The Bulletin
Sunday, June 13, 2004
Browse The Bulletin archive index
| Home | About | Archive | Recipes | Stories | Galleries | Who's Who | Where |
Updates -
UPDATE
by Weston Johnson
It's been a while since I sent an update for The Bulletin, so I figured I better write to you to make sure my subscription doesn't run out. I've been keeping pretty busy lately, especially at work. We have been working on a big project helping the San Jose Sports Facilities Task Force evaluate their ability to bring additional professional sports franchises to San Jose. My boss has a big presentation on Monday, which means I've been working most of this weekend getting everything ready. There's nothing like spending the first warm weekend of the summer sitting in the office to make for a disgruntled employee. The company is having a good year, though, so hopefully they will continue the tradition of giving us a summer bonus in the near future. That would make me much more gruntled. Or would that be less gruntled? Happier -- let's just go with happier.
Other than work, I've been spending most of my evenings going to Timberwolves and Twins games and playing volleyball on Tuesday nights and softball on Thursday nights. Needless to say, I don't spend much time sitting at home. Home is pretty much just a place to sleep and shower and try to get a load of laundry done once in a while.
So that's what I've been up to. Keep up the good work with The Bulletin! I've been enjoying all the new articles and recurring segments, although I think a lot of us have been delinquent in our update duties. I haven't seen much from my cousins on the Anderson side lately! It would be fun to hear what all the students are doing for the summer, and what everyone else has been up to.
Editor's comments: Weston, I agree with you completely -- I miss hearing from the students!
UPDATE
by Wyatt Johnson
Thanks for the wonderful Anniversary card! Even though today is our Anniversary, we decided to go out for supper last night. We went to Outback Steakhouse, where Jolene had her Alice Springs Chicken (a chicken breast smothered in bacon, mushrooms, and cheese), and I had a 12 ounce New York Strip steak. Earlier in the day, we went to the Red River Zoo in Fargo. Rylie had a blast, as you can see! Even though it looks like a small zoo from the outside, they have lots of animals, and plenty of things to do. They actually let people go inside the goat pen and feed the goats. The first time we went in, Rylie wasn't too sure what to do. When we walked by later, though, she wanted to go in again. They have an old restored carousel, originally built in 1928. The only problem was trying to pull Rylie off the horse when the ride was done...
This week, I leave for a fishing trip to Canada. This is the 5th year going with some friends from work. We leave Wednesday morning, fish Thursday through Sunday, and return Monday. We'll be on Lake of the Woods, near Morson, Ontario. We generally fish for walleye, though we've caught sunfish, muskie, and northern pike occasionally. One friend's family owns a cabin on land rented from the resort where we stay, so he's a very experienced navigator, and knows all the good spots. That's VERY essential on a lake that big. I'm sure I'll have some pictures to share when I return!
Rylie & Jolene Johnson with goat at the Red River Zoo
STUDENT UPDATE
Ben Johnson
Hello. I finally have a chance to sit down and write a little. First of all, thank you for the card on my Birthday. They were quite the singing characters.
I have made the move back to the cities now, I came down on Memorial Day and started school the following day. Since then we have already learned about the operation of manual transmissions and had the chance to rebuild a transmission. This should be a fairly easy semester; all of our subjects are mostly hands on, so I will get experience working on the stuff as I learn about it. I also only have one general ed class, which is a basic computer class that I am going to see about testing out of.
Well, sorry it took so long to write, but now I will have time to send letters more often. Keep up the excellent work on The Bulletin; it is very entertaining to hear the latest happenings around the family.
Ben J.
Day to Day R
With Donna Mae
Ashby, MN
Caity, Crab Apple Tree and Cat Shack
We have a cute little shed on our property that received some major damage last fall from one of our former day care children, a three year old girl. She was left in her father's running pickup (an old one) while he came to the house to pick up the baby. When he went out he saw her in the pickup with its front end hanging over the block retaining wall behind our little "cat shack" shed. The pickup had taken out the rear corner, damaging the foundation to the point of not being worth saving. It tore out the corner of the shed, broke the rear window of the shed and even damaged the roof.
Thankfully, little Alena Shores did not get hurt, but she surely didn't make her father happy. She was even laughing when he opened the door, as though she'd just had the most fun ride! She'd obviously pulled it into gear and then cranked on the wheel. (I was rather happy that she hadn't driven forward into our refurbished shed with our outdoor furnace, and also that our house was uphill from her other side!)
Needless to say, Daddy Shores was in deep trouble with Mommy Shores! As, I think he should have been. I'd mentioned more than once that I did not like the children left untended in cars that are running.
Anyway, I decided I should get a picture with Caity in front of our little old shed (not showing the damaged corner) before it is no longer one of our buildings. It is the oldest on our farm, a former hunting cabin, so it was a rather fun building to have.
Must say I will be sad to see it go, entering into its dark, smelly interior, (What can you say about dirt, oil, etc. smells?) It reminds me of my Grandpa Dake's shed and makes for many good memories. Plus, we've had many memories with it here, ourselves, raised a few kittens in there and found lots of tools. However, to repair it would be far too costly. (That's more than likely the conclusion we'll come to, not a for sure thing yet. We are batting it around which way to go with the problem.) More than likely, it will end up being, "Good-bye little Cat Shack."
Cat Shack Crunched (left) and Cleaned Out Cat Shack (right)
Photo Editor's Note: The ornamental crab apple tree in the top photo was our grandmother's and dates back to the 1940's, at least, and possibly as far back as the 1920's. (The farm house was built in 1922.) Fruit from the tree wasn't worth processing, even for apple butter, but the blossoms and fruit are pretty and the tree provided a welcome view from the kitchen sink, spring, summer and fall. The elm tree in the left hand photo above supported Baltimore oriole nests and our board and tire swings. A fish cleaning station, rabbit hutches and a duck pond on a sidehill slant shared the slope with a path to the vegetable garden and an outdoor privy at the foot of the hill.
Though it may be cramped as a tool shed, the Cat Shack is a Johnson family historic site, chock full of reminders of an amazing array of fishing, gopher trapping and tree house building adventures. We learned how to use all kinds of carpentry tools. Kathy tried to trap an ermine under a box in it. (Can you STILL smell it?) Bobby skinned a striped gopher and stretched its pelt.
There is hope! Here's an update from Beaver: "I've attached a picture showing the damage to the cat shack. We're going to empty it while we have help, then figure out how it can be salvaged.
Then ... "All of our offspring showed up for a Mother's day / Father's day 'help with whatever' day, so we emptied the cat shack, mostly emptied and rearranged the ice house, and built storage in the old sheep "nursery" in the barn. Phew, I think we disturbed dust that had been there 50 years at least! We have a truckload of scrap metal, a dumpster full of junk, a feed shed section full of antiques and keepsakes, an acre of stuff on the barn floor that I still need to sort.
"The next step is to figure out how to move the cat shack off the remains of the basement and either put it on a new site or fill the old basement so it can go back where it was. Where is Richard when I need him?"
"I'm too busy now to think about the cat shack, but will figure out a plan when things are a little less hectic. It's sure great to have it cleaned out, but I'm still working on sorting and storing some of the contents."
Beaver
Travelogue t
The Bolivian Beat
By Kjirsten Swenson
So what do I eat? I eat rice and potatoes. Every day, usually twice.
Actually, it's slightly more interesting than that. Most Bolivians have no access to refrigeration nor supermarkets, and tend to construct tasty meals from fresh vegetable staples, meat, and a combination of at least two carbohydrates per meal. I don't think I've ever seen my Bolivian mother nor the hospital's cook open a can! They also don't use recipes... But maybe you can construct some Bolivianish meals from my descriptions.
Breakfast is depressingly predictable in most Bolivian homes. In Morochata, it consists of bread that is too often stale, and on good days, some sort of homemade preserves, cheese, and margarine. On the best days, we fry eggs and make sandwiches. A hot drink is served, usually tea, but sometimes coffee or hot chocolate. Hot chocolate is often prepared with only water. But in the best cafés, they prepare fantastic hot chocolate by mixing solid chocolate with hot milk. Whatever the drink, Bolivians always add a ridiculous amount of sugar. I am considered positively strange for drinking my tea without! I cheat and eat where I live before drinking the obligatory tea in the hospital.
My morning ritual involves chopping whatever fruit I can find, sprinkling it with puffed Andean grains (quinua and amaranth!), and drenching it all with reconstituted powdered milk. On mornings I travel to Morochata, I buy rice cooked with milk and sugar from a vender who sells me a small plastic bag full for 12 cents and slurp it with a straw as we head out of the city.
Lunch is the most important meal of the day and is always a family affair. Bolivians usually have a lunch break that lasts two or three hours, and manage to stomach a remarkable amount of calories in that time. Lunch usually begins with soup. Soup is constructed with whatever happens to be in the kitchen, often vegetables and some sort of meat. My favorite Bolivian soup is sopa de mani, peanut soup. To prepare the base, raw peanuts are peeled and blenderized with water. Add water to achieve a milky consistency, plus vegetables, meat, rice, potatoes, and salt, and cook the mess for a while. The result is a tasty soup has a delicious, mild flavor that doesn't make me think of peanuts.
Morochata School's Garden
*Photo Editor's Note: If you wish to see more of Kjirsten's photos, this is from her Morochata, Bolivia, album posted here: http://community.webshots.com/user/kjswenson
Requested Recipe: P.F. Chang's Lettuce Wraps
sent to us by Donna Johnson
Lori introduced some of our family, including Caity, to the P.F. Chang restaurant. We love the various items they serve and we were happy to hear about Lori's having been given a recipe that is similar to the P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps. Lori has tried these already and said they were very good.
She'd sent me the recipe and I printed it out. It was laying on my desk and I'd made a list of the items I'd need to make the recipe. Caity found it there last night and brought it to me asking, "Could we make the P.F. Chang recipe?" It crossed my mind wondering how many other children her age would even know what it was and whether they'd request it being made? :-)
Homespun Memories H
Here's another excerpt from Donald B. Johnson's memory book regarding the ice hauling business that connects to the Ice House the crew cleaned out a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty sure there's material on the Cat Shack in the manuscript, as well, though I haven't located it yet. In any case, we'll save the Cat Shack stories for another time. ~ Jerrianne
"Pa used to plow gardens and haul wash-ice and wood, etc. for everyone in town when I first remember ...
"Hauling wash-ice meant going down to Pelican Lake and sawing out a load of ice chunks about two or three feet square and from one to three feet thick, according to the depth of the ice, with a saw about seven feet long, and delivering them, a team and bobsleigh load at a time, to people's houses.
"He usually dumped the ice off on the north (shady) side of houses so the sun wouldn't melt them. The housewives would chop off chunks and melt them in copper boilers, for soft wash water."
"Pa told about one time (before he was married, while he was rooming at Betsy and Ole Johnson's) he accidentally stepped backwards into the open hole into about seven feet of water when it was about 20 degrees below zero.
"He managed to crawl back onto the ice, and he said he didn't feel anything until the water started to run into his shirt collar, but then he started to gasp. He got back on the sleigh, tied the lines together, put them around him, stood up, and ran the horses back to town. He stopped in front of the livery barn, his clothes frozen solid. Somebody came along and put the horses in the barn and he hightailed it to Betsy's and got thawed out."
(For which, let us, his dozens of descendents, be ever grateful! We must have come awfully close to never being born!)
Memory Lane
by Don Anderson
I heard it said that many people return to the place of their youth. For some years I have taken this with a grain of salt but recently we have relocated to within seventy miles of my old stamping grounds.
Maybe, Lord willing, I will make it yet. Time will be a factor in that.
A few days ago we took a ride over to Wahpeton. We took a tour about town and must say that little town has changed very much.
As we drove down Dakota Avenue, I commented to others in the car," right here is where Coast to Coast Hardware was" ... "Vertin's was here" ... "The National Tea was here" ... "The Valley Theater was here," etc.
I didn't recognize anyone I knew, as much as I hoped to find someone.
Our next stop was at the cemetery... There I knew almost all and heard about most of them; some have been gone many years.
I was thinking of some interred there who were much younger than I.
We were glad to have a short visit with Eva Scott; she was preparing to leave for Iowa and we were glad to take her to a place near the interstate to meet the people who were to give her a ride. She is nearing ninety and doing quite well.
I well remember the SSS (State School of Science) was North of Wahpeton. It was a campus all by itself. Now the city is many blocks to the North and I observe that building is still going on.
The Indian School is now history; however, I can still give evidence that there was one, as I remember it.
I remember the busy time when the Great Northern Roundhouse was active. Also, the Breckenridge Depot and the Stratford Hotel. They are all history.
I worked for a time at the Great Northern Roundhouse. My job was tool checker and I was trying to get on as a brakeman. I decided railroad was not "my cup of tea" so went on to farming.
Yes, the changes in the last fifty years were great! I wonder in another fifty what it will be. I guess it won't be my worry!
Certainly was good to visit up there; many memories filled my mind. I realized how far removed one can get after being away from there since we left there in 1958.
Wonder if you believe the old saying, "a bad penny always returns." Would any of you like to comment on this?
Also, I have not seen any letters to The Bulletin from some of you readers! Do you think it is asking too much to write a few lines? (Maybe you can get someone to help you.) Ha.
Don
This and That
6
by Elaine Wold
Wahpeton, ND
MONEY CAN BUY..........
A bed, but not sleep,
Books, but not brains,
Food, but not appetite,
Finery, but not beauty,
A House, but not a home,
Medicine, but not health,
Luxuries, but not culture,
Amusement, but not happiness,
Companions, but not friends,
Flattery, but not respect.
WHY WORRY?
40% will never happen--
30% is old decisions I can't alter,
12% is others' criticism of me ... most untrue...
10% is about my health, only gets worse if I worry.
8% legitimate things I may have to meet.
Why waste the 92% on WORRY?
Remember, a raisin is only a worried grape!
WHICH CATEGORY ARE YOU?
If a man's after money, he's money mad.
If he keeps it, he's a capitalist.
If he spends it, he's a playboy,
If he doesn't get it, he's a ne'er do well.
If he doesn't try to get it, he lacks ambition.
If he gets it without working for it, he's a parasite.
And if he accumulates it after years of toil, people will think he was foolish for never getting anything out of life!
Celebrations & Observances
From the Files of 5
Hetty Hooper
June 14---Flag Day
This Week's Birthdays:
June 18---Caity Chap
Happy Birthday!
This Week's Anniversaries:
June 19---Curt and Patty Henderson's Wedding Anniversary (22nd)
Many Happy Returns!
A Wedding:
%
Tami Sue Anderson
and
Jason Hartwell Hunt
will be married on
June 18, 2004
More June Birthdays:
'
June 4---Merna Hellevang
June 7---Shane Swenson
June 21---Ary Ommert
June 25---Ben Henderson
More June Anniversaries:
Z
June 3---Ginny and Larry McCorkell's Wedding Anniversary (32nd)
June 6---Wyatt and Jolene Johnson's Wedding Anniversary (6th)
June 7---Clark and Susan Smith (Miller) Wedding Anniversary (13th)
June 20---Rich and Marlene Johnson's Wedding Anniversary (23rd)
June Holidays & Observances
O
June 4---Old Maid's Day
June 20---Father's Day
June 20---Summer Solstice (First Day of Summer)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Keep Us Posted!
Please drop Miss Hetty a line and tell us who, and what, we've missed. And how about a report (photos welcome) of YOUR special celebration?
Everyone!
Miss Hetty
+ LETTERS TO THE EDITORS?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Bulletin was excellent! Fun to hear from Kellie and how they are doing. Doug's story was a stitch! And Kjirsten's experience. Can you IMAGINE that many potatoes and rice in our diets? Yikes. We are spoiled. (And I have to admit I like it like that, too. :-) Jayce got a kick out of his picture being in The Bulletin. Enjoyed reading about the "special" treatment for DeLoris, would have loved to have joined them with some gifts, too! I'm just finishing printing it out ... It was a good long read ... thanks.
Donna
Just checking in here... Yes, I got the note that I could see The Bulletin at that web site (http://www.jlowther.com/Bulletin/pages/Bulletin104.html) so read it there. It is so interesting ... even the old maid story was interesting. She certainly enjoyed the party ... Something done for her once anyway!!! Muriel said we will have to remember it every year... She said with all the nice shampoo, lotions, anti-wrinkling creams, etc. she got, she may find a guy by then! Ha.
It was so cute to read about the lawn mowing service in the last Bulletin. How good for them to learn how to work and earn and save money when young like that. They are both such cute kids!
I am amazed at Doug's talent for writing. I really enjoy his stories ... and how they hold one's interest completely to the end! In fact, there are quite a number of good writers in the family.
Elaine
Greetings from Maassluis,
First I want to make a compliment about The Bulletin; it looks good and the articles in it are very interesting. It keeps me updated about all the people I know. I will send in another article about the garden center soon. Have been very busy lately and couldn't find time to do that.
Today we had the warmest day so far this summer and it was hard to get used to it because our spring was not real warm and sunny. For tomorrow we have the first day of tropical temperatures 30 degrees C. [85 degrees F.] or higher. Glad I don't have to work; will spend the afternoon on the beach, but the water is still cold because there hasn't been enough sun to warm it up. So it won't be easy to get wet if it's too hot on the beach.
Ary Ommert
Thanks for re-sending The Bulletin. We sure enjoy everything in it. We really like the photos that are in it of the different ones. Makes the stories even more interesting. I sure wish that "Mowing Service" (Mark and his friend) was closer, as I sure would give them some business. I must learn how to send some photos from this computer. I had no problem on the computer I have in Florida. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks!!! Or should I say "It is hard for an old dog to learn new tricks??
Mavis
Photo editor's comment: You can do it, Mavis! Dorothy and I have had to learn new tricks with every issue. And I'm still having a great time selecting bread products according to their baking date, based on the colors of the twist ties and plastic fasteners. What a neat trick that was! Alphabetical order: Blue Monday, Green Tuesday, Red Thursday, White Friday, Yellow Saturday. I've got it now! Thanks again for cracking the bakeries' secret delivery date code ... in the pages of The Bulletin.
CHUCKLES
Sent to us by Wyatt Johnson
This morning, we were looking through pictures on the computer, and first Rylie saw one of Mom and John, then exclaimed, “Me see Papa Jack!!!” She thought for a second, looked at me, and asked, “Me see Papa Dee?”
Dad, sorry, you've lost your identity. You're no longer Grandpa Beaver, you're Papa Dee.
Sent to us by Donna Johnson
I have a four year old day care boy named Austin. (Great Grandpa calls him Oscar. He vehemently denies being Oscar, yet you can tell he thinks it's rather fun to be singled out.) He looks much older than four, as he is so tall. Yet, his speech is definitely four; he has problems with some letters and doesn't say others very clearly. Today, he spoke very clearly, although I'd not ever heard his particular choice of word used prior to that point.
After lunch Beaver came out of the office with an army worm and called the kids to come and see what he had. I expected them to go "yuck," or some such.
Austin looked at it and exclaimed, "You have a COWTAPILLAR!"
Photo Editor's Note: In the 100th edition of The Bulletin, we reprinted a poem titled Spell Czech, attributed to "Sauce Unknown." We should have checked that "sauce." I saw the following letter from Jody Lynn Nye of Barrington, Illinois, to the editors of The Reader's Digest (who also failed to attribute the piece properly):
Your funny filler "Spell Czech," on a computer spell-checker, was attributed to "Sauce Unknown." Wood yew bee happy two no it is based on a poem buy a Professor Jerrold Zar of Northern Illinois University? His entire poem is entitled "Candidate for a Pullet Surprise." So ... I searched Google.com for "Jerrold Zar" and found the entire poem ... and more about the poem and its author ... at http://bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/pullet_surprise.htm
As a bonus, I also found the original of another favorite ... and usually unattributed ... Internet poem, If Dr. Seuss Were A Technical Writer, and the story behind it. We have Professor Gene Ziegler, an educator at New York's Cornell University who later became Dean of the American Graduate School of Management, to thank for this bit of enlightenment, which he wrote in 1994 after his 4 year old grandson and the boy's older brother had "significantly rearranged" the resources on his Macintosh. The full text and the story behind A Grandchild's Guide to Using Grandpa's Computer can be enjoyed here: http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/elz1/clocktower/DrSeuss.html
You might also enjoy what he had to say about those who appropriate others work, bowdlerize it and/or fail to attribute the source in Hang the Information Highwayman! here: http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/elz1/clocktower/Highwayman.html
Our apologies ... and appreciation ... to both Professor Zar and Professor Ziegler. ~ Jerrianne
To search a name in Who's Who: use CONTROL F on a PC or COMMAND F on a Mac. To search for a second occurrence of the name, use CONTROL G on a PC or COMMAND G on a Mac. (This works on ANY web page with text, unless the text is converted to an image. Chances are, it works in your e-mail, too. I know it does in mine.) HINT: Search by first name only, as most entries list the family name once but do not repeat the last name for each family member.
EDITOR'S POLICY: If you wish to subscribe to The Bulletin, simply send me a statement of that fact. If you wish to keep receiving it I hope you will contribute to one of the columns that are running in this family epistle (at least occasionally!). My e-mail address is dma49261@juno.com
This Bulletin is copyright Dorothy M. Anderson; the contents are also copyrighted by the authors and photographers and used with their permission, and the contents are not to be used for any commercial purposes without the explicit consent of the creators.