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Sharing the gift of reunions

My Magical Mystery Nostalgia Tour has come to an end. It’s time to return to the present time. Which isn’t that great. But it’s all we got. Pam accuses me of being a serial nostalgic. She’s right. The longer-ago memories are, the more enjoyable they are to retrieve. One definition of nostalgia: “A wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to one’s home or homeland, or to one’s family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.” Heck yeah, I’m nostalgic! The approach of my 50th class ...

Farmers market stirs childhood memories of gardening

At this time of year I always get a craving, one that reminds me of growing up on Marguerite Avenue. My family had a set of gardens in the backyard. They were mostly small flower gardens but we had one large vegetable garden below the hill. At this time of year the garden would be producing many green beans and tomatoes. The lettuce had grown out, but the potatoes and carrots were ready to dig up in about another month. Mom had several recipes based on our garden produce. Some of my favorites were a lettuce salad with eggs and bacon, buttered green beans, sliced tomatoes, and pot ...

NU Film Society mockumentary series takes tour of ‘District 9’

By Clay Schuldt NEW ULM – The New Ulm Film Society’s mockumentary series will explore an alien–but all too realistic version–of South African politics with a screening of “District 9.” The screening begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10 at the New Ulm Public Library. “District 9” is a 2009 science-fiction film that explores a South African community populated by extraterrestrial refugees. The film is structured like an expose on government and corporate corruption. The movie uses different archival footage including newsreels, security camera recordings and video ...

Legends of the Iron Range

Editor’s note: Jerry is taking some time off. Here is one of his past columns from his Oldies But Goodies file. Mesabi is the Ojibwa word for giant. Mesabi is also the name given to a range of iron-rich hills in northern Minnesota, knolls that the Ojibwa believed held a sleeping giant. Some years ago, my wife and I made a foray to northern Minnesota to see about sleeping giants and other Iron Range legends. First on our list was the town of Bemidji where stands humungous statues of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe. Being a farm kid, I had to examine Babe up close to ...

Do the right thing when it comes to the Farm Bill

Last December, I noticed a deposit of $3,089.80 in our checking account. What a nice Christmas gift. It was a payment from the Farm Service Agency. I dug in my memory to recall that months ago I filled out an application for a PARP payment based on some combination of farm income, yields, price, and maybe the price of tea in China. “PARP” stands for something. You can look that up. PARP is a leftover program from the COVID era, stupid Trump policies, and excessive weather events. Weather is something farmers are always fighting with. COVID and Trump were unique maladies. The ...

Dinner is served

A guy can learn a lot when he’s undergoing tonsil cancer treatments. For instance, I recently had an appointment with a woman named Tina, a speech therapist. I learned that it’s important to keep your mouth parts fit and healthy via exercises that help preserve the ability to swallow. Among the exercises Tina assigned me was sticking out my tongue as far as possible. This is great news. It gives me an excuse to stick out my tongue whenever the spirit moves me. If a bystander takes offence, I can shrug and say, “Doctor’s orders.” Lymphedema is a new word in my vocabulary. ...