Photo © Wyatt Johnson
Rylie Johnson with snowman, snowgirl & snowdog.

UPDATE -- Snow folks -- small, medium and HUGE
by Wyatt Johnson
Moorhead, MN

We FINALLY have some snow on the ground in Moorhead! I decided I needed to take the afternoon off from work to play outside with the girls. First we built the smaller one, which Rylie began referring to as a "snowgirl." I took that as a challenge to make one worthy of being called a snowman, and built the 7-footer!

You can't really tell on this picture, but to the smaller snowgirl's left there is a snowdog, too. (You can barely see the carrot we used for its tongue above the date.) Rylie rolled all the snowballs until they were too big for her, then I finished them. The most fun was rolling them up the side of the ditch in our backyard, then letting them roll down the hill, collecting huge amounts of snow as they went.

Brooklynn helped for a while but got tired out, and eventually went inside for hot cocoa. I think she was just mad that she didn't get to ride the snowballs.

Photo © Jerrianne Lowther
Snowzilla II -- bigger and better, but his hat blew away in a windstorm!
(Don't worry -- Anchorage's 22-ft. snowman will get a new hat for 2007. You've heard the expression "eyes as big as hockey pucks"? Snowzilla II's eyes are hocky pucks!)
Click here to read about Snowzilla II. • Click here to see Snowzilla I.)

Photos © Donna Johnson
Lori brought Shawn's chocolate fondue pot to Beaver's birthday party. Everyone enjoyed sampling, off and on, most of the day! Especially, the "birthday boy"!

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Photo illustration © Virginia McCorkell; photo by Jennie Horne
Carrie Horne has big plans for welcoming the new year.

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UPDATE -- Happy New Year to all
by Diana Mellon Martin
Coon Rapids, MN

I hope this finds you well, and enjoying the holiday season. I would like to wish one and all a very happy and prosperous New Year ... full of love, friends and family, and very good health. Happy New Year, everyone! Love.........Diana

Click here for more Holiday Greetings from The Bulletin subscribers.

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UPDATE -- Flu bug's been busy by The Bulletin Staff We heard several reports of people who weren't feeling so perky over the holidays, due to seasonal colds and flu, etc. We hope they are all feeling better now and are ready to enter the New Year feeling frisky and fine. Betty and Roy Droel, Donna Mae Johnson and Caity Chap were among those reporting sniffles or worse. Caity Chap ended up in the hospital again on Wednesday, from continous vomiting. They put an IV line in her to help prevent dehydration. Poor kid ... never simply trotting to the bathroom for several hours for her -- it's violent vomiting that won't stop on its own for hours. Caity, we hope you and your sense of humor have recovered enough to appreciate this new cartoon from "Capt." Jack Adair. We thought it was pretty funny! We hope you think so, too.

© "Capt." Jack Adair

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FAMILY UPDATE -- in the beginning... by "Capt." Jack Adair Coon Rapids, MN There has been a big demand {I only asked twice!} for a picture of Rufus, so I thought I would include one of the better ones of him. I'm gathering material to tell all those interested {Both of them?} of my interest in and small collection of, guitars. At the moment I only have six, four of which I play frequently; the other two are antiques. So, instead, I'll go way back and tell you about my beginnings...		Rufus
My birth mother, hereafter referred to as my mother, was one of 10 children. Her mother was widowed shortly after the last child was born and times were tough. On top of that, my unwed mother gave birth to me, and things were harder. Grandma's younger sister, Belle, had been married about eight years and could not have children. She used to tease Grandma, saying, "You've got so many, I have none; you should give me one." So one day Grandma said, "Okay, you take Jackie." (Not my name at the time, just never mind what it was!) And when I was about two, they did, and Belle became Mom, and my mother, just "Aunt" Florence. Now, my folks, living in the States, but originally Canadians, moved back to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Meanwhile, Florence had married, had three children, and moved to Winnipeg from out east. I used to play with Florence's kids; when I was older, 10 or 11, I'd ride my bike about eight miles to their house to spend the day, and sometimes a weekend, with them. I learned from Mom, when in my late teens, who my birth mother was. By this time we were living back in the States. I saw them once again, when I was home on leave from the service, but how do you broach the subject? "Hey! Guess what? Your mom had a kid out of wedlock, I'm it and I'm your brother!?" So I said nothing then. Many years later, I took a trip to Winnipeg and tried to look them up. Nothing in the phone book. I'd heard from somebody that the boy, Jim, and gone west and the girls were married, but no one knew their married names. About five years ago, one of Mom's youngest brother's sons, searching the family tree, discovered my origins and passed the word to one sister, who called the others. To shorten the story, we've visited many times. One sister lives just west of Toronto, the other in Winnipeg, and my brother lives in a little town 700 miles north of Winnipeg. We are all great friends and are planning another get together this summer. Oh, by the way, I found that ALL of my relatives play either guitar, mandolin or banjo, and some of them all three. "Capt." Jack P.S. What? No picture of Rufus? Well, my imagination came up with his name, personality, and dialog. Let your imagination come up with how he looks.

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Day to Day R
With Donna Mae
Ashby, MN

It was so wonderful to have all our children and grandchildren with us on Christmas Eve!

Photo © Donna Johnson
Beaver and Buster, the old greybeards, themselves. Buster loves getting to come into the house, as it does not happen often. The smaller dogs get a little bent about him coming in but he totally ignores them and just settles in to enjoy his brief visit.

Photo © Donna Johnson
Brooklynn checks out the Pokey Little Puppy book, that we got for her in a pillow version, with Chris and Jessy and Weston. She loved it, but not nearly as much as the "cell phone" I gave her a little later on -- that was a HUGE hit!

Let's Play a Guessing Game: Whenever it is handy to do so, we will run a picture of someone of the subscribers or staff members of our e-magazine. Tell us who you think it is -- we will let you know who was the first to guess it right -- and the correct guess -- in the following week's Bulletin.

(Send us some to run; we will line them up in our staging area to take their turn. Thanks to LeRoy Dake for sending last week's mystery picture.

Answers to last week's mystery pictures (click here to review them):

A Know! Well, if I can stop laughing long enough, I will name those beautiful children! Three Dake kids in the middle row (up and down) with Dorothy, Leroy and Gert -- and Dick Miller (with the tie) and guess who with his belly button sticking out! Yep, that's me ... Tom Miller! I wonder when that picture was taken and how my mother ever let it get around! Or Mother Dake! Both wonderful mothers and I think of them often!

Love that old picture, and the captions are perfect. Gert said it all, "What a blast!" It's Dorothy Dake, Leroy Dake, Dick Miller, Tom Miller -- who didn't get the shirt buttoned all the way -- Very Big Smile -- and Gert Dake. Had to laugh out loud ... too precious for words. That picture is a hoot! I love all the old pictures, and most of them I haven't seen before, so it's precious -- thanks!

The GUESS picture has me thinking it is two families all mixed up. Like Dorothy the tallest one, then LeRoy, then it must be a Miller on the right, and the little girl would be Shari. I'm thinking the one on the left has to be a Miller, too. Oh well, I tried!

Betty Weiland Droel
MoundsView, MN

Editor's Note: I am going to guess Gert's age 5, as she seems toothless ... so starting then with me at the top as being 11, go to the next two ... Bubsy (LeRoy) would be 9 and Dick Miller would be 10. Then that is Tom (our faithful guesser) Miller who would be 8 and Gert in the front would be 5. The Miller boys are my brother-in-law Jim Miller's younger brothers. --Dorothy

One nice fall Saturday, Airman Jones was daydreaming his way down the sidewalk to the mailroom when he encountered a fellow in Army uniform. He barely noticed him and did not reply when the Army man turned around and said, "Hey, Private!" two or three times after they had met.

The Army man finally chased Jones down, grabbed his arm, turned him around, and said, "Didn't anybody ever train you to salute an officer?"

Airman Jones snapped off a crisp salute, saying, "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm unfamiliar with Army insignia and didn't realize you were an officer. Are those Lieutenants' bars?"

"Yes they are, and another thing; why didn't you reply when I shouted to you?"

"Well, sir, I'm not a Private. I'm an Airman."

"Well, I suppose you aren't a Private. But what would you be if you were in the Army?"

"If I were in the Army, sir? Well, sir, I'm not sure, but I would certainly expect that I would be a General by now, sir."

During the first half of my week in Phoenix, I had attended an NFL football game and an NBA preseason basketball game, covering half of the major North American sports leagues. On Thursday, I would complete the superfecta. Well, sort of...

Photo © Weston Johnson
Glendale Arena hosts NHL hockey game: Coyotes vs. Kings.

Completing The Superfecta
by Weston Johnson
Maple Grove, MN

Three sports down, one to go. After the baseball game, I returned to the hotel for a couple of hours, then made the drive to Glendale, the same drive I had made on Monday to see the Cardinals - Bears football game. Except this time, when I reached the parking lot, I headed north to the Glendale Arena rather than south to the football stadium. The Arena is the home of the NHL Phoenix Coyotes, who would play the Los Angeles Kings that evening.

I scalped a cheap ticket to an upper deck seat and made my way into the arena, which originally opened in 2003. Being such a new facility, it offered all of the amenities of modern arenas, including luxury boxes, all kinds of concessions stands and seats spaced far enough apart to actually accommodate a full grown adult. It reminded me of the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, but didn't quite measure up, in my (biased) opinion.

I had arrived pretty early, so almost none of the fans were in their seats by the time I entered the seating bowl. I decided to walk down by the Coyotes bench, hoping to catch a glimpse of Wayne Gretzky, who is widely regarded as the greatest hockey player ever, and now coaches the Coyotes.

I arrived behind the bench, but Gretzky was nowhere to be seen. Very few seats in the area were filled at that point, so I chose a seat in the second row on the aisle and figured I would claim squatter's rights on that seat, at least until the actual ticket holder showed up.

Eventually, Gretzky and the team emerged from the locker room. From my vantage point, I had a clear view of the bench area, affording me an up-close view of the coach and players.

The hockey bench is basically a fishbowl, as fans are separated from team personnel by a thin sheet of plexiglass. Because the rightful ticket holder for my seat never showed up that night, I witnessed first-hand the commotion that results from this arrangement, particularly when the fishbowl encapsulates a living sports legend.

Throughout the entire game, it seemed that fans from throughout the arena made pilgrimages to the bench area to get a closer look at Gretzky and the players. Many took pictures. Some had a friend snap a picture of them with Gretzky, himself. Sure, he was coaching the players on the ice at the time, resulting in a picture of Joe Fan next to the back of Gretzky's head, but I guess that was enough to thrill these hockey die-hards.

In any such frenzy, it seems there is always one person who takes things a little too far. In this case, it was the woman who actually held her camera out over the top of the glass to get an unobstructed aerial shot of Gretzky. This earned her a stern glare from security and a warning from an usher. But I guess she got her strangely-angled, almost certainly out-of-focus and off-center picture of The Great One. I'm sure that shot will go in a frame on the mantel!

While all of this fun took place behind the bench, a real-live NHL hockey game also happened to be taking place in the building. The game itself was not all that memorable. I think the Kings won, but I couldn't tell you the score without looking it up.

To be honest, my most vivid memory of the on-ice action was late in the third period when a Coyotes player checked one of the Kings so hard the victim's helmet and one of his gloves flew off. I had never seen that impressive feat before -- not even on TV, much less in person! Of course, that hit led to several minutes of the sort of retaliatory cheap shots and skirmishes you come to expect from an NHL hockey game. While I certainly do not condone such violence, I must admit it brought some additional excitement to an otherwise dull game.

After the final round, I mean period, I headed out to the parking lot and drove back to the Downtown Super 8 one last time. Tomorrow I would attend the ACC Symposium, after which I would begin the long drive back to Minnesota. My sports adventures were over for the week. Or were they...?

To be continued...

Vern worked on the base as a yeoman, a petty officer in the Navy assigned to administrative duties, doing clerical work -- he even did shorthand. After a couple of weeks, I wanted to find some work, too. I had finished the Medical Secretary class at the Minneapolis Business College and had had a position in an orthopedic front office, doing transcription, etc. I took shorthand notes as the doctor dictated from behind an almost closed door, depending on the patient. A plastic surgeon shared the office, so I had a lot of experience in both fields.

So, for starters, where do I go, as an absolute stranger in that town? Vern found out where some of the hospitals were. So I went to the St. Francis Hospital. (It isn't there anymore -- it has been absorbed by bigger facilities.) I asked at the front desk about employment and the lady there brought out Mother Superior, who was a very charming lady, much older than I.

After my weak story, she said, "Well, we are just talking about making a position in Surgery for a secretary." WOW, just what I had hoped for! I was hired right there! Not even any tests, etc. in those days.

I was given a desk in the outer lobby of the Surgery Department. As each surgeon would finish his or her operation (very few ladies were surgeons way back then), they would come out and dictate their surgical procedure. I would then type it up and deliver the reports to the respective floors. Usually, that took the morning. In the afternoon, I went to the Records Department and helped with some coding (of procedures) and filing.

In the Records Room, I worked with a very sweet Japanese girl, Mildred Sokoi, and we got well acquainted. She was engaged at that time and then she set her wedding date for May 22, 1948 -- our first anniversary!

Photo © Ruth Kitto
Co-worker Mildred Sokoi, now Mrs. Charles Okimoto, 5/22/48.

The wedding was in a huge Buddhist temple. I'd never been in one before, though by that time we had driven by many of them -- in awe at the size. So here we two Americans sat, in the shadow of this huge Buddha "looking" down on us ... hmmm. We had no idea of what was in the ceremony, etc.

The reception was in a different building and was attended by many people. We were all shoeless, of course. All sat on the floor, crosslegged (if you could) and there were "boards" in front of everyone, loaded with Japanese foods, and whatever. There were lots of talks by family members and others. It was mostly in English, and very fascinating.

During the hospital time, I was most impressed with the Oriental doctors; they were so polite and helpful. But some of the American doctors -- not all, but too many for my taste -- were VERY arrogant and impolite. I hardly dared even ask a question about a word in a report. I would never go to see an American doctor there -- though I did see a couple of Oriental doctors (nothing serious) and liked them very much. I continued working at the hospital until Vern was ready for discharge.

To be continued...

Photo © Ruth Kitto
Buddhist Temple where Mildred Sokoi was married.

This Week's Special Days
January 1---New Year's Day

This Week's Birthdays
January 3---Brandon Hellevang
January 3---Virginia (Dake) McCorkell
January 4---Harry "Junior" Anderson
January 4---Nathan Hill
January 5---Jayce Michael Chap (8 years old)
January 5---Krista Rae Weiland (7 years old)
Happy Birthday!

More January Birthdays
' 
January 11---Brandon Harvey Lehtola (4 years old)
January 15---Shea Ashley Birkholz
January 19---Trevor Jayce Roberson (6 years old)
January 20---Lois Dake
January 22---Timothy Thomas Mellon
January 24--- Marloes de Been
January 30---Whitney Anne Johnson
January 31---Larry McCorkell

More January Anniversaries
Z
January 24---David "Beaver" and Donna Anderson Johnson (13 Years)

Miss Hetty's Mailbox:

Dear Miss Hetty,

We had this urge to invite Jay and Conne Paulson over for a meal. It was such a strong urge that the very next time we saw them we invited them, and they were free the next Sunday, although they both work. Now this is really an occasion, as we hardly ever have dinner company, and we had never had them. We used to meet with them after we were first married, nearly 14 years ago, and haven't visited since.

Photo © Betty Droel
The Jay Paulson Family -- our company last week.

The Pacific Coast photograph reminded me of my first glimpse at that magnificent sight. The ocean. It seemed so amazing to me that it was held within a boundary at the shoreline. It is more breathtaking than any photographer could capture on film with the finest camera.

Very unusual picture of a mob of goats! A sight to behold. Interesting how they all look in one direction. In Minnesota we wouldn't find discarded power line poles to use for a corral, or maybe LTD might.

We appreciated and enjoyed the special greetings via the link, and the one from Alaska was the most typical of the holiday season with all that snow. We still have barely a showing here, but we are not complaining. As we get older, the snow and ice are a threat.

Congratulations to Ken and Amy. That one was not an IF, but a WHEN for wedding plans.

Jettison and Levi are learning pretty young to play the piano. Really a cute setting.

Wyatt's story of the "pops" concert was so interesting. Seems like that family is gifted for storytelling, and I remember how Donald Johnson could spin yarns that held our attention, too -- and usually his stories were really true and of the Old Days. The family picture of Wyatt's family was very welcome. We do enjoy keeping track of how the children change, and it doesn't seem that long ago that Brooklynn was tiny.

Grandma Mavis is so happy to be holding that cute little Cecilia Nelson. Funny how being with children just shaves years off of a person. Or is that from her vacations in Florida?

Donna Mae, you have a lapful, but it's also a heartful, and you don't looked stressed or frazzled. You are just meant to be taking care of children, I think. They look so happy and healthy and comfortable with you.

Jayce and Caity would have anxiously been awaiting this program -- and then the weather almost hindered it. They look so nice in their dress up clothes.

They warn you against touching the antenna on the cell phones -- hhmmm, wonder if the cat had any ill effects?

The Travelogue was exciting from the first word to the last again. Looks like those feet cleared out the bleachers! Not really -- but did you notice how perfect those feet were? Like an advertisement in a magazine.

Thanks again, Ruth, for the next chapter of the "Home, Sweet Home" in Pearl Harbor Days. It is so interesting to me as I don't really remember hearing this story before like that. I was too young to take it seriously, like it really was. I'm glad it's to be continued.

Thank you for each little message, Diana. Hope for comfortable days for you.

I should mention "the rest of the story" about the wonderfully, anxiously anticipated, Christmas Day dinner at Cap'n Jack and Virginia's home. Well, Roy and I got sick. Too sick to go anywhere except to take long naps with the Kleenex handy. So, we missed it. Virginia dropped off some of the ham they were going to have, so we had that here at home for our dinner. Pretty nice of her, don't you think? We aren't too much better yet, but you won't be getting any germs through the e-mail so I am going to send this LTTE for what it is, and hopefully the Editor and Photo Editor can make it Bulletin worthy.

Thank you for having such interesting stories and pictures every single week. They interest everyone of every age. Truly a remarkable thing to have put out 236 Bulletins.

Betty Droel