Mankato Magazine by Free Press Media

The legacy of

Marian Anderson The iconic artist’s life and work

Also in this issue:

SANTA CLAUS The first lady of hockey, JEAN ANN HASTINGS Get ready for some EXTRA INNINGS INNINGS Here comes

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DECEMBER 2021

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FEATURE S DECEMBER 2021 Volume 16, Issue 12

Humble and productive Marian Anderson is well known for her nostalgic work depicting regional history. But her work and life was more prolific and varied than most people realize.

Here comes Santa Claus

Calling all volunteers

Straight out of northern Iowa, Nick Mart is the man in the red suit at the Kiwanis Holiday Lights event. Playing the role has brought him much joy, and the occasional surprise.

Volunteers are the true engine that drives Kiwanis Holiday Lights.

ABOUT THE COVER Our December cover, in a subtle nod to the Saturday Evening Post, is a Marian Anderson print she did on commission for the Holiday Sharing Tree program. The Sharing Tree provides gifts for those in need. It was used courtesy of the Holiday Sharing Tree and the Blue Earth County Historical Society. MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 3

DEPARTMENTS 6 From the Editor 8 Faces & Places 12 This Day in History 13 Avant Guardians

Emily Kretschmer

14 Beyond the Margin Toasting the ghost of Andrew Volstead

16 Familiar Faces

Jean Ann Hastings

24 Day Trip Destinations Hudson, Wisconsin

34 Let’s Eat!

Extra Innings

37 Beer

Holiday toasting

38 Lit Du Nord: Minnesota Books and Authors

Tales of the ridiculous and the real

39 Community Draws

Kiwanis Holiday Lights

40 Ann’s Fashion Fortunes No one cares

42 Garden Chat

Tough decision time

44 From This Valley

The annual Christmas letter

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Coming Next Month The “feel good” issue.

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Performances held at MSU TED PAUL THEATRE Visit www.mankatoballet.org for information This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board

Community Arts Education Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

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FROM THE ASSOCIATE EDITOR By Robb Murray DECEMBER 2021 • VOLUME 16, ISSUE 12 PUBLISHER Steve Jameson EDITOR Joe Spear ASSOCIATE Robb Murray EDITOR COPY EDITOR Kathy Vos CONTRIBUTORS Bert Mattson Jean Lundquist Kat Baumann Leticia Gonzalez Ann Rosenquist Fee Pete Steiner Nell Musolf Jane Turpin Moore PHOTOGRAPHER Pat Christman PAGE DESIGNER Christina Sankey ADVERTISING Danny Creel SALES Jordan Greer-Friesz Josh Zimmerman Theresa Haefner Tim Keech ADVERTISING Barb Wass ASSISTANT ADVERTISING Christina Sankey DESIGNER CIRCULATION Justin Niles DIRECTOR

Mankato Magazine is published by The Free Press Media monthly at 418 South Second St., Mankato MN 56001. To subscribe, call 1-800-657-4662 or 507-625-4451. $35.40 for 12 issues. For all editorial inquiries, call Diana Rojo-Garcia 507-344-6305, or email drojogarcia@mankatofreepress.com. For advertising, call 344-6364, or e-mail advertising@mankatofreepress.com.

6 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Season’s greetings W hen you think of Marian Anderson, you probably think of the nostalgia prints she’s done that hang in dentists’ offices, banks and Minnesota State University lobbies. They’re popular. But what you probably don’t know is how prolific she was, and how the vast majority of her work and notoriety came not from the popular collages but from wildlife art and commission work. In a mammoth bequest, all Marian’s unsold work — hundreds of paintings, sketches, framed work, unfinished oil paintings, empty tubes of paint and used brushes — went to the Blue Earth County Historical Society upon her death. Executive Director Jessica Potter, herself an unabashed fan of Marian’s work, has pledged to do whatever she can to maintain Marian’s reputation as one of the area’s most important artists. Our cover story this month features Marian’s life and work. And our cover image is actually a Marian Anderson original. She painted this piece on commission for the Holiday Sharing Tree. When it was sold, all proceeds went to the Holiday Sharing Tree, an organization that provides Christmas gifts for families in need. We thought it evoked the kind of vibe that encapsulates everything southern Minnesota loves about the holiday season, and we’re pleased the Holiday Sharing Tree and Blue Earth County Historical Society let us use it. In other holiday-related coverage, you don’t want to miss our story about the man who plays

Santa Claus at the Kiwanis Holiday Lights event. Nick Mart, an Iowan, has held the volunteer position for several years, and his heart is absolutely “all in” when it comes to playing the part. This story is a must read for several reasons, not the least of which is the charming detail at the end, which I won’t spoil for you here. Mart isn’t the only volunteer. We’re also highlighting a pair of volunteers who have been with the festival since the beginning. Volunteers are the engine that keeps this community treasure humming along every year. Without hundreds of willing helpers to set up a few million lights in November and tear them all down again in January, the Kiwanis Holiday Lights would not be possible. Our Familiar Faces subject this month is Jean Ann Hastings. Fitness aficionado and cancer survivor, Jean Ann has an infectious spirit and positive outlook on life. Like Santa, her story includes some telling details of just what kind of survivor (or is it Survivor?) she is … or almost was. Again, we won’t spoil the surprise here. And in our Let’s Eat! feature, we introduce you to Extra Innings, a St. Peter restaurant we’ve been trying to feature in this magazine for months! Our story gets to the bottom of their specialty, the panino. Enjoy. And have a great holiday season! Robb Murray is associate editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at 344-6386 or rmurray@mankatofreepress.com.

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FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports

Family Fun Day at Autumn Acres Farm 1. Kids play in a corn pit. 2. Autumn Acres Farm gives families the opportunity to pick their very own pumpkins straight from the patch. 3. Amanda Clipp poses with her daughter Everly as husband Gary takes their photo. 4. Not only did families get to pick their own pumpkins, they also learned how pumpkins grow, too. 5. Families use carts to haul pumpkins from the patch. 6. Matthew Gangelhoff and his son Wyatt pick out a pumpkin. 7. Hayrides were one of the activities.

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FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports

Mankato Marathon 2021 1. Students from the Minnesota State University Center for Sport and Performance Psychology pose for a group photo before supporting marathon runners. 2. Kids held handmade signs of encouragement (humorous ones, too). 3. Brian Asker jogs toward the rising sun along the 1 Red Jacket Trail. 4. Runners get set at the start line for the 10K run. 5. With the MSU Dance team cheering on participants, a runner jogs past with his hands in the air along the Red Jacket Trail. 6. With his mouth full of bacon, Brad Walsh competes in the Power Pork 5K at Sibley Park. 7. Megan Bullert gives two thumbs-up as she runs the full marathon.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 9

FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports

River Ramble 1. Riders spent some time overlooking the parched Minneopa Falls. 2. Mark Plotz, with The Smallest Cog, inspects a bike. 3. One of the most popular rest stops was at Rapidan Dam where cyclists got to have pie and hot beverages and checked out the dam. 4. Joe Kunkel, from the Bullypulpit Bluegrass band, plays banjo at the Rapidan Dam rest stop. 5. Donna Tabat and Laura Bell pose for a photo before setting off on their ride. 6. Bo Foldes was a happy dog riding along with his owners. 7. Singer Nate Boots plays an acoustic set at Minneopa State Park.

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FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports

Snell Motors Trunk or Treat 1. Melissa Bradley of Snell Motors hands out samples of beer for the parents waiting in line with their kids. 2. A long line of families waiting to enter stretches around the car lot at Snell Motors. 3. Marlow Depuydt smiles for a photo in his dinosaur costume. 4. Local businesses participated in the Trunk or Treat event. 5. The entire showroom of Snell Motors was decorated for Halloween. 6. Carrie Goettlicher, with Making Faces Mankato, paints a kid’s face. 7. The Leiferman family poses for a photo.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 11

Annual Reports • Catalogs • Magazines • Posters • Yearbooks • and MORE!

Children’s Books • Coffee Table Books • Brochures •

THIS DAY IN HISTORY Compiled by Jean Lundquist

Band performs sold-out show at Verizon Wireless Center

Dec. 22, 2014 In December 2014, the five-man a capella band Home Free was still riding high after they won the NBC competition “The Voice.” With two hometown members, Adam and Chris Rupp, they had performed in Mankato before in local churches and the like. But the Home Free Christmas Concert was slated for the Civic Center. It was a solid-out success. The 5,000-seat arena was full. When they initially took the stage, they asked for the house lights to be turned up so they could see all the people in the seats. The Free Press reported it was the largest crowd the band had attracted as a headliner. The band continues today, though Adam Rupp is now pursuing a solo career and has been replaced in the group.

Not so happy trails

Dec. 8, 2000 “Supporters of the Ney Preserve think the terms ‘snowmobile trail’ and ‘nature preserve’ don’t mesh.” Three of the five county commissioners on the board at the time disagreed, and voted to allow the Le Sueur County Snowmobile Association’s request to open the Ney Nature Center to snowmobiles. They assured doubters that a 20-mph speed limit, a dedicated route and self-policing would minimize any problems, and voted to allow a one-year trial. Today, the Ney Nature Center’s website encourages snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing on dedicated trails but does not provide a dedicated trail for snowmobiles.

Friends of Hiniker leave nothing to chance

Dec. 1, 1980 In 1972, the U.S. Corps of Engineers looked at Hiniker Pond, on the northwest side of Mankato, as a means for flood control, not for recreation. But The Friends of Hiniker Pond Inc., set up a six-member board of directors and worked to change that viewpoint. Instead the Corps proposed a public bathhouse, a graded beach, a parking lot, picnic tables and sewer and water services along with a plan to channel storm sewer water to an old channel that runs around the 18-acre pond rather than into it. The Friends added the requests that asked for no additives to the pond water, no change in the gravel paths to the pond and no oilbased surfaces that drain into the pond. Today, the efforts of The Friends are realized in a beautiful recreation area for anglers, swimmers, kayakers and paddle boarders.

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12 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

AVANT GUARDIANS By Leticia Gonzales

‘Expressive art’ Emily Kretschmer never stops creating

mily Kretschmer, who retired from her job as an adjunct university writing instructor and online writing tutor five years ago, transferred her creativity from the written word to the arts field. “When I began making art steadily several years ago, I started calling my art ‘outsider folk art fusion,’” said Kretschmer, who is 67 and lives in St. Peter. “I also characterize it as ‘expressive art.’” Kretschmer, who makes folk art fused with other styles, has had no training in the arts, other than her writing background. In addition to a bachelor’s degree in German language and literature from the University of Minnesota, she has a master of fine arts degree in creative writing and a graduate certificate in non-project Leadership from Minnesota State University. Her love of art developed over the course of her many travels throughout her career. “I traveled in Europe as a college student. After college I taught as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco,” she said. “I lived in the Twin Cities for 25 years and traveled for jobs with a circus and working with the playwright August Wilson. I hiked the island of Crete for six weeks to see the ruins and artifacts of Minoan culture. I’ve traveled to many areas of Mexico. That’s where a lot of my exposure to folk art has come from.” Her work combines mixed-media art on paper or canvas using acrylic paints, oil pastels, inks, watercolors

and collage papers. She also draws and sketches using pencil, ink and watercolor pencils. “I’d say instinct and experiential learning are the foundations of my artmaking. For techniques and methods, I keep turning to artists who share on YouTube, vlogs and blogs.” Her writing background often takes shape in some of her artwork as well. “I love magical realist literature, and I like to suggest the magical realism in my art-making,” Kretschmer said. “When I make process art, meaning I don’t plan it ahead of time, and it turns out quirky, puzzling or magical realist, I am pleased. I’ve made quite a lot of whimsical art of characters that are not entirely human nor animal.” Kretschmer said she prefers using “soft and intense colors, rather than extremely bright or terribly dark colors.” “I’ve made art of people and pets I’ve known or known of whom I admire or love. Elements of nature, including planets, stars, moon, trees, rivers, figure into abstract landscape pieces I’ve made.” Kretschmer spends about three to four hours a day on her art, six days a week, sometimes less. Much of her work is shared online through blogging or Instagram. “I believe in art for everyone because the art-making experience can be transformative. I make art for the experience, not the product, but if I like or love the product, that’s satisfying. MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 13

BEYOND THE MARGIN By Joe Spear

Toasting the ghost of

Andrew Volstead… and other things

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ecember comes with the holiday traditions of toasting the successes of the year past and the hopes for the year ahead. The toasting tradition has been with us a long time. A fine article by Rebecca Rupp at NationalGeorgraphic.com says 30-gallon pottery jars with barley and oats were found as far back as the Neolithic Age, about 2,300. B.C. The cocktail was topped off with a “hallucinogenic handful of deadly nightshade, henbade and hemlock.” Builders of the Pyramids of Giza had a beer ration of more than a gallon a day. Tutankhamun’s tomb held 26 wine jars, with red and white vintages from 15 different vintners. Mayans made “pulque from fermented corn” and “Celts got tipsy on mead,” and “Mongols drank kumis from fermented mare’s milk.” Wine for ancient Greeks was a pillar of civilization, according to Rupp. “Water drinking, the Greeks believed, made people surly, curmudgeonly and over earnest. Wine drinkers, in contrast, were convivial, creative, passionate and fond of intellectual discourse,” writes Rupp. The Old Farmer’s Almanac notes drinking traditions go back to medieval times, 476 A.D., particularly the clinking of glasses as it was a way to ward off evil spirits, or spill some drink on the floor to leave for the demons. Germans banged their beer mugs on the table loudly and yelled to ward off evil spirits. If you’ve ever been to New Ulm, you know not much has changed. The Almanac further postulates toasting each other was a way to ensure your friends weren’t trying to kill you by putting poison in your drink. When you clinked glasses everyone got a share of everyone else’s drink in their glasses. A toast was kind of an insurance policy. The term “cheers” comes from the French word chiere, which originally meant face or head, but in the 18th century came to mean “gladness” and cheers eventually evolved to be a wish for good health and prosperity. The lifting of the glasses comes from the Greeks as they toasted to

the gods above. But you don’t see people toasting regularly much these days, even though the need is great. Maybe our Minnesota Scandinavian heritage makes us just too reserved to be cavorting and spilling our drinks. Or maybe we think the ghost of Andrew Volstead is watching. Volstead, of course, is best remembered in history for the Volstead Act, or more commonly known as Prohibition. He represented Minnesota in Congress and grew up just down the road in Kenyon, near Faribault. He later moved to Granite Falls where he was a prosecutor and mayor and then came to represent the vastly conservative 7th District in Congress in the early 1900s. Volstead, a Republican, was chair of the House Judiciary Committee and helped Wayne Wheeler, of the Anti-Saloon League, usher in Prohibition in 1919, according to Wikipedia. President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the act on technical grounds but was immediately overridden by the House and Senate. But liquor and legislators are mixing better these days. Having passed a law to allow liquor sales on Sundays just a few short years ago, Minnesota legislators have been arguing where liquor should be sold with bipartisan support for grocery stores and convenience stores. Shortly after Prohibition ended, Minnesota legislators figured the government could control liquor use better than the private sector and authorized cities to open municipal liquor stores that could sell on-sale as well as off-sale. The fact the state has 200 plus municipal liquor stores likely has Volstead turning in his grave. So the toasting comes with a storied tradition that we would do well to carry on. We offer these toasts to you and yours for the year gone by: For getting through a year of the pandemic where hope arose with the speedy rollout of the vaccine and even though 40% rejected it, the vaccinated were emancipated to go to the theaters, restaurants and public houses. Vaccines saved lives. Despite the biggest shock to

business and the economy since the Great Depression, the resilience of some businesses was nothing short of astounding. Bars and restaurants reopened and entrepreneurs made plans to build their dream structures. We toast the return of outdoor concerts including fantastic shows at the Vetter Stone Amphitheater including the Mavericks — not the MSU teams — and Steve Earle, a great singer and musician who swears a lot. RibFest ribbers brought back their terrific delectables from Chicago, Texas and Kansas City. Maverick hockey returned with a vengeance to full houses and the boys beat three of the top 10 ranked teams in the first six games. And we can toast Maverick goalie Dryden McKay for breaking the alltime NCAA goalie shutout record at 27, just a few games into his fourth season. Vaccines saved lives. While Prohibition died a happyhour death in 1933, Volstead’s greater claim to fame was more likely the Capper-Volstead Act of 1922 that allowed farmers to form co-ops without worry about violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. The law had more staying power than the Volstead Act and still exists today giving birth to organizations such as CHS, the Minnesota-based biggest cooperative in the U.S. with $32 billion in revenues. Minnesotabased Land O’ Lakes comes in third at $14 billion. It’s likely the grain handled by CHS and other co-ops is used by Portland, Oregonbased House Spirits which makes Volstead Vodka, described by the company as “a grain-based vodka, which is filtered for 96 hours through charred coconut husks for clarity and smoothness.” One could argue farmers gained much collective bargaining power by joining cooperatives and many are probably more prosperous today because of Volstead. So farmers should toast the ghost of Andrew Volstead each and every year they can join together to produce a bountiful harvest with fair prices. Vaccines saved lives. Joe Spear is editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382. Follow on Twitter @jfspear. MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 15

Familiar Faces

For Jean Ann, kindness wins She already loved hockey when she met ol’ whatshisname

nergy. Light. Positivity. This is Jean Ann Hastings in a nutshell. While it’s true you may know or have at least heard of her mildly famous husband — Minnesota State University men’s hockey coach Mike Hastings — you’d be just as blessed for knowing Jean Ann. She was a hockey fan before she met Mike. And while she graduated from St. Cloud State University, she now bleeds purple and gold as a Mavericks fan. She’s also a survivor, having put breast cancer behind her. And she very nearly became a Survivor. Read on for details.

Photos by Pat Christman

NAME:

Jean Ann Hastings HOMETOWN: Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Elysian

FAVORITE HOCKEY TEAM: Minnesota State University Mavericks

FAVORITE PLACE TO WATCH THE GAME:

In my section (love our hometown crowd!)

CURRENT NETFLIX BINGE: “All-American”

16 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Mankato Magazine: Tell us the story of how you came to live in southern Minnesota. Jean Ann Hastings: We were living in Omaha, Nebraska, and my husband became the Minnesota State University men’s hockey head coach. Even though we loved Omaha, we were excited to be back in our home state! MM: You attended St. Cloud State University. We won’t hold it against you, but tell us about transitioning from being an SCSU Husky to being an MSU Maverick? JAH: I love SCSU as it is where I met my husband along with so many fun friends and wonderful administrators/ professors. I was very active at SCSU, in many student organizations and worked in the admissions office. I was the president of Vanguard, a group of ambassadors who give tours to dignitaries, attend alumni and fundraising events along with doing community service projects. I have great memories. But when it comes to sports, I am a Maverick! Our daughter, Hannah, recently graduated from Minnesota State. MM: You’ve been fairly public about your cancer diagnosis and treatment. Can you share a little bit about what it was like to go through that? JAH: We just moved to a new neighborhood and I was diagnosed three months later. People from my old neighborhood and my new neighbors all took turns bringing meals. Our family felt the love. Strangers would see my bald head and they would be so kind. I remember carrying two bags out of the store and the worker there offering to carry them. No one knows how much this means until you become part of this club you hope you never join. My motto is “kindness wins” because I was surrounded by friends and family who lined up to take me to chemo treatments in Rochester. Even our golden retriever Gracie, would nap right alongside me. When I had my double mastectomy, my neighbors would walk her for me. It was unbelievable

the support my family and I received, and I think of it often. Bette Midler’s lyrics resonate in me: “Human kindness is overflowing and I think it’s gonna rain today.” MM: Do you have any advice for people in similar circumstances? JAH: People want to help, so do not be afraid to ask. Also, I joined a Facebook group of women with the same type of breast cancer — triple negative. You can relate to these women going through the same journey as you, compare notes, medical treatments: “My doctor said this; is that bad?” It’s a place to voice your concerns to strangers and to give feedback, and most of all be cheerleaders for each other. My sister says, “We all have a cross to bear.” Everyone is struggling through something, so being there to lift each other up is imperative. The saying “make your own rainbow” was given to me framed from another cancer survivor. I look at it every day. So many uplifting experiences have come from my journey, like learning to have a positive attitude and focus on the good. MM: In your post-chemo flash mob you displayed some nice dance moves JAH: I have said, “I do not need a funeral, since that day was my celebration of life.” I have always wanted to be a part of a flash mob, so I thought it would be cool to do one for my last chemo treatment (which I called “dance therapy”) as a thank-you to the nurses and my doctors. So, I sent out a dance video to my friends and family so they could practice the choreography, and I thought if five people show up, I will be happy! Well, 50 people showed up and we danced inside the Mayo Clinic’s Gonda building then outside at Peace Plaza in Rochester. The best gift I received was when I went to visit the chemo nurses and two of them said that a new patient saw the flash mob and said, “It made me feel that if she can get through chemo, I can too.” MM: Let’s talk hockey: How tense are game days for you? JAH: Stress comes during playoffs and that’s when I get crazy nervous. I do remember when Mike coached junior hockey and being sick to my stomach, basically spending the whole game pacing the corridors

Jean Ann Hastings and her dog Gracie. praying and hoping. Seeing the team reach new heights by making it to the Frozen Four last year was amazing! I was so proud of our team for staying healthy during a pandemic. MM: Were you required to become a hockey fan when you met Mike or did you already love the game? JAH: Growing up on the Iron Range, hockey was everywhere. Mike and I met at a SCSU fundraising event where I was a Vanguard ambassador. It is amazing we ever got together because he lost my phone number. When we dated, I did not know he was a stud hockey player at one time (I met him after an injury ended his career). We would walk on campus together and it was like he was the mayor or something with everyone yelling his name. I was like, “Who is this guy?” After college, he was a coach for the Omaha Lancers, and I got a taste of the crazy world of junior hockey. They play over 60 games on all different nights of the week. When we got married and had kids, I was working full time and would call and ask when he would be coming home for dinner and he would whisper, “Ummm, I am on the bus going to Cedar Rapids.” He would chuckle about it, since he knew I was working and taking care of the kids — that was my focus, but it is a funny story I always share about being a coach’s wife.

MM: Tell us something about yourself that would surprise people? JAH: I was almost on the second season of “Survivor.” Twenty years ago, I was on my grandparents’ farm and I told my family I wanted their help to make a video to submit. They all thought I was crazy but still appeased me. We had fun coming up with stuff for me to do: climbing up the silo; acted like I was fighting a snapping turtle in the lake and came up with the shell-only (my grandpa had a big shell hanging in the barn); and coming out of the corn field. They received 50,000 videotapes! When I got the call, it was a big shock and so fun! They sent me a 30-page document to sign each page on the confidentiality piece, so only my husband knew about it. They interviewed 800 people including me, and then they told me I made the top 50, but 30 go to Los Angeles for psyche evaluations (which my husband states I would have never passed — insert LOL emoji!). Then the producer called that they found their group and to try again next year. Once I knew I was out, I could finally tell my family, which was amazing since they thought I was crazy. The moral of the story is: Live your best life and go for it!

Compiled by Robb Murray MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 17

18 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Marian Anderson: A true southern Minnesota original Story by Robb Murray | Photos by Pat Christman

essica Potter climbs a flight of stairs and pulls a ring of keys from her jeans pocket. As she inserts a key into a locked storage room door, she issues a warning. “It’s kind of a mess,” says Potter, executive director of the Blue Earth County Historical Society, as she heads in. “But we’re working on it.” Potter isn’t wrong. The situation will require some work. But calling it a “mess” is vastly shortchanging it. This is the room where the majority of Marian Anderson’s work will live for the foreseeable future. Paintings in frames, pencil sketches, half-finished nature scenes, a fox image that she abandoned, thousands of postcards and fine art prints — a veritable treasure trove of her work, some of which hasn’t been seen by anyone, we’re guessing, but Marian. The bequest is massive, and it has Potter and the Blue Earth County Historical Society planning a remodel and reorganization of the storage room as they work to catalog and organize the collection of one of southern Minnesota’s most famous artists. Marian died in January at age 84. Much has been written about some of Marian’s work. Her nostalgia pieces, where various vintage scenes from the past are pieced together in clever collages, hang on dentist office walls or in bank lobbies all over town. Less, however, has been written about the sheer volume of her work, her personal life and her graceful exit from her creative life as Alzheimer’s disease slowly painted over her memories and ability to care for herself.

Madelia made

Marian was born in Nicollet and raised in Madelia. Part of the lore surrounding her early days as an artist includes the nontraditional way she got started. Her parents were farmers, and Marian would accompany her father on trips to the town dump. That’s where she’d find discarded tubes of paint and paintbrushes that she’d take home and teach herself the craft. She never went to art school and didn’t obtain a bachelor’s degree from a university. Instead, she learned by doing. And by doodling in grade school. “They made her go to Catholic schools and she hated it with a passion. She didn’t like the nuns. She said they were always so bossy and mean,” says James Peterson, Marian’s companion for the last decade of her life. “And every once in a while, they’d catch her drawing pictures instead of doing what she was supposed to be doing and they gave her heck for that. Finally they got so tired of the fact that she was distracting the other kids by drawing pictures and stuff that they just gave her a room by herself and let her do her own thing.” One of the first art jobs she ever had was colorizing wedding photos in the pre-color photography days. At one point she was working for seven different photographers in the Mankato area for $1 per hour, painstakingly adding paint to bring black-and-white photos to life. Peterson says that, where most colorizers used watercolors, Marian used oil-based paints. A trickier approach, for sure. But the results were more vivid.

This storage room at the Blue Earth County Historical Society is brimming with Marian Anderson treasures including the painting in the middle image, which was one of the last she painted. MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 19

Gradually she transitioned to supporting herself with her own paintings. One of the longestrunning series she did was an annual painting for the National Wild Turkey Federation. Three originals from that series are on display in the Marian Anderson gallery at the Blue Earth County Historical Society. The paintings depict rugged turkey hunters in colorful, detailed scenes of the South. “The National Wild Turkey Federation is actually headquartered out of Atlanta,

Georgia,” Potter says. “For 18 years she did a signature piece for them. We’ll get calls from down South to get one of her prints. (Her work) is all over the southern United States, and the nostalgia is what we know here.” Ask most folks in town what they know about Marian Anderson, and they’re likely to mention the nostalgia pieces, or the piece depicting children of various ethnic groups. The pieces remain popular depictions of the Mankato area’s people and history. But they only scratch the surface of her work.

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Paging through a BECHS book of fine art prints available to purchase reveals a much broader picture of her breadth. The book includes a pair of paintings she did of polar explorer Will Steger, with whom Marian worked directly to get the piece exactly to his liking. Potter says Steger wanted very much to get the dogs, the journey’s true heroes, to look just right. One of Marian’s most famous paintings, “Silent Signal,” earned her Artist of the Year honors in Minnesota in 1991. “There’s a footprint in that piece,” Potter says, “and so her whole story behind this was about preserving nature, and that even though we’re treading on it, we still have to make sure that we’re preserving what has already been here.” Her work is even on display at Mettler’s, the Mankato strip club. Marian painted a series of exotic dancers to help spruce the place up a bit.

Cadillac sports coupe

Toward the end of Marian’s life, Peterson says he urged her to have a carpe diem attitude about her Alzheimer’s. “I just asked her, ‘What is it that you would like to do that you’ve never done because this is your last chance to do this.’ And she thought for a while and says, “I’ve always thought I’d like to have a Cadillac sports coupe.’ And I said, ‘Is that what you really want to do?’ And she said, ‘Yeah ... I’d like to have a sports coupe,’” Peterson recalls. “And I said OK. And went to town and ordered a Cadillac sports coupe with everything on it.” When the Cadillac arrived, Peterson says he let her drive it home by herself. He followed her in his car. They were both in their 80s. “And then I said, ‘What else do you want to do?’ And she said, ‘I want to go to Colorado and I want to drive every mountain pass, and ride in all the narrow gauge trains, and in some of the movie trains.’ So we just headed for Colorado and I think we put on about 3,000 miles out there, but we did. We drove on mountain passes and we rode on at least five trains.” The last commission piece Marian did was a nostalgia collage for Minnesota State University. It’s hanging in the Centennial Student Union. But the last piece she

Anderson’s work varied greatly, from commissions for customers such as polar explorer Will Steger and the National Wild Turkey Federation, to wildlife scenes and Mankato nostalgia pieces. painted was a depiction of Lewis and Clark. Peterson says Marian transported that piece back and forth between Mankato and their summer home in Arizona at least five times. They joked that the painting had traveled more miles than Lewis and Clark had. He says she didn’t paint much toward the end, and it was hard to watch her get worse. “She lost control of her body function, and then she lost control of her voice,” Peterson recalls. “She knew what she wanted to say. But she couldn’t say it. And it was really heartbreaking. She just couldn’t say it.”

Every once in a while, however, she did get a word out. Once when Peterson was at Marian’s nursing home visiting her, he was talking to someone about having to repaint some figurines in the yard. He struggled but couldn’t figure out the exact breed of bird the figurines were. Fifteen minutes later, Marian solved it. “She just blurted out ‘Cranes!’” Peterson says. “It was a surprise to us. She said it real loud and just as clear as she ever could. But that was the last word I ever heard her say.” MM MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 21

REFLECTIONS By Pat Christman

ouses decorated with the brightly colored lights of Christmas are one of the many traditions we hold on to through the year. It’s those traditions that can help keep people grounded when life seems chaotic. When we miss those traditions, like we did during the heart of the pandemic, we lose a little bit of what helps keep us grounded. Each brightly colored light and decorated tree reminds us that traditions are an important part of life and need to be encouraged and appreciated. MM

22 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 23

DAY TRIP DESTINATIONS: HUDSON, WISCONSIN By Nell Musolf

There’s plenty to do in Hudson, WI, just across the St. Croix River.

Winter in Hudson Absorb history and the season in this Wisconsin hamlet

ave you ever wondered where the first Little Free Library was created? Wonder no more. The first tiny library happened in Hudson, Wisconsin, and was the brainchild of Todd Bol as a tribute to his book-loving mother. His idea spawned dollhouse-size libraries around the world. In addition to Little Free Libraries, Hudson is a town filled with attractions and because it is easily within driving distance from Mankato, makes an ideal winter day trip. Hudson is a smaller city (population about 12,000) perched on the westernmost edge of Wisconsin, and is a mere 20 miles from downtown St. Paul. Hudson is on the St. Croix River and was settled in 1840 as a logging center. Although logging is now a thing of the past, Hudson has retained much of its old-fashioned charm while becoming a thriving 21st century city. In December, Hudson hosts several holiday events including a candlelight stroll that travels through the town’s historic downtown district complete with carriage rides. The Candlelight Stroll is 6-9 p.m. Dec. 3. Hudson also celebrates the season by hosting Have 24 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

a Hudson Holiday during December. Businesses have a holiday-themed window-decorating contest, holiday lights downtown and in Lakefront Park are turned on for the season, and shoppers are invited to Plaid Friday, where wearing plaid is encouraged while shoppers find holiday gifts in local stores. Some of the stores downtown include Abigail Page Antique Mall, Back Room Vintage, and Chapter 2 Books. Seasons on St. Croix Gallery has pottery, jewelry and artwork from 130 artists. The 715 features “urban rustic goods” and Iris Boutique features fashionable, trendy clothing. The Octagon Museum House, an eight-sided house turned into a museum, has tours on weekends this month. The museum’s gift shop is also open during those times for holiday shoppers. If you are more interested in being out in the great outdoors instead of getting your holiday shopping done, the area offers plenty of places to visit. Hudson has numerous city parks, several county parks and one state park. Orf Family Overlook is a 15-acre county park with a scenic overlook, hiking trails, fishing and, for winter guests, snowshoeing, ice fishing and

cross-country skiing trails. Snowmobilers will enjoy 216 miles of trails maintained by St. Croix County. The family-friendly Badlands Sno Park was created for groups of all sizes and ages that are into snow tubing. With bunny hills for beginners, the “Monkey Tail” for intermediates and the “Big Hill” for the most intrepid, hours of outdoor fun are on the agenda. If the weather is more suited to walking instead of snowmobiling or tubing, the Art Bench Tour takes guests along a trail dotted with works of art created by local youth. Another spot rated a “must see” is The Dike at Lakefront Park.

Originally a toll bridge between Wisconsin and Minnesota, the former road has been turned into a 3,000-foot pedestrian scenic walkway with beautiful views of wildlife. And don’t forget the Hot Air Affair, Hudson’s famous hot air balloon festival, which takes place this year Feb. 4-6. All of this activity is bound to stir up an appetite. Hudson offers a wide variety of eateries including the popular Pier 500, a stone’s throw from the St. Croix River. During winter months, Pier 500 offers the Igloo Experience for private parties.

Bricks Neapolitan Pizza has handcrafted pizzas made according to Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana standards (which are created by only a few certified restaurants in the country). Decadent desserts can be found at Knoke’s Chocolate and Nuts, 220 Locust St., Suite 4, and Keys Café and Bakery, 840 Carmichael Road. Other restaurants range from the tried-and-true chains such as Applebee’s, Culver’s, and Buffalo Wild Wings. A day trip to Hudson might be just the thing to warm a cold winter’s day.

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Marsha Martig is shown here at a previous event asking Santa for a tie-dye kit and a horse for Christmas.

Jolly Old Saint Nick A Kiwanis Holiday Lights Santa takes role to heart By Jane Turpin Moore | Photos by Robb Murray

he sincerest spirit of Santa Claus is personified in Nick Mart, a seasonal interpreter of that jolly old elf since 1987. And beginning in 2017, Mart has generously lent his bent knee and ho-ho-ho’s as a resident Santa during the Kiwanis Holiday Lights festival at Sibley Park. “Nick’s been amazing,” said Scott Wojcik, president of the Kiwanis Holiday Lights board of directors. “I can’t say enough good things about him and his wife, Suzanne.” 26 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Red suit goals

Mart is a modest man, wryly humorous but empathetic and thoughtful even in casual conversation. A native and current resident of Armstrong, Iowa — a town of fewer than 1,000 about 20 miles south of Fairmont — Mart worked in the mid- to late-’80s as a software programmer at Taylor Corp. in North Mankato. As Christmas 1986 approached, Mart paused to observe a Santa in action at the former shopping mall at

Madison East Center. The experience prompted him to entertain the idea of becoming a gift-giving Christmas hero himself. “I heard Santa talking to the kids so I sat down and watched for a while; I thought it was so cool,” Mart said. While home in Armstrong that Christmas, Mart asked his mother, Ruth, if she would sew him a Santa suit. “She said ‘Yes,’ if I got her a pattern,” said Mart, and the hunt was on. A post-holiday stop at the local JOANN Fabric and Crafts yielded helpful intel. “The clerk told me to wait until after Valentine’s Day because everything red would be on sale then,” he said. “The people at JOANN were just marvelous to work with.” So Mart bided his time before buying a quantity of red material; his mother used a couple of his old shirts for sizing. “I’m a little bit larger than the average person and I’ve always been rather stocky, but she made it a little bigger in case I needed to add a pillow,” laughed Mart. The following December, Mart’s boss asked him to play Santa for a family Christmas in Beauford. Mart’s new girlfriend, Suzanne, tagged along for the gig. Suzanne was impressed by Mart’s Santa persona — enough that she was moved to kiss Santa. “She got lipstick on my beard,” he chuckled. They married the next year. Mart’s Santa shtick snowballed from there. Although he’s consistently played Santa since his 1987 debut, he typically appeared at smaller assemblies, such as in homes for friends who wanted to treat youngsters to a family Christmas surprise. Before his 2017 Kiwanis debut, the biggest group he’d entertained was about 150 kids at a Blue Earth Knights of Columbus event.

was losing its Santa due to health concerns; she wondered if Mart would consider taking over. “She said, ‘Our only requirement is that you have a real beard,’” Mart recalled. Conveniently, after three decades of hearing Santa secrets in a fake beard, Mart had obeyed his wife’s urging and let his own beard grow the prior year. And, luckily for him, it came in white. Mart still needed Wojcik’s blessing. At their first meeting, Wojcik told Mart, “You’ve got a few things going for you: a real beard, the name and a real belly.” “I passed that test,” Mart said, “and then Scott said, ‘Welcome aboard! If you want to do it, the job’s yours.’” Although Mart was aware of Kiwanis Holiday Lights, he wasn’t fully prepared for his leap to Santa stardom in 2017. “I was trying to figure out why they scheduled escorts for us,” Mart said. Per Kiwanis tradition, Santa ceremonially flips the switch that magically transforms Sibley Park into a light-filled wonderland on opening night. “That year, it was still a matter of connecting two cords,” Mart said. “When we (he and Mrs. Claus) arrived, it was beyond my wildest imagination. “We rode into the park on the float and I felt like a big-time rock star.” Trying to get from the stage to the Santa Barn, they were mobbed by kids, some of them yelling, ‘Hey Santa, I’ve been good this year.’” But the escorts did their duty, safely delivering Mart to the first of his numerous four-hour stints over five weekends as Kiwanis Lights Santa. “Mrs. Claus handed out coloring books,” Mart said. “She kept count and gave out over 4,000. In all my years as Santa, I’d never seen that many kids.”

Rock star Santa

Kid talk

Mandy Hunecke, a past Kiwanis Holiday Lights board member who also grew up near Armstrong, Iowa, was aware of Mart’s quality Santa interpretation because he was her family’s “personal Santa” for years. “When I was doing her family Christmas (in 2016), Mandy asked me to meet her in the garage,” Mart said. There, she explained that Kiwanis

While many aspects of being Santa come naturally to Mart (he shares his given name, Nick, with his Christmas counterpart because his late grandfather preferred it for his first red-haired grandchild), don’t think he rests on his laurels — er, mistletoe. To improve on his already realistic Santa look, Mart began visiting a local hair salon each November a

few years ago to even out his whitening locks and match them to his natural beard. “The color lasts through the season,” Mart confirmed, “and usually grows out around March.” And, lacking a North Pole workshop, Mart does his homework. “In Mankato, the first night caught me a little off guard because I didn’t know all the toys the kids were asking for.” Now, he regularly makes preseason reconnaissance trips to stores for toy research purposes. Thus, Mart can discuss the latest toy trends with ease, including Fingerlings (“little dolls that fit on the tips of kids’ fingers”) and Hatchimals (“egg-shaped objects that hatch koala bears, penguins, that sort of thing”). With years of experience under his black belt, Mart is equipped to deal with the confidences and requests petitioners toss his way. “When kids ask for horses, I tell them, ‘Santa doesn’t do horses; they don’t fit in my sleigh so you’ll need to ask your mom and dad,’” he said. “If they ask for a baby brother or sister, I say, ‘That’s not Santa’s job so you’ll need to talk to the stork.’” And Mart holds true to his promise not to share those whispered wishes. “One little girl years ago said, ‘You can’t tell my dad this, but I want a baby sister,’ and to this day I have not told him what she asked for,” Mart said. “I hold that confidence for kids because it makes it all more believable.” Other Kiwanis volunteers, including Wendi Masters, confirm that. “Nick and his wife play their roles so well,” Masters said. “He is so good with the kids, and takes time with each one. … Nick is the real deal.” Even out of costume, Mart is sometimes mistaken for St. Nick. “I was in the Fairmont Walmart one night some time back, wearing a red jacket, and I heard ‘Hi, Santa Claus,’” Mart reported. “It was a kid, about 4 years old, in a cart, so I went over to talk. I told him, ‘You can’t tell anyone I’m here; I’m checking on who’s naughty or nice,’ and he got a big thrill out of that.” Another time he overheard a little boy ask his dad, “Is that Santa Claus?” Obligingly, Mart answered, “Yeah, I am.” MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 27

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Though Mart doesn’t recall sitting on Santa’s knee as a child himself, he has fond memories of family Christmases and positive impressions of Santa. “There was an optometrist in Armstrong who played Santa Claus when I was growing up, and I took my memories of the way he handled himself with me when I started,” Mart said. “And I’ve always believed in Santa Claus.” Appropriately, Mart’s favorite Christmas book is Clement Clarke Moore’s “The Night Before Christmas.” The song he finds most meaningful is, “Mary, Did You Know?” For anyone who has ever sweated about which cookies to leave for Santa’s midnight snack, fear not; Santa isn’t picky. “The chocolate-covered Ritz crackers with peanut butter are good, but so are frosted sugar cookies and gingerbread,” said Mart with a grin. “I like ‘em all.” As a Kiwanis volunteer, Mart directs the funds allocated for his seasonal hours to LEEP (Leisure Education for Exceptional People). “I’ve never charged money for being Santa,” Mart said. “It’s just something I love doing, and watching kids’ eyes light up — that’s everything.” He likes stirring his hot chocolate with candy canes while signing letters responding to those left for Santa in the special drop box at Sibley Park. And even though he’s been undergoing treatment for prostate cancer himself this year, he just keeps on believing. “This is something God has laid upon me to do,” Mart said. “At certain times when people come to see Santa and confide something to me, I ask, ‘Would you mind if I pray for you right now?’” Mart’s most memorable such moment occurred in his inaugural Kiwanis Santa season. “A gal came up and said, ‘I’ve been trying to have a baby for years and I can’t have one. Can you help me out?’” Mart said. “The next year she returned — one out of 4,000 people I’d seen — and asked if I remembered her. She said, ‘You prayed for me to have a baby,’ then opened her coat — and she was eight months pregnant. “God answered prayers that one night.” MM

Nick Mart plays the role of jolly ol’ St. Nick at the Kiwanis Holiday Lights event.

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Wendi Masters is one of the hundreds of volunteers who makes the event run smoothly.

Lighting up for the right reasons Volunteers put in the time to shine for others By Jane Turpin Moore | Photos by Pat Christman

t’s no secret Kiwanis Holiday Lights is a major seasonal spectacle in Mankato. After all, nearly 2 million lights can’t be easily hidden under a bushel. “I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good,” said former President George Bush in his 1989 inaugural address. In fact, it takes well over 1,000 people, working together and doing their parts, to bring the Kiwanis Holiday Lights festival to colorful life each year. “I’d estimate we have between 2,000 to 2,500 people who volunteer (here) in a given year,” said Scott 30 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Wojcik, president of the Kiwanis display. Some of those are individuals or families, but most are part of one of the dozens of nonprofit organizations and charitable groups that donate time to make the event a glittering reality. “The most we’ve ever had was 90 organizations,” Wojcik said. “This year, it’s closer to 75.” Make no mistake: These people are busier than Santa’s elves, working not just during the five weekends prior to the festival but afterward, too. And often their behind-the-scenes work continues yearround. Wojcik, a member of the Mankato Downtown

Kiwanis Club who found the inspirational spark for the event from a similar effort in his Wisconsin hometown, clarifies that Kiwanis Holiday Lights is now its own entity — a full 501c(3) with a separate board of directors, mission statement and website. Besides accepting donations of non-perishable items for local food shelves, the event collects free-will donations from those driving or strolling through Sibley Park during the event’s five-plus weeks. “After we’ve paid our expenses, we calculate the total number of hours volunteers put in,” Wojcik said. “Then we divvy up the funds to the nonprofits they specify.” Thus, Kiwanis Holiday Lights ends each season with a zero balance — and starts all over again to light up people’s lives and infuse Mankato with holiday spirit the following year. “We cannot do it without the volunteers,” he said. “They’re essential to the plan.” Wojcik and his wife, Lisa, executive director of LEEP, dedicate a sizable portion of time to the event themselves — and their four sons (19, 16 and 13-year-old twins) have inherited their parents’ enthusiasm for Christmas and volunteerism. “Without Lisa’s support, there’s no way I could continue to do this,” Wojcik said. “It’s a huge commitment for me and the other board members. And I don’t expect our boys to help, but they offer to because they know the amount of effort my wife and I put into it, and they want to be a part of it, too.” That translates, too, to the Wojciks’ home front. “My neighbors call me Clark Griswold,” joked Wojcik, adding that “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” is the family’s No. 1 holiday movie. And Wojcik is quick to deflect credit for Kiwanis Holiday Lights’ success back to the scores of volunteers. “Our community response is amazing,” he said. “These volunteers truly get a passion for it, understand what it is doing for this community and ask how they can get more involved.”

Small-town boy does good

For Al Kiefer, it’s a wonderful life. No, really. “It’s a Wonderful Life”

Faceless carolers were repurposed into Cindy Lou Who and her family. is Kiefer’s favorite holiday movie. And why not? Kiefer is president of ProGrowth Bank’s Mankato branch, he has three children and a lovely wife, his take on life is unfailingly optimistic, and he gives sacrificially of his time and resources to benefit the town where he’s put down roots. “We love the Mankato community and have been here for 41 years,” said 61-year-old Kiefer. He is the seventh of 10 children, so diplomacy and pitching in are second nature. “The family business was farm tiling,” Kiefer said. “Growing up in Taopi, we were ditch diggers.” In that Mower County village where Kiefer spent his formative years, Kiefer learned, literally, how to dig in, get his hands dirty and

do his part — lessons that have stuck with him throughout adulthood. “Taopi’s population was 59, and 12 of them lived in my house,” he joked. His wife, Margie, hails from a bigger Mower County town (Rose Creek, pop. 394). Kiefer came to Mankato to pursue an accounting degree at Minnesota State University and basically never left. “I believe in community service and giving back,” Kiefer said. “As a banker, it’s part of my job, but Margie and I are huge proponents of volunteerism.” A baseball and softball enthusiast, the All-American stick and ball game has figured heavily into Kiefer’s volunteer efforts for decades. MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 31

Masters added a background to this image of Pocahontas. He began coaching youth baseball and softball when his kids (now ages 37, 32 and 30) were young, and his involvement with MAYBA (Mankato Area Youth Baseball Association) numbered about 27 years. For the last decade, he has been MAYBA’s general manager. With Kiefer’s nephew, Mankato attorney Chris Roe, on the Kiwanis Holiday Lights board, Kiefer became acquainted with both Wojcik and the opportunity for MAYBA involvement with the

32 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

annual lights event. “MAYBA has helped with (Kiwanis Holiday Lights) for over six years,” Kiefer said. Initially, MAYBA — which provides about 50 volunteers from among its board, parents and teenage players — set out to help with the event’s setup, but the timing wasn’t the best fit. “A lot of our guys are hunters, so the fall was busy,” Kiefer said. “But the cleanup really works well for us.” Once the lights switch off for the

season, MAYBA volunteers spring into action. “We start on New Year’s Day and continue for the next couple of weekends until we’re done,” Kiefer said. Their task? A virtual nightmare for many Christmas tree fans: untangling strands of lights, testing bulbs and then respooling them for storage until the following November. “It’s close to 2 million lights,” Kiefer said, “and we get players from the East, West and Loyola

baseball teams to volunteer. “It’s a great way for them to get in the habit of volunteering, and we’ve had really good success.” Wojcik is grateful MAYBA fills a needed niche in the lights display machinery. “They take it upon themselves to go into our warehouse and tackle the miles and miles of extension cords and strands of lights that arrive for them in huge balls,” Wojcik said. “It takes so much pressure off us as a group to have them concentrate on teardown, and they have their own system going. They’re great at it, so have at it.” Kiefer says the display’s funds directed to MAYBA for volunteer hours do not benefit MAYBA directly; instead, MAYBA gives the money received to the local high school baseball teams. “The coaches help recruit the volunteers, so we in turn make the donations back to their programs,” Kiefer said.

Mastering the art of Christmas

Wendi Masters, 68, is hands on and all in when it comes to Kiwanis Holiday Lights — and it will take a lot more than hip replacement surgery to slow her down. With an oversized kitchen island and a ready supply of paint brushes, Masters convalesced from her Aug. 4 medical adventure with a paintbrush in hand. “I needed to get some scenery and props ready for Santa’s house, even during my recovery, so I laid scenery out and painted it in my kitchen,” said Masters, mentioning the theme for this year’s Santa house is “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Believe it or not, the Grinch was

chosen prior to the pandemic shutdown, which also shuttered Kiwanis Holiday Lights in 2020 due to a lack of available volunteers. “They (volunteers) are such a good, dedicated group of people,” Masters said. “They love what they’re doing. Some people think it’s just an autumn through December effort, but it’s a yearround project that completely relies on volunteers.” Masters, who retired two years ago from a 30-plus-year career as a Mankato Area Public Schools substitute teacher, said she is no stranger to volunteering. A Mankato resident since age 2, Masters and her husband, Lee, are diehard Mankato East supporters. “I’ve baked cookies for all the sports teams at Mankato East since 1997,” said Masters, noting the overall favorite is chocolate chip — but her frosted sugar cookie cutouts are also popular. “I just did a bunch of those for the Mankato East Hall of Fame inductees. We joke that (rival Mankato West) red is not allowed in our house.” Her 37-year-old son, Adam, suffered a traumatic brain injury as a 4-year-old, and his experiences have led her to regularly volunteer for LEEP, as well. Masters is a giving person who uses her talent for handiwork and flair for art (she majored in elementary education and art at Minnesota State University) to bring joy to others. “I’ve painted murals in day care centers and kids’ bedrooms, done decor and flowers for friends’ weddings and we also enjoy gardening, landscaping and yard work,” she said. The Masters’ yard, which has been locally recognized twice for its beauty, was featured on an outdoor tour last year. “We don’t just do it for our own pleasure,” Masters said. “We do it for other people to enjoy, too, and that brings us satisfaction.” Masters, who says Lee is her behind-the-scenes support crew, delights in creating an enchanting environment for the Holiday Lights Santa and all the kids who visit him. “Wendi transforms that area every year into a magical place and takes pride in doing it,” Wojcik said. Said Masters, “Scott has said he won’t ever let us be done — but we enjoy it and look forward to it every year.” MM

YOUR LOCAL

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LOAN EXPERTS!

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 33

Food & Beer

LET'S EAT! By Nell Musolf

southern mn style Mike Sweetman is the owner of Extra Innings in St. Peter. They specialize in paninos.

Another Inning(s) St. Peter’s Extra Innings is the second for young restaurateur Photos by Pat Christman

lmost 20 years ago, Mike Sweetman was working as a bartender at Applebee’s when he took another job at the Extra Innings in Marshall as then owner Nate Wanzak’s first employee. Within a year, Sweetman made an offer on the business and moved up from employee to restaurant owner at the tender age of 26. “It was a big leap for me, but I believed in the product and the business. It probably helped that I was so young at the time.” Since then, Sweetman has 34 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

watched his independently owned business grow to the point where he was able to open a second Extra Innings in St. Peter in December of 2019 at 220 South Minnesota Ave. Before choosing St. Peter, Sweetman did his research. Because the first Extra Innings was in a college town, he knew from experience what college students like — good food at an affordable price — so he began searching for another town with a college in it. “I was paying attention to Mankato and St. Peter for a few years. I always wanted to check out

college towns since I was familiar with Southwest Minnesota State in Marshall.” In the end, he opted for St. Peter. “I really liked the feel of St. Peter. It’s a beautiful town, it has Gustavus Adolphus and it was what I was looking for.” Sweetman describes his restaurant as “casual, almost fastfood casual” with counter service as well as tables. The restaurant serves tap beer, craft beers and wine. “Our goal was to make the restaurant fun and upbeat.” Opening a few months before

Sweetman says he’s expecting things to take off for Extra Innings now that the pandemic is winding down. a pandemic swept the world caused a few problems, including keeping the restaurant staffed, a challenge for all eateries at this point in time. Extra Innings has a staff of about 12. “We’ve had a few staffing issues,” Sweetman said. “But we have a really good, really strong team. The general manager in St. Peter has been with us since the beginning, and we have several other employees in Marshall who have been with us since we opened there. It has been nice to be able to rely on them.” Supply chain issues, another restaurant woe, is a bigger concern. “You are never quite sure of what you are going to get when you place an order. It can be tough to balance and not get upset about it since there isn’t much you can do about it.” Supply chain issues aside, Extra Innings prides itself on making the freshest food possible. An especially popular item on the menu is the Panino, a rolled sandwich filled with meats, vegetables and cheese and served on homemade flatbread. “Other restaurants serve Paninos, but we serve ours on bread that is baked in-house, using our own recipe. The most popular Panino is by far the Buffalo chicken.” Pizza dough is also made from the same scratchmade dough used for Paninos. Extra Innings uses fresh ingredients whenever possible and works to keep recipes as clean as possible. The menu also includes appetizers, salads, rice bowls and pasta. In spite of the setbacks of the past year and a half, Sweetman sees a bright future for Extra Innings.

What: Extra Innings Where: St. Peter What they’re known for: Paninos

“We plan on continued growth. I’ve been looking at other locations and would like to open three to five more restaurants. We’ve been so well supported in St. Peter and in Marshall. We want to keep going. This has been a tough time for many restaurants, and we’re thankful we’re doing so well.” Extra Innings is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 35

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blethenberens.com • Mankato 507-345-1166 | New Ulm 507-233-3900 36 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

BEER

By Bert Mattson

Holiday Toasting I

f you’re acquainted with social media, you’re probably aware of the trend to popularize obscure holidays. A look at a list of these B-side holidays taught me that there is at least one holiday for every day of the year. Dec. 5 is an embarrassment of riches, boasting both National Bathtub Party Day and International Ninja Day – my life will never be the same. As though New Year’s didn’t suffice, I found a few other holidays in December dedicated to the drinker (The jury is out on whether it’d be responsible to integrate alcohol into the celebration

of International Ninja Day). One that caught my eye is National Repeal Day, which commemorates Franklin D. Roosevelt sealing the fate of America’s unpopular 13-year experiment prohibiting alcohol nationwide. This history and the holiday season leave me pondering the optimal beers for a fireside chat. On this, should you accuse me of a random attention span, I should say … hey, did I mention ninjas? Fireside sipping involves your more exotic glassware such as snifters, goblets and thistle glasses. A thistle

glass is a twist on a tulip glass. It has a bulb sitting at top of the stem then flares out conically to the rim. It mimics a thistle blossom, the national flower of Scotland, and is used for Scotch Ale. Scotch Ales, also referred to as Wee Heavies, are malt forward often with caramel or molasses character, sometimes featuring light smokiness. The style originated in Edinburgh in the 19th century - place and time ill equipped for emphasizing hops. The alcohol presence in Wee Heavy tends toward boozy. This combination of features, for me, puts it on the short list of fireside sippers. True to form, Bell’s Brewery’s Old Fashioned Holiday Ale comes in at a hefty 10.8% ABV. It’s aged in bourbon barrels and infused with dried cherry and orange peel. Perfect for swirling in a thistle or tulip lounging around a flickering fireplace. Scotch Ale was influenced by English Barleywine. Barleywine is not wine. Its complexity and strength earned it the name. As with Wee Heavy, hops and yeast play a supporting role in Barleywine. Malt is the headliner. ABV can range up to 12% or higher. These beers are typically dark, with tones of toffee and fruit. Boozy warmth is a feature achieved with lots of malt which is balanced with a great deal of hops, resulting in Barleywine’s signature complexity. The American versions tend to be more aggressively hopped than the English. A beer goblet showcases the style’s color and clarity, and the bowl shape traps aromatics for the discerning nose. Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Barleywine Ale is an English-style iteration aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels – lending notes of charcoal, tobacco and a boozy Bourbon warmth. Minnesota’s own Steel Toe Brewing makes Black Barleywine called Before the Dawn, which is blended with Imperial Stout and also aged in bourbon barrels, layering cocoa into the complexity. Perhaps pair an esoteric beer with an obscure holiday this season. Bert Mattson is a chef and writer based in St. Paul. He is the manager of the iconic Mickey’s Diner. bertsbackburner.com MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 37

LIT DU NORD: MINNESOTA BOOKS AND AUTHORS By Nick Healy

“Eternal Night at the Nature Museum” by Tyler Barton

Tales of the ridiculous and the real T

he journey through Tyler Barton’s new collection of short stories is sometimes harrowing, sometimes funny and often strange. It’s also the sort of trip that makes you want to linger a bit and study your surroundings for pieces you want to hold in your memory. Twenty stories comprise “Eternal Night a t t h e N a t u re Museum,” which was released by Sarabande Books in November, and the stories cover a broad range in terms of length, scope and impact. What they have in common is the inventive writing and offbeat compassion of an author who seems fully committed to his never-a-dullmoment approach. “I like to think of my writing as ‘ridiculous realism.’ Everything in my stories could literally happen in the rules of our world, but some of the wilder stuff probably wouldn't, because it is quite out there,” said Barton, a product of the creative writing MFA program at Minnesota State University, Mankato. “Seeing the world this way makes it seem like life is charged with possibility. That's the way I want to go through each day.” In the weeks before its release, the book won praise in Publishers Weekly and in the notoriously fickle Kirkus Reviews. Those early reviews called attention to the eccentric characters populating these stories. Barton’s protagonists include a former radio shock jock who gets wrapped up in a cult-like demolition 38 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

derby scene (in “Once Nothing, Twice Shatter”), and a nature museum worker who is goaded by a child in a Darth Vader costume to attempt the rescue of a halfeaten fish in one of the displays (in “Iowa Darter”). But Barton’s ridiculous realism stretches across its own spectrum. Stories on the closerto-ordinary end include “The Idler,” about a woman so annoyed by an idling pickup truck outside her home that she goes to confront the driver and winds up climbing in for a night’s adventure, and “Of a Whole Body (Passing Through),” featuring a cast of seniors who test the constraints of old age within the confines of an assisted-living facility. The latter story shows Barton at his best. Working with material that easily could tip into saccharine territory, he instead allows us glimpses of residents and staff who seem three-dimensional — thoughtful and clever but also flawed and complex. Take, for example, the complicated December-December romance of Marcia and Allan. When Allan proposes, Marcia declines by writing “No” on a piece of paper and underlining it twice. Barton concludes the brief scene this way: “Allan closes the invisible box on the invisible ring, and staggers back to his feet. ‘Touch me,’ Marcia writes. And outside, pulling bags of birdseed from her trunk, the program manager notices Allan obeying.”

The story is one where Barton’s connection to Mankato comes to the surface. During his time as a student in the MFA program, Barton became an active member of the local literary community. He helped run Writers Bloc, an open mic reading series, and volunteered in a writing program at a local assisted-living facility, among other things. Now living in Lancaster, PA, Barton completed his degree at MSU in 2018, and he is generous in expressing gratitude to many people he encountered there, including faculty members Robin Becker, Geoff Herbach, Richard Robbins, Richard Terrill, Diana Joseph, Roger Sheffer and Chris McCormick. “The stories are wildly different in subject, voice, tone, style, and structure, and this is evidence of the very diverse course load provided by the professors I worked with,” Barton said. “I think my time at Mankato allowed me to recognize and accept my own voice, which is one where fiction reads more like poetry than it does like a television show.” Nick Healy is an author and freelance writer in Mankato.

COMMUNITY DRAWS By Kat Baumann

MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 39

ANN’S FASHION FORTUNES By Ann Rosenquist Fee

No one cares about your (jeans) (fringe) (any of it) DEAR ANN: How old is too old for a guy to be wearing skinny jeans? I’m a 37-year-old cis-whitehetero-male, and true to what I expect you may assume, I do not spend a lot of time shopping. It’s been ingrained in me that my mom or my partner will tell me what to wear. Fashion and style were like languages I wasn’t meant to learn. To my knowledge, there is not a guidance pipeline for my demographic save for Old Navy commercials. I know the bar is low, for me. Jeans and a T-shirt, you know? Even faux pas like socks and sandals are written off because I’m supposed to be clueless. There’s no shame because there’s no expectation, except that there is shame. It’s like my options are either that I don’t care, or if I did care I would’ve figured it out already. Something about my life should have answered the question of what I wear: Farmer? Carhart. Lawyer? Ties. Play golf? Polos. It seems there aren’t clothes that men wear; there are clothes that types of men wear. Do men’s identities define their wardrobe in a way different from anyone who isn’t a CWHM? When I do commit to buying, say, a pair of jeans, I’m wracked with self-doubt that I’ve made a huge mistake because they’re too tight, too stretchy, too … telling. They broadcast the fact that I don’t know what I’m doing. I want to manifest confidence in my aesthetic, so that when I do want to look a certain way, at least I look as if I have the skill set to make the necessary choices. Thank you in advance for any advice.

40 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

North Mankato’s Dan Bacula may or may not explore skinny jeans as host of The Circle Inn’s comedy open mic 7-10 p.m. Sundays DEAR READER: Your painstaking analysis of who wears what suggests that you do indeed have the skill set to make suitable wardrobe choices. What appears lacking is thorough inquiry relative to the “something about my life” that determines what you, personally, wear. It sounds like you’re far enough into adulthood to have taken some stabs at things like “purpose in life” or “what I’m all about.” I suggest you give yourself a time-certain

period, like maybe the remainder of your 30s, to experiment with style choices that convey your raison d’être. And then watch how the world receives you. S o m e t i m e s i t ’s a f f i r m a t i o n (“Whoa, those cargo pants are definitely ironic when paired with thrifted cashmere which definitely tells me you have an MFA in creative writing”) that indicates you’ve nailed it. Sometimes it’s the opposite, and you discover that

disappointment is the best because it means you’re doing your thing, not theirs (“I mean, why did you shave it though? Are you growing it back?”). When you feel too insecure to continue, remember that every grownup who strikes you as confidently stylish has been through similar trials, albeit in junior high. You are late to the game, cis white hetero man, but we welcome you to the team and look forward to your skinny jeans or whatever lies ahead. DEAR ANN: Is fringe still OK? I have to go to a wedding and I don’t want to buy something new to wear. The only wedding-appropriate thing I have is a silky shift dress with a matching scarf. That's where the fringe comes in, on the scarf. It’s very long. It’s like the whole point of the outfit. The dress is old but it fits and I love it. I don’t love giving up a whole Saturday for this wedding and having to buy something new would not help. Please advise. DEAR READER: I’m going to tell you something about modern weddings and you’re not going to like it on a big-picture core-values level, but it’s definitely going to free you from the need to buy something new to wear, so bear with me: Never in the history of time has your attire mattered less. This is because weddings themselves — the ceremony, the reception, the in-between time when chalkboards cheerily direct guests to enjoy croquet or a coffee bar or a silly-hat photo booth — are merely stagings for the photos that’ll later be shared on social media that will constitute the real happening. Unless you’re in the wedding party or the immediate family, you’ll never appear in focus. You and your outfit will be reduced to a pleasing, unremarkable blur. An affront to your values? Maybe. Complete and total relief of the burden of what to wear, because all that matters is that you’re there, bonus if you’re comfortable? Yep.

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Got a question? Submit it at annrosenquistfee.com (click on Ann’s Fashion Fortunes). Ann Rosenquist Fee is executive director of the Arts Center of Saint Peter and host of Live from the Arts Center, a music and interview show Thursdays 1-2 p.m. on KMSU 89.7FM.

Mankato | Amboy | Eagle Lake | Vernon Center | cbfg.net MANKATO MAGAZINE • DECEMBER 2021 • 41

GARDEN CHAT By Jean Lundquist

Tough decisions for my garden M

y grow bags are all emptied and stacked behind the shed. As I moved them this fall, more handles gave way to sun rot and broke in my hands. The bags are heavy, especially when the soil in them is damp. Moving them is a chore I don’t relish, but at least I didn’t face plant because of them this fall. I don’t intend to use them again next year. That’s not to say, however, they are useless. The morning sun warms them, and the cats love to sleep on them, apparently choosing a different one for each day. A month ago, my garden was a mass of 6-foot-tall weeds, dried and gone to seed. I tried to clear it but failed. I hired a couple of young folks to clear it for me. They did a great job! Next year, my garden will be planted in the ground, not in bags. Plants in grow bags are almost as needy as chickens. They need to be watered and cared for every day. Twice a day if it’s really hot. It’s hard to 42 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

find someone to come and water for me, even if I pay them. I figure I can do with a fraction of the number of tomato plants I grew this year. In bags, tomatoes are not very prolific, but with enough plants, I got as many as I needed, plus some. I’ll spend the next few months figuring out which varieties to plant. But more importantly, which varieties not to plant. This is going to be a hard winter. I have four sturdy tomato cages, so my goal is to grow four tomato plants. I’m already expecting I will not be successful at this. Once, many years ago when my garden was seven times the size of my house, I grew 36 varieties and doubles of some of them. I have no idea how I will decide which to keep and which to keep out. Ditto for the peppers. Two people cannot eat the fruit of 12 pepper plants, even when they produce less because they are grown in bags. I finally started fertilizing them, knowing they are heavy feeders, and then we were really overwhelmed.

This is going to be a hard winter of decisions for me. As I write this, I have four tomato plants and three pepper plants still producing in the greenhouse. My milk house heater is running almost constantly, and I will soon unplug it and move everything out. But it’s so wonderful to bring in a vine-ripe tomato every other day, and the intermittent green pepper. It will be hard to turn off the heater, sealing their fate. With the diminishing number of daylight hours this month, heat is not all those plants will need. Still, it’s hard to pull the plug on them. Earlier this fall, old friend Glen Medenwald, having read my sad tale of woe about growing morning glories, brought me morning glory seeds he guarantees will grow. I’ve cut down the tree skeleton I had tried to get the morning glories to climb for the last two years, but I have a garden arch that will work just fine. They are mixed colors, and I can’t wait to see them bloom. Hummingbirds love them, and I hope to have many morning glories and hummingbirds come 2022. Since the pandemic, it seems we are all gardeners now. That is great for us and our taste buds, and also great for the planet. When you buy a pepper from the grocery store this winter, save the seeds from the red, green, orange, and yellow bell peppers. They are likely open pollinated and will grow true to form for you next year. Just let them dry well, then seal them in a plastic bag so they don’t mold. From one pepper, you’ll have thousands of peppers on the plants you can raise. Though these days in the dead of winter can seem dark and dreary, fear not: The days start getting longer at the end of December. Planting season looms! But during these dark, dreary days of winter, I will be making some hard decisions about my garden next year.

Jean Lundquist is a Master Gardener who lives near Good Thunder. gardenchatkato@gmail.com

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FROM THIS VALLEY By Pete Steiner

The Annual Christmas Letter

021 wasn’t even half over when the first free 2022 calendar arrived in the mail. Along with an offer of (yet another) free tote bag (there’s already a pile of them in the corner) plus 30 more free return address labels to add to the 10,732 already in the catch-all drawer, 9,999 of which will probably never get used. Yes, all this, free! But by the way, it would sure be nice if you’d send us $15 or $50, or hey, even write us into your estate plan. As with PBS beg-a-thons, I suppose it’s probably hard for nonprofits to come up with new gimmicks to encourage donations. I don’t mean to be too cynical: I hope you will contribute something to your favorite charity, as I do at this time of year. So anyway, that calendar arrived in June, but I wasn’t ready to write off 2021 just yet. Sure, it was the second straight year dominated by COVID and by extreme weather. Yet Easter, somewhat metaphorically, had brought sunshine, 78 degrees and increasing rates of vaccination. Buoyant brunch-goers that day flocked to our city’s pleasingly proliferating sidewalk cafes or to backyard barbecues. (You might recall, Easter 2020, already burdened by the great COVID shutdown, had also brought a blizzard!) So 2021 was trending in the right direction. By June, social calendars were quickly filling up after the Great Seclusion; people were getting out to hear live music. Like Brigadoon, our city was suddenly, magically coming alive. I had to try to remember names of people I hadn’t seen in 15 months. nn n n After canceling a January trip because of the pandemic, Jeanne and I found it exhilarating to take a July excursion to Duluth and Grand 44 • DECEMBER 2021 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Marais. Summer had been hotter than normal – all those 90-degree days in June. So North Shore coolness and beauty were welcome. Then came that long stretch of lovely days here in September and October, maybe the most extended stretch of near-perfect Minnesota weather I can recall. We took a day trip to visit some of the sites of the 1862 U.S.-Dakota conflict. Birch Coulee is such an idyllic little prairie, with pleasant trails to wander; it’s jarring to imagine the great death and suffering that occurred there. More beautiful tall grass prairie awaited at Jeffers Petroglyphs; strolling the paths on a dry, breezy 72-degree day, I actually felt my anxiety melting away. nnnn The sly virus surged again in late summer. Thus I am still fistbumping instead of shaking hands. I still mask in indoor spaces; a longtime hypochondriac, I am very wary of COVID’s stop-start tendencies. Jeanne and I had actually come down with COVID before the vaccines were available. Thankfully we had “mild” cases, if you call 103-degree fever, aches and coughs and chills, frequent emergency bathroom trips, and wanting to sleep all the time for eight days “mild.” The arrival of booster shots for the vaccine was encouraging. nnnn It’s been a year-and-a-half since the murder of George Floyd and less than a year since the insurrection at the Capitol in D.C. Having lived through the Kennedy and King assassinations and 9-11, I suppose I shouldn’t still be astounded by how much the tragic events of one

day can reverberate for years or decades. We are coming up on the 80th anniversary of Dec. 7, 1941, the day FDR declared would “live in infamy.” And yet, Pearl Harbor became the impetus for what would become “the American century.” For boomers like me, that “day of infamy” may actually be the reason we’re here: The baby boom of the ‘50s was a response to all the death and destruction of World War II, a declaration of hope. Does it seem hope is in shorter supply in our time, what with all our political infighting, the persistence of COVID, and the ever more apparent effects of climate change? nnnn After being out of radio for more than two years, I thought it sounded fun when Dwayne Megaw at KMSU asked if I’d like to fill one hour a month (the fourth Tuesday at 3 p.m.). Also, I’ve been trying to write music again. Working on a song called, “To be a Minnesotan.” One possible line: “To be a Minnesotan, ya gots to learn to love a loser, ‘cause the Twins and Wolves and Vikings could turn ya to a BOOZER!” nnnn My editor says I have to wrap this up (nobody ever said that to Aunt Hilda – she’d go on for two or three more pages…). In conclusion, I hope where you are that everyone’s holding steady, and I hope the supply shortage hasn’t deprived you of what you want to put under the Christmas tree. If I could, I’d wrap up good health and happiness for you, and slip that into your stocking.

Longtime radio guy Pete Steiner is now a free lance writer in Mankato.

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Mankato Magazine

Articles inside

From This Valley

Garden Chat

Beer

Lit Du Nord: Minnesota Books and Authors

This Day in History

Ann’s Fashion Fortunes

Beyond the Margin

Day Trip Destinations

Avant Guardians

Let’s Eat