Mankato Magazine

We examine the sober life through the eyes of those who live it NAMASTE Heating up with decor,DORMGRABIANOWSKIJOLINDAGetSOLARtoknowROOM101 Also in this mankatoissue: SEPTEMBER 2022 $4.99 The Free Press MEDIA magazine

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 1

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2 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

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If you’ve ever considered adding solar panels to your home, you’re in good company. More and more people in southern Minnesota are taking the solar plunge.

We snuck up on the always calm, always balanced Shandy Weimert, posing soberly at Hiniker Pond. Her radiance was captured by photographer Pat Christman.

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 3 FEATURES SEPTEMBER 2022 Volume 17, Issue 9

ABOUT THE COVER So solar

30 Dorm decor, 101 As another school year begins, we take a look at the evolution of dorm living, including tips to make freshman year cozy, comfy, happy. 26 Sobering up Not everyone needs a beer in their hand to have a good time. This month, we catch up with people who turned lives of substance use or abuse into ones built around healthy living.

4 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE DEPARTMENTS 12344016 1442 Coming Next Month 44 From This Valley My governor can beat up your governor 42 Garden Chat Let’s get canning 38 Lit Du Nord: Minnesota Books and Authors A family’s rise and fall 40 Ann’s Fashion Fortunes Beard burns, lash layers, wedding panic 24 Day Trip Destinations Hudson, WI 16 Familiar Faces Jolinda Grabianowski 14 Beyond the Margin Powwow and the unbroken circle 12 Avant Guardians Abril Marquez 7 This Day in History 6 From the Editor 36 On Tap Oktoberfest 34 Let’s Eat! Chebelita’s 8 Faces & PlacesPets!

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Fifteen years ago or so, my good friend Bob Fenske and I had an idea for a great piece of journalism that would shine a light on the world’s greatest thief, a thief who hides in plain sight, a thief who makes a lot of promises, a thief with millions of friends.

I didn’t know Bob when he was drinking, but his stories made it clear that using alcohol stole a lot from him. I grew up with an alcoholic father, the kind that drank, on bad nights, half a case of beer before stumbling off to bed. Just the other day, in fact, I was telling my daughter about my daily chores and how, after taking the garbage out, I’d have to gather up my father’s empty bottles of Pfeiffer beer and bring them to the basement. On a couple of occasions, I remember holding up one of the bottles to see if there was anything left, and taking a sip of the few drops that remained from last night’s drinking. I wanted to know what it tasted like and why he spent so much of his life with the stuff. But about this great journalism project that never got done (or started, for that matter). We wanted to do something about the dangers of alcohol, the drug that kills more people than opioids, cigarettes, meth or any otherAccordingdrug. to the Addiction Center: “Alcohol ranks number one on this list due to its accessibility and the extensive health problems and injuries associated with use. An estimated 95,000 people die from alcohol-related causes annually. In addition to causing health issues such as cancer, liver damage, hypertension, heart disease, and fetal damage, alcohol abuse increases the risk of suicide, violence and motor vehicle accidents.” That great piece of journalism never got done. Bob moved to Iowa and my ADHD mind moved on to shinier objects. I bring this up not to demonize people who consume alcohol. I consume alcohol regularly in moderation. Many people do. But for some, moderation becomes laughably impossible. And in a world that has come to embrace craft beer, locally made wine and spirit rooms — all of which are lovely and are not really the problem — it can be lonely for those whose lives simply can’t allow it anymore. This month our cover story is a serious one. We sat down with three people who are among those whose relationships with alcohol grew problematic and asked them what it’s like to live in a world where they no longer rely on a drink (or drugs) to get through a day. The results were astounding. In all three cases, these folks are living lives that are far better than when they were allowing alcohol to make all theThisdecisions.pieceisn’t meant to suggest anyone should stop frequenting breweries or bars. We’re not advocating for Mankato to become a dry city. The goal is to remind us all that, while we’re enjoying the latest IPA or blueberry Manhattan, let’s not forget our friends who can’t, or choose not to, join us.

BobAlcohol.was a recovering addict (he was also one of the best writers I’ve ever worked with).

is associate editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at 344-6386 rmurray@mankatofreepress.com.or EXECUTIVE EDITOR Joe Spear DESIGNER Christina Sankey PHOTOGRAPHER Pat Christman MAGAZINEEDITOR Robb Murray COPY EDITOR Kathy Vos PUBLISHER Steve Jameson ADVERTISINGASSISTANT Barb Wass CIRCULATIONDIRECTOR Justin Niles ADVERTISINGSALES Danny Creel Jennifer Flowers Jordan Greer-Friesz Josh TimTheresaZimmermanHaefnerKeech ADVERTISINGDESIGNER Christina Sankey CONTRIBUTORS James Figy Jean MichaelReneeDanaNickPeteAnnLeticiaLundquistGonzalezRosenquistFeeSteinerHealyMeliusBergLagerquist

6 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2022 • VOLUME 17, ISSUE 9 Mankato Magazine is published by The Free Press Media monthly at 418 South Second Street, Mankato MN 56001. To subscribe, call 1-800-657-4662 or 507-625-4451. $59.88 for 12 issues. For all editorial inquiries, call Robb Murray 507-344-6386, or emailadvertising@mankatofreepress.com.rmurray@mankatofreepress.com.Foradvertising,call344-6364,ore-mail FROM THE EDITOR By Robb Murray Cheers to the sober life

Robb Murray

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 7

Sept. 7, 1959

Several people in the area had seen three boys, later determined to be 12 and 13 years old, walking into a cornfield with rifles. After a plea went out via radio for anyone who had been shooting in the area to contact the sheriff, parents brought the three boys in. Two had been carrying air rifles, but the third had apparently taken his father’s rifle without permission, along with some .22 long cartridge bullets.

Coffee Hag revisiting its roots

A spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health said the damage didn’t only occur in Mankato but had been reported in St. Cloud and East Grand Forks. GM vehicles were affected, he said, because of the type of paint used, which takes up to a year to cure. Light-colored vehicles were more affected than dark ones, and the longer the malathion stayed on the paint, the more apparent it became. He blamed the contractor for not having “the correct size droplet coming out of the (sprayer) nozzle.”

Sept. 17, 2007 One of Mankato’s first modern coffee shops, The Coffee Hag, began serving coffee in 1992. It had switched owners at least once before Jenn Melby bought the shop in 2007. Melby said at the time that she had gotten her musical start by playing at The Coffee Hag as part of Sister Gin and wanted to take the shop back to where it began. That meant offering clear glasses for coffee drinks, vegetarian food, showings of a new local artist each month, poetry slams, tarot readings, and an open stage to feature local talent. Thirty years on, The Coffee Hag is still a successful business in Old Town. Northway Drive Mankato, MN 56003 800-729-7575 www.corpgraph.com

Half a mile east of Mankato, young Sandra Decker was playing on her father’s farm near a grove where her father was cutting wood. She was playing with her siblings, when she suddenly fell to her knees. She was taken by her father to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Mankato where it was determined that a bullet had passed through the right side of her chest without hitting a vital organ, vessel or bone.

The boys said they had been shooting at birds and trees. Sandra Decker survived, and the boys were turned over to juvenile authorities.

Sept. 10, 1983

Likely nobody likes mosquitoes, and many Mankato residents were likely happy when the Minnesota Department of Health sent some Air Force C-123s overhead with malathion that not only killed the mosquitoes, but alsoButhoneybees.ownersof General Motors vehicles were a little less happy when it was noticed that spots the size of a ballpoint pen tip appeared the day after the spray hit them.

Labor Day celebrated in Mankato

THIS DAY IN HISTORY Compiled by Jean Lundquist Fall in printingwithLoveour 1750

Sept. 1, 1902 Labor Day was first celebrated in New York City Sept. 5, 1882. By 1902, Mankato was ready to celebrate Labor Day “in a manner fitting to the day” and on a larger scale than had been attempted here. Labor Unions in the area had only been recognized the year before. Nine labor unions, including a stone cutters union from Kasota, joined in a fiveblock-long parade headed to Sibley Park for a program. Stonecutters wore their aprons, carpenters sported overalls, painters wore white suits and carried yardsticks, and Teamsters drove their teams. At Sibley Park, speakers credited the unions with obtaining reasonable working hours, safer working conditions and ending child labor. Unions also were credited for making workingmen better housed, better fed, better clothed and better educated than their predecessors.

Bullet whizzes through girl

North

Malathion spraying damages cars

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3. Friends Tegen and Lucy (left to right) have fun in the jump house at Eagle Lake Tator Days. Eagle’s Nest throws out candy at Eagle Lake Tator Days Parade. Miss Attendant and Miss Eagle Lake 2022 (left to right) at Eagle Lake Tator Days Parade. Ophelia Van Deusen has fun at Eagle Lake Tator Days. Kaelb and Neal (left to right) plays with chalk at Eagle Lake Tator Days. Miss Nicollet Eleanor Carleton, Mackenzie Regner and Hatti Hansen at the Eagle Lake Tator Days parade. Groove INC. Drummers put on a show at Eagle Lake Tator Days parade.

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Eagle Lake Tator Days

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8 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports

2. Terri Blank, Stephanie, Orin and Rya Johnson (left to right) enjoy family fun at Eagle Lake Tator Days.

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1. Miss Elysian Princesses Of The Lakes at the Eagle Lake Tator Days parade.

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3. Solomon Heppner and Deb (right to left) demonstrate how to use a twoman saw at the Blue Earth County Fair.

4. Suzie Reece from Southwest Dairy Farmers educates consumers at the Blue Earth County Fair.

1. Reagan Prescher soars through the sky at the Blue Earth County Fair.

2. Braelynn Randall and her quarter horse, Range, at the Blue Earth County Fair.

7. At the Blue Earth County Fair, Ethan Schnitker (right) shows customer Indigenius made care products from Lakota Made LCC.

5. Lexi Carey shows her pig at the Blue Earth County Fair.

6. Tia Johnson, Karl Achilles and Kepler Malwitz (left to right) put on a magic show at the Blue Earth County Fair.

Blue CountyEarthFair

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 9 FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports

8. Braya Hunstad shows her pig at the Blue Earth County Fair.

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1. Irv Smith Jr., Jalen and Jared Day enjoy a fun- filled day at LEEP Legends 2022.

6. Mankato Royals 13AA help collect softballs during the Home Run Derby.

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5. Jason Lieske of Country Financial poses with the 2022 Champions Trophy.

3. Mascots pose for a photo before the Mascot Race.

7. The Miracle League, Mark, Matt, Lynn and Jeff (left to right) enjoy a day of fun at LEEP Legends 2022.

4. Justin Day (left to right) Jalen Day, and Jared Day at LEEP Legends 2022.

10 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports Leep Legends Game 5 673 8 42

2. Nuleev employees, Karmel and Shannon (left to right) hand out samples of Nuleev’s CBD at LEEP Legends 2022.

8. Burkleigh Lieske, Erica Lieske, Brooklynn Lieske, Bauer Lieske and Lynette Williams (left to right) cheer on Jason Lieske of Country Financial.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 11 FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports North Mankato Fun Days 3 4 5 6 7 2181. Ethan Wilking (right) gets a dragon face painting done at the North Mankato Fun Days. 2. Families come together and dress up as book characters for the North Mankato Fun Days Kiddie Parade. 3. The Taylor Library staff in the North Mankato Fun Days Kiddie Parade. 4. North Mankato Kiddie Parade had families come together and dress up as book characters. 5. North Mankato Fun Days Kiddie Parade. 6. Lincoln Verdoorn builds a castle at North Mankato Fun Days. 7. Covan Panko shows off his face painting he got at North Mankato Fun Days. 8. Karmela Krenz and Adriana Martinez (left to right) show off their face painting and balloon they got at the North Mankato Fun Days.

“It’s like therapy for me; it’s working and clarifying mySheemotions.”evenshared how the process allows her to outer

who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder a year ago, says she often struggles to understand what she is feeling day to day. But art has changed that for the Waseca resident.

“In screen printing, it was really, really hard because

Some are reflective of her hospital stays for treatment or of the black and white colors that represent her feelings during that time in her life.

Before Marquez honed her expressive art skills, she said she often felt like nobody understood her because of her mental health struggles. She said had trouble expressing how she felt and would get angry. She wouldn’t talk about it.

“The reason I started doing art was because my mental health was really bad. It was a really good skill to use.”

Leticia Gonzales

“I can express myself in that moment and it makes me feelAlthoughbetter.” she has always struggled with mental health issues, Marquez said providers struggled to provide a correct“Theydiagnosis.thoughtI had ADHD, but it was just anxiety; they diagnosed me with depression, but it was bipolar.”

For 18-year-old Abril Marquez, the many paintings and art pieces she has created have provided a way for her to express her emotions when she wasn’t able to find the words to do Marquez,so.

Abril Marquez channels mental health struggles to create expressive artworks

toturmoilFrominneroutermagic

that kind of art isn’t just like drawing,” Marquez said. “It’s kind of like science in a way. You have to burn the screen for a certain amount of seconds.”

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Many of her pieces are reflections of the experiences and struggles she has had on her mental health journey.

strugglesbipolarcreatedmanyherwords

Now, she’s using her art to express herself.

Marquez’s love for art has been constant in her life since she was a child when she would check out arts and crafts books from her local library. She began sketching and drawing when she was 14 years old and has now moved into collages, printmaking and screen printing. She credits her high school art teacher, Jennifer Popp, from Waseca High School, for introducing her to the newer art mediums and styles such as lino prints. She learned how to do screen printing online.

By

to kind of art isn’t like said.

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“My first one, I was really, really nervous; it felt good to be there. Sometimes I feel like nobody cares about art, that they don’t want to even look at Althoughit.”Marquez would eventually like to create art full time, she has plans to attend cosmetology school later this year. She also would like to develop her film photography skills. “I hope that I make art for the rest of my life.”

Mankato|Mapleton 507.345.3606 MankatoIMapletonILakeCrystal

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 13 discover emotions that she didn’t know she was experiencing. Marquez channels those emotions to create art that reflects the causes that she supports, such as Black Lives Matter, My Body My Choice and other forms of activism. When it comes to printmaking, her creations can be as simple as a landscape she finds beauty in. “It’s very versatile, which is why I like it.” As a young artist, she is still learning how to navigate the local and regional art scenes. She recently started selling her art at pop-up shows around the Twin Cities.

14 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

While history’s most significant role may be to warn us about repeating past mistakes, it can also inspire with retelling of stories about great barriers overcome in the human experience.Theupcoming 50th anniversary of the Mahkato Wacipi or powwow is one such inspirational story. And it’s worth retelling.

Owen and wife Ione, Wallace and Gertrude Wells, and Ernest and Vernell Wabasha made great efforts in planning the first powwow and getting the word out to Dakota people.

Owen and others took great interest in the event, but the Dakota people were hesitant at first.“They weren’t so sure because they wondered what the motive was,” Lawrence told The Free Press in a 2012 article about the 150th anniversary of the hangings.

Dakota from across the Midwest, from California and Arizona attended the first Mahkato Wacipi (which means “dance” or powwow).“Theyreally appreciated the reconciliation activity that seemed to be taking place here,” Lawrence told The Free Press in 2012. “They thought the Mankato people were really inviting and friendly to them and that really surprised them because of the oral history that has been passed down.”

Powwow circle is unbroken BEYOND THE MARGIN

Dave Brave Heart, of Mankato, has kept the tradition strong in the last decade. Always an advocate of reconciliation, his role has been key to keeping the 50-year tradition alive. There were bumps in the relations along the way. A stone marker that lauded the hanging site as a monument to justice in 1912 was quietly removed in the decades after and sat in a Mankato warehouse until former Mayor Stan Christ removed it and took it to a place he said he will never reveal.

Bud Lawrence (left), Amos Owen (center) and Jim Buckley organized the first Mahkato Wacipi in 1972. Photo courtesy of “The Mankato Reconciliation Powwow,” by Loren Dean Boutin

Today, the event is considered the biggest off-reservation powwow in the country, drawing thousands from various states.

The U.S.-Dakota War that culminated in the hanging of 38 Dakota in Mankato on Dec. 26, 1862, stands as Mankato’s most significant historical event. It is the largest mass execution in U.S. history.Andthe reconciliation effort that started nearly a hundred years later in the 1970s with longtime Mankato businessman Bud Lawrence, community leader Jim Buckley Sr. and tribal leader Amos Owen is remarkable if not legendary.Thatthe events of 1862 could somehow bring healing between two peoples and be an example for the rest of the world seems like improbable ideas in today’s divided environment. But it has spiritual undertones, which should interestHistoryeveryone.servesus best when it is applied to the present.

The first powwow was at Key City Park, later renamed Franklin Rogers Park. The city of Mankato eventually provided more space at a park named by the Dakota people Land of Memories Park or Dakota Wokiksuye Makoce Park.

“The last group meeting here wasn’t very good 110 years before,” Lawrence said. There was a stigma attached to Mankato, Lawrence said. “They’d come back, but they’d come through at night mostly.”

Bud Lawrence, who died in 2017, and Jim Buckley, who died in 2020, were community leaders without the status of fame or even great wealth. Amos Owen, Wiyohpeyata Hoksina, who died in 1990, was a Dakota spiritual leader, advocate of Dakota culture and tribal chairman of the Prairie Island Indian Community.HeandLawrence met on a fishing trip in 1958 near Owen’s home in Red Wing by Prairie Island. They became “fishers of men” and you could say their feat was like walking on water. They eventually fostered a friendship and the idea of holding the first powwow in 1972 took hold as a kind of cultural event but also a fundraiser for the local YMCA, where Buckley was director.

The Dakota War had its own history.Andeven today, people can discuss the implications. Couchoccupying historians have raised arguments and issues from time to time on who suffered the most through loss of life and the severity of Hundredssuffering. of white settlers died, those historians argue, comparing it to “only” 38 Dakota. But 1,200 Dakota elders, women and children were marched to an internment camp at Fort Snelling in the winter of 1862-63. Many

By Joe Spear

Joe Spear is editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.comor344-6382.FollowonTwitter@jfspear. died along the way in horrific conditions.Andthere’s not a good way to estimate Native American deaths in the battlefield as the tradition was to immediately remove bodies killed in battle. The answer to these arguments are engraved in the stone bench at the Dakota memorial on Main Street and Riverfront Drive that says: “Forgive everyone everything.”Thepowwow has evolved to be a cultural tradition for Native Americans but also an educational event for non-Indian people. The event’s education day was begun in 1987 where Mankato elementary age children attend for a day of learning the Dakota culture and traditions.Fiftyyears is a long time for reconciliation to evolve. And there’s still more to do. But this coming together tradition leaves us with good history. Village e

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MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 15 Samantha Cobenais, 11, spins as she dances during Education Day at the Mankato Powwow or Mahkato Wacipi in 2021.

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Old Main

16 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE FAMILIAR FACES Photo by Pat Christman GrabianowskiJolindaAGE: Fabulous at 50! HOMETOWN: Mankato OCCUPATION: Realtor at True Real Estate CURRENT NETFLIX BINGE: “Grace and Frankie” & “Workin’ Moms”

MANKATO MAGAZINE: You had a big hand in organizing Fun Days this year. Tell us what it was like being a part of that team and pulling off a huge community event.

MM: You’re also a board member for Business on Belgrade. Tell us a bit about that organization and what you enjoy about being a part of it. JB: I had previously been involved with Blues on Belgrade as a volunteer. In 2018, I attended a Business on Belgrade Association board meeting and knew this was an organization I wanted to be part of. The historical Business on Belgrade Association mission is to promote, enhance and preserve beautiful lower North Mankato. My personal goal is to continue the efforts in the growth and development of lower North Mankato and ensure that we have a safe, vibrant community where families live, work and play. Our organization hosts three large community events each year to include Blues on Belgrade, Bier on Belgrade and Bells on Belgrade. We also co-host Bunnies on Belgrade.

MM: Why did you decide to become a Realtor, and how did you manage that career while also attending MSU and being a single mom?

Sometimes, you come across someone who exudes the kind of community spirit you wish everyone had. Jolinda Grabianowski is one of those people. When we asked her to participate in Familiar Faces, her modesty was as evident as her community spirit. She’s been very busy lately: graduating college, being a part of the North Mankato Fun Days organizing team, selling homes as a Realtor — she’s got tons of energy and even more faith in her hometown.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 17

Community cheerleader

MM: Is there anything else you wanted to mention but we didn’t ask you about?

Business on Belgrade events attract a very diverse population from all age groups, residents of our community, and many people come from surrounding communities that attend the events and spend money at the local establishments.

My goal of being a board member and advocate for the Committee Against Domestic Abuse stems from personal awareness of women close to me who have been victims of domestic abuse. Many times abuse creates a stigma, women isolate themselves and they do not seek help. My goal is to break that stigma and be a voice for those who are impacted by domestic abuse.

Compiled by Robb Murray

JB: I get asked frequently, now that I have graduated from college, what are my future career plans? My initial response is, I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. My heartfelt response is, I believe we can only determine so much of our path in life, at some point, life happens and we navigate with those changes. I am blessed to have had success in real estate and appreciate all of my clients who have had faith in me. I will continue to embrace those opportunities. I will continue to do my best in all endeavors that allow me to utilize my talents, education and passions.

JOLINDA GRABIANOWSKI: I loved being part of such a big community event! We had a really great committee that worked together to coordinate all aspects of Fun Days and the parade. When I was first asked to be part of the committee, I thought I was signing up to help coordinate the parade. After the first meeting of the minds, I was given the privilege of co-chairing the parade, assisting with some of the planning logistics of the carnival and beer gardens, engaging with businesses, civic leaders, political figures and media requests. It was also super fun working in the beer gardens checking IDs and giving out wristbands.

JB: Life has changed a lot over the past year since my youngest daughter, Ally, graduated from high school in 2021 and started college at MSUM. She was a varsity hockey player throughout her career at West. We had a lot of fun traveling and spending time with the other hockey families. This was such a large part of our lives with most nights and weekends being spent at various hockey rinks around Minnesota. We were a great group of families that did our best to encourage our daughters to play a fair and fun game.

JB: As many others experienced during the pandemic, life threw a curve ball at me and my hospice marketing position was eliminated. In the process of reviewing my strengths and also taking into consideration my experience selling my own homes in the past, I decided to pursue my real estate license. COVID impacted my home life in that my youngest daughter was also at home full time, which created a desire to try to be at home with her to navigate the pandemic together. This was great from my perspective because Ally and I got to spend so much time together, I reminded her every day how lucky she was as a teenager, being (stuck) at home with mom instead of at school with all her friends. My success in real estate exceeded my expectations, which also created the need to balance my full-time class schedule as I was pursuing my BS degree from MSUM. I will admit, I was crushing some 16-18 hour days trying to be a supportive mom, giving my best to my clients and also trying to succeed in completing my educational goals. I achieved all of these to the best of my ability. I had respectable success in real estate, my daughter and I had plenty of time together, and I graduated on the dean’s list from MSUM with my BS degree in applied leadership this past May.

My passion for serving others and helping children with food insecurities is a result of being raised by a very strong woman. I was raised in a home where our basic essential needs were very challenging to meet at times. My mom did the best she knew how to in an effort to provide for our family. When I learned of Feeding Our Communities Partners, I immediately knew this was an organization that would benefit from my own experience and desire to help those who would benefit from my efforts. Today I am on the event planning committee for Beer, Brats and Bourbon and Climb to Feed Kids as well as helping with other tasks as life allows.

MM: Anyone who follows your social media knows you’re a proud hockey mom. Give us a peek into that world. Great place to hang out? Cut-throat bunch of Karens? What’s the scoop?

MM: You’re a board member and volunteer for the Committee Against Domestic Abuse and Feeding Our Communities Partners. Can you tell us a little bit about why you got involved with those JB:organizations?

Not everyone needs a drink in their hand to have a good time By Robb Murray

Living that sober life

“I didn’t know where I fit in with life.”When she was 14, her parents enrolled her in another treatment program.“Ihadto throw clothes in a bag as fast as I could because the car was running,” she recalls. “They were not messing around. My mom was worried for my life. My dad was detached from what I had done.”Itwent like this for years. She’d get help, then relapse. Her parents would help, friends would help, she’d quit drinking and using drugs for a while only to relapse again and again.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 19

She was about 12 when she took her first drink. Canadian Windsor. A tough one to throw back for a first-timer, but there she was, 12-year-old Shandy Weimert, in the company of a good friend, the two of them just wanting a taste of what it felt like to be an adult. And it felt good. Warm, in fact. She remembers the feeling like it was yesterday. She remembers it because, for so many years after, she’d spend too much of her life chasing it, trying to get it back. That first drink led Weimert down a road darker than you could possibly imagine. Inpatient treatment dark. Suicide attempt dark. Trading sex for drugs dark. Overdosing on meth and Jack Daniels dark. The kind of dark where, even after unveiling all of this, some details are still too shameful to share. But that was years ago. That was before she figured out happiness isn’t found, as the cliche goes, at the bottom of a whisky bottle or at the end of a line of powdered cocaine. Today Weimert is healthy, happy and so far away from those dark places that she can talk frankly about most of it. More importantly, she can talk about life after addiction, which isn’t easy in a culture that glorifies alcohol use. Weimert doesn’t advocate for a culture without alcohol, doesn’t shun people who partake. She agrees most can handle alcohol in moderation.Butforher, and many others, the journey became fraught because of her addictions. Moderation wasn’t an option. In a culture where craft beer consumption and taproom social hours have become seemingly more common than ever, what becomes of those whose drug or alcohol use prohibits them from joining the rest of us? The answers may surprise you. They’re doing just fine. Shandy Weimert is doing just fine. Justin Fasnacht — a well-known personality in Mankato’s music scene who nearly died from a blood clot a few years ago because of drinking — is healthier than he’s been in years. And Chris Shatek, a former Mankato radio deejay and problem drinker, is sober and helping others do the same.There is plenty of life after recovery. These folks are proof. Rebel There is nothing strange about a 12-year-old taking a sip of alcohol. It was the years of substance abuse that followed that made Weimert’s journey unusual. She began with that Windsor, and just sort of kept going. She was raised in a Baptist household and says the strict nature of that upbringing may have set the stage for some rebelliousness. But she stops hard at laying any blame with her parents. If anything, she says, they tried many times to stop her from drinking and doing drugs. Addiction was the bigger problem. The responsibility for that, she says, lies with her. By age 13, Weimert was in treatment and tried to take her own life.

The day she hit rock bottom came 13 years ago this month. She’d gotten “wasted” and took her young son, Noah, and drove off in a drunken fury as her family watched. After that, she sought help from a friend from her past, a man named Aric True. True would later take his own life, but before he did that, he helped many people with their addiction struggles.

“He called me when I was at rock bottom and he said, ‘Call me back, you boob! Just call me right now,’” Weimert recalls. “Aric True was an essential part for getting me back to my first

meeting. He helped save my life. He really did. He was so dear to me. He was my life preserver for the first six months. I clung to that dude. He just was so solid. He helped so many people. I miss him all the Weimerttime.”finally got sober. In doing so she discovered there was a lot more to life than being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. She got into yoga, started traveling and reconnected with her family. She raised a second child who required substantial medical interventions for several years, something she says she could never have done had she been using.

“I try to imagine how I would ever fit in drinking or smoking weed into my life. How would I do it? How would I go swimming with my daughter almost every day? How would I be able to afford kayaks and paddleboards? How would I be able to take awesome mini sample vacations? I do a ton of sample trips. I love them. … I do yoga every single night almost without fail for years. It stills my mind, flows my breathing, settles my heart.” She also remains strategically social. By avoiding the latter stages of any gathering, she avoids encountering intoxicated people, the kind more likely to cajole an unwilling soul into having “just one.”

“I can always see a pattern; it’s always about coping,” she says. “It’s like, ‘This hurts, and this will make me feel better.’ And then when you come down from it, it all hurts on top of the new stuff that you’ve added to it for the guilt and shame and all of the remorse. It’s a cycle that never stops.”

“I leave when things are still good. I don’t see the ugly side of the end of the night, the midnight hour when no good comes of it.” She’s also nearly eliminated her presence on social media. The toxicity of it all bothered her, and the countless posts with people posing at pubs with full glasses of the stuff that ruined her life didn’t help.Still, if anyone asks about her substance-free life, she remains an open book. She says people sometimes seek her out for advice about quitting a habit that has killed people.

“I talk about where my life is now,” she says. “Everything good in my life is because I’m sober. I would lose every single thing. I almost lost my marriage. I almost lost my home. I almost lost my career.”

“I’ve been three years sober of alcohol. And then I made a pact with myself that I would quit cigarettes a year later. So now I’m two years sober of all nicotine. And then a year after that I decided to get off of Facebook. They provide a bad, anxiety-driven atmosphere for a lot of people. And I don’t want to be part of that.

Overall, though, he’s happy with where he is, especially his health.

“And so becoming sober has allowed me to really become more in touch with who I am and what I believe in and knowing that I can stick up for my values and stick up for other people and not have to worry about any backlash.” He reflects on how lucky he was when his health took a hit.

Fuzzy Talks

In the summer of 2019, Justin Fasnacht went to the doctor for pain in his knee. He left with a grim diagnosis. He had a blood clot in his leg that, if not treated immediately, could kill him. The cause? Excessive drinking. Fasnacht was a regular at downtown pubs and taverns. Wherever there was music playing, Fasnacht was there, usually with a 16-ounce tall boy in his grip. On a normal night, he might finish six of those or more, along with a few whiskeyFasnacht’sshots.presence at live music events was almost soothing; he was the kind of guy who let you know you were in the right place that night. If Fuzzy was there (as he’s known among friends), you knew you’d picked the right venue. That was then. These days, you won’t find Fuzzy at any venues. Because he knows if he drinks anymore, the progress he’s made in reclaiming his health could be lost. Or worse. In a Free Press Media podcast recorded in September of 2019, he confessed that if he hadn’t changed his ways, he could have drunk himself to death. “I had to go through six months of being on blood thinners to clear up that blood clot,” he says. “And during that time, I absolutely could not drink because my blood was tooHisthin.”doctor told him that, once the blood clot clears up, he could go back to having an occasional beer. But Fuzzy says he knew himself too well to think an “occasional” beer was possible. “I just turned to her and told her, ‘I don’t think I can do that.’ And she’s like ‘Why not?’ And I said, Well, if I have one, I have to have another one. Then I’ll have to have another one after that, and I won’t stop drinking until 3 in the morning,’” Fuzzy says. “And she just kind of turns to me and says, ‘Well, if you can’t have just one, you probably should stop.’”

“I am just really thankful to the universe that I’m able to start hanging out with my mom and dad again and be happy and not be crabby all the time,” he says.

“COVIDhelped.was a little bit of a blessing in disguise because it helped me not have to worry about missing things at the bars or missing anything because I couldn’t be out because of COVID.”

“I miss everybody and I miss going to shows, but I don’t miss being drunk. I don’t miss the alcohol life,” he says. “Now when I wake up, I’m just happy. I’m not hungover. I’ll wake up at 7 or 8 just automatically without even putting on an alarm. Before I wouldn’t wake up until like 2 in the afternoon. No matter how early I went to bed or how late I stayed up. I was sleeping my days away.”Getting sober also brought him closer to his family. He recalls that in his drinking days any gathering with his family would have him counting the minutes until he could head to a bar and start drinking.

Justin Fasnacht quit drinking in 2019 after a health emergency. Today he’s happier and healthier than ever.

But when things started opening up again and the usual suspects were heading back out to live music venues, Fuzzy wasn’t among them. And that was hard for him. Still is, in some ways. He doesn’t begrudge anyone going out for drinks and a good time. But he misses the people and wishes he still had those connections in his life.

20 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE condition, could be fatal for him. This took a solitary existence and turned it into a lonely one. But in a way, it

Things are different now.

So that’s what he did. Fuzzy, a man who’d been drinking upwards 100 ounces of beer nightly quit cold turkey.“Itold myself I should just label myself an alcoholic and not drink anymore. Calling myself an alcoholic would make it easier because then I would have an excuse for myself to quit.” Around the time he quit, he got some advice from the father of a friend of his who was also struggling with alcoholism and quitting. He’d told Fuzzy to think of drinking in terms of this mantra: One is too many, and 1,000 is never enough. Meaning: One drink is all it takes to start you down the road to addiction.Fuzzy’s journey hasn’t been easy. One of the things that made him happiest, he says, is socializing with his friends. Not long after he got sober, COVID shut the world down. When it did, his doctor warned him that the virus, because of his

These days, story time at the Shatek household is different, too. When mom and dad were drinking, they’d rush through stories in order to get their daughter to bed so they could get to the alcohol.

“When I was drinking on a regular basis, I’d wake up feeling hungover and the mental fog was so bad. I never felt clear headed. And now I feel like my brain is sharper than it has been since high school. It’s firing on all Eliminatingcylinders.”alcohol,Shatek says, allowed him the chance to take charge. When he was drinking daily, he says he felt like life was “happening to” him. “I make my life happen the way that I want it to. I’m much more present for my daughter and for my wife.”Shatek says he began to bristle at the thought of how he looks to his young daughter. “She was getting to the point where she was like, ‘Dad, we’re out of beer. Can we go to the beer store?’” he says. “She was drawing pictures of me sitting on the couch with a drink in my hand. And that stung. I didn’t want my daughter to grow up having her father not be there and be a drinker.”

Shatek calls himself a sober life coach. He offers one-on-one coaching to people like him, functioning drinkers who want to cut back on their consumption or eliminate it altogether. He says he doesn’t work with people who wake up and drink all day long because that’s not the kind of drinker he was.Instead he works with people whose drinking issues may not necessarily be visible to the outside world, but whose health is not great, whose income takes a hit every night at the pub, or whose relationships are suffering in subtle, or not so subtle, ways. Sometimes he helps people without even knowing.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 21

Shatek is 39 now. And he’d be the first to tell you his life now — alcohol free — is better than ever. In June, Shatek hit the one-year mark for his sobriety. He left the radio business and decided he wanted to make a living helping people get rid of the one thing that kept him from being happy and healthy: drinking.

“I worked in the radio business for 22 years,” says former Mankato deejay Chris Shatek. “Throughout my radio career I started drinking heavier and heavier, and I actually suffered from alcohol use disorder for the better part of 15 years. I was what you would call a functioning drinker. I don’t really like the term alcoholic. It’s got a very negative sort of connotation that goes with it, but I was a problem drinker. I was drinking way more than I should have been, and it was making me miserable.”

“I’ve had many people — old friends or acquaintances, even strangers — message me and say, ‘I’ve been following you for a while and really relate to what you’re saying. You’ve inspired me to cut back or quit drinking.’

A helping hand

Looking back on his life, Shatek says it took him years to fully realize the impact alcohol use was having on him.

“It was affecting pretty much every area of my life.” And once he quit, he noticed positive changes immediately.

“Getting the blood clot was absolutely the best thing the universe could provide me at the time,” he says. “It was scary to possibly lose my life or lose my leg. But it absolutely woke me up to the dangers that I was putting myself in.”

“I decided to go into the world of helping people become alcohol free. It’s kind of my business now as I help people change their relationship with alcohol and take charge of their life. So that was a little over a year ago that I made that decision having not had a drop of alcohol since June 20 of last year. It’s been the best year of my life. I’ve gotten my business up and running now, and I’m helping other people do the same.”

Now, it’s different. Better. “Now we laugh, we play, we read character voices,” he says. “We really enjoy our time with our daughter rather than just focusing on ‘All right, when can we drink?’

“And that’s been the best part of all this. When people say they’re seeing my content on social media and it’s making a difference? That kind of makes it all worthwhile.” MM

Chris Shatek (left) quit drinking about a year ago and today helps people do the same. He’s shown here with is daughter and wife.

So there’s no doubt about it that it’s made us better parents.”

22 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE REFLECTIONS By Pat Christman

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 23

It won’t be long before area crops will be ready for harvest. There’s a lot of growing to be done before that can happen. Green fields of soybeans and tall, tassled stalks of corn have to produce their bounty. That’s going to take a lot of sun, some rain and a little bit of time. MM

Town’s name changed several times, but now reflects similarity to New York’s Hudson River

from

Among the downtown shops to visit are Knoke’s Chocolates and Nuts, which features ice cream and old-fashioned candy, and is a guest favorite. Also check out The Bees Knees, a fun, woman-owned When you plan a trip to Hudson, WI — just across the border on I-94 — you might want to make a weekend of it. There’s a lot to do in Hudson. Submitted photos

Potter, president of the Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau, said Hudson offers a “small-town feel with all the amenities that everyone needs.”

“One of the many things I love about Hudson is the variety,” Potter said. “We have a beautiful, historic downtown with shops that have been here a very long time, and we also invite our guests to go up on the hill where we have a growing shopping area.”

24 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE DAY TRIP DESTINATIONS

Greetings

By Renee Berg

A full menu of history, dining and fun

Whether it’s on foot, by trolley or by bike, you won’t be disappointed when you take in the natural beauty and splendor of Hudson, Wisconsin, just an hour and a half away from Mankato.MaryClaire

For “Schitt’s Creek” fans, you might find yourself drawn to the Royal Inn, which reminds Potter of the motel featured in the quirky “Schitt’s Creek” TV series. If outdoor recreation is more your speed, Willow River State Park is great for hiking, biking and seeing the natural splendor of waterfalls. There are 11 parks throughout St. Croix County, so you won’t be left wanting when the outdoors beckons you. You can also take in the beauty of Hudson by trolley, with Hudson Trolley Company offering a variety of themed tours from historic to Christmas. River cruises are another option. In September, there’s the popular annual Spirit of the St. Croix Art Festival, which is scheduled for Sept. 24-25 and draws as many as 8,500 people. With 80 artists, live entertainment, and food and beverages available, this makes for the perfect weekend get away.

There’s plenty to do in historic downtown Hudson, but don’t forget to enjoy the area’s physical beauty. Vine, Hop and Barrel Brewing, Lucky Guys Distillery and just up the road in River Falls, Tattersall Distilling, which is spacious at 7,600 square feet with indoor and outdoor dining options and live entertainment.Choosinglodging is fairly easy here with a variety of hotels to choose from. There are several chains, and for something more historic there’s the Phipp’s Inn Bed and Breakfast downtown.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 25 boutique with all sorts of gifts and treasures. La Rue Marche, The 715 and the Hudson Flower Shop are must-sees for visitors as well, along with Kudos and Grand Fete, where you can find everything you need for your kitchen, from pans to spices and oils. When it’s time to eat, consider Pier 500, which overlooks the glittering St. Croix River for which Hudson is famous. In fact, when the town was first settled in 1840, it was originally known as Willow River. The name was later changed to Buena Vista for its beautiful view, but finally, in 1852 town leaders decided to rename the town Hudson because “many travelers had noticed the St. Croix River reminded them of the New York Hudson River,” Potter said. But let’s get back to your dining experience. Try the San Pedro Cafe, which features Caribbean fare. Next door is Pedro’s del Este, with small plates and specialty cocktails and beautiful outdoor seating to enjoy on warm fall days. There they have even created an enclosed patio section for outdoor dining during the colder winter months.Another eatery you should try to visit during your Hudson stay is the Black Rooster Bistro, where meats, beer, wine and food are locally sourced by a well-known chef, Rick Frazer, who is formerly the executive chef at The St. Paul Grill in The St. Paul Hotel. Frazer and his wife own and operate the Black Rooster Bistro, and it has become quite a popular gathering place.Dick’s Bar & Grill is another longtime business to check out and is one of the oldest saloons in Wisconsin. LoLo American Kitchen & Craft Bar is a good choice, as is Post-American Eatery, which is a repurposed restaurant inside an old post office. At Wolfy’s Butcher Shop & Deli there are lunch specials and food such as meats and salads you can bring home.“They have great pre-packaged items for those people who don’t like to cook,” Potter said. “It makes it very easy to have a great meal.”

Bricks Neapolitan Pizza has fabulous oven-cooked pizzas, and Barker’s Bar & Grill is a favorite spot for burgers, sandwiches and beer.For live music, check out Ziggy’s, Dick’s, Urban Olive &

Renee Berg is a general assignment reporter for The Free Press. A graduate of Minnesota State University, she is mom to two teenagers and two cats.

When high school seniors make that leap from the cozy, safe and familiar confines of home to the uncertain world of strangers, roommates and blank walls, it helps to bring a little piece of home as an

By Robb Murray |

When Emma Johnson set sail for college, she brought with her the things that remind her of home. And when she’s at home, there’s usually a book nearby.

anchor — like talismans reminding them of the confidence and abilities that got them this far. “For me it was important to have things that reminded me of home, especially since I just moved out of state,” says Johnson, who just started her sophomore year and has moved on to apartment living. She says the touches from home were important not just to her, but to her roommates; it gave them a sense of who she was. And as she surveyed the belongings of others, she learned a little bit about them.

26 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

“When I would go into my suitemate’s room, she had a huge Abbey Road poster and a bunch of photos of her friends and family,” Johnson recalls. “So it was a good conversation starter.”

Dorm Decor-101

“My mom made fun of me for bringing so many books,” she says of moving to campus last fall. “But since I’m a creative writing student, I liked being able to have books that were favorites to me.” The books, though, weren’t just there to give Johnson reading material. They were a tangible, physical link to home.

Some things about dorm living have changed; some have stayed the same

Moving into a dorm room or residence hall can be This model residence hall room at Minnesota State University gives potential residents an idea of what a tastefully decorated room can look like.

Photo by Pat Christman

Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, rooms weren’t likely to have temperature control. Now, it’s never too hot or too cold in a residence hall. Also, there was a time when, if a student wanted a lofted bed, they needed to rent a loft kit. At MSU, there’d be a moving truck parked outside the res halls with a guy ready to rent them out. Today, however, the beds in the residence halls come loft ready. “It’s kind of like a bunk bed with no bottom bunk, so the bed is higher,” Janney says. “That allows students to put furnishings underneath.” That setup is common one. The underside of a lofted bed often becomes an entertainment center. Janney says she’s seen students bring 70-inch TVs into their livingOnespace.itemstudents don’t bring, however, is stereos.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 27 harrowing, anxiety-inducing and just plain scary.

Taking time to make your space your own can infuse freshman year with a sense of calm, so you can focus on the task at hand: studying. We touched base with interior designer Heather Clark and Minnesota State University’s Director of Residential Life Cindy Janney to get the lowdown on how best to make your space your own, and about how the university has listened to the concerns and whims of students over the years as dorm life has evolved.

There was a time when having a kickin’ stereo — with amplifier, CD player, tuner, the works — was a musthave.“They don’t even own their own music; they just subscribe,” she says, referring to pay services such as Spotify or Apple Music. And instead of giant speakers, they prefer earbuds, air pods or noise-canceling headphones.Speakingof streaming services, the residence halls provide free access to services such Netflix. It’s all part of the modern residential life experience. Oh, and the rooms also have sinks and bathrooms. Nothing new there.

The director Cindy Janney has been working in residential life for many years. In two decades of watching students move in and move out, she’s learned a lot about how 18- to 20-year-olds live. She says that while most young people have never had to live with a sibling, almost all incoming freshmen request a roommate. (The number of students requesting single rooms is growing slightly, but the overwhelming majority want to room with someone.)

The designer Heather Clark is an interior designer in Mankato and former owner of the Salvage Sisters store in Old Town. When decorating and designing in a dorm room, one overriding factor will dictate what can be done: The room is Havingtiny.said that, there are many ways to brighten up, liven up and freshen up even the smallest of spaces. “When it comes to designing small spaces, design is really moving toward small footprints, very efficient, economical designs,” Clark says. “With tiny homes and

container living, we’re seeing more and more what it’s like to live in a small footprint. I know more people that have bought vans to live in in the last five years. So living in a van down by the river is becoming cool. And the way that they’re organizing their space — it’s incredible to see how they use every inch of it.”

“Yes, really thinking about using every last inch of space using hooks, cubbies, bins, things that are multifunctional such as storage ottomans where you can use that as a chair but then also you can store things. That will help maximize the space you have.”

Another look Clark recommends is something called “vintage lodge.”

“Then you can really customize the space to your own,” Clark says.

“This one was actually inspired by my son’s bedroom,” she says. “I put together this really cool look for a boy’s room. The look was sparked by discovering some old, vintagey blankets she found that had sat untouched at her father’s home for about 20 years. Using that as inspiration, she crafted a look that oozes old school cabin vibes. An old radio, a hockey stick, a simple wooden desk with clean lines and functional drawers.

As someone who just a year ago was going through all the excitement of moving into a dorm room, Johnson recalls the things that worked.

So that’s the key: maximizing use of tiny spaces but being efficient and stylish about it.

28 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE Moving?....Call Karla and Start Packing! Consistently a Top-Producing Agent in the Greater Mankato Area 507.345.4040 Karla Van Eman, ABR,Owner/BrokerCRS,GRI 510 Long Street, Ste. 104, Mankato, www.MankatoRealEstate.comMN ForFullSchedule, VisitDCSMDANCE.COM 1400MadisonAve#318 507-625-2005 Tap/Jazz 1-2 Thursday7:30-8:25 Tap/Jazz3-4 Thursday7:00-7:55 Freeregistrationwiththisad Lyrical/Ballet Thursday6:30-7:25 Pointe Tuesday8:00-8:30 Mankato2022-2023DanceSchedule ClassesstartSeptember6th! RegistrationsaccepteduntilOct.1stfortheperformancedanceclasseslistedbelow. Sessiondanceclassesarelistedseparately. Non-Performing TechniqueClasses BalletTech Musthavedanceexperience. BalletTech1 Monday6:00-6:55 BalletTech2 Tuesday5:30-6:25 BalletTech3 Tuesday6:30-8:00 BalletTechnique Saturday11:00-11:55 Leaps&Turns Sat.10:00-10:55 AdvancedTechnique Ages12+,Sat12:00-12:30 Tumbling Saturday8:00-8:55 BalletClasses Instructorrecommendations *PinkBalletShoesrequired BeginnerBalletAges5+ Tuesday6:00-6:55 Pointe (approvalonly) Tuesday8:00-8:55 IntermediateBallet Thursday4:30-5:35 Pre-Pointe (approvalonly) Tuesday5:00-5:30 Lyrical/Ballet Thursday6:30-7:25 HipHopClasses Ages6+InstructorRecommendation HipHop1-2 Tuesday7:00-7:55 Wednesday6:00-6:55 BoysIntermediateHipHop &HipHop3/4 Thursday6:00-6:55 BoysClasses $30perMonth Beg.Combo(Tap,Jazz,HipHop) Ages5+ Wed5:00-5:55 Inter.HipHopAges9+ Thurs6:00-6:55 Inter.Tap/JazzAges9+ Thurs7:00-7:55 WinterFrost *StartsJan4th $40/month&Performs intheSpringRecital PerformsintheSpring Recital.Blacktapandblack balletshoesrequired WinterFrostAges3+ Wednesday6:00-6:45 OR Saturday11:00-11:45 **NoRegistrationFee AdultClasses $50permonthor $15perdropinclass AdultTap Monday7:00-7:55 AdultSamplerClass *Jazz,Tap,HipHop,Ballet Saturday10:00-10:55am DayTimeCombos **StartOctober5** Ballet,Jazz,andTap $40/month ComboEAges5-6 Wednesday1:45-2:30 ComboDAges7+ Wednesday2:30-3:15 *SubjectduetoInstructoravailability SmallChildren’Classes WeeDancers Ages2-3 Designedtointroducemusicandmovement throughbasicdanceandcreativemovement activities.Blackballetshoesrequired. Saturday10:00-10:30 TinyBallerinas Ages3-5 Pinkballetshoesrequired Tuesday5:00-5:30 Saturday10:30-11:00 PreschoolMovement Ages3-4 Developmotorskills,sociabilitywhilegiving afun,hands-onintroductiontotheworldof dance.Blacktapandballetshoesrequired. Tuesday5:30-6:00 Saturday11:00-11:30 *TakeeitherWeeorPreANDTinyBallerinas andgetthesecondclassfor$27permonth.* ComboClasses Ballet,Jazz,andTap*Blackshoesrequired ComboAAges5-6 ComboBAges7-8 Monday5:15-6:00 Wed.5:00-5:55 Wednesday5:00-5:45 Saturday11:30-12:15 ComboCAges9-10 Thursday5:30-6:25 Tap/JazzClass *BlackTapandJazzShoesrequired Tap/Jazz1 Tap/Jazz2 Thursday7:30-8:25 Thursday7:30-8:25 ForFullSchedule, VisitDCSMDANCE.COM

One of the up-and-coming design aesthetics is something called “boho,” which is right in the wheelhouse for incoming freshmen.Why?“It’slike the ‘90s look,” Clark says. “It’s in every thrift store in southern Minnesota. It’s everything that parents have been tearing out of their house for the last 10 years and remodeling because it’s what they thought was the design trend. And now it’s switching back to what they just tore out.”

The student

Moving beyond vintage, Clark recommends using local artists to build a unique look. You’ll not only be supporting the work of southern Minnesota folks, but injecting your living space with color, talent and one-of-a-kind artwork.

The Vintage Lodge look is a great idea for people who want a rustic look.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 29 Joint Replacement Surgery Important Choice, EasyDecision For quality care, close to home, it’s OrthoEdge . The OrthoEdge Joint Replacement Program features two of the most experienced orthopaedic care providers in the area, The Orthopaedic& Fracture Clinic and River’s Edge Hospital. • 3,000 successful hip, knee and other orthopaedic surgeries • 245 years of combined orthopaedic surgery experience • 1 of 13 hospitals in the nation accredited as a hip and knee replacement center of Gettingexcellencethecare you deserve and trust, close to home, makes OrthoEdge the right choice for joint replacement surgery. Learn more at OrthoEdgeMN.com Recognized for Being the Best! River’s Edge Hospital has been recognized as a DNV GL Healthcare certified Orthopaedic Center of Excellence for: • Hip & ReplacementKnee • Shoulder Surgery • Spine Surgery Plus, River’s Edge Hospital is top rated for patient experience! 10 10 YEARS INA ROW! VOTED BEST 

Vintage lodge

“Definitely use Command Strips,” she says of the 3M product for hanging stuff on walls. “Those are soSheimportant.”saysshe hung stuff on her walls but didn’t go crazy with it. “Some people’s rooms I went into, their whole wall was filled. I kind of kept a minimal design to it. I didn’t want my whole wall to be covered. But I still had those certain touches of home. Johnson urges students to not be afraid to bring and display the things that make them happy. There are likely to be times when they need the comfort of a favorite book, blanket, videogame, etc. “You’re on your own for the first time, and if you don’t go home as often, I think it’s important to have those reminders of who you are. And you can always add stuff. You can always change it when you go home for Christmas or spring break. You can always bring or take whatever you don’t need. “But I think people should bring whatever makes them happy and comfortable. And keep it clean. Don’t make too much of a mess.” MM

By Michael Lagerquist

“Honestly, the reason that we were interested in it was, if it didn’t cost a lot of money, we cared about the future generation,” she said. “That’s really the reason we did it.” “We’ve got one grandchild with us right now,” Kevin added. “And this is why we’re doing it, more than for us.”

Mankatoans say choosing solar power is the right thing to do

30 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Letting the sun shine in

The residential solar market experienced its fifth Kevin Swanson would love to tell you all about putting solar panels on your house. It’s a feature that is becoming more and more common as homeowners realize savings. Submitted photos.

As a certified public accountant, Jody Swanson can give you several good financial reasons to at least investigate installing solar panels on your home. Ultimately, however, the reason she and husband Kevin switched to solar on their home north of Mankato was much more personal.

consecutive record year in 2021, according to Solar Energy Industries Association (seia.org), growing 30% over 2020 levels.

The cost to install solar has dropped by more than 60 percent over the last decade. This means the average time to recoup installation costs is generally under 10 years. In addition to feeling it’s the right thing to do, numbers like this fire up Jody Swanson’s inner CPA.“When the CPA crunched the numbers, it’s a heck of an investment. Frankly, it’s one of the most fun, good investments that we’veLeighmade.”Pomeroy, of Mankato, first became intrigued with solar energy when Gustavus Adolphus College’s Nobel Conference focused on energy about a dozen years ago, he said. Several circumstances came together to make the change feasible. A tree on their property had to come down and that better exposed a south-facing roof, which is optimal for solar collection. If your roof doesn’t face the right direction, he said, most reputable installers will look for alternate locations or discourage adding solar panels. More on this later. They had already installed a metal roof on their house. Because that roof was put over the old roof with a small gap between the original, it increased the roof’s insulating power. “When we put the metal roof on, even though it was expensive up front, our house insurance dropped. Our energy use dropped because we’re using less energy,” he said. “So it’s paid for itself.” That’s also when they had their first solar panels installed. Then when they purchased an electric vehicle they experienced greater energy needs for recharging. That’s also when his wife retired. They added additional panels, bringing their total to 24. They took advantage of federal and state tax credits that lowered initial costs every step of the“Myway.argument is, if you can do it, do it,” Pomeroy said. “Because it pays off financially in the long run. And because it’s the right thing to Pomeroydo.”and the Swansons all recommend that interested Kevin Swanson discusses the finer points of solar energy to some interesting folks.

Mankato resident (and Mankato Magazine contributor) Leigh Pomeroy has a home outfitted with solar panels homeowners should educate themselves on residential solar and talk early and often with prospective solar installers. One early step would be to visit the University of Minnesota website that allows people to check the feasibility of solar on their property (https://solar.maps.umn. edu/).Although pandemic-related issues have increased prices of solar panels recently, as those issues pass, and technology and interest increase, prices could turn down again. Tim Zinniel of Zinniel Electric in Morgan installed Pomeroy’s

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 31

Leigh Pomeroy

Solar panels are visible on the roof of Kevin and Jody Swanson’s Mankato home.

Tim Zinniel panels and has seen installing solar to be a nice addition to regular jobs his company does. His parents started the business on the family farm in 1978. In about 2008 or 2010, Zinniel started looking for the next up-andcoming electrical specialty. He took courses at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and realized solar was it for him.

“It’s something that I really, really enjoy,” Zinniel said. “It’s taking something that, you’re literally looking at and it sits there, and it creates electricity.”

“There’s no real average customer as everyone’s property and experience and energy usages is different,” said Gary Winters of Minnesota Solar of Mankato.

Second, he looks at their property to determine if solar options will meet their expectations. He said he’s disappointed when solar is not the answer, but he won’t raise their expectations if he can’t meet them.Ifrooftops don’t provide good exposure, Zinniel said he will investigate going with groundbased panel systems, which are easier to install and maintain. These installations must meet all local zoning restrictions, however, including wetland setbacks in rural areas. At the least, wiring must be shielded and in some cases walls or shrubbery put around them to provide screening.

“With solar you become a producer, not just a consumer of power, and you level your cost of power over time.” When people work with their utility provider, they send back to them the power you generate but don’t use. Solar products are often warrantied for 25-30 years, though they continue to generate electricity of up to 80 percent of original capacity for many years after that. After buyers have paid off their purchase, they can make money from energy sold to the producers.

When he meets with prospective customers, he makes two assessments. First, how much do they know about solar and what are their expectations? He wants to meet them where they are.

32 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

“We do sell and install off-grid systems, primarily for smallerusage situations like camping, boating, extra power in an outbuilding and so forth,” Winters said. “To take an average home entirely off the grid is generally more money than most people want to spend” because they don’t realize how much power they consume.Evenif you’re not looking at solar, or if solar options won’t cover your current energy costs, Winters also encourages taking advantage of the Energy Star program and other steps to reduce usage. As an example, he said he installed a heat pump water heater in his house last year. The energy saved is like installing seven more solar panels on his Finally,house.ifsomeone can’t install solar but still wants to do their part, they can inquire about contracting with a community solar“(Developers)garden. get people to subscribe to them to basically pay back on their investment. And in the meantime, when they’re doing that, (subscribers) are getting a reduced rate on their energy bill as well. So it’s kind of a win-win for everybody,” Zinniel said. Check with your utility for details. MM

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“In fact, the longer you have your solar system, the higher grid power rates go, bigger the return on investment,” he said. Even when generating power in excess of your own needs, he said, there will be other fees charged by your utility provider that must be taken into account.

the

Jody Swanson looks at making money off the purchase in a different way: “I feel like I have a rental property on my roof. You know, and the tenants don’t move. You don’t have to clean it out betweenBecausethem.”there are no moving parts, maintenance is virtually nonexistent, everyone said. With warranties, and with good service provided by a network of installers who strongly support each other in promoting solar, Zinniel said, options are plentiful for customers looking to either stay on the grid or – as is becoming more common with battery technology increasing – to go off the electric grid completely.

Isabel Vazquez smiled brightly, sitting next to 18-yearold daughter Jennifer Ortiz. “We make a good team,” said Ortiz, who soon heads into her senior year at Le Sueur-Henderson High School. She often serves as interpreter and translator for her mother at the family’s downtown Le Sueur restaurant and groceryVasquezstore.serves as owner-operator and general manager of the business, open since 2016 at 109 Bridge St., directly across from the recently renovated downtown mall site. But it hasn’t always been a restaurant.Thefamily’s evolution into the food business began when family members visited the community and frequented Irene Bonilla’s boutique, a small shop where Chabelia’s would eventually rise. Vasquez and family were looking to move from north Minneapolis where she had co-owned and operated her own shop, Isabel’s, for At Chabelita’s, it’s oh so yummy

Dana Melius

“She always wanted to own a restaurant since she was little,” Ortiz said. “And she thought this town could really use a Mexican restaurant.” Le Sueur truly needed any kind of restaurant, as cafe closures and the demise of the old Valley Green Square Mall left few food options for residents. Today, Isabel Vazquez (right), owner and manager of Chabelita's, sits in her downtown Le Sueur with daughter Jennifer Ortiz.

SOUTHERN MN STYLE

LET'S EAT!

Mexican restaurant in Le Sueur built on teamwork threeBonilla,years.too, was looking at getting out of the boutique business and moving. The two connected and soon the Vasquez family moved Isabel’s to Le Sueur, selling clothing and miscellaneous items, including Mexican candies and beverages.

By

Changing the store name to Chabelita’s – Isabel’s nickname from time to time over the years – the boutique business started slowly. A move into selling specialty fruit items and drinks began to turn things around for the family.Butit was the restaurant that Vasquez longed to open.

34 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE Beer&Food

HOMEIMPROVEMENT Hello

Chabelita’s remains part of revitalized downtown, as a 2020 sale of the mall and the reopening of Main Street for the first time since 1975 provide a renewed excitement in Le WhileSueur.ittook years for Vasquez to realize her hopes and dreams of opening a restaurant, her love of cooking and serving began decades earlier.“When we lived in Atlanta, she just loved to cook,” Ortiz said. Her mother’s reputation for preparing great Mexican food touched the neighborhood, and she was soon providing meals for nearby construction workers.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 35

“I’ve learned a lot over here,” Ortiz said. “It really helped my anxiety.” Helping out on the grocery side is her grandfather Gustavo Vasquez. The grocery store is adjacent to the restaurant. The family opened up the two businesses, and now customers can move freely between the two.

A small business loan in 2017 from the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation helped grow Chabelita’s, which invested in a new kitchen hood, expanding the restaurant’s menu options. The loan was recently paid off, Vasques said, but the learning curve still took time.

A divorce, the departure of a trained cook, and moving through the COVID-19 pandemic provided obstacles for the family. But the community has stuck with them, Ortiz

“A lot of the kids like to come here and buy the candies,” Ortiz said.

While “we try to keep it just family” running the two stores, according to Ortiz, her mother longs to improve her English and hopes to find another cook, which would ease Vasquez’s work schedule. For the family, there’s hope Chabelita’s will be around in Le Sueur for years to “That’scome. what she’s hoping for,” Ortiz said. “It’s cost her a lot of time and money, but she’s hoping that it will.“And I think it will. I believe in her.” Chabelita’s Yummy Foods & Fruit Where: 109 Bridge Street, Le Sueur What they’re known for: Authentic Mexican cuisine, fruity treats When: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 507-387-3055 MNVALLEYFCU.COOP

EQUAL HOUSING LENDER NMLS ID 504851 FEDERALLY INSURED BY NCUA Chabelita’s opened in 2017 and features a full menu of Mexican cuisine.

“It was a big process,” Ortiz said, translating for her mother. “It took a long time … Now, she wants to make it bigger and have more options.”

Ask to speak to a loan officer about our low rate HELOC loans.

“It’sstressed.kindoflike family here (in Le Sueur),” she said. And the 18-yearold’s own growth while helping the family business has been a big plus, she said.

Don’t mess with the Fest ON TAP

By James Figy

Typically when a plan seems foolproof, you haven’t factored yourself into the equation. That was the case in writing this article. I wanted to find the Minnesota brewery reinventing Oktoberfest. Who was adding mango puree to Märzen, serving schnitzel egg rolls or hiring a DJ to remix polka standards?Theheadline would be: “Not your Opa’s Oktoberfest.” I contacted the usual suspects in the Minnesota River Valley. I reached out to other contacts around the state. Finally I emailed Brian Kaufenberg, creative director at Beer Dabbler. No one fit the bill. “Since it’s such a tradition, most folks are sticking with tried-and-true recipes and approaches,” Kaufenberg replied. I was the fool. But the answer wasn’t completely satisfying. To understand, I needed to talk to a brewery that fully embraces the traditions. This led me to Erin Hutton and Tom Giesen of Giesenbräu Bier Co.

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During a Giesenbräu Oktoberfest, staff and patrons

“Of all the parties in the world, Oktoberfest has the biggest reputation as the best party,” Hutton said, sitting in his New Prague biergarten one July afternoon, pint glasses sweating on the “Anybodytable. who’s been there has had a great time, and if it's the best party in the world, why would you want to stray from that?”

Erin Hutton and Tom Giesen of Giesenbrau Beir Co. have won several awards for their tradition German beers.

After returning from Germany, Hutton worked at a microbrewery in the Denver area that made beer flavored to resemble, say, Hawaiian pizza or Lucky Charms. He decided that when it was time to open his own brewery, it would resemble a beer hall.

“Anybody going to an Oktoberfest in the U.S. — they don't want to show up and see a rock band and a taco truck,” said Giesen, who’s Hutton’s brother-in-law. “They want that tradition.”

And for their family, German beer culture is personal.

After marrying and starting a family, the Huttons moved to Anna’s hometown of New Prague. Recruiting Giesen and his wife, Becka, they opened Giesenbräu in 2017 to make “bier-flavored beer.”

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 37

The first Oktoberfest occured in 1810 as part of a wedding celebration for Bavarian royalty, replete with feasts, parades and horse races. The locals enjoyed the festivities so much that they decided to reprise them the next year and the one after that.

Hutton, owner-operator and brewer, and Giesen, brewer, took home two second-place medals in the 2021 MN Brewers Cup by sticking with European styles and using imported Weyermann malts. Their Festbier is no different.Only“the Big Six” are allowed to call their beers

Oktoberfestbier: Augustiner, Hacker-Pschor, Löwenbräu, Paulaner, Spaten and Hofbräuhaus. But many, including Giesenbräu, follow their lead when makingSpatenFestbier.debuted the first Märzenbier at the 1841 Oktoberfest, and the amber lager became the festival’s official beverage in 1872. In the 1970s, however, these Bavarian breweries shifted from the caramel-colored concoction toward lighter, crisper flavors. Today’s Festbier leans much less on Munich malt but offers the same ABV punch.

“A lot of people confuse Märzen and Festbier,” Hutton said.Of course, Märzenbier (“March beer”) was around long before the 1800s. The term applied to beers brewed

James Figy is a writer and beer enthusiast based in St. Paul. He is a graduate of the creative writing MFA program at Minnesota State University. before the cutoff imposed by a 1553 Bavarian ducal decree. Brewing had to cease from April 23 to Sept. 29 due to increased risks from bacteria and wild yeast. Until Spaten’s amber lager debuted in 1841, Märzen referred to any beer cranked out as the end of spring approached — almost always dark beers! So, to recap: Oktoberfest no longer involves a wedding or horse races. Festbier is no longer Märzen. Märzen isn’t even Märzen anymore. Maybe my premise wasn’t too off base. What we celebrate may be your Opa’s Oktoberfest, but it isn’t his Opa’s. It's unrealistic to think cherished traditions will never change. But with traditions, especially those involving beer, thinking takes a back seat. That’s where I’d gone awry. And it’s what the Giesenbräu crew had been trying to explain about Oktoberfest. “It's a day where everybody just enjoys themselves,” Hutton said. “They're all drinking a liter of beer, like, ‘It's Oktoberfest today. I can drink a whole liter of beer or maybe two, why not? Let's have a good time.’”

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dress in German tracht, lederhosen and dirndl. The brewery charges admission to its festival tent, either basic entry or a slightly higher price that includes a souvenir liter stein and pour. Polka music plays, and an area food truck serves pork dumplings, sauerkraut, etc.

While studying in Munich, Hutton met Anna Giesen. She also had studied in Bavaria and had returned to live there after college. They bonded over their love of beer halls and would wonder, “Wouldn’t it be great to open a German beer hall back in the States?”

38 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE A risefamily’sandfall

“The Ski Jumpers” is more a family drama than a sports story. It’s mostly about two generations of Bargaards and it explores ways that mistakes and trespasses of long ago can put several generations under pressure, can drive a wedge between people who don’t even know the truth of what happened in the past, what put them into their currentHourssituations.afterwaking from his dream of peace and calm in flight, Jon receives grim news from his doctor. The diagnosis is

As Peter Geye’s latest novel opens, the main character, who lately has been experiencing problems with memory and mood, relives a sensation he experienced when long ago he was a ski jumper of great skill and promise. What surfaces in Jon Bargaard’s dream is not a memory of competitive trial or triumph, as one might expect in a tale about an aging athlete. Rather, Jon’s subconscious conjures an almost magical sensation that was revealed to him only through the sport that once filled him with zeal. His father, who taught him to ski jump, had mentioned “the stall,” and Jon recalls it as the midair “moment when you reached the perfect position, when control and calmness met and the speed vanished and you were no longer flying but only suspended there.”

“The Ski Jumpers” is Geye’s fifth novel, and it’s every bit as engaging and sometimes arresting as his best work, including “Northernmost,” which was released in 2020 and led William Kent Krueger to describe Geye as “the William Faulkner of the North Country.” That book concluded a trilogy of novels (with “The Lighthouse Road” and “Wintering”) that stood alone but combined to depict the long, complex and rocky history of the Eide family on the North Shore. In his new book, Geye plays a bit with his own biography and with his earlier stories. The book’s narrator is a novelist in his 50s. He’s been unable to finish a manuscript about his youth as a standout ski jumper and about his father, younger brother and the trouble that disrupted all of their competitive ambitions.

LIT DU NORD: MINNESOTA BOOKS AND AUTHORS

By Nick Healy younger-onset Alzheimer’s, and he leaves the doctor’s office with perhaps a couple of years left to set some things straight and to sort out unfinished business before his memories are lost to him. From there, the novel follows Jon through one day, as he and his wife, Ingrid, leave their home in Duluth on a road trip that will end at their daughter’s cabin deep in the North Woods. Jon has something to tell his wife, something he has kept secret for as long as he has known her.

It's a lovely image and an indelible bit of insight from an author who knows his material intimately, one who is writing from experience, as Geye is here. It also functions perfectly in the novel because, as the story begins, the protagonist is hurtling toward a rough landing. In his life, ease and control will become only the stuff of dreams.

“The Ski Jumpers” by Peter Geye

Geye builds tension by moving around in time, puzzling together the stories of the narrator, his parents, his brother and how the past caught up with all of them. Because of the way the story is framed — looking back from the day of the diagnosis — some tension might be lost, but Geye is a sure hand when it comes to keeping the reader curious and uncomfortable. He also creates a lot of beauty on the page through language that is often musical and images that are often memorable. In this book, he brings readers into a little-known subculture and shows them the unfamiliar world of a sport many observers might think belongs to people who are as reckless as they areGeyefearless.writes brilliantly about the action of ski jumping and the mix of fear and wonder young athletes encounter. Consider, for example, a moment when the protagonist watches his younger brother soar and sees who is truly the promising one in the family. “Go, I thought, but before the thought was finished Anton kicked into the tracks,” Geye writes. “Surely what followed him down the inrun was the snow blown up out of the tracks and not some celestial contrail of stardust and heavenly

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 39 Nick Healy is an author and freelance writer in Mankato. spirit. What attended his leap was not the ringing of bells but only my own lips pierced in a whistle.” “The Ski Jumpers” will be published Sept. 13 by the University of Minnesota Press, just as a presumably brief Minnesota autumn begins and another long winter looms. The book makes a worthy read regardless of the season. 2022 Super Lawyers Congratulations to our 2022 Super Lawyers and Rising Stars! Super Lawyers and Rising Stars are designations within a rating service of outstanding lawyers. The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent research, peer nominations, and peer evaluations. Congratulations to each of our attorneys selected for these honors! Mankato Office: (507)-345-1166 New Ulm Office: (507)-233-3900 www.blethenberens.com Alyssa Thibert Nelson Jacob Sherlock 2022 Rising Stars Benjamin McAninch Kimberly Literovich Kevin Velasquez Julia Ketcham Corbett Jeremy Berg Chris Roe TheSpringmarket hassprung! Areyoureadyto buyorsell? Callustoday! LocallyOwned|ServingMinnesotaandWisconsin www.SearchMankatoHomes.com 507.387.5151 - 507.931.5313 WhoYouHireDoes MakeADifference onYourBottomLine! CallUsToday!! Mankato’s Newest DiningandTravelDestination! CARWASHNOWOPEN! MankatoTravelCenter (507)613-8440 www.mankatotravelcenter.com Ten20Tavern (507)344-1020 www.ten20tavern.com LocatedattheintersectionofCountyRoad12andAdamsSt. OnemileEastofHilltopHy-Vee. DailyHappyHourSpecials

40 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE ANN’S FASHION FORTUNES

Oh what, like you’ve never spent a Saturday night sipping a cocktail and listening to John Diliberto’s “Echoes” in front of the bathroom mirror, trying out new lengths and looks, using those tiny rubber bands as a prophylactic against picking up a disposable razor and DIY-ing yourself into a self-made style hell?

DEAR ANN: Is the beard bun the new man bun?

DEAR READER: It is if you’re manabout-Mankato Bobby Drengler. It’s unknown whether his driving force is a desire to stay ahead of the local fashion curve or a desire to feel less sweaty-faced in the heat, but it doesn’t really matter because Drengler is the kind of style icon who wants everybody to join in and/or do their own thing, versus the kind who prefers exclusive occupancy of coolsville.

So go get yourself a pack of 300 tiny elastics for something like $2.99 at Sally Beauty Supply and go nuts trying out your new face-do. (Which, upon reflection, I think the beard bun is probably more of an update to the long beard look than an update to the man bun, and I support it in full because I’m wellversed in experiments with tiny

me to use multiple mascaras. Does everybody but me already know this trick? How could my sister and I grow up in the same house and emerge with such varied value systems? DEAR READER: I’ve never heard of using multiple mascaras, either, but now that I’m picturing it I love it as a way to satisfy the cravings many of us have for playing with makeup as our morning meditation without risking an overly made-up clown face. If you’re loading up your lashes with multiple mascaras –opening and closing three different tubes, then pumping and scraping the product itself to achieve just the right amount on the brush, then applying in whatever pattern you’ve invented to justify three products surely after all that, you can feel ready for the day without also going too far, such as in the form of The impetus for style icon Bobby Drengler’s beard bun is unknown, but who cares, because it works.

DEAR ANN: My sister and I were comparing makeup routines recently, and she showed me her technique for using three different mascaras to achieve maximum lash drama. I am a lifelong fan of makeup, but it never occurred to

By Ann Rosenquist Fee

In summary, yes, the beard bun is the new man bun, and so much more.

buns,Beardlashlayers,weddingpanic

rubber bands when you’re wanting to see how you’d look with bangs or a chin-length bob or a mullet before going through with it.)

Weknowcommunity. ForinformationonyourBenedictineLivingCommunity, gotoblcstpeter.orgorcall(507)931-8545. -Nomaintenance -Nom

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 41

becauseWechoseBenedictine ...

ech es - ere’sal ys s e etotalkto

Got a question? Submit it at annrosenquistfee.com (click on Ann’s Fashion Fortunes).

DEAR ANN: I’m attending a destination wedding soon, the destination being a local farm. The wedding website originally showed “attire” as “farm casual,” but then it changed to "Seasonal semi-formal: Be prepared for gravel roads, grass, and cornfields. Think jumpsuits, slacks, button ups, sandals, and sunglasses." I was already out of my element with “farm casual” and now I’m nervous for sure. Please help.

DEAR READER: Given the level of overwhelm you’re already experiencing, I think the first step is to stop trying to absorb this whole array of concepts because you seem at risk of taking it literally and ending up wearing four out of five of the suggested items which is nobody’s vision. Go look in your closet and see what you’ve got that’s “nice,” whatever that means to you. Seriously, it’s the only paradigm you need for wedding attire or really any other occasion that has fussy style guidelines. Just wear your version of “nice” and trust that plenty of other guests are excited about figuring out what to wear and hoping they’ll be featured prominently in the photos, and if you’re OK just being a solid-colored background figure to their more showy flatteringguestthenfarm-casual-whatever-whatever,foregroundyou’llbethemostgraciousofall,whichisatimelessandlook.

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. a garish lip. But back to the question of how your sister could have emerged from childhood with so much more style whimsy than you. Not to be judgy, but your question has kind of a whiny approach. Maybe instead of wasting another second of your adult life pouting about familyof-origin inequities, thank your sister for picking up on a lesson or a permission that somehow eluded you, and then go stock up on mascara and commence living a newly daring, confident, plumplashed life.

Let’s get canning! Because you never know when your freezer will conk out on you

Everyone who endures a traumatic experience says they can’t wait to get “back to normal.” And everyone of us has found there is no “normal” to get back to. Normal keeps changing. And so it has been with our current pandemic. When we return to a normal September, we will have plenty of canning lids. We’ll put our tomatoes in a jar, attach the lid and watch the boiling water bath raise the humidity in our homes as the air conditioner struggles to keep up with it all. My new normal is that I don’t do nearly as much canning as I used to. Thus, I have plenty of canning lids for my needs. This year, my “normal” means I will be canning more and freezing less from my garden, because now I know how devastating it can be when my freezer dies. I’m forever grateful for the freezer store owner who brought me a new freezer on a dark Friday night, but I’ll never count on that happening again; I’ll can a little bit more this year and freeze a little bit less. I’ve always preferred frozen green beans to canned green beans, though I’ve canned green beans myself. With the aid of my many canning jars, my wealth of canning lids and a primo pressure cooker, I’ll give it a

By Jean Lundquist

whirl.Call me Although“freezer-shy.”notdirectly related to the pandemic, we as a nation were also hit with a peanut butter shortage this summer. I need peanut butter! I’ve been making my own mustard for some time now, starting with mustard seed, some horseradish, and expanding from there. I don’t know if there has been a shortage of prepared mustard, and certainly not one related to the pandemic. But this whole experience has brought me back to the land in a search for self-sufficiency.Ican’thidemy dog’s pills in mustard to get him to eat them, but he does seem to like them hidden in peanut butter.When the peanut butter shortage hit this summer, he was lost, and didn’t want to eat his pills, even though without them he itches and scratches because of allergies.Timeto learn to make peanut butter, I decided. Although I grew peanuts for the first and last time a few years ago, it was a little late to try to grow my own this year. I’ll try again next year, because making peanut butter is a lot of fun.

42 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE GARDEN CHAT

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

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2022 • 43

All you need is peanuts and a blender. A little honey and a little salt also come in handy, if not using salted peanuts. With unsalted peanuts, you can add only as much salt as suits your taste, or, in my case, my dog’s taste. I used a pound of unsalted dry roasted peanuts, a squirt of honey and a pinch of salt. I put them all in my blender, and ended up with crushed peanuts like you’d put on a sundae. Not exactly the creamy peanut butter I was hoping for. At this point I was glad I hadn’t wasted garden space growing peanuts again. Another perusal of the internet taught me I should keep grinding them in the blender to release the oils. At the risk of overheating the blender, I kept blending until I had the creamiest, oiliest peanut butter ever.My dog likes it so much, he’ll even eat it without any pills in it. This time of year, I see the bounty of my garden and remember a time, over 30 years ago, when we had an 18-course meal, and everything except the salt, pepper and butter we had made or grown. We had cheese made from goat milk, chevon, squash, chicken, green beans, and well, the list goes on. While I don’t mean to brag, it was a great feeling of self-sufficiency. As the pandemic continues, and who-knows-what-else confronts us, I think I could do it again. But I sure don’t want to. I just want to enjoy my canning lids and my harvest, and listen to the hum of my new freezer.

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One year later, Ventura, trailed by a horde of reporters, supporters, aides and gawkers, was striding down Minnesota Street in New Ulm, wearing a Schell’s beer cap. “Always a circus!” I jotted in my notebook. Although it was a year out from the next election, Jesse took shots at both Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone and rising Republican star, Tim Pawlenty. He waved a stogie with his hand and teased the political speculators with, “If I run again ...” Gladhanding those who stepped out of storefronts to greet him, he exclaimed, “I’m never in trouble with the people!” Still, some, when asked, hedged their bets about whether this boisterous and bombastic stirrer of controversy should try for a second term.

By Pete Steiner

We do know that the Mahkato Wacipi — the traditional Native American powwow at Land of Memories Park that honors the 38 Dakota who were hanged in Mankato following the 1862 war will celebrate it 50thanniversary this month. It is a great tribute to all the tribes and volunteers, and especially to Amos Owen, the Dakota spiritual leader, and to Bud Lawrence and Jim Buckley, two Mankato businessmen, all of whom believed that reconciliation could happen.

Iam wondering if anyone still owns one of those T-shirts from the aftermath of Minnesota’s 1998 gubernatorial contest? It would probably make a fitting slogan for our current no-holds-barred political times. (Maybe even mild, if you’re running in Missouri.)

It’s been 24 years — 12 election cycles — since Minnesotans elected former pro wrestler, Jesse “The Body” Ventura as our governor.

Ventura had won in 1998 as a thirdparty candidate with far less than half the vote. He had the benefit of two less-than-electric opponents, and he also had the advertising genius Bill Hillsman working for him: Hillsman, who had helped Wellstone win a Senate seat over incumbent Rudy Boschwitz with the wicked “Where’s Rudy?” ads, came up with the famous “Jesse the Thinker” TV ad, a clever play on the famous Rodin sculpture, portraying the 6-foot-2, 245-pound candidate as really more cerebral than physical. In office, Ventura had some successes and put together an excellent cabinet, but with little legislative clout with either Democrats or Republicans, his accomplishments were spotty. Some thought he appeared to grow bored with the nuts and bolts of governing; he also embarked on odd forays, such as becoming a color announcer for

44 • SEPTEMBER 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE FROM THIS VALLEY

My governor can beat up your governor

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the ill-fated XFL football league. He eventually opted not to run again in 2002, railing against toointense media scrutiny of him and his family. After he had “shocked the world” (his phrase) with his 1998 win, Ventura with his charisma and another win would no doubt have been well-positioned nationally for possible higher office. Could he have made a third party nationally viable? Or might he have aligned with one of the two major parties, against his proclaimed disdain for them, to improve his chances? We will never know.

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When Ventura wore a feather boa at his victory celebration, it may well have been a portent of strange political times to come. At least the former mayor of Brooklyn Park had done some political thinking and had some experience in governance. Just for idle speculation in the current political season (hasn’t every season become a political season?), while professional handicappers and analysts are focusing on the upcoming November contests, let me pose a hypothetical question about the past: Could Jesse have eventually becomePonderingpresident?what Ventura might have accomplished was spurred as I filed through my old reporter’s notebooks and newspaper clippings. I had just recently moved into the KTOE newsroom when Ventura came to Mankato in September 2000, with the goal of juicing up enthusiasm among young people to vote in that year’s looming elections. He spoke to students on the MSU campus before announcing he was going to continue the discussion downtown, at the South Street Saloon.

“Where’s the South Street Saloon?” asked Jim Ragsdale, the legendary St. Paul Pioneer Press political reporter who was standing near me. I told him to follow me, and we headed on down.Ragsdale’s story the next day included a photo of Ventura hoisting a cold beer inside the packed bar. (Sadly, Ragsdale died eight years ago at age 64 of pancreatic cancer.) Typically, at that barroom bull session, as his fans hoisted brews and reporters jotted notes, Ventura harped on the need for a competitive third party, but he was less combative than usual with the media.

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

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