Finally, the Trailboss gets around to writing his bio

Stan Rolfsrud and the package deal, 25 years ago

Stan writes:

When Karen Schjei Benson came to visit us last week she said she wasn't going to write a thing for the blog until I did. So here goes:

Pictured above is the wedding package I got 25 years ago next Sept. 26 … three girls and breakfast too. My dear wife, Kathleen, not only made the eggs just as I like, she snapped the photograph of me and her girls as well. I worked hard and helped Kathleen raise those girls and 25 years later the three combined have produced exactly one grandchild. Fortunately for them, he happens to be the smartest, best-looking 10-year-old on earth.

Wine Country

I first hit on Kathleen at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Chaska when I was the editor of the newspaper there. I am now the semi-retired president of Southwest Newspapers in Shakopee. We live in an empty-nester townhouse and mostly I work out of the basement office I made for myself. It looks like a wine cellar, so I am now trying to study the grape with the willing assistance of my sister, Solveig (Sam to some of you), who lives in wine country near Livermore, California, and ships vintage to me via UPS. Course, wine country is a matter of opinion. Some, including the federal government, say Alexandria Lakes, with its Carlos Creek, is wine country enough. I have a couple of their bottles in the novelty section. But I owe one of them to Lorlee Bartos for solving our class trivia contest. The correct answer was "Ava Luchsinger and Lyle Frank."

Keeping busy

I keep busy with golfing and gardening, and letting out Hoover, our 12-year-old poodle. My wife enjoys hosting Texas Hold 'Em tournaments, so I made her a green felt-top table and serve up the drinks while she does her very best to take money off our guests.

Rose bush trellis
Some of you may remember my brothers: Virgil lives in Eden Prairie, Stephen (he married Nancy Sonstegaard of Alex) lives in Mankato. Together we just bought a winter golf home by the mountains north of Tucson. I haven't seen it yet, (Virgil and Steve did the closing) but Kathleen and I are looking forward to using it next winter. Certainly not this summer, the heat is killing people there right now and we wonder about the air-conditioning bill in our new empty house. Kathleen and I haven't done too much traveling, mostly business junkets to D.C., Naples, Vancouver, Arizona and Oahu. We intend to change that soon, I keep telling her to "put a package together." In the meantime, I am working on a climbing rambling rose bush trellis and some marigolds and bachelor buttons around the hobbit house in the back yard.

World headquarters
By the way, that wine cellar is also the world headquarters of the '65Roundup blogsite, and that's been lots of fun. Classmates have been very kind by contributing interesting stuff and thanking me for my work; what will make it all worthwhile is if lots of folks come to The Corral and everyone has a great time. So please be there and do your very best to have some fun. We will.

Stan Rolfsrud