Photo Album

These are photos taken by Ted Anderson (TA), Dick Thompson (DT)
and Ellen Ferwerda (EF) that were not used elsewhere.

Counting money to pay the DAC - by EF

Tony and Greta Garmers - by DT

Nancy & John Mulliken-by DT

Dick Thompson & the Mullikens - by TA

Nancy wrote me early that she was quite anxious to  have the Danish breakfast.  "I have a strong Danish heritage
from my mother's side." Nancy and John did come for breakfast on Friday but had to leave after a short stay.

 Jane Fellows Buffington and Jack Buffington came all the way from California for the reunion.

 

John and Ruthanne Twohig - by DT

Roger & Janet Carlson listening intently - by TA

                                                           Dr. Stephen Dirks - by DT

What's a Chautauqua, Brainy Reunion?

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Chautauqua definition:

any of various traveling shows and local assemblies that flourished in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that provided popular education combined with entertainment in the form of lectures, concerts, and plays, and that were modeled after activities at the Chautauqua Institution of western New York [Merriam-Webster.com]

It was my idea to have talks on Friday.  Ruth Donhowe, Ted Anderson, Tony Garmers and I decided that the DAC – Danish American Center would be a good place.  We would stay there the whole time—eat, sleep and smooze.  But what were we going to do all day on Friday before the band played?   I wondered about having some stimulating activities, kind of like the T.E.D. talks on television.  So I asked a recreation director for seniors for suggestions.  I asked her who she knew that had been popular with her elderly population.  She suggested an author, something about the election, a fitness person and a technology person.  And that is pretty much what we did except we stayed away from politics!

Glen Olsen (U High 1958) started us off at 9:30 telling about the all-volunteer Danish American Cultural Organization and the Danebo center.  I wish I had heard more of his talk, but I do remember him saying that they were able to buy the land from the city of Minneapolis because they raised enough funds to buy it outright without any mortgage. (It was no longer profitable to run Danebo as a nursing home with so many regulations.) Both Ted and Ruth joined the organization thinking we might get a break on the charges, but it did not work out that way.     

Glen Olsen telling about the origin and maintenance of the DAC - by TA

Next up at 11:00 was Barry Prichard (U High 1949).  He told about his grandfather, Michael Dowling.  He showed slides from his book called WE BLAZED THE TRAIL that traces his grandfather’s pioneering trek from Minneapolis to Yellowstone.  In 1880, at the age of 14, Michael Dowling lost both legs, one hand and all fingers in the other hand in a blizzard.  His disability did not keep him from becoming a successful teacher, editor, banker, politician and more.  The principal of Michael Dowling School in Minneapolis attended Barry’s presentation.  You can see the same short You Tube movie about him that we saw. It’s called “Michael J. Dowling Silent Film.”  It was made to motivate solders that had been severely wounded in World War I.     

Barry Prichard - by DT

After lunch was Fitness Time with senior fitness coach, Kari Wahlstrom.  She had everyone begin by sitting in a chair. She talked through a two-page handout titled, “Seniors and Fitness.”    I have extras that I will send to anyone who wants a copy.  Then she led us through some exercises holding on to a chair.  If anyone has a picture of this, please send it to me.  Two quotes from her handout: “The key to exercise among seniors is consistency, not intensity. . . .It’s never too late to begin an exercise program.”

Technology time started at 3:00.  Beth Ison (visiting from West Virginia) showed us how to store and share our family photos in the cloud.  She learned how to do this the hard way – by reading and trial and error – and she encouraged us to do the same.  Her handout cautioned us to be careful when using other people's pictures AND to not put anything on the web that we don't want others to see.   You can Beth's results at:  swedishamericanphotos.blogspot.com

Ted Anderson, Beth Ison and her local cousin, Gretchen Olson - by DT

Beth could have used our technology expert, Scott Baerman who answered questions from reunioners.  Frustration among us was obvious. As a group, this bunch was not as internet savvy as Beth and Scott.  I know that Mary Kienitz (and maybe Ruthanne Twohig) had a couple of questions answered by Scott.  He left me plenty of business cards and I will probably be calling him at 651-528-6647.

Ruthanne Twohig & Mary Kienitz - by DT

           

Visitors from U High Class of 1949

Barry Prichard, Mary Myers McVay and Val Ray Kohner Prescott joined us for parts of the reunion. We wanted to invite the 49ers because we wanted more people and we  thought we knew them.  1949 had a reunion in 2011. From Barry I got a list of addresses that the organizers of that event -- Phyllis Burley Schwanke and Georgianna Herman  -- had compiled.  I tried to find emails, but ending up sending mostly snail mail invites to 28 folks. There were about 10 replies.

Barry Prichard wrote to ask if he could talk about his book about his grandfather.  I said sure, why don't you be one of the speakers on Friday morning?  Barry and his wife Joan came down from up north where they live on Lake Julia.  They had dinner with us on Thursday and Barry spent Friday morning when he managed to sell a few books after his talk.

   

John Mulliken & Barry Prichard -by DT

Val Ray Kohner Prescott & daughter, Tracy - by DT

Val Ray came with her daughter for

Friday night dinner with her daughter..  She left

U High in the fall of 1948 to tour with the Ice Follies.              

Jane Fellows Buffington knew her as a fellow skater, 

but I have to admit that I never remember meeting her

 before.

Mary Myers McVay - by DT

Mary Myers McVay joined the reunion for lunch.  We sat together and chatted and had such a good time that I can not remember the conversation.  I do recall an earlier phone conversation where she said was going to be selling her home this spring and moving into her mother’s condo which she owns.  She and I spent the summer of 1949 in Austria along with Miss Birkmeier, others from the class of '49 and two from the class of '51.

Reunion "Girls" Tell Their Stories

 

Ann Carrington Dirks  told how she would help her veterinarian husband when baby pigs were born.  She would put her whole arm up inside the sow to make sure there were no more baby pigs.  She related why she went to U High instead of Central. Her mother saw that Ann’s English teacher at Central was going to be the very same teacher that the mother had had years before.  That convinced Mrs. Carrington that Ann needed to go to a different school. 
           [Ann still has that wonderful, quirky sense of humor that I remember from  high school.]

Dr. Steve Dirks & Ann Carrington Dirks - by DT

Connie Matson Ferwerda came with her daughter, Ellen.  She did not tell any stories but was very interested in all the activities.  When I went through my reunion file, I ran across a newspaper clipping about her.  It was from May 1997 when she received an honorary doctor of humane letters from the University of Wisconsin at Parkside, for founding eight nonprofit programs and organizations in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  Bravo, Dr. Ferwerda!

Ellen & Connie Ferwerda - by DT

Connie Matson Ferwerda and Roger Carlson - by DT

Another reunioner was Roxy Freese, owner of the Bibelot Shops in St. Paul and Minneapolis.   She left our class after ninth grade for Summit School.  She stayed more time at the reunion than she had budgeted because she was having such a good time.  

Ruth Sundberg Donhowe and Roxy Freese - by DT

Roxy & Ruthanne Twohig - by DT

Ann Jarvis Fogel sent a long, full-page letter of U High memories.  Here are some snippets...... playing ping pong and dancing in Shevlin Cafeteria. "Lois Simonson was the best dancer bar none and everything I learned was from her."....long trips out to the home of Alex Cullum...and a Hay Ride one time [Jane Keyes has a large picture of that hay ride], going to cheer for Roger Carlson and Bob Flood in football...talented musicians Dick Thompson, Tod Dockstader and Joan Koleski....artists Ruth, Tinka, Connie.....Jane Fellows always full of energy and what an ice skater.  "I'm proud to say that I introduced her to her husband, Jack." ...Super Dr. Johnson in algebra...the jingle made up in German class to sell White Owl Cigars.... "I liked English class...we had to memorize a poem by Byron...'Roll on thou deep and dark blue ocean . . . ."

I received phone calls from Sheila Croll Rota, Mary Engle Phillips and Diane Johnson Mast.  Sheila wants the next reunion to be in Laughlin, Nevada at a gambling resort that offers all sorts of perks. She told about her backwards birthdays.  She celebrated her 90^th birthday when she was really 60, her 100^th birthday when she was really 70 and now she has caught up. She divided her life this way: 30 years single, 30 years married, 20 years + widowed. 

Mary is still a member of the Wildflowers with Pat Parcells Noren, Maryanne Thiel Battig and Helen Wagner Eker.  She keeps up with these folks often; she sounds just the same.

When I shared Diane’s memories, there were lots of laughs  about the Spanish teacher, Dorothy Trandis.   Roger and the other boys used to go wild over her legs when she stopped to straighten the seams in her nylon stockings.  Apparently she wore her skirt up to her neck when it wasn’t the style (yet). 

This story prompted Roger and Ted and others to remember how she liked to make an entrance into class.   (For a brief moment, they were teenage boys again.)

Diane also remembered going to a play with Jane Fellows, Martin Kienitz, and Sheldon Cable and laughing hysterically in the rain after someone either fell in a puddle or did something embarrassing that caused red faces. Her last memory was about the girl in our class who had the “most beautiful blue eyes.”  (Lois Simonson Mosing)

Sheila donated many handmade items to give away, including luggage tags.  For the 2008 reunion she had also knitted some.  ( Jane Buffington testified how easy they make it to identify one’s luggage.)  Many thanks to Sheila and Mary Engel Phillips and Ann Jarvis Fogel for generous donations.

Life Stories Rewarded with Gift Card

Not everyone was brave enough to tell a U High Life Story, but those 

who spoke chose either an Amazon or a Target gift card.

             One U High Life Story Theme:  Grammar !

University High was a University of Minnesota lab school. In the late 1940s the latest thinking was that grammar did not have to be taught separately: it could be learned best through foreign languages.  I went to U High from eighth grade through twelfth grade and never had any formal English grammar training.  I had two years of Latin, three of French, one of German, two of Spanish and a quarter of Russian.  I could not teach grammar if my life depended on it!

Roger Carlson  told how he had trouble in the Army’s FBI training because of his lack of high school grammar training.  He worked for the military FBI looking for cold war problem-makers.  He spent five weeks in the Green Bay Packers’ training camp  before he entered the  Army.        

When Roger told his story, many alumni in the room nodded their heads and talked about how the lack of grammar education caused them problems after high school.

        A  Male Life Story Theme:  U.S. Armed Forces

Dave Mason was in the Army Reserve many years but was never formally “called up.”  He sounds astonished when he explains that he eventually rose to the rank of a supply captain.  Dave spent most of his work life in printing and publishing after taking over Mason Publishing. 

Dave Mason - by DT

Bob Summers did not offer a life story at this reunion.  For the 2000 reunion he said that living in Europe on the Navy and NATO was an experience he wanted his classmates to know about. 

Tony Garmers wrote in the same document that he was with the USAF at Texas A & M learning meteorology and then spent more years with the Air Force forecasting at Savannah , Georgia. 

Tony Garmers - by EF

John Twohig talked about his 20 years at the Stillwater Prison 

as an associate warden of administration.  His workmates 

predicted he would stay only three years,but he toughed it 

out much longer.  He served with the Air Force as an air 

traffic controller in Korea during the Korean War. 

Dave Mason & John Twohig by DT

Ted Anderson was stationed with the Army in North Carolina 

where he tested equipment for the government.  He knows

that Tom Harmon was an officer in the Air Force.

Jane Fellows Buffington & Ted Anderson - by DT

50s Music for 1950 grads

Ted Anderson had the idea for a band at the reunion. 
He convinced Dick Thompson to drive from Erie,  PA

and bring his string bass.  Dick and four others in the band 

played beautiful 50s music for an hour and a half Friday 

night.  (Two were newcomers – Dawn Hill and Jack Landin; 

                                           Find Dick at the back - by EF 

two were  band mates from high school – Connie Villars & 

Tom Tjornhom.) Dancing was fun as you can see fom the 

photos taken by Ellen Ferwerda;

       http://www.flickr.com/photos/90831404@N06/ 

The music ended too soon. In everyone's memory were two 

people missing from the band --  Helen Wagner singing   

 and John Mulliken playing the drums. 

 [click on R corner to enlarge pix]]

Planners Ruth & Ted - by EF

Ruth & Roger - by EF

Ruth & Bob - by EF

Just like high school! - by EF

Listening - by EF

Dave & MaryAnn Mason in a blur- by EF

Jack & Jane Buffington - by EF

John & Ruthanne Twohig -by EF

Greta Garmers & Roxy Freese - by EF

Ruthann with Steve Dirks & Ann Carrington Dirks - by EF

Roger & Janet Carlson - by EF

Jane Harrington Keyes & Bob Summers - by EF

   

Beginning the Reunion with Food

Martin and Mary Kienitz registering with Jane Keyes on Friday night.  Notice sign.

Thursday night was wine and cheese, signing up for telling life
stories, supper of pizza and salad and getting re-acquainted time.
Ten people stayed Thursday and Friday night at Danebo in simple
but comfortable rooms on the second floor.  I stayed there too
and the only trouble I had was finding out where to turn out all
the lights before I went to bed!  The Danish American Center
is an all volunteer-run organization, so we were given the keys
and a lock box, a "good luck" and left to ourselves.

Bob Summers, Connie & daughter Ellen Ferwerda, Ruth Donhowe- by TA

Joan Prichard & Connie Matson Ferwerda - by DT

Ted Anderson & Allen Friedman - by TA