December 8th, 2023 by Gary Osberg
In 2000, I purchased a house from the estate of my mother-in-law Irene Rudie. I bought the house “lock, stock and barrel”. One of the many treasures that I found was a diary that Irene had started on March 1, 1927. Once I started reading it, it was hard to put down. She started the diary when her husband John and her were moving from a rented house in South Elmdale, to a forty-acre farm northeast of Upsala. John had remodeled a lumber jack’s shack which they would have to live in until he finished building the barn and the house. The cows got priority over Irene and the children.
At that time, they had three children. The youngest was Jacky who was less than two years old. The journal started with Irene getting the car stuck in the mud on the way to their new farm. She had to walk the last two miles with Virgil and Theresa walking beside her while she carried the baby.
One of the stories in the diary dealt with a cow getting mired in a mud pit. She and John had to leave the children on their own in the shack while the two of them worked long into the night to free the cow. The fear of loss was evident. Every nickel was important. Their abundance was in their capacity to work.
A few years later there was a single entry in the journal for the day. “Bessy got stuck in the mud pit. John shot her.”
Tomorrow morning you will have an opportunity to enjoy a very special Christmas concert at Ritsche Auditorium on the campus of St. Cloud State University. The St. Cloud Symphony Orchestra will be performing “Children’s Holiday Sketches” at 10am. Another “Holiday Sketches” performance will be at 3 in the afternoon You can purchase your tickets at stcloudsymphony.com or at the door. I hope to see you there.
“Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen
December 1st, 2023 by Gary Osberg
It looks like the ice on the pond is not going to be very safe for a while. Do not go out there unless you are with a buddy and be sure to check the ice often. When I was a wild youth in Upsala, we used to drag race our cars across the ice on Cedar Lake west of Upsala. To my knowledge, no one ever went through the ice. We got away with a lot of stupid things as kids. One winter we made a game of standing on the hood of an old DeSoto, using it as a giant snowboard as we were towed in the ditch behind a car. Dumb and dumber.
After a heavy snow we would party by driving into the Burtrum Hills with our old cars, just to try and get stuck. These were not SUVs, we had a 1954 and a 1952 Chevy. We simply packed a lot of crazy boys in the cars with snow shovels in the trunk and went for it. My sister Kathie and one of my classmates both ended up in casts after a toboggan run down a steep hill in the Burtrum Hills.
Try to not let your young children read these Friday notes.
You may want to come to St. Joseph tonight for the annual tree lighting at the corner of College Avenue and Minnesota Street. Also, Great River Chorale is presenting “Wintertide”, tonight at St. Mary’s Cathedral in downtown St. Cloud. The program begins with a prelude performed by the St. Cloud String Quartet at 7:15. Sunday’s performance is at 4pm at Bethlehem Lutheran Church om St. Cloud. Tickets can be purchased at www.greatriverchorale.org or at the door. I hope to see you there on Sunday. I do have two pair of tickets for tonight’s performance. Simply respond to this email and I will make sure your tickets are at the will call desk tonight.
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.” Seneca
November 24th, 2023 by Gary Osberg
Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of “Giving Thanks”, a Minnesota Public Radio special hosted by John Birge that airs nationwide on Thanksgiving Day. The show consists of classical music, songs, and dramatic readings all related to Thanksgiving.
Although the format remains the same, some individual features are always aired, notably, selections from Charles Laughton’s 1962 album The Story Teller, about his experiences with Etienne Houvet and Alfred Manessier at Chartres Cathedral, as well as his reading from Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums. Musical pieces regularly included are Handel’s Largo from Xerxes and music from Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring.
Although John Birge began doing an annual Thanksgiving program in 1985, “Giving Thanks” did not go national until 1999, two years after he began working for Minnesota Public Radio. Birge states on the website for the program that Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday.
If you missed the program yesterday, you can find it at www.yourclassical.org/holiday.
This is the link to the Charles Laughton segment. https://youtu.be/qWhH7Mbb85w?si=g5TDguQLeqQqMPEf
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world..” J.R. Tolkien author of The Hobbit.
November 17th, 2023 by Gary Osberg
In 1998 Dad moved from his high-rise apartment in downtown St. Paul to my house in Upsala. He had been a city fellow for most of his adult life, but he was raised in Upsala. I was working in Minneapolis as a sales manager with the Xerox agency Albinson and I was gone most of the week. It wasn’t much of an inconvenience to have him there. His passion was cooking, however I told him in no uncertain terms that I hated the smell of fried foods, and I did not eat leftovers.
In July of 1999 Albinson and Xerox parted their ways and they no longer needed a sales manager. I spent the summer painting old buildings and garages in the Upsala area and started working for Minnesota Public Radio in October of that year. If I did not leave a post-it-note on the counter in the morning that said, “NO SUPPER”, there would be a home cooked meal on the table when I arrived home. The food was awesome. The baked potatoes were done in a very special way. He boiled them for 10 minutes first and then baked them for one hour at 400 degrees.
As Dad struggled with old age and cancer, sometimes the quality of the supper was not up to his usual standards. Also, many times the smell of burnt food or worse, burnt plastic, from the tea pot handle, would greet me as I came in the back door. He liked to take naps and he burned three tea pots, with plastic handles, in the last six months. It got so that the only time I did not leave out the post-it-note, “NO SUPPER”, was on Fridays.
On Friday November 18, 2004, I came home, and he greeted me with, “I have to go to the hospital, but you can eat first. Your supper is in the oven”. I responded, “No way, we will go now!” I put on the oven mitts and grabbed the baked potatoes and the dish of meatballs from the oven and shoved them in the frig and we drove to the VA in Minneapolis.
That was Dad’s “Last supper”, he never did come home. That weekend I ate the leftover meatball supper. It was a very tasty meal.
“There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself.” Howard Thurman
November 10th, 2023 by Gary Osberg
Tomorrow is Veterans Day. Armistice Day marked the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Le Francport, near Compiègne, France, at 5:45 am for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at eleven in the morning—the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918. Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954. Source: Wikipedia
Lee Waldon served in the U.S. Army from 1963 until 1965. The last year he was stationed in Vietnam. After discharge from the Army, instead of going back to his hometown of East Peoria Illinois, he moved to Minneapolis and got a job at an office supply and furniture company. Lee worked in the office furniture and supply industry for 41 years. Lee and his wife Marian also started an antiques business near Buffalo. Waldonwoods.net
One of their daughter Laura’s high school friends Brent was a Chief Warrant Officer in the Army. He flew injured and deceased soldiers out of Afghanistan via helicopter. He asked Lee to accompany him on a visit to Eagle’s Healing Nest in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Their mission is to help veterans who have mental and emotional issues like PTSD and depression. Brent wanted Lee to meet a veteran that had served under him in Afghanistan, in the hopes of helping him. While Lee had no experience in doing that, he agreed to go along, and the veteran received Lee as a friend.
One day Lee asked a friend that he had met at Lifetime Fitness what he did for Veterans Day. He said he did nothing. Lee told him about Eagle’s Healing Nest. A week later they went to Sauk Centre and on that visit, they noticed a vacant gymnasium. Between the two of them they were able to get a health club in British Columbia to donate gym equipment valued at $80,000 to Eagle’s Healing Nest. Lee and his “Fitness Friend” paid for the semi to transport it. They also helped to set it up. That was over four years ago, and Lee has returned to Eagle’s Healing Nest many times since then.
Tomorrow, Lee and Marian will be returning to Eagle’s Healing Nest to serve dinner for the veterans. Marian has baked 300 cookies. Maybe you could find a way to help our Veterans. Eagleshealingnest.org If you meet a veteran simply say, “Thank you for serving.”
“The fixed determination to acquire the warrior soul, and to have acquired it to either conquer or perish with honor, is the secret of victory.” George S. Patton
November 3rd, 2023 by Gary Osberg
Years ago, I met a woman whose father was a doctor in Cold Spring. His brother was also a doctor, and they would take turns covering for each other during vacations. One year the brother and his family drove to California in their “woody” station wagon. At the end of the first week the doctor received a telegram from his brother in California telling him how great a time they were having and asking him to wire some money so they could stay a little longer.
The next week another request for more money arrived. This time, the doctor sent a telegram back to his brother telling him that there would be no more money and that it was time for him to come home.
Some time went by and one day the railroad station manager called the doctor and told him that he should come to the depot. There was a C.O.D. for him.
The doctor argued that he had not ordered anything C.O.D. The station manager told him to get down there, that there was no doubt that the package was for him. When the doctor got to the train depot, he discovered that his vacationing brother had loaded the “woody” onto a railroad flat car and shipped himself and his family home, C.O.D.
Special event: Organist Dr. Isabelle Demers is performing a premiere of “Tone Poem in Honour of St. Benedict” , commissioned by Michael Barone. This Sunday afternoon at 3 in the St. John’s Abbey Church. Details at stjohnsabbey.org
Bonus event: Mick (The Minstrel) Klein is playing at 8pm tomorrow night at Legends in the newly remodeled Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites on Second Street and Highway 15 in St. Cloud.
“We judge others by their actions and we judge ourselves by our intentions.” GMO
October 27th, 2023 by Gary Osberg
Tomorrow I will reach a milestone. For twenty-four years I have represented Minnesota Public Radio in central Minnesota, western Minnesota and southwestern Minnesota as well as Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Sun Valley, Idaho. I love this job.
In April of 1999, I was promoted to sales manager of the Xerox agency Albinson in Minneapolis. I lived in Upsala at the time, so I would leave home at 4am every Monday. I rented a room from my cousin Kevin in Golden Valley. I would return to Upsala on Thursday evening and work from Albinson’s St. Cloud branch on Fridays.
On July 13, 1999, I had supper with my son at Byerly’s in Golden Valley. I told Erik that I would keep the old parsonage house in Upsala, but I was planning on moving to Minneapolis, since I had my dream job with a great product and I would be making a very good living.
The very next day I found out that the owners of Albinson didn’t like the new contract that Xerox had presented to them, so they decided that they didn’t want to be the Xerox agency anymore. They would no longer need a sales manager. My boss told me that I should pack my things and they would pay me thru the end of the month.
I spent the summer of 1999 painting old buildings in the Upsala area. I drove to Randall and went to the back room at Bermel’s Shoes & Boots, the local Red Wing boot dealer. I picked out a good pair of sturdy work boots and started climbing ladders. My first job was painting the Post Office in Upsala and then I painted an outbuilding on my cousin Dave’s farm. Per my brother Bill’s instructions, I used oil-based primer and latex paint. He let me use his power washer. The two buildings that I did the summer of 1999 still look good. The boots are in pretty good shape too.
In August of 1999 I read an ad in the St. Cloud Times for a “Development Officer” for Minnesota Public Radio. I didn’t know what a “Development Officer” was, but it turned out to be sales. A perfect fit. It took two months and seven interviews to get this job, but it worked out well. Compared to “slamming boxes for Xerox”, this is more fun than it is work. I have no plans to retire anytime soon.
“It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul” From the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley.
October 20th, 2023 by Gary Osberg
I spent a lot of my youth in Upsala, Minnesota. There were “Farm Kids” and “Village Kids”. Some were “summer kids”. They were kids whose parent or parents grew up in Upsala and who were sent to Upsala to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa during the summer. Some stayed for a few weeks and some stayed for the whole summer.
Larry was a “summer kid” and he ended up marrying one of the Upsala beauties. She was chased by all the boys, but Larry won her heart. He was also one of the eight couples that camped on our lakeshore on Cedar Lake west of Upsala every fourth of July. He was a fun-loving fellow who died way too young.
MEA weekend is a special time of the year. Many a father/son(daughter) combo head for the woods or ponds to bring home the “bacon” in the form of grouse or duck. Larry, the “summer kid”, knew that I had never taken up hunting, but he wanted my son Erik and myself to experience a weekend of grouse hunting up north at “the shack”. Larry invited our friend Ron and his son Matt, my son’s best friend, to join him and his son Danny. So, there were three dads and three sons along with a black lab, “Bear”. We formed two teams, and I was the “bird dog” on the DADS team. Bear went with the boys.
The first day we brought back 17 grouse and Larry fixed a meal of grouse with wild rice and cream of mushroom soup in the giant iron skillet that hung from a nail in “the shack”. It was one of the most memorable feasts of my life. I trust that you are doing something special with your family this weekend.
“Remember, it’s not about having time it’s about making time.” Erik Osberg
October 13th, 2023 by Gary Osberg
Today is Friday the 13th. The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, NC, reported that an estimated 17 to 21 million people in the United States are affected by a fear of this day. Some people are so paralyzed by fear that they avoid their normal routines in doing business on this day. “It’s been estimated that $800 to $900 million is lost in business on this day..” Source: John Roach.
According to Wikipedia, the actual origin of the superstition appears to be a tale in Norse mythology. Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil – a gathering of thirteen – and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week.
For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as “Witches’ Sabbath.” source: Charles Panati, Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things.
The Viano String Quartet is performing tomorrow evening at the Paramount Center for the Arts. I hope to see you there. Tickets are available at www.paramountarts.org
“A man will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body – The Wishbone.” Robert Frost (1874-1963)
October 6th, 2023 by Gary Osberg
Today is homecoming in Upsala. In my day the football team was the Upsala `Cardinals’, but some time ago Upsala football merged with Swanville and now it is the USA (Upsala Swanville Area) `Patriots’. If it were not raining and cold I would be there in my letterman’s jacket.
In 1957 I was an overweight freshman on the Upsala Cardinal football team. Freshmen wore the old uniforms and old helmets and we did not win any fashion awards. John Atkinson, a senior running back, ran with his knees pumping up and down high and hard. He still managed to make forward yardage. In practice, I would simply bounce off of his knees. The memory of the pain is still with me. That was the year when no other team even scored on the Upsala team. Clarissa got to our three yard line, but our defense held.
A couple of years ago, the 1957 Upsala football team was inducted into the Upsala Sports Hall of Fame. I was one of nine of the twenty-nine original members of the 1957 Upsala Cardinal football team who showed up for our induction into the Sports Hall of Fame. One of the guys, Dave Chuba, came all the way from Ohio. Bob Soltis was the quarterback and captain of the 1957 team. That year Bob was named to the All State Football Team.
It was the second year that inductees were chosen for the Upsala Sports Hall of Fame. Bob’s brother Ralph was chosen the previous year and another brother John, who was a junior on the 1957 football team, accepted an individual award for his brother Bob. There were lots of Soltis boys and they all played football. No one lifted weights in those days, they just threw bales of hay all summer. Us “village kids” had a tough time keeping up. “GO PATRIOTS”
“Man’s finest hour is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle victorious.” Vince Lombardi’’
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