The bulldog issue was our third to produce for the week. You might say it all had a "bat out of hell" feeling for us by the time we were done. There is a former Morris dentist who would object vigorously to the "bat out of hell" expression. Wasn't that a Meat Loaf song?
The weekend had its share of rest for me, compared to what led up to it, but I certainly kept my journalistic engines humming. The Morris graduation on Friday night was a big deal. I only covered one graduation at its present location. I was struck by how much easier it was to hear the class speakers at the new place. It was always a struggle at the "old" 1968 gym. I put "old" in quotes: the '68 gym seemed nothing short of a miracle for the community when it opened in, well, 1968. Today it is an obscure and largely forgotten place.
The 1991 gym seems never to have made much of a splash either. We build these additions and then the school advocates just talk about how we need more. Here's a truism: the reason government is inefficient is that it has no incentive to be efficient. Jim Morrison once wrote one of his sage editorials, wondering if Morris was trying to become "the gymnasium capital of western Minnesota." Silly rabbit, all school-based referendums in Morris pass these days. They should keep striking while the iron is hot, I guess. What a contrast to the 1960s! It was like pulling teeth to get a school referendum passed then. The school got desperate and set up "split shifts" for a time, due to the burgeoning numbers caused by the cotton pickin' "baby boom" (me included).
Oscar Miller was our superintendent. He was a real PR type of superintendent. But I think eventually the board, according to what I've been able to ascertain, felt he wasn't maximizing school resources enough. In other words it came down to money. So exit good ol' Oscar (our neighbor) and bring on Fred Switzer, not a PR man but assuredly an expert with money, so much so, it seemed the teachers never trusted him.
Fred was close personally with board member (and chair) Les Lindor, our neighbor on the other side, who was a salt of the earth person but he carried traits often associated with those alive in the Great Depression, IMHO. My dad was just like that too. Dave Nelson was amazed at how my dad memorized prices at the grocery stores all the time. Bless that generation which has been heading for the exits for some time now.
High school softball has had an odd trait of having major post-season games played right on Memorial Day weekend. It was hit-and-miss for me to try to reach coaches after the end of the school year.
Toward the end of my tenure with the paper, a tenure in which the breadth of my coverage of activities was wider than that for any other media person in the history of Stevens County, I got the heads-up for kindergarten and sixth grade graduations. No one would have suggested this when I was that age. But then, I guess, we entered the age of "everybody gets a trophy." It seems innocuous but superfluous.
Parents really treasure their kids. Just think back to the time when parents had to risk having their sons drafted and sent into the Vietnam war. Parents today really want their kids to have pleasant experiences in school and not to be "pushed" by teachers unduly. The honor rolls have expanded. Oh, I think that's a good thing.
Fine time at a reception
I am heartened these days, during the "winding down" part of my life, to get invited to an occasional high school graduation reception. This year I had the honor of being invited to Taylor Clemensen's. So I made the jaunt to Cyrus on a sunny Saturday and had a great time with the likes of Brent Waddell and Keith Davison. Fancy potatoes were the featured fare. I wish the late Glen Helberg could have joined us. Maybe someday we can make a hologram of Glen.
Congrats Taylor!
You might think that I at least got Sunday off during Memorial Day weekend in those bygone times. Oh no, because like clockwork, Chokio-Alberta had its graduation at 2 p.m. on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. I'd go over to Alberta and grab a folding chair in the front row so I could hear the speeches well. Lyle Hettver would proclaim "thank God for small schools." It's hard for me to imagine a world without C-A sports teams. I made trips to the Metrodome for the Spartan football team. It's all gone with the wind now.
Blake Knudson grabbed a seat next to me for the C-A graduation one year. Nice to see him so friendly in light of how he'd call me sometimes and practically scream at me about my alleged shortcomings as a journalist. Knudson was softball coach. Maybe he had been drinking too much cranberry juice or something. CAHN softball is gone with the wind.
The retrenchment of rural schools just doesn't seem right.
Let's move on to the Monday of Memorial Day weekend: the services honoring our fallen soldiers. I'm old enough to remember Willie Martin saying "there the ground is hallowed" but he'd always pronounce it "hollowed." Joe Tetrault told me that good ol' Willie was corrected on that but he'd revert to the habit anyway. Maybe too much cranberry juice.
Willie was the epitome of his generation and he practically defined Morris. His funeral was held at the National Guard Armory. That was a "prime time" eulogy for the St. Paul's Lutheran minister to give, to be sure.
The first year I covered Memorial Day, Glendon Rose walked up to me at the cemetery and said "there's beer at the Legion." Glendon too was the epitome of his generation.
I worked at the paper when photography was a very exclusive skill. Not just anyone could take photos on a whim (like these days), unless you wanted to spend tons of money doing so. Even writing was considered specialized in those pre-digital times. I had a degree in mass communications. People respected me. So much of that is now gone with the wind as we see the Morris newspaper having cut back so incredibly far.
I remember walking back to the shop from the cemetery at the conclusion of the Memorial Day doings, feeling such a sense of peace and calm. That's the way it should be on Memorial Day.
Both my parents are interred there now. If you notice that Mom's date of death isn't engraved yet, I'll inform you that this has been arranged and paid for, and will get done presumably soon.
Now let's all slow down a little for summer!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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