14-below zero gives bragging rights to fans

John Herdan, the blog's St. Cloud correspondent, was busier than a two-peckered owl (the boys used that term in high-school, didn't understand it then either) last night at the St. Cloud-Alexandria hockey game, not only covering the action on the ice, but the social interaction in the stands. And he got his report turned in before school this morning! Here it is:

John writes: Lots of Alexandria fans braved the 14 below zero weather to travel to St. Cloud for the hockey game last night. The first two I spotted were Dave Harris and Tom Savegeau, up in the press box, with St. Cloud Cathedral athletic director Emmett Keenen. The game had actually started but Dave was stuffing his face with french fries. He mumbled something about not being able to broadcast until 7 p.m. and kept eating. I had a great talk with Tom who I shared the color commentary spot with on KXRA back in 1978-79.

From the press box we were able to spot the Obert contingency cheering the Cardinals on. Ruthie could win the "most valuable fan" award as she puts her whole heart and soul into supporting the team. Let's hope she can keep it up all the way through state.

Between periods, Tom pointed out several Alex fans that I know and I got a chance to talk to several of them. He pointed out Pat Ellingson and Jackie J. I immediately rushed over to them. While it was nice to see Pat, Jackie was the center of my attention. She is the daughter of George "Doogie" Little, who we went to school with. Doogie, his wife Kathy, Jackie, and her brother Lonnie lived next door to us when we built our round house behind Bethany Home (more on that later). I actually have a picture of a very young Jackie holding our brand new son Michael (now 28) the day we brought him home from the hospital. The year I broadcast for KXRA, I got the Thursday tickets to the state tournament and took Lonnie. It was great to see Jackie last night.

Next I talked to Ted Justice, Danielle's dad. (Photo at left; his daughter is in goal -- click to enlarge) His family, as well as the Williams family, are our neighbors on Lake Latoka. Ted knew there was some reason he knew me, besides the fact he was a high school friend and hockey player with my cousin, Rob Amundson (and the late great Phil Smilanich). Then it hit him.... He had installed the carpet in our round house.

"It's impossible to stretch carpet in a round house," he exclaimed. He still likes me anyway.

I talked to a few more people who's names escape me, but, needless to say, it was a fun evening.

Double coverage, Card's win 3-1

The blog is suffering from an embarassment of riches today, with two blog reporters covering the same athletic function last night. John Herdan and the Cub Reporter converged in St. Cloud to watch the Cardinal girls take on the St. Cloud girls. Our girls won, of course, but it was a great game by both accounts. Above, the cub got a picture of John Herdan and Dave Harris, the voice of KXRA sports, apparently having their credentials checked before entering the arena. That's Stacey Paulzine's dad in the background.

Here's John's report:

The St. Cloud Icebreakers, riding their own 6-game winning streak, gave the Alexandria Cardinals all they could handle all the way into the third period Tuesday night in St. Cloud. The Icebreakers outshot the Cardinals 18-8 in the first two periods before Michelle Anez tipped in a Kathryn DelZoppo shot from the point with Abby Williams assisting 13:18 into the second period.

The Icebreakers quickly tied the game as World-18-and-under-champion, Annie Schleper, drew a Cardinal penalty near the end of the third period. As the third period opened, Annie found my next door neighbor, Michelle Bunnell, near the corner of the net and she slipped the puck past Danielle Justice at 1:06 of the period.

However, the Cardinals quickly put the game out of reach with back-to-back goals by Abby Williams (Holmes and DelZoppo) at 4:01 and by DelZoppo (Anez and Williams) at 6:02.

It was a great game and, according to Cardinal coach Mitch Loch, a good test for the Cardinals as they prepare for the playoffs. Icebreaker coach Mark Chamernick says the Cardinals have as good a chance as anybody to go all the way this year.

Good luck to a tremendous bunch of young ladies several of whom I had a chance to talk to at the concession stand after the game. They represent Alexandria well!

Photos: Ashley Holmes fires off a rocket; Cardinals celebrate first goal; Abby Williams, Annie Schleper, and Ashley Holmes pause for a picture after the game. All three girls attended tryouts for the under-18 national team in Lake Placid, New York. Annie made the team and helped win the world championship for the US earlier this month in Calgary.

Now here's the Cub's report: Note that he was kind enough to include the final score.
The Cards had one of those games that make you appreciate how good they are. Despite being off their game the entire night (they just seemed flat); despite playing against one of the best players in the state, Anne Schleper, a Gopher recruit, who was absolutely terrific; the Cards won the game 3 - 1 in their usual manner: Roadblock was great in goal, Abby, Michelle, and Del scored the goals (in that regard, it was a duplicate of the Bemidji (who also had a great player, Sarah Erickson, heading to the Gophers) game on Saturday). 20 - 1 - 2 now - next game at Fergus Falls on Thursday, and then the final regular season game, and senior night, is next Tuesday against Elk River.

Sevey solves Palatons search

This note from blog researcher Sara Sevey. Thanks Sara!

Sara writes: Here's an answer for John about who else is in the Palatons picture posted on the blog.

Morrie Duenow writes:
Hmmm...interesting. Thanks! The other two besides KB and me are Freddy Dean (Dean Muhelenhardt who originated the group), from Osakis and Darryl Zarn on bass, who replaced Eddie Keller. Greg Seeger and Jim Bachman were no longer with the group at that time, probably around '65??! I have that post card too, along with some other memorabilia and our infamous 45 record!

Hometown humor at AAAA fundraiser

The AAAA Theatre (you know, the old Andria) hosted a sell-out crowd for Hometown Humor, a theatre fundraiser hosted by Harland Angen and Jerry Van Kempen (left). The stars of the show were the Hotdishes (lower right) , Tena and Lena, Skilly and Duff, the Uncommon Scents (above), and Hilda Finkbinder (Kathy Little, George's wife) and Pa.

(Look at the top photo. Excuse me, but the guy, second from right, has to be our classmate Ronnie Olson. Prove me wrong - TB)

Everybody was mightily impressed with the local talent - and if I were a comedian, I would pay Patty Wicken and Vivian Annen to sit in the front row because of their infectious laughter.

Sandy Susag announced that the theatre had raised the $150,000 it was seeking to put a new front on the building and to put A/C in the lobby - Bud Peterson (of SuperValu and County Market fame) was acknowledged, and given a life-time theatre pass, for contributing $50,000.

The continuing renovations have helped a lot, but it would be nice to have a sugar daddy (or mommy) step forward to build a new auditorium.

All photos by the Echo.

Alex 3, Bemidji 2

Hockey mom Deb Paulzine called in the score from Bemidji this afternoon. We don't have scoring details. It's a big win - Bemidji is a class AA school and has a player, Sarah Erickson, Alex Coach Mitch Loch thinks may be the best in the state. Erickson and Anne Schleper, St. Cloud Icebreaker star both played on the USA Under-18 team that won the world championship in Canada over the holidays. Erickson and Schleper will play for the Gophers next year. The team's record is 19-1-2, with only three regular season games left.

Last night was Danielle Justice's birthday - Happy Birthday, Roadblock!

Action photos submitted to blog

Tom Obert writes:

If there's one thing the blog has done (OK, the blog has done a lot of things, and we can't thank the Trailboss enough), it has inspired photo-journalism from all over the area. And I love receiving them! But they all seem to have better equipment than me? Today, Shanee' Herd's mom, Marnee', sent the following photos from the Alex-Breck girls hockey game back on December 22 .The photos (click to enlarge) are of Abby Williams, No 3; Shanee' Herd, No. 40 (still can't believe she's just a 7th-grader, who scored her first goal against Willmar last night on a terrific individual move and shot), and Danielle Justice, No. 1, the goalie who shut out Breck. The Cards are wearing their new black (visitors) uniforms - "makes 'em look tough!"

Of course, they don't look quite as tough in these uniforms:

Girls getting a little loose; win 5-4

By Tom Obert
Cub Reporter
The Alexandria girls hockey team traveled to River Lakes last night and came away with a 5 - 4 victory locking up the Central Lakes Conference championship. Congratulations to the team in meeting one of their pre-season goals. Their record is now 18-1-2, and they have four more games left in the regular season - only one at home, the season finale against Elk River - before the sectional tournaments begin. They will be the No. 1 seed in Section 6A.

Now I know what you're saying - 4 goals? Listening to Dave Harris on the radio, he was similarly flabbergasted. Alex had a 5 - 1 lead with less than 5 minutes to play in the game. River Lakes then scored 3 goals in about 2 minutes. That is the first time all year the Cards have allowed more than 2 goals in a game.

But for some reason, River Lakes, though they have a losing record, always plays us tough. Kathryn DelZoppo said in a post-game interview that the team got a little loose at the end - and that they better tighten it up again for Saturday's game at Bemidji, which has one of the best players in the state, Sarah Erickson, who was also on the USA Under-18 team.

It is not too late to get Lorlee's calendar

Have you ever wanted to have a calander with your classmate's work in it? Here is you chance.

This is the link to the National Park Service calendar with the Lorlee Bartos prize-winning photo featured on a previous blog. The artist is quite pleased with the presentation in the calendar. It is only $6.50 and the government even pays the postage [your tax dollars at work]. Classmates have until November to get them hanging on your walls when Lorlee will be making a tour of the country to check up on you.

http://bookstore.gpo.gov/actions/GetPublication.do?stocknumber=024-005-01257-5 Lorlee

Bill Donley was a gamer -- scammer too

A chilled but nostalgic Rick Beresford writes:

As the temperature drops dramatically here in the frozen northland, the pond-hockey tournament has returned to Lake Nokomis, bringing back lots of memories to the hockey-playing lad trapped inside this aging body. Tonight I'm thinking of the hockey heroes that I got to play with as a seventh grader in Alexandria.

Hockey was not an official school sport in the early sixties, so if a guy wanted to letter in a sport during the winter, he'd go out for basketball or wrestling. Hockey was only for guys (or for the odd girl like my sister, Heather) that loved the game. I got to play for the team starting in seventh grade and was pretty much in awe of the older guys....like Steve Longfellow, who would show up for games driving his '39 Cadillac, Jon "Boom Boom" Susag, and Gentleman Bill Donley, one of the best defensemen I ever played with.

I often wonder how many guys from Alex played hockey beyond high school. This August, when I was in Alex, I was fortunate to see Paul Donley, who tells this great story about his big brother, Bill.

Shell game

After high school, Bill was a student athlete at Concordia in Moorhead. He played football, but his real love was hockey. Back then, of course, all the games were played at an outdoor rink. So on one occasion, Paul had gone to Moorhead to watch Bill play a home game for Concordia. Bill was always a "gamer" and played hockey the way it should be played. During one of the early periods, Bill started checking another player other hard, and before too long they were in a pretty good fight.

The ref threw Bill out of the game. Since he wasn't allowed on the bench, he stood on a snowbank by his brother, Paul, until the end of the period. Then Bill dragged Paul to the locker room, and ordered Paul to put on Bill's sweater with the No. 48 on it. Obediently, Paul suited up wearing Bill's hockey sweater, wool hat and helmet. Bill put on a sweater with a different number. When they returned to the ice, Paul stood as the ejected player confined to the snowbank, while Bill played the rest of the game with his new number, undetected by the ref!

Now that's a guy who loves the game!

Paul says Bill is STILL playing hockey out east somewhere. Bill's team recently won its senior men's league championship.

Rick Beresford

PS...can you be a cub reporter when you're reporting sports news from 40 years ago?

(TB says: There is an opening for cub archivist and it pays the same as cub reporter.)

Stan sings: I just don't look good naked anymore!

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20071221/MULTIMEDIA/283841756

Here in the Land of Enchantment again

New Mexico, Harland and Carolyn Hoffland's "Land of Enchantment" hosted our tour through the spectacular Carlsbad Caverns. Since this is the "off season" all we saw for people were a few Canadians, spending their strong dollars.

The cave holds a constant 57 degrees, and our advanced age entitled us to a nice discount. It was well-worth the boring travel stretch through the Texas panhandle, interrupted by a fabulous dip through the Lorlee Bartos "Palo Duro" canyon.

More photos, details at http://www.rolfsruds.blogspot.com/

Looking at tomorrow

The Cardinal goalie of the future and Sue Engstrom's close personal friend, seventh-grader Jessi Larum, here photographed with a beaming Ruthie, is the heir apparent to Danielle "Roadblock" Justice. Jessi is the starting goalie now on the Junior Varsity team, which has been doing quite well lately. Jessi was also the one who hammed it up for the Alex fans in Detroit Lakes last weekend.

The Palatons

John Herdan writes:

Here's a blast from the past. The Palatons. I was cleaning out a box and came across this picture. In case you don't recognize him, K.B. (Karl) Tegland is second from the right. That's Morris Duenow on the right. Does anybody remember the other two guys?

My sympathies to K.B. on the recent loss of his mom.

Road warriors continue streak, home at last

Exciting overtime win last night
By Tom Obert
Cub Reporter
The Alex girls hockey team returned home last night after a month on the road - a span of 5 games, all wins, and only ONE total goal allowed - to face their conference arch nemesis, the St. Cloud Tech Tigers.
In a game way too exciting for the Diehard Fans, the Cards won 2 - 1, in overtime! The Cards controlled the game all the way but, as in the first game with Tech, a 1 - 1 tie, they could not get the puck past the terrific Tigers goalie.
Because of that frustration, the Cards too many times were caught, up ice, allowing the Tigers several odd man rushes that were stymied by our own superior goaltender, Roadblock Justice. This has been a great series - Tech dominated the conference for years - until the last three when the Cardinals won the conference. As I recall, all the games between the two teams over the last several years have ended in scores of 1 - 0, 1 - 1, or 2 - 1. Last night, Michelle Anez, a sophomore forward who most certainly must be a Division 1 prospect, scored in the first period . . . and then again, unassisted, in the late stages of the overtime for the winning goal.

We received a call from new Diehard Fan, Mike Shaughnessy, when we got home. After the fans had celebrated the varsity win with the best burgers and coldest beer in town, the Shaughnessy returned to the rink to watch some of the JV game. Mike is a substitute teacher and now knows many of the girls on the team. He reported the JV beat Tech 3 - 2 on a late goal. The JVers, mostly 8th-graders, have been on quite a streak themselves lately!

Cub screws up again
The Cub Reporter has to admit to a professional faux pas (a salary reduction by the Trailboss would be appropriate here). When Michelle scored the winning goal, the entire team, of course, poured onto the ice and formed a big pile in front of the Tech goal. I was just madly cheering like everyone else. Finally, other Diehards yelled at me, "Tom, Tom, get a picture!" By then it was too late.

Pausing on the way to AZ

The trailboss is reporting in from Carlsbad, New Mexico, about to enter Karl's Bad Caverns, as we used to say. Just a note to let you know we'll continue the posting to the boomer blog after a short hiatus. We're on our way to the house in Arizona and this time we have the trusty PC packed inside, so we'll be back on line shortly.
Please. No need to mount another "bring back the blog" campaign, Mr. Obert.
Weather is nice, we got out just ahead of the cold snap. Crossed the high plains yesterday through Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. Helps you remember what a big country this is and the depth of its resources. Cotton, oil, peanuts, pecans, cattle, goats, winter wheat, potash, salt and something called "caleche." All this along the road side. And, of course, Texas has the tallest cross in the western hemisphere.
And yes, Lorlee, we went through the spectacular Palo Duro Canyon. Photos later. This motel has what may be the world's slowest PC.
Now we'll see what a sixty-year-old can get in the way of senior discounts as we enter elder country.

Alex may have best goalie in state

Roadblock pitches another shutout

By Tom Obert
Cub Reporter
Danielle Justice stopped 30 shots last night as the Cards beat the Brainerd Warriors in Brainerd by the score of 5 - 0. The win improves the Cards overall record to 13-1-2 and, we believe, gives Danielle the best record among all goalies in the state. Her save percentage now is almost .970, as she has given up only 12 goals in the team's 16 games. Next up is at Detroit Lakes tomorrow afternoon, and it appears that at least three Diehard Fans couples will be making the trip up Highway 10 for the game.

The Annens had planned on making the trip to Brainerd last night but were fogged out. They did go to the Sartell game last Thursday, where the cub reporter-in-training got an extended visit with Card coach Mitch Loch. Unfortunately, as a relatively new stringer, he did not advise the coach about the possibility of being "on the record." But there was some inforfmation we can share that I don't believe will violate the reporter-coach privilege . . .

Coach Loch believes we will still have a very competitive team next year despite the loss of this year's senior class - there are lots of junior high kids contributing now and there are two goalies coming up he likes. He attributes the young crop of upcoming players to the senior class role models - this is how one starts a tradition, right? He likes being an unknown team in the metro area at tournament time, and he likes scheduling tough teams from outstate Minnesota for team development purposes. He confirmed what we thought - that the ice was "slushy" at the state tournament last year, to our team's detriment. And Bob asked Mitch to name his favorite game as the coach - he agreed with us, the 2 -1, double overtime, win over Totino-Grace in the section finals two years ago when the Toft twins, on their 18th birthday, combined to score both goals, and both teams had absolutely nothing left in their tanks at the end of the game.

Hoar flocks Alex again

In a transparent attempt to push the trailboss' turkey reference down and off the blog, the Cub has submitted a flood of gorgeous examples of today's hoarfrost on the trees around Alexandria. His earlier hoary photographs have received raves from blog fans. We chose these. The red brick building is the old Douglas County courthouse, a fine example of period architecture. Is it on the National Register of Historic Places?

Report from Class of '66 luncheon

Dear Trailboss,

The JHS Class of '65 has set a torrid pace for other classes to match. Your 40th Reunion set such a high bar, that the following class (of '66) didn't even dare hold a reunion in 2006! Maybe it was your advanced website technology that intimidated us! At any rate, we're now trying to catch up.

A couple of weeks ago, a very small gathering of classmates from Class of '66 met for lunch at the Hotel Sofitel in Bloomington. We had certainly hoped for more, but due to the busyness of the season and the geographic disbursement of classmates, the two or three mass invitations sent out by Jerry Teeson drew few positive responses. Now that was unfortunate, because the five who made it had a great time!
Pictured, left to right, are Jerry Teeson, currently working in commercial real estate; Sheri Platto, who manages a retirement community called Becketwood; Rick Beresford, in Human Resources with Wells Fargo; Carol (Engstrom) Lussier, a music teacher at Breck School (son was co-captain of his football team this year!); Bob Johnson, business manager for the St. Olaf choirs (his wife directs one of the choirs).

Although the three guys had met together at our annual Guy's Christmas lunch just a week before, it was fun to catch up on everyone's families and activities. We even made a weak attempt to avoid political discussions! But the most hilarious of all was hearing Bob and Jerry recount the tales of their for-profit carnival that they schemed up back in 4th grade held in Johnson's side yard at 10th and Cedar!! Bob still has the contract that he negotiated with KCMT TV station for advertising the carnival at 5:30 each day immediately following Kiddy Carnival and right before the national news! What a prime spot! And the price?? "For $1 from the proceeds...if there are any."

Well, it seems that many kids from the area brought money-making acts to the carnival. I'm still chuckling about Mike Geiser's...his very popular entry was the Lord's Prayer written on the head of a pin! Only 25 cents for a peek through a microscope! Another year he had a booth where you could actually view dressed fleas!

The stories about all the things we did as kids in Alex reminded us of our good fortune to have been able to grow up in Alex, or in my case, at least for a few very good years.

Respectfully submitted,
Rick Beresford

I recognize Obert,

but who are the others?

Led by a big Tom, three wild turkeys strolled through the trailboss's Shakopee back yard this morning. A startled Mrs. Trailboss almost dropped her waffles. By the time the trailboss was locked and loaded, the trio, ever wary, was headed for better pickings on No. 13. Today's fog gave the shy ones courage.

John Herdan got all tingly over this. . .

Dear Stan,
December 19-21 my son David and I attended the Midwest Band Clinic and the Hilton Hotel in Chicago. We met everybody who is anybody in the band world.
One of the coolest people we saw was the beatbox flute player. He beat boxes while playing "Inspector Gadget" on the flute. We watched him perform and then got to talk to him afterwards.
(Editor's note: John asked me to embed the video of the beatbox flute player from You Tube. Unfortunately, the artist has blocked that. But you can go directly to You Tube and look up "beatbox flute." I did, however, find a totally unrelated clip of a beatbox parrot who isn't so fussy about his image. So here it is, totally for your amusement. Sorry John.)



On Friday as we were getting near the end of our stay and a guy walked up out of nowhere and handed me a sample book and said, "Here, take one of these. I don't want to haul them all the way back to New York." Imagine my surprise when I realized it was a copy of "The New Bennett Band Book."

New light on the Alexandria rouser
(Are you still reading this, Patty Wicken?)
Rewind back to the controversy about the Alexandria School Song and how I said it was "College Boy" and it came from the Bennett Band Book. Trust me, the very first thing I did was rip through the book looking for it. I was disappointed not to find it. However, I did send an e-mail to the arranger of the book, Larry Clark, at Carl Fischer Music.
Today I got a reply.
"College Boy" is on the list of songs to be rewritten in the next edition of the book and will be available again sometime in the next two years. We could get a complete set of parts of the original now from the Carl Fischer archives but because it would involve lots of copying the cost would be around $100. I told Larry we'd wait till he was done with the new arrangement. He did, however, offer to sent me the condensed conductor's score of the original which I should be getting in the next few days.
College Boy lives! Look for updates.

One other thing. If any other of our classmates graduated from The University of Minnesota, Morris besides Lorlee, you recently received the alumni newsletter with the list of donors for the last year. On the front cover is a picture of a group of students in a classroom. The big head in the front is my son Michael who started student teaching today. At the end of this year Michael graduates for real from UMM, my daughter Katie graduates from UW River Falls, and my twins graduate from Cathedral all within a two week period of time. There will be a graduation blow out in Alexandria this summer. Watch this space for further announcements.

John Herdan

New photos arrive from slim Jim Clifford

Jim Clifford writes:

I winced once again upon seeing my former image under the caption "gonzo journalist." I have no objection to the title, which I agree I've earned through careful but frequent discharges of hedonistic impulses. However, I have regenerated myself in a healthier and less burdened appearance in recent times. I thought I should submit a revised set of photos in case you wish to update the site.

As the website matures because we all have, at least in the chronological sense, it is interesting to note the retirement references. For my part, retirement saved my life! When it was suddenly thrust upon me, I wondered what I would do with work-related issues that cluttered my life to the point that there was little else to focus on. It turns out that hobbies, my family and a whole world of experiences were waiting to lay claim to positions they always should have had.

I wish only the best for my classmates in '08.

(Good to hear from you, Jim. We'll update the gonzo file when we get to it. This whole site needs a new look for 2008. By the way, is there any significance to the term "WACKO" on the side of the kayak? --TB)

Jim clarifies: The word "Wacko" on the kayak actually stands for "Western Arizona Kayak/Canoe Organization". Darn, it was a fine legend as long as it lasted! The golf photo was taken in October in Parker, Arizona, where my favorite golf course, or certainly one of them, is located. The Kayak and I spent an afternoon together on Lake Havasu, Arizona, one of my favorite places.

Billie Jo was there too

From Tom Obert. . . So, as I was walkng back up the aisle during intermission, someone grabbed my wrist and hauled me backwards. The person at the other end of that grasp said, "Hi, I'm Billie Jo." Darned if she wasn't! I'm pretty sure that's the first time we'd seen each other since high school (I have limited memories of past reunions). We had a nice chat during the entire intermission - meaning I never did get to the lobby to pee and get a cookie (Ruthie got two!). Billie Jo said her computer recently died, so I guess I can safely blame her for causing me that anguish.

. . . anyway, we thought Mahar was terrific - performing as part of the AAAA's Music on Broadway series. We had mentioned to Dr. Kiehne, of Austin, Texas, just the day before that Mahar had reached a level of fame and fortune on Austin City Limits.

Photo: Bonita, Byron, Billie Jo

Cardinals calm the Storm, 9-1

By Tom Obert
Cub Reporter

The Alexandria girls hockey team, which last played on December 22, beat the Sartell/Sauk Rapids Sabre Storm 9 - 1 tonight at Sartell. The concern of the Diehard Fans about the long layoff, with players sitting home in the midst of with Christmas cookies, pizza, and lefse, proved to be groundless.


The Cards, who are now 12-1-2 for the season and 8-0-1 in the conference, now have another week off before they play at Brainerd next Thursday. Tonight's star was sophomore forward, Michelle Anez, (right) who had what coach Mitch Loch called a "playmaker" (a term this reporter has never heard before), with 3 goals and 3 assists. Dave Harris, voice of the Cardinals, was back on the mike tonight for KXRA after a month of golf in Arizona.

The cub reporters-in-training, Bob and Vivian Annen, allegedly were going to the road game tonight - further reports from them will be forwarded if newsworthy. THE cub reporters were obliged to stay in Alex tonight to entertain out-of-town guest, Professor Doctor Colonel Tom Kiehne, who is heading back to Austin, Texas tomorrow after a visit home to check on his parents.

Ole Bobbleheads gone, dish rags, wings too

Californian on Christmas tour reports missing items

My northern California sister Solveig "Sam" Rolfsrud Shearer spent a short week with our mother in Alexandria this year and produced numerous reports of her experiences. Here's one you may enjoy:

The Runestone Museum gift shop was open for a quick visit the day after Christmas. I asked the new proprietress for a couple bobbleheads and she said they are no longer available. "That wasn't the best deal ever made with China," she said, "we had to sell them for $20 to make a profit and people only want to pay $10. No, no more of those." I asked if she had something that could only be purchased at her gift shop, and she produced a dish towel with Big Ole carefully embroidered by two local sisters, who sell this item exclusively to the shop, but she only had two of them. One is mine and the other goes to a friend. More dish towels will be available when I return to the shop on March 8.

Then I asked my every-visit question, "Do you have a license plate holder that says 'Alexandria, MN, Birthplace of America?' That would be an exclusive to this shop too." She said no, she didn't, but that was a good idea, which is what every clerk has ever told me. But this woman thought about it.

"You know, next year is our 50th anniversary. Maybe that would be a good item. Wonder how many we should order?" I said I would surely be back to buy a few, that I knew I could order a custom license plate holder from the Internet, but I'd rather wait to buy one from the actual birthplace. She took my name and phone number and will call me when they are available.

We had a good chat then about Ole and his maintenance. "This is a good time to get a picture of him. He doesn't have his wings on his helmet. One wing fell halfway off and we had to get a crane to go up there to get it, so we took them both off to get repainted. This is the only time to get a picture of him without his wings." (see attached pictures, somewhat exclusive). I asked why the helmet has wings and not horns, but she doesn't know that story. She did know a lot of stories about expensive things that happen to Ole, like the year his Santa suit caught on fire.

"Yeah, we don't have to keep him heated, but he costs a lot to maintain. You would be surprised."

So that's what I know from Ole for now. No wings, no horns, and no bobbleheads.

(Obert - how cum you can't get scoops like these? TB)

The Cub replies: I seem to remember filing a story last May and submitting this photograph of a one-winged Ole.

(Sorry -- TB)