off the recordnews about your neighbors

Take good care of your mother.....

 Do you know what a turntable is? For anyone under 25 or maybe even 30, it’s some old piece of equipment that plays giant CD’s, often referred to by us oldsters as records or albums. My old ‘state of the art’ turntable/receiver/8-track player finally died. (Oh yes, an 8-track!) It had a good long life, but time to move on. A year ago we acquired a turntable to attach to the computer that converts ‘albums’ to a digital format. I spent about a month

going through all my favorite artists and getting them on the computer and then downloading some to my MP3 thingy. Now I can go belt out Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin tunes while I’m outside. However, I missed listening to music through big speakers in the house.

I was determined to find a receiver of some kind that  could  be hooked up to this turntable and have it in the living room, so I could dance like/when no one was looking. I finally found a unit with the right connections and got it all set up on Sunday. It is right next to all the ‘albums’ so, like yeah man, I was ready to rock, I was back in action!

The test album was Jackson Browne’s “The Pretender”. It was ironic that I chose it, being Mother’s Day and all.  I always liked this song of his and it was a sweet reminder that on Mother’s Day we all have mothers that we need to take care of; and brothers and others who could use a mother to take care of them.

Hope everyone had a good Mother’s Day. Here are the lyrics, get dancing!

The Only Child

by Jackson Browne

Boy of mine as your fortune comes to carry you down the line
And you watch as the changes unfold
And you sort among the stories you’ve been told
If some pieces of the picture are hard to find
And the answers to your questions are hard to hold

Take good care of your mother when you’re making up your mind
Should one thing or another take you from behind
Though the world may make you hard and wild
And determine how your life is styled
When you’ve come to feel that you’re the only child
Take good care of your brother

Let the disappointments pass let the laughter fill your glass
Let your illusions last until they shatter
Whatever you might hope to find
Among the thoughts that crowd your mind
There won’t be many that ever really matter

But take good care of your mother and remember to be kind
When the pain of another will serve you to remind
That there are those who feel themselves exiled
On whom the fortune never smiled
And upon whose life the heartache has been piled
They’re just looking for another lonely child

And when you’ve found another soul who sees into your own
Take good care of each other
Take good care of each other when you’re thinking you’re alone
Beware of each other
When you’re looking for something of your own
Take good care of each other

This is a bad example of curb shopping. OK, this might be a bit excessive, but you get the idea!

If you are like me the thought of spring cleaning isn’t very appealing. It gets easier and easier to just toss stuff in the garbage. Before you toss, consider either selling or giving it away. This spring I have scored some great deals via our own HSO classified ads, Craigslist, freecycle.org and random garage sales. So far I found a super sweet 7-speed pink bike, some new plants and more cute fabric to make aprons out of.

The Rivertown newspapers have a ‘FREE’ column in the classifieds. (Print and online, call 715-426-1040 to get info) The ad is free as long as you are giving it away.

When I have done it, I just said, blah blah free item is at the end of my driveway, come and get it! And like magic it’s gone.

Freecycle is set up by county or area; you get messages via email that have the day’s offerings on it. It is easy to sign up for it and cost nothing to participate. The only catch is, you cannot charge for any items you are giving away. So if you have half a can of lavender paint you want to get rid of, give it away instead of tossing in the garbage. If you see something you want, you have to move fast, it never lasts long.

I won’t mention how to maneuver around on Craigslist.

Today’s topic came to me when we got a news release from the Hudson Library. It talked about a 1941-42 Palm Springs, Calif. telephone book. It was donated to the History Room of the Library, with some other interesting local information. Rather than just toss is, Nancy Hawkinson, a History Room volunteer, contacted the Palm Springs Historical Society to see if they would like to have it. They did, so off it went. I actually think it would have been interesting to see who lived there then, since it was before the Google could provide us with that type of gossip!

We have a collection of old phone books here at the Star-Observer that I refer to regularly. This week I used it to reference a bar owner in downtown Hudson. (Read the print version of the HSO to see who it was.)

Part of the press release also gave this hint:  People who no longer want their printed materials that have a local historical connection should consider donating them to the History Room. As part of the collection, a donated item may have just the piece of information that someone else is looking for.

My friend Susan Penman and her family are also recycling specialists, they make cool art out of found materials. In fact, they are having a showing this weekend at their Pixie-Wood location on Badlands Road. Go and get inspired and maybe fine a Mothers Day gift or some unique garden art for yourself.

So, when you start spring cleaning, please think twice before you toss, it might be just the thing someone is looking for!

 My special needs sister-in-law Wendy spent the weekend with us so we were out living it up in Hudson on Friday night. We began the night at the Sports Club, enjoying their ‘all you can’ eat fish fry. It was Wendys first time eating Perch and she loved it. She had difficulty remembering what it’s called so I had to keep reminding her by pointing at my ‘purse’.  We sat by the back window enjoying the river views and after dinner took a walk along the river.

We began our walk by the Phipps and decided it was too chilly to walk the Dike so we headed north on the beach trail, thinking we’d check out those docks in question. We were following a mid-aged lady pushing a baby stroller.  Suddenly the lady and stroller turned left on a small path toward the river. That’s when we got a surprise. The stroller didn’t hold a baby but a giant Maine Coon cat. The cat was wearing a red harness and was totally content to be out for a stroll….errr ride.  Wendy laughed for two blocks after we talked to the very nice  lady and admired the well behaved cat,  she thought that was very cool!

We made it back to our starting point and headed up to the movie theatre to see the Chimpanzee movie. It starred only animals with a man narrating the story. The scenery was breath taking and the story line was easily understood. Both Wendy and I had a tear in our eye as the little orphan chimp made his way through the jungle.

Saturday we headed to the Bridge Bowl-a-thon. The Klatt family that owns the bowling alley graciously opens up the lanes for this fundraiser. The theme this year was ‘Be a rock Star” so we tried to look like ‘stars’ by wearing headbands. Wendy wore her Special Olympics medal and a Special Olympic bowling t-shirt (I was hoping it intimidated the competition!) I even dug out a Bob Dylan shirt I had got at one of his concerts—it was awesome by the way!

Thank goodness for bumper bowling, that’s all I am going to say. It was a great event to raise money for the Bridge for Youth of Hudson.  Everyone had fun, and enjoyed free pizza, free bowling and we all got to dance on the bowling alley start area. Raffles were held for some great prizes and the Bridge staff made everyone feel welcome. If you’ve never gone before, it is a rewarding experience to see all the special needs families out having fun. Count me in for next year!

We finished out the weekend with a trip to the farm. There were new baby chicks, baby goats and lambs that Wendy fell in love with.  It’s nice to get visitors who help open your eyes to all the good things right in our own back yard. Explore Wisconsin, but start in Hudson!

Just a suggestion..........

I am going to kind of lift a story idea from St. Croix County about an Earth Day idea.

[April 22nd is Earthy Day, a great time to recommit to a cleaner and healthier environment. This Earth Day, smokers everywhere can pledge to make themselves and the environment healthier by quitting smoking and all people can pledge to pick up cigarette butts. Most people know how smoking cigarettes can affect a person’s health but not as many know the effect of cigarettes on ecosystems around us.

According to 2010 data from the Ocean Conservancy, nearly 2 million tobacco filters and butts were removed from international waterways and beaches worldwide. Over ½ of those butts were found in the United States. Cigarette butts were the single most littered item on US roadways in 2009, totaling 38% of items picked up, according to the Keeping America Beautiful campaign.

Not only are cigarette butts a very littered item, they also are not biodegradable. The filter in cigarette butts trap residues that includes arsenic (rat poison), cadmium (battery acid) and toluene (paint thinner). When these butts are discarded along roadsides, these chemicals often make their way into water sources. By drawing more attention to the environmental impact of tobacco waste, we can create a healthier planet for us and our surroundings.]

To learn more visit www.legacyforhealth.org/buttreally.

I get kind of mad when I see a driver flick their butts out the window, usually with a trail of live ashes following. Use a dang ashtray if you need to smoke.  Or even worse, to see a pile of butts at a stop sign, looks like they had to empty the ash tray so they could load it up some more, ugh, nasty. Smokers flicking their butts before they go into a business is also disrespectful to the owners as well as other customers.

I guess quitting would solve the butt problems?

Try and make every day Earth Day!

I just came back to work after attending the funeral service of Carol Bevers.

Mrs. Bevers, as I always respectfully referred to her as, is the mother of my ‘favorite brother-in-law who lives in North Hudson’, Roger Bevers. Mrs. Bevers had developed several health issues as of late and, as they say, it was a blessing she is not suffering anymore. That saying sometimes doesn’t ring true to me unless you know the person, and in her case, I believed it to be true.

If you have lived in Hudson for any length of time, you probably had contact with one of her many family members. Or perhaps you are somehow related to the Bevers, Scobeys, Klatts, more Klatts, Enloes, Swansons, Shimons, O’Connells or Kinneys. I may have missed a few families, and for that I ask forgiveness. It’s a delightfully large twisted web of families!  I remember once my sister saying she had to remain alert that her son didn’t inadvertently date a girl who was somehow related to him!  

As I looked around the church and thought about all the family and what they have done, worked or been involved with in here, I was grateful that this sweet lady and her lovely husband found their way here from South Dakota to share their family with Hudson.

The Bever’s family has 6 children and really believed in the gospel about go forth and multiply!  As a group I think there are over 16 grandchildren and at least as many great-grandchildren; then add in a few generations of husbands, wives and their families — good times.  It was evident by the messages delivered at the funeral that there was true love and respect for their mother and grandmother. Mr. and Mrs. Bevers home was an open door for all the family and their friends. With the Bevers family it’s always family first, then friends were welcome as family.

Even on such a sad day, a few funny stories were told. Mrs. Bevers worked as a telephone operator at one time and it sounded like she still had a ‘party line’ called the BBN, ask any one of the kids about this! As everyone left the church, a final tribute to Mrs. Bevers love of square dancing and accordion playing, a sweet Dolly Parton song, “On the Wings of a  Snow White Dove”,  was played. I think I saw more than one person tapping their toes, ready to dance. It was an uplifting final salute to a woman known as Mom, Grandma, Carol and Mrs. Bevers.

Rest in peace.

I just came back to work after attending the funeral service of Carol Bevers.

Mrs. Bevers, as I always respectfully referred to her as, is the mother of my ‘favorite brother-in-law who lives in North Hudson’, Roger Bevers. Mrs. Bevers had developed several health issues as of late and, as they say, it was a blessing she is not suffering anymore. That saying sometimes doesn’t ring true to me unless you know the person, and in her case, I believed it to be true.

If you have lived in Hudson for any length of time, you probably had contact with one of her many family members. Or perhaps you are somehow related to the Bevers, Scobeys, Klatts, more Klatts, Enloes, Swansons, Shimons, O’Connells or Kinneys. I may have missed a few families, and for that I ask forgiveness. It’s a delightfully large twisted web of families!  I remember once my sister saying she had to remain alert that her son didn’t inadvertently date a girl who was somehow related to him!  

As I looked around the church and thought about all the family and what they have done, worked or been involved with in here, I was grateful that this sweet lady and her lovely husband found their way here from South Dakota to share their family with Hudson.

The Bever’s family has 6 children and really believed in the gospel about go forth and multiply!  As a group I think there are over 16 grandchildren and at least as many great-grandchildren; then add in a few generations of husbands, wives and their families — good times.  It was evident by the messages delivered at the funeral that there was true love and respect for their mother and grandmother. Mr. and Mrs. Bevers home was an open door for all the family and their friends. With the Bevers family it’s always family first, then friends were welcome as family.

Even on such a sad day, a few funny stories were told. Mrs. Bevers worked as a telephone operator at one time and it sounded like she still had a ‘party line’ called the BBN, ask any one of the kids about this! As everyone left the church, a final tribute to Mrs. Bevers love of square dancing and accordion playing, a sweet Dolly Parton song, “On the Wings of  Snow White Dove”,  was played. I think I saw more than one person tapping their toes, ready to dance. It was an uplifting final salute to a woman known as Mom, Grandma, Carol and Mrs. Bevers.

Rest in peace.

 We just returned from a vacation to Georgia and South Carolina and I got me a ‘lil ole twang going on. I picked up on a few common phrases while there along with a few new favorite foods to try.

• “Would you like cheesy grits with that?”  (Why, yes I would, they are actually pretty good, hope Mitt liked them also.)
• “Good mornin’ ya’all”-( a very pleasant greeting)
• “Well bless her heart”,(translates your comment into about the opposite of what you just said)  for example: “Your baby just gets cuter all the time, bless her heart!” to cover for “good God, she looked like a bug-eyed alien as a newborn”.
• “Where ya’ll from?”  Hmmm, we paused a few times before answering, but Gary would blurt out, “we’re Yankees”, as I shrank away. Hint- some folks don’t think ‘the war’ is over yet.
• “Yes, Ma’am” easy to say, and I should say it more often.
• The most unpleasant comment I heard was “would ya’all
  like the Senior citizen discount?” ouch!
• I also started saying, “I’ll think about that tomorrow” just like Scarlett O’Hara would have said.

  

  Savannah with Spanish moss and flowers everywhere, lovely.

  On vacation we like to try the regional foods at independently owned businesses, so we indulged in catfish, crab cakes, hush puppies (yummy), a mess a greens, excellent pecan smoked ribs, grits (of several flavors)and each morning in we had the lightest, flakiest biscuits with honey on them.  My hubby enjoyed a few too many praline clusters and we both indulged in pecan pie. One night in Savannah we stopped at a small restaurant that served the best Cajun food we’d had in ages and it had a nice view of the Savannah River. And of course lots of sweet tea!

We took several trolley and horse/wagon tours. I highly recommend taking them, you learn a lot and you don’t have to walk around trying to figure out what you’re looking at. The Horse tours were especially fun, to imagine hearing only the clip-clop of horses instead of cars.

We traveled around Georgia and South Carolina. The highlight of the trip for me was a stop in Marietta, Georgia, (a suburb of Atlanta) at the Gone the Wind Museum. I have enjoyed that movie forever and it was quite a thrill to see all the memorabilia. The town itself was very cute, had a farmers market and a town square where a mediocre band was belting out southern rock tunes, bless their hearts.

Well Fiddle-de-de, I had best get busy, it’s spring time and I want my yard to look as lovely as the squares we saw in Savannah.

We The People:

The First Official Printing of The U.S. Constitution

Presented By Thomson Reuters

People love to bring up the Constitution as a point of reference, so, if you think you know the Constitution this will be your day in the sun, so to speak. If, like the rest of us, you have a basic notion and idea of what’s in it, this is your time to find out the facts.

The Constitution exhibit will be opening at the Minnesota History Center on April 3.  You can view the first official printing of the U.S. Constitution dated 1787 and the House version of what would become the Bill of Rights, dated 1789. These two rare documents will be on display, alongside the original editions of the two State of Minnesota Constitutions. The exhibit is included with History Center admission. It is made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund of the Legacy Amendment.

We finally made a trip to the History Center last year. You know how it is, explore the world but leave the backyard untouched? It is a beautiful building with great views of St. Paul. We went on a rainy Saturday to view all the exhibits, and spent about 5 hours there. Each exhibit is in a separate area, I think there were at least 10 open while we were there. My hubby and I sat in a WWII bomber that ‘took off and got shot at”, he really liked whole exhibit because his father had been a parachute packer in England during ‘the war’. It just kind of freaked me out.

I really enjoyed the house exhibit, it walked you through a St. Paul home and it was if the walls were talking, telling about all the various families who had lived there.

As it turns out, here is my six degrees of separation moment…. I was telling my friend Debbie that I was writing this piece on the History center and she share this with me; in the “If walls could talk” house exhibit one of the voices is of her daughter’s boyfriend’s grandmother. She is the Italian woman talking in the kitchen (if I remember right) and she likes to go down to the center and hang around the exhibit and talk to folks about the house. How cool is that! I guess that’s only 5 degrees so should I add in that I saw a picture of Kevin Bacon once?!

Anyway, there is a lunch area, a picnic area outside, plenty of rest rooms and lots of hands on items to keep everyone interested. The address is 345 W. Kellogg Blvd. St. Paul. 651-259-3000. Admission is $11 adults, $9 seniors (65+), $9 college students (valid ID), and $6 children ages 6-17. For the bargain hunters it is free to the public on Tuesdays from 5 – 8 p.m. and always free for MHS members and children age 5 and under.

I usually try and promote all things local, but this caught my eye and I hope yours too. God Bless America and the Constitution too!

When is the last time you gave your vehicle a complete visual inspection? May I suggest you do it now! My ever-loving husband pointed out to me on Sunday afternoon that I didn’t have a front license plate. We walked up to the Jeep and took a closer look.

Truth be told, I couldn’t remember if I ever had one, but he assured me that I was supposed to have two license plates. However it looked like there had never been one there, no dusty empty square, no bolts or holes that we could see.  I told him I would check out the other gal in town who has a blue Jeep and see if she had a plate on the front and how it was attached. My brother-in-law says Corvettes only have back plates, so, a Jeep being a real luxury car (haha), just like a Corvette, maybe I did only have back plates?

I was gawking on my way to work on Monday, looking for the other Jeep and didn’t see it. It is usually in the St. Pat’s parking lot or near the high school in the morning. Since there was no school this week, my chances were slim to get a license plate answer from her. But, I ended up getting my answer from the Hudson Police! A nice young officer was sitting in the high school driveway doing his duty. I was extra careful to come to a full stop and not speed down Vine St. …or so I thought. With lights flashing behind me I pulled over and got my answer; in the form of an equipment violation notice.

He was very nice and I think he bought into my story about just noticing it yesterday, which is true, if you are reading this Brent! I looked online to figure out where or how to go about getting ONE new plate and found a few interesting options. Aside from the often cryptic personalized plates, you can get special plates to honor golf, sports, ducks, EMT’s, veterans, Freemason’s (wait, I thought that was a secret society?!) colleges and a few more. But no more Sesquicentennial plate replacements, you’ll get a set of plain Jane plates now.

As long as you’re looking over your ride, check the lights, blinkers etc. etc. then you won’t have to be humbled as you sit on the side of the street with the blue light special flashing behind you. Oh, and if you see a spare license plate in its frame somewhere, it might be mine.

Marilyn Hagerty of the Grand Forks Herald, N.D. is kind of a co-worker of mine, kind of like half of Hudson is related to me! She writes a blog, I write a blog, we both are employed by the Forum Communications Company out of Fargo. We both like food, small town living but that’s about where it ends.

Marilyn is the newest internet sensation, having gone viral about her down home food review of the new Olive Garden in Grand Forks. She reminds me of our dear Kay Johnson who worked here at the HSO for many- ever. Kay was also an elegant lady who had a way with words, she could develop a story out of one small tidbit of information she picked up in a conversation. Did I mention that they are/were both in the ‘over 80’ category, and still writing?

It sounds like Marilyn has that same gift for words. Her assessment of the new Olive Garden has landed her in New York on TV and I just read she’ll also be on Jay Leno soon.  I also learned that her husband had been the Editor of the Herald for many years and that they have been to the White House for dinner and are well traveled, so I believe she knows a thing or two about fine dining.

UPDATE: She had to blow off Jay Leno, had other commitments in NYC. Priceless!

Take a moment to click over to her blog, along with over a million others, and read her blog “Eatbeat” you can find it at: http://www.grandforksherald.com  and hopefully Marilyn will start referring all her readers to my blog! After all we’re kind of co-workers!