Happy Holidays!

Photo © Ken Carson
"Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse..."
(especially not a mouse ... with three cats in the house!)

Photo © Tim Holman
Winter snow scene near Liberty Lake, Washington.

Avery Hope McNeill was born December 16, 2008, at 8:22 a.m., weighing in at a whopping 9 lbs. 11 oz. and 21-1/2" long, to proud parents Roddy and Alisha McNeill and big sister Kylie Grace. She has a lot of black hair -- kind of reminds me of Roddy when he was born. --Peggy McNeill (Proud Grandma, Ashby, MN)

FAMILY UPDATE -- Harold and Carol Printz
by Carol Dake Printz
Sidney, NE

Carol & Harold Printz, left; with grandchildren Callie, Austin, Wade & Amy, right.
(Austin is Cody's son; Wade, Callie & Amy are Justin & Melody's children.)

I am proud of my great grandson Aaron Blackstone, son of Justin and Amanda Blackstone. This past summer he started competing in dirt bike racing. In the first competition he came in 7th out of 12; all the rest of the races during the summer it was generally 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. Aaron took 1st place in one race. That is the trophy he is holding in the picture. Aaron is 8 years old. We are proud of the good sportsmanship that Aaron showed at the races.

Aaron Blackstone with dirt bike race trophy, August 17, 2008.

UPDATE -- the Chaney/Cheney side of the clan
by Kathy Chaney Newton
Denton, TX

William Lee Chaney with his sons and daughters, July 1941. Not long after the picture was taken (1941), "Uncle Will" died. I guess this was a family reunion because Will was ill.

Left to Right, Back Row:
Preston Myron Chaney (1 May, 1899 -- 17 June, 1975)
Andrew "Andy" Chaney (20 June, 1903 -- 2 December, 1955)
Paul Chaney (13 January, 1902 -- 17 April, 1958)
Floyd L. (L. Floyd) Chaney (23 August, 1907 -- 14 June, 1969)

Left to Right, Front Row:
Mary A. Chaney Nelson (29 October, 1906 -- July 1977)
Gladys D. Chaney McLees (20 June, 1911 -- 5 October, 1991)
William Lee Chaney (Father, 18 March, 1867 -- 3 August, 1941)
Anna Chaney Claus Hoffmann (11 April, 1902 -- 17 May, 1966)

Weston, third from left, celebrates a Vikings win with friends.

UPDATE -- here, there and everywhere...
by Weston Johnson
Maple Grove, MN

It has been a while since I've written an update so I figured I better check in. As usual, work has been keeping me very busy lately. I have been managing more of my own projects over the past year, which means I've been doing a lot more traveling this year than in the past.

Photo © Weston Johnson
Christmas cactus.

Photo © Susie Holman
Snow Loaves -- Winter arrives in Spokane, Washington.

Last weekend we'd all been invited to the Ostendorfs' for a holiday celebration. As Lori is so close to her due date, they will not be able to make it here for Beaver's birthday celebration on Christmas Eve.

Photo © Donna Johnson
Jayce, McKenna & Caity.

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. LeRoy Dake and Gina Henderson supplied last week's mystery photos.

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

Editors' Note: Correct guesses appear in bold face type and incorrect guesses in normal type ... generally in the order we receive them, so the first guess received is on top.

This week's Bulletin's guess pictures are pretty great! (Great subject matter makes for a great picture!)

The most important janitor (custodian) of Howard Lake from the time Mom attended until I graduated was Pat. His real name was Alvin Fitzpatrick, but everyone called him Pat, or maybe to be polite, Mr. Pat. As I mentioned, his job included ringing the bell -- but, of course, there was much more than that. He and his helper kept the school clean and safe. He did boiler work with the furnace. He was very well liked, and often teased ... who could help making him laugh when he was so ticklish you only needed to point a finger at him to make him laugh his head off ... just about, anyway.

The picture, taken from Dorothy's Annual (misleading name as we only published that one during the war), is of the staff in 1942. I was in 4th grade, LeRoy was in the 6th grade, and Dorothy was in 10th (sophomore) grade. Note that our "Anty" was a cook that year ... and Dorothy helped at noon hour on a student job. That was neat.

We had hot lunches in those days; they cost a lot less than now and, of course, the meals themselves were not as fancy as now, either. I think we paid ten cents a day. Most of the time it was some kind of a sandwich and, of course, a dessert and milk. The cooks made use of the commodities that were sent to the schools from the government to make the hot things they served.

When I got into high school, we had a new cook. Her name was Ruby. For holidays, Ruby fixed hot meals. School kids got to help her. For noon we had an hour, so in high school if you had a little pocket change you would probably walk down to the drugstore and get a "mud ball" (vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and Spanish peanuts). Yum!

And to keep our school running, we had three bus routes, three buses and three drivers. In 1942 we had Ewald and two brothers: Gerald and Loren. Ewald was our driver.

When I got into high school, we still had just three buses. I remember one of our drivers then was Gene Barnes and he had moved to Howard Lake from Texas. He didn't know much about driving a bus on the snowy roads. When he would come to a road that he wondered about, he would ask the older boys if he should try it or not. Well, you know how helpful teenage kids can be, sometimes. But they never did get him into any real trouble.

I even got "to the door" service when I was a junior and senior, as he didn't like turning the bus around at the end of the road, so he would drive right up to the door and go around the windmill and head back down the driveway.

We never had a little coaster wagon like the kids have now. They used them around too, hauling little stuff around instead of a wheelbarrow. My dad made a wheelbarrow. He took a Model T Ford wheel with a hub and all and built it like you could haul a ton of something on the dumb thing. We could hardly push it as kids. It didn't have a tire on it, just the rim. That was something else again. Otherwise we didn't have a wagon as such, but we'd make a wagon.

The trail is indeed fine going up the Baranko Wall, but steep, with switchbacks and occasional easy scrambles and rock climbing. This has to be a lot more difficult for the porters with their heavy loads.

By the time we reach the top of the wall, we are in the clouds with very thick fog. We continue to traverse across the base of the upper mountain and then up a long ridge, having now traversed across the base of the upper mountain from one side to the other in the past two days.

Light rain starts around noon and by the time we reach Camp Four, an hour or two later, it is sleeting and then snowing.

At 15,000 feet, this is our highest camp. There is now no vegetation whatsoever. The camp is located on quite a boulder field, with tents widely scattered up and down the mountain. The landscape has an almost lunar appearance. With the wind, snow and high humidity, it is cold even in the tent. I put on all the warm, dry clothing available and crawl into my down sleeping bag and am still not overly warm.

I check my oxygen saturations and am now down to about 83%. Normal at sea level would be 98% to 100%. We give supplemental oxygen to our patients in the emergency department when they drop below 90%. I wonder what our SAT’s will be when we (hopefully) reach the top tomorrow morning. We have an early supper and hope to get a little sleep before hitting the trail around midnight.

To be continued...

Photo by Donald B. Johnson
Bobby, Grandpa Bennie Johnson, Kathlyn & Jerrianne, ready for ice skating, winter of 1946-47 or 1947-48. Grandpa Bennie has cleared enough snow on a little pond behind the house where Ben Johnson lives now so we can ice skate with double runner skates for the first time. On this occasion, or one like it, Mom cooks a custard mixture in the kitchen and when the ice skating is done, Grandpa will bring in ice and rock salt for the ice cream freezer. This is my first memory of homemade vanilla ice cream churned in a hand-cranked freezer. In the summer, our mom might add fresh peaches.

Bruce's memory of homemade ice cream for the last day of school brought back early memories of making ice cream in a hand-cranked freezer, which I associate with my very first experience on double-runner ice skates. If this was early in 1947, Kathlyn turned 2 on February 1 (and was probably not quite ready for ice skates), Bobby was almost 4 and I'd be just 6 -- with an upper front tooth missing in the picture ... hard to see at this size, but evident in an enlargement.

Photo by Donald B. Johnson
Ice skating, Christmas 1950, on the slough south of the buildings at Beaver's farm. Dad has cleaned off enough ice for us to skate on. Bobby has graduated to hockey skates, Jerrianne has figure skates & Kathlyn has inherited the double-runner skates. She is holding Sandy, our old orange tabby tomcat, who survived many misadventures. Mother is in the hospital in Fergus Falls where Beaver was born on Christmas eve.

This Week's Special Days
December 21---First Day of Winter
December 25---Christmas Day

This Week's Birthdays
December 21---Melanie Anderson Shockey
December 21---Jonathan Glen Hill (4 years)
December 24---Ken Hellevang
December 24---Arbor Johnson
December 24---Beaver Johnson
December 25---Angela Stahlecker Roberson
December 26---Koen de Been
Happy Birthday!

This Week's Anniversaries
December 23---Harold and Carol Dake Printz (41 years)
December 27---Earl and Kathleen Dake Stahlecker (34 years)
Congratulations!

More December Birthdays
' 
December 3---Twila Aydelotte
December 4---Sonja Dake
December 4---Carol Dake Printz
December 4---Elaine Anderson Wold
December 7---Aunika Swenson
December 10---Ryan Henderson
December 11---Makaila Belle Gordon (1 year)
December 11---Wyatt Wm. Meyer (9 years)
December 12---Sarah Lynn Dake Steinhauer
December 13---Larry Dake
December 13---Derek Swenson
December 14---Kathleen Dake Stahlecker
December 16---Avery Hope McNeill
December 17---Char Morgan Myron
December 17---Austin Printz
December 19---Barb Anderson
December 19---Lisa Boltz
December 20---Jay Pierre Miller

December 29---Mitzi Johnson Swenson
December 30---Travis Quick

More December Anniversaries
Z
December 20---Eric and Melanie Anderson Shockey (6 years)

December Special Days
O
December 7---Pearl Harbor Day
December 21---First Day of Winter
December 25---Christmas Day
December 31---New Year's Eve

Miss Hetty's Mailbox:

Dear Miss Hetty,

I have some precious and loving greats and great, greats, and I hope you don't weary of me having to talk about them. I know you like gossip, Miss Hetty, so maybe I can tell you about the birthday party for Shalana Kay Weiland.

She was at her aunt and uncle's, Jon and Glenda Bergh in North Dakota, on her November 27th birthday, so we didn't get to have a cake for her until long after the day had come and gone. But that doesn't matter. We did all we could think of to make a 12th birthday fun and unforgettable.

So, now she is officially 12 years old. She is still a very sweet great niece, and I doubt the years will change that at all.

Now, we have something else about to happen next. Krista Rae Weiland is turning 9 years old on January 5th. We will try to help her have a fun day, too, and will tell you all about it then.

Kim Johnson
Eagle Bend, MN

Lyn Sorenson

Editor's comment: We will add your name to our list. We have a rule that subscribers need to introduce themselves to the group. You have started that part very nicely ... just let us know where you live and a little about your background. And then to make it easy to know who you are, we would like a photo of you (and perhaps include your immediate family in the photo, too). Thank You! --Dorothy

The weather has been nasty cold here, 25 below the other night, not quite that cold now, but we are just plain having a colder than usual month here. The cabin house we rented has a cold water line to the kitchen that has frozen twice already.

The good part of being here is having time with Colette and Tim and Ashley and Erik. Ashley and I made chocolate chip and white cookie cutter cookies on Saturday. We had a lot of fun stirring, rolling, cutting and decorating. I am looking forward to more kitchen adventures with the grandkids.

Our birdfeeders were busy before last weekend's storm and have stayed popular with Juncos, Chickadees, Nuthatches, Sparrows, and a Blue Jay. A rabbit enjoys the seeds that drop off the feeder.

Kathlyn Johnson Anderson
Breezy Point, MN

The newly married couples pictured were outstanding, and I wondered who they were. Of course, I noticed how pretty the brides were and then I read they were two of the boys from Gert's families. Her family keeps growing.

I am trying to take it in that McKenna is already 18 months old and looks so mature. It will be fun to introduce a brand new sister to her soon, and one that will live right there with her. I know we will get to share in that as Lori is so good to keep us up to date through The Bulletin. For McKenna to be such friends with Hannah and Ozzie at her age is unusual, isn't it? Like my great niece, Krista. She dearly loves dogs, too. I was having to smile myself as I saw the picture of McKenna and Camryn smiling at each other. What a cute picture, Lori. Thank you for happening to catch that at just the right moment.

And Donna Mae, was that ever an interesting update on your latest family affair. The pictures were what I loved as I noticed even the Matriarch is there. Wonderful how Dorothy can get places even if it is with great difficulty. I just hope Don keeps able to maneuver the chair on the trailer. But nice this time he didn't need the trailer as she could drive right into the Community Room at your folks's condo. Their condo has wonderful accommodations for Don and Dorothy's lifestyle and family visits.

That was such a lovely picture of the four girls. Gina fits right in with those sisters. I wonder who was holding Abby about then? Maybe Marlene.

It was nice to see Donnie and Patty, too, with their music. They must have left Hannah home to watch over things. We had some kippered herring for supper tonight, which just fits on that darling little platter we got from Donna Mae that was in the Red Chair Antiques store.

Dorothy, you look thinner on that picture. I know you haven't been feeling the best. Do take care. You are so needed along with Jerrianne. And Donna Mae, there YOU are, too. A very special friend of mine.

If that was the sunroom in that picture with Weston and Beaver on the right, I can't believe you have it finished that much, even to the furniture and all those wonderful windows. I don't even want to THINK about washing those windows, or can you take the squares of wood off?

That was such an interesting story of details about the Memory Lane of the Howard Lake school. Thank you, Gert, for arranging all that you have sent in, which would have required lots of time and searching for photos. There are several things sent in by you, and too bad you can't enjoy seeing the expression on LeRoy's face as he reads this story (and many others).

The Last Day of School was a lot different in the Good Old Days. It was a family occasion with folks that were partaking of the celebration and picnic having taken time off work to enter into that. I remember those games as the ones we played in the yard of our city home. The "Steal Sticks" was not familiar, but the link explained it all. It was so funny that all the equipment needed was "sticks." Nowadays, equipment needed would be expensive and store bought, likely. That site listed a lot of games, and it would be worth your time to click on it, too.

The Travelogue keeps getting more interesting all the time. What strange looking plants! Were they like cactus? I am sure those two trekkers would be geared and feeling differently after so long climbing. One young and agile, and one heading into "middle age" ... how did that sound, Sheldon? Anyway, older than the college student. The pictures were so awesome. One can't find words to describe the impression of those pictures of that area.

Observations by Don Anderson was welcome as it showed that Don is able to laugh, even with his sore back. Maybe they were discussing little baby girl names. Or else watching McKenna catch the ball away from Tate.

Thank you for sharing the birthday news, Elaine. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Such a beautiful plant. We have one much like that. Our former neighbors came to the door with it. It was a surprise to still be remembered by them. What a treat for your daughter to take you out to breakfast, Elaine. We come to the age when we feel very thankful to be independent, and glad for every day that is ours.

I have never seen a picture from that angle before like Bitzi created of Amy and Sarah. Not a hair out of place, is it? Not a grey one, either.

I'm sure anyone that is a parent will identify with the Quotation for the Day this time. It does take time and experiences to appreciate things.

I like to write a Letter to the Editor as soon as I finish reading The Bulletin, and this time it is still Saturday so all the enthusiasm and fun of reading it is still very fresh. I always wonder if I missed commenting on something very noteworthy, but I don't mean to be partial in any way. I know what an effort our editor and the photo editor put forth to make it so individual each week, and all they need is lots of items to choose from. I have learned that pictures don't even have to be very good, and our photo editor can use her magic and make them look clear and colorful.

I wonder if next week's Bulletin will have some December 2008 snow stories?

Thank you,

Roy and Betty Droel