Let's remember Del Holdgrafer, everyman

A nice sampling of Del Holdgrafer's talents

I doubt Delmar Holdgrafer would understand "multitasking."I doubt he would understand or appreciate "data overload."

These are compliments.

Del would think the "rat race" is more trouble than it's worth. He was the perfect person to encounter if you felt stressed.

Mind you, he was responsible. It's just that he appreciated the basic things in life and didn't feel he needed to do cartwheels to gain more material possessions. He remembered when "a trip to Morris was a major excursion, going 35 miles an hour in our 1928 green Chrysler."

This he wrote in the book "the '40s - a time for war and a time for peace."

The book is a compilation of stories by Stevens County residents who remembered the WWII experience both abroad and here.

Delmar was the Donnelly correspondent for a time when I was still active in the print media. He wasn't the traditional correspondent. That should surprise us? He weaved together those little mundane vignettes with his touch of humor.

Humor was a staple of his. Cartooning was his main claim to fame. It was an innate gift. The humor was part of an outlook on life that suggested nothing be taken too seriously.

He had a knowing smile. It was a smile that suggested maybe some of your perceived problems were amplified beyond reason.

There was a time we could be thankful for vehicles that transported us at 35 MPH. Regarding that 1928 green Chrysler, he added: "Most cars did not exhibit such bold colors."

And more: "Our next car was a secondhand 1939 Plymouth bought from a cream station manager in Morris by the name of Mosey. Under the back seat, I discovered a piece of leather with the message inscribed, 'Through life just freely roam. The world belongs to all of us, so make yourself at home.' I still live by this philosophy."

If you wanted Del to do a special artistic project for you, all the compensation he'd ask is "enough to fill my gas tank."

The last time he drew caricatures of newspaper staff members, I pulled $20 out of my own pocket for him. I wasn't going to bother the company for the 20 bucks. The artist and I made arrangements for this in a meeting at Sax's Cafe in Donnelly. He was surely a Donnelly-ite.

I always had the perception Donnelly had more interesting personalities per capita than any other place I knew. The town otherwise seemed quite plain. It's the sort of town that is ubiquitous when you travel in outstate Minnesota. The only problem is, we don't take time to appreciate them. Of course they aren't clones of each other.

Sociologists today say rural communities in the Midwest are depressed. Del would wrinkle his forehead. Here was a man who appreciated a car going 35 MPH. He had a sense of perspective about life. He could be selfless, as shown when he made a cause of seeing that a WWI vet whose grave wasn't properly marked got his due.

Del's cartoons sort of nagged us about how we could get preoccupied with material things. He presented the "everyman." His captions would sometimes begin with "This citizen. . ." The panel would show someone perplexed or mildly annoyed by some new wrinkle in life.

I'm proud to have given him some cartoon suggestions. These suggestions were merely concepts or springboards. Del came up with the "gag" or the philosophical nugget.

I told him he should do something on the O.J. Simpson trial. It was a phenomenon because it showed us how the media of the future were going to behave. We were perplexed at the sledgehammer type of attention. Del drew a cartoon showing "this citizen. . ." walking away from a TV set that had O.J.'s picture. I think I can remember the caption word for word: "This citizen has decided to get on with his own affairs and let God be the judge."

Remember when the "coffee videos" were in the news? I can't remember what the fuss was about but it had something to do with money and politics. I ran this subject past Del. He responded by drawing Bill Clinton entering Sax's Cafe on a routine day. There was a boy playing "Pac Man."

The gag was that although the visit was surely of note, "no one can recall anyone giving (the president) any money."

You were left with the impression that Clinton might be better served meeting with the cafe's patrons than the usual D.C. bigshots. Del even drew the little sign next to the door that had "open" on one side and "closed" on the other." Because it was an inside scene we saw the "closed" side.

Drawings of Sax's are dated now because Donnelly, like Cyrus, no longer has its traditional main street cafe. Little bits of Americana are leaving us. Sociologists are right in saying there's decline out here. They are wrong in suggesting that those who are left out here are somehow "left behind."

The economy is stressed. The people are largely resilient.

My defensiveness comes from having read a book by sociologists on the declining aspects of the rural Midwest. I have already written about that book in a disparaging way and won't repeat all that. Holdgrafer would have been bemused by such sociologists. The empty prairie isn't really so empty.

I once gave Del a heads-up about a revival of interest in the Beatles. This was when those "lost recordings" by John Lennon were discovered, remember?

Del drew his "everyman" couple who had heard "the Beatles are coming back" only they took this to mean "beetles" (the insects). They were ready with spray etc.

Del did a drawing to promote the Donnelly Rod and Gun Club annual picnic, and he had a number of world leaders there, like Leonid Brezhnev and Ayatollah Khomeini. Maybe Moammar Khadafy too. The caption was "join your friends" at the annual picnic. It prompted a laugh of course.

But it also made you think how world leaders might benefit being in such a setting, away from the awful tremors of their political existence. If only the whole world could be like Donnelly.

When I was a kid, Donnelly had its own elementary basketball team. We got to play "away games" in Donnelly! The Donnelly team even had cheerleaders, which we didn't have. I remember the cheerleaders well because of one particular member, whose name I won't type here.

Donnelly played its "home games" at the Donnelly town hall. Wasn't that a WPA project? It certainly exudes age but it has been the subject of tender loving care in Donnelly. We in Morris should be ashamed we have allowed our 1930 art deco auditorium go to ashes.

The Donnelly town hall is still the site for lively occasions like springtime fish fries. I can still visualize the cheerleaders there. OK let's get off that subject.

You might get the impression Del was always pure (like the driven snow) and innocent in his thoughts. He was capable of taking digs. He did a parody of the Morris medical practice once. He had great fun with names of the Morris doctors.

That drawing showed a bent-over man with the doctor saying to him: "Your problem is that you have to quit carrying the problems of the world on your shoulders."
The "doctored" names of the doctors were in the background. I'd better not repeat any. Word is, the cartoon wasn't received in a spirit of levity.

There was a sub-gag in the cartoon that said as much as the main one. The little "Holdgrafer" character down in the corner advised the patient: "Be sure and straighten up at the desk when you leave." In other words, when you pay your bill!

What I would have said to the doctors is this: Holdgrafer is a throwback. Please remember this. He cherishes the time when doctors made "house calls" and when their fees were often nominal.

Del couldn't fathom the maze of insurance paperwork and bureaucracy that characterize health care today. He longed for that simpler time. He felt trepidation at the new model. He made a statement with his artwork. I wouldn't take it personally.

A footnote: This cartoon wasn't supposed to run in the Morris newspaper, as I recall. We had a system then where we placed a "red label" where the cartoon was to go, and the cartoon originated from elsewhere (Herman, I think). Somehow we had an advance heads-up about this cartoon. Despite our best-laid plans, it ran, to absolute amusement of most of us, who saw it simply as great humor.

People in ownership positions saw it differently. Chalk one up for the "everyman."

I remember when I first met Delmar. It was at the Donnelly Threshing Bee. He was already familiar with some of my work.

"I think maybe you have a little too much education for us," he remarked.

But Holdgrafer himself showed a breadth of knowledge that he might not have wanted to own up to. You see, he was a constant observer. It was his nature.

He once wrote in his "Donnelly news" that "(a certain couple) have been busy leading lives of quiet desperation, so they don't have anything to report."

Del was using a famous quotation, of course. He soaked in a lot.

He treasured the things that really mattered in life. He appreciated the trip to Morris in that "1928 green Chrysler," proceeding lazily along. He left us too soon.

But he left us with a treasure of drawings and wisdom.

Delmar Holdgrafer, RIP.

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com