Music man is also a family man -- ever more so now

(John Herdan still lives in St. Joseph. He hasn't moved in years and was wondering how come he was on the "lost" list. After all, his correct address is in the old ReOnion. Well, sir, that's because, in this day and age, most people move every seven years, so we didn't go with the expense of mailing letters on the come to 15-year-old addresses. Have you seen the class treasury lately? So that's how come, John. Guess you're lost until you're found, buddy. Great to have you here at last. -- Trailboss)

By John Herdan
The day after our Aug. 6 Class Reunion my bride and I will be celebrating our 29th wedding anniversary. I am married to Judy Murphy who is a graduate of East Chain High School. We met in a wedding when she was maid of honor and I was best man.
I am the middle school band director at Cathedral High School in St. Cloud. We have four band directors in a 500-student program. My program has been very successful. We have had two groups invited to perform at the state music convention in the last four years. Probably the most fun part is the jazz program. I have been involved with all-star jazz groups in the St. Cloud area for eight years now and currently have 12+ kids involved in the three groups. I directed one for a couple years and still fill in playing and directing.

Bobby Vee helps out
One of the highlights of working at Cathedral is the annual fund raiser we have done with Bobby Vee (yes, that Bobby Vee) whose kids all went to Cathedral. In the past few years groups that I have played in have opened for Herman’s Hermits, Three Dog Night, Tommy James and the Shondels, and Little Richard. This year we worked with Buddy Holly’s original Crickets. What a great bunch of guys.
Judy now works in the pacemaker clinic at the St. Cloud Hospital after many years in intensive care (including a year at Douglas County Hospital). She works eight hour days for the first time in her life but lost the flexibility that 12 hour shifts gave to spend more time at the lake. One of the downsides of her ICU job was like the night I stopped to see her several years ago and ran headlong into Kay Davis only to find out Judy’s patient was Bill. He had a brain aneurism and sadly didn’t make it.

Jetski fanatic, lighthouse builder
We do still maintain a home on the north side of Lake Latoka near the beach. You can usually catch us there anytime from the 4th of July until fall sports start in August. My son Michael and I became kind of famous a couple of years ago when we built three 12-foot tall lighthouses and had them on the shoreline. The patriotic version can still be seen on our dock all summer. I have turned into a jet ski fanatic and can usually be found sailing over somebody’s wake. Gary Seth spends lots of time repairing my busted equipment.
One of the crazy things in my life is how my kids have turned out. Sportswise I could only be elected to hall of shame (probably academically too- there were quite a group of us that made the top half of the class possible). But my kids have fared better. Since the last reunion: Michael, age 25, was starting fullback on the football team at Cathedral and a state champion in track. He ran two years of college track and played one year of college football. He also played two years in the college jazz band traveling to New Orleans. He was a manager for Border Foods (Pizza Hut) and is now finishing his degree at UM Morris. Stephen, age 23, was an 800 yard rusher his senior year at Cathedral and was a part of the State Champion Fergus Falls Community College football team. He is an RN at Merit Care Hospital in Fargo. Katie, age 20, our 4.0 student, was on the Cathedral Volleyball team that finished 4th in the state. She is a double major in music and Spanish at UW River Falls. She will be playing 8 concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra next fall and may be traveling to Europe twice to play her saxophone. Jennifer, age 15, was on a Junior Olympic volleyball team that won the President’s Tournament in the Twin Cities. She plays clarinet and is finishing her 9th grade year. Her twin brother, David, also 15 for those of you who weren’t sure how twins work, plays a mean game of football. He had nearly 30 sacks last year and is a projected starter as a sophomore in the fall. He was in the middle school all state band last year and is a featured jazz soloist on bari sax in several groups in this area. Just yesterday he was elected Sophomore class president for next year.

Found his parents, brothers
There is an explanation to all of this. Some of you know I was adopted when I was only a week old. Eleven years ago I found my Mom and Dad (married to each other) and three full blooded brothers. They are all smart, athletic, good looking, and all the other traits my kids inherited. After lining up my three sons next to my three brothers I had to stop blaming the milkman. It’s been a blast having a family and they are an important new part of my life. My baby brother just got elected Mayor of Sauk Rapids. Good thing we don’t have the same last name in case he screws up.
That’s a lot of changes since the last reunion but life is great and change only keeps it exciting and keeps us young for sure. I look forward to seeing you all but don’t wait till the reunion if you’re in Alex or St. Joe

++++++++

(John Herdan looked over the archives of this Class of 65 blog recently and added the following update and comments. -- Trailboss )

The courtship of Bill and Anne
Anne and Bill Riggs and I have become very close personal friends because of the 12 years Bill and I spent playing in the Alexandria Big Band. Bill and Anne know that I take full credit for them getting together. I tell the story in their presence regularly.
The first year Anne taught in Alex, she had prep the same hour that I had Bill Riggs' social studies. She would walk by Bill, who was standing in the hall between classes like all good teachers, and she’d give him a smile and a wink. As his eyes followed her down the hall, he would unconsciously hand me his grade book and say, “Here, go do current events.”
Now those of you who ever had me give you credit for a current events report know that this was a good deal for all of us as you and I got easy points -- and Bill got a wife. As an aside, my oldest son Michael had Bill for a teacher at UM Morris -- much like my mom and I both had Gordon Melby for a chemistry teacher. I do have to say Bill has aged more gracefully than Mr. Melby did.

Herdan just had twins, Paul
To Paul Strandberg: It was only twins, not triplets, but it is fun trying to teach two 15 year olds to drive at the same time.

Dad owned Blue Ribbon bakery
I, too, used to go over to the Fountain of Youth for food. For the record, the fried rolls came from Tubby’s Bakery which was on 6th Avenue next to Floyd Bolin’s Dairy. The Fountain was the only place in the obscurity of a large crowd that I dared to eat anything from a competing bakery. To this day, those are probably my favorites but my Dad never made them. The cream horns and crispies (also known as cow pies) came from the Blue Ribbon Bakery which my Dad owned until 1971. Both Dad and Gene Braunschwieg (Chuck’s dad) drove trucks. Tubby bought Dad out in 1971. He only owned the bakery for a short period before selling it to Duane Braun.
Tubby moved to Arizona and just passed away fairly recently. Tubby’s family is still in the bakery business in the area as his brother owns the Cold Spring Bakery, which I manage to find on occasion. Our bakery is still on the corner of 4th and Broadway and is now “The Roer’s Family Bakery.” The food is still good and you can still find a few of the old favorites. They even have a display of some old pictures and a few items from when it was the Blue Ribbon Bakery.

Tonsils in a jar
I’m glad someone remembered St. Luke’s Hospital on the corner of 9th and Elm. I had my tonsils out there. We found them hidden in a cupboard in a jar when we cleaned my parent’s house out in 1991.

Seeger's snakes, The Flippers
I’m sure some of the girls in our class must have participated in the traditional homecoming “snake dances” which would have then allowed them at least temporary admission to Seeger’s Pool Hall. In the front, down the steps, and out the back. Another radio station that I think was a favorite back then was KOMA in Oklahoma City. They were one of the few stations I remember that would play the music of “The Fabulous Flippers.” I have a friend who just came across some re-releases of The Flippers. I will see if I can come up with it by August. Does anybody remember the first drive-in in Alex? It was owned by Ed Loske and was on the right hand side of North Nokomis just after you came over the bridge. I believe there is a car wash there today.

Confessions of a doorbell ringer
For those of you who went to St. Mary’s, I had the privilege of working for a few years with Sr. Rita Barthel who was the first principal of St. Mary’s. She certainly remembered a lot of you. She supplied the first names and I filled in the last names. Among the select few were Mike Geiser, Mike Gillespie, and Jim Clifford. She did also say, what I disgustingly remember as true, that “Judy Blanchard was perfect.”
Several of the nuns that taught at St. Mary’s were at Sister Rita’s funeral a couple of years ago. At that time I admitted to them that it really was me, Pat Osterberg, Paul Osterberg, Jimmy Kain, and assorted others that would pull the old "front doorbell, back doorbell" routine on them regularly. We would lie in Jon Inward’s yard, with one person hidden in the front bushes and one hidden in the back. The nuns had lots of windows and never closed the shades. Their front and back doorbells had different rings so with a well-timed “front” and a well-timed “back” we could get them going back and forth like the bear in the rifle game at Andy’s Interlachen Inn. Fortunately for me, Father Tim Baltes (Alex grad) was thereat the funeral to hear my confession and give me absolution. The nuns thought it was hysterical.

Krueger's Creek
I also work with Alex grads Barb Degrote (younger) and Rollie Krueger (older). Rollie said he’s not related to the Krueger’s of “Crick” fame but did go parking there with his girlfriend.

One last question: "Chicken Man?"
Here’s one last question for you. Does anybody remember why Marlin Madsen, when he saw me at Bud Christensen’s funeral, hollered all the way across the room, “Chicken Man!” ? And don’t forget to ask me my deer hunting story with Mr. Madsen, Andy Karlsgodt, Ted Lohrman, Clayton Amundson, and other assorted teachers.