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’’
September 29th, 2023 by Gary Osberg
Good morning. It is great to be back. My back pain is under control.
The MPR Net Underwriting Sales Team annual retreat was held at Breezy Point earlier this week. Each fall we gather for two wonderful days of learning and sharing.
One of the cabins at Breezy Point that is available to rent is the 11 bedroom Fawcett House. It was Breezy Point Resort’s founder Captain Billy’s personal residence. My mother, Bernice “Bee” Larson was a nanny for the grandchildren of Captain Billy Fawcett in the 1930s. She had a bedroom in the Fawcett House and spent the winters in Los Angeles with Captain Billy’s son Gordon Fawcett, his wife Vivian and their two children, Gordon Jr. and Dennis.
Wilford Fawcett, better known as Captain Billy, was a millionaire publisher from Robbinsdale, Minnesota. His most famous publication was the Capt. Billy’s Whiz Bang magazine. The book “Humor Magazines and Comic Periodicals” noted that “Few periodicals reflect the post-WWI cultural change in American life as well as Capt. Billy’s Whiz Bang. For much of the 1920’s, Capt. Billy’s was the most prominent comic magazine in America.” Harold Hill refers to the magazine in the song “Ya Got Trouble” in “The Music Man”.
Captain Billy purchased Breezy Point in Pelican Township, from Fred LaPage in 1920 and soon the main lodge was built along with his personal residence. The original lodge was destroyed in a fire in June of 1959. Of course, he rebuilt the lodge and the “Fawcett House” still stands. With 11 bedrooms it is perfect for large family reunions. It was recently renovated. For details on rates and golf packages, go to www.breezypointresort.com
“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we know what to do with it. Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” Emerson
September 1st, 2023 by Gary Osberg
Dr. Benjamin Mueller says that fusing L4 and L5 will not work. They are already fusing themselves. My only hope is a Medtronic implant. My appointment with the Medtronic rep and Dr. Marx is next Friday at 2pm. I plan on making a comeback.
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