January 22nd, 2021 by Gary Osberg
54 years ago today, KSJR 90.1 first broadcast from the third floor of Wimmer Hall on the campus of St. John’s University. The first words uttered by engineer Dan Rieder were, “Heed my words, Earth People. You have 10 minutes to live.” The first concert aired was a pre-recorded concert by the Cleveland Orchestra. What began as Minnesota Education Radio became Minnesota Public Radio on January 1, 1975.
This is a version of the story of how Bill Kling was selected to lead the creation of what has become the largest network of public radio stations in the United States. It was written by our first intern, Ellen Newkirk.
Ellen now lives in St. Joseph and works for the College of St. Benedict.
“The Saint John’s University monks chose Bill Kling to help start their public radio station, Minnesota Education Radio, because of his “bright mind” – literally. SJU graduate Marty Mahowald told Ellen the story of Bill Kling’s selection as the station’s first leader as told by his professor Fr. Gunther Rolfson. Fr. Gunther told Marty that in the 1960s, Saint John’s had a mandatory lights-out policy at 10pm when the faculty residents would flip a switch that turned off all power on each floor of the residence halls. However, one evening, during walk around campus , Fr. Gunther noticed a light illuminating from a single room in Benet Hall. The next day, Fr. Gunther used a master key to enter the room and found a system rigged to keep the power on after the switch was flipped each night. The room belonged to Bill Kling. Eventually, the monks decided Kling’s innovative and determined spirit was just what they needed for their new endeavor. According to Mahowald, “Fr. Gunther said that they knew that starting a new campus radio station would present struggles, budget challenges and many other issues to deal with and it would take someone with a lot of moxie to lead it through to success.” It turned out to be a very good decision; Kling served as president of Minnesota Public Radio until 2010 and created one of the greatest public radio station networks in the country. “ Ellen Newkirk, CSB, Class of 2013.
“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” Johnny Cash
January 15th, 2021 by Gary Osberg
When the family moved from St. Louis Park to Upsala in October of 1956, one benefit was that I did get out of having to do “detention” at Park Junior High school. My rebellious nature had already kicked in. That fall I started hanging out with other “town kids”. The Upsala school population was divided into “farm kids” and “town kids”. For some reason one of us decided to steal a gas cap off of a parked car. I am not sure which “genius” came up with this idea, but in any case the prank turned into a project. Everyone in town was talking about it and I am sure that old man Miller printed a story in the local newspaper. Earl Metzger was the local policeman and in time one of the “gas cap gang” confessed to his parents and we all got busted.
We were gathered up and forced to reveal the hiding place of the gunny sack full of gas caps. All of those who were missing their gas cap were told to come to Earl’s garage and sort through the lineup of gas caps to claim theirs. We appeared in front of the Justice of The Peace in the backroom of the fire hall. Justice Bernard Lunder sentenced us all to “six months of church attendance”. Many years later I would visit Bernard at the nursing home in Sauk Rapids and we would talk about the “separation of church and state”. He simply laughed and said he thought we would benefit from his sentence. Not all of us learned the lesson. The “Black Knights Car Club” was born a few years later.
“It is unwise to pay too much, but it’s also unwise to pay too little. When you pay too much, all you lose is a little money, but when you pay too little you stand a chance of losing everything because the thing you bought is incapable of doing what you bought it to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It just can’t be done. So, when you deal with the low bidder, it is wise to put a little something aside to take care of the risk you run. And, if you do that, you can afford something better.” John Ruskin
January 8th, 2021 by Gary Osberg
I was an army brat. Dad served in the navy during the war and later he joined the army. In 1950 he was a Sergeant in the 5th Army stationed in Vienna. As “dependents” we were housed in an apartment building that was quite nice, 41 Gregor Mendel Strasse. There were two marble faced fireplaces and a baby grand piano along with a crystal chandelier in the dining room.
I ran with a group of other army brats and I was the oldest in the group. Nine years old. One day in February we were hanging out in front of the large estate on the corner next to our apartment. One of the kids put his hand in the fence opening and a dog took his mitten. I bravely offered to go through the gate and recover the mitten. I still remember starting my walk across the large yard toward the two “Boxers”. They greeted me by jumping up and knocking me to the ground. They proceeded to chew on my arms and legs. I covered my face with my arms. There was a fairly large crowd watching and finally the Austrian man who we referred to as the “fireman”, (he took care of the furnace in our apartment building) came in and pulled the dogs off of me.
I walked home and my mother fainted when she opened the door. I spent about 6 weeks in the Army hospital. It took me a while to get over my fear of dogs. The occupant of the estate was a Colonel in the army and they did give me a new winter coat.
“Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn’t everything die at last and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” From The Summer Day by Mary Oliver
January 1st, 2021 by Gary Osberg
I celebrated my tenth birthday on a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean. My mother and her four children were returning from a stint as a US Army Dependent Family stationed in Vienna, Austria. Dad was in the Fifth Army. He and the family dog, Mickey, got to fly home later.
When he arrived in Upsala a few weeks later, Ma and baby brother Brian were in New Ulm visiting her cousin Helen. Dad borrowed a brand new 54 Chevy from Uncle Duke who owned Hagstrom Chevrolet in Upsala. My brother Bill and I rode along with Dad to New Ulm.
I was napping in the back seat and I woke up when our car was broadsided by a dump truck. I had a broken leg. I can still remember the pain when they lifted me on to the X-Ray table at the hospital in Cokato. The cast that they put my leg on went from my toes to my crotch. I was in the hospital for a few weeks and when it came time to transport me back to Upsala, Dad took me to Uncle Elmer’s house which was the Dokken Funeral Home in Cokato.
I had to spend a night on a cot on the main floor in the living room next to the viewing room. The next day they took me to Upsala in a black Studebaker hearse. That explains a lot, huh!
I spent the next two months sleeping on a cot in Grandma Laura’s dining room behind Ramlo Grocery. I think that I gained 30 pounds. When I went back to Upsala school, I remember falling down a flight of stairs the first day. No one had taught me how to use crutches to go down stairs. I quickly learned how not to do it.
“Any idiot can face a crisis; it is this day-to-day living that wears you out” Chekhov
December 24th, 2020 by Gary Osberg
Children love Christmas, as well they should. As with most families, some years, Christmas gifts were easy to come by and some years the budget would not allow for much. The Christmas of 1956 was a memorable one for me. My mother had to move from our home in St. Louis Park due to Dad’s inability to handle alcohol. Her mother, Grandma Laura Ramlo, drove her 1952 Chevy from Upsala to St. Louis Park, put Dad in the back seat and drove him to the VA Hospital in south Minneapolis. She told them, “He is a veteran, he is a drunk and now he is your problem, not mine”. She took us all back to Upsala to live above Ramlo Grocery in Upsala.
I am not sure what the reason was for our ending up living in an apartment in Little Falls in December. It had something to do with getting financial aid. That Christmas, Santa brought us six big Tonka Toy 18 wheel trucks. There was a cattle truck, an oil tanker, a freight truck and three more. This was a perfect gift for a family with five boys. I was 13 years old and brother Bill was 10. We played with them non-stop.
I am not sure what my sister Kathie got that year. For many years I had the impression that they were from some sort of social agency that served the poor. It turned out that “Santa” was Dewey Johnson, a classmate of my mother’s from Upsala High School class of ’37. Dewey’s cousin was one of the founders of Tonka Toys. Dewey had already passed on before I learned the “rest of the story”, so I never did have a chance to thank him.
Perhaps you know of a family that has come upon hard times and they could use a “Secret Santa”.
“Peace on Earth, good will to men.” Angel
December 18th, 2020 by Gary Osberg
In December of 1984 I was employed at Dayton’s Commercial Interiors in downtown Minneapolis. My family was still living in the home that we had built on Cedar Lake west of Upsala. My daughter Kerry was 16 years old and her art teacher in Upsala was pushing her to produce a lot of work. For Christmas that year Kerry presented me with a pencil drawing of a Golden Retriever with a pheasant in its mouth. She had an uncanny ability to make the eyes so very lifelike. She had reworked one of the eyes to the point that there was almost no paper left.
I took it to Vern Carver Frame Shop near our office in LaSalle Court across from the Dayton’s department store. One of my co-workers begged me to have Kerry draw another one so that he could present it to a client as a gift. Kerry tried but finally we had my friend Dave Oswald print 130 copies and we sold them as limited edition prints for $25 or $95 framed matted and glazed. I simply carried the original in my trunk and if someone was interested, I would go back out and bring it in to show them. We sold most of them. I have the original hanging in my office in Wimmer Hall at Collegeville.
In 2002, Kerry’s first born, Kaylin Marie, created a picture of an angel blowing a horn. Kaylin was 7 years old at the time. I marvel how she was able to capture the puffed up cheek on the angel. It was a gift for Kerry’s mother Marcia. I borrowed it from Marcia and that year I sent out the very first “Angel Christmas Card”. ( pdf attached)
In 2008, Kaylin’s younger sister Christen created her first “Angel card”. She was 5 years old. I have attached a jpg of this year’s angel card drawn by Christen age 17. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours.
“You must not think that feeling is everything. Art is nothing without form.” Gustave Flaubert
December 11th, 2020 by Gary Osberg
Christmas is only two weeks from today. I think that I have it covered, but I still have a couple of gifts to buy. I used to wait until Christmas Eve, but I have improved in that regard. I trust that your plans are all coming together.
In 1958 I was the youngest member of the Black Knights Car Club in Upsala, Minnesota. One of the older members borrowed his dad’s 1950 Ford and we ended up in a drag race with another member. I was riding shotgun. The Ford slid off of the gravel road into the left side ditch and hit a bridge. I can still remember the horn blaring, the rear tires spinning and the sound of the windshield breaking. I had put my arm up to protect my face and the force of the impact broke my wrist. I was a sophomore at Upsala High and that fall I had to stand on the sidelines instead of playing football. The sling that held the cast for my broken wrist did provide a perfect place to hide the “tools” that I shoplifted later on.
The car club had plans to drop a V8 engine into a 1936 Chevy Coupe that the club had acquired from the leader of the gang, Duane, (AKA “Punk”). We needed tools. The old Chevy was stored in a garage that was behind the house that my mother rented on Borgstrom Street in Upsala. When the Morrison County Sheriff showed up at our front door with a search warrant, Ma fainted dead away. They were going to charge her with “fencing” since we had hidden some stolen goods in the barn next to the garage. The club house for the Black Knights Car Club was an old chicken coop next to the barn that we had cleaned out. The garage was still there in 2010, surrounded by trees growing out from the foundation. It has since been torn down.
The entire gang was brought to trial in the Morrison County court house and we each received a sentence of six months of probation. “Punk” was held in the county jail for almost two months without bail. Our school superintendent, Mr. Whoolery, was named as our probation officer. Two of the gang went to the boys reform school in Red Wing, but they both went on to lead very productive lives. One was a successful franchise salesman and the other became a lay minister in the Twin Cities metro area.
This Saturday you will have an opportunity to enjoy a very special Christmas Carol. The magical performance of Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol will be streamed at 3pm and 7pm. Simply go to www.csbsju.edu/wow to purchase your ticket. Your entire family can enjoy this show from your own living room. I already have my ticket.
“Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light get in.” Leonard Cohen
December 4th, 2020 by Gary Osberg
It looks like the ice on the pond is here to stay for a while. Do not go out there unless you are with a buddy and be sure to check the ice often. We used to drag race cars across Cedar Lake west of Upsala when we were teenagers. 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 a DeSoto, using it as a giant snowboard as we were towed in the ditch behind a car. Dumb and dumber.
My sister and one of my classmates both ended up in casts after a toboggan run down a steep hill in the Burtrum Hills. After a heavy snow we would make a party by driving into the Burtrum Hills with our old cars and just try to get stuck. These were not SUVs, simply rear wheel drive Chevys with a bunch of boys and snow shovels.
Here is one way to enjoy the winter and the ice in a safe environment. https://youtu.be/iNuCXUkp2DE
“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 27th, 2020 by Gary Osberg
Yesterday was the most unusual Thanksgiving of my life. Our family decided to not gather, but rather we scheduled a Zoom meeting for 11am CST. There are six Osberg children, five boys and one girl. The girl came first, so she always had her own room. She is the sweetest of the bunch. Besides some spouses and two children, there were a couple of nieces who were on also. One with her dog and one with her fiancé. The wedding is probably going to be in 2022. Maybe the second Saturday in June. (inside joke). Three states, Minnesota, Arizona and Illinois were in the mix. We had a wonderful time with lots of laughter.
The only thing that could have made it better would have been if the loved ones that have passed on would have surprised us all with a check in. I actually pictured it in my mind. I am sure that others were thinking the same thing. One of my brothers mentioned that our sister reminded him of Ma. 2020 has been a very tough year for many. So much loss.
A big shout out to the genius that made this happen. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and whomever it was that came up with Zoom. The only reason that I am still sane is because I have loved ones that I can stay in constant touch with. Sharing pictures, sharing music, sharing videos. But the best is still going to the mailbox and getting a note that is signed “Love,”
“The world is very beautiful and very wonderful. Life can be very easy when love is your way of life.” Page 127 of The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz.
November 20th, 2020 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 a Xerox agency 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 the Xerox agency 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 special way. He boiled them 10 minutes first and then baked them for one hour at 400 degrees.
As Dad struggled with old age and cancer, sometimes the quality 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 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 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 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
Category :
General 
Comments Off on January 22, 2021 