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Ramblings from the Trailboss
The 40th Reunion of the Class of 1965 won't be the only big event in the Alexandria area the weekend of Aug. 6. A correspondent has advised that the weekend coincides with the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the town of Forada. That's right, the little town that was named for Ada is having its centennial. Start your beards, class men. Many classmates remember that at its height, Forada had a bank, creamery, lumberyard, was a Soo Line train stop and more. Farmers took milk to the creamery there and cut ice on the lake for extra money in the 40's. Of course lots of 4-H and Farmers Union meetings were held in the Forada Town Hall. Now, do we need to start a signup sheet for a field trip to Forada? So much to do, so little time.

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Congratulations to the Echo-Press -- or as we used to know it, the Park Region Echo, not to be confused with the Lake Region Press. The Alexandria newspaper won the award for being the best non-daily newspaper in the state. Representatives of "The Heckler", as some of our smart ass classmates call the local sheet, were on hand in Bloomington Thursday to accept the trophy from the Minnesota Newspaper Association at its annual convention.

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Cathy Bakke Miller just dropped a note to say that the third Christianson (or Christensen) triplet from Washington Elementary that Strandberg couldn't remember was named Dean. (See "Clifford got slapped but Pennar didn't" in the January archives.) Let's see. Not Huey, Dewey and Louie, but Darrel, Donnie and Dean. So glad we got that straightened out for you, Paul. Now tell us about the three-year crush you had on Marta.

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Paul Nokes (one of Mrs. Strandberg's favorites) has been burning the oil, googling everybody on the class list. A stout fellow, he. Nokes started from the end of the alphabet and is working backwards up the class list. Trouble is, he gets two or three hits for each name, along with a set of addresses and phone numbers. That's the typical problem with a search engine, too much information. For example:

James Yager, (763) 972-6103, 10984 County Road 17 SE, Delano, MN 55328
James M Yager, (651) 735-9526, 6163 Poplar Dr, Saint Paul, MN 55125

Darrell Williams, (218) 439-3703, 11826 Maple Lodge Rd, Audubon, MN 56511
Darrell Williams, (507) 734-5182, 2392 150th St, Balaton, MN 56115

Donald Wilke, (320) 264-0061, 1135 110th Ave SE, Murdock, MN 56271
Donald Wilke, (320) 387-3218, 11469 155th Ave NE, Oak Park, MN 56357

Robert Watson, (507) 433-4475, 600 19th St NW, Austin, MN 55912
Robert Watson, (763) 689-2073, 3025 Pauls Lake Rd NE, Cambridge, MN 55008

These are just numbers and names off the Internet. We have no idea if any are classmates or not. Somebody needs to make some phone calls and verify. Any volunteer detectives? Paul's in Omaha, so that's a lot of long distance from there, plus he's doing enough just getting the potential numbers set up. Paul also needs help with married names. You could use an old copy of the ReOnion for that, Paul. Somebody could email the married names if you don't have a copy. Paul googled a Patricia Thompson who is an attorney in Brainerd. Is that our Patty Thompson?

If you want to help Paul, he'll email you a list of names and numbers to check out. If you located someone, pass on the 40th reunion information, get some life info from them and report your findings to the Trailboss for a rewrite. (Obert? Are you reading this? Anybody else?) trailboss@swpub.com Let's talk. (Let's see, detectives. Darrell went to country school with me. I think he still lives near Alexandria. So neither of those listings would be correct. I think Wilke is a pastor. And Watson was at the Smith Sevey golf tournament this summer, on a cane. See Watson's photo in archives. Whodunit?)

There hasn't been much updating lately on the Lost and Found. It's a new year and we've only got six months left to party time.

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Like the new color scheme on the blog? Still looking for a red and black cardinal scheme but none are available on this blogger service. Oh well.

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Finally got some serious snow here. Anybody got a snow story to tell? Remember the time Larry Johnson and assorted juveniles hopped Marilyn Olson's mom's car in front of the Lutheran Church on a snow-packed Douglas Street? So many guys were hanging onto the bumper that it came to a spinning stop. There was at least a two inch base on the streets that year, so sliding conditions were ideal.

As I recall, Mrs. Olson was not amused, Mr. Johnson.