Columnists

To dispel rumors which sometimes circulate, reaching incredulous friends, I want to tell you that reports of my retirement from the Echo are premature.<BR><BR>Sure, I’m slowing down physically and perhaps mentally, and perhaps my stamina has left me dragging at the end of a 10 hour work day. Any hopes for lasting creativity are diminishing as rapidly as the moisture from my porch plants.<BR><BR>Still, here I am. Enjoying life and living. Just a bit forgetful.

Here's a senior boomer if you ever saw one! If there ever was any doubt about the popularity of Polka Priest, Father Frank Perkovich and the Polka Mass, those doubts were dispelled on June 6 in Gilbert at the 50th anniversary of his priesthood. <BR><BR>An estimated crowd of more than 1,200 people attended the event with bus loads from Minneapolis, Duluth, as well as many of us from everywhere on the Iron Range. <BR><BR>Special guests included Archbishop DeLuca from the Vatican in Rome (a close personal friend of Father Perk), bishop Dennis Schnurr of the Duluth Diocese, numerous priests from the diocese and relatives from Slovenia and Canada were in attendance. <BR><BR>Archbishop Deluca was the celebrant at the Polka Mass along with Father Perk, in his new vestment with gold trimhandmade by his cousins from Slovenia and presented to him for his anniversary.

CREATIVE PLAY<BR><BR> There’s something about school on summer break and the longer and warmer days of the season that reminds me of a Boomer kid’s off time and all the creative play we packed into those three months of “freedom.” <BR><BR>Are kids creatively playing in the 21st century? I guess you could say so when you see them zooming around on their bikes, swimming, playing baseball or selling lemonade on the street. <BR><BR>Do they know all of the ideas we came up with to entertain ourselves? And those of us old enough to grow up without a computer loaded with games and TV channels, videos and an assorted plethora of options relied on the old noggin to satisfy kiddy pleasures. <BR><BR>Boomer parents knew kids needed fresh air and an airing out. The first activity planned for a preschool kid was a dirt pile or homemade sand box.<BR><BR>Do you see many sand boxes today?

I have lost another good friend in Marie Garni. She and I go back 50 years in Ely throughout our single, married and family life. Marie Zarshe was born in Stillwater, MN and was a graduate of St. Catherine’s as an occupational therapist. <BR><BR>Little did she know when she came to Ely for a visit to see her former college roommate, Mary Jean Foster Hendrickson, that she would wind up as a permanent resident of Ely. It was that visit and an introduction to a very handsome Louis Garni Jr. that did the trick, and before long a wedding was planned in Stillwater in 1954. <BR><BR>Mary Jean Hendrickson, a kindergarten teacher, had already met and married another local boy, John Hendrickson, and it just so happened that someone named Irene Bergeron (another school teacher) met a local fellow named Joe Grahek, and wedding bells rang for them the same year.

Did you know? Those three very tall Norway pines on Sheridan Street at Pioneer Apartments were planted there by the Ely Lions Club in 1974. The Lions Club formed a committee called “The Green Thumb” under co-chairmanship of Frank Shusta and Dr. Mike Musich, who were aided by members Len Katauskas, Bud Adamic, and the late Bill Grahek, Joe Grahek and Bill Schiltz. Those trees, donated by the Schiltz Tree Farm, were only a few feet high when planted and all were skeptical about their future. But seeing is believing, as they have grown to be as tall as that three-story building. Not all of the shrubbery survived, but those trees are a solid remembrance of the good works of the Ely Lions Club in 1974.<BR><BR>Did you know? Way back when, the east entrance to Ely was completely lined with beautiful trees all the way through town on Sheridan Street.

It’s that time of year… spring storms and more stuff coming through the summer months. May has proven to show us some lightning and thunder, power outs and at times an early alarm clock while practicing the art of slumber. <BR><BR>I think most Boomer kids will agree that so called storms today don’t live up to the ones we remember as kids. I will make exception with the ’99 blowdown and the time the tornado siren kept sounding due to funnel clouds passing through the Burntside area. <BR><BR>Back in the ’50s and ’60s we had predictable weather. May was usually cold with plenty of frost and sometimes snow. Then you’d suddenly get an 80-degree day to start up the dandelions.<BR><BR>June usually was a good month to build an ark like Noah. It was common to expect rain for 40 days and nights. <BR><BR>We knew what June showers produced.

Memorial Day is special for 5,796 of us.<BR><BR>This is aimed at young people. The ones who are age 17 to 25. These are the ones we can relate to, those of us who are now in our 80s.<BR><BR>Memorial Day means a lot of different things to different people. It is a time to visit the cemetery and pay our respects to friends and family members who have passed on. There is always a ceremony at the Ely Cemetery to honor veterans of the nation’s wars. There is a speech. The color guard fires a salute. The bugle sounds taps.<BR><BR>So what’s that got to do with you? Well, 60 years ago, young people, we were you. We are old, grayed, and we have difficulty standing straight now. But 60 years ago we were young and feisty, just finishing high school or in college. And we were suddenly caught up in a war we did not want, did not seek. Indeed, our nation’s elders tried to keep us out of war, but those who chose to target us as their enemy would not have it.

It would be hard to find a woman anywhere in the world with a greater passion for bowling - and the people to whom bowling is important - than Jo Hardy. That passion was rewarded on April 18, when she was inducted into the Minnesota Women’s Bowling Association’s Hall of Fame for Meritorious Service.<BR><BR>She was first notified in September of 2003 by Mary Peck, President of the Minnesota Women’s Bowling Association (MWBA), that she was to be inducted into the Minnesota Bowling Hall of Fame. That event took place on April 18, 2004, at the Rosedale Radisson Hotel.<BR><BR>She was accompanied to the event by all of her family except her oldest and youngest sons and was given a standing ovation from the large audience in attendance.

Hey! Prom time is right around the corner.<BR><BR>Boomers remember that as one of the major events of the year. And I’m sure Boomer parents won’t forget the expenses and worries about where are those kids going after the big event. <BR><BR>I believe Boomer gals were under the impression someone would ask us to the prom. So Boomer guys were under a lot of pressure unless they already hooked up with a steady. <BR><BR>The waiting game began a month or so before this major event. Would some guy ask you? What kind of dress would you pick? All that stuff. And if you were a junior in high school, your class was in charge of putting on the whole deal. Getting involved in the whole process, like decorating and arranging the food, chaperones, etc. might give you the chance to participate. Being a class officer just about guaranteed entrance to the function.<BR><BR>Proms today are high scale.

Who invented the wheel? A Boomer kid might have said the caveman did. At least our cartoons told us that story. All we know is that it was prehistoric.<BR><BR>Whoever invented it made our lives much more enjoyable and easy. <BR><BR>I guess as a kid, who would give a heck of a thought to that. We just knew certain things came equipped with the rolling force.<BR><BR>Our first experience was probably a baby carriage or “buggy.” I would bet most of us don’t remember the experience, but our Boomer Moms do, and that’s the main thing. The buggy gave Ma the freedom to get out of the house while exposing junior to some fresh air. She could run a few errands, stop and chat plus still keep her eyeball on the kid. And if Ma was lucky, some “old timer” might peek into the carriage - congratulating Ma on such a healthy baby, who of course looks just like Dad or “your side of the family.” <BR><BR> During Boomer times, baby buggies lined the streets.