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Owning an older home (or any home in the Ely area) means frequent trips to the hardware store. Not to mention trips to Voyageur Lumber, Pamida, Ben Franklin, Serena's and so on down the list. That "list" is important for reasons we don't think about until it's too late. <BR><BR>As on most Saturday mornings, I parked my car near a favorite coffee shop. This morning I said hello to Kristen and Samantha and enjoyed brief chats with patrons before starting my rounds. It was around 15 degrees outside, the sun was out and a skiff of new snow had fallen last night. Beautiful! Jacked up by a double-skinny in a short cup, I set off with vigor, purpose and a slight twitch.<BR><BR>The Surplus Store is next to the coffee shop, and I asked young Sarah there to help me choose some new snowshoes.

Most Boomers remember the ’60s well. It had to be the decade of things gone awry, one foreign to our folks, but really one that proclaimed a message. <BR><BR>I don’t believe there’s been one generation alive seeing so much turmoil and unrest. Were you supposed to believe war was the way to go? Should you be a dove or a hawk? Should you burn your bra or flee to Canada? <BR><BR>They say lasting impressions of many life altering experiences happen in the very early years of life, and many of us were pre-teens witnessing a decade filled with unexplainable concepts, even ones our parents never witnessed, nor could they come up with logical explanations as of what was going on. <BR><BR>The whole country was on tilt, and luckily we lived up here, signing off to ice fishing, skiing or skating - living in the tundra part of the year. But we still received newspapers and had TV news. We knew the country wasn’t quite right.

On the roads south this past week the snow disappeared quickly the farther and farther we got into Wisconsin. The barren trees stood sentinel over lines of traveling vehicles. Driving this way was an exercise of patience that gets easier with repetition, easier with practice. It never seems to come second nature to me, though.<BR><BR>A nine or 10 hour drive interrupted by short breaks and a meal is a whole day of doing exactly the same thing while being on full alert for all that is around you. It was interesting to see the fields and grass when I was used to a blanket of white, but after a while the muted earthy tones gave way to boredom. I watched the road fly by underneath. I watched the road. I watched the lines on the road. The other cars.<BR><BR>The thing that tore me away from the mundane, that sharpened my focus was a tall, dark shape perched within the top branches of an old oak we passed.

From Glendora, California:<BR><BR>“Today I received my Dec 17th copy of the Ely Echo.This is really bad service. It is always late. I don’t think I have ever gotten it in less than a week late. Is this the best you can do? By the time I get the Echo, it is history! Why can’t I at least expect it in maybe a week or 10 days? Is that so hard? What class of service do you mail this for it to be such lousy service? Hope to hear from you, Frank.”<BR><BR>Dear Frank, <BR><BR>There’s nobody more unhappy with the US Postal Service than me. Every week without fail the Echoes are delivered to the Ely Post Office on Friday. They are bar coded with each address and pre-sorted by state and cities. What the Postal Service does to the newspaper when it leaves here Friday afternoon is anybody’s guess.<BR><BR>Have we put your newspaper on a Postal Watch yet? Sometimes that kick starts some action by the USPS.

Every once in awhile, you’ll hear broadcasters talking about athletes being “in a zone.”<BR><BR>The phrase is usually described to talk about top-flight performances when the athlete has a near-perfect performance.<BR><BR>The most recent such outing that comes to mind was Texas quarterback Vince Young’s unreal effort against USC in college football’s national title game.<BR><BR>That was on Jan.

After some questions about where it would take place, plans for the annual winter community dance event are taking place and it will remain at its original site.<BR><BR>Organizers of the Snow Ball - formerly known as the Mukluk Ball - say the dance is now set for Saturday, Feb. 5, from 7 p.m.

The Ely area has a number of people and businesses that sell items on eBay. Most transactions are successful, a rare few leave a bad taste and then there are the unusual encounters...<BR><BR>When I offered some wooden fishing gear on eBay this fall, I received a request to withdraw one item and donate it to a soon-to-be museum.<BR><BR>The item was a homemade wood fishing reel. It was found in the Winton house which my family owned in the 1970s. The house had earlier been owned by Nick Kuitunen who had worked in the grocery department of the St. Croix (lumber company) Store in Winton earlier that century. <BR><BR>His family had used the home as a boarding house, complete with a sauna over the Shagawa River, a building which is still there. Near the back alley was a tiny garage with a small loft. It was there that the homemade reel and other fish-related items were found.

The Ely area has a number of people and businesses that sell items on eBay. Most transactions are successful, a rare few leave a bad taste and then there are the unusual encounters...<BR><BR>When I offered some wooden fishing gear on eBay this fall, I received a request to withdraw one item and donate it to a soon-to-be museum.<BR><BR>The item was a homemade wood fishing reel. It was found in the Winton house which my family owned in the 1970s. The house had earlier been owned by Nick Kuitunen who had worked in the grocery department of the St. Croix (lumber company) Store in Winton earlier that century. <BR><BR>His family had used the home as a boarding house, complete with a sauna over the Shagawa River, a building which is still there. Near the back alley was a tiny garage with a small loft. It was there that the homemade reel and other fish-related items were found.

Ely area resident Ben Mauser watched Tuesday’s high school boys basketball game between Ely and Tower-Soudan with plenty of interest, and a good deal of pride and satisfaction.<BR><BR>It was thanks to nearly two years of effort by the 80-year-old Mauser, a retired Ely teacher, that the Timberwolves and Golden Eagles played for more than position in the Arrowhead Conference standings.<BR><BR>Tuesday’s contest at Tower, won by the Timberwolves 64-57, was for the Gold Brick, a traveling trophy brought back to life by Mauser after a hiatus of more than 50 years.<BR><BR>Mauser pored through decades-old newpapers and yearbooks, put the call out to Iron Rangers who were part of the sports scene in the 1940s and 1950s and even had school officials digging into old trophy cases and storage areas in search for the original Gold Brick, which was traded from Ely to Gilbert to Virginia to Eveleth and many other schools that formed the old District 27 conferenc

Down the street, at the corner, the slush is heavy, brown and thick from the freshly fallen snow. The ice underneath this rich brown layer that almost looks like topsoil is hard and slippery. Protected by nightly light snowfalls and plunging temperatures, the ice forms a glass-like surface that has a way of sloughing off car tires and booted feet. The simple act of getting where you want to go is not so easily accomplished. It carries with it the cool, slick touch of treachery.<BR><BR>One lapse into carelessness, one misplaced step or just too much speed can result in an accident. A collision. This is winter in the north woods, the elements doing battle and winning. The snow is light and airy and usually can be swept away each dawn. The shovels haven’t gotten too much of a workout yet. The salt is in a little higher demand.<BR><BR>Our Christmas tree is up and decorated.