Folks, With yesterday’s blog Bill Grimme has posted the last of the Tickle Pick songs. I have down loaded all 29 songs unto a CD. Surprisingly the recording of these songs turned out pretty good with just a single headed cassette recorder. Kenny Nerpel, you did a great job with what you had to work with, 35 plus years ago, recording these songs.

Thank you Bill for the posting of these songs on your WEB site for our enjoyment. Gary

Jeanmarie (Jean) Abrahamson (65) called me today telling me she has been on Kidney Dialyses for about 6 weeks now. I was Surprised and saddened to hear that. She said it was like hitting an electric cattle wire on the farm. In spite of this tragic event that has greatly altered her life, she was in good spirits and upbeat. She said her brother Doyle has been helping her a whole bunch. She was very grateful for all that he has done and is doing. Doyle lives about 30 minutes away from her. Jeanmarie told me she weighs about 100 lbs, so she needs to gain some weight and is very disappointed following each of her dialyses treatments with the weight loss.

With the volume of these message, Jeanmarie has opted not to be on the daily distribution of this daily blog, however she does have email and told me she is going to start reading her messages again. Her email address ishealinghorizons@ecentral.com Her phone number is (303) 825-1871

Gary

Reply from Lee Stickland (64): Dickinson, ND Was surprised to see Dennis and my picture. It was nice to see all at the July 2007 reunion. I drove up from Dickinson that am ,278 miles and returned to home that evening, so I did not have an opportunity to see all I could have. For a moment< I did not know who that fat guy was, I weighed 261 there, I now weigh 211. Have spent many hours the last week shoveling partly cloudy from the park lot, here at the apt and at the motel. Don’t need to go to the rec cntr for exercise on those days. I will for sure go to rec cntr on the morrow for the hot tub and steam. I can still shovel snow for 3 hours without stopping. I have not missed the 100 pounds that I lost over a 3 year period. My friend, Dr Wolf said that if all had the numbers that I have, he would be out a job. There has been many accounts about just how much snow we have received here in Dickinson during the two (2) last blasts; the most accurate is TOO MUCH. SNUF–I see that verbosity has again struck. Lee Sandbagging vidio posted by David Slyter (70): f Sabin, Mn Hi Gary;I got this link to a video of the sandbagging efforts here in Fargo. This is when they first started. It grew to way bigger numbers as far as volunteers are concerned. What plan this turned out to be. Great efforts and kudos to everyone that was helping. ><http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/03/25/video_fargodome/?refid=0>http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/03/25/video_fargodome/?refid=0 > Hope it works. Dave Slyter (70)

Gary and Friends,Thanks to Randi Mongeon for the picture of her dad, Armand Mongeon, and
Floyd Dion presenting the flag. I can remember them being part of our
Memorial Day program since the very onset of my memory. Can other school
band members remember how we used to sit on the chairs in front of the
stage ( city hall ) during the program and watch Floyd and Armand stand
at attention (on guard with a rifle) on either side of the stage. They
stood there, without as much as flinching, for the entire duration of
the program! To this day I find it amazing. One other memory of early
Memorial Day programs was when they would introduce the veterans and
tell in which conflict each had served. We had several from WWI–I
believe Alphie Dion, George Albert, and Henry Sunderland were some. The
WWII vets were very well represented as that war had ended just 10 years
or so before the first programs I remember attending. Each year they
named all the Gold Star mothers–those who lost a son in battle. I also
remember how the American Legion and all veterans would march the entire
two miles from the city hall to the cemetery for the last part of the
program and the rifle firing salute. We kids really liked that part and
we got to keep the extracted empty casings that hit the ground. I
remember thinking how they weren’t real careful about where they were
shooting and might hit something. I didn’t yet know about ‘blanks’.
Memorial Day was always a very respectful day. Most people wore their
best clothes and showed their respect for the fallen soldiers and the
veterans in attendance. It was also a big day for the Legion Auxiliary.
They were a main part of the program and served a lunch to the entire
crowd in attendance. Most people who are my age or older, already know
all of what I am explaining. The younger generations may not have been
involved with Memorial Day programs and how important they were to the
community. Each program was filled with speeches, stories of valor,
music provided by both the school band and by individuals, presentation
of awards to the kids for their ‘poppy posters’, and more. The key word
for this entire thought process was / is / should be ‘patriotism’. Let’s
all make an effort this coming Memorial Day to remember how and why we
have all these freedoms we take for granted. Thanks Gary!

Dick

This is a picture from a parade in 1977, Dunseith American Legion
leading the Boissevain Band in Dunseith Parade–Don Johnson was the
Boissevain Band Director at that time.

Gary,

We feel these comments are a tribute to the people here in ND:

Geri Metcalfe Munro ’59–Fargo, ND

Someone posted this comment on an article about the Fargo flooding at the Boston Globe website (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/red_river_flooding.html)


Just a personal observation…as I watched the news coverage of the
massive flooding in the Midwest with the levee’s about to break in Fargo, ND, what amazed me is not what we saw, but what we didn’t see…
1. We don’t see looting.
2. We don’t see street violence.
3. We don’t see people sitting on their rooftops waiting for the
government to come and save them.
4. We don’t see people waiting on the government to do anything.
5. We don’t see Hollywood organizing benefits to raise money for
people to rebuild.
6. We don’t see people blaming President Obama. (Except for Don Marchant, post #30)
7. We don’t see people ignoring evacuation orders.
8. We don’t see people blaming a government conspiracy to blow up
the levees as the reason some have not held.
9. We don’t see the US Senators or the Governor of North Dakota crying on TV.
10. We don’t see the Mayors of any of these cities complaining about
the lack of state or federal response.
11. We don’t see or hear reports of the police going around
confiscating personal firearms so only the criminal will be armed.
12. We don’t see gangs of people going around and randomly shooting
at the rescue workers.
13. You don’t see some leaders in this country blaming the bad
behavior of the North Dakota flood victims on “society” (of course there is
no wide spread reports of lawlessness to require excuses).