Eye See You!

This is also a "stand-alone" entry...The old Eye building, home of the local newspaper where my dad worked as the printer and linotype setter.  How he did this straight from Germany with no knowledge of English before coming, is beyond me.  Now look, it's a cafe called Wildcat Cafe after the once local team.  Maybe we should have tried it out.  But for some reason it didn't happen.  Oh well...

Having fun in Blue Earth

We stayed in that "Super" motel the "Super 8" in Blue Earth.  It was OK, no pool, but who had time, although it would have been really nice given the temps in Minnesota!  No trip to Blue Earth and Elmore is complete without a trip to the home of the Green Giant, true?  Here's a link to the history of this guy and how it came to stand at this little spot!  At the end of the article it says that Blue Earth claims to be the home of the ice cream sandwich.  I kind of believe that this can definitely be true because our Blue Earth friend and church member, Cecil Barnes worked at the local ice cream plant and would always bring us seconds that tasted just as good as "firsts" although definitely not perfect to look at.  We always had a freezer full of ice cream while she was working there. 
So here is our quick visit to the Green guy himself!

Can you see Jamie and Brecklyn????

This little adventure was followed by a "cone date" at the nearby Dairy Queen.  Chocolate dipped cones, my fave!  And dumb me, no picture!

Signposts

Things I noticed about town in Elmore that I took pictures of just because...

Wild flowers and corn fields everywhere the eye could see...

Propane tanks for heating.  I remember we had some kind of truck that came and pumped some kind of "oil" into our basement "tank" as our fuel for the winter.  Here in Utah we have underground natural gas mains.  Interesting...

Dirt roads.  This road is the Minn-Iowa border road and I don't think it was ever paved that I recall.

The old Elmore water tower.  Can you see it from far, far away?  I remember that the original one looked like a cone-shape and as though it was made of aluminum or something similar.  Ha ha!

Jean Brown's house.  This house stands on the corner of Iowa street and was the corner we turned on to walk home from school.  On the opposite side of the street I remember something that happened.  Carolyn, Cindy and I were walking home from school and Carolyn said that she thought she was coming down with the mumps.  Her neck was all swollen.  Yup, she was and then Cindy got it shortly after.  I NEVER got the mumps, although the whole school was closed for a while till the cases passed.  Now there's a shot for that.  When I told Jamie about the mumps, she was surprised about your neck "growing".  She had no idea!

The bike in front of this house looks like my old bike, my main wheels for many years!  Took me to Iowa on a regular basis, ha!

Houses in disrepair or long abandoned showing economical problems and loss of population.

Signs of remembering and celebrations of 150 years.

A school, now no longer serving that purpose displaying the name of a former Vice President, Elmore's claim to fame.

A new water tower to last for the future years.

Ostermann's sledding hill, a reminder of fun times as kids in the deep snows of Minnesota.

The old goal post, reminding of the Wildcats touchdowns...in years past...

The bleachers where fans cheered them on, never to do so again...

An empty lot where once stood the first house we lived at in Elmore just briefly and rented while searching for a house to buy...

The old park, a place for children to make new memories.

Olde Home Week

Well, the purpose of this trip for the most part was to go to my hometown's sesquicentennial.  And the dates of Elmore's existence begin in 1863 when it was then known as Dobson.  The committee put together a book which I purchased.  It was very nicely put together and at a reasonable price of $10.00.

My history in Elmore begins much later than this year, of course.  I came here as a German immigrant with my parents in 1957.  I grew up here till I was 12 years old.  After my 6th grade came to it's conclusion, I moved with my parents to California.  At that time, I didn't know whether I would ever see Elmore or my old friends from school ever again.  I have been back a total of 4 times.  Once with my parents and 2 children when they were 2 and 4 years old.  Then for the All-school reunion in 1990, which was 23 years ago!  Wow, I can't believe it was that long ago!  It was on June 30th and it was hot, hot hot!  Walter Mondale was at the dinner in the auditorium of the school and spoke.  Everyone was dying of heat.  Then I came with my daughter in 2005 just to show her my Minnesota roots and now again, just this past week for the sesquicentennial.

At first I wasn't sure if I should go or not, because I had just spent a fortune in New York, but then I realized this was an opportunity to see people I haven't seen in 48 years and probably wouldn't have an opportunity to see again.  I knew I would regret it if I didn't go.  So I took Jamie and Brecklyn along in hopes that they would enjoy it and share a little of my memories.  And I must admit, many memories came flooding back into my mind with every corner that I turned in this little town of Elmore.  Even now as I think about it, a few tears well up and I am happy for the years I spent here, making friends, growing up and learning about life.  They were years well spent and I am happy to have known nice people and good people that essentially helped shape my life as I know it now.  Elmore, you are not gone from my memory.

Elmore back in my day was not the town it is now.  It was a small rural town with a population larger than today and a business section of town that was active and seemed to be growing.  Somehow and for some reason, that growth stopped and the town slowly seemed to go in the opposite direction with businesses closing down and the school eventually closing, people moving out and hardly any moving in.  I think my dad must have somehow sensed that as he and my mom felt it was necessary and time to move on.  So we did.  That same summer one of my two best friends, Carolyn Fritz, also moved.  That left our friend, Cindy Hulsebus, to continue on in Elmore and find other new best friends.  I have kept in touch, especially with Cindy, but also with Carolyn, although I have not seen her since that summer day as we drove off in our old car.  I remember that day so very well as though it was yesterday.

Cindy reminded me of how the three of us took a bike ride to the Minn-Iowa border to have a picnic there at the park and take photos at the border monument.  I remember those pictures and still have them.  As a momento of that memory, we went together and took pictures again there, but it was the two of us this time.  Carolyn wasn't there.  It was a sweet moment.

Well, of course, I had to check out all my old stomping grounds.  The first being my old residence.  And I knew from past visits it had been altered and added on to.  The last two visits, it was brown and now it has blue siding.  And here it is:

It is a lot longer now and has an attached garage.  Ours was separate from the house and kind of like an old shed in a way.  Behind it, we had a woodpile, I recall.  I always saw mice or rats back there.  Isn't it funny what you remember.  In the backyard there was sandpile.  I loved to make mud pies with my friends.  Almost everyone had a sandpile back then.  No computer games, etc.  We played outside most of the time and it was a lot of fun.  I could make the best roads in my sandpile and drive my little cars and even a dump truck in it.  I remember once there was a rat in my sandpile.  Yuch!  Before I went back I remembered the garden that my parents always kept.  We grew gooseberries and had a plum tree.  And that plum tree was in the gooseberry patch.  One day a dog came running after me and I ran into a branch of the plum tree and hurt myself what seemed pretty badly to my little girl self at that time.   Don't know how serious it really was, but to me, it was the worst thing ever!

I remember one year around my birthday that a neighbor directly to the east of my house and just across the street with the last name of Volz, got crushed when a hay wagon fell on her.  I didn't know her too well, but I remember laying on my sofa and feeling so badly about it and crying.  I think this is the first time in my life that I really understood what it meant to die.  I didn't like it much and it broke my heart.    They lived here:

Then looking north on my street there was some type of old barn, which is no longer there, but instead are the trees on the right in the picture below.  What memory do I have from this place?  Well, my little cat, Susie, would go to this barn or whatever it was and the reason for that?  I will give you one guess, rats. Yuch!   I guess at some point it was torn down.  Then around the corner to the left, not too far was the home of my dad's boss, Harold Norman.

Then in the opposite direction, looking south, was Cindy's house and just 1 house south of that, was Carolyn Fritz's house.  Her father was the local vet in town.

And at the end of this road, was the Iowa border.  It was always cool to tell your mom that you were going to Iowa for the afternoon on your bike.  Felt like it was a real big trip!

Then looking toward the west, below was the street we lived on.  On our block were 4 houses.  Ours, Senenfelder's (house is now an empty lot), Ludemann's and another house on the corner.  And I don't know who was there...  Here a view.

On the opposite side, was Cindy, The Wirtjes, the Hubers and the Keisters.

This is the Wirtjes home.
Then a funny memory hit me as I looked at our old house.  The first window on the side was my room.  In there I had a record player and we like to play Elvis Presley and open the window and on the side yard we would dance and dance to the music.  Is that the funniest thing ever.  Well, we did that and it was great.  And for some reason, I haven't forgotten that!

Notice the side by the trees?  Our dancing area.
Below is a picture showing the two remaining houses on this side of the street, which is now Iowa street.

So my last picture for this entry is something that I did at the last few minutes in Elmore on Saturday night as we were leaving the street dance.  We were parked in front of the Post Office and I could see that there were still some Post office boxes in the front as in the days I lived there.  I went inside and checked to see if my old box was still there...

Aside from all the things that change everyday in our lives, somethings don't.  There is my mailbox.  I wonder if my dad still remembers the combination????

The Grotto of the Redemption

Another childhood memory...don't we love those memories?  Isn't everything just bigger than life?  Yes, I remembered going here and so I looked it up on the internet.  It still existed and was about 1 1/4 hours drive from Elmore in Westbend, Iowa.  Well, there was no way that I would not be sharing this with Jamie and Brecklyn.  It was now on the trip agenda!

For those of you who have never heard of this place.  It's beautiful, it's religious, (Catholic) and stands next to an old Catholic parish from about the year 1883.  The man who created this became sick and prayed that if he were healed he would build a shrine and he was and he did.  He gathered stones, shells, semi-precious gems worldwide and built this shrine.  Which by the way, isn't so tiny.  I can't imagine the work that went into this.  They don't advertise, but I guess I am in my own way.

In the front is a pond with swans and ducks.

My memories were somewhat accurate, and here is what we found:

Here are the Guardians of the Grotto!

Even the museum was similar. Not to mention the ladies' room shown below!

The beauty of this place is only diminished by the beauty of my daughter!  Ha! Ha!  I know you will love this one, Jamie!

And these beautiful Bavarian stained-glass windows, of course!

The empty tomb, signifying the Resurrection and the Life.

Vibrant colored gems everywhere!
And even some stalagtites.  He even has some growing in one of his grottos.

Then after we saw everything we took a look in the museum.  It explained the history and the stories behind the Grotto.  Samples of the stones shown below.

And then I saw what is now the vintage plate souvenir that is still in my parent's home.  This is no longer available, :( but I guess I will eventually inherit this one.  I was able to buy a "new version".  But because this one is in my "memories", it is more special to me!

Petrified wood is also used in the Grotto.

Here is a tribute to the Father who created this beautiful monument:

And that is the conclusion of your Grotto tour!  Hope you enjoyed it.  Let me say that the photos do this place absolutely no justice.  It is a sight to behold!  If in northern Iowa, take a trip to West Bend!  It is worth the time.