GaryOsberg.com

Good morning from Collegeville,

I met an Army Recruiter at the Business After Hours last night. Ever since Barby and I visited the Marine Museum in Arlington and the war memorials on The Mall in DC, I can’t help but introduce myself to someone in uniform. Sergeant Hart has been in the Army for 15 years already and he will go for 20. My dad served in the Navy during WW11 and sometime after they came home, he and his brother-in-law had a few too many at a bar and ended up enlisting in the Army. Dad was a recruiter in New Ulm and rose through the ranks to Sergeant in the Fifth Army. We shipped overseas to Vienna, Austria in 1950 and I celebrated my tenth birthday on the ship coming home in 1953.

Artist Charles Kapsner is creating five 8 foot by 10 foot paintings that depict our Veterans through the ages. The paintings will be permanently displayed in the Committal Hall at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery north of Little Falls. Last Friday, Brother Bill and I visited Charles in his studio in Little Falls, (see attached photo). The second painting, honoring the Navy, is almost finished and it will be installed at the cemetery on May 20th at 4:30 PM. You will be able to see it at a ceremony on May 25th at 1:30 PM. You can help support the project at givemn.razoo.com/story/veterans-art-project

The APHC show this week is live from the newly renovated Northrop Auditorium on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Special guests include The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the only full-time professional chamber orchestra in the United States, conductor Philip Brunelle and vocal powerhouses Jearlyn and Jevetta Steele, plus the Royal Academy of Radio Actors. The News from Lake Wobegon will focus on the welcome spring. When will the car on the lake fall through the ice?

Harper’s Chord, another Little Falls favorite, will be performing at Pioneer Place on Fifth tonight. It is a fund raiser and the show starts at 7:30. The Great River Chorale and the 34th Infantry Division, “Red Bull Band” will perform Sunday at 3:30 at the Paramount Theatre in downtown St. Cloud. Paramount Arts dot org for tickets.

“The bitterness of poor workmanship remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” Longfellow