A 62-year-old movie came our way this past week, a story even older with overtones for today. His 1960 “Elmer Gantry” film performance, based upon a Sinclair Lewis novel, brought Burt Lancaster that year’s Oscar Award. Sinclair Lewis’ writings were masters of satire, especially here in our backyards, and that generates reflection.
Since I’m not fully sure of where this is going I’ll borrow an old Moody Blues album title, “Seventh Sojourn” and morph it, adding another journey, this one on my own. If you have read past columns of mine you may have picked up on my affiliation for music and that’s where I can still see that Moody’s album cover in my mind from the 1970s, and yes, I still would be likely to crank up the volume on their signature song, “I’m Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band”. Today though, decades later, the eighth sojourn finds me walking into the Coffee Landing in downtown International Falls. It’s a fine March winter morning with abundant sunshine and single degree temperatures.
Dear Readers: Every year I step away from my column briefly to work on other creative projects. (Anyone interested in my personal essays and photographs can subscribe to my free newsletter: amydickinson.substack. com).
With Easter coming up I thought it would be a good idea to remind people of the plants and foods we should never let our dogs and cats eat or play with. Everything listed can cause terrible reactions such as mouth burns, high temperature, vomiting, diarrhea, seizures, lethargy, muscle weakness, liver and kidney failure, long-term intestinal issues, internal injury, neurological damage, convulsions, coma and death.
Chapter 4 Floyd’s dad, Orrah, related a story about the time he borrowed a bear trap from his dad in the late 1920’s; the value even then, according to what Orrah told Floyd, was estimated to be $500. He set the trap and it had a big ring on it; he bent the knots on the toggle down and slipped the ring over it.
What is the state of our state’s 87 counties? The word that most resonates with me when I contemplate this is “resolute.” Counties are resolute in our mission to serve. Minnesota’s counties commissioners and staff are the no non-sense “do-ers” of many things.
The best reason to spay or neuter your dogs and cats is overpopulation. Seventy percent of animal pregnancies are unplanned. One female cat and her offspring can result in over 2 million in eight years. A female dog only has one litter a year of two to 12 pups in a litter, but a roaming male dog can father unlimited litters a year.
Sometimes people ask me how I stay ahead of the news. Well, I have many trusted sources, but I’ve been reading one publication in particular for longer than all the others. The periodical both informs and entertains. Its prose is simple and clear, but not without style. Their news stories cut to the chase. There is a focus on the natural world. And their puzzles keep me razor sharp. That’s why I still read Highlights magazine.
Once summer passed Violets family hunting and trapping became their life. Floyd and his brothers Wes and Orrah Jr. spent the winters with their father learning the finer points of trapping and hunting, Floyd eleven, Wes fourteen and Orrah Jr. thirteen when they started trapping. According to Floyd ammunition was scarce so they had to make every shot count and he attributed that to him becoming an expert marksman and skilled hunter by his early teenage years, By the time Floyd was eleven and when Spring approached and the rivers opened his dad taught him the art of running rapids and helped him build a flat-bottomed skiff made of two and half inch thick White Pine, it was twelve inches deep, thirty six inches wide and pointed on both ends like a canoe. The bottom had a keel down center and if he hit rocks or stepped on it wrong it would spring a leak so to reinforce the bottom they put two keels on each side of the main keel and referred to it as “twin keels”. They were made of one-inch by one-inch Spruce, Jack Pine or Ash without knots, if a piece of wood with a large knot was used the keel would break at the location of the knot. This resolved the leak issue however if it were left out of the water it would dry out and the leaking resumed, naturally the solution was to keep it wet. It was the first boat he used to “run the rapids” and because the sides were straight and not rounded he had to be careful that it would not tip over, he used it for three years. The boys became expert canoeists and learned from their Dad how to “read the rapids” and by the time Floyd was twelve he started to run the rapids of the Pipestone River by himself and by mid-1950’s started guiding for the Namakan Narrows Lodge.
Our calendars now signal March movement toward its middle. We all want to call this Spring! It might be a little too early, but memories and expectations should soon be fully rejuvenated and well in hand.