9 minute read
Bob King, Pelican wrestling
April 20202 Bob King: Pelican wrestling ‘Godfather’ has Park Rapids roots
By Louis Hoglund Pelican Rapids Press I planned a column about the generally dismal state of affairs confronting us.....blah, blah, blah.....
Then...I went to a couple wrestling matches down the street, at Pelican Rapids High School.
Everything changed. Why on earth would I wallow in the mud of national politics when local stories are much more interesting? Stories like Bob King. He’s the northern Minnesota guy from the wrong side of the tracks – and the wrong side of the river – in Park Rapids, who single-handedly founded the Pelican school wrestling program 60 years ago.
He spent a career in the Pelican school system, teaching shop and coaching, and raising 50 or so kids along the way: The Kings took in Foster kids. Dozens of them. Juvenile delinquents, for the most part. From the wrong side of the railroad tracks, most of them.
“Well, these kids had a choice: Go to reform school, or go to the Kings...If they didn’t make it at the Kings, they were sent away.”
As Bob tells it, the Kings would get a couple new ones each year.
“I think the most we had was 12 at one time.” Twelve??? A dozen delinquents?...Under the same roof?...At the same time?
Unfathomable, for most of us mortals.
But Bob had secret weapons. A couple dozen cows, for starters. “We’d get the kids up at 5 or 5:30 a.m. to milk the cows. The kids who got in the most trouble had to clean the pens.”
Another weapon, his late wife Cleo. She didn’t take any guff from the ruffians.
“She made them go outside and smoke their cigarettes – even if it was 20 below,” recalled Bob. Of course, that also applied to whatever other stuff they might have been smoking. Most of the King foster kids were “troublemakers,” placed out of the criminal justice system – not by social services.
(Cleo, who died about 25 years ago, also became a faithful wrestling fan herself. Widower Bob later married Cheryl Larson.) King was a Park Rapids High School football player, who spent a couple years with Uncle Sam’s Army in the mid-1950s, and returned to the northwoods to attend Bemidji State University on the GI Bill.
That’s the abbreviated backstory on 87-year-old Bob King. Foster parent, educator, farmer, father of three (Scott; Mike, who wrestled for him; and Sherri, who still works on the sidelines during meets). Also, foster parent to a few dozen transient ragamuffins; and a couple hundred rag-tag wrestlers. His retirement hobby has been woodworking in his home.
As far as wrestling, following is a scratch-the-surface rundown.
King launched the Pelican program in a school hallway, because there was nowhere else to practice. He barely kept records the first three years; and King’s penmanship was so awful, that his late assistant Dean Fox took over the books – and forbid King from touching them. Heck, King wasn’t much of a wrestler himself.
He had a little bit of mat experience at a feeble program at Park Rapids High.
At Bemidji State, the guy coached from a U.S. Navy wrestling manual because he didn’t know what he was doing. Plus, the Bemidji football and wrestling coach was a complete and total jerk, said King. “He was burned in effigy six times while I was up in Bemidji,” said King.
For those of you who didn’t grow up during the American Revolutionary War – or the 1950s – “burning in effigy” may require some explanation. You create a likeness of the King of England, and torch it during the Boston Tea Party.
In the 1950s, you might create a look-alike of then-vice president Richard Nixon, or maybe Elvis, if you held religious convictions that rock and roll truly was the Devil’s music.
Or you could burn the effigy of some numbskulled college professor – which is what they did up in Bemidji.
Point being: King wasn’t exactly an Olympic-level wrestler.
Still, he managed to build a program from a motley crew of Pelican-ites that went on to nine conference titles, seven district championships and two regional titles.
I could have written a column about national affairs – this week, U.S. Presidents born with silver spoons up their you-know-what. Or about congresswomen who pontificate about disadvantaged and troubled youth at San Francisco wine and cheese and Perrier parties. Or I might have written about big, fat, hot air machines like talk show right-winger Rush Limbaugh.
So, decided not to write about politics this week. Bob King’s a better story. Louis Hoglund is managing editor of the Pelican Rapids Press. This column appeared in the Feb. 12, 2020 edition. Submitted photo Pelican Rapids wrestling coach Harold Holt, at left, with the guy who started it all six decades ago: Bob King, 87, who is originally from Park Rapids.
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“It does require a lot of patience. You have to like to do crafts,” she said.
Reeves said when she gets bored with carpentry or sewing she can move to another aspect of the project. Miniature work requires specialized tools as well – fine sandpaper, itsy-bitsy screwdrivers, hammers, a variety of glues and a handheld Dremel saw.
“And really, my interest in this, mostly, is for the decorating. I like decorating, and so I can afford to decorate this rather than my own house,” she said. She watches “a lot” of HGTV. She also scours miniature kit catalogs and her own imagination for inspiration.
Reeves didn’t play with a dollhouse as a child. Her mother bought her a living room kit, but it was part of a dollhouse set that was discontinued. “I was so disappointed. I think that’s what started my love – because I wanted it so badly.”
Caleb Hasbargen, a Menahga High School senior, built the house structure for her, one level at a time. He cuts out the windows and doors in shop class.
Reeves provides him with a blueprint she drew to scale. Hasbargen recently completed the fourth floor, which Reeves is transforming into a ballroom and banquet hall, filled with musicians, gourmet food and five sets of French doors. “When I finish the fourth floor, I think I’m going to redo the kitchen,” she mused.
She envisions it as a traditional, old house that is being renovated.
Figurines in the home are made of resin. She has developed a storyline around the characters, and plans to write a book.
Reeves imagines living in her dollhouse. “Sometimes I go, ‘I wonder how I could get to be small and just live here.’”
Reeves said there are no girls in her family for her to leave the dollhouse to. However, her 54-year-old nephew recently found out that they are expecting a baby girl. “I said, ‘Guess what she’s going to get from me!’”
Reeves' 20-room dollhouse has working lights and blinking fire places.
Reeves handsews curtains, quilts and bedspreads for the bed rooms. The theme for this gentleman's room – lighthouses and the sea – are reflected in the details.
This child is a ballerina, with tiny ballet slippers slung over the bed post.
Reeves plans to write a book about the characters in her dollhouse. The grand, two-story entrance to the dollhouse. The curved staircase was preassembled, but Reeves sanded, stained and painted it, then attached the decorative carpet.
The school room features a chemistry lab, in the back right corner, along with music and art lessons.
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Am I Hallucinating?
In previous months, we’ve discussed many of the common eye problems that can cause vision loss... cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, etc. This month, we’ll cover something that is less common, but also very interesting and important. What is Charles Bonnet Syndrome?
This phenomenon occurs in people who have lost some vision in one or both eyes (due to macular degeneration, glaucoma, etc.). These patients can experience complex visual hallucinations, where they see things that are not really there. These hallucinations are often pleasant and unthreatening images, and the patients know that they are not really there. The hallucinations occur off and on in the eye that has lost vision. Many of these patients often think they are going crazy, as they are seeing hallucinations out of their blind eye. They are usually NOT going crazy, they are simply experiencing Charles Bonnet Syndrome! What do people see during these hallucinations?
People can see just about anything during these hallucinations. I have a blind patient who described well-dressed children who followed her around; she was not afraid of the children watching her, because she knew they were not really there. I had another patient who reported seeing a field of black and gray flowers that scared her at first, but she was not afraid once she realized they were not really there. A third patient has described seeing beautiful purple flowers on the trees outside his house, in the middle of winter.
It’s important to be aware of Charles Bonnet Syndrome, especially if you have friends or family who have lost considerable vision in one or both eyes. It can be very comforting to these people to talk about their hallucinations, and they are usually very relieved to learn that they are not going crazy! In 2005 I published an article on Charles Bonnet Syndrome for an international Optometry/Ophthalmology journal; if you would like a copy of this article or if you have any questions on Charles Bonnet Syndrome, please let me know!
