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Thursday January 31, 2019



On this date:

1917 - Submarine Warfare
Germany restarts unlimited submarine warfare in the Atlantic, suspended in September 1915, allowing the long submerged crewmen to resurface for fresh air and supplies.

1942 - Car Production Stops
No longer were civilian vehicles made as of this date by companies such as Chevrolet or DeSoto. However, Datsun, Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen production soared.

1961: A chimpanzee named Ham sent into space by the United States was recovered alive and well and living in the small northwestern hamlet of Wannaska, Minnesota. Caught in a live trap set for skunks near the home of Ula Josephson, a Palmville Township trapper of some local renown, Ham was at first thought to be one of the neighbor boys skipping school that cold winter day wearing an unusually interesting parka made of aluminum foil and duct tape.

1961 Americans Jailed for Bringing Arms
Six Americans were sentenced to prison for 30 years in Cuba after being charged with bringing arms to gorillas in violation of the national Do Not Feed The Gorillas law. Smuggled in by a bus load of so-called ‘tourists’, the alleged perpetrators were discovered by an enthusiastic show of hands from those wishing an opportunity to visit a well-known Cuban ‘burdel’.

Br r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r!

     I timed my return from Indiantown, Florida, on January 24, just in time not to miss record arctic vortex weather. Was I ever glad! I heard all about the fun my wife was having uphome chipping ice from the toilet and shoveling snow around the propane tank to keep the furnace running while I was away and so I foreshortened my trip just to get in on the action. 

Perspiring in a short-sleeved shirt, in January, and hearing it called ‘winter’ just made me homesick for the real stuff, as anyone from Roseau County can recall those warm days of even two below zero and seeing legions of motorcyclists, open-topped convertibles, and cars driving around with the windows down after enduring several successive weeks of thirty-five below, when the city of Roseau even opened their outdoor pool and there were long lines at Chuck's cold drink refreshment stand. I recall, one time, Davy Danielson, the school marm’s son, thought to bring bags of icicles as treats to an outdoor hockey game but was mugged when he ran out, having not brought enough for everybody.

     Zeroing in on long-held tradition, I learned the northwest Minnesota cities of Roseau and Warroad, not only held classes as normal last week but also conducted a hockey tournament while the rest of the state school districts were shut down because of ‘cold weather’. Wha-a-at? I suppose Edina had dropped into the 30s ... “It’s below f-f-f-reezing--shut ‘er down.”

     I recalled, to a couple I met on the Sun Country flight I was on from Orlando to Minneapolis, that my daughter and her mother lived in balmy Aberdeen, South Dakota back in 1996 or 1997, where the winter temperatures often plummeted to twenty-some below. One of the neighbor ladies, whose children attended the same elementary school as our daughter,
a block or so away, offered to give her a ride because it was so cold that day, but her mother kindly declined, remarking it wasn’t so cold that she couldn’t walk to school.

      And so she did, in her little Sorel boots, a snowsuit and little blue bomber hat with the rabbit fur ear flaps fastened under her chin, the forehead flap tight against her head and a scarf around her neck. She wore mittens too, arriving warm as toast, to the genuine admiration of the school principal who complimented her about her bomber hat--and later, according to lore, ordered one for himself.

      Our daughter was born in Roseau County with temperatures hovering at 40 below zero that late day in January 1987, and she was brought home two days later wrapped in a thick bundle of beaver pelts and bison blankets when the temps dropped to forty-six below. (Try strapping that in a car seat for the first time.) 
     
     We had to walk the half-mile across the frozen tundra into our farm because the road ended there, pulling her on a plastic sled where she was propped into a sitting position by all the mail and groceries we had to pack in. I offered to pull the sled too, but her mother knew I had to break trail and watch for hungry timber wolves known to attack vulnerable passersby trailing a scent of a newborn and several kegs of salted herring. Besides, her mother had plenty of time to rest in the hospital and needed some exercise.

     So now, since my daughter is no longer living here on the farm, wife Jackie must make the arduous trek to the mailbox where the car is parked by the schoolhouse, to drive to Wannaska on days when the snowplow doesn't come and I'm not there to do it. Although she was 100% in favor of me going to Florida, I suspect the cold weather had gotten tiring for her, especially having to pull a sled loaded with 40# sacks of sunflower seeds (twice a week when it's cold like this, the birds gotta eat too), softener salt, groceries and mail. Her interest about my 23 day trip in the sun had waned, I could tell, and it was time for me to come home.

     I penned this poem upon arrival. It's called,

"Ah Home!" 

Awakening to a far pillow across the bed
To where my wife Jackie rests her head
Above the ceiling five feet from my nose
My feet touch nothing but the bed clothes.

My arms can stretch any direction
To above my head to my ear plug collection
My defense against my fraulein's snore
Is one more reason I love home more


 

Comments

  1. Good to have you back! Your writing is much better when it comes from Palmsville Township.

    ReplyDelete

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