Bulletin 397 January 24, 2010

I just received a letter from Dell that says my new computer was sent to the shipping department Thursday. They set a new date of arrival -- Wednesday, the 27th. Rich Weiland has gotten a copy of their letter. Our plans are for him to come on Thursday and set my system up and he will also put in a memory card for Don.

So we hope to be back to business as usual next week, if Rich can find an intact copy of the mailing list in the old machine. But in the meantime, the way to find The Bulletin is on the web. If you know subscribers who might not find it on their own, please send them a note.

I was going to ask you about The Bulletin, and now I know!

Thanks for the update!

Bridget Larson
Ashby, MN

I actually prefer reading The Bulletin through the link on the archives. It's such a large file that sometimes my inbox goes over the limit. It's the highlight of Saturday morning so I never miss it!

I was sorry to read about both of your computers. We've crashed several computers through the years and it's always a painful experience to get a new computer set up and recover all the lost files.

Let's Play a Guessing Game: Whenever it is handy to do so, we will run a picture of someone of the subscribers or staff members of our e-magazine. Tell us who you think it is -- we will let you know who was the first to guess it right -- and the correct guess -- in the following week's Bulletin.

(Send us some to run; we will line them up in our staging area to take their turn. Gert Dake Pettit supplied last week's mystery photo.

Editors' Note: Correct guesses appear in bold face type and incorrect guesses in normal type ... generally in the order we receive them, so the first guess received is on top.

The mystery picture is my Grandfather Miller, Aunt Lenore and Uncle Henry [Pfingsten]. What great memories this picture triggers!

Shari Miller Larson
Litchfield Park, AZ

The photo is of Uncle Henry (Pfingsten) and Aunt Lenore (Miller Pfingsten) and Grandpa (Bill) Miller. Where it was taken, I haven't a clue!

The picture is of my parents, Henry and Lenore Pfingsten, and grandfather, John W. Miller. I think it was taken in fall of 1976, and not too long before he died, which was in January of 1977. I keep this picture in my Bible. It brings back some very precious memories.

Well, Thanks for the "mystery" in the last Bulletin! I was very touched because it brings back lots of thoughts about my family. The picture was made on December 27, 1976, at Lenore and Henry Pfingsten's dinner table.

Dad [John W. Miller] had not been too well and was staying with Lenore and Henry. Dad went to the hospital on the next Friday, December 31st, for hernia surgery on January 6th. He passed away January 16, 1977.

I felt such nostalgia as I saw the GUESS picture this time. Dear Lenore was a very good friend, also Henry Pfingsten, and Lenore's dad, Billy Miller, a while before he died. That bowl of healthy fruit on the table looks like Lenore's doings. She was so thin and wiry and happy, although we knew she really didn't feel that way sometimes. A huge family of boys and one girl who became my sister-in-law.

Memory Lane

A series of recollections, of the five years when Bill and Lois Dake and their family lived in Minnesota, began with the episode in Bulletin 343. It's too soon to tell just how many parts there will be in this series, just after World War II. In Bulletin 349, I told more about polio (once called Infantile Paralysis) via two links, Polio and Sister Kenny, to minimize disruption of the narrative flow. Both documents are posted as a series of scanned images. We can't edit them or correct typos and they will not respond to font changes or printer settings as regular Bulletin pages do.

Dorothy Dake, 20, hand tinted portrait, 1946.

Winter In Bemidji
by Dorothy Dake
Howard Lake, MN

Some Weeks Are Astonishing

This week started out like it might be going to be a great one. January is half over and that is pretty good news. The snowstorm that came this week wasn't bad at all. Just enough to make it look freshly white. We usually have lots bigger drifts than this back home after the storms roll on in the winter. And then I got an astonishing letter from LeRoy. It is always nice to hear from them.

LeRoy and Vonnie have been living in Greely, Colorado, for almost five months now. I have heard from them several times since they arrived there. LeRoy accepted the job he had gone there to check out and I understood that farming in Colorado was not like in Minnesota. So much time is spent on irrigation and, of course, the milking operation takes lots of hours on your feet -- it sounds almost like a factory job.

Vonnie is nursing and has shifts that vary so sometimes it gets a bit frustrating for her, too. I can tell, by the detailed reports of her days, that she is finding the work extremely interesting. I knew she would do well, just by her attitude about her field of work. It sounds to me like she likes the baby floor the best -- but she talks lots about the surgery, too.

They have made friends with a young couple from near there -- Ernie and Grace Hayer is their name. It is nice for both couples, as there are not all that many people in that area. They have lots of similar interests and Ernie seems to be a big help to LeRoy, helping him get adjusted to the dry farming winter routine and to the milking that is done in assembly line style. But that is not what the letter was about this time ... as a matter of fact, you might say it is pretty much NOT what it is about.

It seems they got a letter from Ercell Smith (Louella's dad) and he had heard news that he thought they might find of interest. (I think that is probably the understatement of the year.) He has found a farm for the kids to buy. There is a farmer who lives near the Smiths. That is near Collinwood Lake. (You may remember that is south of highway 12 and half way between Dassel and Cokato.)

Anyway, to hurry the story up a bit, Ernie Nyman, who lives near there, has been farming his mother in law's farm for her. She died last winter and Ernie is finding he really wants to sell the farm. So he talked to Ercell, who told him about the kids wanting to get a farm ... and now they are dealing on it. It looks like they will be coming home by March to look it over, and to complete the financial planning that they have been discussing. I would suspect they will bring all of their belongings back with them, as it sounds very much like they will become residents of Meeker County before another three months goes by.

Some Weeks Are Disappointing

Yes, this is the same week I was talking about in the other half of this week's entry. I braved the cold last night after I came home and read the letter from the little table by the door of my rooming house. I just put my coat back on and ran across the street to tell Louella the news. She was home and in her room ... so I knocked and waited for her invitation in.

Well I should have guessed, Louella knew all about the chance of LeRoy and Vonnie coming to live in Meeker County. After all, her dad had been the one who set the whole thing up. She was just not supposed to tell it as her dad thought it was only fair to let LeRoy and Vonnie do their own announcing. BUT that wasn't quite the end of the astonishing news.

Louella informed me that the kids were not the only ones that are going to go home to Meeker County. She informed me that she had just sent off her letter of resignation to the nurses director. She plans on moving home for the summer. I have not officially been told what her intentions are beyond that ... but I have a feeling I will be getting an announcement from her before so very long.

I have to admit I went home feeling pretty low. Things are always changing. Just when you think it is all set for living, you find that time stands still for no one and everything has changed around again! Now what is to be next for me? I WANT TO KNOW!

On Friday we tried to visit a tribal museum that was closed for the holiday -- so we explored a park instead and visited an important Wat (Buddhist temple). The afternoon was sweltering, perfect for cold Thai iced tea. Everyone else indulged in cheap Thai massages, but I elected to shower and read in my air-conditioned room before heading out to the night market for street vendor chicken yellow curry and mango sticky rice for dinner. A medical school friend was celebrating her birthday, so celebrate we did until the late hours. She and the other Baylor crew left early the next morning for Bangkok.

Celebrations & Observances
From the Files of 5
Hetty Hooper

This Week's Birthdays
January 24---Marloes de Been
January 30---Whitney Johnson
January 30---Madilyn Mae Larson (3 years old)
Happy Birthday!

This Week's Anniversaries
January 24---David "Beaver" and Donna Anderson Johnson (16 years)
Congratulations!

More January Birthdays
'
January 3---Brandon Hellevang
January 3---Virginia (Dake) McCorkell
January 4---Harry "Junior" Anderson
January 4---Nathan Hill
January 5---Jayce Michael Chap (11 years old)
January 5---Krista Rae Weiland (10 years old)
January 6---Sean Thomas Cannon (11 years old)
January 6---Kierra Elizabeth Ostendorf (1 year old)
January 7---Logan Benjamin Henderson (2 years old)
January 8---Rosanna Miller
January 8---Lelan Elaine Brown (1 year old)
January 11---Brandon Harvey Lehtola (7 years old)
January 13---Russ Riesenberg
January 15---Shea Ashley Birkholz
January 19---Trevor Jayce Roberson (9 years old)
January 22---Timothy Mellon

January 31---Larry McCorkell

January Anniversaries
Z
January 24---David "Beaver" and Donna Anderson Johnson (16 years)

January Special Days
January 1---New Year's Day
January 18---Martin Luther King Day