Buffalo Gal

An event that takes place in many smaller towns is about to take place in my town. An All-School Reunion begins this Friday and runs through the weekend. All School reunions are not easy to do in big towns or cities…there are too many students who came out of large school settings. They only knew a small group of close friends in those schools. Small school kids knew EVERYONE in grades 7-12 and in grades 1-6 when we were in elementary school in once small building.
I have been involved in this event for many months due to my feature writing for the local newspaper for about a year. It has given me a lot of pleasure to write articles about former students at the town’s school (which goes back to about 1873 when the first English settlers established a school in a small wooden building in the downtown area of the infant village.)
Tracing the lives of certain students who graduated from the town’s school was gratifying. I chose to write about students from the small town school who went on to become professional journalists. The most well known one was a long time writer and photographer for the FORUM. His coverage of the 1957 Fargo tornado and the never to be forgotten picture of a young man carrying the body of the youngest Monson child out of the wreckage of her home makes Cal Olson the most famous journalist to come out of the small town of Hawley. Cal had died several years before I began to trace his life and career but his daughter who teaches at one of the colleges in Fargo Moorhead was gracious in sharing her father’s life with me and so I wrote about him first.
Then I connected with a 1948 graduate who went far in professional journalism which took him to faraway places as a journalist. He spent several years being the Naval news contact in Boston, often holding his press releases from the decks and rooms aboard the USS Constitution….the famous naval war ship from Revolutionary War times. He moved to Washington DC after his naval career and became a journalistic spokesman for national agricultural organizations. He was just a few blocks from the riots that occurred in the nation’s capitol after the Martin Luther King assassination. He finshed his long career as the chief spokesperson (journalist) at the University of Minnesota. He never lost his love for his hometown and returns often..once to be the speaker at a National Honor Society banquet at which my son was inducted. Russ is returning for the reunion..full of enthusiasm for his class’s reunion as well as the major events of the weekend.
Two younger people–graduates in 1974 and 1985 are the other professional journalists who came out of the small town high school. Lynnette lives and writes in northwestern Montana for several news outlets near Whitefish. She won a major journalistic award for her investigative reporting on an asbestos mine in Libby, MT where many of the workers became fatally ill with lung cancer from being exposed to the asbestos for many years. She also got her start in journalism in High school on the yearbook staff and the high school newspaper staff. She spent some summers writing for the local newspaper also. So did Chad..who first became a professional as a Televsion anchor at a tiny station in Michigan where he really learned all the parts of being a broadcast journalist. He worked at WDAY for several year in the sports department there until he became an independent owner of a company that produces filmns for shows like “The Great Outdoors”.
It was such a pleasure doing feature aritcles on these alumni…and another one on the teachers who were their mentors at thh high school level.
Amazing teaching took place in a small school setting. One of the teachers has also become an author and researcher..writing about his own small town beginnings and working hard on a display at Mayville State College about the influence of rural ND schools on so many citizens of that state.
I am living in a community that is alive with writers and journalists and the latest efforts have just been published in two major news supplements tracing the history of the town and the school.
It has been a wonderful thing to be involved in the writing of those newspapers.
AFter the big celebration and its busy-ness, I want to re-retire and bask awhile in summer weather and spend some down- time in my little cabin with a book or with my memories of what is going to be a meaningfull all school reunion—-just two days away.

“The godfather of global warming lowers the boom on climate change” says the subtitle of an article in the Canadian paper, the TORONTO SUN.
Two months back, James Lovelock who was an original global warming “alarmist” gave an interview; he has changed his mind and his tune about global warming.
Lovelock is not a scientist (like so many global warming alarmists) but had a degree in political science. He is an academic person.
A paragraph from the TORONTO SUN article says…
“Having observed that global temperatures since the turn of the millenium have not gone up as climate models predicted they would, Lovelock acknowledged the changes in global warming patterns over nearly 20 years….not warming as fast as the alarmists thought it would. ”
Lovelock gave an interview to the UK GUARDIAN newspaper and delivered some bombshells that are sure to anger the global warming alarmists and the global “green movemement”. The Apopocalyptic view that mankind would die from global warming and climate change by the end of the century is not favored any more by James Lovelock who has seen the error of his ways re. global warming.
He acknowledges that “antropogenic” global warming is occurring….as it has through many cycles over the earth’s long history. He now says that doomsday predictions like he made are not valid…he was as alarmist as Al Gore at one point in the past.

Lovelock is a long time advocate for using natural gas as a fuel; he is now in favor of natural gas “fracking” to get more of it out of the earth….a method that drives the hard – core environmentalists crazy.
Some thoughts from Lovelock revealed in the GUARDIAN Interview:

1. Lovelock is a long time supporter of nuclear power as a way to lower greenhouse gas emissions which is not the way the radical Green Environmentalists would go. Lovelock advocates fracking for natural gas now.

2.Lovelock blasted “greens” for treating global warming like a religion.

3. Lovelock mocks the idea that modern economies can be powered by wind turbines. As Lovelock puts it, “so called sustainable developement —-is meaningless drivel. We rushed into it without any thought. The schemes are largely inefficient and unpleasant…”

4. The claim that the science is settled on global warming : “one thing about being a scientist is that you can never be certain about anything. You never know the truth. ….you interate toward the truth. You don’t know it.”

This interview with James Lovelock a former global warming alarmist warmed my heart…I have been a doubter of the hysterical alarmist view on climate change/ global warming from the beginning and the finding out of how global warming alarmists at a university in England (East Anglia University) falsified their findings to support their theories ended my trust in any information from the Alarmists.
Yes—- the earth is probably in a warming cycle but doing the sort of things the Hystericans want to do won’t stop the cycle nor will it affect global warming much at all. These cycles of warming and cooling occur naturally in long natural cycles as records from the past show. Activity or lack of it—- on the sun’s surface has much more to do with the climate cycles than any other factor.
The warmest cycle yet in history came in the Medieval ages when there were no carbon emissions on earth.

Driving home from a soccer tournament at Pepsi Field in north Fargo we saw the most complete and huge rainbow for over 15 minutes tonight. It was gorgeous. I have never seen a rainbow last for such a long time.
Our 14 year old grandson played with his teammates in the soccer tournament (a big one) this weekend. Proud grandparents cannot help but say that our grandson scored a hat trick (3 goals in a row) in yesterday’s game we saw. He is quite an athletic boy….he lopes like a graceful deer up and down the field in his bright orange soccer shoes…I look for the orange shoes to follow him but today the Bismarck team had several boys who were wearing the same orange shoes…..it threw me into a tizzy!!! Grandson learned a lot of soccer skills when he was only 4 or 5 from his big brother and sister. He was well schooled by the time he started playing on league teams.
The games this evening were called due to rain and lightning in the area…but I think they may have finished them by now. We came home and saw that wonderful sight in the east with the big arcing rainbow.
Between our granddaughter’s Shanley High team and now our grandson’s Fargo summer league team I am learning a lot more about soccer play than I ever thought I would or could. It is a great game….it takes real athletes to play and endure the running and kicking and defending and the interesting “heading” of the ball.
I am looking forward to more games this summer—-hopefully in dry weather!!!!

Getting Fast And Furious documents out of the Department of Justice is like pulling molars without novocaine…or so it seems.
A news article: “HOUSE COMMITTEE SUSPECTS COVER-UP” by Jerry Seper on June 21 covers a lot of questions being asked by the House Committee…but also millions of Americans. ( google it to read the entire article)
Yesterday Jay Carney (the press secretary) embarassed himself in front of the savvy White House reporters by claiming that Fast and Furious is just a political fishing expedition. Tell that to the family of Brian Terry the agent who was killed by a weapon that went through the gun running operation of the DOJ under Eric Holder.
What people are asking is “What is being covered up?” Why is the President suddenly dragging out Executive Priviledge when this could have been done at the outset? Why now?
Maybe they were hoping to cancel the House Committee’s move to bring contempt of Congress charges
against Holder. It did not work.
Having been an adult who followed everything about Watergate in the early 1970′s, I smell a rat just like I did during Watergate. The WhiteHouse then (Richard Nixon) wanted to cover up the break-in at the Watergate complex in Washington DC but it did not work. Every thing came out in the end and it was the downfall of the Nixon presidency—- and this did not even compromise national Security.
(Democrats at that time were the dogged investigators..just in case anyone thinks the present investigators on the House Committee are the first ones to do this.)
**Darrel Issa is the new Sam Irvin.

The phrase that has become part of our language was initiated at this time 1973-74: “at this point in time”.
It is probably in the dictionary now!

Today’s investigators are more concerned about the National Security inmplications of Fast and Furious. It is NOT a political thing but the accusations of Jay Carney surely make one wonder why on earth are documents being denied to the Committtee. The White House itself causes more suspicion due to the stalling and attempt to NOT produce all documents related to the Fast and Furious operation.
This writer (Jerry Seper) wonders if what is being covered up is WHO authorized the botched up gun- running. I do not think Eric Holder will either be fired or will resign…he is too close with the President as a personal friend.
The most desperate accusations are coming now, too—that it is a racist thing because Holder is a black man. Race has zero to do with what is being investigated. If it were a AG of any color, it would be a serious breach of national security and can lead to many more deaths of people like Brian Terry and all the Mexican citizens who have already died as the result of the gun running.
Read the article.

I received an interesting link from a friend in St Paul called “Only In America Top Ten List”.
It involves polticians and politics….not surprising with some of the odd events occurring on a daily basis.
So here is the list:(in descending order)

10. Only in America could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $40,000. per plate campaign fund- raising event.

9. Only in America could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when we have a black attorney general, a black president, and roughly 18% of the federal workforce is black… while only 12% of the population is black.

8. Only in America could we have two people responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner, the head of the US treasury department and Charles Rangel, the head of the Ways and Means committee, BOTH turn out to be tax dodgers who are in favor of higher taxes.

7.Only in America can we have terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash.

6. Only in America would we make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years and years in their home countries and pay thousands of dollars for the priviledge
while we discuss letting anyone who sneaks into a country illegally just become American citizens.

5. Only in America could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country’s Constitution be thought of as “extremists”.

4. Only in America could you need to present a drivers’ license to cash a check or buy alcohol, but not present the same IDs in order to vote.

3. Only in America could people demand the government investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when the return on equity invested in a major U.S. oil company (Marathon) is less than half of a company making athletic shoes (Nike).

2. Only in America could the government collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in recorded history , still spend a trillion dollars more than it has for total spending of $7 million PER MINUTE, and complain that it doesn’t have nearly enough money.

1. Only in America could the rich people who pay 86% of all income taxes be accused of not paying their “fair share” by people who don’t pay any income taxes at all.

Ah yes, there are more disconnects in American government than we can possibly count—–or shake a stick at!!!

That is pronounced “Mid-summers’dahg.”
It is what the Norwegians celebrate on the eve of the summer solstice.
I got in on this celebration as a 20 year old college student in 1958 when I was on a choir tour of Norway for a month.
The evening was such a good one….the people of Norway build huge bonfires and have all night picnics and their “hot dogs” are to die for….they are so much better than anything I have ever tasted in the USA…..I can still remember them and the little delicious rolls and the exceptional mustard!!!
My roommate and I were staying with a family in Stavanger, Norway on June 20 and 21 and the family had friends over to their house for the all night party.
One of the guests was a doctor and I needed one that time. I had come down with such a horrible cold with sinus infection (from sleeping in damp sheets on a cold night at a very elderly lady’s house in Haugesund the week before) Not that the damp sheets made me sick but they surely took my immune system down. I had missed the Bergen and the Stavanger concerts due to my bad upper respiratory infection.
The doctor gave me some helpful meds that were probably antibiotics for the sinus infection. I struggled with it for another ten days and traveling every day was not conducive to getting well again.
We also had been to a long afternoon banquet in Stavanger on June 21 where we all were given small “sweet potatoes” to blow on…they were made of red clay that was glazed and were on red white an blue ribbons to hang around our necks.
They played like a Kazoo and we made a lot of strange music in the banquet hall but redeemed ourselves by singing a few of our concert songs for the assembled crowd of our hosts and town officials.
The banquets in the towns we visited were spetacular events…..they began about 2 p.m. and were called the “Middag” meal….a huge dinner at Midday. There were several courses and we always had very fine roast meats along with vegetables and boiled potatoes. Customs may have changed by now but at that time the big meal was at 2 p.m. I also rememember fantastic ice cream cakes which looked like wedding cakes with multiple layers…they were so delicious. In the evenings the Norse people ate a light supper called “smor-bro” I cannot put in the grammatical markings but you say “smuh-bruh” and it meant “buttered bread” but the bread had fantastic toppings….they were one- slice sandwiches with meats, cheese, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes and boiled eggs and even sliced fruits like oranges on the top of the bread slices and the breads were wonderful by themselves….whole grain usually. My favorite was rye bread topped with cucumber, tomato and boiled egg. I still make them to eat now!
We looked forward to the “smor-bro” each day. I have a butter dish that says “smor” on it and of course I put butter on the little dish.
I learned to love a soda drink called
“solo” pronounced “sulu”. It was an orange-lemon soda pop the likes of which I have never tasted again….. Another memorable thing from 1958 Norway.
It is a beatiful Midsummers’ Day today; I wish I could still go on an all-night picnic with those delicious hot dogs I recall—- but now I am not 20 years old and I cannot stand to stay up all night!!!
In northern Norway tonight and for some nights to come, the sun will NOT set at all….it is like twilight all night halfway up the Norwegian landscape at Trondheim–one of the areas where some of my ancestors on the Mom’s side lived before they emigrated to Rollag, Minnesota where a huge number of emigrants made a new village and surrounding farms.
I remember not going to sleep easily when it was so light all night.

It is the best of days…more light and sunshine than any other day of the year.
It is my favorite day.
I am a true Northern European descendant…I do not like the Winter Solstice and its oppressively dark days at all. We Northerners love the day long sun that never sets!!!!
The downside of Midsomkers Dag is Dec 21 when northern Norway is in darkness every day for 24 hours til late January…then the sun barely rises for only afew hours. ARGHH….I could not take that time of year.
It is in our genes and our blood I think.

In an article today in the NYTimes(of all places) a writer does a review of new book by David Maranniss, a well known political writer and biographer.
The NYTimes headline where you can read the entire article is titled
“New Book Raises Questions About Obama Memoir” (the memoir referred to is “Dreams From My Father”)
The author of the article is Michael D. Shear and it was published on June 19 2012.

Michael Shear opens his NYT article with this:
“At Harvard Law School in 1990 (President) Obama found himself lovingly mocked by his peers for relentlessly promoting the exotic story of a search for racial identity that later became the theme of his best selling book “Dreams From My Father.”

……”My mother was a backup singer for Abba. They were good folks,” a student parody of Mr.Obama joked. In Chicago, “I discovered I was black and have remained so ever since.”
And further in the article Shear says
“A new book by David Maranniss of the Washington Post claims to document the many ways—-some very small, a few large,—in which Mr. Obama’s youthfully constructed narrative appears to be contradicted by the people and events in his life.”

It is a very interesting article in the NY Times for June 19 2012. I found it remarkable that the liberal, and very- supportive- of- President- Obama- New York Times has published this book review by Michael Shear.

It makes for very interesting reading;
Google the title and read the entire piece.

Check out this article:

“Modern Day Nostradumus Warns U.S. Of Doom” by Troy Anderson in WND news.

It is a summary of a new book written by Joel Rosenberg who has accurately described (before it happened) an attack on the U.S. by terrorists in airplanes…which happened on September 11, 2001.
Rosenberg’s new book explores the coming cataclysmic collapse of the U.S. in the not too distant future.
It is a provocative article and worth reading.

On this special day…even if it was created by Hallmark and other commercial engines….it is good to honor our fathers.
My father has been gone from this life for 21 years but he is as alive to me (in my memory) as he was when he was actually living amongst his family members. He knew how to be a Dad to two daughters….he was loving and kind and gentle and always filled with compassion for his girls; he took us fishing with him and brought us along to the “best shack in the world” in the woods east of Waubun MN. We had a taste of what it was like to be a rough and ready woodsperson with our Daddy when we went to the woods with him.
We never had a lot of material wealth… “we have enough” is what he always said to us if we asked him if we were poor!!!
He taught us really important things like trusting in the Lord for everything. Once when I ran to where he was working in our strawberry patch( I wasa probably about 10 years old) and a summer storm was approaching, I was fearful and asked what would happen if the storm hit us.
He smiled at me and kept working and said “We don’t have to be afraid..God is watching over us all the time.” What a comfort that was and what a lesson!!!!
He was careful and cautious for us. Once when I was about 20 years old I wanted to take our car and drive to Buxton, ND to visit my college friend for a weekend. But he would not let me go. My hopes were dashed and I could not understand why he would not allow me—me, who was such a good driver and so cautious about driving…. but he would not let me go alone.
I understand it now, at my age. I would not have let a daughter drive alone either…..he knew there could be unanticipated trouble with the car or the tires ; someone could see me driving alone and follow me and do me harm. He knew what was best for me even if I did not!!!!
My sister remembers wanting a tree house so badly (she was the monkey in the family and climbed up trees constantly). So one day she got out a hammer and nails and found some small boards in the garage; she nailed these boards to the trunk of a huge ash tree in our yard and climbed up to her perch. Then she went down and got one wooden orange box and somehow hauled it up to the perch using her rickety ladder..she had nailed one nail in the middle of each board and they were pretty shaky.
Dad came home for what we called “dinner” at noon and she proudly showed him her treehouse and ladder. She had already hauled books to her orange box by then.
Dad looked at her ladder and did not criticize it at all. He just said “Let’s make this a little stronger” and he proceeded to add nails to the boards til they no longer teetered when she climbed up there. Then he climbed up to the “tree house” and shored up the orange box and a rickety platform she had gotten up there also. When he climbed back down, he complimented her on her good ideas about building a tree house. She still marvels at his wisdom and patience in dealing with her frail and ramshackle project!!!
Not a word about not doing it right…just a little help in making it stronger.
We miss him terribly.

My husband is the father of our 3 sons and he has been a shining example to them…of what a Godly Man is like; of what a hard-working father is like; of what an honest and fair man is like.
He has showed them how to treat their wives by loving their mother for many long years…more than half a century.
They want to come home and talk to Dad about important decisions; they ask him about choosing cars if they need to buy one (Dad knows—- he studies such things!!!)
They want his company to go to the lake and have fun with a jet ski or a fishing boat. They still want him to play “catch” with them or throw the frisbee in the yard while they have long serious talks about important things.
He taught them how to have fun playing with your kids by playing a game they used to love; it was called “Fugitive” and was patterned after the old TV show with David Janson as “The Fugitive” . Dad would ride on the 1972 blue honda motor bike (after dark) and use the headlight to find them as they tried to hide from him. If he spotted them he would make the sound of a siren and come put-ting towards their hiding places. Our oldest said there was never such terror in his heart as when he heard Dad sound his “siren”. The son said he knew it was his Dad—- but the game was so real and so much fun that he was dumbstruck by being chased by “the cop”.
The boys literally tried to hide in the grass by making themselves so flat that nobody could spot them. That was part of the rules of “Fugitive”..no hiding behind trees or rocks…they had to run in the grass and make themselves invisible to the “cop”. Oh what fun they had in the dark of nights so long ago when they were young!! Oh how dirty and bug-bitten they got, but they made a memory with Dad that will be with them for the rest of their lives.

Dads are so important to sons and daughters. If it weren’t for my Dad, I would likely have made a very bad choice for a husband but as it was, I was looking for someone a lot like him(Dad) when I reched the age of thinking aobut settling down with a life- long partner and husband. Sons who identify with a really good mother do the same when they select a future wife.

Fathers Day is wonderful…so is Mothers Day. It gives children reason to really love and honor their parents for all they have done for them over many years of seeing them to maturity.
One of our sons is coming home tonight after he has had his golf game (his Fathers’ Day treat). We will enjoy his company along with his wife and children and we will eat an ice cream cake we bought today at Culvers.
I expect phone calls for Dad from the other two sons who are farther away today.
Simple gifts…simple celebrations..but oh, what enormous reasons to do so.
HAPPY FATHERS’ DAY TO THE DADS WHO LOVE THEIR KIDS LIKE OUR HEAVENLY FATHER: LOVES US: “Like as a father pities( has compassion on) his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him” (from Psalm 103)

I am fascinated by a comment I got from “remrafdn” about having a prickly pear cactus about to bloom.
I love plants but have never tried a cactus and now am very interested in learning how to grow them and care for them.
I have quite a few indoor plants but all of them are more “generic” kinds…..a huge philodrendon I call my
Daddy Plant” because when my Dad died in 1991 a very close and wonderful friend gave it to me. I have nurtured it since that time…21 long years without my beloved “Daddy”. Fathers’Day never comes around but I do not spend a lot of time thinking about what a great Dad he was to me and my sister. He knew how to be a Dad to daughters without any formal education or reading any “how to” books about parenting. He was so wise and so just and so loving.
That is why I have taken shoots off my philodendron many times for others who have either lost their dads through death or to good friends just as a plant gift. Everyone has always been very happy and thankful and some are touched with my story about how I got my plant.
My other common plants are grape ivy and 2 spider plants and a German ivy I have been trying to keep alive for a year now. I have never had success with a German ivy after my Mom had such beautiful ones. I did not pick up “the touch” about German ivy from her; most of what I know about gardening and plants is from my beloved mother who was such a gardener!!! She had the most beautiful irises. And peonies and sweet peas…and–and–and…she could grow anything either outdoors or in a pot inside.
I would appreciate any tips from readers who know how to raise lovely German ivies.
The beginnings of my grape ivies ( I have raised many from shoots; grape ivy is for me the easiest plant to grow)
My Mom would take cuttings off hers (German ivy) and put them in a planter with sprengrei (sp?) and red geraniums and that big planter was so beautiful!!!!
My other “plant babies” are two spider plants..one solid green one and one stiped (varigated) one . I got a “start” from the Methodist Ladies’ plant sale they have each fall along with the best home- made chicken and biscuits meal anyone could ever taste. I wait for that weekend!!!! They also serve the biggest variety of salads and jellos one could lay eyes on.
I got my green spider plant from a shoot(baby spider) off a friend’s big green spider plant that I take care of for my good friend each winter when they spend time in warmer climes.
I have a new plant given me from shoots started off another good friend’s plant but do you think I can remember the name of it? I can describe it.

It makes long thick vines and has glossy dark green leaves and blossoms with tiny bunches of waxen-like pink flower clusters. It is a plant that lives and lives and lives on— and can get huge. We had an enormous one at the Moorhead Library when I worked there in the late 1970′s. If anyone knows what I am describing, please tell me!!!!! via a comment.
Birds are like people. There are ones you absolutely love to see and be with (finches, orioles, grosbeaks, chickadees, chipping sparrows, woodpeckers, juncoes) and then there are others you would just as soon never came around. (grackles, cowbirds, and other blackbirds)
Then there are some you are so attracted to by their beauty or handsome qualities but they turn out to be kind of nasty even though they look so good to you. (bluejays). The beautiful ones turn out to be raucous and loud in conversations and are not very nice to others.
You also have very gentle friends who are so welcome at all times. They are kind to everyone and never say a bad word about others. They are like the winter juncoes who are so gentle and non- hostile to other birds at the feeders.
Then there are the good old neigbors next door whom you can count on to “always be there” (chickadees and sparrows and nuthatches)

Then you have friends who like to fly high and soar and never stay idle. (barn swallows and other swallows and purple martins) But your people friends do not eat flying bothersome insects!)

People and birds…..both so enjoyable and endlessly fascinating.
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I cannot stop without confessing the story of my Unfortunate Boston Fern.
I may have told it before but…..
I had a huge Boston Fern many years ago and I treated it well. Misted it and watered it so it would thrive. Took it the basement in summer and let it hang on a hook in dimmer, cooler, moister environs. Then one day I had it in the laundry sink for misting and I was in a hurry to water it. I had two jugs nearby…one was full of saved rainwater and the other was a jug of bleach. Unfortunately the jug with the rainwater was an old empty bleach jug. You guessed it…I “watered” my big fern with Chlorox and I watched it shrink up and die before my eyes.
I have not had a big fern since then. That may be why I have loved and visited the big green fern I have seen at St Mary’s hospital in Rochester MN.