alexandriacardinals

Our general readership may be excused here.  This is about an overnight in the Cities where we went for our Aunt Mary Kay’s (a/k/a, Mookie) mumble, mumble, mumbleth birthday in North Oaks.  That’s her on the left above, with her husband, Uncle Tom Obert (Dad’s bro), two of their daughters, Kim (who came up from Colorado) and Beth, and in the middle our Aunt Pearl (Tom’s sister, also from Colorado).  Mookie and Tom have lived in Scottsdale for many years now but wanted to come “home” for Mookie’s special birthday.  Needless to say, the weather was a real culture shock!  😉

We planned our trip down with great care, immediately forgetting Mookie’s present when we were a half mile down the road – “I didn’t bring it, didn’t you?”  Upon return to the house, I noticed my shoe horn still sitting on the boot bench.  As usual, I had gone to the car key box to get the shoe horn before we left, returned to the boot bench with the car key but not the shoe horn (I do it every time), went back for the shoe horn with the idea I would pop it in my coat pocket because I would need it in the city.  Then we were off again . . .

As usual, Cities trips involve questionable weather.  We were battling cold, another recent snow fall, and by the time we hit the north suburbs, we started noticing more and more cars in the ditch on both sides of road.  Little discussed axiom, though very true, Minnesotans don’t drive any better in this kind of weather than anybody else!

[First photo upon arriving at North Oaks CC.  The supervisor (well, half of her), Pearl, Karen Obert (sister-in-law) and Kayla (sp?), Cousin Beth’s granddaughter.]

[Mookie and Karen]

[Tom Obert and Tom Obert]

[Sister and brother]

[The party was crashed by an fat old guy with a white beard.  No, it wasn’t me.]

[Mookie on his knee, apparently expressing Christmas wishes.  I seem to recall something about a Tesla?]

[Or maybe this was the Tesla wish?]

[Four 1st cousins and Auntie Pearl.]

[The cousins]

[Cam and Karen with Auntie Pearl]

[All Christmasy outside!]

[The hosts . . . or the guests of honor?]

[To know ’em is to love ’em!]

[To my knowledge, not related to anyone in the building?]

[How’d your photo turn out, Karen?]

[Pearl and Karen, photo by Cam]

[The next day, family met at Beth’s where we were joined by more cousins . . .]

[Barb Arrell on the left and her mom Shirley on the right.  This was at Panino’s in North Oaks, where we went to lunch.  Great Italian club sandwich!  🙂  ]

And since we recently rediscovered this when the supervisor went through an old magazine rack – something for the hockey moms to show their kids about a Title IX pioneer:

[Yup, that’s me.  Caddying for Barb in the 1992 Resorters.  I did a great job!  😉  ]

Up next:  Better catch up on all the hockey games!

[Already known near and far as the sun dog over Lake Cowdry on December 5, shot on my way home from the gym at about 8:30 am.  😉  Not with the “big” camera but with the little snap shot camera I keep in the car at all times for just such occasions.  The open water is a result of the channel flow from Lake Taylor into Cowdry – it stays open all winter.]

Taking a slight break from hockey reporting – the games are now stacked up in my photo files like traffic at 3rd and Nokomis on a 4th of July weekend – to report on some other stuff going on.  You may have heard about the cold?  Still two weeks before winter and we’re in the midst of what will be two straight weeks where the temperature seldom (if ever) creeps above zero.  Actually, we kinda like it (well, if the wind’s not blowing).  Put out some food, and you can watch all manner of critters coming to eat.  We went to “A Christmas Story” at the AAAA Theatre (go see it!) last night and drove home with the car’s thermometer hovering at an invigorating minus 14.  It’s beautiful – all Christmasy with bright, sunshiny skies lighting up a blanket of white.  And from December 2, we had the first Ole Slushball weather report:

Ole Slushball:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w11GpCO-5A

[Lake Street in Alexandria, December 4.]

[Noonan’s Park, December 4]

[Maple Street, December 4]

[Noonan’s]

[Noonan’s]

[Noonan’s, clearing the ice for skaters.]

[Noonan’s, with the warming house on the right.]

[Maple Street]

[At home, December 5, the same sun dog as above now taken over Lake Darling with the professional camera.  Unfortunately, when the sun gets this high it’s so bright it gets a bit washed out.  It’s best to “shoot” a sun dog early in the morning.]

[That evening, it was at the second Christmas party of the evening that the supervisor ran into her old buddy, Dangerous Dan, bartending at the Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum.]

[The Jefferson High School Carolers were performing, for the last year ever.  Next year they will be the Alexandria Area High School Carolers.  Following below, I took four separate videos of them.]

Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dswAvTIYTk

Video 2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moiAoC1iDN8

Video 3:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_gXSsfnzaQ

Video 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbZNUoJMBac

[And now for some new museum displays . . .]

[More canoes, rowboats, and sculls . . .]

[A really old scull . . .]

[The supervisor’s fave!  🙂  ]

[Museum personnel are finding some of these older boats in the area, some times literally digging them out of the ground, and then “cleaning” them up . . .]

[Aluma craft with the very rare aluminum oars (I think I remember that right?) . . .]

[The supervisor’s boat . . .]

[Sailing canoe?]

[Birch bark canoe]

[The museum is still hard charging into all kinds of new stuff.  Phase II of the Maritime Gardens will go in next year, making it a real destination place for visitors.  There will be more entertainment in the gardens and the will be an art show next summer with some major nationally-known artists.]

[Well, we’re ready for Christmas!]

[Thanks again to Jim and Wanda Hafdal!]

[The Lehman Bros. on Hole No. 7, and an unclaimed Hawaiian shirt that Wanda said looks like an Obert’s!  😉  ]

[Well, I took it . . .]

[Cam & Karen’s in Mounds View this morning . . .]

Up next:  Likely getting back to the hockey games.

Spoiler alert:  After having had their all-time record 62-game winning streak finally come to an end, the Gophers with last weekend’s sweep of the Tigers have now won 66 of their last 67 games.  It would seem the only somewhat comparable team in the state would be the Lynx.  The program featured senior Kelly Terry (10) from Whitby, Ontario.  If her last year’s teammate and this year’s Olympian, Amanda Kessel (who will be eligible to come back for her senior year next year), is the fastest woman on skates, Kelly would be a very close second.

[You will note Kelly too loves the Minneapolis skyline (OK, you have to enlarge it a bit).  🙂  ]

[Player introductions:  Milica McMillen (13), sophomore defenseman.  I know I’ve mentioned it before, but if you look to the left margin, that’s Milica in her Breck uniform when she was an 8th-grader.]

[Paige Haley (15), freshman forward from Red Wing.  The program says she’s a defenseman, and that’s what she played last year in high school.  You may remember the Cards played against her in the state tournament last year.  Speaking of Red Wing, Rose Alleva (25) for the Tigers is a senior defenseman from there; I don’t recall this, but she was runner-up for Ms. Hockey Minnesota in high school.]

[And we have Meghan Lorence (20), junior forward from Irondale (where Cam and Karen’s kids went); and Amanda Leveille (29), sophomore goalie from Kingston, Ontario.]

[Kate Schipper (6), freshman forward from Breck.]

[And Hannah Brandt (22), sophomore forward from Hill-Murray, and 2nd leading scorer in the country last year.]

The video is from the start of the game.  I should have waited a while, as the early period of the game is a feeling out period.  But you’ll get an idea of the Gophers’ overall team speed, and why they are favorites for their 3rd straight national championship.  You can see a burst from Ms. Terry about 2/3’s of the way through the video – her basic attack mode of just skating as fast as she can down the boards.  Works too, ’cause she just blows by people:

Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEd9dqoZUCs

To all my close personal troglodyte friends and relatives – and they know who they are: While we were watching Kelly Terry tear up and down the ice at a very high rate of speed, we thought of you, sitting home in your Barcaloungers, eating Doritos and belching, while large mesomorph men on TV lumber to the line of scrimmage with dreams of post-game buffet tables dancing in their heads, forgetting the snap count, and tumbling forward in a hypoglycemic stupor creating a rules infraction of such a nature it has to be referred back to the studio where six previously mesomorph men discuss what happened through various angles of replay and, deciding further review is necessary, break for a 5-minute Viagra commercial . . . Meanwhile, back at Ridder, the supervisor is asking whether or not the game has gone into running time because play never stops.  That’s because the student-athletes at the ‘U’ and Princeton both understand the rules of their game and do not violate them.  Thus, there were a prodigious number of shift changes on the fly by both teams – as shifts usually average 30-45 seconds – for what seemed like 10 minutes without a whistle.  If our large mesomorph men ever had to change shifts on the fly, they would mostly certainly fall down and hurt themselves.  Granted, I must not condemn your activities knowing that I would most certainly loll in my Barcalounger and gobble Doritos if the idiots who schedule TV programming would ever air women’s hockey!  But I digress.

[This is a face-off.  Ms. Terry (10) is taking it, with Megan Wolfe (12), freshman defenseman from Eagan.  You want to win face-offs in your own zone to prevent being scored upon; and you want to win face-offs in your opponents zone so you can score.  Thems the basics!]

[Go!]

[Ooops, let’s do that again.  For leverage, you will note Kelly gets as low as she can get.]

[Go!]

[Dani Cameranesi (21), freshman forward from Blake.  We saw her play in the high school state tournament last year.  I believe she was considered the catch of the state.]

[Kelly and Dani, two pretty darn quick snipers.]

[Meghan, or as Brother Cam would say, “Go, Knightette!”]

[Following the Irondale flash for a bit . . .]

[Ooops, how’d Kate get in here?  😉  ]

[Then Meghan almost takes out the goal!]

[Dani]

[Found Meghan again.  The biggest difference between high school and Division 1 hockey is the ability to receive a pass.  The second biggest difference I really noticed with the Gophers is that there always seems to be a player positioned on the weak, or back door, side – such as this instance – where you can score on rebounds or diagonal passes before the goalie can react.]

[Meghan]

[Baylee Gallanders (27), senior defenseman from Kyle, Saskatchewan.  Last year’s Gophers had five 6-footers on defense (OK, McMillen is listed as just 5’10” and Gillanders at 5’11”).  This year they only have three, with Rachel Ramsey, a true 6-footer, joining the previously listed two.]

[Rachel Bona (7), junior forward from Coon Rapids, a real scooter like Kelly.]

[Megan with Sarah Davis (9), senior forward from Paradise, N.L., another speedster who always seems to get the big goal.]

[Sarah with Maryanne Menefee (14), sophomore forward from Lansing, Michigan.  With this group there is very little difference between the 1st and 2nd lines.]

[Milica, when you make all-state as an 8th-grader, chances are pretty good you’ll be pretty good.]

[Amanda]

[Dani will crawl over ice to achieve her “goal.”]

[Hannah feeds Milica for a one-timer.]

[. . . and done!]

[Take that, you Tigers!]

[It’s a FUUUUMMMBBBBLLLLEEE!]

[GOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLL!  Dani!]

[Coach Brad Frost is honored for his 200th coaching victory.]

[The Gophers begin recruiting early with a Zamboni ride!  🙂  ]

[It also doesn’t hurt to recruit young girl teams to come to your games!  🙂  ]

[Gotta be some potential stars here.]

[Celebrate!  Bethany Brausen (16), captain senior forward from Little Canada.]

[Oy!  What are we gonna do?]

[Then Sarah (9) scored . . .]

[Yeah, we’re happy.]

[Then Kelly scored.]

[Kate]

[Kate passes to . . .]

[Rachel Ramsey (5)]

[One would never want to be in the path of a Rachel slap shot!]

[Another flurry around the beleaguered Tiger goalie.]

[4 – 0 after two.]

[‘Nuff said.]

[More future Gophers?]

[Now on the U.S. Olympic team.  Hope to have her back next year!]

[An obvious error.  Shouldn’t it end in a ‘t,’ not a ‘g’?]

[Bring ’em out, bring ’em out, bring ’em out . . .]

[Hannah, not a surprise she’s such a point machine.  Great hands and sense of where she and her teammates are on the ice.]

[And here she comes . . .]

[A shot . . .]

[Continues in . . .]

[And she scores!!]

[Yay, Hannah!]

[A final rush by the Tigers.]

[Dani wrapped up the scoring with her 2nd goal of the game for the 6 – 0 win.]

[Celebrate!]

[And we’ll see you again tomorrow!]

[In recognition of yesterday’s beginning-of-winter weather, we’ll lead off with the mall from the Alumni Association’s Christmas card.  Thanks, Chad!]

[We last left you entering Coffman Memorial Union.  Now we’re going out the back door – the side that faces the Mississippi River.]

[And again.  The backside is all new from my day.]

[Working our way down the thousands of steps to the river flats.]

[East River Road . . . we’ll walk up and around to the Weisman Art Museum.]

[Cam, the landscape architect (in practice, if not yet in name), said this hillside is beautiful in the growing season.]

[Cam shooting back up the hill from river side.  The Gopher’s rowing house is just behind him.]

[A beautiful day getting warmer.]

[For students, the famous (or infamous) Washington Avenue bridge, across which we used our university stride to reach classes on the West Bank.]

[Our first street level view of the Weisman.]

[Comstock Hall, an original women’s dorm.  In my day, the ultimate destination of a panty raid.  I imagine such has since been outlawed?]

[Back up top, heading around to the entrance.]

[The bridge, and the two buildings on the left that contained the West Bank classrooms for upper division liberal arts classes – the Social Science Tower (SST) and the Business Administration Tower (BAT).  Those were pretty much brand new buildings in my era.]

[Initially, there was no covered walkway over the top of the bridge.  Uffda, was that cold in the winter!]

[The Minneapolis skyline in the late 60’s consisted solely of the Foshay Tower, now totally obscured by the surrounding behemoths.  The IDS  Tower (the building just to the right of the 2nd light globe from the right) joined the skyline in the early 70’s and was the sole city skyscraper for many years.]

[Inside the Weisman, the kids pose on an outdoor balcony overlooking downtown.]

[Yup, art.]

[Annie Oakley by Andy Warhol]

[The supervisor with art.]

[The subject on the left (as noted below) was created by an artist from Alexandria, Minnesota, of all places?  The subject on the right created by a joint collaboration of John and Natalia Obert.  It’s still a work in progress.]

[Despite my many years as an Alexandriaophile, this artist was totally unknown to me?]

[  🙂  ]

[Looking back to the museum entrance.]

[Cam in deep analysis.]

[By an Atwater, Minnesota artist.  The supervisor captures it on her tablet.]

[Another Duane Hanson.  🙂  ]

[Always available to provide perspective.]

[The Pedicord Apts.  This was weird, as you could hear discussions behind each door.]

[The idea is to eavesdrop.]

[Uffda!]

[Interactive art.]

[Can’t remember the who or by whom.  Thought he looked like the old character actor, Paul Ford.]

[Comparing beaks.  For obvious reasons, museum staff kept a sharp eye on the Brothers Obert!]

[What greets you at the museum entrance.  Don’t know why I didn’t shoot it first?]

[Art]

[Getting ready to leave after the requisite potty break.]

[Downtown’s still there.]

[Back on the mall, Walter Library.  Cam, as is his wont, is checking out a huge American elm that somehow has survived the Dutch Elm assault.]

[Morrill Hall (administration), where I’d drop off my quarterly tuition of $97.00.]

[Northrop Auditorium recently underwent a multi-million dollar renovation.  Cam tried to break in, to no avail.  I once had an Econ 101 class here from Walter Heller, President Kennedy’s economic advisor – thousands of kids in the class.]

[Looking back at Coffman from Northrop.]

[Folwell Hall, a classic of its genre.  Once headed for the wrecking ball (I seem to recall), rightly saved if at great expense.]

[Platonic Figure by Andrew Leicester amidst the science and engineering buildings.]

[The back road home to The Commons.]

[Ah, home again – a nice walk.]

[To quote our internationally-famous Uncle Dick (though born in Eau Claire), “Damn, Badgers!”]

[Can’t remember . . . but we’re heading to lunch.]

[A university landmark since long before my time, “Sterbs” is still hanging in there.  But we were on our way to Campus Pizza, which is now in at least its 3rd different location since my day, but all within a couple block radius so it’s essentially the same place.   😉  After fine, and excessive, ‘Za dining, the supervisor and I went to the hockey game.]

[After the hockey game. still stuffed with pizza, the supervisor decided she needed a DQ Blizzard to calm her tummy.  At the DQ, a sign of the times?]

[Back “home,” we decided to explore the 2nd floor where the Princeton team would be breakfasting the next morning.  And here’s my attempt at art.]

[Looking down into the main lobby.]

[Say good night, Ruthie!]

[Sunday morning we noticed (finally?) that the lobby chairs contained the names of the neighboring area streets.  🙂  Then, after breakfast, we decided to take another walk, recalling for some reason we didn’t trundle out on the Washington Avenue bridge for the classic photos of the Weisman? . . .]

[And so we did!]

[As I venture further onto the bridge, the supervisor decided this was far enough for her.  It was a much chillier day than Saturday.]

[I decided as long as I had gone this far, I may as well go “all the way!”]

[The “Mighty Mississip.”]

[The West Bank]

[A real example of a “shoe tree.”  🙂  ]

[And so for the first time in 45 years, I’ve hiked over the Washington Avenue bridge.]

[This is new, the Elmer L. Andersen Library.]

[Now I have to go back.]

[I think I’ll go back on the other side . . .]

[So I did.]

[Made it.]

[Some parting shots . . .]

[And back to The Commons and a future East Bank light rail stop.]

[In parting, with a final shot of the Weisman borrowed from the internet, we hope you enjoyed our campus tour.  Come back and see us anytime!]

Up next (finally?):  The hockey games!

Readers write:

You’ve covered a lot of miles and loads of sports, the arts, memories of your family, our class, and growing up in Alex etc.   What a trip!  500 congrats.   Thanks Diane.

 Tom: Today I made the big breakthrough on tracking the Danish side of my family back from my first great grandfather, Neils Lindberg, who died in 1911, to my sixth great grandfather, Christen Pieder, born in 1670 in Hjordy, Nordyland, Denmark (somewhere in Jutland).  This is not easy because the old Danes modified the names with each generation; e.g., Old Christen could name his offspring Piedersen or Piederdauder depending on the sex.  Sometimes they used first names in the next generation.  No matter, but I did find Uncle Ole about five generations back, so I wanted you to know.  I will try to research his joke telling ability and my ability to translate his humor.   He did not make the great trek to America. ~ Marcus

I’ll tell you what’s really crazy – 2 people who have a condo in Sarasota,
FL, but are staying in Salem, MA, until mid March.  That couple would be
the McMullens.  ~ Rosie

Dear Ole:  I’m sitting on my back lanai with a vodka tonic in hand. I just saw your
weather report on my IPad and wondered what that white stuff was  (some kind
of mold maybe?).  Mrs. Crazy Dave just shut the sliding door on the porch yelling “doncha’ know the air conditioning is on?” Too bad we aren’t there to help you shovel the mold.  ~ Cheers (ya’ betcha’), Crazy Dave
P.S. Tell Paul Donley I love him.

Due to the weather conditions?
All activities for this evening are cancelled.
All High School and Middle School activity practices/rehearsals will be
held but must conclude by 5:00 PM this afternoon.
Sheree Oberg
Activities Department
Alexandria High  School

The following is a conversation between The Nanner and Crazy Dave (about moi).  They have never met and live thousands of miles apart.  One is a Wolverine and the other a Buckeye.  Scarey!:

I keep hoping you will grow up, but I don’t think it will happen!  ~  The Nanner

As soon as he is committed to a nursing home, he will realize!!!  ~ Cheers, Dave

Funny! Somehow I think he will be even worse. ~ The Nanner

I believe he is prepared…I’ve been around him enough…btw he can’t get any worse… ~ CD

 I think you are right!  ~  The Nanner

Hi Tom!!  Spencer’s [Christianson] band, PHO, made it into the Star Tribune in the Friday music section. If you still have the paper, check it out. They even gave them a good review. They are playing at First Avenue on Tuesday, Dec. 3. Pretty exciting stuff!!!! ~  Jo

She [Josie Nelson CD’s] will spread Christmas joy to the East Coast.  What do I owe you?  I have some Redskins tickets I could part with. ~ Thanks, Marcus

We live in a wonderful area!!  ~ Sue

I enjoyed the article, Tom. Thanks for sending it. I knew Alexandria was growing like crazy, but I didn’t know about Osakis! ~ Karl

I knew you always wanted to be a “street walker”.  Good job.  ~ Carolyn

Tell the supervisor to check out Shanee’s Facebook page.  She posted a picture of you and the Annens.  I finally joined the Facebook seen but have no clue how everything works yet.  ~ Marnee’

Great idea and pretty impressive accomplishment.  ~ Sara

Nice local history lesson. If we don’t appreciate where we have been, we will never get to where we want to go!  ~ Ken & Jeanne

Tom, Thanks for the great collection of clippings about Alexandria and your dad!   I got a kick out of seeing the “new” sign on the corner of the bank. I’m so old I can remember when it was a clock instead. The clippings brought back a lot of memories for me.  ~  KBT

I am so blessed to have known John and Natalia Obert. Wonderful, brilliant people.  ~  The Nanner

Fun memories. Thanks, Bill H.

Wow, that was pretty cool, Tom, thanks for sharing. See you later. ~ LL

Haha! Maybe my East Coast Fan Club was afraid I was a – what’s the PC word? Little Person? Midget? Height-challenged? 5’6″, for the record! Haha! ~ LL

Well done! I like the way you orchestrated the wind blowing the corn-husk thingy on the lamp post behind me. Sweet. See ya’ll in December! ~ LL

Well put, Tom.  Victory Heights was Alexandria’s first suburb.  And a beautiful one at that.  ~ Paul M.