I was very young when I first discovered my love affair with cranberries. You would have to journey back with me to the early 1950’s to understand how it all started. As the holidays were approaching the cranberry farmers in our neighboring Wisconsin were knee deep in the cranberry bogs harvesting the cranberry crop. As Thanksgiving approached the store shelves were piled high with transparent bags of cranberries. Each fall my Mother faithfully purchased a bag and brought it home to officially start the holiday season. …..
It’s that time of the year again as holidays approach and craft fairs begin in earnest. This Saturday from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm I’ll be sitting in my ‘mini-book store’ booth at the Herman High School gymnasium. I was a biology teacher in that building for eleven years (1980-1991). However the title of this blog is a little misleading as I was never involved in any crimes during those years. I came close several times but was always able to refrain myself and…..
What a morbid title for a blog but it wasn’t as morbid as if may sound. My sixth grade teacher had passed away at the age of 97 years after leading a happy and successful life. In addition to that she was the one who opened my eyes to the joy of writing and as a result it became a dream of mine to become a published author. As I was making the trip to Glenwood, MN where the funeral was…..
In my previous blog “A Teacher Made Me Do It!” Mrs. Sager my sixth grade teacher gave our class a writing assignment to do a bird report. She displayed several of the outstanding reports on the bulletin board and mine was one of them. My classmates said I wrote well and I believed them. So began my dream to become a successful writer. I must add a footnote to last week’s blog as I received a phone call from Mrs. Sager’s son informing me that his mother…..
Violet Sager was her name. We called her Mrs. Sager. She was my sixth grade teacher and at the time I didn’t realize it but she was a hero to me in more ways than one. That was the fall in 1955 when many of the country schools consolidated and came to the nearest town school. So in the fall of 1955 my Clinton, MN sixth grade class grew to contain 35 rambunctious, energetic boys and girls. Mrs. Sager was able…..
I’m a pumpkin farmer and as harvest time approaches I look back and realize there’s a battle going on in our profession. It’s not with the neighbors or the UPS man who occasionally visits. The spray planes that frequently buzz our house are even tolerated. The real battle is with all the little critters that are living among us and who assume we are renting space from them! The first critter to make life miserable for a pumpkin farmer are…..
Probably one of the most important experiences of my teaching career is approaching its 50th anniversary and it almost passed unnoticed. That would have been unfortunate since that experience opened the door to a my 42 year career of enjoying and educating young people as a teacher. Diane reminded me of that important experience when she posted on Facebook about her upcoming 50th high school class reunion in 2019. She is planning on communicating with as many classmates and teachers as possible. After interviewing them…..
Now that is an interesting word, “Flekkefest”. It is a celebration held each summer in the scenic little town of Elbow Lake, MN. This past weekend I erected my yellow and white striped canopy tent on the courthouse lawn with the intention of selling books. The courthouse is a beautiful building, built in the late 1800’s and in later years added on t0 to make it handicap accessible while still retaining its original architecture. It sits on a hill at the…..
Last week’s visit to the Big Stone County Fair was nostalgic for me since Clinton was my hometown. This week I attended the Grant County Fair and that carried with it some nostalgia too. In 1980 my teaching job at the Wheaton High School was cut to .8 of its original position. Fortunately that cut never came to pass for unknown to me Herman High School, 17 miles down the road, was functioning without a biology teacher for that same year. So…..
Sixty years ago attending the Big Stone County Fair was an exciting event for me. Being a 4-H kid meant I would spend Thursday entering my exhibits in the 4-H building. Hopefully the paint was dry on the bird house I entered for my conservation project. The safety poster had probably been painstakingly completed the night before. No, I wasn’t a procrastinator. I was a perfectionist and slow besides! 🙂 Thursday night was long and sleep was difficult as one anticipated the…..