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My mother’s mother, Laura Ramlo, and her husband Bert, owned a grocery store in Upsala, Minnesota. Some of us called her Grandma Ramlo instead of Grandma Laura and some just called her Gram. They lived behind the store in small quarters. The bedroom didn’t even have doors. They heated the living space with a fuel oil burner that was in the dining room and it had to be filled often. The store was heated with a wood burning stove. The wood and the fuel oil were stored in the attached unheated warehouse. That was convenient. Gram was famous for her Thanksgiving dinners which were more like a feast. Owning a grocery store made it easy for her to offer turkey, beef and pork most years. Grandpa Bert would complain about her “raiding the stock” but he didn’t complain too hard.

My job was to fill the crystal water glasses with water from the cistern pump in the kitchen. The kids would sit at card tables in the living room. We would always sing the “Doxology” and express our thanks for the goodness in our lives and the food on the table. Every year, Gram would offer her apologies for the food, even though it was awesome. “I don’t know why I keep doing this, I just can’t cook anymore.” Not true Gram. I trust that you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving feast next Thursday.

Live from Here this week is a live show from Town Hall in New York City.  Special guests include Paul Simon, Vagabon, Anais Mitchell, Ryan Hamilton and Holly Laurent.  Enjoy the show.

“If more if us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” J.R.R. Tolkien author of The Hobbit.

Category : General

Comments Off on November 22, 2019

My cousin Tom is not a “Norwegian Bachelor Farmer”, he is a “Norwegian Bachelor House Painter”,  retired.  When I lived in Upsala, I owned a house that was built in 1892 as the Swedish Mission Church parsonage.  The siding is original cedar and as long as you keep it painted, it will last forever.  Tom lived with his folks in a house across the church cemetery. He was my designated painter.  His father died 17 years ago and his mother, Auntie to me, died six years ago.

Living alone has a few disadvantages, one of which is, if you fall and can’t get up, it will be a few days before someone comes to check on you.  On Sunday November 2^nd  Tom was taken to St. Cloud Hospital. It was discovered that he had a brain tumor that had caused a seizure that put him on the floor in his upstairs bedroom.  When I got to his hospital room on Monday the 4^th, he had the three nurses rolling in the aisle.  His personality had been effected by the tumor and he would not stop talking, calling the nurse whose name was Sara,  “Sister Sara”.  He remembered that name from a Clint Eastwood movie.

Because I live in town, I usually was the first to visit him. On Wednesday when I got there he was barely breathing.  I put my hand on his chest and said, “hold on Tom, your sister and brothers are on their way”.  We were sure that he would be leaving us soon.  On Thursday he opened his eyes and greeted his brother John.  When I got there on Friday morning he was wide awake and when the nurse heard me talking to him, she came in and asked Tom if he was hungry.  Tom asked for ice cream.  I told him that we all had given up on him and explained that as I understood it, if he chose to live he would be facing some serious surgery with a high risk.

Tom usual dry sense of humor had returned.  In his words:  “I have never died before, I don’t know how to do it”.   Tom decided to have the surgeries.  He had a baseball sized tumor removed two days ago.  Last night Tom looked pretty rough, but he chose to fight this thing and we are all hoping for the best.

Live from Here this week is a live show from The Town Hall in New York City. Special guests include “They Might Be Giants”,   Big Thief, Aoife O’Donovan, the cast of Betrayal, Marina Franklin and DW Gibson. Enjoy the show.

“I have never died before, I don’t know how to do it”.  Tom Hagstrom

Category : General

Comments Off on November 15, 2019

Monday is Veterans Day. Building a monument to honor our veterans requires dedication, commitment and a team to get the job done. It takes an artist willing to spend the time researching, designing and creating the paintings. It took a committed group of individuals to share the dream and raise the money. And now the project is complete.

The Veterans Art Monument was commissioned by the Minnesota State Veterans Memorial Association and consists of five 8’ X 10’ oil paintings; each paying tribute to the men and women of the five branches of the U.S. Military: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The paintings are installed in the Committal Hall at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery, located 7 miles north of Little Falls. Outside of the Committal Hall there are five granite memorial stands with the names of many of the donors and the veterans that they chose to honor. If you have never been to the cemetery, you should make a point to visit.  The Committal Hall is open Monday thru Friday, from 8 until 4:30.   

Besides being a memorial to our nation’s military men and women, the paintings are educational tools which will help citizens and future generations to understand the vital role that the U.S. Military plays in maintaining our freedom and democracy. You can purchase a 24” high by 29” wide limited edition print.  I bought a copy of the Navy painting and my coffee buddy paid for the framing.  We donated it to the American Legion in St. Joseph. We added a brass plaque to honor our fathers who both had served in the Pacific during WWII.   If you are interested in buying one, send me a note.

“Millions of men and women have served. Many were wounded in battle. Many died to keep us free. The least that we can do is to remember them.”  Jack Peck  Veteran

Live from Here this week is a rebroadcast.  The next live show is November 16^th. 

“If you can do more, you should.”  Robert Redford

Category : General

Comments Off on November 8, 2019

One of our favorite restaurants is connected to a nursing home.  Drakes is part of Country Manor in Sartell.  Last Saturday evening the special was pot roast dinner.  I chose that and I was not disappointed. It reminded me of “Ma’s” roast beef dinner.

Each family has the one or two meals that everyone looks forward to.  In our family, it was “Ma’s roast beef”.  She always put on a very special roast beef dinner.  The meat was very tasty, the mashed potatoes were perfect and the gravy was “right on”.  There was many a time that the four brothers who lived near Minneapolis would gather at Ma’s apartment for her roast beef dinners.  After she passed on, there was much discussion at the dining table about what cut of meat one should ask the butcher for.  Since Ma raised six kids as a single parent, we know that the meat had to be “affordable”.  Brother Craig always claimed that it should be “the eye of the chuck”.

I went to Byerly’s and they said that normally they would cut steaks from the “chuck eye”, but they would be willing to simply provide the cut as a roast.  The balance of the recipe, as I understand it, is to sear the meat in a roasting pan on all sides, slow roast in a covered roaster with water added and roast it for a long time.  Adding onions, potatoes and carrots is an option.  The finished product should be a roast beef that will flake at the touch of the fork and not break the “piggy bank”.  I suggested that the next time all of the brothers are on a fishing trip, Erik should cook a roast beef dinner in honor of Ma.

Live from Here this week is a live show from The Town Hall in New York City.  Special guests include Common, Gregory Alan Isakov, Aoife O’Donovan, The Fates from Hadestown, Serena Brooks and Tom Papa.  Enjoy the show on the radio, by streaming it on your MPR Radio app or by watching it live on YouTube. 

“Nothin’ says lovin’ like something from the oven.”  Betty Crocker                         

Category : General

Comments Off on November 1, 2019

Next Monday, October 28^th,  I will reach a milestone.  Twenty years representing Minnesota Public Radio in central, western and southwestern Minnesota as well as Sioux Falls and Sun Valley, Idaho.

After spending 23 years selling office furniture and 6 years in the office equipment industry I was laid off by the agency that represented Xerox. They simply decided that they didn’t want to be a Xerox agency anymore.  The owners didn’t like the new contract that Xerox had presented.  So they didn’t need a sales manager.  The night before I got laid off, I had supper with my son at Byerly’s near the place where I was rooming with my cousin and I told Erik that I would keep the old house in Upsala, but I was planning on moving to Minneapolis, since I had my dream job as a sales manager with a great product and I would be making a very good living.

Instead, I ended up spending the summer of 1999 painting old buildings in the Upsala area. I drove to Randall and went to the back room at Bermels 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 the Post Office in Upsala and then I did an out building 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 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 may shoot for 25.

Live from Here this week is a live show from the Town Hall in New York City.  Special guests include Paul Simon, Mavis Staples, Rachael Price, Janeane Garofalo, and Brian Platzer. Enjoy the show.

“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.

Bonus quote:  “Toddler’s Creed:  If I want it, it’s mine. If I give it to you and change my mind later, it’s mine. If I can take it away from you, it’s mine. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine. If it’s mine, it will never belong to anyone else , no matter what. If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine. If it looks like mine, it is mine.”

Category : General

Comments Off on October 25, 2019

Some were “summer kids”, not “village kids”.  They were kids who’s parent or parents grew up in Upsala and they were sent to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa during the summer.  Some stayed for a few weeks and some stayed for the whole summer.  In one situation that I knew of, the son was getting into too much trouble in the “cities” and they thought hard work on a farm would be a better way for him to spend his summer.

Larry was a “summer kid” and he ended up marrying one of the Upsala beauties.  She was chased by all of 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. One year he decided to make sure that my son Erik and I had a chance to experience grouse hunting.  This is the story that I share every MEA weekend, because it means a lot to me and I know Erik had a great time too. 

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, a friend of mine who died way too young, knew that I had never taken up hunting, but he wanted my son and myself to experience a weekend of grouse hunting, up north at “the shack”. He 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. I   

“Remember, it’s not about having time it’s about making time.”

The Live from Here show this week is rebroadcast.  Next Saturday, Paul Simon will be one the guests on a live show from Town Hall in New York city. 

Category : General

Comments Off on October 17, 2019

I am about to leave on a trip up I 94 to Alexandria to deliver a few loaves of Johnnie Bread.  There were a few cars with snow on them this morning, but I should be fine.

In September of 1956 I was enrolled in the eighth grade at Junior High in St. Louis Park. The previous month my mother had given birth to her sixth child and Dad was once more in trouble. My mother’s mother, Grama Laura Ramlo, drove her 1952 Chevy from Upsala to our rented bungalow at 1620 Colorado Ave in St. Louis Park, put my dad in the back seat, drove to the VA Hospital in Minneapolis and said, “Here! He is a veteran and a drunk and he is your problem, not mine”. She then took her daughter, myself and my five siblings to live in the apartment above Ramlo Grocery in Upsala.

On Monday, October 1st, I rode my bike from Ramlo Grocery to the Upsala school. I had earned the money for my shiny new Schwinn by delivering newspapers, both morning and evening in our St. Louis Park neighborhood. Of course, that first day, someone let the air out of the tires. That evening I removed the headlamp, the tank and the fenders from my bike. No one messed with the bike the second day of school.  Another plus related to this move was that I did get out of the 10 hours of detention that I had accrued at school in St. Louis Park.

The next Monday, the student body was ushered into the school auditorium to watch game five of the World Series. We watched Don Larsen pitch the only perfect game in World Series history. He’d had a disastrous game two, lasting only two innings and allowing four runs on four walks. When he reported to the locker room that day, Larsen was astonished to see the baseball tucked into his shoe by the manager Casey Stengel. He faced 27 batters that day and not a single one made it to base.

Live From Here this week is a live show from Town Hall in New York City.  Musical guests include Trey Anastasio, The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Sarah Jarosz, Edward Norton, Dulce Sloan and Tom Papa.  Enjoy the show.

Tonight Tom Papa will be appearing at The Paramount Center for the Arts in downtown St. Cloud. I will be working a table in the lobby and I hope to see you there.  Tickets at www.paramountarts.org 

“If you are going to expect, you must inspect.”  Laura Ramlo

Category : General

Comments Off on October 11, 2019

Tomorrow is homecoming here at St. John’s University. I am not sure when the homecoming is at Upsala. In my day it was the Upsala `Cardinals’, but some time ago Upsala football merged with Swanville and now it is the USA (Upsala Swanville Area) `Patriots’.

Some of my favorite memories of football games are those played in the mud. I was an overweight freshman on the Upsala Cardinal team in 1957. Freshmen wore the old uniforms and 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 yardage. In practice, I would simply bounce off of his knee pads. 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 Upsala Sports Hall of Fame. One of the guys, Dave Chuba, came all the way from Ohio. The quarterback of the 1957 team was Bob Soltis. Bob was named All-State in 1957.  Bob was the guy who nicknamed me “Murray” because I went to the U of M in fall of 1961.  The other nickname that I had was “Alkie”.

This was the second year that inductees to the Upsala Sports Hall of Fame were chosen. Bob’s brother John was a junior on the 1957 football team and he accepted an individual award for his older brother.  The first year of the Hall of Fame, Bob’s brother Ralph was chosen. 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. Those of us who were “village kids” had a tough time keeping up with the “farm kids”.

The Live From Here show this weekend is a rebroadcast of a show titled “Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.  It was performed yesterday in San Francisco.  Special guests included Grace Potter, J.S. Ondara, Aoife O’Donovan and Nore Davis.  Tom Papa will be reporting his usual “Out in America”.   More details can be found online at livefromhere.org

“Is there nicotine stains on his index finger? A dime novel hidden in the corncrib? Is he starting to memorize jokes from Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang?” Professor Hill in The Music Man.

Category : General

Comments Off on October 4, 2019

Fall is here and there is a forecast for frost tonight.  The Millstream Art Festival will be held Sunday in vibrant downtown St. Joseph.  The event runs from 11am until 5pm.  There will be 55 artists and 8 authors displaying and selling their works.  There will be live music and a wide variety of food available for purchase.  I hope to see you there.

I have to leave early to drive up to Breezy Point for our fall sales retreat. One of the cabins that is available 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-WW I 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.”

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 breezypointresort.com

Live from Here this week is a live show from Town Hall in New York City. Special guests include Dawes, Jamila Woods, Becca Stevens, John Cameron Mitchell, Ann Patchett and comedian Tom Papa.  By the way, Tom Papa will be appearing live from the Paramount Center for the Arts in downtown St. Cloud, Friday October 11^th.  I will be working a table in the lobby. I hope to see you there.

“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

Category : General

Comments Off on September 27, 2019

Building an art monument to honor our veterans requires dedication, commitment and a team to get the job done. It takes an artist willing to spend the time researching, designing and creating the paintings. It takes a committed group of individuals to share the dream and it takes donors to make it come true!

The Veterans Art Monument was commissioned by the Minnesota State Veterans Memorial Association and consists of five 8’ X 10’ oil paintings; each paying tribute to the men and women of the five branches of the U.S. Military: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The artist, Charles Gilbert Kapsner, a native of Little Falls, studied in the studio of Nerina Simi in Florence, Italy.  He has spent the last 10 years working on what he says is perhaps the most impactful project of his career.

All five of the paintings are complete and are installed in the Committal Hall at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery north of Little Falls. The paintings tell the story of each branch of service, commemorating the sacrifices of all who have served. Besides being a memorial to our nation’s military men and women, the paintings are educational tools which will help citizens and future generations to understand the vital role that the U.S. Military plays in maintaining our freedom and democracy. There are 24” x 29” prints available for purchase.  My coffee buddy Phil and I donated a print of the U.S. Navy painting to the American Legion in St. Joseph. Both of our fathers served in the Pacific Theater during the second World War. It is hanging in the meeting room. You can contact me if you are interested in purchasing a print of any or all of paintings.   

This Sunday, September 22^nd,  at 2pm,  there will be a dedication of the granite monument honoring both Veterans and donors. The monument is located outside of the Committal Hall.  I have attached a press release and I hope that you can make it to the ceremony.   

“Millions of men and women have served. Many were wounded in battle. Many died to keep us free. The least that we can do is to remember them.”  Jack Peck  Veteran U.S. Navy 

Category : General

Comments Off on September 20, 2019