Happy Birthday "Wannaskan Almanac"

 

  It was on this day in 2018 that nothing of note happened regarding the Wannaskan Almanac. A few days earlier at our annual New Year's Eve party I had proposed to several writer types that we publish a blog to take the place of Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac which had been taken off the air when Mr. Keillor got into some #MeToo related trouble.

  Both Catherine and Joe Stenzel agreed to take a day each. They live in a cabin in Beltrami Forest and were word lovers so would be able to come up with something good. John Bouchard, Jerry Solom's son-in-law was visiting from Fort Dodge, Kansas where he teaches sixth grade. He would also have a ripe topic. Steve Reynolds had recently retired from publishing The Raven and needed something to prevent rust from forming. I, Joe McDonnell, formed the fifth member.

  Catherine started the show on Monday, January 8, 2018. We had been having a string of wicked cold days just then so Catherine, under her blog name "Jack Pine Savage," wrote about her experiences with the "Dead of Winter" throwing in a few quotes from other writers to add gravitas.

  It continued cold and Jack Pine continued on the weather in her next post, with several poets chiming in on winter themes. The weather must have improved because her following post was on the meaning of life. She admits she has bitten off more than she could chew, and worries if she's growing whacky out in the cabin. She ends her post by referencing Monty Python. Smart. The Python is rock steady.

  By week five, the "Savage" had hit her stride. She was now writing about poetry, her great love. Almost every Monday since, she's introduced her readers to poets (including herself) they may never have read or even heard of. Being a former teacher she offers "explorations" the reader is invited to comment on.

  Tuesdays belong to John Bouchard, though you'd never know it. His first post told how he was sweet talked into writing for the Wannaskan Almanac, but Jack Pine Savage got credit for his post. Our guru struggled to set things right, but our blog provider (Google) was uncooperative.  The best our guru could do was to make John "Anonymous". 

  John is a master at making sixth grade humor sound elegant, but he had to labor under a cloak of anonymity until October 26, 2021 when our guru broke through Google's obduracy, and John was able to write under his blog name "Mr. Hot Coco". That week he wrote about being admitted to the hospital for diarrhea, and he did it most elegantly.

  Word Wednesday happens on Woden's Day, written by Joe Stenzel, under his blog name "Wednesday's Child", or "Woe" for short. Word Wednesday celebrates the world of words, their origins, their wanderings, their wonderfulness. It's fun. Every week he challenges readers to write a poem using the ten abstruse words he's looked up that week. In another feature he'll follow a writer for a few months with excerpts from his or her works. There's info on weather, nature,... it's a cornucopia of good stuff.

  Steve Reynolds, the WannaskaWriter (no space) appears on Thursdays. He gives us funny stories about the misadventures of Sven and Ula, two jokers he knows well. We also get meditations on deer stand construction, tractor maintenance, or on the nature that surrounds him on the banks of beautiful Mikinaak Creek. If he doesn't feel like writing, he'll reprint a classic article from the archives of the The Raven.

  I write on Fridays under the blog name "Chairman Joe". I check to see what events happened in history on my day to post. We forget all the crazy stuff that happened in the past and I love sifting through the facts as I try to condense those facts into a post without distorting the truth too much. I also love to travel. Travel always involves trials and tribulations. People love reading about other people's troubles so I give 'em what they want, mostly.

  At first the WA took weekends off. Then I began posting a few squibs on Sundays under the creative title "Sunday Squibs". A squib is a little firecracker. It's also a witty saying, or a bon mot as the French would say. I try to avoid damp squibs which just fizzle. 

  The big hole on Saturdays was filled when Catherine and Joe's friend Kim Hruba from Warroad happened to stop in Wannaska. She had some recycling with her so decided to use the Wannaskan bins. Kim is a writer and Catherine convinced her to join the Almanac crew. Weirdly enough Kim writes under the blog name "Kim Hruba". Soon she was writing about lowering her middle child into the Wannaskan recycling bins to retrieve a trove of Tarzan paperbacks. Kim has five kids and is never at a loss for something to write about. She has even gotten her three youngest kids to write her post for her at times. Kim's husband is from the Czech Republic and vacation posts from Central Europe, sometimes written by the kids, give an international flavor to the Almanac.

  Almost a year ago two friends from Virginia, Jim and Ginny Graham visited us. Ginny was entranced by winter in northern Minnesota. Ginny was an English teacher and she and Catherine bonded. Catherine needed time for other projects and asked Ginny if she'd like to tag team with her on Mondays. Ginny said yes. Her blog name is "teapoetry". Ginny is around my age and she grew up near Boston as I did. She often writes about the things that formed her growing up. I really enjoy that because many of the same things formed me.

  So six years have passed and not a day has been missed. Amazing. That's two thousand, one hundred and ninety posts, plus one more for leap year in 2020, plus five more since this year began, including this one. 

GO TEAM! WAY TO GO!

Annual Writer's Meeting, 12/31/23. (l. to r.) WannaskaWriter, Mr. Hot Coco, Jack Pine Savage, Chairman Joe, & (back row) Wednesday's Child. Missing: Kim Hruba and teapoetry