It's Gardening Time

 

Nostalgia: 2007: Memories of Ft. Erbe: "You are Never too Old to begin"

 Wednesday, April 4, 2007 "You are Never Too Old to Begin"--Memories of Fr. Erbe

 Eight years ago, Fr. Erbe was still the pastor of St. Paul's Church. It was a "donut Sunday" which meant that after Mass everyone gathered in the lower level to have coffee and donuts and chat.My mother-in-law, Alyce Hector, was visiting and we were celebrating her 72nd birthday. When Fr. Erbe came over to our table. I introduced him to Alyce and then asked her to "tell him the news. " "Well," Alyce said, " I just bought my first computer, and I am having all sorts of fun with it." 

 Turning to Fr. Erbe, I said, "Do you know what that means for you?" "No," he replied, "What?" "Well," I said, "You are next." Fr. Erbe was 70 at that time, and did admit that he had been thinking of getting a computer. Two weeks later I got the call. " Come quick." "I just got the computer and need help pronto," Fr. Erbe said. 

 When I got to the rectory, I went to the upper study, where it looked like Christmas Eve, with boxes all over, with wrapping paper and manuals everywhere. I had been in the computer business, owing a used computer store, and I recognized that Fr. Erbe had bought "The Works". He had even bought the typing voice recognition program. He had been a salesman's dream. I cleared a path thru the paper and sat down at the computer desk, and said," I think we're a little late for reading manuals, so lets just plunge in." I installed the browser and opened up Yahoo. 

Then, as Fr. Erbe sat next to me, I tried to think of a way to explain it all simply. "Well, all of good and evil is here on the browser line. Just type in what you want, and presto it appears. Like magic. Where should we begin?" "The Tablet," he replied. I typed it in and hit search. It is a British religious weekly paper covering events of the Catholic Church all over the world. After it popped up and he read a little, he was very, very excited. "Wow," he said, "This is going to save me a lot of money on subscriptions." Then he proceeded to show me a list of 20 other magazines or books that he had an interest in. I was stunned. Fr. Erbe had the range of interests and reading habits of a 30yr old. Over the next two years, at Mass he would just say "See me" at communion and I knew that some technical consult was required. I was always amazed at the people around the world that he had met online and the books that he explored. "You are never too old to begin, " he would say. Few folks know that after Fr. Erbe left Evansville, he began seeing patients at St. Mary's Hospital in his power wheelchair. Speeding in the halls and bringing his message of cheer to patients and families. The spirit of Fr. Erbe lives on in Evansville. You are never too old to begin. Posted by Evansville Observer at 12:03 PM Posted by Evansville Observer at 7:09 AM

Nostalgia: July 2008: A Postscript on the Wild West

 There is a notion...and it has been pretty doggone persistent over a few hundred years, that back in them there pioneer days, there was just the natural ways...just the wild and free livin of truly lawless and unrestrained individuals-----

There is also the further notion, that if we could just somehow get back to those good old days of wild livin, free of a strong central government....and in fact free of all regulation and inhibition of any kind, that ....well.....we would be perfectly happy....and if one was a business owner....rich....which is the same thing. 

As a young boy, I had the freedom to read all the stories of Wyatt Erpe. I know that there was a lot more law in them there parts than some folks remember. I know that the lawmen did their job. Many gun toting hombres were driven from town. Back when the frontier was the frontier. When saloons were saloons. When bricks were bricks. When good was good....and bad was just bad....and not bad to the bone.

Nostalgia: January 2008: On the Perfect Marriage: On Mr and Mrs Smith--the Movie: On Politics

 Recently we've had a debate in our family. After viewing "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" staring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, I theorized that this indeed was the perfect marriage. Rough in the beginning. O.K. very rough. And then in the end it is just perfect ballet.

My middle daughter, who wishes to remain anonymous, objected strenuously. She is a psychology major and I inquired whether the textbooks describe the marital bond as similar to that of Brad and Angelina. "Heavens no, dad. Are you saying that marriage is like the elevator scene where she nearly kills Brad?"

"Yes," I replied. "That is so real." "The only part that seems too long is the scene at the end where they move in perfect harmony with the machine guns killing all the enemy. Without even a nick or scratch from flying fragments. I am still waiting for that in real life.

Recently "Fred" has written about what he learned about the "open meeting" law at a recent municipal conference for new aldermen. He says:

"One thing I'm learning is that the requirements of open-ness and transparency in local government gives rise to a general slowness in getting things done. For example, alders can almost never have private conversations among themselves about issues. The monthly meetings, held in the public eye, are where we must discuss things before coming to decisions. That's to protect us from accusations of "secret deals" etc, and to ensure that you the citizens have access to the decision-making process."

So, as a matter of debate, I would propose that meetings in our fair city should resemble the relationship of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie during most of the movie----with wild differences of thought that are aired---but rather in public not in private.

If one ever sees orchestrated movement in perfect harmony we will know that something is wrong--terribly wrong. It is only an absolute miracle if all alders could agree in the normal happening of things on anything, and then probably only if they had chatted in private before the meeting or something. Heaven forbid.

So there it is. "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" the movie and the politics. If we ever see perfect harmony, perfect lawyering, perfect grant proposals, perfect public works and perfect dancing with machine guns----or perfect harmony in voting---we will know.

Now. Who is the Brad Pitt? O.K. you all can fight about it.

That's how I see it. You heard it on The Evansville Observer

Nostalgia: 2007: Tales From Normal, Mn :FICTION: The Cameras

 

SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 2007

Dateline Normal: The Cameras-----Fiction

Last night after watching the live camera in the historic four square of downtown Evansville capture all the live excitement of the vibrant downtown, I called Herman, my countryboy lawyer friend in Normal, Mn. to share the good news.


" Just click on the link on The Observer," I explained to Herman. "Is that cool or what?"

"What is the purpose?" Herman asked.

"It is just to keep track of the historic restoration of our downtown----basically to watch how the bricks are coming," I responded.

"That's nothin, Wolfman, (that's what he always called me.) Up here we had TEN cameras. Man was that something."

"What do you mean HAD ten cameras, Herman. Did not the cameras work properly."

"They worked just WONDERFUL, "Herman gushed. "They worked just too darn well. Ya gotta understand, Wolfman, there are only two intersections in Normal, Mn... With ten cameras we had it totally covered. In fact TOO covered. Our cops just sat in the police station and watched their computers. Pretty soon, it became a threat to public health."

"What do you mean a threat to public health?," I asked. It sounds like nirvana to me."

"It was a threat since all crime just dried up. There was nothing for the police or the judges and lawyers to do. It was a real catastrophe."

"Wow." I said. "I never thought of that possibility."

Thank goodness I am back here in good old Evansville. Where we only have ONE camera downtown. And where we have just enough crime to keep everyone busy.

Alleluia.

2008: Nostalgia: "The Cold Calling Cowboy"

 (Ed.note: Republished from 2008 due to popular demand: It is from the "Traders Little Black book" or as my brother calls it, "The Little Traders Black book) TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2008 "Cold Calling Cowboy"----The Wild West ; The Deregulation of Wall Street Over the past thirty years there has been a transition from a structured investment environment to one that is "deregulated"---it has been marked by the end of the era of salaried brokers with higher commissions and research, to a world of $7 trades and computer simulations. It has been a movement from wise older traders to young, churn and burn robots. "Where has been the saving,?" you might ask. I like to compare the situation to the airline industry. Years ago, when airfares were higher, and Northwest Airlines had ZERO debt, the transportation industry and financial services industry was seen as a public sector, where the government had a say in an organized and supervised code of conduct for all participants----those days are gone. When I fly, I always feel more comfortable when I know there has been maintanance done on the engines. The cheapest fare is not consoling if I see flames coming from the engines. Ditto for the financial services industry. When investment just becomes a transaction, when people just become a transaction, and when "churn and burn" becomes the overriding element in business, the customer always loses. Consequently, I reject the notion that nostalgia for the good old days of regulation is senile and old fashioned. I believe it just makes economic sense for the investor. Recently a lone French trader for a bank, using "proprietary trading funds", in the throes of breaking up with his girlfriend, took enormous options risk and....despite the bank even knowing about his risks, but not understanding it or choosing to ignore it for fear they would impede some gains, caused a 7 billion dollar loss. Imagine what would happen worldwide if just a dozen or so financial professionals broke up with their girlfriends. Yes. Girls that is something to consider. You may think you are just breaking up....but you might just be causing a global catastrophe. Be True to your man....o.k. In summary. The incredible catastrophe of ENRON was not just ENRON. The real catastrophe was that as a nation we have modeled our financial institutions on ENRON. And we have the major tactic of DELAY, the verb, not the noun. Posted by Evansville Observer at 1:20 PM

Nostalgia: December 2007: "It is More than the bricks that you seek"

 

Recently our town restored the brick street downtown, in an effort to revitalize the downtown business district.

On the way back from the ceremony of dedication, I happened to bump into a local historian and we chatted for a while. She asked me how I liked bricks. I mentioned that while I was a history major and indeed had specialized in the period of 1900 to 1930, and loved the homes, and indeed lived in one built in 1912 just identical to the one my grandpa had built himself in 1912, with the hardwood floors and such, I still felt that folks were really being nostalgic for something larger.

"What?" she asked.

"Well," I went on, in the days before World War I, there was a connectedness of small communities-----yes there is a size factor------and when folks remember the time of the bricked streets, it is really that close community that they miss. It was a real time once-----and only the bricks remain of it now.

Nostalgia: 2014: Tales From Normal,Mn: FICTION: Distinguished Trust Representative urges Investors to Hold

 A distinguished executive from the Frozen Tundra Investment Fund was in Normal, Mn. this morning to speak at the Big Minnow Rotary Society of Normal, Mn.,,,a group of older bass fisherman in these parts...and after his presentation, in which he urged the locals to keep their holdings in stocks and bonds and not sell in a panic, because he was hoping to sell those shares held in margin accounts on a short sale for his company and make a killing...as he had been doing for all the past year...well...the bass fishermen were pretty stunned, and then after a second cup of coffee they got a little angry...why...just to think that all of the baby boomer generation had been fed a bunch of pablum to be long term investors so that the wise guys could sell them short and make a killing just made them furious....stay tuned as I follow this story...

Nostalgia: OpEd: 2010: Evansville Budgets: Getting to Zero: DeJa Vu

 

OpEd: Evansville: Budgets: "Getting to ZERO" 2010

All across America cities and states are facing difficult budget seasons where they review the programs of the past that cannot be funded given the decline in revenue from federal or state aids, or tax revenue. The first of the attempts is to hold the line in actual dollars spent to prior year levels---as opposed to a rubber stamp for a 4% increase or so. The days of the rubber stamp are over.

The difficulty with the ZERO is that to get to zero requires that if wage contracts are honored, some programs and yes some staff have to be furloughed....yes some fees have to go up....and some taxes have to go up. There is just no other way the arithmetic works, unless we have some "grants" to bail us out, the "grants" being from the federal government, which is us, and which will, and is coming to get us in taxes as we speak....

In each of the past four decades there have been times of austerity. If you flip back you can remember or research these---from the recession of 1970 and the closing of Gisholt Machine Works in Madison, to the layoffs at Oscar Meyer, to the recession of 1981 to the Crash of 1986 etc.....

The Past is gone. 

This is going to be a difficult budget season for everyone, and the deal has been changed on the State and Federal level. The days of everyone advocating for themselves and working to see their pet projects approved is over....Programs will be cut....Sacrifices will be made....as they have in the past. Dreams for programs will be put on hold for a later date--delayed and not destroyed....When things get better we can take the dreams out of the file cabinet and plan....or maybe our kids will take the files out of the file cabinet.

This is not the time for unseemly ranting...It is the time to reflect on how to make reasonable promises that can be kept over time...and review the ones that have been made in the past that are in jeopardy of being broken. Were the promises from the State to our schools broken? Will the promises to our seniors be broken? Will the promises to our civil pensioners be broken?

Nostalgia: August 2013: Tales From Normal, Mn: Bystander Arrested for thinking thoughts of possibly asking a question: FICTION

 

Bystander arrested for thinking thoughts of possibly raising a question: Tales from Normal, Mn.: FICTION

Just got the text...seems a bass fisherman was walking around a state Capitol Near Normal, Mn and watching the horsemen on large horses patrolling, and the very heavily armed police...was thinking in his head of a question that might be asked...and he was promptly arrested...seems that even thinking a thought these days is considered wayward activity...so it's not just living the straight life...but thinkin the straight and narrow, very narrow life too that is the new thing in Normal, Mn.. 

Nostalgia: 2011: Austerity Days Come to Normal, Mn: Fiction

 

Austerity Days" Come to Normal, Mn: Fiction

Just the got the text today that there is a huge celebration in Normal, Mn. this weekend for "Austerity Days." All of the most conservative pundits in the country have been yelling for austerity, yelling that people have too much debt, yelling that it is all the other guys fault----but up in Normal, Mn. austerity has arrived....nobody is spending anything....and the city is set to celebrate. 

If you get near Garrison this weekend, just look for the large signs---to celebrate the return of life of the 1950's one store will be selling hamburgers for .25 and also beer will be really cheap...but then it always has been cheap in Normal, Mn. Sure business owners would like you to buy something, but bein that it is austerity days, they will be real laid back on the sales technique. Stop on by. It should be fun.

Nostalgia: 2008: Bear Markets ---The Poem

In bear markets

things
go
down
stocks
hope
families
dreams
health
faith and
people
too

On a
global
view
Over the
long
haul
In
a greater
good
larger
macroeconomic
sense
In the
divine
order
of things
according
to Greenspan
they might be
good
HUH?

For
me
it's
cash
cash
cash
that counts
when
bear markets
mean
bare

Nostalgia: 2008: "Past Results do not guarantee Future Performance".

 Ed. note: This is a post from The Traders Blue Book from 2008: It is one of the most popular posts.) Past Results Do Not Guarantee Future Performance." If you do not remember this phrase, you are probably too young to read this post. In virtually every mutual fund brochure or prospectus for a unit trust of whatever investment, there is the caution...... after of course the investment representative has gone over the wonderful result if..... in theoretical terms..... you had invested ....$1....at the Crash of 1929 and invested that in this particular investment....you would have had the wonderful result listed above....." and after speaking of those wonderful theoretical results, there is the caution about ...."Past Results do not guarantee future performance..." Recently, in Evansville, in our own school projections for future school demand for facilities, whether we looked at population projection or building permit historical data, nobody wanted to read the warning----"Past results do not guarantee future performance." Even in the Evansville City budget, the city financial consultant, Greg Johnson, from Ehlers and Associates stated that "proceeding forward with no further General Obligation debt, the future seems to be no problem with debt capacity." The problem, of course, was pointed out by Fred Juergens, who counted 5 million in dreams that were penciled in on the capital investment budget for the year around 2009. It seems we always, as human beings, want the pro forma future not to include the unfortunate expenses of the reality of the things on the horizon. I could go on about flashing lights from dashboards of cars re warnings, but.....I think you get the jist. As a stress reliever, it is important to manage stress and ...a little denial is good. Sometimes....the denial gets too large. Posted by Evansville Observer at 8:58 AM

Nostalgia: 2005: X-19: The story of Don Thompson

 As an Evansville regular of the library, you may notice the silver Honda with the license plate, X19, each morning and you may notice an older gentleman in a burgundy french beret cap. Like clockwork, he enters the library and approaches the circulation department each morn----- "Good morning ladies." " How is everyone this fine morning." "We're just fine, Don How are you this morning? You are a little late."..........

Evansville's X19 has a long history as a WWII veteran and a car dealer in Evansville. .....

During WWII, on the island of Okinawa, X19 served first as a PX manager, and later when the military learned about his ability to take and develop film, as a forward observer. Located very close to the Japanese lines, his job was to telephone, and quickly, the adjustments for Allied artillery. Avoiding detection was survival. This was the third of his landings. First there was Kiska, then Saipai.. The next one, the one he already had his number for, was the landing on Japan. " We were all dead, and we knew it, he said. " We knew the reputation of the resistance in Japan, that all those on the Japan landings would be history." 

After the A-bomb, and the end of the war, X19 returned home to Evansville. There was a long tradition in the automobile business in the family. His step- grandfather had been the first Ford dealer in the State of Wisconsin. His father was the sales manager of the Ford dealership in Evansville, located where the roller rink is now today. X19 began to work in the Evansville dealership. After X19's son returned from the Vietnam war, they got to chatting one afternoon about the car business. The son said he really didn't like the business. X19 said, " Well, that make's two of us. I have been frustrated with it for years and only kept it for you. In fact, Ford had a v8 in 1937 with 60 and 85 HP that got 35mpg, but preferred the big, gas guzzlers that were unreliable. I have never forgiven them for that. It was a big mistake. Let's sell the business." And he did. He is now on his 5th Honda. 

When he sold the dealership number 19, he changed his license to X19. He got the idea from the governor of Wisconsin, who had number 1 on his license plate, and then when he left office, took the number X1. 

In the years since, X19 has served 30 years on the library board, as well as 30 years on the Board of Review. 

I have mentioned in an earlier post on "How to sculpt a David," that the key to creating things is knowing what one does NOT want to become. Carving out the unwanted really defines a person. What caused the gift of length of years Don has been given?--87 1/2. It is all right there on the license plate...... X19.

As you enter the library this halloween, you might sense the spirit of X19, the spirit of Don Thompson. His spirit of service lives.

Nostalgia : 2013: The Legend of Theodore Robinson

 Many years ago, Chris Eager, the then president of UBT bank, and activist in the move to create the Evansville Senior Center, came to a meeting of the Evansville School Board, to introduce the concept of the Evansville Community Center, and why it was expanded to a broader concept to get public support...during the question and answer period, he was asked why the middle school was called the "Theodore Robinson Middle School"--to which he replied, " Theodore Robinson was a student here who left and became a great painter in Europe, studying under some of the great masters...and our goal for our city and school should not be to be able to say that we have created graduates that have lived their whole lives in Evansville, but that we have launched students to form successful lives and families and careers." I who had favored the name "Grove School" was stunned, and recognized instantly that Chris was right....I hope to launch our children to the larger world, and even ouselves, and to be able to say to strangers, "I am from Evansville, Wisconsin."