Weinzierl

Jewelers

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

8 First Street in Waconia.  952-442-2885

942-443-2078

Funeral Home & Cremation Services

952-474-9595

Pediatric Rehabilitation Clinic.

Occupational Therapy.  Speech Therapy.

952-443-9888

Huber

City of Lakes & Parks  952-443-2363

“Trees Are Our Roots”

8099 Bavaria Rd * Victoria * 952-443-2990

Text Box: Text Box: Text Box: Text Box: Text Box: Text Box: Text Box: Text Box:

Headlines

and bylines

Front Page

Feature Story

From the

Editor

Addie’s

Drawing

Letters

to the Editor

Victoria

Moments

Hook

Line & Sinker

Calendar

of Events

Click here to

Advertise

Email

the Gazette

Return to

Home Page

Order

paper Gazette

Notes and

Quotes

The Scoop

at City Hall

         Life is so interesting I can hardly believe it, but I can tell you about it.

         You might recall that my front page story last month featured our trip to the mountains, deserts, and national parks of Utah.  It's one of the few states we had not previously visited and it seemed to call to us.  Maybe you were wanting to ask, "Who goes to Utah on vacation???"

         Shortly after the paper was out, Pam Schmillen, whom I see every week because she's a member of the St. Victoria Choir, tells me that she and a friend were in Moab, Utah, and Arches National Park during the same days we were there.  She was surprised to read it.  I was surprised to hear it.  Pam, too, had never before visited that state.  It was unusual that we were crisscrossing the same paths at the same time in the State of Utah, far from Victoria.

*** 

         The next week at a meeting of the Victoria Lions, Doug Dyer tells Allan that he was at Bryce and Zion National Parks in Utah at the same time that we were there.  Amazing!  Lion Doug said he was on a bus tour called Road Scholar, which used to be called the Eldersthostel.  He had never been in Utah before either. 

         There you have it, folks.  People with last names like Orsen, Schmillen, and Dyer, people with Victoria connections, go to Utah on vacation.  How interesting that the three of us were there at the very same time. 

***

         At the recent Halloween Party in downtown Victoria, I was talking to Rick Leuthner, a member of the Victoria Fire Department who was introducing Halloween kids to one of the big red fire engines. 

         Rick was telling me about his hunting trip to North Dakota, to the northwestern part of that state where you can even find moose.  He talked about the barren land out there and wondered how oil companies can make any money when it costs million of dollars to drill a well and millions more to complete it.  I suggested they were dealing with long term investments.

         I told Rick that our daughter and her family live in that neck of the woods, in Tioga.  "Tioga?  You're kidding!" he said.   "That's where we spent the night.  In a new hotel there."  I about screamed -- first of all because he was so near to my little girl Jenny and he could have stopped to say hi, second of all because I was jealous it wasn't me stopping in Tioga, and third of all because that property was sold to the hotel company by Jenny's husband Christopher, who bought it years ago already, speculating, successfully.

         How interesting, the crisscrossing of our lives, that other people in Victoria, MN, besides us, have spent an overnight in Tioga, North Dakota.

***

         Bob and Darla Diethelm told me that Chuck Thiel and his Jolly Ramblers also played at each of the weddings of their three daughters.  Guess who played for the wedding of Jenny Orsen back in 2002?  Yes, it was Chuck Thiel and his Jolly Ramblers.  How interesting, this crisscrossing of favorite dance music.

***

         And so my dad says to me on the phone a couple days ago, about things he reads in the Gazette, that I write, "How can you remember what everybody says?  How can you write that all down?  As soon as somebody stops talking to me, I forget what they said."

         Then we laugh outloud together.  Dad is funny but you gotta be on your toes.  He is 90 years old and enjoys laughing at himself, and others, too, for that matter.

         I don't notice that Dad forgets anything, especially when we get a chance to talk about the old days.  He's sharp as a tack, smart as a whip, and strong as a bull.  Gotta keep those cliche's in circulation.

         It used to be that only Mom talked on the phone and, to this day, I'm always a little shocked when Dad picks it up and stays on for a while.  He talks about the people he visits in nursing homes and the latest funeral he attended.  Most of his friends are dead or on their way out.

         How interesting this crisscrossing of time and eternity.

***

         All year I've been anticipating a trip to see our friend Father Bernardine Hahn OFM, who is celebrating his 100th birthday on December 13th of this year.  A letter from him today says he hopes for us to meet his younger brother Lawrence Hahn, age 90, of Omaha who will be visiting him in St. Louis at that time. 

         In this crisscrossing of paths and events in human life, I have to tell my dear Father Bernardine -- who has given his life to the church, to others, and his friendship to me, and asks for nothing in return -- I have to tell him that our choir concert here at St. Victoria is scheduled for that very Sunday afternoon, December 13th, and I'm the pianist.

         This crisscrossing of people and events in my life tugs at my heart.

Text Box:

From the Editor

Dedicated to the sunshine of truth,

the moonshine of meeting deadlines,

and the starshine of Victoria.

The Victoria GAZETTE

Sue’s Album

A symphony of photos

and fewer than a thousand words

at www.VictoriaGazette.com

November 2015