Bulletin 399 February 7, 2010

A challenge to CrossWord Fans: Pull The Bulletin CrossWord from [last week's] paper and, using your memory and the Archives Search function, do as many of the missing words as you can in one hour. Only then are you allowed to look and see how well you did.

Last night, I did just that. I was able to find 10 correct entries in that time. Note: number 1 down in the answer would have been DAISY -- which did not fit. The answer key used ROLAND, which really would not be correct ... as Roland was Diana's brother, rather than her mother.

I thought it was great fun!

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. Ginny McCorkell supplied last week's mystery photos.

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.

My guess for the guess picture is that I know for sure the fellow in the gold suit is my brother Don and he maybe told the fellow who is pushing him in the water that he couldn't do it and the fellow proved it. Could it be a Quick man doing the pushing? Looks like Mark Johnson in the water, too. I will get the right answers next week.

I know -- yes, I sure do! It's Grandpa Don being pushed into the water by Charlie Quick!

Lori Chap Ostendorf
Rogers, MN

It looks kind of like a grizzly bear taking on a bee, but more likely it's Donnie and Don!

This is at a family reunion that was held at Uncle Jim and Auntie Blanche's cabin. Charlie Quick is making sure that Dad (Don Anderson) gets a little swim. Little Kimberly Johnson is watching the commotion. Not sure who the fella in the trunks is!

Ahhh I saw that picture in The Bulletin last week and meant to write in my answer, but I completely forgot! Please forgive me for my forgetfulness!

That is my dear grandpa (Don Anderson) and a blur of me (Heidi Johnson) in the pigtails. Looks like Grandpa's about to get wet!

Heidi Anderson Henderson
Albuquerque, NM

Wowee! That's probably your best one yet! Perfect use for that photo. That's Charlie, of course. Will The Bulletin ever return to normal?

Doug Anderson
St. Cloud, MN

Editor's comment: the photo was taken at the lake where Jim and Blanche had a cabin. I'm guessing it would have been 1983 or 1984. --DMA

The GUESS picture was again bewildering to me. Until I saw the second picture, I had no idea who was wearing the orange suit.

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

News From Home

Last Saturday, right after I finished my chores, I heard the phone ringing out in the hall. I made a quick trip to take the call -- to spare Belle's painful knees (and to find out if it was someone calling for me).

I had been expecting to hear from Blanche. On Tuesday of this last week, I had gotten a letter with a picture enclosed. It was of the exterior of the Ernie Nyman house that is on the farm that the kids are dealing on. Blanche and Jim had done some "looking the place over" at LeRoy's request.

Now Vonnie had wanted them to go over and get the keys from the Nymans and then they could look at the inside of the house and the sheds, too. She is not a complainer, but from some of the things she has mentioned, I am thinking she would like a house with a few more conveniences than the one she and LeRoy are living in right now at the ranch where he works.

It was indeed Blanche, and she had such interesting news! She and Jim had gone to Ernie's and he had the keys ready and sent them to look it all over at as leisurely a pace as they wanted. They took him at his word and made a thorough visit.

She says the buildings have lots of potential, and really, it is in very liveable condition just as it is. Now then, I get kind of carried away at times and talk too much ... Blanche is the quiet kind ... but this time things got turned around. Blanche is such a great observer of things and she saw and reported so many interesting details. So I kept pretty quiet and listened and I shall try to remember the things she reported.

First, she started by telling me about the yard: lots of nice trees (including a couple apple trees, evergreens and various hardwoods) but not enough flowers! (There are plenty available from Mom's perennial bed, or Blanche's for that matter.) There is a row of lilacs along the lane that, with a little trimming, should be gorgeous. And there is a fenced garden out near the pasture. Then she mentioned the barn.

This has been a dairy set up, back when Ernie's father-in-law was living. All the things that were in the sheds are a part of the deal. It looked to Jim like most of the equipment can be made useable again. One thing Dad will be pleased about, for LeRoy's sake ... there is running water piped to the barn (and the house). It looks like it may need repair. It is only large enough for stanchions for eight cows, with a haymow between the right and left sides of the building. The second half has two pens in it. Plenty of carpentry work for Vonnie's dad, Ivan Thomas, when he is able to come from Arizona to help.

Next, they looked in all of the little sheds; some were full of all kinds of things. Some of it looked like it may be useful when LeRoy gets his welder (Jim's observation) and some sheds look like they might be better burned down.

And then came the fun part for us ladies to hear about -- a tour of the house.

The side toward the driveway has a door out from the living room. You drive around and park in the front. That entry leads through a wash room and into a large kitchen.

Now we are to remember that anything the mother-in-law left there that they wanted, they had removed to their home. The Nymans mentioned that he had told LeRoy (and Vonnie) that anything in any of the buildings that they were touring would be left there for them ... so the things Blanche remembered to tell me about being there will be there for them. That is part of what made the tour fun!

The kitchen floor is covered with quite nice linoleum ... flowers, Blanche thought she remembered. There is a sink with a drainboard with curtains around the edge and shelves on one side of the pipes. It has a faucet for cold drinking water and at the opposite end it has a hand pump that you prime to pump soft water from the cistern.

NOW, prime stuff. It has a Monarch cook stove ... in it you can burn cobs, wood pieces, or coal chunks. it has warming ovens on the top and a reservoir for hot, soft water. Blanche says the oven is very nice, indeed. Two nice windows with shades (but no curtains).

The basement is not under the full house but it is finished off and has lots of storage space for winter keeping of vegetables and canned food. Perhaps a hot water heater would be something to plan for. No furnace in this part of the house, as the house is heated with an oil-burning heater that is sitting in the living room.

The rest of the house has rather small rooms, but adequate. The other items of interest in the downstairs were an old wooden rocker (it needs repair but is really cute), an iron bedstead with springs, and a stand in the bedroom with a big bowl that held a large pitcher. Doesn't that sound exciting? I have to get home to help with getting everything explored and dolled up!

Blanche mentioned that the upstairs was completely empty and it did not look like it had been lived in ... the windows are not covered and the rooms have just unfinished wooden floors. BUT it can be finished very handily into two bedrooms, a storeroom, and a bathroom (if they should decide to put it there). Of course, the bathroom could be put in one of the two storage areas on the first floor.

As to floor coverings, there are painted floors in the bedroom and the hall but the living room has had a carpet ... but it really needs replacing. In the living room is a nice, big, double window with a shade ... but there are no curtains on it, either.

It has been empty now for more than a year, so everything will need sweeping, dusting, polishing, and cleaning ... so it is good we have a big family. "Many hands make light work." And my mother would probably add, "and it takes lots of cooks to keep everybody fed!"

Looks to me like it is a sure thing that LeRoy and Vonnie will be living there in a couple of months! And I hope to be there to greet them when they come!

I believe this picture was taken from the township road and shows the back of the house, which would show a back door, a window from the living room (on the side) and one from the bedroom ... then, if you look closely, you will notice there seem to be cars parked on the opposite side. I picture the big, double, living room window on the end of the house to your left, as you stand on the township road, looking at it. The back entry into the dining room and kitchen area is on the far side, on the back, I think, but I can't remember for sure ... and Ernie didn't remember, either. --DMA