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The winter of Sam

The Facebook photo caption read something like: “You think we’re having a winter? This is what a real winter looks like! Photo was taken in 1979.” The picture was of a bulldozer trying to clear snow from some railroad tracks. I say “trying” because the situation looked hopeless. Towering drifts on both sides of the tracks made the dozer look like a toy. The snowbanks nearly reached the tops of the trackside utility poles. The winter of ’79 is burned into my memory for a couple of reasons. First is that it’s among the coldest and snowiest winters I’ve ever endured. ...

Food can bring together neighbors and communities

I attended an interesting event this month at Marshall’s Adult Community Center, an event that showed the connections between food and fellowship. We learned how to make spring rolls and then tasted them. Our guide in the process was Bee Chomprasob from the Public Health Department of Southwest Health and Human Services. She shared details about the history of spring rolls in Southeast Asia. They originated in China circa 1000 A.D. Today they’re a popular street food in Vietnam. The most popular main foods in spring rolls are shrimp and pork. The vegetable buffet at the Adult ...

Sleepy Eye’s connection to the man who pitched the perfect game

Don Larsen’s perfect game for the New York Yankees in the 1956 World Series is one of the most memorable moments in baseball history. Seventy years later, it remains a signature moment in sports. In an iconic photo from that October day at Yankee Stadium, Larsen is seen leaping into the arms of Yogi Berra. At risk of being risqué, a year later Don would be in someone else’s arms, someone from Brown County. A couple weeks ago, a friend texted that Don Larsen’s wife had passed away, and did I know she was from Sleepy Eye? I did. Corrine was my brother-in-law Tom Seifert’s ...

A few winter highlights at Marshall Public Schools

January is flying by with lots of activity at all our sites as we wrap up the first half of the school year and now start the second half. Our classrooms are busy with mid-year progress checks, intervention updates, Professional Development, and of course working through our standards. Our students are very busy with winter activities and are showing Tiger Pride and representing Marshall well in many ways. I’m excited to share a few highlights from January at our schools with you this month. The Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports (PBIS) model at Park Side, known as Tiger ...

Traveling — what can go wrong?

Slang tries to make language more efficient. Tickets become “tix.” Pictures become “pics.” Recently we took a “vacay.” That’s vacation for you less cool people. We met our two daughters and attached others for a week of running around Charleston, South Carolina, and Savanah, Georgia. One of those was our new Colombian son-in-law, Jhonattan. Abby met Jhonattan while working in Bogota. They were engaged, and wedding plans accelerated when Abby took a new position in Jordan. Not the Jordan by Belle Plaine. It’s the one by Syria. She will move to that interesting part of ...

Battling video game addiction

When video games came on the market I began to see problems gradually develop. I believe that Pong came out In 1972. You could get your own game in 1975. I believe my first relationship problem that was the result of addiction to Pong was sometime in 1976. At that time I could never have imagined how video game addiction has developed into the way it is now. How to define video game addiction? The gamer experiences a persistent recurrent pathological compulsion and obsession to play video games in spite of any negative consequences. The addiction can range from mild to severe. The ...