MktoMag_Sept16

KYLE C. SWANSON, M.D.

THOMAS R. JONES, M.D.

JOHN A. SPRINGER, M.D.

SCOTT R. STEVENS, M.D.

JESSE C. BOTKER, M.D.

Adult hip and knee disorders, hip and knee primary and revision replacement surgery.

Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine surgery, as well as orthopaedic trauma.

Fractures and trauma, spinal instrumentation, arthroscopic surgery, hip and knee surgery.

Arthroscopy and sports medicine, treatment of fractures, trauma and pediatrics.

Sports medicine and orthopaedic surgery. Shoulder, knee, hip and ankle arthroscopy.

Let us take a quick look at that.

8am–8pm Monday–Friday Call 507-386-6600

» C OME JUDGE

for Yourself.

GOLFERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD COME TO CHALLENGE THE JUDGE and the two other golf courses in Prattville at RTJ Capitol Hill. Bring your clubs and come take on Judge hole number 1, voted the favorite hole on the Trail. Complete your day in luxury at the Marriott and enjoy dining, firepits and guest rooms overlooking the Senator golf course. With the Marriott’s 20,000 square feet of meeting space, 96 guest rooms and luxurious Presidential Cottage combined with three world-class golf courses, business and pleasure can definitely interact in Prattville.

THE ROBERT TRENT JONES GOLF TRAIL AT CAPITOL HILL is home of the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic on the Senator Course September 18 to 24, 2014. The Marriott Prattville is part of the Resort Collection on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.

Visit www.rtjgolf.com or call 800.949.4444 to learn more.

2 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

FEATURES september 2016 Volume 11, Issue 9

14

Hey Teach!

Everyone has a certain teacher they’ll never forget.

18

Old School

Doug and Sue Erickson’s home is a treasure trove of vintage delights.

22

Splitsville

Mankato writer Joe Tougas explains how he botched his divorce.

About the Cover Teacher Amanda Schaffer and student Tyler Ball were photographed at Franklin Elementary School

by Pat Christman.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 3

DEPARTMENTS 6 From the Editor 8 This Day in History 9 The Gallery

9

Larissa McConnell

10 Beyond the Margin Tale of two cultures 12 Day Trip Destinations Ely’s Harvest Moon Festival 28 Then & Now The history of

Mankato’s public schools

31 Food, Drink & Dine

32 Food

34 Wine

12

Steal the potluck!

Paging Robert Mondavi

35 Beer Arrogant brews

36 Happy Hour

Cuban rum

38 Food Why so many men are cooking 40 That’s Life Power shopping

28

32

42 Garden Chat Tiny garden success 44 Your Style It’s not just a music festival.

It’s 26 years of super cute T-shirts

46 Coming Attractions 49 Faces & Places 52 From This Valley The speed of summer

34 4 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

46

Coming in October Color, color everywhere!

Take some time to enjoy the bounty of harvest, and abundance of beautiful places to enjoy the fall colors.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 5

From The Associate EDITOR

By Robb Murray September 2016 • VOLUME 11, ISSUE 9 PUBLISHER John Elchert EDITOR Joe Spear ASSOCIATE Robb Murray EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS Nell Musolf Pete Steiner Jean Lundquist Sarah Johnson Leigh Pomeroy Bert Mattson Leticia Gonzales Ann Rosenquist Fee Bryce O. Stenzel Joe Tougas

PHOTOGRAPHERS Pat Christman Bre McGee Page designer

Christina Sankey

ADVERTISING Phil Seibel manager ADVERTISING Theresa Haefner Sales ADVERTISING Barb Wass ASSISTANT ADVERTISING Sue Hammar designers Christina Sankey CIRCULATION Denise Zernechel DIRECTOR

Mankato Magazine is published by The Free Press Media monthly at 418 South Second St., Mankato MN 56001.

To subscribe, call 1-800-657-4662 or 507-625-4451. $35.40 for 12 issues.

For editorial inquiries, call Robb Murray at 344-6386, or e-mail rmurray@mankatofreepress.com.

For advertising, call 344-6336, or e-mail mankatomag@mankatofreepress.com.

6 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

To all the teachers I’ve loved before M rs. Berning was the first teacher I ever had. In the kindergarten room at Prosperity Heights Elementary School, she taught me how to match names on my Valentines to the names on the brown paper sacks lined up along the windows, on top of the heat register. She taught me how to nap like a gentleman, and how to be patient with an Elmer’s glue bottle.

There was Mrs. Jones, who allowed me to cast my very first ballot for president. In the corner of her tiny classroom, I put my mark down for Jimmy Carter (and never regretted it.)

Mrs. Spannus put me in the “Red” reading group. Just me, Kristi Nicosia and Punnavin Koy. The first of many teachers who pushed me to be better.

Sister Ann Marie, my first teacher at a new school — Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary School — taught me there was no reason to be afraid of a teacher who wore a nun’s habit. She was gentle and sweet with a warm smile, and deft with knowing when to be firm.

Mrs. Schostag … taught me there are teachers in this world who don’t care how cute you think you are. Get your math done and quit goofing around or you’ll be sent down to spend the morning with the principal, Sister Geraldine.

Mrs. Mahowald took the news that President Reagan had been shot very hard. She showed me teachers are human, too, and that sometimes they cry.

Ms. Green taught me that teachers can be pretty, and reminded us that it was time to start wearing deodorant.

Mrs. Anderson … Oh man, Mrs. Anderson. She probably cared about me more than any other. Cared enough to bring Kristi Nicosia and me to The Pop Shoppe one day ... and administer

in-school suspension the next (I deserved it; sold firecrackers to Paul Kinsella, who then proceeded to light them off in the bathroom, and when they asked him where he got them, well, Paul had no choice. He fingered me, and Mrs. Anderson did what she had to do.

I cried.)

Mr. Capecchi. Poor guy. My first homeroom teacher at HillMurray High School. A nice, well-dressed man who was forced to have a frank discussion of sexuality with me when, days after the Madonna concert, I opted to where my newly purchased T-shirt emblazoned with a picture of the bustier-wearing singer. It was an uncomfortable conversation.

He didn’t deserve that, or my obstinance.

Mrs. Arndt, at Johnson Senior High School, was the first teacher who ever told me I could write, and encouraged me to keep doing it. (If you wish to track her down and admonish her for poor judgment, she’s probably on Facebook.)

We’ve all had great teachers.

Some, like me, have had many.

This month in Mankato Magazine, our cover story brings you up close and personal with three student/ teacher pairs who prove that teachers can change lives. And we bring it to you just as you’re about to drop you kids off for another year of backpacks, notebooks and No. 2 pencils.

Elsewhere, we bring you the story of Doug Erickson, whose home is a vintage lover’s paradise.

And Joe Tougas tells us the story of how badly he screwed up his divorce. MM Robb Murray is associate editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at 344-6386 or rmurray@ mankatofreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @freepressRobb.

Know Your Risk

it!

Take charge of your health with monthly self-exams and annual mammograms

V

V

)*&!$ / %. %# %&) )* !% " -') " ' " . ". %, &! $ , *$) & %* " ' $ # $. #%& $ & $ '

& "!+ &.

%% - $ %) $ %) - ) ) % $ % , ) % % $ .#

$ %) $ ,$%

/& * +*

Mankato Clinic joins us in raising awareness of the importance of early detection in the fight against breast cancer and the importance of continued support for breast cancer research.

/+/ ,) % ) )$ ) ! / % % ,) - ) - "

'/&* MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 7

The summer is almost over...

This Day in history

By Jean Lundquist

Wednesday September 5, 1962 Police Blotter Dennis Anton of Mankato was arrested on a complaint signed by Kenneth Cogley, also of Mankato. According to Mankato police, Cogley charges that Anton pointed a gun at his head and forced him to drink a glass of whiskey about 1 a.m. Sept. 1.

••• Police are looking for a thief with a penchant for fresh vegetables.

They say William Puehl, 110 Ryan Street, reported his garden was stripped of all ripe vegetables while he was out of town. Also taken were two garden hoses, worth about $8.

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 1957 Students adopt the dress right program The Winnebago High School Student Council has unanimously adopted the Dress Right Program. They feel that improving standards of dress for teenagers in the community will affect favorably their conduct both in and out of school. Certain styles of dress at both extremes have been identified with hoodlumism in the minds of police, educators and citizens generally. The recommended dress for boys includes dress or sport shirt, tie optional, standard trousers or khakis, shoes clean and polished. White bucks acceptable. Not recommended for boys are dungarees or soiled khakis, tee shirts or sweatshirts and extreme styles of shoes including motorcycle or engineer boots.

Recommended for girls: Blouse with jacket or sweater, skirts, jumpers or suits with shoes and jewelry appropriate to the rest of the ensemble.

Not recommended are V-neck sweaters, party dresses, Bermuda shorts and slacks of any kind, kilts and ornate jewelry.

It's time to finish those pending print projects!

And we can help.

Small or large, simple or complex, we have the facilities, equipment and know-how to produce your project on time, on budget and to your specifications!

1750 Northway Drive North Mankato, MN 56003 800-729-7575 www.corpgraph.com

Friday, Sept. 15, 1922 Hitting the Auto Trail Mr. and Mrs. E.A. Purvis and four children hit the auto trail for Gilbert, near Ames, Iowa early Saturday morning of last week. The roads were good, although they did encounter a detour that took them down a narrow dirt road that was very slippery. When it began to rain, they had to stop and put on chains. They visited a cousin of Mrs. Purvis, then visited the place where Margaret, their eldest daughter, was born.

From there, they went to Ames College, where Mr. Purvis’s uncle was working. They visited the large stock barns and the museum in Moral Hall, where all manner of stuffed animals, reptiles and birds were seen.

They did encounter some good graveled roads, and will soon have more, but they are not up to the standards of Minnesota roads.

Friday, Sept. 15, 1893 Took first money F. Windmiller in competitive examination of blooming plants in Minneapolis Exposition was Wednesday awarded First Place premium and the handsome sum of $100 in cash. His was the finest display of blooming plants. Mr. Windmiller is the proprietor of the Rose Hill greenhouse of this city. That first money should come to Mankato is to Mr. Windmiller is very deserving. His display of blooming plants is a fine one.

Thursday, Sept. 11, 1913 Orchestrating fun The last dance of the season at the White Pavilion is tonight. It is a cool place to spend the evening with special music by White City Orchestra. Tickets are 35 cents. The dance is 9 to 12 p.m. Ladies are free.

The Gallery: Larissa McConnell Story by Nell Musolf

A circuitous route

L

arissa McConnell remembers being asked what she wanted to be when she grew up when she was four years old. Her answer was an artist and a teacher.

“I took a rather circuitous route, but eventually I got there,” McConnell said. “At first I listened to people who told me that I couldn’t draw and that I wasn’t creative. I’m not sure why adults would tell children things like that but I listened to them. So I focused on things and worked at jobs that weren’t creative, weren’t artistic, weren’t satisfying for many years.”

McConnell hails from the Buffalo, New York, area where she attended the State University of New York at Fredonia. There she received her first bachelor’s degree in secondary education/earth science and a second bachelor’s degree in costume design and technology. McConnell then attended the University of MissouriKansas City where she received her master’s degree in costume design and technology. Now residing in St. Peter, McConnell is an adjunct instructor at Gustavus Adolphus College where she teaches Costume Design and Technology and also runs the costume shop.

After graduating from college, Mc C o n n e l l wa s i n a m e d i e va l

re-enactment group along with her husband, Jeff, who encouraged her to go to school for costuming since she was making the costumes for several members of the group. McConnell took his advice and found people who supported her and were nurturing as well as challenging.

“I worked at odd jobs for a while again after I graduated, but realized that I needed to return to costuming. I needed to use my creative side. I found my way to Kansas City where I got my Master’s degree,” McConnell said. “I was very fortunate to have gotten my job at Gustavus very soon after graduating from UMKC.” In addition to teaching costuming at Gustavus, McConnell designs many of the shows when she doesn’t have a student designer working on one.

“Costume design allows me to tell stories through clothing. You get to know the character by what they wear and how they wear it. You put the person in a time and place and help bring the audience into their world,” McConnell said.

McConnell also makes crocheted wire jewelry, scarves and wall hangings.

“I don’t really remember what inspired me to pick up wire to crochet, but I love the texture, the glint of light upon it, and the lightness of it. It’s a

challenging, yet engaging medium to work with,” McConnell said.

McConnell dyes scarves using the ancient Japanese tie dye technique of arashi shibori. The word “arashi” means “storm” and the technique produces effects that look like water or waves.

McConnell then hand beads the ends of the scarves to add substance.

“I also weave wall hangings and scarves. I have a loom for the wall hangings that was lovingly made for me and on which I have done a series of geometric pieces, as well as some that were influenced by space, especially the planet Saturn,” McConnell said. “My woven scarves have allowed me to play with color blending.”

With so many talents to choose from, McConnell said that doesn’t have a favorite. She is currently doing an embroidery series based on brain scans of people who have disorders such as bi-polar disorder, anxiety and depression.

McConnell and her husband still have a house back in Western New York near Lake Erie where they spend the summer.

“We love to go to the lake and just sit and watch the waves crash on shore, or we walk the beach and collect beach glass. I am very much influenced by the water. I am drawn to it and it finds its way into my art often. I find inspiration in everything, but most often in nature. Whether it is the beach, Fibonacci, brain scans, or space, I am always amazed by how it all affects me and how I can interpret it in my work,” McConnell said.

McConnell’s jewelry and scarves are sold at the Carnegie Art Center and the Art Center of Saint Peter.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 9

View from the Minnesota side of the new mile-long St. Croix River bridge linking Minnesota and Wisconsin south of Stillwater.

10 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

ƦƩƼƳƲƨ ƷƬƩ ƱƥƘƫƭƲ $[ ,QG 5RGCT

a

ã ¼ Ê¡ ãôÊ è¼ãèØ Üʂ Hà r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã

¨ ÜèÂÂ Ø ãô à ¨«¢¨ Ü ¨Êʼ à ʼ¼ ¢ ¨ Ü ¼ô úÜ Ã ã«Â ¡ÊØ ¨ â 㨠ã à ù «ã«Ã¢ Ã Ü Øúʈ Ã ã¨«Ü ú Ø «Ã ÊèØ ¨ÊèÜ ¨Ê¼ ʃ 㨠ô«Ã Ü Ê¡ ¨ â Ø ¼Êô«Ã¢ Üã ãÊô Ø A «ÜÊÃʃ r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ãʈ HèØ úÊèâ Üã ô«¼¼ ¨ ãÊ ¢ ؼ à Êà 㨠¼ Üã ú Ê¡ è¢èÜã ãÊ Üãè ú «Ã à ô «ãúʃ à ô Ü ¨Êʼʃ «¢ Ü ¨Êʼ ô«ã¨ à ؼú Ƚȹʃȹȹȹ Üãè ÃãÜ «Ã ãÊôà ʡ Ȼȹȹʃȹȹȹ Õ ÊÕ¼ ʈ ,ãʰÜ Ê«â ¼¼ ãÊÊ Ø ¼ʈ Aú ÜèÂÂ Ø Ê¡ ¨ â  «Ã ȺɂɀɁʈ , ÜÕ Ãã ¼Êã Ê¡ ã«Â ÊèãÜ« ô«ã¨ Âú ¡Ø« à Üʃ ¢Ê«Ã¢ ãÊ Õ Øã« Üʃ ¢ Â Ü Ã ¨ â«Ã¢ Êèã ã 㨠H¼ Sʈ ʈ «Ã ÊÂÊ S ع ô¨ Ø ã¨ Hʰ ÊÃÃÊØ ØÊ㨠ØÜ Ø Ã ¹ ¢¢ ØÜʈ r¨«¼ ô ô Ø ¼ÊÜ ãÊ ã¨ Ø«Ã¹«Ã¢ ¢ Ê¡ Ⱥɂʃ , Ü ô Ø Ãʰã Ø ×è Üã «¡ úÊè ¨ ܨʈ a¨ S Üã ¼è V« Êà ã Üã ʼ Ø ã¨ ã Üè Øʈ r ¨èâ Êèã ãÊ¢ ã¨ Ø ÂÊØ ʃ Ü Ãܫâ ã¨ Ü ã«Â Ü ôÊè¼ ¼ ÜÜ ¡Ø ×è Ã㠫à 㨠ú ØÜ ¨ ʈ ,à 㨠¹ Ê¡ ÊèØ Â«Ã Ü ô ¹Ã ô ô ô Ø Â ¹«Ã¢ «Ü«ÊÃÜ ã¨ ã ôÊè¼ «Ø ã ô¨Ê ô ôÊè¼ Ê à ô¨ ã ô ôÊè¼ Ê ¡ÊØ ã¨ Ø Üã Ê¡ ÊèØ ¼«ó Üʈ a¨ Ü ã¨Ê袨ãÜ ô «¢¨ ¨ ó« Ø ô¨ à úÊè ô Ø ¢Ê«Ã¢ ãÊ Ê¼¼ ¢ à úÊèØ ¨«¢¨ Ü ¨Êʼ ¡Ø« Ã Ü ô Ø ÂÊÜã¼ú ¢Ê«Ã¢ ãÊ ôÊعʈ ,ãʰÜ ÊÂÂÊà ¡ÊØ ¹« Ü Ãã ثâ ʼ¼ ¢ ãÊ ¨ â Êèã ¼Êã ÂÊØ ô«ã¨ ¨«¢¨ Ü ¨Êʼ ¡Ø« Ã Ü «Ã 㨠ÜèÂÂ Ø Ê¡ ãØ ÃÜ«ã«ÊÃʃ ÊØ «Ã¢ ãÊ ã¨ ÊèÃÜ ¼ÊØÜ ã 㨠fëó ØÜ«ãú Ê¡ r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã ÊØ« Ãã ã«Êà ô ãã à «Ã 7èà ʈ a¨ ú Ü ã èÜ èÕ «Ã ¼«ãã¼ ÜèÕÕÊØã ¢ØÊèÕ ãÊ ¨ ¼Õ èÜ ¨ à ¼ «ãʈ ,ãʰÜ ã«Â 㨠ãʰÜ ù «ã«Ã¢ Ã Ü Øú ¡ÊØ Õ Ø ÃãÜ ãÊÊʈ r ʰØ ¼ ãã«Ã¢ ¢Êʃ à ô ʰØ ¶èÜã ¼«ãã¼ ôÊØØ« 㨠ú ôÊÃʰã ¼ ãÊ ¨ à ¼ «Ã¢ Êà 㨠«Ø ÊôÃʈ ,ãʰÜ ¼«¹ 㨠ăØÜã ú Ê¡ Ü ¨Êʼ ¼¼ Êó Ø ¢ «Ãʈ Hüú ã¨«Ü ã«Â ʃ ô ʰ¼¼ ¡ÊèØ ¨ÊèØÜ ô ú «ÃÜã Ê¡ ¡ÊèØ Â«Ãèã Üʈ a¨ fëó ØÜ«ãú Ê¡ r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã «Ü ¢Ø ã Õ¼ ʈ a¨ ÕØÊ¡ ÜÜÊØÜ Ü Â ãÊ Ø ¼¼ú Ø ʃ 㨠¡ «¼«ã« Ü Ü Â Ã« ʃ à 㨠« ÕØ梯 ÂÜ Êė Ø Ø Üã ¼¼ Øʃ ô«ã¨ Êʼ Ø Ü Ø ¨ ÊÕÕÊØãèÃ«ã« Ü Ã Ü Øó« ¼ Øëâ ó Øúô¨ Ø úÊè ãèØÃʈ ,ã Ø Ã¹Ü ãÊÕ Êà  Ãú Ê¡ 㨠ʼ¼ ¢ ¼«ÜãÜ «Ã ¼è «Ã¢ Êà ʡ 㨠ãÊÕ ȻȾ èëó ØÜ«ã« Ü «Ã 㨠ôÊؼ ʈ Z㫼¼ , ôÊØØú ¼«ãã¼ «ã Êèã 㨠¢ Ø è¼ãèØ ã¨ ã ô«¼¼ ÜèØØÊèÃ ã¨«Ü Ü Øã à â ¢«Ã¢ ¢«Ø¼ ¡ØÊ A«Ãà ÜÊã ʈ a¨ Ø Â ú ¶èÜã ã«Ãú « Ü ¢ «ÃÜã A«Ãà ÜÊã ¹« Ü ¢ ãã«Ã¢ «Ã 㨠r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã Ü ¨Êʼʈ a¨ ¨«¢¨ Ü Êثâ ¹« Ü ¡ØÊ A«Ãà ÜÊã ô Ø ØÊô «Ã¢ Êèã 㨠ÕØ梯 ÂÜ ô¨ Ø ã¨ ¼Êô ØʢÜ Êثâ r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã ¹« Ü ¡ ¼ã 㨠ú ¨ «Øã¨Ø«¢¨ãʈ frʢA «ÜÊà ¡ è¼ãú Ê«ãã Ø Ê à 㨠Üã ã à «ãÜ ãè«ã«ÊÃ Ø «ÕØÊ «ãú ¢Ø  Ãã ô«ã¨ A«Ãà ÜÊã «Ã ȻȹȺȼ èÜ ã¨ ÃèÂ Ø Ê¡ r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã Üãè ÃãÜ Â«ãã ô Ü Ü¨Ø«Ã¹«Ã¢ʈ ÃØʼ¼Â Ãã ܨ Ü Ø ʈ Êèã ȾȾ Õ Ø Ãã Ê¡ 㨠Üãè ÃãÜ Ø ¡ØÊ r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ãʃ à ¶èÜã ȺȻ ãÊ ȺȾ Õ Ø Ãã ¡ØÊ A«Ãà ÜÊã ʈ a¨ fr ÕØ Ü« Ãã ô«Ü ¼ú Ø ¶ ã à «Ã¢ Ø «ÕØÊ «ãúʈ Z㫼¼ʃ 㨠ʭZ ÊÃë Üʮ Ü Â ãÊ Ø ¼¼ú ã ¹ 㨠«Ø ÜÕÊØãÜ Ã Üã ã ÕØ« Ü Ø«Êèܼúʈ a¨ ú ã ¼¹ Ê¡ r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã ¼«¹ «ã ô Ü Êà Üã Õ Ü¨ÊØã Ê¡ 㨠9«Ã¢ Ê ʡ } èÜʈ à 㨠ú ã ¹ 㨠«Ø Â Ü Êãʃ ʭ è ¹ú 㨠¢ Øʮ ó à ÂÊØ Ü Ø«Êèܼúʈ a¨ r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã Sʼ«ã«¡ ãʃ à ÊØ¢ ëÿ ã«Êà 㨠ã Ü Øèã«Ã«ÿ Ü

¼« Ü ʠ Ø ,  à ʭÜã ã  ÃãÜʮ ʠ Ê¡ Õʼ«ã« « ÃÜʃ Ø Ãã¼ú ¡ ã ¨ ¹ Üã ã  Ãã ú #Êóʈ Z Êãã r ¼¹ Ø ã¨ ã 㨠¢ Ø ÂÊë¹ Ø Â Ã ã ¡ØÊ r«Ü ÊÃÜ«ÃʰÜ Â«Ã«Ã¢ ¨«ÜãÊØúʈ Z ÂÜ ¼ «à ØÜ «Ã ÜÊèã¨ô Üã Øà r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã ô Ø ÜÊ «Ã èÜãØ«ÊèÜ Ã « ã 㨠ú Ê¡ã à ¼«ó «Ã ÂÕãú «à ܨ ¡ãÜʃ ¨Ê¼«Ã¢ èÕ ¼«¹ ¢ ØÜʈ a¨ Ø ô Ü Øã «Ã ÂÊèÃã Ê¡ «Ü ¢Ø  Ãã ÂÊâ « Ü Êà 㨫Üʈ A Ø×è ãã fëó ØÜ«ãú ÕØÊ¡ ÜÜÊØ 9 Ø ¼ « ¨ ãʼ Sʼ«ã«¡ ã 㨠ãʃ ¡ã Ø Âè ¨ «Ãó Üã«¢ ã«ÊÃʃ 㨠ÊÃà ã«Êà ãô à «à ØÜ Ã ã¨ ¢ Ø Ã« ¹Ã  ʭ¼ Ü ã¨ «Ãó Üã«¢ ãÊØ ¼Êâ à ó« Ãã« Øú Õ«Õ ¼«Ã ô¨« ¨ «Ü ¼è « ØÊèܼú ã ÃèÊèÜʈʮ èã frʢA «ÜÊà ÕØÊ¡ ÜÜÊØ Ê¡ ¡Ê¼¹¼ÊØ 7 Â Ü ; Øú ʠ , ô Ãã 㨠ã ã«ã¼ Ã ã¨ ã ¶Ê ʡ «Ü ¢Ø ʃ Ü ú«Ã¢ 㨠¢ Ø Ã Â ô Ü «Ã «Ã Ø ¡ Ø Ã ãÊ ã¨ Â«Ã ØÜ ô¨Ê ã ¼«¹ ë ¼Ü à ÃÊã 㨠ë ¼ «ãÜ ¼¡ʈ f¼ã«Â ã ¼úʃ r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã Sʼ«ã«¡ ã ã Ø«à 㨠ã 㨠¢ Ø Ã Â «  à 㠡ØÊ 㨠¨«ÜãÊØú Ê¡ «à ØÜ ô¨Ê ¼«ó «Ã ó Üʃ èã 㨠ã ã¨ Ø ô Ø ¼«¹ ¼ú ó Øú ¡ ô Ê¡ 㨠 ô¨Ê « ÜÊʃ à 㨠Êó Øô¨ ¼Â«Ã¢ ÕØ Ü Ã Ê¡ Üè ¨ «Ã «ó« è ¼Ü ô Ü ¼«¹ ¼ú ù ¢¢ Ø ã ʈ r ʰØ ¢¼ 㨠ú ¼ Ø ã¨ ã èÕʈ ØÊ ãØ«Õ ã¨ØÊ袨 㨠Ü ¼¼ʢãÊôà r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã ÊèÃãØúÜ« ¼ÜÊ Ø «Ü ÜÊÂ Ø ¡¼ ¢Ü Êèã 㨠¢ Ø ¨ ó«ÊØ ¼ ÕØÊă¼ ʈ ,à 㨠Øʼ¼«Ã¢ ¨«¼¼Ü ÊèãÜ« "ÊèÃã «Ã «ãú Êà à ăà 㨠ʭ7 «¼¨ÊèÜ Øʮ ô«ã¨ Ø ¼ ØÜ Êà 㨠ô«Ã ÊôÜʈ ʛ,ʰ ÃÊã  ¹«Ã¢ ã¨«Ü èÕʈʜ ,Ã ã¨ Õ Ø¹«Ã¢ ¼Êã Ê¡ Ü « ăà Üã ¼«Ü¨Â Ããʃ Êà à ¨«ã ¨ Ø« Êà 㨠ʭ ¨è¢ʢ ʢ¼è¢ èÜʃʮ Ü ¨Êʼ èÜ Õ «Ãã ¼ ¹ʈ Zè ã¼ ãú «Ü ÃÊã Ê¡ ¢Ø ã Êà Øà ãÊ r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã ¡ÊÊ Ã Ø«Ã¹ ÕØÊÕØ« ãÊØÜʈ ÃÊã¨ Ø ÊÕã«Êà ¡ÊØ «Ã à ثù ó Øã«Ü Ü ʭZ ¡ÊÊ ʃ Zã ¹Ü Ã ÊÊÿ ʮ Êà «ãÜ Â Ø×è ʈ BÊ Ü ÃÜ Âè ú«Ã¢ 㨠ô ã ØÜʈ Z㫼¼ʃ ã¨ Ø ʰÜ ¨ÊÕ ãÊ Ø«Ã¢ ãÊ¢ ã¨ Ø ã¨ Ü ãôÊ ó Üã¼ú «ė Ø Ãã¼ú «ó«¼«ÿ ã«ÊÃÜ ʡ A«Ãà ÜÊã à r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã ʠ 㨠ã ÜèÕÕÊØã ãôÊ ãØ Â Ã ÊèÜ Õè ¼« ʼ¼ ¢ Üʈ "«ØÜãʃ ã¨ Ø ʰÜ ã¨ " óØ ã Ãã ʈ a¨ ) ¼¼ Ê¡ "  ØʰÜ Üô«ã ¨ ãÊ A«Ãà ÜÊã ¡ÊØ ¨«Ü Üã Üã ã«Üã« ¼ Ü ÜÊà ¢«ó Ü A«Ãà ÜÊã ÃÜ ÜÊ 㨫â ãÊ ¢Ê Z ÊÃë Ü Êèãʈ èã Ê㨠à ÕÕØ « ã 㨠ô«Ãëâ ÜÕ«Ø«ã ¨ ØÊ袨ã ãÊ Ê㨠Üã ã Üʈ a¨ ã q«¹«Ã¢ ¶ ØÜ ú ܨÊô èÕ ¼Êâ ô«ã¨ S ¹ Ø ¶ ØÜ ú «Ã " óØ ʰÜ ) ¼¼ Ê¡ "  ¼Ê ¹ Ø ¨ 㨠¢Ø à ÊÃ Ü Ü ã¨«Ã¢ʃ èã «ãʰÜ Ã ¨ÊÃÊØ ¡ ô Õ¼ ú ØÜ Ø «ó ʈ Aú ʼ¼ ¢ ¶ÊèØà ¼«Ü ÕØÊ¡ ÜÜÊØ #¼ úÜ H¼ÜÊÃʃ ô¨Ê Ø Ãã¼ú « ã 㨠¢ Ê¡ ȺȹȺʃ ¼ô úÜ ¼« ó è ã«Êà ô Ü ã¨ ăØÜã Üã Õ ãÊ èà ØÜã à «Ã¢ Êã¨ Ø è¼ãèØ Üʈ Z¨ ¨ ¼Õ ÜèÕÕÊØã ØÊ èÜã «Ãã Øà ã«Êà ¼ Üãè Ãã ÕØÊ¢Ø Â ã AZf ã¨ ã «Ü ã¨Ø«ó«Ã¢ ãÊ úʈ ZÊ Â ú ã¨ Ø ʰÜ ¨ÊÕ ¡ÊØ A«Ãà ÜÊã à r«Ü ÊÃÜ«Ã ¹« Ü ô¨Ê ¢Ê ãÊ ã¨ Ü Â èëó ØÜ«ãúʈ Ã ã¨ Ø Ø èØØ Ãã¼ú ã ¼ Üã ã¨Ø à ô Ø« ¢ Ü «Ã¢ 諼ã Êó Ø ã¨ A«ÜÜ«ÜÜ«ÕÕ« V«ó Ø ãô à 㨠ãôÊ Üã ã Üʈ 7Ê ZÕ Ø «Ü «ãÊØ Ê¡ A ù ãÊ A ¢ ÿ«Ã ʈ ÊÃã ã ¨«Â ã ¶ÜÕ Ø˱ ù ãÊ¡Ø ÕØ ÜÜʈ Ê ÊØ ȼȽȽʢȿȼɁȻʈ "ʼ¼Êô Êà aô«ãã Ø ˱¶¡ÜÕ Øʈ MANKATO MAGAZINE • 6(37(0%(5 • 11

Day Trip Destinations: Ely Harvest Moon Festival

By Leticia Gonzales

Take a voyage to

Ely

Festival takes visitors back to primitive times

F

or the past 23 years, Ely, Minn. has observed the harvest moon period with an annual fall festival that not only celebrates the harvest of food, but the people who have long since toiled the earth.

“It is a celebration of the Ely art, history and heritage of the area, so we are celebrating the people who settled in Ely, starting with the Ojibwa, the Slovenes, and the Finnish people,” said Ellen Cashman, events coordinator for the Ely Chamber of Commerce.

Cashman said Ely’s logging and mining industry created jobs in the late 1800s for Slovenian and Finnish people, who were also drawn to the community because it was similar to their home countries. Not only did they live “simply,” they grew or harvested most of their food.

“They would be harvesting and preserving, and

12 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

canning, and drying meat, and storing everything for the long and very cold and hard winter that would have been approaching,” said Cashman. “And they also would have also needed to be able to possibly build snowshoes and things like that to be able to move around during the winter.”

Farming was a way of life for the Slovenian and Finnish.

“They might had a couple of cows for milk,” Cashman added. “Depending on where their homestead was located, they might have been able to grow potatoes and traditional things like tomatoes and cucumbers and pumpkins, and lots of root vegetables that would be able to be stored for use during the winter time.”

In addition to the Ojibwa people, who harvested wild rice, berries and fish, the voyageurs were settlers

who traveled to Ely from Grand Portage.

“They were coming from places like the Hu d s o n B ay Company in Canada and they were coming to buy furs from the Ojibwa people, and then they would go back,” said Cashman.

An a Capella group called the Voyageurs will perform at the Harvest Moon Festival as one of the entertainment acts.

“They sing songs in French that the voyageurs would have sung as they paddled their big birch bark canoes through the area,” she added.

The Singing Slovenes group will dance and perform traditional music using a button box, while Dr. Silas McFee’s Magic Medicine Show will entertain guests.

“This is kind of important, because at that time period in small towns, people worked day in and day out, and there was very little socialization or anywhere to go,” said Cashman. “The town was small and rustic, and so these traveling medicine shows were actors and actresses that would come through these little communities and they would put on shows and people could come and watch, and listen.

“It was a community gathering where people could socialize and promote their medicine -- elixirs for all kinds of aches and pains, and cures -- so it was very colorful.”

A major aspect of the celebration includes a juried art festival, with 125 to 140 artists and crafters participating. Art includes pottery, photography, weaving, jewelry making, watercolors and oil

Go If you

paintings and woodworking.

The annual festival attracts 10,000-15,000 visitors to the area, which also includes more than a dozen food vendors, as well as demonstrations such as snowshoe making, basket weaving, and wild rice harvesting, which Cashman said were “all of the traditional skills people would have needed to have to actually survive in a place like Ely during that time period.”

Cindy Beans, director of operations for Jasper Company of Ely, Minn., owns a bakery and coffee shop with her family in downtown Ely, Jasper Co. Bakeshop. This is their second year as a festival vendor where they set up a small café.

“At the harvest festival, we do a lot more with cranberries, pumpkins, wild rice, more of the falle-sque north woods ingredients,” she said.

These ingredients are infused

What Harvest Ely, Minn.

together to create unique scones such as blueberry and wild rice or cranberry and honey walnut.

Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin chai lattes, air pods of coffee, and dried mixes are also available for purchase.

“People can take them home and make them at their leisure; take a little piece of Ely with them,” shared Beans.

All events take place at the center of Ely in Whiteside Park, where Cashman said festivalgoers can expect “a really fun, festive atmosphere.”

“The farm market is filled with colorful chrysanthemums and pumpkins and authentic potica, fresh bread, and canned pickles and jellies and things like that; it’s a family festival,” she said. “Come and experience it!”

Moon Festival

When Sept. 9-11 Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Admission

Admission is FREE, but costs vary for artwork, food and vendor purchases Visit ely.org

MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 13

Teacher and coach Dale Compton was a big influence on Ester Archer at Loyola High School.

Hey, Teach!

Of course, students love all their teachers. But sometimes one comes along that is … unforgettable

By Nell Musolf | Photos by Pat Christman 14 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

I

t is probably a safe bet to say everyone who has ever attended school has a favorite teacher they remember long after graduating. Students often spend more time with their teachers than their own parents, so it makes sense that when there is one who makes a difference, a part of that teacher remains with the student forever.

People don’t get into teaching for the glamor. And it certainly ain’t the money. The people who feel the lure of becoming an educator do it almost without exception because of a very basic motivation: to help young people become all they can possibly be.

For the following Mankato area educators, their obvious impact illustrates this fact. A few students have agreed to share their stories about that one special teacher they will never forget.

Ester Archer and Dale Compton

This past June, Ester Archer graduated from Loyola High School. The star student achieved many accomplishments throughout her years at Loyola including placing nationally in two science fairs, being elected Homecoming Queen and being chosen twice by her teammates to be the captain of the cross country team (to name just a few.)

While Archer could easily talk about all the things she has accomplished, she chose instead to talk about someone who helped her come to a very important realization: While it’s nice to be multitalented — which Archer most definitely is — it’s even better to have a kind, compassionate heart, which Archer most definitely has. The teacher who helped her realize how important empathy and compassion are is Dale Compton, Loyola’s cross country coach and art teacher.

Archer and Compton first became acquainted when Archer was in sixth grade and joined the cross country team.

“None of my friends went out for cross country and I didn’t know anybody on the team,” Archer recalled. “It was really scary. I still remember my parents driving off and I was standing by myself. A couple of seniors came over and asked me to sit down with them. They were so nice and friendly and made me feel right at home.”

It didn’t take Archer long to figure out that Compton was behind it.

“Everyone is included,” Archer said.

Dale Compton said creating an atmosphere of inclusivity is important to him as a coach and teacher.

“I guess it was how I was brought up,” Compton said, explaining where his sense of fairness and inclusiveness came from. “My parents taught me that everyone matters and that’s something I have always tried to teach my students. Everyone puts in time and effort and while there’s only one winner in a race, that doesn’t mean everyone can’t do their best.”

Those characteristics are ones Archer says she’ll take with her and remember long after high school is over.

“By the time you get to the end of high school, you’ve had so many teachers in your life,” Archer said. “I’ve had a lot of good teachers but Coach Compton is special. What I’ll take away from knowing him is remembering how he treated

Teacher Jim Timmerman’s patience meant everything to Victoria Partridge. people because that taught me how to treat people.

“When I was at science competitions or races I knew how to talk to people because I saw how Coach Compton socialized and treated everyone with kindness and respect,” she said. “He was always very genuine and he noticed everyone. That’s how I want to be.”

Victoria Partridge and Jim Timmerman

Victoria Partridge was a teenager when she moved to Minnesota from Texas. Partridge had dropped out of high school and in her words was “getting into trouble and making bad choices.”

When she moved to Minnesota to live with a relative, Partridge enrolled in Kato Public Charter School (then known as RiverBend Academy). Her teacher was Jim Timmerman. Fortunately for Partridge, the two clicked immediately.

“I was so fortunate to be placed in Jim’s room,” Partridge said. “Jim was my teacher for all three years that I attended RiverBend Academy and he was very helpful in making me feel comfortable in a MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 15

L

T

E

R.

m

AFTER BALL

& DEALER BALLET LOGO COME HOME

TO A SHAW FLOOR. Carpet | Tile & Stone | Hardwood | Laminate | Resilient | shawfloors.com

Website.com

FLOORING EXPERTS SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE!

RICKWAY CARPET

507.625.3089 | 1107 Cross St. | North Mankato Mon.-Thurs. 9am-8pm, Fri. 9am-6pm, Sat. 9am-4pm, Closed Sun.

www.rickwaycarpet.net

#1 Heating/Air Service

www.schwickerts.com

Commercial & Residential Mechanical & Roofing Contractors

507-387-3101 I 330 Poplar St. I Mankato, MN

Cancer care for you.

Support for your family.

Our expert oncology team is committed to helping you and your family through every step of the cancer journey — physically and emotionally.

At Mayo Clinic, we’re engaged in cutting-edge research and connected to unrivaled knowledge and resources, resulting in the best care options for you, right here in Mankato.

Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato 1025 Marsh Street | mayoclinichealthsystem.org

16 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE 4.95”x4.95”

Mankato Magazine AUGUST 2016

new environment and showing me the ways of my new school.

Coming from a broken home and really having no structure or adult figures to push me along the way, Jim was there to show me what that was like.”

Partridge’s stay in Minnesota became more difficult when the relative she had moved in with asked her to leave. Partridge was able to turn to new friends she had made as well as to her teacher.

“Jim was aware of the struggles I was going through and he wouldn’t pressure me into completing tasks or if I laid my head down for a while and didn’t work on anything. When he noticed that I was feeling better, he pushed me to work harder to make up for the lost time,” Partridge said.

Partridge continued her schooling and graduated in 2007.

Looking back, she remembers her high school years and her favorite teacher with appreciation.

“With everything that I’ve gone through in my life, I learned the most between the years of 2004 to 2007,” Partridge said. “I never really had the adult figures in my younger years to teach me the things that should have been taught. The discipline, self-worth, work ethic and structure — those were provided to me by Mr. Timmerman. Without him, I would not have received my high school diploma. I am so grateful to him and can’t thank him enough for helping me become who I am today.”

Timmerman remembers Victoria Partridge clearly and fondly.

“Victoria is the reason teachers teach,” Timmerman said. “It is students like Vicky who are both

the reason for my teaching career and the hope I have for every child who enters my classroom.

As much as Vicky would give me any credit for her academic success or maturing as a person, she is my shining example of what is possible for students who understand the importance of education and the doors that it can open. Her perseverance and grit in pursuing her diploma against seemingly insurmountable challenges are what I hold as an example to other students about what is possible.”

Tyler Ball and Amanda Schaffer

Of course, making an impact on a student isn’t exclusively the realm of high school teachers.

Teachers of all grades influence their students, often without being aware of what is going on.

Tyler Ball moved to Mankato from Wisconsin last summer.

About to enter first grade, Tyler was anxious over starting a new school: Franklin Elementary. His mother, Tracy, was also concerned.

“I was leery at first,” Tracy Ball said. “We were used to smaller school districts but as soon as Tyler began in Amanda Schaffer’s classroom, I knew that everything was going to be all right. She challenged him to care about school and about learning and that was wonderful.”

Tracy says she knew her son wasn’t always an angel, but she praised Schaffer’s classroom management skills.

“He knows that she still loves him even when he’s misbehaving,” Tracy said.

Tyler’s view of his teacher was direct.

“She tries her hardest to teach the students because she does it all the time,” he said.

Schaffer said meeting Tyler and his parents prior to starting school helped.

“We met at the entrance conference,” Schaffer recalled. “I could tell right away that Tyler was the kind of student who would always have lots to share and I was right. Tyler’s mom told me that his interest in school varied and that he’d had a few behavior struggles in the past.

Knowing that helped me help

Tyler Ball loved his first-grade teacher, Amanda Schaffer.

Tyler transition to Franklin.”

Schaffer, who has taught first grade for nine years, has developed a system where new students are assigned a buddy and everyone in the class helps each other.

“First graders love to help,” Schaffer said. “It’s great because they’re excited about showing new students around the school, what to do in the cafeteria — that kind of thing.”

Schaffer can’t imagine being anything other than a teacher.

“When I was growing up, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher and that’s never changed.

I love being with the kids and seeing the amount of growth they do in one year. I look at how much they’ve grown from the beginning of the school year to the end and it really is amazing,” Schaffer said.

Although Schaffer will be

transferring to Jefferson Elementary this school year, Tyler plans on keeping in touch.

“Mrs. Schaffer asked Tyler to write some jokes for her new class,” Tracy said. “I think they’ll always stay in touch.” MM

MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 17

“All my friends are good pool players.”

— Doug Erickson

8-ball, side pocket Doug Erickson’s home is a vintage museum

By Pete Steiner | Photos by Pat Christman

I

n July, I described my dismay at the culmination of urban renewal in Mankato, with the 1985 demolition of the stately IOOF (Odd Fellows) Building, where my Dad once had his office. I listed several others who headquartered there as well. But I left at least one business out. The phone rang shortly after the article appeared here.

“Did you know I had a pool hall in the basement?” In fact, I said, no. “Well, this is Doug Erickson. I read your article. I had a 1904 Brunswick pool table in the basement. Hardly anybody knew.

Except the pool players.”

Erickson and his wife, Sue, arrived in Mankato in the late

18 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

1970s. He’d studied journalism at St. Cloud State, where he helped pay tuition by working as a restaurant cook. When he heard of an available space in North Mankato, the couple decided to open a restaurant. From 1978 to 1983, the New Deal Cafe flourished in the historic brick building at Range and Belgrade (see Jean Lundquist’s story in the Jan 2011 issue of this magazine.)

The New Deal featured not only Doug’s delicious spaghetti, but also some fabulous antiques, such as a vintage telephone booth and lovely etched glass. See, Doug had developed a passion for collecting while still in college.

Now he had a place to display the stuff.

•••• Doug asks me if I’d like to see that pool table. Why not? It’d be easy to drive past their place in rural northeastern Blue Earth county. Leah the Briard dog isn’t sure she likes me, but she and their spaniel are soon banished to enclosed spaces. I walk through the door that says, “Hippies Enter Here.” Suddenly I don’t know where to focus.

The walls, the shelves, everything is a feast for the eyes.

The framed sheet music copy of “I Walk the Line,” with a young Johnny Cash cover photo. In the corner is a Garland wood stove that could still be hooked up in an emergency. In another corner

Doug Erickson is shown here with his 1957 Ford Fairlane. is a vintage juke box. “Go ahead, punch up a tune,” Doug smiles. I hit G-9, and it’s Buddy Holly’s “Don’t Fade Away.” Doug offers to let me sit in an 1880’s theaterstyle seat that he says was once used by the Odd Fellows in their elegant third-floor lodge in the IOOF. The couple confess, they love perusing estate sales. Sue searches them out. Now she looks around the room for additional display space. Seeing little, she smiles: “Why do I tell him about these things?” Her particular passion is old beer trays, including one with a Hamm’s Beer logo. She grew up in St.

Paul, where her uncle worked for the old Hamm’s brewery.

•••• I could use up a lot of space here just listing portions of their collection; old photos, advertising signs, ashtrays, tobacco tins, posters (there’s one for Scott Towels, circa late 1940s, which asks: “Is your washroom breeding Bolsheviks?” The implication, of course, is that if you don’t give employees “decent facilities,” who knows what evil ideologies might ensnare them?) The entire home, down to the working rotary dial phone in the bedroom, is a

shrine to the culture and commerce of 20th-century America.

Fortunately for posterity, the Erickson’s youngest son wants to maintain the collection.

Presumably including the preWWII porcelain washing machine that still works, and the 1950 gas stove that Doug and Sue have been cooking on for 43 years. The vintage theme even extends to their cars: in the garage are a 1957 Fairlane convertible and a 1948 Dodge sedan with the original upholstery intact.

•••• MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 19

Thank You Greater Mankato.

Proud to Serve You.

THANK YOU

www.cbfg.net #CBThanksYou

VOTED TOP THREE

TOP PRODUCING BANK

Now placing high quality, affordable implants.

Offering new patients free implant consults.

Call us today to schedule an appointment at (507)387-2603

1550 E. Adams Street, Mankato (507)387-2603 www.ozfamilydentistry.com 20 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

But wait, there’s more! Let’s go down the basement, Doug says.

Hey, there’s that old phone booth from the New Deal! And the “icecream chair” style shoe-shine stand that sat in a corner. And possibly the largest collection of bottle openers in existence, opposite a wall covered with Minnesota car license plates dating back to 1909. There’s a poster of a young Ronald Reagan, with slicked back ’50s hair, advertising Wildroot Cream Oil, with its “penetrating lanolin formula.” A crumpled old Stetson sits on a shelf. Glenn Ford wore that hat in several of his classic westerns. (Don’t ask Doug how he procured that.)

And there it is, in the center of the room ... the Brunswick pool table, with its latticed leather pockets still in great shape. The oak table, which has been moved numerous times, is trimmed in walnut, and probably weighs 800 pounds. That table is why we started talking in the first place,

Erickson shows off his Brunswick pool table. when I confessed, I never knew there was a pool club in the old IOOF. •••• When the New Deal closed, contractor Ron Goodrich mentioned to Doug, the town needed a place where pool players could play — “they always need a table to play on.” So he put his table in the basement of the IOOF, behind the sign that said “Acme Cleaners.” Word spread, and paying players were given a keyless entry code.

They’d “come in 24-7.” When the IOOF was razed, they moved the club to the Martin Building, then to South Front, never with a sign, always “hidden in plain sight.”

“Doug was a night owl,” Sue says. “He wanted to play pool with his friends.”

Near the pool table, there’s another jukebox, a 1938 Wurlitzer that lights up with neon when

you put in a quarter. It plays old glass, 78-rpm records. Sue punches up a Hank Williams tune.

Every year, the couple hosts a “Gondola Party,” named for the enormous sandwich that was a staple of the New Deal’s menu.

Doug cooks up his famous spaghetti sauce in the 18-inch

cast iron skillet he’s used for decades, and they serve it to former employees and friends.

Then, after a while, no doubt, someone might punch up Ernie Ford’s “16 Tons” or Lena Horne’s “Stormy Weather” on the juke, and someone else will say, “Rack ‘em up!” MM MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 21

y a s

Es

WE TRIED Enjoying the “Love Your Spouse Challenge?”

Good for you. Here’s some equal time.

By Joe Tougas

I

t wasn’t a plan. It never is. It just happened.

Through a fair amount of fog I can still see us, back when Shelley and I were just starting, feeling our way along.

Sure, we’d both been here before, but this was wobbly, a little too fast and out of control but we didn’t seem to mind. It was like we were walking through a surreal, foreign film together. We tried to hold on.

I felt uneasy but strong, at times a risktaker extraordinaire. And her energy, wit and strength through it all were boundless. It was an amazing time.

22 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

And I swear we did everything right. Sarcasm.

Bitching. Shouting. Pouting. Miserable, incessant bickering and accusations of crimes up to and including serious felonies. Colorful words like soulless, despicable, heartless and so many others flew like confetti.

Those early days of the divorce seemed as though they would last forever.

But what seems to last so long for so many others vanished for us. Gone. One day I’m in a rental shed sorting books — mine organized by first editions and autographed copies and hers hurled into a plastic bin — and the next thing I know we’re throwing a party at her new house where her fiance and I are dressed like Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore, drinking beer and eating pizza.

It didn’t have to be this way. And that’s on Shelley and me. There’s no way around it. Somehow we ruined a perfectly good divorce.

I can’t tell you exactly when exactly it began, who said what to whom or anything like that. I just know we botched a tradition and, in doing so, brought confusion to friends and family.

My instinct is to say we did it for the kid’s sake.

But being civil for the kid’s sake can stop at a certain point. People do it all the time. If you want to see it in action, hit an elementary school’s holiday program. You’ll find it’s an ice-covered bonanza of once-upon-a-timers standing together in the back of a crowded gymnasium, managing a tight smile and small talk for each other but with the body language of two people in the longest elevator ride of their lives in which the doors just will. not. open.

They have the green photocopied program to stare at in the meantime, only to read that they’ll be standing through the first, then the second, then the third grade choir performances before getting to hear their fourth grader sing the five songs both of them thought was the extent of the program. It gets tense. But they sweat it out, literally, underneath their winter coats and under a getting-back-to-work deadline seriously shot.

And that’s as far as it needs to go for most people.

Once or twice a year, thrust together in a gym, sweating to the oldies, biting their tongue for a small eternity and finally released back to their respective corners of not having to think about each other till the next concert.

So clearly, we let it go too far and it wouldn’t be right to pin it solely at the child.

There IS the fiance. I’m OK putting a good portion of this at his feet. I met him on a fall afternoon at Shelley’s apartment. I was there to pick up my daughter for the weekend. This was while the divorce was still pretty fresh and hot, allowing lots of room for pettiness and ridicule, tools I had in good supply. And here was a new boyfriend. Nice to meet you.

So in Shelley’s apartment, he and I are introduced, shake hands and he’s very nice (and so am I) and I leave the two of them in the kitchen and wait in the living room. Here I see his iPhone being charged and on it iTunes is displaying the most recent album he’d been playing.

Music. My area, my landscape, my passion.

My courtroom.

See, my greatest musical talent is not as a vocalist

or guitarist, but social interpreter. All I need is one good look at your music library and we won’t need to talk about any social challenges in your life or irreversible character flaws. I’ll know. Show me a collection with more than one Lynyrd Skynyrd album and chances are you’re showing it to me in a basement. Show me a Rascal Flatts box set and I’m seeing an intellectual curiosity that called it quits after fourth grade. Show me a collection with no Beatles and I’ll do my best to not use finger-quotes if we find ourselves talking any further about your “music.”

Yes, my destroyer fleet led by the U.S.S. Condescension was on high alert and ready to strike.

Except.

On his iPhone was Bruce Springsteen. Bruce “is-adream-a-lie-if it-don’t come true or-is-it something worse” Springsteen. My best musical friend and the best Boss I ever had.

It only went on from there. Ends up he’s sweet to my daughter, he’s sensitive and respectful of her and he wants her to grow up to be the same toward others. A couple of years ago, she wanted to throw me a surprise birthday party in Mankato and Shelley got sick. So HE went to work putting up all the decorations, picked up the cake and organized everybody so they were there to yell surprise and give that 8-year-old a moment she’s still proud of today. The guy’s a freaking role model. She adores him and, as it turns out, he deserves it. And I knew that would be the case (given my insight and his Springsteen) but still. And maybe it’s an awkward thing to say, but I’m glad for these two ladies. I think everybody in that house they live in is lucky.

Including me.

I’m in their house all the time. See, they live two hours away so sometimes bringing my daughter to Mankato for the weekend conflicts with a classmate’s birthday party or a can I please-please-please Saturday play date. The solution? Giving me their house for the weekend. And when the two of them travel for weeks straight, I drive them to the airport and transport my life to their place for a few days.

Oh, hell. You would too. A newly built home in a quiet development with a soccer field, a giant park and traffic that goes 5 miles an hour on clean, curvy streets. I took my girl trick or treating there this past year. House after house was decked out with gravestones in the front yards, inhabited coffins on the porch and gurgling torture chamber sound effects blaring out of open two- and three-stall garages. It was a neighborhood party as far as you could walk. Kids running everywhere.

And yes, if I were 27 and still mainlining Lou Reed’s “Blue Mask” album and idolizing Charles Bukowski I’d smirk at the lack of broken glass or shitty tailpipes or, you know, happening-ness… But guess who it’s not about anymore?

Lastly, in our defense, I have to say that right or wrong, it feels natural. At least for us. We lived together for quite some time so I’m comfortable saying that Shelley and I are two very lazy people.

And as experts in finding the least amount of work to get something done, I think we both agree that it’s much easier to live in the now instead of the back-then. It helps that we like each other, the way it began. It’s refined now. Dare I say fun. She doesn’t MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 23

remind me to send my mom a birthday card and I don’t get upset with her thinking I need to be reminded to send my mom a birthday card. Leaving the cupboards open at my apartment prompts no reaction as 1) I’m the only one there and 2) I’ve yet to realize why an open cupboard is a crisis.

The other night I was there again for our daughter’s first concert and while she rehearsed there was an hour to kill so Shelley and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings in Hudson, Wis. That’s the same bar and restaurant we hung out in in Mankato when we got to know each other.

Now, 20 years later, guess what she said to

commemorate this full-circle of sorts, after more than 20 years of living with and through each other? Nothing. Me either. We talked instead about viola lessons, my music, her book and how crazy excited we were to see this concert.

You’ve heard of friends with benefits? This is more like friends with Honorable Discharges.

Veterans who in the course of their duties preserved something worth fighting for and lived to tell about it as they left the old BW3 and then sat at their daughter’s school, waiting patiently and quite comfortably for the first grade, second grade and third graders to finish. MM

Joe Tougas is a Mankato-based writer

24 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Three Time National Award Winners 20765 Foley Rd., Mankato, MN | 507.387.2434 | 507.726.2411

Mary Ann Donahue

(507) 340-2873 Senior Housing Tour of Homes maryann.donahue@gmail.com In celebration of Assisted Living Week, three area communities are partnering to showcase their properties.

Monday, September 12, 12:30 – 4:00 pm Parking available at Old Main Village.

Transportation will be provided for the duration of the event.

Join us for a full-filled, educational afternoon! Door prizes and refreshments will be served at each community.

12:30 pm Tour Begins

Integrity/Honesty Competitive Fees

301 S. 5th St, Mankato

2:00 pm Next Stop

1360 Adams St, Mankato

3:00 pm Final Stop

2135 Lor Ray Dr., North Mankato

RSVP to Karen at Primrose at (866) 447-9636

by Thursday, Sept. 8th.

Over 20 Years Experience

Looking out for you 1720 Adams Street, Mankato MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 25

Reflections

By Pat Christman

26 26 •• september september 2016 2016 •• MANKATO MAGAZINE MANKATO MAGAZINE

I

t’s hard to imagine the bumblebee as an endangered species. There was a time when a bee buzzing around a prairie flower was commonplace. Now, bees and other pollinators are under attack by disease, ditch mowing and a host of other threats.

A group of veterans looking to bring a little native beauty to a nearby Vietnam memorial is, in a small way, changing that. The local Prairie Enthusiasts group led the way to creating a natural prairie area near the memorial along Stoltzman Road in Mankato. Since its revitalization this year, courtesy of a controlled burn, prairie flowers have attracted all kinds of pollinators, including bumblebees and monarchs.

Just a short walk through the prairie now reveals the bees’ familiar buzzing again. MM

MANKATO MAGAZINE • MANKATO MAGAZINE • september september 2016 2016 •• 27 27

Then & Now: Mankato’s Public Schools By: Bryce O. Stenzel

The former Union School now houses a law office and several other businesses.

From Miss Hanna to Prairie Winds Mankato’s public schools steeped in history

P

ublic education has always played an important role in the development of Mankato, almost from the community’s inception in February,

1852.

A year later, in the summer of 1853, the first public school classes were held for 25 students in a warehouse on the corner of Front and Walnut Streets. The school was taught by Miss Sarah Jane Hanna. She was paid for her services by subscription. Two years later, in 1855, rapid growth of the community necessitated construction of a crude, one-room log structure, known affectionately as the “Old Log School.” It was built on the site where the current Union Square 28 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Building (formally Union School) stands on North Broad Street.

In addition to being a school, the Old Log building served as the church home for the presbyterian congregation, which was being organized in August, 1855. It was agreed that the church could use the space for its services rent free; but in exchange, ladies of the Sewing Society furnished the stove for the building at a cost of $20, a combination bookcase and pulpit for $10, a library of books worth $40, and curtains for the windows.

In 1857, the presbyterian congregation decided to purchase a bell that could be heard throughout the

entire village of Mankato in case of emergency -- that bell cost $300. In order to raise the money, the congregation sold subscriptions (the sum of money given or pledged as a contribution, payment or investment) to the general public.

When the presbyterian congregation outgrew the Old Log building, they took the bell with them.

Today, it hangs in the belfry of the current First Presbyterian Church building (dedicated in 1896), located at South Broad and Hickory Streets.

Lafayette G.M. Fletcher helped build the Old Log School and served as its first teacher during the winters of 1855-56, and again in 1857-58. Fletcher was Mankato’s first paid school teacher; he earned a total of $68.88 for his first two months of instruction. In 1860, Fletcher was first elected to the Mankato School Board, a position he retained for many years. In 1883, Fletcher was elected to the Minnesota State Senate, where he served one term.

Fletcher died in 1910.

In 1867, the Old Log School was torn down and replaced by a larger structure — the first of two “Union Schools” to be built on the site. The name was derived from the victorious Northern or “Union” Army that had won the American Civil War only two years earlier.

Unlike its predecessor, Union School was a three-story brick building, containing seven teachers, which enabled high school classes to be taught separately for the first time in Mankato’s history. However, at first, the idea was not popular.

Many of the high-school aged students dropped out.

Additionally, only one-third to one-fourth of the school age children in Blue Earth County were enrolled to begin with. The first high school graduating class in the history of Mankato’s Public Schools was composed of nine students; they graduated in 1876.

Following the Civil and Dakota wars, there occurred a rapid population growth in Mankato that set off a wave of building projects, culminating in the construction of neighborhood schools.

Pleasant Grove School (the site of Lincoln Community Center)

was built in 1871. It was an eightroom structure that housed seven teachers. It is best remembered for being the school attended by and mentioned by children’s author, Maud Hart Lovelace, in her Betsy-Tacy books.

Franklin School, originally built in 1874, was replaced by the current brick structure in 1928 — one of several school structures built along similar architectural lines in the first quarter of the 20th century, along with the second Union (1919), Lincoln (1921) and Roosevelt (1927).

The Mankato High School building was built on the corner of South Fifth and Hickory Streets in 1891. In 1894, two additional schools were built: the Old East Mankato School, built at the intersection of Dickinson, Fair and Dane Streets at the top of Agency Hill (referred to now as Main Street Hill) and the West Mankato School (now occupied

by Roosevelt).

A devastating fire destroyed the Mankato High School building in 1941. Ten years later, a new Mankato High School building (now Mankato West) was completed. Rapid population growth on the Mankato and North Mankato hilltops, as well as in lower North Mankato, created the need for new schools to keep up with the demand: Jefferson, Washington, Monroe, Garfield, Hoover, Kennedy, Mankato East High School, Dakota Meadows, Rosa Parks, and the new Prairie Winds Middle School were the result of this urban expansion.

The tradition of naming Mankato’s public schools after American presidents was a long one, beginning with “Lincoln” in 1921. However, the precedent was broken with the construction of Dakota Meadows Middle School.

As classes begin for another year, it seems appropriate to explore the origins of Mankato’s public school system. The 20162017 school year represents another chapter of a 161-year story. It also represents a new opportunity to build on a legacy of excellence.

INTRODUCING

THE ESSENCE OF COLDWELL BANKER COMMERCIAL FISHER GROUP

COMMERCIAL

CORE

TO THE

To a Coldwell Banker Commercial Fisher Group agent, your business IS their business.

You put your sweat and tears into it and they will do the same.

Because no matter how big your deal is, it’s a big deal to them.

/COMMERCIAL TO THE CORE/ CBCFISHERGROUP.COM

MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 29

Same Great People. Same Great Service.

Give Us a Call Today! 507.388.4895 1671 E. Madison Ave., Mankato, MN 56001

Auto Body Repair Auto Glass Repair & Replacement National Lifetime Limited Warranty

AUTO BODY & GLASS

abraauto.com fb.com/abraauto @ABRAauto

We are Proud to Welcome to the Monarch Healthcare Management Family Assisted Living Facilities T H E B E A C O N AT L A K E C RY S TA L

T H E B E A C O N AT LECENTER

511 West Blue Earth St., Lake Crystal, MN 56055

175 E. Derrynane St., LeCenter, MN 56057

T H E B E A C O N AT MAPLETON

T H E B E A C O N AT NEW RICHLAND

206 3rd Ave. N.E., Mapleton, MN 56065

113 1st St. S.W., New Richland, MN 56072

Skilled Nursing Facilities GREEN PRAIRIE R E H A B I L I TAT I O N CENTER & ASSISTED LIVING

MEEKER MANOR R E H A B I L I TAT I O N C E N T E R

Plainview, MN 55964

T H E N O RT H S H O R E E S TAT E S

800 2nd Ave. N.W.

600 S. Davis, Litchfield, MN 55355

7700 Grand Ave., Duluth, MN 55807

Check our FaceBook page for additional information and updates 30 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

O

Enjoy!

— Robb Murray, Associate Editor, Mankato Magazine

southern mn style

ur beer column this week has inspired me.

In that column, Bert Mattson recommends a beer called Arrogant Bastard. I’ve had that beer before. It’s very good.

But it got me thinking about how right now, more than any other time in our nation’s history, is a golden age of beer naming.

No hop pun has gone unabused, folks. Consider these brews: Hopocolypse (for end times fans), Hops of Wrath (for classic literature fans), Black Hops (for first-person shooter video game fans), Smooth Hoperator (for fans of simply fantastic puns.)

Great beer names aren’t limited to plays on the word “hop.”

Many get creative with odd ingredients, and creative names follow. Ever tried Gourd of the Rings? Java the Nut? How about Pumpkin Brewster? Genghis Pecan? Hell or High Watermelon?

And some names defy categorization, other than to call them all bizarre. Into this category go the beers Larry Bird’s Haircut, Dirtbag McQuaig’s Malt Liquor for Fine Gentlemen, My Other Brother Darryl, Roland the Headless Assistant Brewer, Fermentation Without Representation and Uvula.

On the wine side of the table, Leigh Pomeroy tells the story of that day he sat in the same room with Robert Mondavi and threw shade at the legendary winemaker.

It’s a weird world out there, folks. Experience all of it.

food, drink & dine

What’s in a name?

Sometimes Lord only knows

MANKATO MAGAZINE • September 2016 • 31

Food southern mn style

Steal the potluck show

with slab pie for a crowd recipe

By Cathy Barrow | Special to The Washington Post

H

ello, dog days of summer - a time for potlucks, cookouts, family reunions a n d p o o l p a r t i e s . By t h e i r very nature, these gatherings are dependent on the guests’ generosity and collective enthusiasm and on, by my reckoning, three key types of contributors: the Pick-Up Artist, the One-Dish Wonder and the Showstopper.

Happy to provide critical essentials, the Pick-Up Artist buys chips or drinks or cold cuts, slaws or salads, cookies or paper goods.

The One-Dish Wonder arrives with the same tried-and-true platter no matter the occasion.

It might be mac and cheese or potato salad, barbecue or fried chicken. In my neighborhood, Mr. Bishop’s meatballs are legendary: sweet, tangy, perfectly sized. If I went to a gathering and didn’t see them, I would be bereft.

The Showstopper is competitive to the core; in a potluck guest, this is by no means a negative quality. As hosts, we count on the sensational contributions from our friends the Showstoppers.

These are the guests of whom we can ask, “Will you bring a vegetarian dish that will feed a crowd?” Or, “Do you have a dessert for 25?”

A slab pie can put you in the Showstopper seat. For a winning dessert in the glorious fruit-filled months, nothing beats pie; slab pies are easily transportable and 32 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

can yield 24 to 36 pieces, so they are a crowd-size contribution. Part pie, part giant Pop-Tart, a slab pie is for crust lovers. It’s easy to serve and easy to eat.

And, as it turns out, easy to make.

Even though I am an experienced pie maker, I once feared slab pie.

I wasn’t sure I could roll out the dough large enough to cover a rimmed baking sheet. I thought transferring it from the floured counter would be nightmarish.

I’m going to tell you straight: It wasn’t bad. The trick is using plenty of dough. And any patchwork on the bottom crust won’t show.

For my first attempt, I made three standard batches of piecrust dough, using 1 1/2 batches for each layer. The result was skimpy in the pan. A slab pie needs a significant crust. For the next attempt, I upped the quantity to four batches. The crust was sturdy, not too thin, with plenty of flaky layers, well crimped and pleated at the edge to hold back the flood of fruit juices once the pie started to bake. Every subsequent iteration has only gotten easier. As with so many kitchen techniques, practice really does make perfect.

I like a slab pie with a top crust, as opposed to a streusel topping; it’s a far sturdier option when you’re serving on paper plates.

With peaches or apricots, a top crust protects the fruit from overcooking and keeps the filling juicy. And if that top crust tears as you get it situated, steam-vent

slashes cover a multitude of sins.

Lattice or other decorated lids are the bailiwick of the Showstopper. Go ahead and get fancy.

While four cups of fruit will make a plump nine-inch pie, a slab pie requires a generous six cups.

My preference is for a tart taste, using scant sugar, but add more sugar if you prefer a sweeter filling.

Herbs and spices added while the fruit macerates can serve as counterpoints to the fruits’ flavor.

Lemon verbena is my favorite for any stone fruit (peaches, cherries, plums, nectarines and apricots) and many berries, but mint or thyme are also good choices.

Freeze the unbaked pie for an hour, or overnight. Starting with cold pastry in a blazing-hot oven means more flakiness in the bake.

The egg wash and sprinkling of sugar help burnish the top; a nicely browned slab pie looks best.

Traveling with a hot pie is never a good idea. Allow plenty of time to let it come to room temperature - about 2 hours - just to be safe.

Although it’s fine to make a slab pie the night before the party, I’m a fan of baking the morning of any event. The pie will taste fresher, and the crust is going to retain the snap and flake that will set this dessert apart.

Go ahead. Strut into the potluck, head held high. You’ve got a Showstopper dessert.

Fruit Slab Pie

24 to 32 servings You can crumble almond paste over the fruit filling for a sweeter, richer pie. Leave plenty of time to cool the pie so the filling will firm up before slicing. If apricots are hard to come by, use plums or peaches instead. (See the VARIATION, below.)

You’ll need two 13-by-18-inch baking sheets; the ones that come with a plastic cover are quite handy for transporting.

MAKE AHEAD: The fruit needs to macerate and the pie crust dough needs to be refrigerated for at least 2 hours and preferably overnight. This pie is best eaten the day it is made, but wrapped well, it makes a superb breakfast.

From Washington cookbook author Cathy Barrow.

Ingredients For the filling 4 pounds apricots, slightly firm (see headnote) 1 cup sugar Juice of 2 lemons Three 3-inch sprigs of lemon verbena (optional) 1/4 cup cornstarch 12 ounces almond paste, crumbled (not marzipan; optional) For the crust 5 1/3 cups (22 ounces) flour, plus more for the work surface and rolling pin 16 ounces (4 sticks) unsalted butter, diced and frozen 1 cup ice water 2 pinches kosher salt 2 to 3 tablespoons whole milk or heavy cream, for brushing 2 tablespoons sugar, for sprinkling Steps For the filling: Cut each apricot in half, remove and discard the pit, then cut each half into 3 or 4 slices.

Combine the apricot slices, sugar, lemon juice and lemon verbena, if using, in a glass or ceramic bowl.

Stir well to begin to dissolve the sugar. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and preferably overnight.

For the crust: Lightly flour a work surface. Combine half of the flour and half of the butter in a food processor; pulse about 10 times or until the butter is reduced to small pieces. Add 1/2 cup of the ice

water and a pinch of salt. Run the processor just until a dough just comes together in a ball. Transfer to the work surface and shape into a block that’s about 6 inches by 4 inches by 2 inches. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and preferably overnight.

Repeat with the remaining flour, butter, ice water and salt.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Make room in the freezer (or the refrigerator) for the baking sheets.

Flour a rolling pin and re-flour the work surface; then mark off a space about 20 inches by 15 inches (use tape or place salt and pepper shakers at the four corners). This is your guide.

Roll out one brick of dough out to a final size as close to the guide as possible. Don’t worry if the dough splits or tears; it will patch easily. Roll the dough up around the pin and then drape it over one of the baking sheets, letting it fall into the corners and edges.

Working quickly, lightly press the dough into the baking sheet, trimming (with kitchen scissors) as needed to leave a 1-inch overhang of dough; transfer the baking sheet to cold storage. Repeat with the second brick of dough.

When you’re ready to bake, use the first chilled bottom slab pie shell. Discard the lemon verbena, if using, from the fruit mixture and add the cornstarch, stirring until well incorporated. Pour the fruit and every bit of the sugary syrup into the bottom crust and push it around until evenly distributed.

Sprinkle the almond paste over the fruit, if using.

Invert the second chilled slab

pie dough over the filling; you no longer need that second baking sheet. Fold and tuck in the dough overhang on both bottom and top moving all the way around the pan, then go back around to decoratively crimp the edges. Cut slits in the top crust (to allow steam to escape). Brush with the milk or cream, then sprinkle with the sugar.

Place the pie on the middle rack of the oven; immediately reduce the temperature to 375 degrees.

Bake for 55 minutes or until the fruit juices are bubbling and the crust is toasty brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for at least 3 hours before serving.

VARIATION: If apricots are unavailable, peaches or plums work beautifully in this slab pie.

While apricots and plums have a tender, edible skin, the peel on a peach is tough and fuzzy. To remove the peach skins, score a shallow “X” in the bottom of each piece of fruit. Carefully drop in batches into a pot of boiling water; blanch for 30 seconds, then use a slotted spoon to transfer them to a bowl of ice water to cool. The peels will then slide right off. Cut the fruit into chunky wedges: about 8 or 10 pieces per peach and 6 or 8 per plum.

Nutrition | Per serving (based on 32, using whole milk): 230 calories, 3 g protein, 29 g carbohydrates, 12 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 30 mg cholesterol, 5 mg sodium, 2 g dietary fiber, 12 g sugar

MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 33

Wine & Beer

wines

By Leigh Pomeroy

southern mn style

A tale of muscat wine and Robert Mondavi A white wine that has only in the last few years been rediscovered and is best expressed as semi-sweet to quite sweet is the Moscato.

These delicious wines are made from various versions of the muscat grape, those big, fat, juicy bunches found in grocery stores in the fall. Muscat grapes can range in color from pale green to inky purple (such as the black monukka). But by and large, the wines we see in stores and restaurants today come from muscat bianco, muscat canelli or muscat of Alexandria -- lighter versions of the grape.

Historically, muscat wine has often been fortified to make a thick, rich dessert elixir, but wine marketers, knowing that Americans prefer lower alcohol wines, have come up with the present formula of a light, semi-sweet wine often bottled with a bit of effervescence, and often patterned after the well-known Italian Moscato d’Asti.

Thinking of Muscat wines reminds me of the time I was privileged to sit in on the weekly Robert Mondavi Winery “inner sanctum” tastings in the early 1970s. This was because the winery where I worked and the Mondavi winery shared the same wine consultant, a larger-than-life German named Karl Werner. Karl felt it was important for me to learn as much as I could about winemaking, so he invited me along to these tastings.

One Thursday morning before the weekly tasting, Dave (Mondavi’s chemist) introduced a young woman to me named Marcie. I thought Dave had said Marcie was his sister, and I considered it very gracious that she was included in this exclusive tasting. Not only that, but she was invited to sit next to Robert Mondavi himself, who rarely attended these tastings but was present for this one.

The wines we tasted — single blind, so we wouldn’t be prejudiced — were Muscats. “Single blind” in wine parlance means you are told the wines in the tasting, but you don’t know which is which. By this time, even at the age of 24, my palate and wine memory had become developed enough so that I knew, from swirling, sniffing and tasting, which wine was the Charles Krug, which the Sutter Home, which the Louis Martini, and which two were the Robert Mondavis — one the latest bottled vintage, the second the tank sample.

“Bubba,” as he was affectionately called behind his back by his employees — a.k.a. Robert Mondavi — asked each of us, going around the table, to

34 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

comment briefly on what we thought of the wines.

When he finally got to Marcie sitting to his right, she indicated that wine No. 5, which most of us recognized as the Mondavi tank sample, “tasted like green cantaloupe.”

I looked across the table at Karl Werner, who looked back at me and gave a big nod: a perfect and valid description for a tank sample of muscat!

However, Bubba said to Marcie something to the effect that when she got older and had more experience tasting wines, she would use more winefriendly terms like “proper acidity” and “nose” and “residual sugar.”

Due to my small college, liberal arts background, Karl Werner’s emphatic nod and my thinking that it was rather rude of Mr. Mondavi to be so critical of Dave-the-chemist’s sister, I felt I had to speak up. And I did. I said, “Mr. Mondavi, I think ‘unripe cantaloupe’ is a perfectly apt description for this wine. Sometimes we think we have to use certain acceptable wine terms, but in this case ‘unripe cantaloupe’ fits it perfectly.”

There was a stunned but brief silence around the table, then we moved on.

Two hours later when I was back at my own winery, its general manager and my boss came to me and said, “What did you say to Robert Mondavi?”

I recounted the events of that morning, concluding with “Why?” “You have been uninvited to all future Thursday morning Robert Mondavi tastings,” he said.

As it turns out, Marcie was not Dave-the-chemist’s sister but Bubba’s sons Michael and Tim’s sister -Robert Mondavi’s only daughter. Oh well.

Having been kicked out of the Mondavi Thursday morning tastings, fortunately, did not ban me from the winery altogether. Indeed, I maintained some contact with Michael and Tim over the years.

Since that time the Robert Mondavi name and winery have been purchased by a large corporation named Constellation Brands — a sad tale in Napa Valley wine history. Bubba passed away in 2008 at the age of 94. His children continue on, somewhat involved in the wine industry, but with no connection to the eponymous winery their father founded.

Leigh Pomeroy is a Mankato-based writer and wine lover.

Beer

By Bert Mattson

Pouring over old influences S

ome influences have immediate impact.

These tend to be the big personalities. In education, they are the professors whose reputations probably precede them.

No less important are the quieter influences whose impact creeps in over time. I had a Lit professor, of the latter strain, sign off on my sophomore semester in Scotland -- a formative experience. He seemed sincerely excited to do so. What I couldn’t see then was his knack for revealing to a student how small their world was without shocking them with the realization.

It’s obvious now he framed my experience abroad. With tactics like alleging T.C. Boyle borrowed Greasy Lake from Springsteen who was echoing Yeats, he grounded literature and gave me a curious eye. His attention, which then seemed so personal, is Education’s modus operandi, in retrospect. I recall an early inkling of it in a UK train station over my first English Pale Ale. Was he playing The Muse, I wondered?

It’s a stock character: all corduroy, tweed and elbow patches, enemy to A.V. equipment (thus enlisting reluctant participants), absentmindedly leaving compelling titles in front of book-curious freshmen. Was I the target of a trick reiterated endlessly? I can live with that.

In any case, that EPA had an uncanny influence. Exotic circumstances render stuff more appealing. For example, Indian street food struck a chord in Scotland. Yet, I tried Fuller’s London Pride again recently and it held its sway.

There was buttery biscuit and caramel action all balanced out

with a measure of floral hop bitterness. London Pride, to the uninitiated, offers a taste of the broader beer world without anything shocking. I had it with Indian take-out for old time sake.

Holding up with Tikka Massala, its caramel sweetness set off the heat, carbonation lifted the sauce, and malt character nodded to the naan. I like it with fried appetizers as well, depending on the presence and potency of the herbs involved.

Back stateside, I met the first of many chef instructors. Here was the other sort of influence: overbearing and brash but not without charm. Posture erect, hands hooked behind back, sardonic eyes set deep. Smirking, students asked each other who’s had the class. The crucible.

Hindsight makes it humorous.

Was the attitude half for effect?

Like the description on the back of Arrogant Bastard? The American Strong Ale goads, “It is quite doubtful you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth.” Some influences raise you to the occasion with a challenge.

Arrogant Bastard was originally brewed by Stone Brewing Co., but spun off into Arrogant Bastard Brewing Co. On the nose it’s boozier than in actuality. The first sip follows suit, seeming stronger than seven percent and change. The hops also make an aggressive first impression.

Ultimately it manages to come off balanced and complex. It’s still fun to scare people. Taking an Arrogant Bastard to dinner, a slab of a steak is a good bet.

Apples never worked anyway.

Bert Mattson is a chef and writer based in St. Paul. He is the manager of the iconic Mickey’s Diner. bertsbackburner.com

Cinco de Mayo Authentic Thursday, May 5 Mexican Food andMother’s Amazing Day Drinks Check May Our 8 Sunday,

Daily Specials!

Check Our Daily Specials!

1404 MADISON MADISONAVE., 1404 AVE., MANKATO 507.344.0607 | laterrazamankato.com 507.344.0607|laterrazamankato.com Open: 11–10 Open:Monday–Thursday Monday-Thursday11-10; Friday 11–10:30; Sunday 11–9 Friday&&Saturday Saturday11-10:30; Sunday11-9 1235-

MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 35

Drinks

Happy Hour:

By M. Carrie Allan | Special to the Free Press

southern mn style

Cuban rum has the mystique, but does it live up to the hype?

L

ong before I got interested in booze, I knew Cuban rums were forbidden and wonderful none more so than Havana Club.

Until recently, when U.S.-Cuba relations began to thaw, we weren’t able to buy Cuban rum. Cuban-style white rums were available, but rum from the island itself retained an ineffable mystique, as though, with one sip, we’d be sitting in El Floridita, knocking back drinks with Hemingway, watching beautiful women in guayabera shirts play chess and smoke cigars over platters of ropa vieja while Michael Corleone and his brother Fredo dance an angry mambo on the hood of a mid-century American car.

The mythology around Cuban rum, and Havana Club specifically, is bound into our feelings about Cuba itself, impressions both muddled and enhanced by the fact that most Americans have never been there.

Now Americans are heading to Cuba in droves. Visitors can bring back up to $100 worth of booze. And there are signs of movement in the longstanding legal battles between booze powerhouses Bacardi, which left Cuba after the revolution and later acquired the rights to sell its Puerto Rican-made “Havana Club” in the United States, and Pernod Ricard, which (in partnership with the Cuban government) sells Cuban “Havana Club” around the rest of the world. However their trademark dispute is finally resolved, the rules are expected to relax further in the next few years, allowing Cubanmade rums to sell in the States for the first time since 1962.

How will Havana Club hold up to its legend?

To help find out, Cubano’s restaurant in Silver Spring set up a blind tasting of four light and two dark rums for a panel of four: Lukas Smith, cocktail specialist and bar manager at Cotton & Reed distillery in the District; master sommelier Jarad Slipp of RdV Vineyards in Fauquier County, Va.; Adolfo Mendez, the owner of Cubano’s; and me. We tasted the Cuban Havana Club Añejo 3 Años, Bacardi’s Havana Club Añejo Blanco, longtime industry standard Bacardi Superior, and Caña Brava from the 86 Co., which is distilled in Panama by a longtime Cuban rum master.

The dark rums were the Cuban Havana Club Añejo 7 Años and Bacardi’s new Añejo Clásico.

One of the dark rums smacked of butterscotch and 36 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

had a faint salinity; the vanilla and wood notes from barrel aging were prominent in a way that the other dark rum seemed to express more subtly. In that other, I tasted caramel, vanilla, a subtle grassiness and some cinnamon - and it was the unanimous favorite.

Mendez articulated the group perspective: “Because of the history, the myth about it, this should be the Cuban [Havana Club],” he said.

We were all wrong. Turned out our favorite was Bacardi’s Puerto Rican-made Añejo Clásico.

Among the lighter rums, the favorite was a split decision between the Cuban and Bacardi Havana Clubs. As to the others, the largely vodkalike Bacardi Superior had a subtle florality; none of us cared for the Caña Brava.

When the light rums were mixed into the house mojitos, the differences among them were imperceptible. But later I mixed them into daiquiris, a more spirit-forward cocktail, and the differences among the drinks were more apparent. There were rums that allowed the daiquiri to shine as a drink, and rums that bossily made the daiquiri their own. Caña Brava performed better here, disappearing into the cocktail seamlessly.

Jason Kosmas, co-owner of the 86 Co., acknowledged that its Caña Brava isn’t meant for sipping. “Most distillers,” he says, “consider the bottle of their product final; we decided a while ago that ours are finalized in the drink itself.”

Owen Thomson, a co-owner of D.C. tiki bar Archipelago, says that a customer there who asks for a daiquiri will probably get Caña Brava; it was designed for such cocktails and he likes its viscosity. Some customers experiment with other types of rum; an aged rum daiquiri “can be delicious, but you’d need to lighten up the sugar a touch,” he says.

One of my favorite daiquiri variations is a slightly less sweetened version of the accompanying recipe, with Banks 5 Island rum. (None of the five islands that contribute juice to its blend is Cuba.) Smith likes to use Smith & Cross overproof Jamaican rum. “Some will say this isn’t a proper daiquiri, but I know what I like,” he says.

To Cuba purists, such ad-libbing may seem sacrilegious. To Cuban Havana Club’s master blender,

Asbel Morales, his product is more than a rum; it is an expression of Cuban culture. “The brand is iconic in Cuba,” he writes in an email, noting that the logo is reproduced in many different ways by local artisans as a symbol of the country; half of the rum consumed in Cuba is Havana Club.

Such loyalty is not unique to Cuba, points out David Cid, global brand master of rum and cane spirits for Bacardi. Although whiskey drinkers tend to be polyamorous, dabbling in bourbon and Scotch and Japanese whiskeys, rum tends to bring out national pride, he says. “When you go to Jamaica, the best rum in the world is Jamaican rum; when you go to Barbados, the best rum in the world is Bajan rum; when you go Puerto Rico, the best rum in the world is Puerto Rican rum. There might be others available, but nobody’s pouring them of their free will unless somebody asks for them.”

In Miami, Cid says, there may be loyalties to Bacardi among those who grew up drinking it in Cuba, came here around the time of the revolution and identify with the experience of exile. But there are also Cubans who have never tasted Bacardi’s rums. The company left the island and saw its assets seized after the revolution, and it still has no presence in Cuba. Like Havana Club for us, Bacardi rums “are the forbidden fruit for them,” he says.

Much of our obsession with Cuban rum “is really myth over substance,” says Archipelago co-owner Ben Wiley. He points out that the daiquiri in its purest form has become a favorite among craft bartenders, one they make to demonstrate their chops.

It’s shaken, cold, tangy, lightly sweet, with just the right amount of rummy funk. But those craft daiquiris are not necessarily “authentic.” At El Floridita in Havana, they’re churned out in blenders.

If the rules continue to loosen as expected, you’ll soon be able to more easily stack Cuban rum up against varieties from everywhere else. But a daiquiri that lives up to the enduring mystique of Cuban rum? Start shaking. You may need to make it yourself.

Allan is a writer and editor. Follow her on Twitter: @Carrie_the_Red.

Moving?....Call Karla and Start Packing!

Top Listing Agent in the Greater Mankato area for 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011*

507•345•4040

510 Long Street, Ste. 104, Mankato, MN www.MankatoRealEstate.com *RASM MLS 1/1/11 to 12/30/14

Karla Van Eman, Broker/Owner ABR, CRS, GRI

Nightly Dinner Features!

MAKE GREAT MOMENTS

Mankato 201 Victory Dr.

St. Peter 100 N. Minnesota Ave.

North Mankato 1755 Commerce Dr.

HOURS: Mon-Sat. 8am-10pm Locally Owned & Operated

LOOKING FOR

EXCLUSIVE OFFERS? MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 37

Food

Food

By Rachel Premack | The Washington Post

southern mn style

Why so many men are

cooking

T

oday’s at-home chefs are more likely to cook with an iPhone instead of a recipe book.

They’re more likely to draw their inspirations from a Facebook video. And they’re more likely to post a photo of what they cook on Instagram or Pinterest.

One other big change: They’re more likely to be men. A higher proportion of American men - 43 percent - are cooking these days than at any point in

38 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

the past 30 years. Meanwhile, they’re spending more time than ever before - 49 minutes a day - doing so.

Those are up from 38 percent and 40 minutes two decades ago.

By contrast, 70 percent of women cook these days, a bump from the 67 percent that cooked two decades ago but a definite decline from the 88 percent of women who cooked 40 years ago. And they’re spending 71 minutes a day cooking, also a

small increase from 20 years ago but less than the 101 minutes they spent 40 years ago.

This data comes from a 2013 study by researchers at the University of North Carolina who used the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey.

What’s driving the trends? The higher level of cooking overall among men and women may be driven by an era of stagnant wages that makes cooking at home the more affordable option, as well as the fact that broad Internet access and the popularity of social media make it more fun and easier to do than perhaps ever before.

While women are cooking at about the same rates they have been for several decades, it’s the surge in men’s cooking at home that may be most noticeable.

Companies that make money off food are weighing how to take advantage of the trend, deciding whether to treat cooking as a distinctly masculine activity or to show foodie-ism as a genderneutral hobby.

Those that invoke a manly-man

approach to cooking sometimes hawk bacon, burgers and brews, or else emphasize a testosteronedrizzled palate that helps craft a chiseled bod. Kevin Curry, founder of the blog Fit Men Cook, said men in the kitchen are following what men had been doing since the beginning of humanity: hunting and providing food for themselves and their families.

“It’s a masculine quality to want to physically put food on the table and make it taste good,” Curry said.

The success of Curry’s blog alone suggests just how big the male cooking market is.

Founded on Tumblr in 2012, it’s now a profitable website with a Facebook following of a quartermillion users.

“The first thing we do as men is make everything a competition,” Curry said. “When we get a new car, we’ll say to our friends, ‘Hey man, look at the rims on this.’ Same with food, we’ll post on Facebook like, ‘Look what I just made, this is bad y’all, I can’t believe it.’ It creates this competitive culture, and as men,

we gravitate towards that.”

The most pervasive trend is reality competition cooking shows, which have taken the Food Network by storm. The number of food competition shows on the Food Network increased from two in 2005 to 16 in 2014, according to Quartz .

These shows try to demonstrate that cooking is “not for sissies,” said Daphne Kasriel Alexander, a consumer trends consultant at Euromonitor International. That can help explain the popularity of expletive-spewing male chefs like Gordon Ramsay, whose abrasive personality alone has become a meme.

“That’s an example of brands responding to this interest,” Alexander said.

Kitchen Remodel, North Mankato, MN Cabinetry and Millwork - Plato Woodwork Inc.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 39

ƷƬƥƷũƶ ưƭƪƩ $[ 0GNN /WUQNH

SÊô Ø Ü¨ÊÕիâ H

ó Ø ã¨ ú ØÜ , ¨ ó Ê ÜÊ 㨫â Ê¡ ÕÊô Ø Ü¨ÊÕÕ Øʈ Z ¼úʃ Âú ܨÊÕիâ «Ü ÃÊã Êà ã B «Â à A Ø èÜ ÊØ Ø¢ ÊØ¡ #ÊÊ Â ÃʰÜ ÊØ Ãúô¨ Ø ô«ã¨ Ãú ¹«Ã Ê¡ Õ Ã ¨ ʈ ,ÃÜã Âú ÕÊô Ø Ü¨ÊÕիâ «Ü Êà ã 㨠¼Ê ¼ r ¼Â Øã ô¨ Ø , ÜãÊØ 㨠«Ü¼ Üʃ Õèܨ«Ã¢ Âú ܨÊÕիâ Øã ¼«¹ «ãʰÜ ÕÊØã ¼ ã ù à ÊÂÕ¼«Ü¨«Ã¢ 㨠×è Üã«Êà ¼ ¡ ã Ê¡ èú«Ã¢ ô ¹ʰÜ ôÊØ㨠ʡ ¢ØÊ Ø« Ü «Ã èÃ Ø ȽȻ «Ãèã Üʈ Ƚ ;«¹ Ãú ãØè ÊÂÕ ã«ãÊØʃ , ¨ ¼¼ â ÂúÜ ¼¡ ¨ ô ¹ ãÊ Ü «¡ , à ¢ ã 㨠ܨÊÕիâ Êà ¼«ãã¼ ¡ Üã Ø ÜÊ , à ¢ ã Êèã Ê¡ 㨠ÜãÊØ ã¨ ã Âè ¨ ÜÊÊà Øʈ , ÜèÜÕ ã 㨠㠫¡ , ܨÊÕÕ ã ÜÊ ռ ܼ«¢¨ã¼ú ʛH9ʃ

40 • 6(37(0%(5 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

)f# ;xʜ ÂÊØ ¢¼ ÂÊØÊèÜ ÊØ Ãúô¨ Ø ô«ã¨ ¡Ø Ü ÂÕ¼ Ü , «¢¨ã ÃÊã «Ã Üè ¨ Øèܨ èã Ü«Ã , ÊÃʰãʃ , ¨ ó ãÊ ÊÃã Ãã ÂúÜ ¼¡ ô«ã¨ Ü ãã«Ã¢ à ô ÜÕ Ø ÊØ Ü ¡ÊØ ¢ ãã«Ã¢ «¼¹ʃ Ø ʃ ã ¡ÊÊ Ã ȺȻʢÕ ¹ Ê¡ a «ÃãÊ ã¨ Ü¨ÊÕիâ Øã à  Êèã 㨠¡ØÊÃã ÊÊØÜ ¡ Üã Ø ã¨ Ã ã¨ ÜÕ Ê¡ ¼«¢¨ãʈ Hó Ø ã¨ ú ØÜ ,ʰó ¢Êãã à ÕØ ããú ¢ÊÊ ã ¢ØÊ Øú ܨÊÕիâʃ «¡ , ÂÊ Üã¼ú Ü ú ÜÊ ÂúÜ ¼¡ʈ ,ʰó  ÂÊØ«ÿ 㨠¼ úÊèã Ê¡ 㨠ÜãÊØ Ã Âú ¢ØÊ Øú ¼«Üã «Ü ¼ô úÜ «Ã ¨ØÊÃʼʢ« ¼ ÊØ Øʃ ú¢ ú Üã Øã«Ã¢ «Ã ÕØÊ è à à «Ã¢ èÕ «Ã ¡ØÊÿ Ãʈ , ¼ÜÊ Üã ¹ Âú Üã Øã«Ã¢ «Ã ÕØÊ è à ÊèÕÊÃÜ ÜÊ ã¨ ã 㨠ú Ø «Ã ÊØ Øʃ Ü ô ¼¼ʈ H Ü«Êà ¼¼ú «ã «Ü ÊèÕÊÃÜ ÜÊ ã¨ ã 㨠ú Ø ¼«ãã¼ ÕØ Üܫâ ãÊ Ø ¼«ÿ 㨠ã 㨠Êà 㨫â «Ã ¼«¡ 㨠ã , ¼«ãã¼ ÕØ Üܫâ ãÊ Ø ¨ ó ãØè¼ú ù ¼¼ ã «Ü «Ã¢ à ã à ÊØ Ø¼ú ¢ØÊ Øú ¨ ó ãØè¼ú ù ¼¼ ã ܨÊÕÕ Øʃ èã , ãØú ÃÊã ãÊ ô ¼¼ Êà «ãʈ ¡ã Ø ¼¼ʃ ô Ãʰã ¼¼ ܨÊÕÕ Øʃ èã , ãØú ÃÊã ã A Øú¼ ZãØ Õʈ Ü ô«ã¨ Ãú㨫â «Ã ¼«¡ ʃ ã¨ Ø Ø ¼ô úÜ Õ«ã¡ ¼¼Ü 㨠ã ÂèÜã Ü ô«ã¨ Ãú㨫â «Ã ¼« óÊ« ô¨ à ¢ØÊ Øú ܨÊÕիâʈ , ¨ ó ¼ Øà à ó Ø ãÊ óÊ« ô¨ à ¢ØÊ Ü¨ÊÕ Êà Z ãèØ ú ¡ã ØÃÊÊÃÜʃ à ó Ø Ü¨ÊÕ ô¨ à ,ʰ ¨èâØú ܨÊÕ Êà Z ãèØ ú ¡ã Ø Ã ãÊ ¼ô úÜ Ü¨ÊÕ ¼Êà ãÊ óÊ« 㨠«ÂÕè¼Ü èú«Ã¢ à ãÊ ¼ô úÜ Ü¨ÊÕ ã à à « Ü Ê¡ Øã «Ã Â ¼ Ü , ¼«ó ô«ã¨ʈ fà à èÂ Ø ʃ ã à à « Ü Ê¡ Øã , à Ąú ã¨ØÊ袨 r ¼Â Øã ¼«¹ A Øú SÊÕÕ«ÃÜ Êà ¨ Ø ô ú , à Ąú ã¨ØÊ袨 r ãÊ ã Õ Øãúʈ r«ã¨ ÃúÊà ¼Êâ 㨠ÕØÊ ÜÜ ã ¹ Ü Ȼȹ ãÊ ã Õ Øãúʈ r« «Ãèã Ü ¼Êâ Ø Ã ÊÜãÜ ã ¼ Üã ˌȾȹ ÂÊØ ʈ «Ãèã Ü ¼Êâ Ø èã 㨠«¢¢ Üã Õ«ã¡ ¼¼ , à ÊèÃã Ø ô¨ à ãØú«Ã¢ ãÊ èã 㨠«¢¢ Üã Âú ÕØ ó«ÊèÜ ô ¹ʰÜ ÜÕ Ü¨ÊÕիâ Ø ÊØ «Ü Üã Âú ÕØ ó«Êè ãúÕ« ¼¼ú 㨠¡ «¼ú Ø èëÊÃ ã¨ ã «Ü ¨ ÕÕ Ã«Ã¢ «Ã 㨠ãúÕ« ¼¼ú 㨠¡  ÕØÊ è Ü ã«ÊÃʈ HØ ã¨ ¨«ÕÜ «Ü¼ ʈ HØ «Ã ¡ØÊÃã Ê¡ ÕØÊ è Ü ã«Ê 㨠¨ Ü Êʼ Øʈ 7èÜã Ü , Â Ø Ã«Ã¢ ØÊèà 㨠¨ Ü ÊÊ ÊØÃ Ø ô«ã¨ 㨠¨ ¹Êèã ¼«Ã «Ã ó« ôʃ ,  ¡ÊØ ÊØÃ Ø ô«ã¨ 㨠ãÊ Ê ãÊ Ü Ø ¨«Ã¢ ¨ ¼ã è ãÊ ¼ Ø¢ ¢ØÊèÕ ãÊ Ê ãÊ Ü Ê¡ Õ ÊÕ¼ ¢ ã¨ Ø ãÊ¢ ã¨ Ø ã ¼¹«Ã¢ Êèã Üè ¨ ó«ã ¼ Ê¡ Õ ÊÕ¼ ¢ ã¨ Ø ã¨«Ã¢Ü Ü ã¨ «Ø à «¢¨ ÊØʰÜ Ã« ô¨Ê ¶èÜã ÂÊó ãÊ B ô ã¨«Ã¢Ü Ü ã¨ «Ø à «¢¨ A ù« Ê ÊØ èà ¼ 7 ¹ʰÜ ¢ ¼¼ ¼ Ø Ą Ø èÕ ÊØ ¨Êô ¨«¢¨ 㨠«Ø A ù« Ê ÊØ èà ¼ 7 ¹ʰÜ ¢ ÜèÃĄÊô ØÜ Ø ÜÊ ¡ Ø ã¨«Ü Ü ÜÊà ÊØ ô¨ ã èÃã à ʰÜ ú ÜèÃĄÊô ØÜ Ø ÜÊ ¡ Ø ã Ê ãÊØ ãʼ ¨ Ø Êèã Üã ã«ÃÜʈ B ãèØ ¼¼úʃ ÃÊ Êà ÂÊó Ü ÜÊ Ê ãÊØ ãʼ ¨ Ø Êèã Âè ¨ Ü Ãã«Â ã Ø ãÊ ¼ ã Ãú Êã¨ Ø Ü¨ÊÕÕ ØÜ Õ ÜÜ Ã Âè ¨ Ü Ãã«Â ã Ø ¶èÜã Ü Ã ãèØ ¼¼ú ÃÊ Êà  ¹ Ü ú ÊÃã ã ô«ã¨ ¼¼ Ê¡ 㨠¶èÜã Ü Ã ãèØ ¼¼ú ÃÊ Êà ܨÊÕÕ ØÜ ô¨Ê Ø Ą ãã ëâ 㨠«Ø Ê « Ü ¢ «ÃÜã 㨠Øú ܨÊÕÕ ØÜ ô¨Ê Ø Ą ã Ø Ã Ã¢¼«Ü¨ ÂèĜÃÜ Ü ã¨ ú ãØú ãÊ Â Ã èó Ø ã¨ «Ø ô ú Ø Ã Ã¢¼«Ü¨ ÂèĜ ãÊ ã¨ ¢¼èã à ¡Ø ¨Êã Ê¢ èÃÜʈ ãÊ ã¨ ¢¼èã à ¡Ø ¨Êã , èÜ ãÊ Êà ʡ ã¨ Õ ÊÕ¼ ô¨Ê ãã ÂÕã ãÊ Õʼ«ã ¼ú , èÜ ãÊ Êà ʡ Ü ÊÊã Õ Üã 㨠Øè Ø ÕÜ Êà è ã«Ã¢ 㨠«Ø  ã Ã Ü ÊÊã Õ Üã 㨠Øè ¢Ø ã Ãã Ø Ãã Ø Ê¡ 㨠«Ü¼ ʈ BÊã ÃúÂÊØ ʈ BÊô , Õèܨ Âú Øã ¡ÊØô Õèܨ Âú Øã ¡ÊØô Ø èÃ㫼 «ã «Ü ¼ÂÊÜã èã ÃÊã ×è«ã ãÊè ¨«Ã¢ 㨠㠫¼ Êà ʡ 㨠ôÊØÜã Êė Ã Ø Ã Ü ú «Ã ãÊè ¨«Ã¢ 㨠㠫¼ Ê

Âú Üã Êèã ÊÊØ óÊ« ʃ ʭ w fZ A ʅʮ a¨ ¢ØÊèÕ ãúÕ« ¼¼ú ܼ«Ã¹Ü Êó Ø ãÊ Êà ܫ ʠ Ü㫼¼ ÃÊã  ¹«Ã¢ ú ÊÃã ã ʠ ô¨«¼ , ãØ«èÂÕ¨ Ãã¼ú Ü «¼ ãÊô Ø ã¨ ô¨Ê¼ ¢Ø «Ã ô¨ ã Ø ʃ ¡ ¼«Ã¢ 㨠«Øãú ¼ÊÊ¹Ü Ã ¢¼ Ø Ü ,  ¢ ãã«Ã¢ ¡ÊØ Ø ¹«Ã¢ èÕ ã¨ Õ Øãú èØëâ «ÃãÊ Âú ¹ʈ ,ʰ ¡«Ã ô«ã¨ 㨠ãʈ BÊʃ ,ʰ #V a ô«ã¨ 㨠ãʈ , ãè ¼¼ú öÊú «Ã¢ 㨠¹«¼¼¶Êú Ê¡ 㨠¢ØÊ Øú ÜãÊØ Õ Øãú Ü ãʈ r¨« ¨ ¢«ó Ü Â ÜÊ 㨫â ¼Ü ãÊ ÕØ ÜÜ Êó Ø «¡ , 㨫ù Êèã «ã ¡ÊØ ãÊÊ ¼Êâʈ r¨ à , ô Ü ¼«ãã¼ ¢«Ø¼ , ¼ô úÜ Ø Â ã¨ ã ÜÊ ú , ôÊè¼ ¢Ê ãÊ ÜÊÕ¨«Üã« ã Ê ¹ã «¼ Õ Øã« Ü Ã ¼ 袨 Êó Ø ¨ ÂÕ ¢Ã ô«ã¨ 㨠¼«¹ Ü Ê¡ Âú ¢ Ã Ø ã«ÊÃʰÜ BÊ ¼ Êô Ø ʛ ¼ã¨Ê袨 , ¨ ó Ãʰã à ¼ ãÊ Õ«ÃÕÊ«Ãã ô¨Ê 㨠ã ôÊè¼ Ü Ê¡ ú ãʜʈ , à ó Ø Ø Â ã¨ ã «ÃÜã , ôÊè¼ ¢ ã Âú ¶Ê¼¼« Ü ú Ø ¹«Ã¢ èÕ ¡ «¼ú Ø èëÊÃÜ «Ã ã¨ Ø «Ü¼ ã r ¼Â Øãʈ r¨« ¨ ¼¼ ¢Ê Ü ãÊ ÕØÊó 㨠ã ô¨ ã úÊè Ø Â Êèã «¢¨ã à ó Ø Ê ãØè èã úÊè à Ü㫼¼ Ãã Øã «Ã úÊèØÜ ¼¡ «Ã ÜÊ ¨«¢¨¼ú Õ è¼« Ø ô úÜʈ

Nell Musolf is a mom and freelance writer from Mankato. She blogs at: nellmusolf.com

& & & , & ! !

&& ! " #- * ! ! & ! ) & -(

& $-- -# ' ( $ #

Thank You for voting us #1 Auto Repair and Best Auto Mechanic 5 years in a Row!

! " && + ,

)" ")!

&"

507-387-1315

1620 Commerce Drive North Mankato www.AustinsAutoRepairCenter.com

AUST AU STIN ST IN’S IN ’SS AUT UTOO REPA RE PAIR PA IR CEN ENTE TERR IN TE INCC. C.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER • 41

ƫƥƘƨƩƲ ƧƬƥƷ $[ ,GCP .WPFSWKUV

Aú ã«Ãú ¢ Ø Ã ØÊ袨ã

,# Ø Üè¼ãÜ r¨ ã ô Ü , ó Ø ¡Ø « Ê¡ʊ

r

¨ à 㨠¨ Øó Üã ÂÊÊÃ Ø«Ü Ü «Ã 㨠¡ã ØÃÊÊà ʡ Z Õãʈ Ⱥȿʃ «ã ô«¼¼ «Ã ثܫâ Êó Ø ¡Øè«ã¡è¼ ¢ Ø Ã ã 㨠;èà ×è«Ü㠨ʠÜã ʈ xÊè «¢¨ã Ø ¼¼ ؼ« Ø ã¨«Ü ú Ø ã¨ ã , ô Ü ¡ Ø¡è¼ ô ôÊè¼ Üã Øó èÜ Ê¡ Âú ã Ãú ã«Ãú ¼«ãã¼ ¢ Ø Ãʈ , ¨ ãÊ Ü ¼ ¹ ãÊ Ⱥȿ ãÊ ãÊ Õ¼ ÃãÜʃ Ü«ù Õ ÕÕ Ø Õ¼ ÃãÜʃ ãôÊ ¢¢Õ¼ Ãã èܨ Üʃ ã¨Ø ¢ Üʃ ã¨Ø ØÊ Ê¼« Õ¼ ÃãÜ Ã ãôÊ ØèÜÜ ¼Ü ÜÕØÊèãÜʈ a¨ØÊô «Ã 㨠è è ØÜʃ ú ¼¼Êô à ¢Ø à ÃÜʃ ¹Ê¨¼Ø «ʃ Ø «Ü¨ Üʃ ÜÕ«Ã ¨ʃ Â Ü ¼èÃʃ ØØÊãÜʃ ÿè ¨«Ã« à ãÜʃ à , 42 • 6(37(0%(5 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Ãʰã Ø Â Â Ø ô¨ ã , ô Ü ÜÊ ôÊØØ« Êèãʈ , ÃÊô ôÊÃ Ø ô¨ú , ó Ø Êã¨ Ø ô«ã¨ 㨠¨è¢ ¢ Ø Ã , ¨ èÕ èÃ㫼 ã¨«Ü ú Øʈ aØè ʃ , ÜÕ Ãã ¼ ÜÜ ã«Â «Ã 㨠¢ Ø Ãʃ èã 㨠ãʰÜ èÜ Üè ¨ ¼«ãã¼ Êà «Ü ÜÊ Üú ãÊ ¹ Õ ô ʈ à ô ¼¼ ¹ÃÊô ¢ Ø Ã ¡Ø Ê¡ ô Ü ú« ¼ Ü ÂÊØ ÕØÊ è ʈ , Øà ÜÊÂ ã¨«Ã¢Ü «Ã Âú ȿȻȾ Ü×è Ø ʢ¡ÊÊã ¢ Ø Ã ã¨«Ü ú Øʃ ÃÊã 㨠¼ Ü㠫â 㨠㠫ãʰÜ ÕÊÜÜ« ¼ ãÊ ã ô ¼¼ ô«ã¨Êèã ɀʃȹȹȹ Ü×è Ø ¡ ã Ê¡ ¢ Ø Ã ÜÕ ʈ a¨ ¢Ø à Õʼ ÃÜ , ¢Ø ô ã¨«Ü ú Ø

ô Ø ÃÊã ó Øú ã à Øʈ , ¢Ø ô ¼è ; ¹ ʃ Üã Ã Ø Ø Ø «Ã ¢Ø à ÃÜʈ , ¨ ó ¢ØÊôà èܨ ¼è ; ¹ ÃÜʃ à à ó Øú ¨ ÕÕú ô«ã¨ 㨠Âʃ èã ô«¼¼ ùÕ¼ÊØ Êã¨ Ø ÕÊÜÜ« «¼«ã« Ü Ã ùã ú Øʈ a¨ ú ã ¶èÜã ¡«Ã ô«ã¨ ¼«ãã¼ ÂÊØ Êʹ«Ã¢ʃ èã ô Ø ¼ ¹«Ã¢ Ü Üà ¹ «Ã 㨠¢ Ø Ãʈ à 㨠ãʰÜ Ø ¼¼ú ãÊÊ ʃ èÜ «Ã¢ Êė 㨠¢ØÊèà ʃ 㨠ú ô Ø ¼ Ãʃ Ã Õ Ø¡ ã ¡ÊØ Üà ¹«Ã¢ʈ ÃÊã¨ Ø Ã ô ó Ø« ãú , Õ¼ Ãã ã¨«Ü ú Ø «Ü Õ ÕÕ Ø ¼¼ Zô ã a¨«Ã¢ʈ a¨ ú Ø ÕØʼ«ă ʈ r ã 㨠 ú ¼¼Êôʃ ã¨Ê袨 㨠ú ô«¼¼ Ø«Õ Ã ãÊ Ã ÊØ Ã¢ ʃ Ã ã¨ Ã Ø ʈ a¨ ú Ø Ü¨ Õ ¼«¹

ó Øú ¼ Ø¢ ú ÃÃ Õ ÕÕ Øʃ èÕ ãÊ ¡ÊÊã ¼Êâʃ ÜÊ Õ ÊÕ¼ ô Ø Ø ¼è ã Ãã ã ăØÜã ãÊ ã ¹ Âú ôÊØ ã¨ úʰØ Üô ãʈ ¼ÜÊ ¼«¹ ú Ãà ʃ 㨠ú Ø ã¨«Ãʢô ¼¼ ʈ a¨ Ø «Ü ÃÊ㨫â Ø ¼¼ú ôØÊâ ô«ã¨ 㨠Âʃ èã ¡ÊØ ã¨ ô ú ô ã Õ ÕÕ ØÜʃ , ÕØ ¡ Ø ã¨ ã¨« ¹ʢô ¼¼ ¼ Õ Ø ó Ø« ã« Üʈ , ¢Ø ô à ô ãÊ ãÊ ã¨«Ü ú Ø ¼¼ V ÜÕ ØØú ;ú Ãà ʈ ,ãʰÜ ó Øú «¼ ãÊ ãÊ ô«ã¨ ¼«ãã¼ « «ãúʈ ,ãʰÜ Ü ¼¼ à  ãúʃ à «ã ô Ü Ø«Õ ¡ÊØ ã¨ Ã Ê¡ 7è¼úʅ ) , ¹ÃÊôÃʃ , ôÊè¼ ¨ ó Ãã Ø ã¨ Â «Ã 㨠¼è Ø㨠ÊèÃãú " «Ø ÜÊ ¼¼ Êã¨ Ø ãÊ ãÊ ¢ØÊô ØÜ ô«ã¨Êèã ¨«¢¨ ãèÃà ¼Ü Êè¼ ¨ ó à ¶ ¼ÊèÜʈ ¼ã¨Ê袨 «ãʰÜ ÃÊã ãÊÕÜ «Ã ã Üã ʃ «ã ¢ ãÜ ùãØ ÕÊ«ÃãÜ ¡ÊØ «Ã¢ 㨠ؼ« Üã Ø«Õ Ã«Ã¢ ãÊ ãÊ , Ã Ø ¼¼ ó Ø ¢ØÊô«Ã¢ʈ , « «Ü Êó Ø Ã «Ã¢ ëÊèÜ ô ú ãÊ ¢ØÊô ÕèÂÕ¹«ÃÜ ã¨«Ü ú Øʃ «¡ , Ê Ü ú ÜÊ ÂúÜ ¼¡ʈ , ¼«¹ ãÊ ¡ 㨠 ãÊ Âú ¨« ¹ ÃÜ ¡ã Ø ) ¼¼Êô Ãʃ èã ¼ Üã ¡ ¼¼ , « ÃÊã Õèã 㨠 «Ã 㨠ÊÊÕ ô«ã¨ 㨠¨« ¹ ÃÜʈ , ¼ ã 㨠¨« ¹ ÃÜ Êèã ãÊ ô¨ Ø ã¨ ú ô Ø ʃ Ü㫼¼ ¼èÜã Ø ØÊèà 㨠ÕÊô Ø Õʼ ʈ a¨«Ü ÜÕثâʃ ã¨ Ü Ü ÕÊÕÕ èÕ Ø«¢¨ã ô¨ Ø ã¨ ú ô Ø ʃ ¼èÜã Ø ØÊèÃ Ü « Õʼ ʈ a¨«Ü ã«Â ʃ , ãث 㨠 ô«ã¨ Ü «ÜÜÊØÜ Ø ã¨ Ø ã¨ Ã ¼ ôà ÂÊô Ø ãÊ ¹ Õ ã¨ «Ø ¼ â㨠«Ã ¨ ¹ʈ a¨ ú Ü㫼¼ Ø ÊÃà 㫠èã "« ¼ SèÂÕ¹«ÃÜʃ ¡ã Ø ¼¼ʅ r«ã¨ à èà à ʡ ¼ÊÜÜÊÂÜʃ ô « ãÊ ãØú ã«Ã¢ 㨠Âʈ aÊ ã Ü×è ܨ ¼ÊÜÜÊÂÜʃ 㨠ú ܨÊè¼ Õ« ¹ «Ã 㨠ÂÊØëâ ô¨ à 㨠ú Ø ÊÕ Ã Ã ¡Ø ܨʃ Ø ã¨ Ø ã¨ Ã ¼ ã Ø «Ã 㨠ú ô¨ à 㨠ú Ø ô«¼ã ʈ , Ü èã 㨠 ô«ã¨ èãã Ø Ã ¼«ãã¼ Ü ¼ãʃ Ã Ü Øó 㨠 ¡ÊØ Øèà ¨ Êà Zèà ú ÂÊØëâʈ a¨ ú ã Üã ù ã¼ú ¼«¹ èãã Ø Ã Ü ¼ãʃ à 㨠ãʰÜ Êèã «ã a¨ ú ô Ø Ãʰã ã Üã«Ã¢ʃ ÜÜè«â úÊè ¼«¹ 㨠ã Üã Ê¡ èãã Ø Ã Ü ¼ãʃ èã , ¨ ãÊ ôÊÃ Ø ô¨ ã ¼¼ 㨠¡èÜÜ ô Ü Êèãʈ ,ã ô ÜÃʰã ¼Êã Ê¡ ôÊعʃ èã ã¨ Ø ô ÜÃʰã Âè ¨ Ø ãèØà ¡ÊØ ã¨ Ã Ø¢ú , « ùÕ Ã ʈ A ú à ùã ã«Â , ô«¼¼ ã¨ØÊô «Ã ¼«ãã¼ ¢ ؼ« ʃ ÜÜè«â ã¨ Ø «Ü à ùã ã«Â ʈ ,ʰ ÃÊã ÜèØ ã¨ Ø ô«¼¼ ʈ ú 㨠ã«Â 㨠èãèÂà ¼ ×è«ÃÊù ØØ«ó Ü ã ɂʂȻȺ ʈÂʈ a¨èØÜ úʃ Z Õãʈ ȻȻʃ , ô«¼¼ ¨ ó ¶èÜã ¢èà Õè¼¼«Ã¢ ÜÊ ʡ 㨠ռ ÃãÜ ¡ØÊ Âú ¢ Ø Ãʃ ã¨Ê袨 ,ʰ¼¼ ¢ Ø Ã èÃ㫼 㨠¡ØÊÜã ¨«ãÜʃ èÜè ¼¼ú ØÊèà « ʢH ãÊ Øʈ Ü , Ø Ą ã Êà ȻȹȺȿ «Ã Âú ¢ Ø Ãʃ «ã «Ü ô«ã¨ Ø ¼« ¡ 㨠ã ô « Ãʰã Üã Øó ã¨«Ü Üè Øʃ à ô ôÊÃʰã Üã Øó ã¨«Ü ô«Ãã Ø ô«ã¨ ¼¼ 㨠Ãëâ à ¡Ø ÿ«Ã¢ Ê¡ ÕØÊ è à ¡Øè«ã 㨠ã , ô Ü ¼ ãÊ Êʈ Jean Lundquist is a master gardener who lives near Good Thunder.

Paape Distributing Company Paape Energy Services Paape Security Services

MANKATO: 507-345-4828 ROCHESTER: 507-289-4874

www.paape.com MANKATO MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER • 43

Your style

By Ann Rosenquist Fee

Floaty wraparound reversible skirt optional T-shirt mandatory

I

t’s Rock Bend Folk Festival time! Two days of live music, artisan goods, festival food and hippie-tinged merriment in St. Peter’s Minnesota Square Park. All of which has been celebrated and chronicled elsewhere, including at rockbend.org, where you can find the lineup and other details about the September 9-10 event.

What hasn’t been glorified nearly enough, though, are the wearables involved in the region’s most-loved annual gathering.

First, the floaty clothes.

Rock Bend is the most reliable annual one-stop shopping source for those silky wrappy things that claim to be skirts as well as a strapless A-line dress, as well as — if you’re skilled at twisting and tying things behind your head — halter-type garments. Not only can you find plenty of long skirt/dresses and short skirt/shirts and skirtfronted pant-type versions of those items at Rock Bend, you have the added bonus of actually being in a setting where clothes like that are the norm. Like, instead of the bland walls of a department store dressing room, you’ve got the floaty clothes’ natural habitat as your try-on room.

So when you hold that turquoise-red-gold-magenta silk

44 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

floral wrap-around up against yourself, and check it out in the narrow mirror propped against the vendor’s tent wall, you’re like, “Of course! Of course I need this! I suddenly look and feel so right! How can I not buy this when it completes such a perfect end-of-summer tableau?”

Second, the jewelry.

There’s the man who makes bold, twisty, luminous silver rings. There are the earrings made from glass beads, wood beads, clay beads. There’s the vendor selling pendants that look like octopi, made out of bent forks. There’s the woman who makes elaborate seed-bead sculpture-like necklaces and occasional random pendants carved from bone, including a skeleton I bought last year — a skeleton cradling little baby skulls, the most tender maternal-looking thing, which I know is hard to imagine, but for real. It’s so lovely.

So Rock Bend.

I don’t know the names of any of the vendors, because Rock Bend is casual that way, like, if you ask for a listing or a map of who’s where, you won’t get it. Just walk around.

Everything’s roughly in a circle roughly in the same spot it was in last year. You’ll find what you need.

Finally, the annual official Rock Bend Folk Festival t-shirt.

Every year, the fest features a t-shirt with a fresh version of the Rock Bend logo created by St. Peter graphic designer Kris Higginbotham.

Logo design is one small piece of the tremendous amount of work Higginbotham does as part of the long-standing group of volunteers who plan and manage the fest, but the logo is a big part of the festival’s identity.

Year after year, Higginbotham’s new take on the wordmark gets more earthy, more witty, more swirly. More Rock Bendy.

Buying one is a must. But then you’ll want to roll it up and stick it in your tote bag, versus putting it on, because for maximum festival enjoyment you’ll need looser, skimpier style choices.

And this gets at what I find to be the most inspiring, distinctive, can’tmiss style feature of the weekend: The visual feast that is the crowd.

The twirling tie-dyed couples. The red-eyed but smiling but exhaaausted Rock Bend committee members.

The high school and college students roaming in pairs and packs, wearing an end-of-summer mix of cutoffs plus whatever top got bought the weekend prior during back-to-school Labor Day sales at the mall. The retired Gustavus Adolphus College faculty wearing exotic cotton ponchos from their exotic sabbaticals abroad, paired with sensible visors and matching well-cared-for camping chairs. The impossibly lovely makeup-free staff from the St. Peter Food Co-Op and Deli, and I know I’m generalizing, but for real — pay attention next time you shop — lots of natural beaming beauty on that staff. And not a lot of makeup.

And if there is, it’s probably that glowy Everyday Minerals stuff they sell there, which sounds like a digression but honestly if you’re going to stock up on folk festival-infused skirts and jewelry and t-shirts, you’ll want to go all the way and swing by the Co-Op to replace your drugstore bronzer with the mineral stuff.

And then you will be complete.

Wardrobed, bronzed, soul wellsteeped in a weekend of community and sunshine and accessories. And I guess there’s also music.

Discover an Insurance Partner.

When looking for insurance coverage, isn’t it important to have an agent you know and can trust to be there when you need someone? Call our office today to connect with our local knowledgeable staff.

THANK YOU

MANKATO 507.385.4485 AMBOY 507.674.3355 I VERNON CENTER 507.549.3679 WHERE YOUR POLICY COMES WITH AN AGENT

www.cimankato.com

Ready to Relax? I’ll give you the

ADDRESS. (507) 381-4747

Voted One of Mankato’s Best DANIEL WINGERT

See you in the park.

Ann Rosenquist Fee is executive director of the Arts Center of Saint Peter and a vocalist with The Frye.

She blogs at annrosenquistfee.com.

422 Park Lane, Mankato, MN | NuStarMankato.com MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 45

Coming Attractions: September 1, 8 and 15

Bumpers on Belgrade 5-8 p.m. — 200 Block of Belgrade Ave. — North Mankato — free — 507-469-0415

1 Performance Series:

Bob Bingham and Gordon Throne 7:30 p.m. — Elias J. Halling Recital Hall — Earley Center for Performing Arts — Minnesota State University — Mankato — $12 general, $11 current MSU students — www.mnsu.edu/music — 507-389-5549

2 Brandi Carlile

7 p.m. — Verizon Wireless Event Center — 1 Civic Center Plaza — Mankato — $48, $53 and $78 — www.verizonwirelesscentermn.com

9 Martina McBride

8 p.m. — Verizon Wireless Event Center — 1 Civic Center Plaza — Mankato — $55, $69.50 and $99 — www.verizonwirelesscentermn.com

14-17

MSU Theatre presents ‘Comic Potential’ 7:30 p.m. — Andreas Theatre — Earley Center for Performing Arts — Minnesota State University — Mankato — $10 regular, $9 discount and $8 for current MSU Students — 507-389-6661

15 TECH N9NE

8 p.m. — Verizon Wireless Event Center — 1 Civic Center Plaza — Mankato — $30 — www.verizonwirelesscentermn.com

16-18

4 Dwight Yoakam

Theatre Physics 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday — Bethany Lutheran College — 700 Luther Drive — Mankato — 507-344-7374

8 Performance Series:

Performance Series: Rio Nido 7:30 p.m. — Elias J. Halling Recital Hall — Earley Center for Performing Arts — Minnesota State University — Mankato — $12 general, $11 current MSU students — www.mnsu.edu/music — 507-389-5549

7:30 p.m. — Vetter Stone Amphitheater — Riverfront Park — Mankato — $35,$45, $55, $65, $85 and $125 — www.verizonwirelesscentermn.com

18

Maud Hixson and Rick Carlson 7:30 p.m. — Elias J. Halling Recital Hall — Earley Center for Performing Arts — Minnesota State University — Mankato — $12 general, $11 current MSU students — www.mnsu.edu/music — 507-389-5549

19 Pianist Naomi Niskala in Concert 16-18

Mahkato Traditional Pow Wow Land of Memories Park — 100 Amos Owen Lane — Mankato — $7 for the weekend, seniors 60 and older $5, children 12 and under are free — 507-387-8600

17 Performance Series:

Erik Koskinen Band with City Mouse 8 p.m. — Hooligans — Madison East Center — Mankato — $15 — www.mnsu.edu/music — 507-389-5549

Dr. AngelA Schuck Dr. keith FlAck

46 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

7:30 p.m. — Bjorling Recital Hall — Gustavus Adolphus College — St. Peter — no charge — 507-933-7013

20 Performance Series: Jack Klatt Band

7:30 p.m. — Elias J. Halling Recital Hall — Earley Center for Performing Arts — Minnesota State University — Mankato — $12 general, $11 current MSU students — www.mnsu.edu/music — 507-389-5549

24 Mankato Symphony Orchestra: Patron

Appreciation Recital 5 p.m. — Emy Frentz Building — 523 S. Second St. — Mankato — www.mankatosymphony.com

D E PA R T M E N T O F T H E AT R E & D A N C E

presents

25 Minnesota River Valley Wind Ensemble

3 p.m. — Elias J. Halling Recital Hall — Earley Center for Performing Arts — Minnesota State University — Mankato — $12 general, $11 current MSU students — www.mnsu.edu/music — 507-389-5549

27-28 Nobel Conference

All day — Lund Arena and Lund Center — Gustavus Adolphus College — St. Peter — 507-933-7520

29- Oct. 1 MSU Theatre presents

‘The Full Monty’ 7:30 p.m. — Ted Paul Theatre — Earley Center for Performing Arts — Minnesota State University — Mankato — $16 regular, $14 discount and $11 for current MSU Students — 507-389-6661

THE FULL MONTY Sept. 29-Oct. 1 & Oct. 6-9, 2016

FRANKENSTEIN Oct. 13-16 & 19-23, 2016

THE TWO HENRYS Nov. 3-5 & 10-13, 2016

THE GLASS MENAGERIE Jan. 26-29 & Feb. 1-5, 2017

THE GAME’S AFOOT

Feb. 16-18 & 23-26, 2017

AIDA

April 6-9 & 13-15, 2017

DETAILS AT MSUTHEATRE.COM SEASON SUBSCRIPTIONS ON SALE NOW! INDIVIDUAL TICKETS ON SALE SEPT. 12.

A member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System and an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity University.

MANKATO MAGAZINE • september 2016 • 47

Plan AHEAD

& improve your home’s Energy Efficiency

✓ Increase the Value of Your Home ✓ Update Your Home’s Appearance ✓ Save Money

Enjoy the season.

Be active. Be healthy.

Be able with OrthoEdge.

The OrthoEdge joint replacement program offers superb care from your first visit through recovery. The surgeons from the Orthopaedic & Fracture Clinic and the care team at River’s Edge Hospital provide personal and professional care to get you back to able.

Why River’s Edge Hospital & Clinic:

• River’s Edge Hospital & Clinic has a long-standing relationship with the Orthopaedic & Fracture Clinic • There are 15 private suites that feature a private bathroom and shower • Hospitalist on staff to provide patient centered care 24 hours a day • Free WiFi for patients and guests • On-site Physical and Occupational Therapy

Mankato

St. Peter

(844) 412-7949 | OrthoEdgeMN.com 48 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

Choose from Several Models, Styles & Colors

Faces & Places: Photos By SPX Sports 1

North Mankato Fun Days Parade 1. A child hands flowers to a Nicollet County Sheriff representative.

2. Elise Kolde, Jordan Schmitt, Sydney Danger, Emelia Kolde, and Carly Wiste enjoy the Fun Days Parade in North Mankato.

3. Fun Days Grand Marshal Dorothy Peterson waves to the crowd.

4. Children prepare for candy.

5.Members of the Mankato Dance Express perform along the parade route.

6. Shriners drive down the parade route.

2

3

4

5

6

MANKATO MAGAZINE • September 2016 • 49

Faces & Places: Photos By SPX Sports 1

LEEP Legends Dugout Duel 1. LEEP sold more tickets for the event this year than last and raised even more money.

2. Jay Reasner of Pub 500 and Barb Embacher of South Central College both stretch out for a close play at first base.

3. Aaron Jones of J. Longs belts a pitch to left field.

4. LEEP athlete Lee Young throws out the ceremonial first pitch before the game.

5.The green team huddles before the game begins.

6. Jeremy Poland and his band played as the pre-game entertainment.

7. Moondogs General Manager Greg Weis speaks to the crowd before the game.

8. Jeff Lang, aka Stunt Monkey, of Radio Mankato calls a player out at first base in his signature shorts.

3

6

50 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

4

7

2

5

8

Faces & Places: Photos By SPX Sports

Vikings Tasting — Mankato Style 1. Viking fans gather at the Vikings Tasting: Mankato Style event.

2. Former Viking Benchwarmer Bob Lurtsema addresses the crowd with Caden Willert by his side.

3. Brylea Dorn, Sherri Dorn, and Whitney McCabe enjoy the event.

4. Leon and Angie Klaus with former Viking David Dixon.

5. Lilly Considine of Mankato attempts to remove a piece in a game of Jenga.

6. Jenna Smith competes against former Viking Leo Lewis in a game of bean bags.

1

3

2

4

5

6

MANKATO MAGAZINE • September 2016 • 51

From this Valley

By Pete Steiner

The Speed of

T

Summer

o help them comprehend the vastness of the Universe, scientists measure using the Speed of Light. To help myself comprehend Minnesota, I use the Speed of Summer.

It’s what drives our love of “going to the lake,” of camping and canoeing, of gardening, of outdoor barbeques and church league softball. Even in years when it lasts through September, the Speed of Summer is too fast. I was heading for the County Fair, past all that lush green countryside brimming with corn and beans, and it seemed summer had hardly begun, and now it was rapidly concluding. Hadn’t we just celebrated the Fourth of July? Then Ribfest, Vikings’ camp, State Fair, Labor Day — and poof! It’s gone, brief as a mosquito’s shadow.

•••• Soon I’ll be putting peanuts out on the bird feeders for the bluejays. I only do that for a short time in the fall. When the crows and squirrels discover them, it busts the budget.

Thought: it is the existential nature of birds to continuously seek food; it is the nature of humans to contemplate birds seeking food.

•••• I do little social media, so that means there’s a lot that I’m unaware of, often blissfully so. But I’m about to take this opportunity, not to TWEET, but to unload.

There were stories this summer about the increasing amount of road rage in this country. It has long been known that being inside our vehicles has a way of turning Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde. Safe driving requires a lot of cooperation and courtesy, and increasing congestion on the roadways and free right turns and distracted driving have all contributed to less cooperation, less courtesy, more dangerous roadways. Thus, things that happen regularly on the road lead to this list of Things That Drive Me Crazy: People texting or checking email on their cellphone while they are ahead of me at a stoplight that has turned green, who thus wait five to 10 seconds before going through the green arrow that lasts for 10 seconds, so all the cars behind them have to wait for the next green arrow.

Should I honk? Would that honk provoke road rage?

People who use a free right turn and enter my lane that’s moving at 35 miles per hour as they creep in at 10 miles per hour. I check the rearview mirror, and there’s no vehicle behind me, so why didn’t they wait? There are vehicles in the lane left of me, so I can’t change lanes, and suddenly 52 • september 2016 • MANKATO MAGAZINE

I’m tailgating, at 10 mph.

People who drive 55 in the passing lane.

In the parking lot, someone who deftly turns two parking spaces near an entrance into one by edging 18 inches over the white line (maybe they’re saving space for a friend on a motorcycle.) Or, among parallel parkers, people who turn three spaces into two. (I guess I’ve been boxed in tightly enough times to have some empathy here.)

Once I get inside the store, waiting for the person with 18 items who’s going through the “10 items or less” express aisle. This phenomenon is obviously a concrete manifestation of how Minnesotans keep failing to improve on math test scores.

Mom always tells me, “Take a deep breath,” but heck, now I’m hyperventilating.

And you maybe thought I was a nice, calm guy?

•••• I came across another old clipping I’d saved from the Jan. 30, 1988, Free Press.

Reporter Greg Abbott had written how the historic Schmidt House on Park Lane was about to be demolished.

The massive, stately 3-story brick edifice perched on a hill, built in the roaring ’20s with white colonnades that made it look like an antebellum southern mansion had, after 35 years as a private residence, served as a space for offices and meeting rooms for the YMCA. But the Y needed more space, and more PRACTICAL space. I suppose it would have been difficult to move such a sprawling structure, and even though it was on the National Historic Register, not enough objections were brought to the City to prevent its meeting the wrecking ball, like so many of our historic buildings. Now I’m hearing rumors about South Front Street.

To be continued.

Peter Steiner is host of “Talk of the Town” weekdays at 1:05 p.m. on KTOE.

HURRY! THIS IS YOUR

LAST CHANCE TO SAVE ON OUR HARDCOVER PICTORIAL HISTORY BOOK

SAVE

$15.00 TODAY

PURCHASE ONLINE AT:

MinnesotaValley.PictorialBook.com AND SAVE WITH FLAT-RATE SHIPPING • Hardcover, 136 pages, archival quality.

• Hundreds of stunning historic images.

• Limited edition, collector’s item.

• Ships late September.

BOOK DETAILS: The Free Press is proud to partner with the Blue Earth County Historical Society, the Minnesota State University Memorial Library and the Nicollet County Historical Society and our readers on a new hardcover pictorial history book, “Minnesota Valley Memories: The Early Years.” This heirloom-quality coffee-table book will offer a glimpse of Mankato, North Mankato, Blue Earth and Nicollet Counties from the early years to 1939 through stunning and historic photos. In addition, it will include photographic memories of years gone by from our readers.

Reserve your copy of this keepsake coffee-table book today and save $15 off the $44.95 retail price! Hurry, this sale ends soon!

presented by

Pre-order now (discount expires 09/18/16). Select an option:  Ship my order to me  I’ll pick up my order $29.95 plus $2.36 tax and $6.95 shipping and $29.95 plus $2.36 tax per book. Pick up order at handling per book. Order will be shipped to the The Free Press office (418 S. 2nd St., Mankato) address below after 09/23/16. after 09/19/16.

Quantity: ___ x $39.26 = $______ total Quantity: ___ x $32.31 = $______ total Payment method:  Check/Money Order  Visa  MasterCard  AmEx  Discover

Name Address City

State

Phone

E-mail

Card # Please note: photos that appear in this ad may not appear in final book.

Send form and payment to:

Signature

Zip

The Free Press c/c Book Sales 418 S. 2nd St. Mankato, MN 56001

Expiration Verification Code

ACCRA SELF-DIRECTED CARE SERVICES FOR ALL AGES. In your home and community.

WE PROVIDE SERVICES FOR CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS, ADULTS AND FAMILIES OF ALL ABILITIES AND AGE. Each person has unique needs and with our 25 years of experience providing support to people with disabilities – we'll help you navigate the different services and possibilities available to you.

With PCA Choice – you have the option of choosing your own caregiver, including your friends and family members.

More Choice. More Flexibility.

Call our New Ulm office and ask about the possibilities!

507-225-0623 • 866-935-3515 Toll Free www.accracare.org

SERVING PEOPLE STATEWIDE