July 10th, 2015 by Gary Osberg
Good morning from Collegeville,
The Rhubarb Pie with ice cream at Fisher’s Club is back. Fisher’s Club is a seasonal restaurant next to a city owned swimming beach on the north shore of Middle Spunk Lake in Avon.
George “Showboat” Fisher was a major league baseball player from 1922 until 1932. He played for the Washington Senators and the St. Louis Cardinals. He was 33 years old when he opened Fisher’s Club. The dance floor was added in 1937 and they started serving their legendary Fisher’s Famous Walleye. The secret recipe is still used today. The main dining room was added in 1953 and the porch in 1954. When George Junior came home from a construction job in Greenland to work with his dad at the Club, ‘Showboat’ told his son, “Stick around to help me here at The Club or I’m going to sell it.” Junior and his wife Sally took over in 1959.
It used to be a bottle club. The lockers that the regulars used to store their bottles are still on the wall with their names on them. The new owners, Cory and Jacob Voss, have a full service bar. Jacob graduated from Upsala High School in 2011. The new schedule is to be open from Wednesday until Sunday for supper. Be sure to call for reservations, 320-356-7372. Details are online at fishersclub.com
After my early supper of pie and ice cream, I set up my table at Sunset Stages on campus of College of Saint Benedict. Robert Robinson was wonderful. Next Thursday ‘Deuces Wild’ will be performing at 7:30. Come early and bring your lawn chair. I hope to see you there. csbsju.edu/WOW
The APHC show this week is a re-broadcast from a show done at The Fitzgerald Theater in September of 2013. Chris Thile, the heir apparent as host of APHC, will be showing off his classical chops on a few violin sonatas and partitas. Bach on the mandolin. Other guests include ‘Vasen’ and ‘Chic Gamine’. The regular cast of characters will join the band to entertain you. There will even be a word about the famous Be Bop A Ree Bop Rhubarb Pie. Enjoy the show. You can stream it on your iPhone no matter where you are.
”In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility” Eleanor Roosevelt
July 2nd, 2015 by Gary Osberg
Good afternoon from Collegeville,
The 30th annual Osberg/Hagstrom Golf Open is this Saturday at the Little Falls Country Club. My mother’s sister, Leone, Auntie to me, married Duane Hagstrom, owner of Hagstrom Chevrolet in Upsala, Minnesota. Between the two sisters there are 10 of us children. Auntie’s youngest, Kevin, is a very good golfer and for many years he and I won the best ball event every year. There was a time when you had to use at least one drive and one putt for each of the team members. Now there are no such rules. There is a traveling trophy with the names of the winning team engraved on a brass plate. Kevin and I are due. It has been a while. Last year my sister’s husband Duaine led his team to victory. After golf we gather at my brother Bill’s house for a picnic and the award ceremony. We are fortunate to have a number of traditions in our family. I trust that your Fourth of July Celebration will be a safe one.
Comedians Shannan Paul and Mary Mack are at the Sunset Stages event tonight at 7:30 on the College of St. Benedict campus. Bring your lawn chairs and come early. I will have a table at this event also. Next week Robert Robinson, the gospel singer, will be the entertainment. This is a free event thanks to Gustavo Pena, D.J. Bitzan Jewelers, Collegeville Community Credit Union, and MPR. See you there.
The APHC show this week is a live broadcast from where it all began, Macalester College in Saint Paul. There will be great American music from JD McPherson, rock-solid rambles from Joe Newberry and roof raising soul music from Jearlyn and Jevetta Steele. Butch Thompson adds his quintessential piano and clarinet, Tjarnblom rounds things out with a celebration of Minnesota’s Scandinavian heritage. The Macalester College Pipe Band brings some Celtic spirit to the event. The usual gang of characters and the band, under the direction of Richard Dworsky, will light up the evening. Garrison will bring us all up to date on the News From Lake Wobegon. Enjoy the show.
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June 26th, 2015 by Gary Osberg
Good morning from Collegeville,
Tuesday evening we watched the St. Cloud Rox come from behind and beat Duluth at Joe Faber field. Bob Nicol, age 100, threw out the first pitch. His wife, three sons and his daughter were all there to see it. Luke, age 9, said it was the best baseball game ever. Having a foul ball on the second pitch of the game land in front of our table may have helped a bit. He darn near caught it on the fly. He did get it. Elijah signed up to participate in one of the between inning games and he was wonderful, even with the bucket of water being poured on his head. He has no fear. Cousin Capers, with a baseball theme, was a hit. If you have not tried the Sports Deck, which includes food and beverage, you should. Contact Kelly McCall at The Rox, [email protected]
Tonight is the opening of “Sunset Stages at Saint Bens”, a free concert on the campus of College of St. Benedict’s. The Darnall Amphitheater, is located on the north side of The Benedicta Arts Center. Bring a lawn chair and your picnic basket. You may purchase beverages and root beer floats. Shaun Johnson Big Band Experience starts playing at 7:30. Better yet, come to St. Joe early and dine at Bello Cucino or The Local Blend, in vibrant downtown St. Joseph.
The APHC show this week is live from the Koussevitzky Music Shed in Lenox, Massachusetts. Guests include, but are not limited to, Sarah Jarosz with her arsenal of instruments for songs and duets with the host. Rachel Manke is traveling light with her ukulele and Peter Rowan adds some Old School bluegrass straight from the Big Mon tradition. Sara Bareilles and Nadia DiGiallonardo team up to belt out Broadway melodies into the Berkshires. The usual cast of characters will join Rich Dworsky and the band to entertain you. Garrison will add the mid-summer happenings in Lake Wobegon to wrap things up.
”Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too.” Yogi Berra “A nickel isn’t worth a dime anymore.” Yogi Berra
June 19th, 2015 by Gary Osberg
Good morning from Collegeville,
It is a beautiful sunny day on campus. I visited my sons website early this morning, theoutdoorreport.com , and I clicked on the video “MN Rainbow Trout”. I laughed out loud. Walleye Willie and his sister Anna are fishing for trout on a secret lake in northern Minnesota. Willie is six years old and he loves fishing. Last night I had a dream about the warehouse manager at General Office Products, Earl Benson. Earl was the one that instructed me on the art of fishing for bass with frogs. Willie’s father Erik was younger than Willie when his Uncle Duaine gave him a two foot fishing rod so he could fish out of our sail boat on Cedar Lake west of Upsala. You were supposed to count to 10 after the line started moving off of the reel. No one ever counted faster than Erik did. In a while he learned that he needed to slow it down. We should all “slow it down”.
“Remember, it’s not about having time, it’s about making time”
The APHC show this week is live from Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, where you will find some of the most wonderfully elaborate picnic spreads east of the Mississippi. Singer John Fullbright heads north from Oklahoma with his finely crafted songs of simple pleasures and resilience in the face of hard times. Guitarist Elvin Bishop returns to deliver a Windy City tempest of electric blues along with picker Bob Welsh. Plus, violinist Rachel Barton Pine joins the gang to represent Ravinia’s distinguished classical side. The usual gang of actors and musicians will fill the bill. Garrison will throw in an update on the News From Lake Wobegon. Enjoy the show. Enjoy the weather.
“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” Mahatma Gandhi
June 12th, 2015 by Gary Osberg
Good sunny morning from Collegeville,
‘Walleye Willie’, age 6, caught a 18” walleye, a 22” walleye, a northern, a sun fish and 3 small perch. ‘Papa Gary’, age 71, caught one 13” walleye. Maybe ‘Papa Gary’ should sleep with a ‘fish pillow’ purchased at Goodwill. Needless to say, this was one of the best ‘Osberg Brothers’ fishing trips ever. We worked hard for fish, due to heavy rains and cold fronts, but still we had more fish than we could eat for the Monday night supper. Cousin John has joined the annual trek and he brings a wonderful deep fryer for cooking the fish. My son Erik introduced the “cream can cooker” a few years ago and that is fantastic eating. We owe a huge debt to Brother Bill who makes all of the arrangements and brings the food. If your family is looking for a great place to start your own summer tradition, go to Brindley’s Harbor Resort on Leech Lake.
The APHC show this week is a live broadcast the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville, Washington. There will be some steadfast, fog-filtered and rain-washed honky-tonk dancehall music from the Caleb Klauder Country Band featuring Reeb Willms. Plus, the folk musicians of Skolkis bring a taste of Scandinavia to the Mediterranean of America and a few percussive dance steps and old-time Appalachian tunes from Squirrel Butter. The Royal Academy of Radio Actors will show off their full range of laid-back Pacific Northwest characters. Garrison will bring us up to date on the News From Lake Wobegon. Enjoy the show.
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” John Wooden
June 5th, 2015 by Gary Osberg
This weekend I am going fishing with my brothers, my son and my grandson “Walleye Willie”. We now go to Brindley’s Harbor Resort on Leach Lake. Sometime in the nineties, my youngest brother Craig was invited by his father-in-law, Jim, to go along on a fly-in fishing trip to Trout Lake in Canada. Over time, my other brothers, who were into fishing, were invited to go along. In 2003 brother Bill offered to pay the way for my son Erik, so I decided to go fishing too. I have never been much of a fisherman, but it was very special since I always enjoyed fishing with my son Erik. I am the oldest of five Osberg brothers and it was a wonderful bonding time. I told the host that I would be back every year for the next 20 years. The next year we went to brother Brian’s cabin near Aitkin instead.
Erik was working as a weekend sportscaster on Channel 10/13 in Duluth and he did a story on fishing with the guide and resort owner Woody for his TV show. He suggested that we try Woody’s instead of the fly-in in 2005. We had a great time and the greatest part is that Woody had a wonderful pub filled with memorabilia from his hockey days. For many years we went back to Woody’s. We never did do the fly-in again. You can check out Woody’s at fairlyreliable.com It is worth the drive just to meet Woody. About 4 years ago we switched to Leach Lake. There is no pub, but rumors are that the pub at Woody’s is closed now anyway. Check out theoutdoorreport.com for the report from Leach.
The show this week is a live broadcast from the CMAC Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua, New York at the tip of the Finger Lakes. Special guests include pianist and classically contrary essayist Jeremy Denk who will dazzle with works from iconic composers and modern-day masters. Vocalist Heather Masse and The DiGiallonardo Sisters, who have become somewhat of a regular feature, will join the usual cast of the Royal Academy of Radio Actors, Tim Russell, Sue Scott and Fred Newman. Garrison will bring us the latest news from Lake Wobegon. Enjoy the show .
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm” Winston Churchill
May 22nd, 2015 by Gary Osberg
Good morning from Collegeville,
Monday we will celebrate Memorial Day. This national holiday honors the men and women who have died in military service to this country. The first “Decoration Day” was celebrated in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic race track in Charleston, West Virginia. Another Decoration Day was celebrated in Waterloo, New York on May 5, 1866 to honor those who had died in the Civil War. The name “Memorial Day” was first used in 1882, but did not become common until after World War 11. (source: Wikipedia)
When I was a youngster in Upsala, we always had a Memorial Day service at the school followed by a parade down Main Street. Sometime after I graduated in 1961, the practice died out. Then in the 80’s, Lorna Koehn, a member of the American Legion Auxiliary brought back the Memorial Day Celebration in Upsala. I can still picture her marching in front of a group of children, each holding a bunch of lilac flowers. The parade ends at the City Park, where the children still wait in anticipation for the chance to collect the spent brass shells after the 21 gun salute. They make good whistles. After that, one of the civic clubs serves a picnic lunch including “Bee Bop A Ree Bop Rhubarb Pie”.
Be sure to take the time to honor those that you know who have served. If you meet a service member, simply put our your hand and say “Thank you for serving”. They deserve our respect.
The APHC show this week is a live broadcast from the Filene Center at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, where the wolves howl up on the big hill. Singers Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan will debut their knockout trio, “I’m With Her” after a much-lauded barnstorming tour through Europe. The United States Navy Band will join the gang to boost the public radio esprit de corps and kick off the Memorial Day weekend with a few marches, patriotic selections and orchestral features. The Royal Academy of Radio Actors will lend their voices to some over-the-air theater and the band will provide some hot jazz and rock ‘n’ roll favorites. The News From Lake Wobegon will bring us all up to date on the small town in central Minnesota. Enjoy the show.
“We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.” Ronald Reagan
May 22nd, 2015 by Gary Osberg
Good morning from Collegeville,
I stopped in at The Paramount Theater for Chamber Connection this morning. Today is the last event at The Paramount in the 67 year old seats that came from Stewart Hall at SCSU when The Paramount was renovated in 1998. On Monday they will start to remove the existing seats and by July 16th, when Andrew Walesch and his Big Band present “100 Years of Sinatra”, there will be brand new seats.
You have an opportunity to support this project by participating in “Take Your Seat…For Act 2” by purchasing a seat to commemorate a loved one, yourself or your business with an engraved plaque on an arm of the seat. If you are interested simply reply to this email and I will mail you a brochure or go to paramountarts.org.
The APHC show this week is a rebroadcast featuring two shows from the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, one from May of 2010 and one from last season, May of 2014. Special guests include southern music singer Suzy Bogguss singing Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again”. Bryan Sutton does his flat-picking guitar work with “Hangman’s Reel” and The Steep Canyon Rangers perform “Can’t Sit Down”. Garrison and Lynn Peterson sing a few songs in Norwegian to celebrate Syttende Mai. The usual cast of characters ramp up the radio drama. In Lake Wobegon, the war between the Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church pastor Haugen and secretary Marlene intensifies. Enjoy the show.
“If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships – the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt
May 1st, 2015 by Gary Osberg
Good rainy morning from Collegeville,
It would be nice if it would rain all day. We need the moisture. Years ago I got interested in gardening because of my brother-in-law, Jackie. Jackie grew up on a farm and gardening was not a hobby, it was a matter of survival. When they sold the farm in 1971 and moved to town, Jackie convinced the members of the church next door to let him till up a plot of ground west of the old parsonage so he and his parents could continue growing the fresh vegetable that they were used to enjoying.
Jackie had bad knees and so he bought a Yamaha three wheeler and he did his gardening from that. By June, his garden was overrun with weeds, but it still produced. As his arthritis got worse, I offered to do some tilling for him on a weekend. The next time I came by, he growled something about how many vegetable seedlings I had destroyed. My only defense was that the rows were not straight and as a “town kid”, I was not schooled in knowing which were weeds and which were plants. The next spring, I introduced the idea of stakes spaced three feet apart and string. Yesterday, I planted the first two rows of with Yukon Gold potatoes. Love those Yukon Golds, in rows exactly three feet apart.
The APHC show this week is a live broadcast from the Sauder Concert Hall in Goshen, Indiana. It is a singing show from a big town with a rich tradition of harmony and participation in song. The hometown Goshen College Chamber Choir will perform both sacred and secular pieces. Garrison is hoping to entice the audience to sing along. Indianapolis-born sister duo Lily and Madeleine will sing in breathtaking sibling harmony their songs of longing, heartache and paradise found. National Mandolin Champion Ethan Setiawan will perform along with the Royal Academy of Radio Actors and the regular cast of characters. Enjoy the show.
“You will never find a better sparring partner than adversity” Golda Meir
April 24th, 2015 by Gary Osberg
Good morning from Collegeville,
Once in a while Garrison’s News From Lake Wobegon will cause a flash back. Last Saturday he talked about going 80 miles per hour on a toboggan in the ditch behind a car. I suspect that he stretched the truth a little bit on the speed, but in Upsala we did the same thing with a hood from a 39 Chevy. Heavy snow would always bring out the daredevil in the town kids. It is a miracle that no one was killed. Somehow we did get our hands on a couple of real toboggans and we headed up to the Burtrum hills. One night there was a terrific crash and my sister and a classmate ended up in the hospital. Kathie had a cracked collar bone and my classmate broke an arm.
When you factor in the ice drag races on Cedar Lake, our winter sports were nothing if not unique. Today there are ice skating rinks and tubing on Eagle Mountain so the kids are a little safer.
The APHC show this week is another live broadcast from The Town Hall in the heart of Manhattan. Special guests include Brooklyn Rider, a string quartet hailed as “the future of chamber music”. The folk trio, The Wailin’ Jennys will bring in their effortless harmonies. Poet Sharon Olds, known for her intensely, and sometimes graphically personal and scorching commentary on everyday life, will join the gang to read a few poems. Richard Dworsky and The 7th Avenue Band will join up with the Royal Academy of Radio Actors.
Garrison will deliver the News From Lake Wobegon. Enjoy the show. If will be repeated on Sunday at 11 am.
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” Albert Schweitzer
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