Huber

Funeral Home & Cremation Services

952-474-9595

Pediatric Rehabilitation Clinic.

Occupational Therapy.  Speech Therapy.

952-443-9888

Victoria’s Corner Bar.  Nightly Specials and Menus.  952-443-9944

Weinzierl

Jewelers

8 First Street in Waconia.  952-442-2885

MVT Excavating

No job is too small.  952-446-9341

The Key

The Key to advertisers

in the Victoria Gazette. 

Located at www.VictoriaGazette.com.

Specialized assisted living for those

with memory challenges. 

Victoria.  952-908-2215
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GAZETTE

         Our flight to Fort Myers was scheduled for takeoff from the Minneapolis Airport Terminal One at 10:10 a.m.  We stepped onto the plane at 10:10 a.m.  They held the doors open for us.  There wasn't a hair to spare.  It was a scare. 

         For one thing, we hadn't planned for rush hour traffic.  Allan no longer leaves the house early to beat rush hour traffic because he's no longer going to the office.  It's called retirement.  When you're retired, some things go by the wayside, like thoughts of the workaday world.  We've never seen so much traffic on 494 from the exit at Eden Prairie to Hwy 100.

         Also, we hadn't planned on the long-term parking ramps at Terminal One being filled to capacity, but they were.  And so flagmen directed us back to Hwy 494 and Humphrey Terminal Two where we climbed to Level Five to find an empty space to park.  Then it was down the elevators, across skyways and across many moving trams, some of them not moving, to the train station to follow signs to Terminal One which involved more running, more moving trams, some of them also not moving, to the bag drop, through the security check, and more chasing as we heard over the loudspeakers, "Last Call for Fort Myers, Leaving from Gate G14."

         As we rounded the very last corner, each of us carrying a heavy carryon bag (laptop, iPads, etc.), we saw Jenny and her family with airport personnel who wanted to shut the gate and taxi for take-off.  "Mom and Dad are coming!  They're in the airport!  They'll be here any minute!"  The kids had flown in from Minot to meet us in Minneapolis.  As I said, we barely made it.

***

         When we were home in Ghent for my dad's latest birthday, he got to talking about his growing up years and I heard stories I hadn't heard before.  I erroneously think of the "old days" as beginning when he and Mom got married and had us kids.  Well, there are even older days than that!

         Back in about 1933 and 1934, when Dad was 9 years old, the Great Depression hit hard in southwestern Minnesota, as it did throughout much of the nation and world.  I've read of dust storms and grasshopper infestations but didn't realize how they personally affected my parents and grandparents.  The dust storms were bad for three years.  There were no crops and therefore no hay and grain to feed the animals and the horses died.  My grandpa couldn't bear to shoot them.  When the dust storms ended, grasshoppers arrived and wiped out the crops for the next two years.  Grandpa Claeys lost the farm but came to keep it by borrowing $500 from his brother and $500 from my grandma's brother.  It was FDR who authorized extensions on farm foreclosures in order to help people get back on their feet.  I told my dad it was a humane and common sense thing to do for the good of the country, and that any president would have done the same thing -- as they all have done since, when natural disasters strike. 

         We have had a pretty good nation with pretty good leaders, at least for a majority of these past 237 years.  I hope our own children and grandchildren will be able to look back and say the same thing one day.

***

         I've had some comment that readers are missing Ethel Ausink's monthly column in the Gazette.  Ethel was fearless in speaking the truth about many issues of the day.  She wrote with courage and wisdom, which often comes with age.  If there is a senior citizen out there who would like to write an issue-related column for the Gazette, you're welcome to do so.  We have many low-information voters out there today, some of their own choosing, and I'm happy to assist in raising the bar.  Keep in mind that every columnist and word in the Gazette must pass the scrutiny of the editor.  I try to not provide a forum for the enemy.

***

         The biggest news of the day is Pope Francis.  God continues to be good to us.  It's a wondrous thing to see the entire world caught up in the election of a Pope who heads the Catholic Church.  That's because, as my friend Pastor Brian Dixon of the Moravian Church of Lake Auburn said to me, "He is a Pope for all Christians."   Even more encompassing, our Popes are for all of God's people in the world.

***

         Thank you to the multitudes who sent in your subscription envelopes.  You are a large and outstanding audience of readers in Victoria and from practically every state in the union.  Ed Vanderlinde told me long ago that the Gazette is what put Victoria on the map.  Judging from monthly correspondence, it still does.  I suspect it's because the Gazette has always been about much more than just business and city affairs.  It's also about life, and that's one thing we all have in common.

In-Town Auto Repair  952-443-2868

942-443-2078
Text Box: From the Editor

April 2013