (47).
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Movie "Lucky" (2017) shows an unhurried universe

The movie "Lucky" seems a welcome reprieve from the intensity of contemporary life. Here's a charming group of people living in the most modest way, certainly unhurried. Society as a whole lunges forward as if people cannot get enough caffeine. In the old days we called it "keeping up with the Joneses."
We set increasingly high standards for determining what the good life is. We see new homes that appear futuristic compared to the typical old houses in the old residential core of your typical city. We can gain knowledge online within seconds about how we might improve our lives in some way. But in "Lucky," starring Harry Dean Stanton, the pace is assuredly slow and the standards for determining happiness most modest.
Here's this ramshackle little town in the desert Southwest. The buildings are, shall we say, utilitarian. People there would be puzzled if anyone suggested a need to upgrade. So while the world hurtles along, frantically seeking happiness through endless new wrinkles, gadgets or whatever, here's this little town where people hardly seem aware that time is passing.
People there have their routine which typically included stopping at the "diner." It's an asset all small towns ought to have: a main street diner where you walk in from the sidewalk prepared to see familiar faces and to chat a little. The conversation topics can be trivial, no matter, they are worth our attention at the time. We seemingly accomplish nothing, yet there is an essential air to such meandering. Are we simply assuring each other that life is going on as we expect it to?
The Stanton character certainly has his routine. Advancing age is certainly taking a toll on this character. So the movie makes us ponder our mortality. We see how precarious it can be for a very old person to stay at home alone. People in their 90s present few clear cut answers for those in the medical or caregiving community. Yes, hospice nurses can prescribe lots of answers for keeping a person stable and comfortable. But here's the deal: the end will come.
The Stanton character sees his doctor after experiencing a mysterious fall. Indeed, falls can be the bane of the existence for elderly people. We have nursing homes that do yeoman's work. We have "assisted care" which is an evolving concept. I read a few years back that assisted care is more of a philosophy than an established body of practice. The vain boomers eschew the concept of nursing homes, saying instead "oh, I'll just use assisted care." Sadly it's not that simple. By the time a boomer realizes the time has come to seek assistance, that person probably has issues that will call for a greater level of care.
I totally admire the doctor character in "Lucky" for his realistic approach. It's consistent with "comfort care" where the objective is to ensure that the patient can live as comfortably as possible, even if it means putting aside the most logical medical protocol. Yes, the time comes when we can no longer cure every problem. In many cases we could employ extraordinary medical measures to keep someone alive a little longer. But in hospice care, compromise is an operating principle. The patient seeks to keep his/her dignity and to even keep some autonomy, like being allowed to stay at home as "Lucky" does. The doctor tells him "I could tell you to quit smoking but I think it would do more harm than good."
The movie reminds me of the "Prairie Home Companion" movie. It made us think about death or the sheer inevitability of death. And what comes after. In spite of the speculation we hear from "Lucky," not real upbeat shall I say, we really cannot know. It's impossible.
After Lucky's fall, the movie takes a profound turn, departing from a light portrayal of this old guy and getting into the profound realm, touching on loneliness. And certainly mortality. Lucky declares there is no soul. What then does his consciousness owe itself to, because surely the old man has character and personality?
We can see ourselves in Lucky, the way we could easily end up if we dodge enough health hurdles to make it to our 90s. We hope that God is ushering Lucky along, getting him ready for what really awaits him, what I'm certain is much better than what the old man himself foresees. Maybe he has become discouraged by his failing body. His doctor says no one has ever lived forever - the body breaks down. This is the reality that hospice nurses live with every day.
Hospice nurses need a special blessing from our Lord. They know that all patients could benefit from intensive intervention. But they know that realistically, people want some sense of familiarity and continuity with their surroundings as their decline continues or accelerates. No one has lived forever. In many cases we just need someone's hand to hold. We need someone to be reassuring, helping us hang on to precious life for as long as our maker ordains. Maybe Native Americans have it right when they simply talk about "the creator."
Harry Dean Stanton himself is in "a better place" now, as his frail body in the movie was a precursor to his own end of life (on Sept. 15, 2017). His "Lucky" character was surely curmudgeonly and resigned about a bleak afterlife (if any afterlife at all). But God bless the character anyway.
I will never use the term "old coot" about anyone like that. I have had members of my own family age to where they have Lucky's frailty and failings. We ought to feel nothing but unconditional love. I am a boomer and when my generation was young, we could be so smart-alecky about elderly people as we joked about how they'd need applesauce so much etc. We joked about Branson MO being a magnet for old people. We should have been struck by lightning. We're older and wiser now.
We can see ourselves in Lucky's shoes someday. And we'll appreciate empathy like from Lucky's doctor.
"Lucky" is a 2017 film directed by John Carroll Lynch. The screenplay is by Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja. The movie has a 98 percent rating on "Rotten Tomatoes." God or "the creator" will forgive Lucky for being an atheist. I thank Anne Barber, Morris MN public library director, for suggesting this movie for me to watch.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Movie "Darkest Hour" presents neat good/evil model

"Darkest Hour" covers very familiar ground. We're leading into the most intense phase of World War II and we'd better get resolved to fight the Nazis. It was of course a worldwide conflagration. We can get the mistaken impression that all of the awful elements were connected. In fact it was not a coordinated worldwide conflict. It was surely a cauldron of misery.
We can come away with superficial impressions. Was it a clear dichotomy of good vs. evil? Were the German people all bastards who needed to be eliminated or neutered in the most miserable way possible? We all have friends of German lineage today. St. Cloud MN where I went to college has a long reputation of having a German (and Catholic) populace, although in modern times a more cosmopolitan air has set in. Most of us have probably wondered: would my German friends have broken down and become evil had they existed in the mid-20th Century?
And in England, is it really fair to remember Neville Chamberlain as this spineless disgrace of a human being? I ask the latter question in a rhetorical way because I really believe "no." Many of the profound questions of history are shaded. It is not bad to want to avoid conflict, death and suffering. Winston Churchill thought he had the Nazis figured out and reasoned his country would have to pull out all stops to resist. History has surely been kind to Churchill. Keep in mind though that he was voted out of office immediately after the war.
The people who lost loved ones in the war weren't necessarily disposed to doing lots of flag-waving after it was over. They were bitter, sad and in many cases inconsolable. The mood at Memorial Day programs in the US. today is probably more fervent and upbeat than it was in the days when the war veterans were in their prime. In that earlier time, the sting of loss could easily trump the patriotism.
"Darkest Hour" is a commendable motion picture. It doesn't teach us much because we're very familiar with the story. Any actor who plays an eccentric figure out of history is guaranteed to be an Oscar contender. Churchill the man was anything but bland. His peculiarities actually seemed consistent with a doddering older person. He was the pugnacious bulldog who I guess was needed to eschew all caution and just fight the Nazi bastards.
 
What was in the air?
Strange clouds arrived on the horizon for the mid-20th Century, very hard to understand. Germany was once a spirited land of poets, musicians, philosophers and scientists. Along comes Hitler and it seemed nothing but evil. A German would risk his very life to protest, but surely many of those people had to feel troubled by all that was brewing around them. Didn't the Nazi regime in fact create the SS to tamp down inclinations toward "cooling it?" Didn't the SS in fact focus on keeping the German military leaders in line, lest those leaders push for an end to hostilities?
At a certain point, Hitler and his top henchmen simply had to keep fighting. They had committed so many atrocities, they couldn't live in peace again. Other world powers would come and get them. So they fought until allied planes descended on Berlin as if they were flocks of birds (to quote a description once shared for me by a Morris MN war veteran, father of one of my high school classmates).
Chamberlain talked about "peace for our time" in a quote cloaked in total infamy. Except, it's rather laudable to try to minimize conflict and death. Pity the generation of women who gave birth to sons in about the year 1920. Think of the joy that accompanied the arrival of all their sons. Could the mothers have imagined what lay ahead for their boys? So many would die, they would become mere statistics.
"Darkest Hour" was directed by Joe Wright and written by Antony McCarten. Gary Oldman had the privilege of playing the central character. At times I thought he over-acted a little in a manner that you might see in community theater. But he's getting accolades that I cannot say aren't well-deserved. We want to cheer as we see the "good guy" political players realizing there was just no alternative to all-out war. All-out war: how many of us could relate to accepting this kind of reality? We consider our German friends of today like in St. Cloud MN and wonder if in an earlier time, they'd be our mortal enemies. The CW might be they were brainwashed. Or, maybe the economic travails after World War I with hyper inflation made them irrationally desperate. Certainly they were irrational.
And we're not even touching on Japan and the Pacific, equally as horrible a reality to confront. My father served in the Navy in the Pacific theater.

Remembering Kenneth More
As a glimpse into WWII in the time before direct U.S. intervention, I really prefer the Kenneth More (actor) movie about the sinking of the Bismarck. I found that story so gripping, compelling and realistic. It prodded my emotions. We see Bismarck sinking the Hood with a loss of life so sudden and large, those deaths are rendered a mere statistic. Finally the Bismarck gets sunk thanks to outdated "swordfish" planes and their torpedoes. The relationship between the More character and his secretary is moving.
My generation of the boomers got a raft of WWII movies in the 1960s, made in a certain way. They were sanitized to an extent. We hear machine gun fire and Eddie Albert just falls into a hole, in "The Longest Day." Veterans will readily tell you that death was slower and involved protracted pain. I think most kids in the movie theater in the 1960s knew full well what the reality of war was. We realized that war movies were a sanitized fantasy presented in the spirit of cowboys and Indians movies.
Hollywood has bent over backwards since then to make amends, as it were, and show the non-sanitized misery (e.g. with "Saving Private Ryan"). I rather miss the 1960s movies. While compromising in realism, they taught us a lot about the major events and places of the war, like "Remagen" and its bridge.
A critic who carries the banner of the late great Roger Ebert, on Ebert's ghost website, makes comments that I fully agree with. Brian Tallerico took "Darkest Hour" to task in saying it's "an acting exercise weighed down by costumes, make-up and over-lighting." He added: "There's nothing new to the approach. It feels often like an obligation - a story that someone felt should be told again and a way to get a great actor his Oscar."
Thanks to our Morris Public Library for having "Darkest Hour" available to check out on DVD.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Spring gives blessing and MACA gets going well

MACA showed command on the softball diamond in a doubleheader vs. ACGC. Finally we're into the spring diamond season. Spring has sprung! Rather belatedly of course.
Fans of the Tigers were undoubtedly in the springtime mood as they watched their team carve out two impressive wins over the Falcons. The action was at ACGC.
Liz Dietz was the winning pitcher in the 9-1 triumph. Liz pitched six innings and sat down eight Falcon batters on strikes. She walked two batters and allowed four hits. She allowed the one run which was earned.
Kenna Kehoe wrapped things up on the pitching rubber. Kenna's stint was one inning in which she gave up two hits and no runs. The ACGC pitching was shared by two: Lindsey Minnick (the loser) and Jeana Denton. Minnick could be quite sharp at times as she struck out seven batters. But she gave up eight runs, six of which were earned. She walked five. Denton pitched one inning and wasn't fooling the Tiger batters as she gave up eight hits. However she only gave up one run. (That hardly seems possible but that's how it's reported in the Willmar paper.) Denton struck out one.
Let's review the MACA hitting: Bailey Marty had a hit and an RBI. Dietz rapped a double and drove in two runs. Whitney DeMaris had two hits in as many at-bats. Jen Solvie had a two-for-three line with an RBI. Jenna Howden added a hit to the mix. Riley Decker had a double and an RBI.
ACGC's Madison Denton doubled and drove in a run. These three Falcons went one-for-three: Minnick, Brittney Schultz and Jade Bierwerth. Jordan Mortensen had a two-for-three line. The Tigers out-hit the Falcons 8-6 and fielded more cleanly, with one error compared to ACGC's three.
We pulled away on the scoreboard with a four-run sixth inning.
 
Tigers 10, ACGC 0
Game #2 of this twin bill showed the Tigers very much in the groove with their play, again. Jen Solvie made noise with her bat as she hit safely three times to propel the orange and black to a 10-0 win. Those hits included a home run and double. We led 7-0 after two innings. We outhit the Falcons 9-3. We were perfect in the field with zero errors while ACGC booted the ball three times.
Liz Dietz showcased her pitching arm the whole way. She pitched a shutout in this game that was shortened to five innings. She struck out four Falcon batters and walked just one. She allowed three hits. The ACGC pitching was shared by Lindsey Minnick (the pitcher of record) and Jeana Denton.
Jen Solvie had a perfect three-for-three boxscore line and drove in four runs. Bailey Marty smacked two doubles and drove in two runs. Abbie McNally went two-for-three. Liz Dietz and Emma Bowman each added a hit to the mix with Bowman's being a double. Emma drove in a run. The three ACGC hits were by Rylie Wilner, Jordan Mortensen and Brittney Schultz.
 
Baseball: Tigers 2, Montevideo 1
The curtain opened for a new season of prep baseball on Tuesday for Morris Area Chokio Alberta. The decisive hit was a single off the bat of Kevin Asfeld in the bottom of the eighth frame. The bases were loaded. One run came in and this was the difference-maker in the Tigers' 2-1 triumph over the Thunder Hawks of Montevideo, here.
Monte carried a 1-0 lead after five innings. But the well went dry for them, while our orange and black plated one run each in the sixth and eighth. The fielding category showed us with the advantage as we committed one error compared to four for the visitor. We outhit Monte 6-5.
Three Tigers shared the pitching work: Chandler Vogel, Trevor Voges and Brock Anderson. Anderson picked up the win with his three innings in which he fanned four batters, walked none and gave up one hit. Voges set down a batter on strikes in his one inning. Vogel picked up three strikeouts and walked two batters in his four innings of work. He gave up three hits and one run (earned).
Monte's Noah Buseman was the losing pitcher. Max Carruth also pitched for Monte and impressed with his seven strikeouts and zero walks.
Vogel was sharp at the plate with two hits and two runs scored. Joe Kleinwolterink had a hit and an RBI. Asfeld had a one-for-three line with a run batted in. Tyler Reimers and Trevor Voges each connected for a hit. Five players each had one hit for the T-Hawks: Noah Buseman (a double), Chase Korte, Max Carruth (a double), John VanRavenswaay and Seth Kuno.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Will UW-Stevens Point example be harbinger for UMM?

(WSAW image)

Remember how close Tom Emmer came to being elected governor? The so-called "conservative" wave seemed so strong. I say "so-called" because these ideological terms don't mean the same thing to everybody. "Tribalism" can take over and we get more concerned with projecting a certain image than with confronting public policy issues. Who doesn't want health care to be addressed seriously? Are the Republicans who emotionally decry "Obamacare" seriously working on that matter now?
Wisconsin gives a template for what would be happening in Minnesota had we elected Emmer. Some of you might like that scenario. However, that would be hovering like a dark cloud over our University of Minnesota-Morris. This isn't even opinion, it's fact.
Let's look to University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. We heard recently of the proposal there to cut 13 majors in the humanities and social sciences. Under the ax would be English, philosophy, history, sociology and Spanish. This would pave the way for programs with "clear career pathways," according to a March 22 report. The purpose is to address declining enrollment and a multi-million-dollar deficit.
We've been over this before: whether those wondrous liberal arts disciplines may be approaching obsolescence in a new chapter of human development. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is the epitome of the contemporary aggressive GOP view of things, where total practicality rules. In addition to the weakened liberal arts commitment, the proposals are seen as a way to lay off faculty under new rules that weakened tenure. You can count on the likes of Gov. Walker to promote such things. Has his philosophy run its course in Wisconsin? How would our UMM have adjusted if GOPers got the same kind of lock on power here?
Gov. Mark Dayton has been plugging the dike. He has even had the courage to not be 100 percent sympathetic to law enforcement after controversial police shootings. In an earlier time, we'd expect his attitude to be common. Beginning with the tea party wave, a new normal has established itself, where it's fine to decry "Obamacare" in an almost possessed way. The public will wake up because our health care needs are so pressing. The public will then realize belatedly the standard template for what Republicans believe: we ought not appreciate government.
A sit-in was planned at the UW-Stevens Point administration building. The theme was "save our majors." This school is one of eleven comprehensive campuses in the University of Wisconsin system. Walker has had his sleeves rolled up for a long time on such matters. He is a true believer in such things, but his presidential bid turned into a dud pretty quickly. Wasn't that because he proposed a border wall between the U.S. and Canada? Or because he demurred on a simple question on whether he believed in evolution? Now he doesn't even want special elections to be held in Wisconsin. That's because he fears the signs of the "blue wave" foreseen by so many. So, let's just torpedo democracy, Gov. Walker appears to be saying. The courts have had to straighten him out on this.
Aren't Republicans famous for promoting a strict, literal interpretation of the law? That law would have made it a no-brainer to call the elections. Walker showed chutzpah and tried gumming up the works. Thank God for the judges. Now let's allow the "blue wave" to proceed.
 
Tweaking education for sake of politics
There is a clear ideological backdrop to the conservatives' push to minimize liberal arts and promote "workplace skills." Conservatives see many four-year colleges as politically correct institutions that graduate too many students without practical job skills but with liberal political views. What is "liberal" about a health care program that serves all? Can't Republicans ever adjust their fundamental principles and realize that government has its role? They could adjust or compromise a little, allowing a proper set of health care policies to unfold, and that would give them the opportunity to take credit for it. In this new "Breitbart" world that sucks in so many of the conservative stripe, don't bet on it.
And gradually we will see this "blue wave" grow. We can overcome the Russians, heh heh. Republicans are on their high horse with the Wisconsin legislation, still. The legislature weakened tenure in 2015, removing it from state law. In a somewhat below the radar manner, the legislature also changed the traditional power-sharing arrangement at public universities that had given students, faculty and staff an important role in governance.
The administration can now roll up their sleeves more, along with the regents who are of course appointed by the governor. The regents are eyeing policies that make it easier to lay off tenured faculty.
No one can deny that higher education everywhere is facing a state of flux, but certainly we must be vigilant against throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We saw that op-ed in the Star Tribune recently advising strongly on how our State University system in Minnesota - I guess it's called "Minnesota State" now, like in the sitcom with Jerry Van Dyke - needs to address its "overbuilt" situation. Too many physical campuses, fully staffed, following a model that may have seemed practical back when I was in college.
Electronic communications has been a force re-shaping our whole world. Kids grow up self-motivated to learn and to type, in ways my generation could not have imagined. We got our knowledge from "books" that were padded by the publishers for business reasons. It was tedious and a chore to obtain much information. In our new age of Wikipedia and countless other sources, we get information in nice, bite-size pieces. We don't need professors assigning us to read an ungodly pile of books. Simple YouTube clips can give you background in anything. Go online and almost all of this knowledge is free. We take it for granted today.
My generation existed in a much different world, a world where we'd get packed into "dormitories" in an impersonal way. Today's young generation doesn't relate to all of that. Today's young generation wants some joy and practicality associated with learning. But this does not mean throwing out the baby with the bathwater and discarding the liberal arts.
 
A proposal for change in MN
I have suggested that, regarding our overbuilt "Minnesota State" system, the legislature establish something like what has been done with military bases. Because such matters become such obvious political hot potatoes, lawmakers assign the difficult decisions to a specially established commission. This is the "base closing commission" approach. Maybe an institution like Winona State has to close its doors, especially since Governor Tim Pawlenty ventured out and established a new U of M campus in Rochester. At least I think there's a new campus there? Has it broken out of its eggshell? In hindsight, Pawlenty should have just shut up and not tossed a political sop to that part of the state. But what's done is done.
Now the "Minnesota State" system has to confront some hard realities and make hard decisions. The state will rue the day it ever allowed St. Cloud State to become a punch line with its "party" image. We used to laugh at that. UMM used it for recruiting here. But it was a travesty. SCSU has desperately sought to right its ship from that. But I dare say, that "big" SCSU campus has become rather a millstone around the state's neck. One big funding package has been described as a "bailout" for St. Cloud State. I guess it was symbolic that Earl Potter III had alcohol in his system when he experienced that tragic fatal car crash.
 
What side our bread is buttered on
Now, getting back to our beloved UMM: we can certainly be thankful that it was Mark Dayton and not Tom Emmer who became governor. Mike Hatch would have been elected instead of Pawlenty, in all likelihood, if Judi Dutcher had known what E-85 was. Remember that? I think Minnesota was really disposed to electing a Democratic governor at that time.
I think the state will take care of our UMM campus, maybe even with Republican leadership. But let's not assume that state of affairs. We have Republicans representing our area who answer a question about gun control by saying that pornography demeans women.
 
Addendum: Re. Jerry Van Dyke, did you know he was the first candidate for the role of "Gilligan" on "Gilligan's Island?" He ended up choosing "My Mother the Car." And did you know that the Star Tribune, in its coverage of a long-ago Democratic national convention, referred to "wolf whistles" from the crowd when Judi Dutcher went up on stage? We don't judge women by such criteria any more, and I really thought Judi was pretty ordinary-looking anyway. Thinking of Judi brings to mind her father Jim the U basketball coach, and that in turn brings to mind Mitch Lee, he of the champagne glass image shaved into the side of his head. But surely that's a topic for a separate blog post. Remember Gopher Mark Hall and his mess with making long-distance phone calls? How quaint.
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

The woods of North Central Minnesota: transfixing

Statue of "Lucette" ("travelingtwosome" image)

I find no evidence today of the existence of the Oshawa Store. It was a humble convenience store and lounge in a remote place. It was in one of my favorite places: the "north woods." More accurately it was the woods of North Central Minnesota where the wind gushes through the trees to produce a sound you cannot hear in West Central Minnesota.
The Oshawa Store had a jukebox where you might hear Lorne Greene's "Ringo." This was the 1960s. A layer of sadness hung over that decade: daily we'd hear reports on the Vietnam war.
A rustic, personable couple ran the Oshawa store. My father had rapport with them. We'd show up on our annual hunting visit and they'd cheerily call Dad "Professor." I remember they actively promoted the campaign of George Wallace for president in 1968. "Stand up for America," the flyers read. I sensed no racism on the part of these people - I think their enthusiasm sprang from a tea party-ish type of place, to use a more contemporary term.
Wallace had his independent campaign that really drew substantial support. As a naive junior high kid I couldn't see the whole picture with Wallace, as I couldn't fully understand the cultural factors that produced in him real racism. He'd call it "state's rights." He was the Donald Trump of his day as he could really reach out as a populist from a lectern. I had flashbacks to Wallace as Trump gained momentum in his campaign.
Our family had strong connections to North Central Minnesota. My mother is from there, from Brainerd, and my father taught at Brainerd High School before joining the Navy for World War II. We had a nice lake place on Gull Lake near Nisswa for a time. As a young man my father had a small racing boat. I heard the story about how he raced a float plane as it was accelerating to take off. Can you picture him doing that? He was quite into boating in general. This he did on the "Gull Lake chain." We have home movie footage taken by friend of the family Ruth Schiel-Closson. Wow, I have to wonder how much that lake place would be worth today! I imagine we split our time between Nisswa and St. Paul because my father taught at the U of M St. Paul School of Agriculture which, as a school of ag, had a half-year calendar. My father had income as a choral music composer - I never asked him how much that was.
Dad liked renewing his familiarity with the "north woods" for hunting season. Skip Sherstad always wondered why we couldn't just go "slug hunting" for deer around here in the Morris MN area. We had these nice "corn fed" deer. But the north woods with its roar of the wind in the trees had intangibles. Being out in the woods seemed to separate you from the gritty real world on the outside. There I was with my 30/06 bolt action rifle. I never got a deer in my Minnesota hunting. I did get a couple when Dad and I went to Wyoming, the Sundance area, a couple years. I developed a feeling of futility looking for deer around my Minnesota deer stand. But I greatly enjoyed just being in that environment. I remember we parked our car by a lookout tower which became a hub for the red or orange-clad deer hunting crowd.

North woods symbol: the raven

I have fond memories of the small towns in the area like Hackensack, named for the New Jersey city. And, Backus, Pine River, Nevis and Park Rapids. In the Park Rapids area we hunted with Ted Long, once of the old West Central School of Agriculture in Morris. When thinking of that Park Rapids venture I remember the raven birds. I was transfixed by those very large birds, like a very large crow, that seemed to rule along the endless treetops of that land. The fascinating raven inhabits the roughly one-third northeast section of Minnesota. It has a shaggy beard of feathers on the chin and throat. Look for a large wedge-shaped tail. It is a non-migrator to partial migrator. It is large enough to consume small animals. I remember well its call: a low, raspy sound. The raven is rather like the royalty of the north woods. Perhaps it exudes charm because we can sense it is among the smartest of birds. It performs aerial acrobatics and makes long swooping dives. It scavenges with crows and gulls. These birds are known to follow wolf packs around to pick up scraps and pick at bones of a kill. Another source of charm: it mates for life and uses the same nest site for many years.
You can sense I'm more of a nature lover than a hunter. Eventually my father "converted" and decided he wanted to "live and let live."
We made more than one trip north to hunt partridge. You'd walk along and then hear the booming sound of a partridge taking off. But deer? I found them to be elusive. Skip was right: the odds for our success would have been greater around here in Morris. But I wouldn't trade the entrancing effect of the north woods for anything.
There was a guy named Bartell who lived down the road from the Oshawa Store. He lived most humbly in one of those tar paper shacks. My father looked forward to talking with him each year.
State Highway 371 takes you into Hackensack. Wasn't there a "PDQ Bach" tune called "O Little Town of Hackensack?" This rustic town is on the eastern shore of Birch Lake. Pleasant Lake and Ten Mile Lake are also in the area. The Paul Bunyan State Trail passes through the town on the east shore of Birch Lake. I was there long before an iconic statue got erected, not of Paul Bunyan but of his significant other! "Lucette Diana Kensack" has watched over the town since 1991. She faces town on the shores of Birch Lake. A little quirk of the statue - perhaps charming, perhaps not - is that it looks like Lucette is hiding something under her dress! The locals of Hackensack came up with her name in a contest. Streetlight banners declare her as Paul Bunyan's sweetheart.
Oh, but there has been controversy due to the decision to have a "Paul Jr." next to her! Controversy because, were Paul and Lucette married? How quaint to chew over this. How quaint to chew over whether the couple was "living in sin." Mercy! Someone at the Hackensack Chamber of Commerce eventually "found" a marriage license. A story developed that the two got married in 1838! A tourist could buy a copy of the marriage license for $2. Ah, those ingenious tourist town people.
Dad and I were in the hunter class of tourists. The air would be so cleaned out in the fall. You could walk through the woods and appreciate the grandeur of it all without being overrun by bugs and weeds. Today Hackensack is fairly close to Northern Lights Casino. Gambling was totally morally taboo in Minnesota when I was a kid. We gradually got over that, getting our toe in the water with "raffles" and "poker runs." The camel's nose was in the tent, and before long the camel went amok. No moral conflictedness now.
The Lucette statue stands 17 feet tall. The original "Paul Jr." may have been removed, to cater to the puritanical types, but it was replaced by a chainsaw sculpture near the mom. I had a good college friend from Pine River, Janice.
My home was in the magnificent prairie of West Central Minnesota. But I relished the trips that Dad and I took to the entrancing "north woods" of Minnesota. The hunting was an afterthought for me. My hunting days are over. As the raven would say, "nevermore."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Clontarf MN: we pass by but need to appreciate

(lakesnwoods image)

I wonder why Benson became a more vital town than Clontarf. Clontarf is one of those places on the map that we really don't associate with anything. Some might toss out the term "wide place in the road." In an earlier time, "whistle stop" might describe (a town where a train wouldn't actually stop, it would "blow its whistle").
Those of us who travel between Morris and Willmar, or Hancock and Benson, are well familiar with the town name. It's just a point of reference, a sign you're between Hancock and Benson.
Approaching Benson, we know we're getting close to a convenient Dairy Queen!
Benson seems a comparable town to Morris. Benson and Morris were prime sports rivals in my youth. I no longer believe in investing emotions in sports at any level. We leave a wreckage behind us of dashed dreams. Does winning really make us happier? It's illusory. When I was a kid, I heard out and about that Benson had a disproportionately high percentage of "druggies." Truth or mere urban legend? I don't know. I do know that Morris was hardly free of that problem. Talk about leaving emotional wreckage behind you.
As the years passed, I got the impression that Benson was one of those towns beset with petty political conflicts and controversies. The funeral home and radio station were at each other's throats there once. A script from Andy Griffith to be sure. And then we head east toward Willmar, the "big town."
Benson and Morris have had a partnership in hockey. It never made sense to me: there is no natural sense of affinity between the towns, the distance in between is rather great (about 26 miles), and the program's name of "MBA" is sterile and doesn't immediately convey where on the map it is, similar to BOLD and MACCRAY. All these programs should be named after a specific town - the other towns can be content being along for the ride. Get over it.
I won the Benson Kid Day 10-kilometer footrace in 1985. I hope the historical annals there have this preserved. It was the best race I ever ran.
Benson is where I saw my orthodontist in the 1960s: Dr. Albani, an agreeable and light-hearted person. He made sure I got a "retainer" after the braces were taken off. I went through all that in my junior high years. A photo of me from then is a perfect candidate for the "Get Mortified" website where people share stories and photos from those clumsy adolescent years. "Your hair is a mess," Randy Thraen said to me. I capitulated to adolescence. I should have started combing my hair straight back at a younger age. So much hindsight now that I'm in my 60s.
The last motorcoach tour taken by my mom was with Riley's which is located on the same highway en route to Willmar. Dad and I picked her up and she started telling us about all the excitement, and included in all this was a reference to one of her trip-mates: "Dr. Albani." She didn't know our old connection. That Alaska trip ended just weeks before the 9-11 attacks. Part of her trip included air travel. Based on all the stuff that transpired with terrorists, it seemed a good time to bring my mother's travels to a close. She had been to many places with both Riley's and Utopia Tours.
Clontarf has a far more interesting history than you'd suspect upon passing through. There was a time way back when, when families arrived daily to settle around Clontarf, brought there by James J. Hill's trains. The Clontarf "colony" had the Catholic Church as its pulse. The first priest was Father Anatole Oster. He named the parish "St. Malachy" for an Irish saint. Let's review how Clontarf itself got its name: early arrivals coined this based on the site of the 11th Century victory of Irish King Brian Boru over Viking invaders. I'm happy to see a "Brian" do well but I'm chagrined about the Vikings being vanquished, since I have Norwegian lineage.
Clontarf quickly grew into a vibrant village. There was an influx of Irish immigrants. The colony grew so much, Clontarf Township split. The settlers faced challenges and adversity. Grasshoppers might invade! The lighter soil lent itself to hay and grasses. Feed and bedding were needed for animals in the horse-powered society of the time. Clontarf hay was used by the Chicago Fire Department!
The industrial school of Clontarf was a significant chapter. Established with quite fine ideals, it couldn't get going. Then there was the experiment with educating Indian children just like here in Morris - an uphill challenge. Intentions were good but obstacles great. Many of the Indians stayed at the school only one term. Few showed any interest in learning the industrial arts.
Back in the early '80s I heard that a Morris school faculty member was planning his wedding anniversary celebration at the Clontarf Club. I had always seen a road sign or billboard identifying that establishment. Intrigued, I showed up for the party and photographed Dave Holman, his wife Darlene and family for a photo that appeared in the Morris paper. Neat! I began a personal trend of attending the Holmans' anniversary gatherings. Sadly, Darlene Holman has left us. Dave can be seen at McDonald's on many mornings.
The passage of time waits for no one. History has its ups and downs with drama. How fine if I could re-create the "glory" of winning the Benson Kid Day 10K! Many towns have scaled back and now only have a 5K. I haven't kept track of Benson. For many years I covered the Benson-Hancock American Legion baseball team for the Hancock Record. Today there is no Hancock Record. I hope my contributions to this area's history are noted and appreciated.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com