Memorial Day

Photo © Jerrianne Lowther
Lest we forget....

UPDATE -- a new home under construction
by Wyatt Johnson
Moorhead, MN

It's been forever times pi squared since I've paid for my subscription by providing an update, and we've got exciting stuff going on. So it's time for my delinquent account to become current.

Photo © Wyatt Johnson
Foundation for new Moorhead home takes shape.

I stayed until the First of January -- looked around to see just what was available and what prices were being asked. I saw that I would have to sell out here to get the finances to buy up there. Their markets had not been hit as hard as ours so it will take a couple of years to make the final move. In the meantime, I have bought a townhouse in Beaverton and my youngest granddaughter will be living in it, with an apartment for me when I visit Oregon.

I still have the cabin at Fish Camp and have been up there cleaning up the tree branches and pine needles to remove the fire danger. Right now the fire danger is HIGH. But know it will not keep people away as many will be going up to the National Parks, just to get away from the heat of the Valley.

I plan to go back up to the townhouse next week to spend about 10 days to get some more things settled. I need some furniture for my apartment and other things need looking after.

My plans are to come to Minnesota for the Miller cousins reunion on June 27th. Jim is planning to come, too, and we may have a car together. Cheryl and Rick will be with me but they will not be staying as long as I plan to be there.

We all met at Holiday Inn in Alexandria for the Mother's Day Brunch. It took a good sized area to hold us, but they accommodated us very nicely. From left to right: Lori & Shawn Ostendorf holding Kierra; Tammy, Larry & Shirley Ostendorf; Beaver & Donna Johnson, with Jayce & Caity Chap, Rylie Johnson in front; Wyatt Johnson, Becky Chap, Chris Chap holding McKenna Ostendorf, Jessy Chap; Donna & John Thoennes, with Donna holding Camryn Johnson; Weston behind them, Brooklynn in front; Ben Johnson and Ashley Torgrimson.

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. LeRoy Dake supplied last week's mystery photos.

Earl Stahlecker
Gatesville, TX

P.S. I really did know two of the folks in last week's mystery, but I failed to let you know.

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 about Lois and Bill Dake. 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.

It's Happening -- A Finish To The 1947-48 School Year
by Dorothy Dake
Howard Lake, MN

I spent just one night at Ilha de Moçambique before traveling to Nampula for a flight to Maputo, Mozambique's capital in the southern part of the country. Though it would have been a grand adventure to travel by public transportation down the Indian Ocean coast, stopping at pretty beaches and interesting towns along the way, the date of my return flight to the States was fast approaching. So I decided I'd rather not committ to 40+ hours of sweaty, dusty bus riding over the next few days.

To be continued...

This Week's Special Days
May 25---Memorial Day

This Week's Birthdays
May 25---Amy Ellen Dake Harrison
May 26---Rick Anderson
May 27---Tracer Scott Roberson (11 years old)
May 28---Jazmine Jane Hill (6 years old)
May 28---Jason Hunt
May 29---Kristi Kay Larson Indermark
May 30---McKenna Blanche Miller (5 years old)
Happy Birthday!

This Week's Anniversaries
May 27---Dwight and Janie Anderson (38 years)
Congratulations!

More May Birthdays
' 
May 1---Frans de Been
May 4---Beau Birkholz
May 7---Ben Johnson
May 7---Kim Mellon (Tim's wife)
May 8---Kira Lynn Steinhauer (2 years old)
May 10---Curt Henderson
May 12--James Dake
May 14---Ernie Dake
May 14---Bridget Larson
May 14---Tyler James Indermark (4 years old)
May 16---Angelique Freesemann (10 years old)
May 17---Dwight Anderson
May 19---Ryan Hellevang
May 22---Dan Henderson
May 23---Don Pettit

May 31---Mavis Anderson Morgan

May Anniversaries
Z
May 12---Chris and Jessy Chap (2 years)
May 14---Roddy and Alisha McNeill (4 years)
May16---Nathan and Brenda Anderson Hill (13 years)

May 31---Tom and Mavis Anderson Morgan (52 years)

May Special Days
O
May 1---May Day (hanging May baskets day)
May 8---VE Day
May 10---Mother's Day
May 16---Armed Forces Day
May 25---Memorial Day

Click here to review last week's Bulletin

I am busier than ever trying to figure out how to get less busy in the end and still make a living. I now do the Nebraska paper (www.countryregister.com/nebraska) and that has been a very fun project. Something new, which always keeps me going. But it keeps us very busy in the office, too. Loved connecting with good old mid-west people. And connect we did. Had a 24 page paper the first issue.

Thanks, too, for the continued weekly editions of The Bulletin. Always fun to look forward to.

Would you please change my e-mail address to mamagoose@countryregister.com and delete barbara@countryregister.com ... I hate to make you go to the bother but my employees need to process the mail at the other address and, being it is of a more personal nature, I do not wish to share it with them!

Barbara Wheeler Floyd
Phoenix, AZ

Then The Bulletin arrived, and right there on the front pages were pictures that would help us to observe Armed Forces Day. Thank you, Photo Editor! That was very respectful and patriotic to include those pictures Frans de Been had submitted of the World War ll vehicle exhibition, sent all the way from The Netherlands.

I can't even picture what a ladybug birthday party would be like! I wish we had seen a picture of the cake. But, the antennas were reality enough! Levi is turning 4 years old. Why do I wish children would stay children longer?

Then another new lesson for me was what Elaine Wold had written regarding May 17th being Norwegian Constitution Day. Also, the explanation of the flag colors was interesting to me, too. We have lots of Norwegian friends, being we are from Minnesota.

That was respectful for Angel Freesemann to learn the feelings that come with remembering and placing flowers as a memorial. Especially, for a mother she likely never knew, being just 4 years old when Judy died.

Thank you for more McCalla family details and pictures. I like the name Mika. Thanks for the correct pronunciation ... I had been saying MIKEa.

Every time I get to Memory Lane I am thankful to still see the same first picture used of Dorothy at 20. It sets the tone for the story to follow, and she has such a soft, gentle expression.

To think of where Louella Smith is now, in 2009, and where she was in 1948, gives one some serious thinking. Her successful children and her successfully making her way as a widow is touching to me. I had to laugh at Dorothy's comment that she was going to leave "sensible to be determined later." I am sure their plans all worked out even better than they hoped.

I would like to hear Carol exclaiming when she sees her little cute self as was pictured in Bulletin #361. I dearly loved this picture.

The story of Bruce's uncle and friends finding the bones was gruesome, but what a find to see those bones in the position they were in. Unforgettable, that is for sure!

The Travelogue had pictures that were so different than we had seen before, like the fishing nets drying. That would have been quite a sight in their colors and how would a person ever straighten them out to be used again? Gave me a new respect for fishermen, and the strength they would need to pull the nets into the boats.

Yes, I am sure, Kjirsten, that on your returning home to the United States you would find it a culture shock to fit into normal routine and environment and luxury items we feel are necessities that would never be known there.

My great niece Krista Weiland pages through my printed copy of The Bulletin to find the CHUCKLES, and if she doesn't find one she is so disappointed. I guess we all enjoy the CHUCKLES, but likely you are running out of suitable ones to print. Or do you put in a WITH LOVE just for change and variety? Doug, where are you?

Photo Editor's comment: Oops! "Somebody" forgot to restore the CHUCKLES headline after we used WITH LOVE for the Mother's Day picture of Levi and his mom. We use CHUCKLES or WITH LOVE or THANK YOU in that headline space -- whichever one seems to fit best.

For some reason the Quotation for the day was just excellent, I thought. "There is no way to be a perfect mother [or person], but a million ways to be a good one."

We are so glad it is spring and going into summer here in Minnesota. To watch the flowering trees and bushes and flowers coming, all in their turn, is a reminder that we can depend on and trust in the Creator of it all to be consistent and timely.

Just like our Bulletin -- every Saturday morning, like clockwork, there it is -- arriving on our computer screen. THANK YOU again.

Betty Droel