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That tracks

Few signs are more welcome in the late season uplands than a stretch of pheasant tracks along a snow-rimmed piece of birdy habitat. Be it a slough, a stretch of brush, or a bushy shelterbelt planting of olive caraganas or crimson dogwoods, anywhere those four-toed imprints weave and wind their way from the outset of the hunt to the spot where a bird gets up under the steady point of a good dog is an enjoyable indicator that one is in the right spot, and birds were, are, or are going to be in the near future for the outing. Even those old tracks tend to get my adrenaline going, the ...

Enjoying my oyster stew

Food is many things: flavors, textures, smells, an excuse to use your fingers to clean a bowl that was used to mix chocolate cake batter. But food is also memory. It’s a time machine, resurrecting recollections that had shriveled like an orange peel on a scorching summer sidewalk. Oyster stew does the trick for me. Every Christmastime, my parents would whip up a big kettle of oyster stew. I was the only one among my seven siblings who would sip some stew with our parents. Which was just dandy; more for me. When December’s deep cold arrives something deep within me stirs, ...

Thinking about food

My wife Pam says that I think about food a lot. Once I get this column started, I plan to eat a pumpkin muffin that is out in the kitchen. I’m looking forward to that. At various times in my life, I’ve been chunky to a tad overweight. You don’t get to be that way without thinking about food. There are some cookies in the cupboard in case that muffin isn’t enough. Speaking of thinking about food, we are midway between the two big dinners of the year: Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was thinking about those. Of course. You could rank Easter dinner up there. But I’d put it ...

Somalian residents should be respected as true Americans

In the past several weeks Minnesota’s Somalians have come under political attack originating in our nation’s highest office. President Trump and his radical conservative supporters have asserted that Somalians defraud the government and send money to terrorists. He’s called them garbage. He’s said they should be sent back to Somalia. He’s acted on his rhetoric by dispatching federal agents to their Minneapolis neighborhood to check on immigration status. He’s done that even though local and state officials haven’t asked for federal help. Minnesota Republican ...

Country School Kids – Lois Paine Widmark – WWII service in the WAVES

We have been learning about Ivanhoe’s Lois Paine Widmark and her early life in western South Dakota and how the Great Depression and Dust Bowl drove her family back to her father’s home community of Lyons, Nebraska. Lois graduated from high school in Lyons, Nebraska, in 1941 and found employment in Lincoln with family help. “My Aunt Sadie was a big shot in the Republican Party. Through her, I got a job working at the state Capitol in Lincoln. Six of us changed the Health Department and the Motor Vehicle Department to a different filing system. After that, we had to find work ...

On the Porch

For this column, I often share social news or the gossip columns from the old newspapers. The social news is always fascinating to read and a lot can be learned of local people and events from the communities in Lyon County. For this article, I’m going to share the classifieds from one of the newspapers. The classifieds are interesting to read as well. Here are a few from the News-Messenger of Lyon County on Dec. 20, 1918: FOR SALE-160 Acre farm being S.W. ¼ of Section 30, Township 110, Range 42, Lyon county, Minnesota. Located on State road, 1 mile south of village of Russell. For ...