Monday, August 25, 2008

Wright Cromwell News

08/25/2008

Wright Cromwell News by Jennie K. Hanson August 25, 2008

The Area Clothing Depot would like to announce that the bag prices will be raised to $4.00 a bag starting September 2nd and they will also discontinue the $1.50 Bag Days.  The rent has been raised to a level that they have to raise their prices, too.  The Bag prices have not been raised in over 10 years, so this is unavoidable.  They are sorry for this change, but it has to be done at this time. Donations are still needed and very much appreciated.  Thank you for all your past donations and patronage.  The Depot Board, Volunteers and Manager are doing their level best to make the Area Clothing Depot a success and they couldn’t do it without the help of the community and surrounding area.  So, if you have a few hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or Saturdays, please show up at the depot from 10 – 3, and let someone know that you would like to volunteer.

My heart is breaking for our exchange son, Sonet, from Bangladesh.  He is not doing well in his country and I wonder how many others are having it as hard as he is.  Here is an email that I just got from him.  “I am missing you and dad a lot mom. My life is terrible now. My mom and dad both have faults. I talked with them but nothing is working. They fight everyday kind of.  I had a fight with my father. He said bad words to me and told me I living on him cause he is giving me food. I left the house after that, my sister will take care of my mom. I feel that I am just like garbage now. I’m living at one of my friend’s house though I don’t know how long. Thanks a lot for the grad party mom. That money is helping me a lot.  I don’t know what’s next mom.  And please give me your advice. I can’t take this anymore. I don’t know why it’s happening to me?  Mom, take care and say Hi to dad, please tell him that you and dad are the most amazing guys I have ever meet in my life. Love, Sonet”.

If anyone out there reading this has any ideas on how to help Sonet, please call me.

Here’s the latest message from Greg and Jen Anderson on their son, Kaleb as of August 24, 2008: “Well we have had a busy afternoon. G-ma Sue and G-ma Lee Ann brought the girls down and G-pa Guy brought Great G-ma and G-pa Anderson and Auntie Mary (Bridge) down. We took our girls for a few hours and had a good time. We let them visit with Kaleb and I think it went o.k. They needed to see him, on machines or not. The neurologist was around today and seems more encouraged about Kaleb than he was on Friday. So that was something positive! … Thank you just doesn’t seem like enough. As you all know, we are so grateful and thankful for our family, friends, and community! We simply could not do it without all of you. Jen and Greg and Kaleb

Cromwell’s Harvest Fest is just around the corner now.  It’s the last of the county wide community events and will be enjoyed by all who attend.  So, remember to put September 5th, 6th, and 7th on your calendars and enjoy some time in Cromwell.

The Class of 1958 will be meeting at the Fireside in McGregor on Saturday around 5 to 6 PM for their 50th class reunion.  The Class of 1963 will be getting together for their 45th class reunion on Saturday, September 6th at noon at the Harvest Fest in Cromwell and then going on the Vista King in Duluth on the 2 PM sailing Sunday, September 7th.  All classmates and family is invited for this event.

Marcus Pocernich, son of Marsha and Bill, surprised me at the Carlton County Fair last week by reciting the presidents from memory.  He had memorized them all by himself and his parents weren’t even aware he was doing this, until one day, he just said them.  Wow!  And to think, he just finished the 1st grade.  I’ll have to give him a copy of the Gettysburg Address and see if he can memorize that.  He may end up being a history teacher some day. There are only 5 more months until we get a new president, so Marcus will have to add another name to his list of presidents on January 20, 2009.  Will it be Obama or McCain?  The Weekly Reader takes a poll of school children in September, and they have never been wrong in over 50 years.  I wonder if that will work this year?

I suppose you have all heard of the DTV channels that will be starting on February 17, 2009.  Well, you can call 1-888-DTV 2009 to get a coupon to buy a converter box so you will still receive channels on your older model TV’s.  Or you can go to DTV2009.gov on the internet.

I got a call from our son Curtis and he checked on the internet to see if he could afford to fly home in December for a week and found out a flight would cost over $1700, so I guess he will spend Christmas in sunny Hawaii.  It used to be about $700 or $800 roundtrip from Honolulu to Duluth.  I’m hoping prices will come down before December so he can come home. 

Faith Walk, aka: Confirmation, starts at Bethany Lutheran on Wednesday, September 3rd at 3:30 PM at the church.  All 7th and 8th graders are encouraged to attend and/or older kids if they haven’t been Confirmed yet.  Just call the church for more information.

There will be NO HUNTER’S SUPPER this year at Bethany Lutheran Church during the 1st weekend of deer hunting season.  It has just gotten to be too big and the ladies and some men just can’t do it anymore.  Please pass the word on to all you know.  This event has been going on for over 80 years and I’m sure all those who worked at it those 80 plus years and have passed on will forgive them for not doing it this year.

The Black Jack Grill in Wright sure has a catchy phone number:  It’s 357-EATS (3287).  They are open till 9 PM on most nights which is real nice for a lot of folks.

Melody Swenson has written a book called the “Champions of Carlton County”.  It has many pages about the championship teams from Cromwell/Wright and she will have it for sale at the Harvest Fest on Saturday, September 6th from 9AM – 3 PM.  Come on out and get to know Melody and take a look at her book.  I have 2 copies and will donate one to the Cromwell/Wright School.

The YOT Senior Dance will be held at the Cromwell Park Pavilion on Thursday, August 28th from 1 – 4 PM with Mr. Morgan providing the dance music.  Only 3 dances left to attend.

The Carlton County Retired Educators will be meeting in October instead of September, so look for more details later.

We also want to welcome Nathan Libbon, formerly of Long Prairie as our new K-12 Principal at Cromwell/Wright School.  Mr. Libbon is married and has two children in elementary school.  Stop in to meet him when you can.

Have you seen the helicopter flying around with a strange apparatus hanging under it?  I think this is the way they can check for precious minerals underground.  Anyway, it sure looked weird.  But if they find enough minerals, we may all be rich!  Wouldn’t that be great!

Don’t forget to use the Mini Bus and here is the schedule:  Sept 4th and 18th - Mini Bus to Cloquet

September 12th and 26th - Mini Bus to Duluth Call Edna to sign up @ 357-2701.

The following is a Bible Puzzle that you should enjoy.  All you have to do is find 25 names of the books of the Bible in this puzzle.  Example:  Remarkable has the book of Mark, etc.

This is a most remarkable puzzle. Someone found it in the seat pocket on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping himself occupied for hours. One man from Illinois worked on it while fishing from his john boat. Roy Clark studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Victs mentioned it in her column once. One woman judges the job to be so involving that she brews a cup of tea to calm her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot… that’s a fact. Some people will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. The truth is, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or a scholar to see some of them at the worst. Something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have. Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation may help. Books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. And punctuation or spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete. Remember, there are 25 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph.

I’ll put the answers in next week if I remember.

That’s all the news from Lake Gettingchilliereverynight and Hello to all the students, staff and teachers in the area. 

Monday, August 18, 2008

Wright – Cromwell News

08/18/2008

Wright – Cromwell News by Jennie K. Hanson August 18, 2008

I just heard that the football team has started practicing for this fall’s season already and the Volleyball and Cross-country can’t be far behind.  So, by the time you read this, school will be starting in only a few days. This year it starts on September 2nd, the earliest date possible after Labor Day.  As far as I know things are pretty well set for the start of school.  The rooms are all cleaned and ready and the floors look spectacular!  It looks like the maintenance people have been very busy all summer sprucing things up for the start of school.  I always loved the smell of the building in the fall as it was so fresh and new. 

This school year will be my 10th year of retirement.  Oh, where did those years go?  I retired from the 4th grade in June of 1999 and this June will be 2009.  I guess I can say I really have enjoyed these last 10 years, but still love to substitute teach and will try to continue as long as possible.  After all, my aunt Irene Bolstad subbed till she was in her 80’s.  I even got to sub teach with her a few times in Floodwood a few years ago.  I still sub in Floodwood with Jiggs LaBreche once in awhile, too, and Jiggs was my high school teacher way back when!

With the school year resuming, Harvest Fest can’t be far behind.  This year The Cromwell Harvest Fest will be held on September 5th, 6th, and 7th.  It will start out with the Annual Steak Fry from 4:30 – 7 PM with the Home Football Game vs. Laporte along with Sno gopher’s BINGO and the Boy Scout Food Drive during the Steak Fry and all day on Saturday.  Saturday will be filled with special events such as Parade at 10:30 AM, Smorgasbord at 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM, Craft Sale, Vendors and Flea Market, Kid’s Tractor Pull at 1 PM for ages 4 – 11, Music 1 – 4:30 PM in the Pavilion, Horseshoe Tourney at 11 AM, and Treasure Hunt for kids age 10 and under at 3 PM.  There will also be a Chili Cook-off at 2 PM with judging at 3 PM.  Call Jeannie Weimer at 218-343-5059 to enter.

The whole community of Cromwell and Wright and probably the surrounding area are keeping little Kaleb Anderson and his family in their thoughts and prayers.  Kaleb, son of Jen and Greg Anderson, had the last of his 3 surgeries to repair his heart and is in the hospital in Minneapolis.  He is having a very slow recovery and everyone is pulling for him.

Here is a journal entry from his mom and dad as of August 14th: “A good night. No real progress but no steps backwards. So again we just need to learn the art of patience and wait. His heart rate is actually better this am. Running in the 150’s instead of the 190’s. BP fluctuates but has been stable. So, another preemie step forward? Let’s hope so. Still no urine output and they are not able to pull any fluids off yet from his dialysis. But, he looks better. Weight is up just a wee bit. I think that is about it. The nurses continue to be wonderful which is so reassuring! Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here. Have a good day....” His email address was printed wrong last week. It’s supposed to be .org, so the correct address is http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kalebanderson.

August 16th entry: Good Evening. Kaleb has given us another good day. He continues to make progress. He is looking skinnier each time that we see him! I am excited to see what his weight will be tomorrow a.m. No excitement today. We have had enough to last us a lifetime! We were able to spend about 4 hours with our girls this afternoon. God we have missed them. They are spending the night at the Ronald McDonald House. G-ma Sue and G-pa Ken are here with them. They wanted to see Kaleb and asked if there was a window that they could see him through. Break your heart, but we just felt that the girls shouldn’t see him with all the machines, drips, tubes, being sedated, etc. Too traumatizing. Just got done watching Michael Phelps win his 8th gold medal. How amazing is that? It sounds like tomorrow will be a busy day with visitors. The girls will be going home later in the morning. Hope to continue giving good news. Have a good night! Jen and Greg

I got a call from Gwang Ho yesterday and he was all excited because South Korea had beaten USA in baseball at the Olympics.  I didn’t know what he was talking about because we didn’t get the game till the afternoon but then I knew.  So, I watched the game even if I knew we would lose to South Korea.  It was fun knowing that Gwang had seen it too.  It’s harder watching a game when you know how it will end up.

Gwang Ho says he has readjusted to life back in South Korea and is looking forward to attending school again, soon.  He sure sounded good, almost like he was just across the street on a phone.  And to think he was 14 hours different than us.  It was 9 AM here and 11 PM there when he called.  I guess it really is a small world!

It was great to be at the County Fair again this year and I want to publicly thank all the area businesses and volunteers for their efforts at the fair.  It wouldn’t be possible to have the fair without the countless volunteers that work in all the booths or around the fair grounds.  It also seemed that they were all so helpful and friendly.  And it is always great to see and visit with so many friends that one meets at the fair!  Even 94 year-old Grace Krogh from Cromwell spent 6 hours in the Little Red School House greeting the many folks and children that attended that building.  It takes 36 volunteer hours just to have the Little Red School House open during the fair not to mention the hours it takes to get the volunteers lined up and then the cleaning of the building ahead of time.  The Artwork at the school this year was by the elementary students of Winterquist School from Esko.  There were many wonderful comments on the art, too, as it was so beautifully displayed.

Last year, Bob and I met a wonderful exchange student from Bangladesh and we ended up hosting him for the school year.  Well, this year, AYUSA is still looking for host families to host students from around the world.  If your family is interested in hosting a student, please call 1-888-55-AYUSA.  AYUSA stands for Academic Year in USA.  There are still several students waiting for host families, so please hurry.

Jim Beatty and Irene Atwood were candidates for the most outstanding senior volunteers from Cromwell.  They were not chosen this year, but they will be this year’s Grand Marshals for the Harvest Fest Parade.  (Buy your raffle tickets now at the local businesses in town – or call Scott at 644-3570 for more information!)

This year’s Carlton County Outstanding Seniors were Richard Ramsey and Jean DeRung.  They are both very deserving volunteers from Carlton County.

There have been so many Outstanding Seniors from our area.  This program started in 1981 with Carl Anderson and Helen Benson.  Others chosen from our area are Eunice Lowry, Julia Beckman, Elmer Homstad, George Balsness, Aldur Johnson, Lydia Olesiak, Frank Hanson, Norman and Helen Loveid, Bert Bogenholm, Katharine Dahlman, Art Jauss, Larry Purcell, Ailie Costello, Ray Gurske, Bob and Yvonne Peterson, Ebba Hedin and George Tuomi.  That’s a pretty great list of volunteers from our area.

Where does summer go?  I’ve been asked that question many times, so I figured out where it went.  The Summer goes where all summers go. To “Too Quickly!” Maybe there’s a place call “Too Quickly” As It seems so many people feel it is a place and mention it so often.

That’s all the news from Lake Summergoesbytooquickly and Hello to all the wonderful volunteers at the county fair!  The Employees do a great job organizing the fair, too!