alexandriacardinals

[Shelly Karnis, Linda Kelsey, and Linda Akenson]

Doubt: A Parable

So, there I sat, minding my own business, when the phone rang Monday afternoon.  The supervisor was calling from her bridge game to ask if we wanted the two extra tickets Beryl had for the Theatre L’Homme Dieu (TLHD) play, Doubt: A Parable, on Tuesday night.  Well, we hadn’t made a move yet for tickets, but we prefer going on Tuesdays, opening nights, because then you can go to the cast party afterwards.  So, I said, “Good idea!”  Besides, Beryl was coming with three of her high school classmates from St. Louis Park, and I was partial to the idea of going out with five ladies.  🙂

I didn’t know anything about the play.  I read that Linda Kelsey had a lead role – and I remembered her from her role on The Lou Grant Show on TV.  And I vaguely remembered she was a native Minnesotan – and she is, from Minneapolis, a well-known suburb of Alexandria.  To the the-ay’-tur we went.  (Did I mention The Lou Grant Show began in 1979 – really, where does the time go??]

So, there I sat, minding my own business, in the front row when classmate Betty (Larson) Butcher, with husband Perry, came and sat down right next to me.  [See Betty as the apres party performer in the previous TLHD posting.] Now Betty is a theatre expert – performer of song, dance, acting, and instrumenting – so I, being of occasionally sound mind, had to figure a way of pretending I really understood the performing arts (i.e., if you hum a few bars, I’ll fake it).  Betty said we had to discuss the play at its conclusion – I almost felt the need to take notes.  You will have to see the play to know what I mean.

Linda and her three fellow cast members were all terrific.  It is an intense drama that goes on for about a 100 minutes without intermission.  At its conclusion, the cast received a spontaneous standing ovation from the audience.

Then it was on to the lodge for the cast party.  That is where I took the above photo.  Shelly and Linda (w/ Tom) were the individual show sponsors – along with the season sponsors, The Aagard Group and Elden’s.  They all deserve a major round of thanks for providing such great entertainment for us in the lakes area.  And thanks again to Terry Kennedy and Al Lieffort for providing the entertainment at the party – it’s like a doubleheader!

[Terry and Al, in their younger days.]

[Melissa Harris-Perry wanted to be there.  (OK, that’s just a guess – photo from TRMS site.)]

p.s.  Did I mention the supervisor seems intent on reading the entire William Kent Krueger library in record time?  Just wonderin’.

The Nonagenarians

[Editor’s note:  This has absolutely nothing to do with the above story.  But it has been languishing around for a month now because I’ve had no place to stick it.  Yeah, I know – you can tell me where to stick it . . .]

Tuesday, June 12, dawned bright and breezy . . . and possibly a tad chilly.  Crazy Dave was home from having spent way too much time in Sarasota and advised the morning senior league that he would not yet be making his debut because it was too cold!

But others (real men?) were not so deterred.  As those with gray in their hair and a limp to their gait began assembling for their weekly assault on the AGC, word spread some famous guests would be joining us.  The excitement was palpable.

It seems certain members of the league had been putting a full-court press on Martin Haar and Warren Gibson to come play with us again.  Martin and Warren, now in their 90’s, each decided a couple of years ago to give up their club memberships – that their golf careers, which consisted mainly of income redistribution from us to them, were over.  We learned again on this day that not only are they still great fun to play with – but that they can still play!  We hope for further reunions.

[Gordy Anderson, Warren Gibson, and Martin Haar]

Oh, and Gordy is still a member and still shooting better than his 90+ age on a regular basis.  We had just heard that morning that John Gustafson, a member of the Alexandria Education Foundation Hall of Fame, had died at age 80.  Gordy noted that made him feel “old” as he had hired John right out of St. Olaf.

Martin and Warren joined us all to play the back 9.  Warren played in the group ahead of us – we played with Martin in the following group.  When we arrived on the 17th tee, we could see Warren had hit into the left-side trap.  With trusty Canon in hand, I sped up the hill to catch the action with the following story in mind:

A fellow of age hit his golf ball into a sand trap.  As he descended in to play his next shot, he bemoaned to his partners that he couldn’t get out of traps.  He then proceeded to hit his sand shot into the hole to the amazement of those present, who queried, “We thought you couldn’t get out of traps?”  “I can’t,” he said, “Give me a hand up!”

Anyway, by the time I reached my quarry, Warren, and two of his playing partners, were on their hands and knees just trying to rake the ball out of the steep side of the trap.  I captured Warren with a bemused look on his face – and then had my photo taken with the guy who is still my hero.  🙂

[Andrea (No. 44), Alison (No 14 (OK, I thought hers was 23)), and Sara (No. 19) Toft, hockey stars from years long ago and far away (6 for the twins, 7(?) for Alison).]

OK, this was totally a coincidence – or a KY-incidence, as they say in the middling part of America.  The only thing on the docket today was Lisa Lynn at Bug-A-Boo Bay – she performed from noon to 4:00, and it was beastly hot!  We stayed our arrival until about 12:30 – after Ernie Els won The Open (but, boy, you have to feel for Adam Scott).  When we got to our table, we were greeted with a boisterous enthusiasm that could only come from the Toft sisters (and Ruthie’s daughter, Jami!).  😉  They were at the next table with their mom and friends.  If you don’t know them, “search” this blog.  They were a big part of the group that decided, “Hey, let’s get a bunch of old people hooked on girls high school hockey!   We’ll call them Super Fans.”  And it worked, of course.  We had a fun visit with them – Alison (the oldest) is in Alex, working for an engineering firm and at Doolittle’s (for 5 years now, to the family’s amazement), and Andrea and Sara are in the Cities in nursing and accounting, respectively, as I recall.  As original hockey stars, they are “ladies of the blog.”

But then so is Lisa (well, not a hockey star, but a “Lady of the Blog”).  It’s a column!  😉

[Lisa, on guitar, an occasional relief from the keyboard.  By the time we left around 2:30, she was losing her shade.  There was no air movement.  We were miserable, and it was worse for Lisa – she was performing.]

[And experienced bloggers know to break up their story with sky shots – Friday night on Rosewood Lane.  We had just had dinner at Weston Station (forever feeling guilty for not eating there enough) and had driven through the Heights.]

[We said good-bye to Lisa, advising we would be “using” her for the blog.  She puts up with it.]

[Take 2 in case one breaks!]

[That sky again – I don’t think digital does justice to such skies, good ole Kodachrome-25 would have been better.]

[Four ‘Ladies of the Blog” seemed a tad light.  Aha, the golf club has at least four ex-athletes working there this summer.  With apologies to the Richardson sisters (I’ll have to catch up with them around the club), Kaitlin Becker (above) is working the beverage cart (and continues to work at the Northside Dairy Queen – I seem to recall buying a bloody mary and a chocolate malt from her on the same day!), and I have introduced her to the senior golfers as a volleyball star.  Kaitlin will be a sophomore at St. Thomas where she is majoring in business – as such, could she become a student of Basketball Dan, noted Tommy statistics prof?

[Kaitlin (no. 2) teamed with Sam Trumm (No. 4) as blockers extraordinaire.]

[And Ally Teclaw takes care of our food and beverage desires inside the club.  She was a centerfielder – who could run, hit, hit with power, throw, and field.  The great catch following was captured by the Echo.  Now she will be a junior at St. Cloud State, in recreation administration, if memory serves.

[Ally was No. 5.]

[OK, that’s enough.  So, Toft sisters – are  you with us?]

Oh, and contrary to rumored reports, Kim Kardashian was not in the house.

And, unfortunately, neither was Lindsay Whelan.

We read about it in the Echo, of course, sitting in our backyard on beautiful Lake Darling.  It’s all anecdotal – with reports of record boat sales nationwide . . . and locally!!  🙂  But we have proof – if you’re willing to accept our following report.  We hope you will honor our dubious references.  Full disclosure – in the last several days I have noticed I don’t see very well out of my right eye, and the supervisor lost her library card and while attempting to use mine discovered mine had been cancelled (they thought I was dead!).  Nevertheless, after a morning and early afternoon watching The Open, we just happened to look out and see . . . well, we rushed out onto the deck.  It was lovely – not the 91 putrid degrees that was predicted.  It was 79 with a nice breeze.  We saw people – and boats – everywhere.  We promptly donned our Speedos and made for the Moby Obie.  In the 11 years we have lived on the shores of beautiful Lake Darling, we had never seen so much activity on, and in, the lake!  🙂

[The state bird was frolicking.]

[The state fish was . . . well, frolicking too.]

[Arnie and Jo’s neighbors are in such numbers, there are cars parked on the lawn and two large tents are set up on the lawn.  And they all have been spending time in the lake . . . frolicking!  (Aside:  Arnie and Jo sold the motorhome this morning – it took a year.  They still go to Florida every winter, but now to a house.)]

[Not only boating – people were swimming, off the boats and docks.]

[And just enjoying the day outside with company.  By this time, we had cruised by the Fieldhammers, saw Pris and Paul sitting on their deck, and invited them onboard for a short cruise of beautiful Lake Darling on the Moby Obie.]

[Hmmm, guess no wine stop today.]

[And checking out remodelings.]

[Back to the neighbors.]

[Root beer float? . . . or until we meet again.]

p.s.  Lilac Lodge is no longer Lilac Lodge (will be featured in a blog column soon)!

[And then the Arrowwood pontoon went by with a full load.]

[Nice profile!  ~ Amy S.]

Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps debuted at Theatre L’Homme Dieu Tuesday night.  Fun stuff with lots of laughs.  And then I posed with “Al” afterwards.  Oh, and high school classmate Betty [Larson] Butcher provided the entertainment at the apres play party.

[Where Betty played.]

Please indulge me for a minute.  How could I not?  Ran into this gentleman at the golf club the other night, and he mentioned this to me.  I’ll either use it as a masthead or ask him to be my agent.  So, from a former teacher in Alex, neighbor, and now member of the Alexandria Education Foundation Hall of Fame:

Tom: I really appreciate your blogsite and your commentary. As I have told you, you are a very good writer and probably should be drawing a salary from the city of Alexandria and District #206 for your remarkable filming and your readable coverage of events When we are in Surprise, AZ for the Winter period, we enjoy your personal coverage of all the sporting events for Jefferson, and in particular, the coverage of the girls athletic program. I see and hear a lot of my former students participating from time to time in your coverages and enjoy their participation and commentaries. I’m still wonderin’ which one of them was responsible for paperin’ our trees periodically out in Victoria Heights! Of course, the class of  ‘65 would not have even thought about doing that kind of thing, would they, Tom? Anyway, keep up your good work on the blog, we all enjoy it so much!  ~ Bob R.

[I couldn’t think of anything else to do that day.  Blogging hadn’t been invented.]

The 78th Shot:

And the golf photo – Al Grundei was ambling by as I was approaching the 18th green Tuesday.  I just “happened” to mention that if I parred the hole, I would finish with a 38 on the back 9 and a 79 for the round (it was only my 3rd round in the last 6 weeks).  I had pulled hooked my drive almost to the 17th tee.  I thought I could hit a pitching wedge over the trees to the green.  I hit it perfectly, but just managed to clip the top of the trees.  So, here I was hitting my 3rd shot to the green.  Al labeled the photo “The 78th Shot.”  Needless to say, I totally screwed up and took a double-bogey 6 on the hole.  Uffda!!!!

Wednesday is usually buffet night at the golf club.  And we had planned on doing so immediately after stopping at the Maritime Museum (what, again?) to purchase the above book.  On the way, we passed Shalom Lutheran and noticed about a billion cars there – it was the annual pork chop feed!  We did not know – those in charge of advising us of such have been duly chastised.  We continued to the museum.  Once there, however, we discovered it was more than just a buy-the-book event – it was a program.  We decided the pork chop pig-out (a pun) would eviscerate attendance at the golf club buffet, so we stayed at the museum.  I forgot now – where are we?

[Attendance was good.  We had to park in Urbank.  On the walk in, we noticed much had been and is going on on the “backyard.”  I believe they are soon hosting some weddings, and an R & B singer will be performing in August.]

[First stop – as always – the wine bar!]

[And who should be tending?  None other than a smiling “Dangerous” Dan!  🙂  (It should be noted, for appearances sake, he had paid a very recent visit to the dermatologist.)]

[The program site.]

[Wine and hors d’oeuvres in hand, find a seat!]

[The ever-fun Rachel Barduson, from the Douglas County Historical Society, hosted the event.  She arrived in winter attire before “changing” into an outfit appropriate for the occasion.]

[The protagonists.]

[Books were passed around for signings like a high school yearbook!  The supervisor did good.]

[The supervisor with Wilson Schoellkopf, Jr.]

[He played for the Resorters championship (more than once?) back in the day when we all had hair.  He recalled that Dad had written a very nice column about him in the Echo regarding his on-course sportsmanship.  Regarding the Schoellkopf’s in the book, it was relayed that when his father was asked what he did for a living, he replied he owned half of downtown Dallas.]

[Alexandria beaver – looking askance, and wondering when the workers would leave the “backyard” construction so he could get back to his pond?]

[Bemidji beaver – to be used for comparative purposes only.]

And a few photos of the new high school construction, to be a regular feature until completion:

[OK, not a lot happening yet.  The signs are up – and there was one piece of heavy equipment operating in the distance.]

[Right across the street from this – Grand Arbor.]

Well, as long as we’re here, last night Matt and Julie Veline performed on the courthouse lawn for the Red Willow Arts Coalition:

[Bonus points will be given to anyone who identifies the person in the foreground.  Hint: Funky Gumbo Trio.]

[Julie & Matt, obviously.  The crowd approved!  😉  ]

[They were joined by son Will on bass.]

[The Alex class of ’62 were in town for their 50th reunion.  This music, of course, was theirs (the dancers).  Matt relayed the “Day the Music Died” story, and how Uncle Bobby Vee’s “Take Good Care of My Baby” hit No. 1 in 1962.  Matt noted he wasn’t even born until 1965 – the year I graduated.  And that he is 47 years old – I was born in ’47!  This is making me dizzy!]

[Good crowd, good crowd!  ~ Rodney Dangerfield]

[Then it was on to SAWA for the new verison of the Funky Gumbo Trio.]

[Beryl and Don were there – entertaining friends from Arizona and California.]

Thank you! You made my day!  ~  The Nanner (?)