The daughters of '65

Lynn Dietz Jorgenson took this last month. It is of some of hers and Kathy's daughters. What a lovely bunch!

Julie Jorgenson, Jenny Skadsberg Woodson, Katie Jorgenson, Stephanie Skadsberg Lutz.

Alert from Al

In his never-ending quest to help out the Class of '65, Underclassman Al Grundei has sent along this warning for those of you who collect coins.


MINNESOTA QUARTERS ALERT (IMPORTANT)
Hang on to any of the new Minnesota Quarters you may acquire. They may be worth MUCH MORE than 25 cents! The US Mint announced today that it is recalling all of the Minnesota quarters that are part of its program featuring quarters from each state. This action is being taken after numerous reports that the new quarters will not work in parking meters, toll booths, vending machines, pay phones or any other coin-operated devices. The problem lies in the unique makeup of the Minnesota quarter, which was designed by a couple of Norwegian specialists, Ole and Lena. Apparently the duct tape holding the two dimes and the nickel together keeps jamming up the machines.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all, including the trailboss that we haven't seen around for a while since he headed south with the snowbirds. Come on and send us a note, Stan. JeffHi1965@gmail.com 
We looked for your picture on your data library, but this is the only picture we could find. Hope you like it.
Bobby

Keeping an eye on the granddaughter

A Northern Minnesota Draft Horse event, held this fall near Sauk Centre on her childhood chum's farm, resulted in this surprise picture for Kathy Skadsberg. Look closely and you'll see grandma and grandchild in the horse eye.
You may not know this, but Skadsberg lived in Sauk for five years before moving back to Alex at age 7.

Thanks for the great photos, Kathy. Reminds us of Lorlee's rear-view mirror shot. And what a sweet grandchild with the straw in her blonde hair! This blog needs more pictures of grandchildren! Who's next?

Looking for something to do this Christmas?

Dave Overly '65, (pictured) suggests you drive north. uff da

Now send me your favorite Ole and Lena joke:

Bob Watson

jeffhi1965@gmail.com

Thelma Christenson, 83

You have been sent this article from John Herdan
Bud Christensen's wife, Janet's ('67) mom, and JHS teacher.

- 11/18/2009

Thelma Jessie Christenson, 83, Glenwood, died Friday, November 13, 2009, at her home. A memorial service will be held Thursday, November 19 at 3 p.m. at Glenwood Lutheran Church in Glenwood with the Rev. Krista Lee officiating. 
 Thelma was born November 6, 1926 in Glenwood, the first child of Olof G. and Frances M. (Hughes) Hausken. She was baptized and confirmed at Glenwood Lutheran Church and was a member of Glenwood Lutheran Church at the time of her death. Thelma sang soprano in the Glenwood High School choir and quartet and graduated as valedictorian of her class. 
She attended St. Olaf College in Northfield and was one of very few to sing with the St. Olaf Choir for all four years of her college tenure. Thelma graduated from St. Olaf Collage magna cum laude in 1948 with a double major in chemistry and mathematics. She taught briefly in Sisseton, SD in 1948, before marrying L.E. “Bud” Christenson, her high school sweetheart, on January 29, 1949 at Glenwood Lutheran Church. 
Thelma and Bud lived in Echo for two years and then moved to Hector, where Thelma taught chemistry until 1957. Thelma finished her teaching career at the Alexandria high school, where she taught mathematics for 20 years. Thelma was a long-time member of the Euterpean Club, Sweet Adelines and sang in the First Lutheran and Calvary Lutheran Church choirs in Alexandria, where she and her family were members. Beginning at age 10, she was a soloist at church services, weddings and funerals all over the area. Thelma also sang in many musical productions, including singing the lead as Marian the Librarian in the local production of the musical “The Music Man.”
 She was a kind, gentle and patient teacher, wife, mother, sister, aunt and friend. Thelma is survived by her four children, Janet (John II) Rahm of North Oaks, Steven (Sally) Christenson of Holmes City, Ruth Christenson of Kandiyohi, and Peter Christenson of Nelson; two grandsons, John H. (Kelsi) Rahm III and Peter A. Christenson II; great-granddaughter, Freya L Rahm; sister, Nola (Jerry) Mathre of Rockport, TX; brother, Chester “Chet” (Irene) Hausken of Yakima, WA; sisters-in-law, Velva Jo Hausken of Stillwater, Arnell Christenson of Foley, and LaVonne (Herman) Talle of Anoka; a brother-in-law, Rolf (Marlene) Mohwinkel of Buffalo; special friend, Pat Kelleher of Glenwood and his family; as well as many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband of 52 years, Bud; brother, Walter “Bud” Hausken; brother-in-law, W. Leslie Christenson; sister-in-law, LaVine Mohwinkel; and two nieces, Miriam “Mimi” Greening and Ann Talle. 
Thelma’s family wishes to thank the staff of Glenwood Estates and Pope County Hospice for their loving care of Thelma and for supporting the family. The family respectfully requests memorials be directed to Pope County Hospice, 10 SE 4th Ave, Glenwood, MN 56334. Online condolences to the family may be directed to www.hoplinhitchcockfuneralhome.com. Arrangements are with the Hoplin-Hitchcock Funeral Home in Glenwood. A00009B2009NV18

Ahlfors reads this blog in Texas

Cub Reporter Tom Obert files this:

Ran into Jim Ahlfors ('66) last night - well, actually he ran into me.  Anyway, Jim lives in San Antonio and was in Alex visiting his mom.  He said I was "59," meaning I was the 59th person he'd run into since he'd been here.  We started reminiscing, of course, and I mentioned our 1962 state runner-up VFW baseball team.  Jim said, "Waseca."  That's where it was played, and we lost the championship game to Bloomington, 12 - 0.  I struck out to end the game.  I had few strengths as a ballplayer, but one of them was I didn't strike out much.  The ump called me out on a pitch that was 6" outside - it was hot and he wanted to end the inevitable.  That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

 

Ruthie & I drove home from Indiana last Christmas during a snow and ice storm.  We decided to get off the interstates and take the safer, less traveled, back roads home.  We ended up going through Waseca.  In my first visit there since 1962, I reprised my batting stance from our "field of dreams" on Christmas Day, 2008.

 

p.s.  Jim regularly reads our blog.  Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of him.  I had my press credentials revoked as a result of shoddy, incomplete coverage of the Alex-Sartell section final football game.

A nice note from a young reader

Hi,

Inspired by finding your 65roundup.blogspot.com blog during a search for Alexandria information, the class of 1974 now has a blog too.  I love reading yours and getting perspectives from the older Cardinals of Jefferson.  It's great that you get submissions and photos from classmates! 

Our blog is just getting off the ground - being fledgling Cardinals of course.  The address ishttp://keepontruckin1974.blogspot.com

We had our 35th reunion this summer at Interlachen- and there were choruses of "We should get together more often." Maybe a blog can make that easier for the planners!

Good luck on your 45th! 

Taryn Nelson Flolid

Class of 1974

As an "older Cardinal", thanks for the note. We'll be watching your site with interest. Enjoyed the part about Washington Elementary being converted into homes for seniors. Not sure if any of our class is quite ready, but who knows.

Bob

Underclassman takes up challenge

Al Grundei didn't take long to reply to our challenge to name all the cars in the photo below. Did he get them all right? Isn't it amazing how you can tell the difference in makes from that far away? Can't do that now.

Lower right  Northbound - 1956 Buick

Northbound in intersection – 1962 Pontiac

Under the bank sign eastbound  -  1962 Edsel

Westbound at light -  1960 Ford

Westbound parked  1962 Chevy

Northbound  parked– first station wagon – 1960 Chevy

Northbound parked second station wagon  -1955 Ford

Northbound parked behind the light in front of Kolstads - unknown

Northbound parked 1960 Mercury

Northbound parked 1958 Chevy

Northbound pickup is 1955 – 1958 Chevy – they all look same from the back

Southbound car in intersection is 1961 Olds F-85

Southbound car behind light looks like 1962 Rambler

The lady in white appears to be sending a text message to Mr. Obert.

Name these cars, Grundei

Okay Underclassman Grundei: Here's another shot sent to us from Tom Obert. His Dad is looking down on Broadway in 1963, standing over Seeger's, waiting for young Tom to come out. That's Woolworth's over there on the other side down the block. Look closely, that's me, jumping from building to building, being chased by the cops. Now what are the cars in this photo? Guess all of them, including the Edsel over by First National. That's a Buick approaching the intersection. We need make and year. Grundei, you were an eighth-grader then, right? Did you smoke yet?
Bob Watson
Chairman

Answers to the quiz

Al Grundei (class of '67 - Stan calls him an underclassman) has the correct answer to the car quiz in the photo sent in by Obert. The cars are, 

Left to right

1958 Chevy

1954 Plymouth

1959 Chrysler

(And the parking meter has 30 minutes left on it.)

Some of you may remember the big debate between diagonal and parallel parking on Broadway. The city council kept changing its mind and moving the meters so somebody designed a parking meter with a suction cup on the bottom.

Three generations of Overlys

Bob, Let's get it going!

Here is a picture of my wife, Brenda, with our daughter, Lizzie, and grandchildren, Emma, Abe, Kayley, and Stevie.  Taken in Brookings, SD on a recent visit.

Cheers,
David Overly

This is Broadway in 1960. Cool cars

Tom Obert sent us this picture of his Dad standing on Broadway sometime around 1960. Here is a test. What car models are in the parking spots? Mr. Obert is standing outside of Engstrom Furniture, just down from Osterberg's. See Herberger's on the other side? Thanks, Tom. Tom also sent some sports reports of the Alexandria Cardinals. Does everybody want to have reports of the games on this blog? Let me know. Dave Overly sent some pictures of him with the grandkids but we're having technical difficulties with that one. Keep the stuff coming at JeffHi1965@gmail.com


Bob

James Olson

Sent in by John Herdan, thank you John. This is Charlie Olson's brother.


James Olson, 55
- 11/06/2009

James “Jim” Edward Olson, 55, Alexandria, died October 30, 2009. Jim was born February 4, 1954 in Glenwood to Raymond and Lorraine (Krook) Olson. He was raised in Glenwood and later moved to Alexandria, where he graduated from Jefferson High School. 
Jim began a career as a truck driver. His work was his favorite hobby. Jim drove a truck for his father’s produce company, Olson’s Produce. He especially enjoyed over-the-road trucking to California, his favorite destination state. On April 11, 1981 Jim was united in marriage to LuWanna Muzik at Calvary Lutheran Church in Alexandria. The couple made their home in Alexandria where they established the Jim Olson Trucking Company.
 From age 12, Jim battled with Crohn’s disease. For three years during his career the disease disabled him. He continued to suffer complications from the disease for the rest of his life. In February 2008 Jim was permanently disabled from complications due to an infection from a broken arm. He spent two months in Innovis Hospital and several more in a nursing home trying to recover from the damage done by the infection. After returning home, his daughter, 
Shannon Olson, his son, Shawn Olson, and Kori Walker became Jim’s fulltime caregivers. Jim enjoyed ice fishing, creating latch hook rugs and building model airplanes. He spent many years working at Viking Speedway where he maintained the condition of the track. He sponsored several race cars over the years including his son Shawn’s #32, brother-in-law Ryan’s #23, and nephews, Dallas’ #1G and Brock’s #2G. 
He also sponsored his son Jamie’s snowmobile #223. His father, Raymond Olson, a brother-in-law, Tommy Muzik, and a nephew, Mark McDonald, preceded him in death. Jim is survived by his wife, LuWanna Olson of Alexandria; mother, Lorraine Olson of Alexandria; three sons, Bobby Olson and wife, Shawn, of Brandon, Jamie Olson of Alexandria and Shawn Olson of Bloomington; daughter, Shannon Olson of Alexandria; four grandchildren, Casey Deleski, Gavin Olson, Corbin Olson and Luca Olson; two brothers, Charles Olson and wife, Mary, of Alexandria and David Olson of Alexandria; two sisters, Sandra Erickson and husband, Dennis, of Baxter, and Glenice Vipond and husband, Robert, of Alexandria; many nieces and nephews.
 A funeral service was held November 3 at Calvary Lutheran Church. The Rev. Mark Astrup officiated. Leah Gulbrandson and Janice Doebber provided music. Jim’s nephew, Cory Olson, did special readings. Interment followed at Evergreen Cemetery in Alexandria. Casket bearers included Rony Muzik, Mike Muzik, Dillon Gulbrandson, Jeff Ekdahl, Travis Vanderby, Cory Olson, Randy McDonald and Bruce Smith. Honorary casket bearers included all of Jim’s nieces, nephews and grandchildren. Arrangements are with Anderson Funeral Home in Alexandria; www.andersonfuneral.net. A00009B2009NV06

An email from John H.

Bob,

This is great !  This is the best thing I've seen since sliced bread and my dad had a bakery.  Keep it up Bob!  It's about time someone put the Trailboss in his place.

John Herdan
St. Cloud Correspondent

Under new management

Hello, my name is Bob Watson. I am the chairman of the Committee in charge of the 2010 Reunion of the Class of 1965. Stan Rolfsrud used to run this web site. He stopped by to see me in Omaha on his way to Mexico or something in a really small RV. My daughter, Melissa, is a pretty sharp computer guru and she hacked the password to this boomer blog and has now changed it so Stan can't get back on. He's out of the country anyway. Funny yes? I had to do something to stop all this misinformation getting out about my management of the reunion and putting on my dorky class picture.
So I am going to be running this blog now(thanks to Melissa)and Stan can just watch. We're going to straighten out some of the information that he's been posting on here.
You may have already noticed that so far I haven't made any spelling mistakes and if you are my classmate you may wonder how that can be. Well, I not only have spell checker but again my daughter Melissa is typing for me, whatever I dictate. I have never run a computer in my life and don't intend to start now.
But I do intend to run a good reunion, I can promise you that. There's not going to be any after dinner speaker, I don't know what Stan was talking about. I don't have a Nash Rambler and I made it way past Forada. There's no Woodtick Lodge anymore on Lake Darling that I know of and I would never have an office on the second floor anyway since I don't do stairs much.
Melissa has also set up a new email address that Stan can't control. Nobody was sending him much good stuff anyway. He can use it to write to me if he doesn't like it. So now is the time to get things really going on this blog. Let's start checking in. Let me know if you're on board. Send some updates on what you've been doing lately to
JeffHi1965@gmail.com
We'll put the stuff on. Melissa will edit your stuff too. Send some pictures if you know how. If you don't send me anything, I'll have to give this blog back to Stan and he'll start getting things all screwed up again. If you don't send anything I will run pictures of my four grandchildren. Send me pictures of yours. Let's get the show on the road.
Bob

Witches ready, not needed

Sara Sevey writes:

Whew, what a relief Bobby turned up safe and sound. We had our annual Wonderful Witches of the West party tonight and I was going to enlist their help locating him but alas we weren't needed.

Editor's  note: Thanks for the post, Sara. I chased Bobby to Omaha, trying to get an interview, but he was gone fishing. So I continued on to Winslow, Arizona, and am now spending a couple of days golfing in Mesa with friends. When I get to Tucson, I will resume regular posting.

Got some good pix.