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In the spring of 2000, I visited MPR’s classical music station, KWRV 91.9, in Sun Valley, Idaho for the first time.  When I made my second trip in the fall of 2000, I decided to drive to Bozeman, Montana and visit my Uncle Bill and Aunt Maggie.  Uncle Bill was my wife Marcia’s mother’s half- brother. They both had the same mother, but different fathers.  I had met Aunt Maggie when Marcia and I went to California on our honeymoon in 1965. Aunt Maggie told stories about a Native American ghost that would sit on the end of her bad and visit with her.

Going to visit Aunt Maggie and Uncle Bill became an annual event.  Each year I heard more marvelous stories, and I learned to love those wonderful people. Knowing that Marcia and I were divorced, Maggie would introduce me as her nephew from Minnesota and add:  “I got him in the divorce”.  Uncle Bill died in 2008.  It has been eight years since Aunt Maggie died. She and her husband Bill Heisick both grew up in Bozeman. Here is just one of the many stories that Aunt Maggie told me.

Bill served in the Pacific during World War II. When he came home from the war, he and his mother traveled to LA to visit some friends. One day a fellow named Ivan popped in to see his friend Tommy who happened to be playing bridge with Bill and his mother Mary. Ivan asked, “Who owns the car outside with the Montana license plates?”. Uncle Bill spoke up. Ivan told Bill “My girlfriend, Maggie Caven, lives in Bozeman. Please greet Maggie for me when you get back home”.

When Bill got back to Bozeman, he phoned Maggie and asked her to go to a movie. Maggie mistook Bill for his older brother Bob who she had once met in high school. She accepted the date, and she was very disappointed when she found out that Bob had been killed in the war. Bill had gone to a private school, and she did not know him. She was quite sure that Bill, who was a couple of years younger than she, was not her kind of fellow. Bill was very handsome. In fact, he could have doubled for Clark Gable.  Maggie was sure that like most handsome men, he would prove to be full of himself. She tried to call it off, but Bill was persistent, and they were married in Tucson, Arizona on April 12, 1949. They were a very happy couple. They lived in Van Nuys, CA and retired to a small ranch outside of Bozeman in 1984. She would introduce Bill as “Her S.O.B., Sweet Old Bill”.   I am not sure what happened to Ivan, but he shared too much information with a stranger, and it cost him dearly.

“When one door closes, another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us”.  Alexander Graham Bell

Category : General

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My cousin Tom would have been 78 years old today. He was not a “Norwegian Bachelor Farmer”, he was a “Norwegian Bachelor House Painter”.  When I lived in Upsala, I owned a house that was built in 1892 as the Swedish Mission Church parsonage.  Most of the siding is original cedar and if you keep it painted; it will last for a long, long time.  Tom was my designated painter. For many years, Tom lived with his parents in a house across the church cemetery. His father, Duke, had died in 2002 and his mother Lee,  Auntie to me, died 11 years later, so in 2019 Tom was living alone.

Living alone has a few disadvantages, one of which is, if you fall and can’t get up, it may be a while before someone finds you.  After a few days of not being able to get Tom on his cell phone, cousin Mike went to check on Tom one Sunday.  Mike called upstairs and Tom answered weakly. At St. Cloud Hospital it was discovered that he had a brain tumor that had caused a seizure that put him on the floor in his upstairs bedroom.  When I got to his hospital room on Monday , he had the three nurses rolling in the aisle.  His personality had been affected by the tumor, and he would not stop talking, calling the nurse whose name was Sara,  “Sister Sara”.  Tom remembered that name from a Clint Eastwood movie.

Because I live in St. Joseph, I usually was the first to visit him. On Wednesday when I got there he was barely breathing.  I put my hand on his chest and said, “hold on Tom, your sister and brothers are on their way”.  We were sure that he would be dying soon.  The next day he opened his eyes and mumbled a greeting to his brother John.  When I got there on Friday morning, he was wide awake and when the nurse heard me talking to him, she came in and asked Tom if he was hungry.  Tom asked for ice cream.  I told him that we all had given up on him and explained that as I understood it, if he chose to live, he would be facing some serious surgery with a high risk.

Tom usual dry sense of humor had returned.  He said:  “I have never died before; I don’t know how to do it”.   Tom decided to have the surgeries.  He had a baseball sized tumor removed two days later.  Tom looked rough, but he chose to fight, and we were all hoping for the best. Tom died later that same month.  We miss him.

“I have never died before; I don’t know how to do it”.  Tom Hagstrom

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You just need to find your authentic swing!” Advice from Bagger Vance, a character in the movie “The Legend of Bagger Vance”, released in 2000 and directed by Robert Redford. Doing well at the game of golf is akin to doing well at the game of life. I am here doing what I do, loving what I do, to a large degree because of luck. Being in the right place at the right time.

I had no idea what I was “going to be when I grew up”. My two quarters at the U of M in 1961/62 were a disaster.  I once signed up for the “Phillips 66 Gas Station Management Program”. Those of us in the program wore company uniforms but I don’t remember having to wear “the cap”. They taught us how to properly check the oil and wash the windshield while keeping an eye on the gas pump.

One day in 1962, my sister’s boyfriend Barry Larson asked me if I had any skill with “drafting”. He had a side job that he needed help with. I was living with my mother recovering from a back operation and I told him yes (which was a fib), and I got the job. When he came to pick up the finished work, he was not happy. “Don’t you know the difference between an object line and a dimension line?” Clearly, I did not.

I bought an instruction book on “Drafting” and did the work over again. I ended up working as an Engineer Aid on the Polaris project at Honeywell and I even designed a part for a gyro used in the missile. I was given a tie clasp with a submarine on the face of it. I probably still have that instruction book in a box somewhere. When I left that job in 1965 to go back to college, they gave me a very nice compass set and a briefcase to carry my books.

Over the last 63 years I have had twenty-three jobs, in three different industries, drafting, office equipment and radio.  I started my radio career on the third floor of Wimmer Hall on the campus of St. John’s University on October 28,1999.  It is hard to believe that soon, it will be 26 years working with Minnesota Public Radio.

“Wisdom is what is left over after we’ve run out of personal opinions.”  Cullen Hightower

Category : General

Comments Off on February 21, 2025

It has been a very cold couple of weeks and I for one am growing weary of it all. The days are getting longer, but I have not heard any Cardinals singing their songs looking for love.

Today is Saint Valentine’s Day, “An annual holiday celebrating love and affection between intimate companions.” (Wikipedia) The holiday was named in part for an early Christian martyr named Saint Valentine. He fell in love with his jailer’s daughter and just before his execution he wrote her a love letter signed, “from your Valentine.”

Some claim that the first recorded association of Valentine’s Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules by Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote: “For this was sent on Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.” This poem was written in 1382 to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia both of whom were 14 years old.

The sending of “Valentines” probably started in Great Britain. Esther Howland developed a successful home-based business in Worcester, Massachusetts making Valentine cards based on British models. The US Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, second only to Christmas. There are many ways to demonstrate affection to those that you feel love towards. Gifts of music is one.

I have a close friend that unwittingly revealed his unique love for his wife. He is a retired businessman who has a cell phone, but the only person that has his cell phone number is his wife. Every time his cell phone rings, he knows that it is the love of his life who is calling him. Now that is romantic.

“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”  Leonard Cohen

Category : General

Comments Off on February 14, 2025

February 3, 1959, will forever be known as “The Day the Music Died.” Rock and roll pioneers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and “The Big Bopper” (J.P Richardson), were killed when their plane, headed for Moorhead, Minnesota, crashed into a frozen cornfield near Clear Lake, Iowa, just six miles from take-off. Holly chartered the flight after his tour bus broke down and fellow musician Carl Bunch ended up in the hospital with severe frostbite. Don McLean referred to that day as “The Day the Music Died” in his 1971 song, “American Pie”.

The plane was a Beechcraft Bonanza with room for 3 passengers and the pilot Roger Peterson. Richardson was suffering from the flu, so Waylon Jennings gave up his seat on the plane to Richardson.  Another member of the band, Tommy Allsup, lost his seat to Ritchie Valens on a coin toss.

Fans of the late, great musicians call the plane crash “the first and greatest tragedy rock and roll has ever suffered.” Over the years several memorials have been created in their honor, including a steel guitar and three records bearing the three performers’ names, a giant pair of Holly’s famous Wayfarer-style glasses marking the crash site, and Don McLean’s hit song “American Pie.”

Fifteen-year-old Bobby Vee and his Fargo band, The Shadows, were called upon to fill in for Buddy Holly at the Moorhead engagement because he knew all the words to Buddy’s songs.  Bobby Vee went on to become a music legend of his own.  He had 238 Hot 100 chart hits. The Vee family live in the St. Joseph area and for many years they performed as the headline act for the annual Joetown Rocks fundraiser here in St. Joseph.  You may want to come to St. Joe this July to celebrate being alive.

“One kind word can warm three winter months.” Japanese Proverb

Category : General

Comments Off on February 7, 2025

“Happiness is a warm puppy”. Charles Schulz.     “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is written into the Constitution of the United States of America.

In the February 27, 2006, issue of The New Yorker there was an article on pursuing happiness. It turns out that by nature we have been hardwired to emphasize the negative. Survival depended on being wary. The curious and unwary could be eaten by bears or tigers. “Call no man happy until he is dead” was a popular Greek saying. According to many psychologists, once we are out of poverty, the most important determinant of happiness is our “set point”, our natural level of happiness, which is largely a matter of genetics.

Of course, we have no control over our set point. Those of you who have more than one child know that children do seem to be wired differently. Same parents, same conditions and yet siblings can be so different. However, we can control our attitude. “As a Man Thinketh” by James Allen made quite the impact on me. We also can decide how much volunteer work we are willing to do.

Ready for the secret to happiness? Here it is: “Happiness is equal to your set point S, plus your life conditions C, plus a bit of volunteer work, V.  Happiness = S + C + V”. If you want a copy of the article, let me know.

“Happiness is hard to put into words. It’s also harder to source, much more mysterious than anger or sorrow, which come to me promptly, whenever I summon them, and remain long after I’ve begged them to leave.” David Sedaris

Category : General

Comments Off on January 31, 2025

58 years have passed since a telegram arrived at our studio on the third floor of Wimmer Hall on the campus of St. John’s University, authorizing KSJR to go on the air.  The first KSJR radio broadcast was in the evening of January 22, 1967. The first line uttered by engineer Dan Rieder was, “Heed my words, Earth People. You have 10 minutes to live.” The first classical music selection aired was a pre-recorded concert by the Cleveland Orchestra. What began as Minnesota Education Radio became Minnesota Public Radio on January 1, 1975. 

Since then, MPR has grown to a network of 46 radio stations reaching more than 800,000 weekly listeners. MPR has earned nearly 1,000 broadcasting and journalism awards, including seven George Foster Peabody Awards, six Robert F. Kennedy Journalism awards, a prestigious Alfred I duPont Columbia University Gold Baton Award and a Grammy Award. Programs and podcasts produced by Minnesota Public Radio’s parent company American Public Media, reach over 17 million listeners each week. 

This is one version of how Bill Kling was selected to lead the creation of what has become the largest network of public radio stations in the United States. It was written by our first Collegeville Studio intern, Ellen Newkirk.

“The Saint John’s University monks chose Bill Kling to help start their public radio station, Minnesota Education Radio, because of his “bright mind” – literally. SJU graduate Marty Mahowald tells the story of Bill Kling’s selection as the station’s first leader as told by his professor Fr. Gunther Rolfson. In the 1960s, Saint John’s had a mandatory lights-out policy at 10pm when the faculty residents would flip a switch that turned off all power on each floor of the residence halls. However, one evening, during a walk around campus , Fr. Gunther noticed a light illuminating from a single room in Benet Hall.

The next day, Fr. Gunther used a master key to enter the room and found a system rigged to keep the power on after the switch was flipped each night. The room belonged to Bill Kling. Eventually, the monks decided Kling’s innovative and determined spirit was just what they needed for their new endeavor. According to Mahowald, Fr. Gunther said: “We knew that starting a new campus radio station would present struggles, budget challenges and many other issues to deal with and it would take someone with a lot of moxie to lead it through to success.” It turned out to be a very good decision; Kling served as president of Minnesota Public Radio until 2010 and created one of the greatest public radio station networks in the country.”  Ellen Newkirk, CSB, Class of 2013.

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping-stone. Close the door on the past.  You don’t try to forget the mistake, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”  Johnny Cash    

Category : General

Comments Off on January 24, 2025

It has been 20 years since my dad died. We held a “Celebration of Life” for him at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Upsala. Dad had prepared many funeral plans over the years, due in part to his decision to donate his body to the University of Minnesota Medical School. Also, in 1969 his doctors had told him that he had throat cancer and would probably only live another 5 years. He lived 36 years after the removal of his voice box. The soloist at the service asked if dad was an Elvis Presley fan, since all the songs that he choose were on an Elvis album, Evening Prayer, “He Touched Me”,” Amazing Grace” and “The Lord’s Prayer”.

I was at home the Monday evening after the service when the phone rang. I answered it with a somewhat weary voice and the woman on the other end said: “We are looking for the family of Gary Osberg”. Expecting a sales pitch, I responded: “This is Gary Osberg!”. There was a long pause, and I heard laughter in the background. I thought to myself, ‘I am not in the mood for this’. The lady came back on with: “This is the strangest phone call I have ever made. We have a floral arrangement for the funeral of Gary Osberg”. In a loud voice I proclaimed: “I AM ALIVE, IT WAS MY DAD THAT DIED! Where are you calling from?” The floral shop was in Foley, a city not even close to Upsala. She told me that she had checked with all the funeral homes and churches in her area and had no luck. I was dating a woman who lived near Clearwater at the time, so I had them deliver the flowers to Karen, and they were beautiful.

“I walked for miles at night along the beach, searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that the person would be me.” Anna Quindlen

Category : General

Comments Off on January 17, 2025

Many years ago, my Dad went to work as a dishwasher at Little Sisters of the Poor in St. Paul. His boss was a woman named Maxine. They became real good friends. Her family also referred to him as Grandpa Bill. Maxine and Dad never lived together, but they ended up living a few floors apart in the same high-rise apartment building next to St. Paul Ramsey Hospital on University Avenue. When Maxine died, I attended the funeral, and Dad surprised me by asking me to sing “The Lord’s Prayer” and “Amazing Grace” during the service. There was no piano, so I had to sing “a Capella”. It was ok.

One of the pieces of furniture that Dad brought with him when he moved into my house in Upsala was a corner unit with glass shelves and a glass door that had belonged to Maxine. Her family had given it to him. After Dad passed in 2005, I set out to clean his room.

One of the items in the corner cabinet was a small green egg with silver decorations and a seam abound the middle. I was curious to see what treasure was inside, but when I pried it open, expecting to find a Russian doll, what came out were ashes! “OH MY GOD! IT WAS MAXINE!”. I spilled a little in my haste to put it back together and I quickly put it back into the curio.

A few years later my daughter bought the house from me. Every summer Kerry and her mother would have a garage sale. It happened again to Marcia while she was helping my daughter gather items for the garage sale.  After that I decided to dig a hole next to my Dad’s grave at Gethsemane Church in Upsala and bury the “egg” before there was nothing left of Maxine. 

“Tell me, what else should I have done?  Doesn’t everything die at last and too soon?  Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”  From The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Category : General

Comments Off on January 10, 2025

I consider myself in recovery. I quit drinking ‘Old Grand Dad’ in 1976. I am also a “recovering entrepreneur”. I couldn’t work for the man, I had to be the man.

Lastly, I am also a “recovering jerk”. It is the last one that is the hardest to deal with. I have been known to grow very impatient with lines. Lottery ticket sales drive me nuts. I love the self-serve gas pumps with swipe card capability. To help me deal with these defects of character, I have adopted a morning reading ritual.

This one I stole from Dear Abby. It is usually published in the local newspaper every New Years Day.

JUST FOR TODAY: I will live through this day only. I will not brood about yesterday or obsess about tomorrow. I will not set far-reaching goals or try to overcome all my problems at once. I know that I can do something for 24 hours that would overwhelm me if I had to keep it up for a lifetime.
JUST FOR TODAY: I will be happy. I will not dwell on thoughts that depress me. If my mind fills with clouds, I will chase them away and fill it with sunshine.
JUST FOR TODAY: I will accept what is. I will face reality. I will correct those things I can correct and accept those I cannot.
JUST FOR TODAY: I will improve my mind. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration. I will not be a mental loafer.
JUST FOR TODAY: I will make a conscious effort to be agreeable. I will be kind and courteous to those who cross my path, and I’ll not speak ill of others. I will improve my appearance, speak softly, and not interrupt when someone else is talking.
JUST FOR TODAY, I will refrain from improving anybody but myself.
JUST FOR TODAY: I will do something positive to improve my health. If I’m a smoker, I’ll quit. If I am over-weight, I will eat healthfully, if only just for today. And not only that, but I will also get off the couch and take a brisk walk, even if it’s only around the block.
JUST FOR TODAY: I will gather the courage to do what is right and take responsibility for my own actions.

“Great results cannot be achieved at once, we must be satisfied in life as walk, step by step.”  Samuel Smiles

Category : General

Comments Off on January 3, 2025