LIVING 55 PLUS
Creating structure after retirement
BRAVE HEARTED
Dave and Sarah Brave Heart tell all about falling in love, moving to Mankato, battling ALS
Also in this issue:
MADISON HARBARTH A deep dive on DAKOTA HISTORY The long, fruitful partnership of MANKATO & MSU Meet
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FEATURE S FEBRUARY 2022 Volume 17, Issue 2
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BRAVEHEARTED Dave Brave Heart has emerged as a prominent leader in the Native American Community. After a recent diagnosis of ALS, he and his wife, Sarah, sat down with Mankato Magazine to talk about his life.
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Exploring Dakota history
Horns up!
The history of Mankato and the history of the Dakota people are intertwined and complex. Thanks to local historical societies, the stories and histories are being celebrated and shared.
When it comes to Minnesota State University and the city of Mankato, it seems that the one can’t succeed without the other. We explore that relationship in depth this month as we focus on our region’s history.
ABOUT THE COVER Dave and Sarah Brave Heart embody everything that is good about the Mankato region. As we focus on history this month, we thought it’d be fun to dig into Dave’s. He was photographed by Pat Christman. MANKATO MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2022 • 3
DEPARTMENTS 6 From the Editor 7 This Day in History 8 Faces & Places 12 Avant Guardians Emily Stark
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14 Beyond the Margin
Inheriting a remarkable history
16 Familiar Faces
Madison Harbarth
18 Day Trip Destinations La Crosse
34 Living 55 Plus
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40 Beer
Sweet draughts
42 Wine
What’s new in ‘Kato
43 Lit Du Nord: Minnesota Books and Authors
Clear-eyed glimpses of the Midwest
44 Ann’s Fashion Fortunes
Braids, serums, self sabotaging
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45 Community Draws
Wellshare International
46 Garden Chat
Keeping things grounded
48 From This Valley Bookshelf 2022
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Coming Next Month Our annual photo issue.
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blethenberens.com • Mankato 507-345-1166 | New Ulm 507-233-3900 MANKATO MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2022 • 5
FROM THE EDITOR By Robb Murray FEBRUARY 2022 • VOLUME 17, ISSUE 2 MAGAZINE Robb Murray EDITOR DESIGNER Christina Sankey PHOTOGRAPHERS Pat Christman Mansoor Ahmad
COPY EDITOR Kathy Vos CONTRIBUTORS James Figy Jean Lundquist Kat Baumann Leticia Gonzalez Ann Rosenquist Fee Pete Steiner Nell Musolf Michael Lagerquist Natalie Rademacher Renee Berg ADVERTISING Danny Creel SALES Jordan Greer-Friesz Josh Zimmerman Theresa Haefner Tim Keech ADVERTISING Barb Wass ASSISTANT ADVERTISING Christina Sankey DESIGNER CIRCULATION Justin Niles DIRECTOR
PUBLISHER Steve Jameson EXECUTIVE EDITOR Joe Spear
Mankato Magazine is published by The Free Press Media monthly at 418 South Second Street, Mankato MN 56001. To subscribe, call 1-800-657-4662 or 507-625-4451. $35.40 for 12 issues. For all editorial inquiries, call Robb Murray 507-344-6386, or email rmurray@mankatofreepress.com. For advertising, call 344-6364, or e-mail advertising@mankatofreepress.com.
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A truly historic issue T
his month in Mankato Magazine we’re focusing on some of the most compelling aspects of our region’s history. Obviously no one issue of the magazine can adequately sum up a history as complicated as southern Minnesota’s, but we hope we’ve given you a good dose to start with. Anchoring our coverage this month is our cover story on Dave and Sarah Brave Heart. The work Dave has done in the community to raise awareness for Native American issues would warrant its own feature story. But now, with the community rallying around his recent ALS diagnosis, the story of Dave and Sarah and how they are facing a potentially fatal illness together is inspiring. Dave has led the Mahkato Wacipi celebration for nearly a decade. Under his leadership, the event has grown and become something the Mankato community can be proud of. “I have my moments where I break down and cry. I try to say, ‘OK, this is really happening,’” he said. “But yeah, it’s hard to imagine down the road what it’s going to be like. I can’t dwell on it too much. The only thing I really can do is be in a moment.” The Brave Hearts chose to relocate to Mankato, they said, to be a part of the healing that continues to this day. To get a fuller understanding of that healing and the history behind it, I’d suggest checking out Natalie Rademacher’s piece on the education efforts underway by local historical societies, particularly Nicollet and Blue Earth counties. No proper telling of the history of this land is complete unless it delves into the lives of the Dakota. Our historical societies have gone to great pains to make sure the Dakota’s stories are told. The historical societies’ efforts are invaluable as we, as a welcoming
community, strive to ensure everyone feels welcome here. And if you’re doing a piece on the Mankato area history, you simply cannot omit Minnesota State University. Writer Mike Lagerquist goes into great detail about the impact of the university on the city. In fact, its relationship with the city is so layered that one without the other simply wouldn’t be the same. The city has benefited from the youthful energy of the students and bright minds of the faculty. And the university has benefited from a welcoming and hospitable city host. The city’s businesses often partner with the university, the university’s graduates often go to work in the Mankato area. A perfect match that has made for success on both ends. Elsewhere in this issue, we introduce you to 14-year-old Madison Harbarth, our youngestever subject in our Familiar Faces feature. Madison is an extraordinary girl. She was born with a rare disorder called sacral agenesis syndrome, which is characterized by abnormal development of the spine. Readers may remember her from a 2014 Free Press article by yours truly, when she was just 6 years old. Since then, Madison has grown up quite a bit. She participates in wheelchair basketball, band and choir, robotics and other activities. And, most recently, one of her drawings was chosen for the 2022 Ace Hardware calendar.
Robb Murray is associate editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at 344-6386 or rmurray@mankatofreepress.com.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY Compiled by Jean Lundquist
National Beauty Salon Week begins Feb. 7 in Mankato
Feb. 3, 1960 In its 10th year, National Beauty Salon Week was being planned in Mankato, “dedicated to more beautiful women.” Across the nation as in Mankato, hairdressers were involved in bettering their communities not only for professionals, but also for those in hospitals and other institutions. Their activities were designed to provide donated services to ease the burden on caregivers in those institutions, thus providing more beauty and morale boosting to all. The highlight of the week was a hair fashion show to be staged at the State Theater between showings of the movie “The Seventh Seal” on Wednesday.
FALL IN LOVE
WITH OUR PRINTING
Gift makes comfort as close as your phone
Feb. 22, 1983 “Dial-a-Devotion” phone numbers and service were not uncommon in the Twin Cities area in 1983, but the service provided by Immanuel Lutheran Church of rural Courtland was the first of its kind in this area. The purpose was to provide a human voice offering a Scripture reading, a prayer and an offer for further counseling to anyone who called. Because of the limitations of technology at the time, the message could be no longer than 3 minutes to deliver the message to shut-ins, nursing home residents, anyone unable to attend church or anyone in a time of trouble. The service was very popular, gathering 265 calls in the first four days. Many calls came between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., a period not deemed likely to be filled with just the curious. The telephone equipment was donated in memory of a deceased loved one in the area.
Meningitis: 5,000 to be vaccinated
Feb. 6, 1995 During the bacterial meningitis outbreak in 1995, people lined up for shots of the vaccine to prevent the illness, and there were outcries for more prevention. While almost all of the meningitis cases were associated with Mankato West High School, the superintendent announced the school would remain open, angering some parents. Meanwhile, the vaccines and antibiotics were offered to everyone associated with Mankato West, from students to staff, and family members of all. Michael Osterholm, epidemiologist with the Minnesota Department of Health, said these measures did not guarantee there would be no more cases, but it would slow the spread. Before it was over, everyone who lived and worked in Mankato was offered the vaccine.
Fly or fall
Feb. 17, 2010 The future of Minnesota State University’s aviation program hung in the balance as budget cuts across every government agency in Minnesota occurred during “The Great Recession.” MSU needed to cut between $6 million and $10 million from its budget. Some 15 programs were facing elimination, and cutting the aviation program would save $400,000 minimum. Proponents argued the relationship with the community would cost more than the $400,000 identified by MSU. The company that operates the Mankato airport, the airport itself and the region as a whole would suffer, they said. With 127 majors in the program, it was the largest in the state. Despite controversy in the mid-2000s that caused the program and enrollment to suffer, the aviation program was rebuilding and was stronger than ever. It made the cut.
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MANKATO MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2022 • 7
FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports
Toys for Tots 1. Sue Worlds goes through a list of toys to fill up a bag for donation. 2. Toys were distributed to about 1,100 families, providing Christmas gifts for more than 3,400 children. 3. The Marine Corps League distributed toys for the 18th annual Toys for Tots drive. 4. Volunteer John Bulcock examines a toy before putting it in a bag. 5. Sue Thompson packs a bag of toys. 6. Jim Hammock tapes up boxes ready to be dispersed. 7. High schoolers volunteering pose for a group photo.
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FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports
Breakfast with Santa at North Mankato Library 1. Lindsey Totzman and her son Tipton examine the fish tank. 2. Brynn Heintz poses with Santa. 3. Greta Heintz concentrates while painting. 4. Erin Enstad reads to her son Luke the ‘Firefighters’ Handbook.’ 5. Chris Buck and his son Jackson spend time reading a book. 6. Kids participate in plenty of activities including painting ornaments.
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FACES & PLACES: Photos By SPX Sports
Winter Wonderland at Store It 1
1. Seven-month-old Pearl greeted everyone stopping by. 2. Jackson Ney poses with Santa. 3. A long line of visitors forms to see Santa. 4. (From left) Layla, Caleb, Arya and Tuesday Walters help themselves to hot cocoa. 5. Store It at Mankato hosted its first Winter Wonderland event where families got to interact with reindeer, visit Santa and play in a bounce house. 6. Emily Wills and her daughter Lylah smile while getting their photo taken with the reindeer.
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Meet some of our contributors
James Figy
Renee Berg
Natalie Rademacher
Kat Baumann
James Figy is a writer and beer enthusiast based in St. Paul. In Mankato, he earned an MFA in creative writing from Minnesota State University and a World Beer Cruise captain’s jacket from Pub 500.
Renee is a reporter for a weekly newspaper in Kasson. She also contributes freelance work for area newspapers and magazines. A graduate of Minnesota State University, Renee is mom to two teenagers and has two cats, Frankie and Hazel, whom she can’t tell apart so she calls them both Frazel.
Natalie is a copy editor for the Mankato Free Press and occasional freelance journalist. She’s a graduate of the University of Minnesota and has written for news outlets such as the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Marshall Independent and her college newspaper, the Minnesota Daily. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading literary nonfiction and dog sitting.
Kat Baumann is a freelance cartoonist and illustrator. She’s a graduate of Perpich Center for Arts Education, creates promotional designs for local fixtures like KMSU Radio and Mankato River Ramble, and works full-time as a graphic novel interior artist. Recent publications include “Magical Kitties: The Big Adventure,” “20 Fists,” and “The Golden Voice.” She enjoys D&D, playing music and talking to the house cats who share her work space.
Nick Healy Nick Healy is the author of several books for children and adults, and for more than a decade he worked as an editorial director at Capstone, a North Mankato-based publisher of books for young readers. His short stories have been published in North American Review, Great River Review, Minnesota Monthly, The Wax Paper and elsewhere, and his story collection “It Takes You Over” received a Friends of American Writers Literary Award. Currently, he works as an evaluation specialist at Scholarship America and an adjunct faculty member in the English Department at Minnesota State University.
Mike Lagerquist Mike Lagerquist is a North Mankato native who enjoys exploring the past, present and future of his hometown. He is a graduate of Mankato West High School and Minnesota State University, where he worked as Director of Public Relations for the Department of Theatre & Dance for nearly 16 years. Mike currently is Community Education and Development Director for SMILES Center for Independent Living in Mankato, and serves as President of the Kiwanis Club of Mankato. MANKATO MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2022 • 11
AVANT GUARDIANS By Leticia Gonzales
Capturing emotions Emily Stark keeps pushing to grow as a photographer
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hile Emily Stark, a professor with the Department of Psychology at Minnesota State University, has never had any formal training as a photographer, her lifelong love of the art form has been a transformative part of her creative abilities and as a lifelong dancer. “I don’t see too much connection between my artistic pursuits of photography and dance, but I have always loved the arts and enjoy having these different routes to engage with artistic activities,” said Stark, who lives in St. Peter. She uses both a DSLR as well as a cellphone camera, focusing primarily on landscapes and other nature photography “When I first got a digital camera, I could finally spend time trying over and over again to capture a landscape scene,” said Stark, 44. “Being able to check my picture 12 • FEBRUARY 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
on the camera and take a bunch of shots without having to pay to develop each one really gave me the opportunity to work on composition and learn how to approach photographing different scenes and how different angles can change the overall feel of a picture.” Her technical skills continue to evolve as she focuses on capturing the perfect photo. “I think my lack of formal training or schooling in photography has helped me be more open to trying new things, but it’s also made it more difficult for me to see myself and my work as legitimate,” she said. “I tend to edit my photos to increase saturation and contrast — I’m less interested in capturing scenes exactly how they look and more focused on creating an emotional feeling or mood through creating a little surrealism through editing.” Her upbringing has also influenced the type of images
she aims to capture. “I grew up in rural Minnesota, and I’m particularly inspired by the rural farms and forests that characterize this area. That said, I also love to travel and see landscapes very different from what we are used to here in Minnesota, and trying to capture a piece of how those places feel in my photography.” She also incorporates the “macabre and odd.” Found items such as spooky dolls have begun to make their way into her repertoire. “I’m constantly looking for interesting things to take pictures of, and I like featuring the unexpected. I tend to spend a lot of time out in nature, and particularly enjoy finding trees or flowers to photograph at all seasons of the year.” Her work was recently showcased at the Wine Cafe in Mankato and the Carnegie Art Center as part of a Mankato Makerspace exhibit. She also sells her prints and notecards at numerous local art and maker events. “Overall, I have found that being a photographer has helped me see and appreciate the beauty in nature, even when I’m not trying to capture
it with my camera,” Stark said. “I’m more aware of how tree branches look in the winter, or cloud streaks in the sky, or the small details of a dead sunflower in winter. I’m very appreciative to live in a community that has welcomed
me as an artist and provided such a range of opportunities to exhibit and sell my work; I think the artist community is one of the best aspects of living in this area.”
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BEYOND THE MARGIN By Joe Spear
Inheriting a remarkable history W
ar heroes, captains of industry, builders and thought leaders are woven into the fabric that is the remarkable history of Mankato. It’s an intriguing story when one considers the big things that came from a small town on the Minnesota River. It’s a story of a culture that evolved from agrarian to industry to become a regional center for education, medicine and political forces. It has become the place of a stunning reconciliation of cultures of the Native American community and the white settlers — a relationship that did not start well with the largest mass execution in U.S. history on Dec. 26, 1862, at the culmination of the U.S.-Dakota War. Mankato people rank high in civic engagement
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and education — accumulating wealth, both real and cultural, as early as the 1900s. Why else would the writer and American critic Sinclair Lewis find Mankato an appropriate place to pen some of his most scathing criticism? Mankato was not the model for the Lewis critique of small-town life and how restricting it was for his educated heroine Carol Kennicott in “Main Street.” That dubious distinction was left for his hometown of Sauk Centre. Lewis spent the summer of 1919 writing “Main Street” in Mankato and historical accounts show him to be “boozily” attending parties, taking drives and speaking at the college. He said he enjoyed
Mankato with its gardens and aisles of elms calling it “New England reborn,” according to local historical accounts.
Industry
Mankato’s business history starts big and gets bigger. Civil War hero Samuel Grannis eventually partnered with George Palmer to develop grain elevators in Minnesota and Iowa. He later sold his interest to R.D. Hubbard, who built and ran Hubbard Milling as a centerpiece of Mankato business for the next century. Mankato became the center of modern-day agricultural processing when the Andreas brothers bought a small soybean processing plant in 1947 called Honeymead and eventually grew it into the largest soybean “expelling” plant in the U.S. by the 1960s Duane and Lowell Andreas sold the plant and started a bank. They were then asked to run Archer Daniels Midland by Bud Archer in Minneapolis. Their future business success is history. Unfortunately, such success led to the biggest soybean oil spill in state history when plant storage bins broke on a cold winter day in 1963, discharging 3.5 million gallons of soybean oil into the Blue Earth and Minnesota rivers. That eventually led to the creation of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and likely other such agencies around the country. Mankato’s topography is noteworthy. Some geological experts suggest the Minnesota River is actually the natural flow of the Mississippi River and that the Mississippi’s headwaters only represent another river that should not have been called the Mississippi. Mankato’s Kasota stone quarries stand as another remarkable piece of business history as the stone has been used to build palaces and monuments from China to Washington, D.C.
Wars
The Native American Dakota reconciliation with the white population took 110 years, but it’s a remarkable development is most important because it shows the rest of the world how two peoples can reconcile after horrific events that brought genocide-like results. Mankato had its soldiers. While Gen. Henry Sibley’s troops stood over the largest mass execution in 1862, the U.S. Civil War raged. Two Mankato area soldiers received the
Congressional Medal of Honor for their service in the Civil War. Members of the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment were the first unit to sign up to fight the rebellion when called on by President Abraham Lincoln in 1861. A Mankato soldier was buried in the cemetery at Gettysburg, a pivotal battle in the Civil War where the 1st Minnesota was far outnumbered by the Confederate forces, suffering 82% casualties, the most of any Union regiment. William Henry Wickoff was shot through the heart and died instantly at Gettysburg and was eventually re-interred in the Easton, Pennsylvania, family cemetery. Historians have noted the 1st Minnesota likely saved the Union in that battle as it was able to hold the line enough for Union troops to shore up the front. Sgt. Milton Hanna and Sgt. Lovilo Holmes were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1898. In 1863 Hanna and Holmes were part of a 16-soldier unit that defended a Union wagon train against 125 Confederate soldiers near Nolensville, Tennessee. Mankato’s Civil War heroes are memorialized in the Boy in Blue monument in Lincoln Park.
Education
As education became a societal building block in Minnesota, Mankato Normal School, second of its kind, was founded in 1868. It was a rather dubious distinction that the powers that be at the time would remove the first woman, Julia Sears, appointed to head the school five years after its founding. Students sided with her in a “rebellion” but to no avail. She vowed never to return. As a matter of long overdue reparations to Sears, MSU named a new dormitory after her in 2008. A university can be the wellspring of community prosperity and that has been the case at Minnesota State University, now the state’s second largest university behind the land grant University of Minnesota, and one with a nation-leading Division I hockey team. Cultural awakenings, economic transformation and duty to country aptly describe the people of the Mankato region and their remarkable history. It’s a great legacy to inherit. Joe Spear is editor of Mankato Magazine. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382. Follow on Twitter @jfspear. MANKATO MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2022 • 15
Familiar Faces
Always on the go I
Photos by Mansoor Ahmad
NAME:
Madison Harbarth AGE 15
HOMETOWN: Mankato
FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL: English
FAVORITE TAYLOR SWIFT SONG: There is way too many but probably “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)”
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At 15, Madison Harbarth lets nothing stop her from achieving her goals
f you’re a loyal reader of The Free Press, you may already be familiar with Madison Harbarth. We featured her in a 2014 story that, while it mentioned the rare disorder she was born with called sacral agenesis syndrome, was mostly about how inspiring she was just living the life of a normal kid. In fact, the reason we did that story back then is because Madison was part of Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare’s “Cure Pity” campaign, which sought to remove the stigma about people with disabilities. She was fiercely independent then, and still is today. For most of Madison’s life, she’s been involved with the Children’s Miracle Network, an organization that raises money for local hospitals to fund critical lifesaving treatments and health care services. She’ll explain more about that in a moment. But she was asked recently to contribute a drawing for them, and they ended up using it in their annual calendar. Mankato Magazine: You recently had some artwork published in the annual ACE Hardware calendar. Tell us how you scored that gig. Madison Harbarth: I had Nancy Hefko from Children’s Miracle Network reach out and ask me to draw some pictures for thank-yous and then they chose one of my pictures to put in the calendars. I really started to draw during quarantine as I found that sometimes it is easier to draw things out than speak them in words, or just to express my thoughts. My involvement with The Children’s Miracle Network has been ongoing since I was around age 5. We were asked to go to Washington to speak to several politicians who wanted to know about what pediatric health care has done for us. We met with U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken to tell them how pediatric health care is very important. From there we started to help at Minnesota State University with fundraising for the Dance Marathon. It’s like a college competition among the Greek organizations raising money to help the CMN. I go and speak (well, my mom does) to explain my story and how their money helps kids like me.
M M : Yo u r e c e n t l y started high school. Tell us what it’s like to start high school in the age of COVID. MH: I think that it feels pretty normal except that we wear masks and wash our hands more often. I enjoy high school so far! M M : Yo u ’ r e v e r y involved in school, including playing trumpet in band, singing in the choir, participating in robotics … How do you find time to do it all? M H : We l l a l l o f m y activities fall at different times, but I like to keep myself busy and I like to try as many things as I can. I choose to be involved in many activities as it gets me to meet more people Madison Harbarth participates in an array of activities and learn life skills and choir, band and, as shown here, robotics. activities. It contributes to me being well rounded as I can MM: If you could change one make new relationships and learn thing about the way the world skills for my future. views people with disabilities, My parents believe that nothing what would it be? is impossible, so we figure a way MH: I think that what I would tell out to do things I’m interested in. people about people with disabilities Adaptive downhill skiing was not is that we are normal people and we something I was interested in, but I are not that different from everyone knew several of the volunteers were else despite our disabilities. people I met and trusted so I tried it and love it. MM: You’re a huge Taylor Swift My mom is on the board of the fan. What is it about her music North Mankato Miracle League, and that you love so much? building an adaptive playground MH: Honestly it’s probably the fact and playing softball is something I that when I was little I saw her on want to help with. TV and I just fell in love, and my parents bought me all of her CDs MM: You’re also in the middle when they came out and took me to of the wheelchair basketball all of her concerts. season. Tell us how the season Her lyrics are just so well written is going and what you love and her songs are very catchy. about basketball. When I met her, I found she is just MH: The season is going very a very nice and honest person and well. I enjoy bonding with my cares so much about her fans. teammates and coaches. I love the competitive nature of the game and MM: Young people rarely get just practicing and getting better at a chance to tell the world what the game. they think. So here’s your chance. What should we all be MM: You were born with a rare focusing on to make the world disorder called sacral agenesis a better place? syndrome. Tell us a little bit MH: I think that we should all just about how it has impacted your take care of our mental and physical life. health and be aware and respectful MH: My sacral agenesis has given of others and just be kind. We me a lot of opportunities and made should take care of the planet and me experience life differently, but just try to be the best we can be. I try to make it as normal as I can.
at Mankato East High School including
MM: Tell us something about yourself that would surprise people. MH: I think something that would surprise people about me is that I love learning about the planet, renewable resources and how we can do more for our planet. I really got interested in saving the planet from my admiration of space. I have always been intrigued by it ever since I was younger. I also saw how much our planet is being harmed and wanted to do something to help it. Even if I couldn’t do much, I love to learn about it and explore the different solutions to renewable resources. I have thought about maybe being an astrophysicist but am not sure now. What if I was the first astronaut to go to the moon in a wheelchair? NASA was one of my favorite places to visit so, who knows? Maybe I’ll end up on a space mission. MM: What’s your Netflix binge these days? MH: My Netflix binge is pretty boring, but I mostly just watch the stuff that is trending and right now I am trying to finish “Outer Banks.”
Compiled by Robb Murray
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DAY TRIP DESTINATIONS: LACROSSE By Renee Berg
LaCrosse is a gem that sits on the Mississippi River on the western edge of Wisconsin.
Viva LaCrosse Vibrant college and river town has much to offer
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a Crosse, Wisconsin, is uniquely and perfectly situated right on the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota. It’s surrounded by beautiful sandstone bluffs and the Mississippi River, which make for plenty of outdoor activities. Hiking, biking, canoeing, kayaking, fishing and so much more is waiting for you here. Dyllan Griepentrog, admissions counselor for University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, has lived in the city for six months. He said La Crosse is ideally located, with proximity to apple orchards, pumpkin patches and is only a short drive from Perrot State Park, where gorgeous views of the bluff and Mississippi River beckon. “The city of La Crosse is absolutely a vibrant and lively area, especially our downtown,” said Neal Zygarlicke, chief executive officer of the La Crosse Area Chamber. “As a small city, we really
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do seem to have it all at our fingertips. What I mean by that is we have nearly immediate access to hiking, biking, and various river recreation, all while being only minutes away from fantastic restaurants, arts and entertainment, and nightlife opportunities.” Each fall, La Crosse explodes with energy and excitement as 10,000 students return to the town’s three colleges: UWL, Viterbo University and Western Technical College. Griepentrog notes that La Crosse is vibrant and full of energy during the summer months, but there seems to be an increased number of events come fall. “La Crosse is a perfect blend between a large metropolitan area and a small/medium sized town,” he said. “There are plenty of places for you to explore and immerse yourself in the hustle and bustle of city living as well as numerous places for
The river is central to many leisure activities in LaCrosse.” you to unplug, disconnect and take in the natural beauty of the driftless area.” “Being home to three colleges definitely brings a youthfulness to our atmosphere,” Zygarlicke said. “You will often find people of all ages and backgrounds enjoying the same restaurant or park. The students do infuse the atmosphere. Every fall, when the students are beginning classes, there seems to be a renewed energy within the entire city.” The city has a lot of history “which is on full display in our historic downtown district,” Griepentrog said. “You’ll find a handful of buildings that have been perfectly preserved and converted to meet modern needs, many of which are now restaurants, coffee shops and unique storefronts.” If shopping, experts direct visitors to downtown to see “many different shops in a small amount of time,” Zygarlicke said. “Downtown has the antique, art and boutique shops all within walkable distance to
each other and the hotels.” From concerts to rodeos, movie nights and Okotberfest, La Crosse is bustling. Make sure to check out Grandad’s Bluff, the highest point in La Crosse, Riverside Park located a few blocks from the historic downtown, and the Pearl Ice Cream Shop, which is a must when visiting. An early 1900s-style ice cream and candy store, they make most, if not all, of their treats by hand at Pearl. When it comes to lodging, plenty of great hotels are in perfect proximity to downtown, Zygarlicke said. “But if someone is looking for a different experience, they should try The Charmant Hotel. The Charmant used to be a candy factory but has now been renovated into a fantastic hotel with restaurant, bar and coffee shop.” For a meal, a trip here isn’t complete without a stop into Rudy’s, where the waitresses are on rollerskates and chili dogs and homemade root beer are revered.
“We’ve been on skates since the ‘80s,” said third generation owner Gary Rudy. “It’s pretty darned unique. It’s fast, it’s quick, it makes it fun.” At Rudy’s, diners can enjoy their drive-in fare in a variety of ways. You can dine inside, in your car, at one of the 12 picnic tables, or you can take your food to go and enjoy it at Riverside Park along the mighty Mississippi River. Rudy’s is closed for the season now but will be open from about mid-March to mid-October. Zygarlicke said people who visit La Crosse repeatedly tell the Chamber staff how accommodating and friendly the people are in the area. “I think many people underestimate all that La Crosse has to offer, not just for people traveling but also for people who live and work here.”
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Dave and Sarah Braveheart.
Bravehearted Dave Brave Heart, the face of one of the region’s most important annual history events, is facing a grim diagnosis By Robb Murray | Photos by Pat Christman
20 • FEBRUARY 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
F
“When I think about my sacred journey, I’m still asking ‘Why me?’ But I know there’s going to be a ‘Why not you?’ So you know, as I think about the journey, yes, there is going to be a time when I’m going to leave this world and go to the spirit world. And I have relatives on that side I know are going to welcome me. … But there’s a part of me that’s sad …”
or Dave Brave Heart, life is a sacred journey. And he’d like to believe he’s filled that journey with as much life as possible, on both the good and bad ends of the spectrum. Golden Gloves champion. Addict. Community organizer. Activist. Mankato Wacipi chairman. Educator. Healer. Father. Husband. Animal lover. And now: a victim of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS — which may color the final leg of his earthly journey. Sitting in an easy chair in his Mankato home, Brave Heart acknowledged his diagnosis and what it means. “When I think about my sacred journey, I’m still asking ‘Why me?’ But I know there’s going to be a ‘Why not you?’ So you know, as I think about the journey, yes, there is going to be a time when I’m going to leave this world and go to the spirit world. And I have relatives on that side I know are going to welcome me. … But there’s a part of me that’s sad …” With that, he paused — eyes wet with tears — and turned to his wife, Sarah, seated in a twin easy chair, who extended a hand to meet his. In that moment, with a passel of beloved dogs and cats milling about and a wife who wouldn’t break eye contact with him, it was hard to see Dave Brave Heart as anything but a man surrounded by love. If ALS does indeed take him, it will do so with him firm in the knowledge that he’s lived a full life, collected scores of friends along the way and did everything he could to raise awareness of Native American culture. He’s battled addiction, learned to fight with his fists, and helped elevate an annual Mankato tradition that has educated thousands of school children about the history of this land. His journey has been a sweet one. But it’s not over yet.
Gold Gloves
Brave Heart spent most of his childhood on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He calls himself “half” native. His father was 7/8 Dakota, his mom was ¼ Dakota. “So I’m a little bit over half,” he said. “My father was a member at Pine Ridge.” Brave Heart lived in a kind of
As a teenager, Dave Brave Heart was a state champion in Golden Gloves boxing. limbo, he said. On the reservation, he was sometimes looked down upon for not being a full-blooded Dakota. Off the reservation, he experienced racism. “I was kind of singled out. Not enough white, not enough Indian.” He was picked on and called names. He remembers one in particular. “They called me ‘iyeska,’” he said, which roughly translates to “speaks white.” It was meant as a slur. One day he decided to do something about it: He took up boxing. Not to start fights — to stop them from happening in the first place. After a few years, he was so good he became the state champ. The next year, he did it again. Sarah keeps a picture on her phone of Dave. Holding two trophies and sporting the thick locks of a confident teen, Dave is smiling proudly and wearing his Gold Gloves letterman-like jacket. It’s a time of which he’s proud and looks back on with fondness. But not all his memories from these days are positive.
Son of a drinker
The first time Brave Heart got drunk took place when he was 9 years old. Angry at his father for coming home drunk again and worried that Dad would start yet another fight with Mom, he went out to the car and grabbed the source of the problem: a jug of wine. He said he hated his father at the time, watched him fail at alcohol abuse treatment, watched him
MANKATO MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2022 • 21
bounce from sober, and, in job to job Sarah’s case, between someone Rapid City who could and the butcher a reservation. deer. Brave “Dave Heart said knew how to he’d planned butcher a to pour the deer,” she wine out in said, “and disgust. Only, that was instead of important to pouring it me. I think out, he tried those kinds a sip ... and of skills are liked it. So he helpful. My kept drinking parents were and drinking hippies and I until grew up with eventually the idea that the jug was a guy should Brave Heart has led organization efforts for the empty. That have a Mahkato Wacipi for nearly a decade. episode — pocket knife which concluded in ugly fashion and be able to do handy things.” with his mother forcing him to They joke about the Minnesotavomit — launched Brave Heart on a Wisconsin rivalry. Sarah uses the path of drug abuse and bad futility of the Vikings to poke fun at behavior. Dave. “Like a lot. I was smoking “I knew he was used to being marijuana almost every day. Acid, disappointed,” she joked. “So I downers, speed. Did it all.” knew the bar was low.” His dad finally got sober, and The pair moved around a bit, that prompted Brave Heart to do spending some time on the Pine the same. He remembers attending Ridge Reservation and Colorado. AA meetings with his father and Eventually they returned to brother where they’d listen to other Minnesota, settling in Mankato. people in recovery tell their stories. They knew the bloody history of “It was so weird to listen to all Indigenous people in the Mankato these people tell their stories of area. Still, they felt called to come. years of drinking and then they’ll “We landed on Mankato in part look to us and say, ‘You guys are because we had gone to the lucky. Don’t waste all your years powwow here many times and drinking like I did,’” he said. because we wanted our family to “Getting sober was hard. How be part of the reconciliation and many young people do you know healing that was so active in this that don’t drink? It was really hard community,” Sarah said. “And we but we made it.” felt like we had some skills to bring When he sobered up, his father to that.” gave him a Native American name: Brave Heart got involved with White Clouds. the Mahkato Wacipi not long after “He said, ‘The reason why I give arriving in town. He said the late you that name is that I see you Bud Lawrence, the man who connect with people from many started the Wacipi, took him under different levels, different walks of his wing and taught him about life, no matter who they are,’” he running the large event. During his said. “And that’s been true in my first year, he was a volunteer. life.” During his second year, he was elected treasurer. And since 2013, Sober deer butcher he’s been the chair. Dave and Sarah have parallel Financially, the organization pasts. Both grew up in log cabins wasn’t doing well when Brave — Dave on the Pine Ridge Heart came on. But he said that, Reservation, Sarah in northern during the course of a few years — Wisconsin. When they met in St. after scrutinizing and better Paul years ago, each was looking managing gate receipts, for a partner with a Native merchandise sales and donations background, someone who is — they’ve landed on firm financial 22 • FEBRUARY 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
footing. He’s ever-present at the Mahkato Wacipi. This past year, when all the children were gathered in a circle, Brave Heart delivered the news — with compassion and empathy — that 4-year-old Natalya Ashes had been killed in a storm the night before. It was a sad, yet touching, moment that revealed his humanity and showed how deeply he cared for the people who attend the powwow. Despite his diagnosis, Brave Heart said he’s hoping to preside over at least one more wacipi. At that time, they’ll rename the permanent powwow structure at Land of Memories Park after Natalya.
ALS
It was about a year ago when the Brave Hearts noticed something was off. “It was things like ‘You’re kind of talking funny,’ but then he’d had some dental work done. So we thought, ‘OK, maybe it’s the dental work.’ And then his hand kind of hurt and the doctor thought, ‘Maybe it’s carpal tunnel,’” Sarah said. “We didn’t know at first. But by the end of summer, it was very clear. Something’s very wrong.” As his disease progressed, Brave Heart had been doing his own research. Because he knew his own body best, his guess was ALS. And after a doctor’s examination in September, his suspicions were
confirmed. ALS is fatal, with most people living between two and five years; some people, however, live much longer. The famous scientist Stephen Hawking was diagnosed in his 20s and lived to be 76. Brave Heart isn’t sure what the next few years will hold. And he’s not excited about some of the medications on the market to treat ALS. Where some promise three extra months, Brave Heart demands three years. One thing he is excited about, though, is the support their family has gotten. When Brave Heart’s employer, Tribal Tech out of Alexandria, Virginia, heard about his gofundme campaign (he works remotely), they offered to do a matching grant and ended up donating more than $5,000. This put the campaign over the top, which will allow the family to install a mechanical lift in their house. Closer to home, people have been just as supportive. “People who David worked with at the city for Indigenous Peoples Day, friends from things the kids have been involved in, and just the work that we’ve done here — it has built a great network of people,” Sarah said. “And so we’ve been having meetings every other Saturday morning planning a benefit for Feb. 19 at the (Unitarian Universalist) Church. … It’s about making those connections, and that’s what we want to keep doing.” Brave Heart has a realistic outlook. He’s willing to participate in clinical trials, and he very much wants to be around for as long as possible. But he also has a desire to intentionally appreciate everything happening around him. “I have my moments where I break down and cry. I try to say, ‘OK, this is really happening,’” he said. “But yeah, it’s hard to imagine down the road what it’s going to be like. I can’t dwell on it too much. The only thing I really can do is be in a moment.” MM
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The next challenge for Dave Brave Heart is a tough one: He was diagnosed in September with ALS.” MANKATO MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2022 • 23
REFLECTIONS By Pat Christman
24 • FEBRUARY 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
I
ce and snow are part of the territory living here. No matter how mild winter seems at the beginning, rest assured it will have its day. It’s only a matter of time. Yet no matter how cold it gets or how much snow falls, we choose to live in the land of ice and snow. Perhaps we feel that the shared experience of 20 below zero temperatures and feet of snow on the ground somehow make us tougher, more resilient, more hearty. Or maybe it just makes us more foolish. MM
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Dakota and Ojibwe riders arrive in Mankato for an annual commemoration of the forced march of Dakota people to a concentration camp near Fort Snelling after the U.S. Dakota War. The annual journey was started in 2005 to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and nonIndigenous people.”
Keeping the stories alive How some are working to share Dakota culture and stories in the community By Natalie Rademacher | Photos by Free Press archives
A
crowd gathered at Reconciliation Park the day after Christmas. Kids ran around and people huddled to stay warm. The statue with the names of the 38 Dakota Akicita – warriors – who were hanged near there following the U.S. Dakota War stood tall over everyone. 26 • FEBRUARY 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
As the Dakota and Ojibwe riders rode their horses down Riverfront Drive, completing their long journey from South Dakota to this site, the crowd welcomed them with cheers and song. At the park, they met with runners who ran all the way there from Fort Snelling in St. Paul as a way to remember the forced march of
Dakota people to a concentration camp near the fort after the war. The annual journey was started in 2005 to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and nonIndigenous people. It is part of a larger movement to educate about Dakota history and show that while the Dakota were forcefully exiled from the state after the 1862 conflict, they are still here today. Todd Finney, a Wahpekute Dakota, spoke during the ceremony about the importance of knowing about this history from the perspective of Dakota people. “We just want to know our history. We want others to have the availability to know an accurate history of who we are and what we do,” he said. “Because for each one of these nations, we have histories, but unfortunately a lot of the history books are written by victors who want to look like heroes. They did many great things, but we would also like to tell the tale of our people and the many great things they did.” Providing accurate accounts of Dakota history and culture can be challenging because most written records were created by white people who visited Dakota
communities, often for brief periods of time. These records are often clouded with the writer’s biases and perceptions. The Dakota have kept their history alive for thousands of years by passing on and repeating oral stories about events, lessons and why things are the way they are. Strides have been made in the last couple of decades to document Dakota history and share these stories with others through books, exhibits and events such as the reconciliation ride to Mankato, but some people doing this work say it can be hard because many don’t seek out the information. The Nicollet County Historical Society is one of the organizations working to educate the community on how the land that today makes up southern Minnesota is Dakota homeland and was ceded to the U.S. government through treaties with the Dakota. A permanent exhibit in the Treaty Site History Center in St. Peter dives into what led up to the signing of the 1851 treaty and what the treaty entails. The exhibit was created almost a decade ago, with help from Joe Williams, Sisseton Wapheton Oyate, and Tom Ross, Upper Sioux
Community Pejuhutazizi Oyate. Both Dakota elders have died since the exhibit opened. The exhibit explores how the U.S. government encouraged trading with Indigenous people so they would acquire debt and need to cede their homeland to the U.S. to pay off the money owed. “We shall push our trading houses, and be glad to see the good & influential individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop th(em off) by a cession of lands,” wrote Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William Henry Harrison. This letter is part of the Nicollet County Historical Society treaty exhibit. Kate Martens, president of the board of directors for the Nicollet County Historical Society, said when the United States became a country, the government did not have much money and saw acquiring and selling Indigenous homeland as a way to make a profit. A U.S. law was created stating that the only entity that could buy Native land and sell it was the U.S. government. The process of
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This painting by Frances Davis Millet depicts the signing of the treaty at Traverse des Sioux.” Courtesy Nicollet County Historical Society acquiring Indigenous homeland The Dakota people were exiled through treaties and then selling it from the state, despite many not to speculators is what made the agreeing or participating in the government wealthy, she said. uprising. By the time the Sisseton and Martens dives into the deeper Wahpeton bands met U.S. context of this as a tour guide as a government officials to negotiate way to share this history and and sign the treaty at Traverse des provide clarity about what Sioux, they were desperate. happened on this land. Excessive hunting had decimated “Nobody else has that local the populations of animals the perspective,” Director Jessica Dakota relied on for food and Becker said of the exhibit. “We are trade. The annuity payments from able to keep that story alive.” the U.S. for the ceded land could A challenge is getting more help the Dakota feed their people people from the community to visit and ensure they could stay on part the exhibit and take the time to of their homeland. learn about this history, Becker The Dakota bands ceded much said, adding that so much history of their land in the treaty for about occurred in this area and there are 7 1/2 cents an acre and retained a a lot of people who don’t know reservation that stretched 10 miles much about it. wide on either side of the “Many don’t realize (the exhibit) Minnesota River, a reservation that is here,” she said. would later be halved by the U.S. The historical society works to government. ensure the stories around the After signing two copies of the treaty are not forgotten, but there treaty, the leaders were directed to is much history beyond the Dakota sign a third document, which people’s interactions with white allowed the government to pay off settlers that people are trying to various debts of traders using the share too — the stories of Dakota treaty payment. The document was culture, people, their relationship not translated for the Dakota and with this land and their influence accounts say the Dakota leaders in everyday life, including place thought they were just signing names such as Mankato, a word another copy of the first treaty. derived from the Dakota words: These deceptive practices and a Mahka to. They mean greenish delay in annual payment of money blue earth. and food from the government to Glenn Wasicuna, a Dakota elder the starving Dakota people led up and a Dakota language professor to the Dakota uprising in 1862 and at Minnesota State University, said the eventual hanging of the 38 people need to look beyond the Dakota men in the middle of treaties because there is much present-day Mankato. more history there.
This drawing by Frank B. Mayer done in 1851 depicts the camp at the treaty negotiation site.” Courtesy Nicollet County Historical Society He said the way to learn is by listening to Dakota people and not solely relying on the historical records and books written by nonDakota people. “We have to tell that story,” Wasicuna said. He said young people will be the ones sharing these stories of Dakota history and culture because they can do the research and they know history is incomplete when it’s told from only certain perspectives. Gwen Westerman and Bruce White, in their book “Mni Sota Makoce,” said part of learning about this Dakota history involves “reading between the lines” of the written records of missionaries and government officials who visited Dakota communities. These records have shaped people’s perception of Dakota people, but often don’t tell a complete story. “The dominance of a non-Dakota master story about the Dakota people continues to pose challenges today as Dakota people seek to reclaim the legacy of their history and their places,” said Wasicuna in the introduction to “Mni Sota Makoce.” “The answer to many of the problems presented by Dakota history as it has been written in the past is to try to achieve a more complete account, one that gives full appreciation to the Dakota oral tradition but also makes a concerted effort to read between the lines of written records to search for Dakota points of view and Dakota meanings.” “We’re just trying to educate. Just trying to make people understand. That’s all we are trying to do,” Wasicuna said. MM
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Mankato Mayor Stan Christ, Politician Kathy Sheran, and Mankato State University president Richard Rush at Otto Recreation center on October 30,1992. Image courtesy of the University Archives at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Minnesota State University and Mankato play well together Mutual respect and collaboration equal success for both By Michael Lagerquist
T
he strong connection between Mankato and what is today Minnesota State University was forged in the school’s first years in the late 1860s. A stipulation of the 1858 Normal School act 30 • FEBRUARY 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
required the host city to contribute $5,000 toward its establishment. This was a large sum of money during a difficult time in the state’s early history, but state lawmaker Daniel Buck, of Mankato, was able to take advantage of the Legislature’s optimism to bring forth
“That was part of my inspiration (to take the job), when I interviewed and took the campus tour,” said Kevin Buisman, director of athletics since 2002. Within two minutes of starting the tour, he got a look at Taylor Center. “It’s like, ‘This place has more resources than Northern Iowa (where he was working at the time), and Northern Iowa is supposed to be Division I.” His thought immediately was, “MSU Athletics is on the launching pad,” he said. “Somebody’s just got to Image courtesy of the University Archives at Minnesota State put the countdown sequence in motion.” University, Mankato. MSU’s emergence as “The other great public university,” a phrase coined by Rush, involved the the second Normal School. Mankato and St. Cloud right people forming the right partnerships that led to joined the first school in Winona. a series of successes. The $5,000 was raised by the sale of bonds issued by Rush’s first week in the new position wasn’t easy. the growing town’s officials. Buck, for whom one of The State University System under Terrance the first Mankato dormitories was named, made this MacTaggert announced then that Mankato would not happen. be going to Division I with its hockey program. Thus began a relationship that has lasted more than Rush received hate mail, and the entire men’s 150 years and continues to evolve. Although it would hockey team made an appointment to see him in his be easy for each entity to grow on its own without office, wondering what was going to happen with the regard for the other, Mankato and the university have future they had been promised. found they make a great team and that by joining “So, I went up to St. Paul and I forces they can weather difficult said to the chancellor, ‘Give me a times. “All the credit there, in my year. I’ve just gotten here, I don’t Conversations with several mind, goes to Starr Kirkin,” know what the issues are. Give me people who were involved in the a year.’ And I said, ‘I can take this accomplishments reveals that the Rush said. “The development program to Division I, but you university has increased its of the civic center, I think, was have to give me the chance to do prominence not by trying to instrumental in Mankato’s it.’” outshine the city, but by As luck would have it, at nearly partnering with it and sharing evolution and maybe an the same time the city of Mankato resources for mutual benefit. incremental leap forward.” was considering a referendum to Richard Rush, who started as build a civic center downtown, in president at what was then part as an effort to re-energize a dying city center. Mankato State University in September 1992, is Former U.S. Bank President Starr Kirklin was hired credited for many accomplishments, including the to help make the civic center a reality by rallying name change to Minnesota State University, Mankato, university students to vote “Yes” on the referendum. and taking the university from the quarter system to When they did vote yes, it provided Rush with what the semester system. he needed to achieve Division I status. Following in the footsteps of Margaret Preska, who “All the credit there, in my mind, goes to Starr established many partnerships during her tenure as Kirkin,” Rush said. “The development of the civic president from 1979 to 1992, Rush led the university center, I think, was instrumental in Mankato’s through an impressive period of building facilities and evolution and maybe an incremental leap forward.” reputation. Added Buisman: “The hockey team went through From his home in California last month, Rush said the dorms knocking on doors saying, ‘Go vote! Go he had been providing ideas to Glen Taylor, owner of vote!’ It happened. It really happened.” the Taylor Corporation printing businesses, at the rate Creating partnerships with people within the of three to five a year for a major enhancement to the community has always been a part of the president’s university. Taylor would think about it, Rush said, and job, Rush and Davenport said. In fact, Davenport goes then say, “Well, no. This isn’t it.” so far as to say that’s the reason he was hired. Eventually, Rush approached Taylor with the idea for an arena, which could be done in addition to massive renovations to Otto Arena and the Myers Fieldhouse to vastly improve athletic facilities. Rush had just one month to formulate the idea and present it to the Legislature, with the hope of leveraging a $10 million commitment from Taylor into a total of $24 million. The risk paid off. “Over the years,” Rush said, “I think it has stood the university in good stead.” Taylor Center includes not only the Bresnan Arena, home to Maverick basketball, wrestling and volleyball, but also the Admissions Office. It creates an impressive front door to the university. And that unusual but effective combination played a big part in Image courtesy of the University Archives at Minnesota State attracting the first hire by Rush’s successor, Richard University, Mankato. Davenport. MANKATO MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2022 • 31
Even Buisman, who breaks the mold of traditional athletic directors by having earned his Master of Business Administration instead of coaching credentials, was hired to bring a business approach to athletics. When Davenport arrived in Mankato, he embarked on a mission to visit all of the two-year colleges in the state, starting partnerships that proved to be invaluable when enrollments started dipping across the state years later. Those relationships, he said, helped Mankato maintain
enrollments when other state universities were dropping. Students from those two-year schools were encouraged to come here to complete their four-year degrees. The university had built up strong bonds through a “TownGown” council that Rush established. He met regularly with government, education and business leaders to set a direction for growth. Often, the university provided expertise through its faculty to move these efforts forward.
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Southern Minnesota Advocates was formed by Rush and Paul Stevens from Mankato Citizens Telephone Company (now Consolidated Communications) in an effort to make sure outstate cities got their fair slice of the pie. State growth in the metro area was diminishing outstate influence. “Another thing we did that put us right in front of the Legislature was the Center for Rural Policy and Development,” Rush said. After recognizing issues that were confronting outstate Minnesota, they produced reports that were shared with decision-makers. Sitting on the desk of every legislator was a book titled, “The Center for Rural Policy and Development at Minnesota State University.” In addition to visits to two-year institutions, Davenport made frequent trips to St. Paul, photographer in tow, forming mutually beneficial relationships with the people who made decisions on who would get funding for projects. Legislators knew of Minnesota State Mankato through these visits. Their respect for Davenport’s efforts kept Mankato at the forefront for new projects such as new residence halls, and enhanced the campus appearance and work to attract students. With the help of marketing hire Jeff Iseminger, and through its “Big Ideas. Real World Thinking” campaign, MSU reinforced its presence throughout the state. “We said, first of all, our goal is to have our name recognized everywhere in the state,” Davenport said. “At that point it was billboards, and it was also television ads.” They took the campaign right to the doorstep of other colleges, drawing some ire but also lots of respect from state university board members for their aggressive marketing. All of these efforts were getting MSU noticed. And it was also getting them students. The arts also were strengthening the university’s presence and contributions. The Department of Theatre and Dance, drawing on past chairman Ted Paul’s focus on producing popular musical theater, was building a reputation for attendance and quality. When Paul Hustoles succeeded Paul, he
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Dedication of Consolidated Campus - Mankato State University. Image courtesy of the University Archives at Minnesota State University, Mankato. recognized he had a good thing. “I was amazed at the ‘popular’ emphasis on theater at MSU,” said Hustoles, who retired after about 35 years as COVID-19 was shutting down theater performances everywhere. “As a producer, I did not believe the box office clout of this place – until I looked at the books. That amazing revenue goes directly back to the students in the form of supplies, equipment, guest artists and, of course, scholarships.” In 2000, the department opened the Andreas Theatre, which was made possible through a relationship and donation Rush and Hustoles had nurtured with donors Lowell and Nadine Andreas. The theater was just one of the contributions the local couple made to the university. The same was happening in the Art Department, said Brian Frink, who retired in 2021. “Over the years, as our community became more interested in art and its role in our culture, the relationship between the university and the community deepened,” he said. “I guess what I’m saying is that, increasingly, Mankato and North Mankato began reaching out to cultivate a relationship.” A strong relationship has existed between the Mankato Regional Airport and the university. Fred Lutz, retired businessman, pilot and longtime member of the Mankato Airport Commission, said the closure of the state’s other
academic training program and a local recognition of the program’s value led to a resurgence here. The university was ready to drop the program in 2010 when enrollment plummeted. Stressing the need for pilots, the Airport Commission contributed money and local pilot and developer Kyle Smith began providing the aircraft, buildings and maintenance through a business relationship. “Now there’s 40 airplanes out there and around 600 students,” Lutz said. “In the state now they know Mankato is a busy airport (third behind Minneapolis-St. Paul and Flying Cloud, which has its own teaching program). They’re glad to see that because they’re keeping students here and they’re being trained in Minnesota,” he said. Through such efforts as hosting the now-defunct Minnesota Vikings Training Camp for more than 50 years, the university kept itself and the city prominent in the state. Although MSU often rises above the city in promotional value, benefits are mutual. Perhaps Buisman summed up the relationship between the university and the city best: “We just want to kind of weave ourselves into the fabric of the community and be something that people can be prideful about.” This has been happening on several fronts for more than 150 years. MM
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LIVING
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How to create structure
after retirement
What seniors should know about social media safety How to plan for
medical emergencies 34 • LIVING 55 PLUS • FEBRUARY 2022 • Special Advertising Section
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How to create structure after retirement
P
rofessionals typically look forward to retirement and the freedom that comes with it. The notion that commuting and deadlines will one day be a distant memory is enough to make anyone excited for retirement. But when the day to leave the daily grind behind arrives, many retirees admit to feeling a little anxiety about how they’re going to find structure. Retirement is a big transition, and Robert Delamontagne, PhD, author of the 2011 book “The Retiring Mind: How to Make the Psychological Transition to Retirement,” notes that some retirees experience anxiety, depression and even a sense of loss upon calling it a career. Some of those feelings can
undoubtedly be traced to the perceived lack of purpose some individuals feel after retiring. Without a job to do each day, people can begin to feel useless. Overcoming such feelings can be difficult, but finding ways to build daily structure can make the transition to retirement go smoothly. n Find something to truly engage in. Professionals who truly enjoy their work tend to be fully engaged, so it’s no surprise if such individuals have a hard time adjusting to retirement. Some may suggest volunteering can help fill the void created by retirement, but researchers with the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College have found that only those individuals who are truly engaged in their
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post-retirement volunteering enjoy the psychological benefits of such pursuits. So before retirees dive right in to volunteering as a means to creating structure, they should first exercise due diligence and find an opportunity they’ll find genuinely engaging. n Embrace the idea of “bridge employment.” “Bridge employment” is the name given to the trend that has seen retired individuals take on part-time or temporary employment after they have retired from full-time working. COVID-19 has no doubt skewed post-retirement working statistics since the World Health Organization first declared a pandemic in March 2020, but a 2019 survey from the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute found that 27 percent of pre-retirees with at least $100,000 in assets planned to work part-time in retirement. Even part-time work can provide enough daily structure to help retirees feel as though each day is not just a free-forall. n Make a concerted effort to be more social. Volunteering and working are not the only ways to create structure in retirement. A concerted effort to be more social can help retirees fill their days with interactions with like-minded individuals who may be experiencing the same feelings. Join a book club, a local nature group that goes on daily or semidaily morning hikes or another local community organization. These are great ways to build structure and meet new people. Retirees can create social media accounts to find local community groups that cater to their interests. Even if it seems hard to believe, plenty of retirees are seeking to create structure in retirement life, and social media can make it easier to find such individuals in your community. Structure and retirement may seem like strange bedfellows. But many retirees seek structure after calling it a career, and there are many fun ways for seniors to create more organization in their lives.
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What seniors should know about social media safety S
eniors might not be the demographic individuals initially associate with social media. However, Pew Research notes that seniors’ social media usage has been steadily rising for a number of years, proving that individuals 65 and over are not tech-averse. Pew data from 2019 indicates that 46 percent of individuals 65 and older use Facebook. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram can be a great way to stay connected with family and friends and stay up-to-date on community events. But social media usage is not without risks, especially in regard to users’ safety. Seniors without much social media experience can heed these safety tips as they navigate popular platforms and discover all they have to offer. n Examine your account settings. Social media users can control their privacy settings so they can decide who can (and can’t) view their online activity. Each platform is different, but profiles set to public generally allow anyone to view individuals’ activity, so seniors should set their profiles to private to limit access to their information. n Be mindful of your social media social circle. It’s easy to make virtual friends via social media, but seniors should be mindful of who they accept as online friends. Carefully consider each friend request and decide just how big or small you want your social media community to be. Many individuals prefer to limit their online social circles to
individuals they know well and want to stay in touch with, and that can serve as a good measuring stick when deciding whether or not to accept a friend request. n Avoid sharing personal information. Seniors are no doubt aware that they should never share especially personal information, such as their Social Security number. However, seniors also should hesitate to share personal information like vacation plans. Seniors who post about upcoming trips could return home to find they’ve been victimized by criminals who scoured their social media accounts and learned when they were going to be away. A good rule of thumb is to keep personal information private and limit posts to information that is not overly specific or sensitive. n Recognize the threat posed by scammers. Social media platforms have had varying degrees of success in regard to keeping their sites scam-free. But scammers find a way, and users must take steps to avoid being victimized. Never click on a link within a post from someone you don’t know and avoid anyone soliciting donations through social media platforms. Seniors are engaging with social media more than ever. Such engagement requires seniors to be mindful of the many ways to protect their privacy when spending time online. Source: Metro Creative Connection
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How to plan for medical emergencies M
edical emergencies pose a significant threat to human health. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, unintentional injuries accounted for more than 192,000 deaths in 2020. That marks a significant increase since 2015, when NCHS data indicates roughly 146,000 people died from unintentional injuries. Unintentional injuries are not the only situations that qualify as medical emergencies, which also can result from sudden, life-threatening issues like heart attack or stroke. Knowing what to do in the wake of a medical emergency can reduce the likelihood that such instances end in tragedy. And though medical emergencies might be most often associated with aging men and women, such scenarios can affect
anyone at any time. That means it’s in everyone’s best interest to learn how to plan for medical emergencies. n Document your medical history and keep printed documentation in an easily accessible place. Younger individuals likely won’t have as much documentation regarding their medical histories, including existing conditions, medications and even previous emergencies. But all individuals should print out a document that includes a brief rundown of their medical histories, and keep the document in an easily accessible place so caretakers, spouses or roommates can quickly find it and share all relevant information with first responders.
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n Pack an overnight bag. Aging men and women or young people with a history of illness and/or medical emergencies should pack an overnight bag or ask their caretakers to pack one for them. Include pajamas, personal toiletries and other care items, and even some books or activity books so you have something to do should you require an extended stay in the hospital. Include a spare phone or device charger in your overnight bag, as it’s easy to forget such items when you’re hurrying out the door in an emergency situation. n Become CPR-certified. The medical experts at MedStar Health recommend that individuals take classes for first aid and CPR. Such lessons can save lives and help anyone experiencing a medical emergency get immediate attention until first responders arrive to administer additional care. Some organizations may offer free CPR courses, while others, including the American Red Cross, offer training at affordable prices. n Map out the quickest route to the nearest emergency room. Modern drivers are accustomed to relying on their car’s GPS systems to get from point A to point B. However, during a medical emergency it’s ideal if individuals or caretakers already know where the nearest hospital is and how to get there. That removes uncertainties from the situation and ensures that precious seconds won’t be wasted trying to get devices to connect with automobiles. Medical emergencies can affect anyone at any time. Knowing what to do in such situations can save lives and increase the chances of a positive outcome. Source: Metro Creative Connection
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Beer & Wine
BEER
By James Figy
southern mn style
Sweet draughts for your sweetheart
F
lowers. Jewelry. An intricate interpretive dance accompanied by spoken word. There’s no limit to what people might give each other on Valentine’s
Day. But it can prove tricky to strike the right balance between creativity and tradition. And if you mix both to create something special and your sweetheart doesn’t love it, well, it can feel like an arrow in your heart. Fortunately, there’s one combination that’s sure to please: beer and sweets. Now, you might not want to show up to that romantic dinner with just a six-pack. However, the right sweetsinspired beer provides the perfect refreshment for your festivities. And brewers across Minnesota continue to release solid craft brews with flavors of candies and cookies, cake and pastry. Sometimes the flavors are more open to interpretation, such as Mankato Brewery’s Cake’d Up Celebration Beer series. These brews, which unfortunately drop in September, highlight flavors like vanilla or chocolate layer cake as well as triple berry cheesecake. Sweets-inspired beers can also re-create the flavors of specific products. For example, Tin Whiskers Brewing 40 • FEBRUARY 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
Company in St. Paul has collaborated with Pearson’s to translate nine of its popular candies into tasty brews for different seasons. Bit-O-Honey Blonde Ale and Nut Goodie Porter rank among the most popular. Mike Willaford, head brewer at Tin Whiskers, is no stranger to adapting unbranded flavors either, like chocolate chip cookies, pineapple upside down cake, crisped rice treats, popsicles and more. The process always begins with deconstruction. “When we look to make a new candy or pastry beer, we think conceptually about the candy or pastry first. What do you taste? What kind of texture is it? How do the flavors layer on your palate?” Willaford said. “From there it's looking at the ingredients and applying them to a style that fits. Then we work the malt and hops to provide the best base we can to highlight the ingredients that are being added.” When drinking something based on baked goods or confectionery, sweet is good. Cloying flavors, on the other hand, can leave a bad taste in your mouth and make it difficult to enjoy a pint or more. Sweets-inspired brews must be kept cold and enjoyed fresh. Unlike other styles, they won’t age well when warm and could
become volatile. Some beers are more successful than others. Several years back, I remember many breweries trying to bring the wackier flavors normally geared toward festivals into primetime production, often with lackluster results. The bar has risen since then. “For most of our beers, the balance comes in making sure the technical side is on point. Dialing in mash and fermentation temperatures can mean everything when trying to make a balanced and drinkable pastry beer,” Willaford said. So, what can you look for this Valentine’s Day as the perfect amuse bouche, dinner pairing or nightcap? In February, Tin Whiskers is bringing back its Synonym Toast Crunch, a Bourbon barrel-aged pastry stout with flavors of youknow-what breakfast cereal, and Orange Dream State, an orange and vanilla creamsicle cream ale. Two Pearson’s collaboration favorites – Barrel Aged Mint Patties Imperial Stout and Salted Nut Roll Ale – will also be available in the taproom and in cans. In the liquor store or brewery, it’s typically not too difficult to identify these beers. Often the packaging and the beer’s names will give it away pretty quickly. If you’re having a tough time, just ask the folks behind the counter. If it’s something unique, they’ve probably already sampled it. The most important thing is to remember these are intended to be fun, just like Valentine’s Day. The holiday rolls around once a year as a time to remember how amazing it is to be in love. You still care deeply for your partner the other 364 days. But caught up in the day to day, it doesn’t feel as brand new as on Feb. 14. Sweets-inspired beers are the same way. Maybe they won’t become your summer lawnmower beer, and that’s OK. What they do is remind us that beer offers a variety of flavors and experiences, and that it’s best to enjoy them with someone you love.
James Figy is a writer and beer enthusiast based in St. Paul. In Mankato, he earned an MFA in creative writing from Minnesota State University and a World Beer Cruise captain’s jacket from Pub 500.
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WINE
By Leigh Pomeroy
What's new and different in Mankato wine I
t's always great to see a growth in options in the local wine scene. For example, in December I found a bottle of Zlatan Plavac on a shelf at MGM Liquors in Mankato. Lest you wonder if this is a bottle from Mars, I assure you it's from much nearer: Croatia, to be exact. And in fact, it has a definite connection to a well-known California wine. To translate: Zlatan is the producer and Plavac is the most widely planted red varietal in that country. To get a bearing, because geography is hugely important with wine, Croatia lies on the same latitude across the Adriatic Sea from the famed Veneto wine region in Italy, so they have a very similar climate. So what is Plavac's relationship with California? Plavac is a cross between the varietals Dobricic and Crljenak Kaštelanski (also known as Tribidrag), the latter being the true ancestor of today's Zinfandel, also known as Primitivo in Italy. Seeing a Plavac on a wine shelf is a good example of Mankato retailers stocking wine other than the normal (often boring) array of domestic Cabernet and Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. As I've indicated often in these columns, many of these wines are produced by the same half-dozen or so mega-conglomerates that strive to market a commercial product rather than offer a unique taste experience. "I now have a competitor down the street," says Greg Dembowski, owner and manager of the Mankato MGM, "but that's good because smaller distributors are finally incentivized to come down to Mankato and give us more choices." That "competitor" is Carter and Neah Person's Cork and Key, where in December I sampled some unique wines from the Libation Project, a relatively new distributor concentrating on wines from smaller U.S. and European wineries. One of those producers, Wiley Wines, was offering four of their bottlings: the rare Italian varietal Ribolla Gialla, plus Riesling, Grenache and Syrah. Wiley Wines, while made in California with California grapes, does have a Minnesota connection. The winemaker, Phineas Fittipaldi, splits his time between his Minneapolis home and the co-op winery where he makes his wines in Monterey County. 42 • FEBRUARY 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
Meanwhile, our local wineries are not standing still. Morgan Creek Vineyards has re-offered Krambambuli, a sweet red Minnesota blend infused with raspberry and chocolate. Co-owner Paul Marti said the name Krambambuli originates from a German drinking song that goes on about health, eating, drinking, etc., for countless verses. The label itself is quite striking, having been designed by local artist Rachel Klimpel to represent the winery's evolution of its biodynamic journey into farm identity and craft specialty. Back to the Zlatan Plavac. Since I've had less than a handful of Croatian wines and certainly not this one, I had to try it. And knowing its connection to Zinfandel, I had to prepare the perfect meal. First, I marinated a flank steak in a mixture of soy sauce, Worcestershire, Dijon mustard, horseradish, garlic and pepper. Then I diced some yellow potatoes, leaving the skin on, and sautéed them in Greek virgin olive oil with diced red onion, sundried tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms, garlic, salt and pepper. When the potatoes were almost done, I added parsley, sage and basil from my indoor herb pots, cooked the combination for a few minutes more, then placed the mixture in a Corningware dish, covered it and put it on the stove warmer. Since the potato mixture left a crust in the pan, I covered that with more olive oil, heated it to mediumhigh, then put in the steak. I cooked the steak for about 5 minutes (no more) on each side, watching for the juices to come to the surface, meaning it was medium rare, then pulled off the steak to let it sit for a couple of minutes. I added the remainder of the marinade to the hot skillet until it bubbled. I sliced the steak thin against the grain, plated it along with the potatoes and poured a bit of the hot marinade over the meat. I served this with a salad of organic greens, cashews and blue cheese with my Italian-style lemon vinaigrette, and voilà! I had a meal to go with the Plavac, which turned out to be a wonderful taste surprise, spicy and berry-like — like a good Zinfandel from Ridge, Stephen Ross or Seghesio, but at a fraction of the price. Živjeli! ("Cheers!" in Croatian).
LIT DU NORD: MINNESOTA BOOKS AND AUTHORS By Nick Healy
Clear-Eyed glimpses of the Midwest I
n his debut collection of short fiction, Brett Biebel assembles 48 stories to provide a perspective on Midwestern life that looks past the cliché and the familiar — endless cornfields, prolife billboards and so on — and focuses instead on characters whose circumstances are as particular and complex as anyone’s anywhere. Biebel, who received h i s M FA i n c re a t i v e writing at Minnesota State University, chose Nebraskans for his subjects in “48 Blitz,” and he finds plenty of drama and humor in a land that outsiders generally dismiss as flat and dull — flyover country in its purest form. “I wanted to present a more complicated picture,” Biebel said. “The Midwest is full of all these powerful contradictions. It’s friendly but closed-minded, hard-working yet stubborn and wide open yet insular. I’ve always thought contradiction made for great stories.” The pieces in “48 Blitz” are compact. Most run two or three pages in length. Some are longer, while others can be contained to a single page. This makes the reading fast and often fun, and despite their brevity, the stories never feel disposable. Biebel’s characters include a good mix of oddballs. We meet a U.S. Senate candidate who tries to capitalize on his bowling prowess by staging campaign events only in bowling alleys, a photographer who roams Nebraska highways to capture images of roadkill, and a death-row inmate whose passion for Cornhusker football wins him some public sympathy in his final days. That last scenario comes from “Big Red Nation,” in which the
doomed man is scheduled to die a day before the biggest game his beloved Huskers have faced in years. Moments ahead of his lethal injection, he wastes his final words on a joke about the game he’ll never see. And then, Biebel writes, “At the very end, according to one of the media observers, he ‘turned the deepest red you ever saw,’ though exactly what kind of omen this was nobody could quite figure.” Some of the book’s most memorable and affecting moments arise when Biebel zooms in on personal relationships. In “Kansas City Blues,” a pair of newlyweds travel to the City of Fountains for a two-night honeymoon. The author reveals the humbleness of their circumstances and modesty of their expectations in understated ways, and although we know precious little about them, we wince when things keep going wrong during their trip’s final night, and we smile when the bride suggests a sweet solution to a stressful predicament. In “Old-Fashioned Rustlers,” three teenagers sneak some horses from a relative’s barn and tear off on a ride through the dark. They thunder along the shoulder of the interstate freeway, then through the ditch and along some railroad tracks. Hanging around a grouping of abandoned box cars, they talk through the night, and one of them finally expresses a wish many people like him might share — to go back in time, to have been in that spot before it became merely a place to pass through. Regarding that story, Biebel said, “I read something about the railroad ending at North Platte, Nebraska, for one year in the mid-1860s, and
“48 Blitz” by Brett Biebel I thought about how the characters living around there now might long for that time, when they were the literal end of the line, how there’d be this romantic nostalgia about that, but more so this longing for a moment when everything wasn’t solved. They don’t necessarily miss ‘the good old days,’ though that’s part of it. They miss possibility, the idea that there was somewhere to go, some places still left to explore.” Biebel will visit Mankato on Feb. 3 as part of the Good Thunder Reading Series. The schedule for his visit includes three events — a 10 a.m. workshop at the Emy Frentz Art Guild, followed by a 3 p.m. craft talk and 7:30 p.m. reading in Room 245 of the Centennial Student Union at MSU. For more information, check out the Good Thunder Reading Series website (gt.mnsu.edu).
Nick Healy is an author and freelance writer in Mankato. MANKATO MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2022 • 43
ANN’S FASHION FORTUNES By Ann Rosenquist Fee
Braids, serums, self-sabotagings DEAR ANN: Is there somewhere in Mankato I can go for professional braiding? DEAR READER: You mean, you’re tired of driving to Minneapolis for expert braid work?!? So was Ruth Aganya, so last summer she opened a salon in Mankato’s Old Town. Ruth and her team of stylists will braid your natural hair with or without extensions (synthetic or human, for sale at the shop) or give you a spectacular wig or weave or create whatever look you desire, and she means it — Ruth is fearless about duplicating complex patterns and styles upon request. Her business relies on it, and business is booming. It’s also warmly welcoming. Ruth makes a point of saying that all hair types can be braided and all are welcome at her salon. Hours vary, but she’s open most evenings after she wraps up her daytime job as a refugee program specialist and COVID care liaison for the Minnesota Council of Churches. I highly recommend strolling by some weeknight after 6 p.m., and if
Ruth Aganya's braiding salon at 127 E. Washington St., Mankato, is open for business most evenings. 44 • FEBRUARY 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
the salon lights are on, stop in and strike up a conversation and see where it leads you and your hair. DEAR ANN: I am noticing that it’s trendy to use face serum before primer or moisturizer or anything else, and also that “double cleansing” is a trend, which I am pretty sure is just what it sounds like. My question is, if I do them both, don’t they just cancel each other out? DEAR READER: I mean, I wanted to say yes because when I first learned of these tandem trends they also struck me as a zero-sum game. But then after I got hooked on a foundation with serious staying power (Dermablend, you guys, it’s a topic for a whole other column in some magazine about zealous loyalty), I found myself washing my face twice at night, mostly in the interest of not staining my lightcolored towels. It was good for the towels and also really good for my face, which felt squeaky clean, which was satisfying yet I knew from years of reading women’s magazines that this probably meant I’d depleted some critical natural oils. And I don’t really know what makes a serum different from an oil or a balm, but I can tell you that just the word “serum” sounded like a level of medicinal potency that would restore some natural luster to my newly stripped skin, so I bought some. Sure enough it felt great to apply it and then when it sunk in or dried or whatever, it made the whole too taut surface feel kind of velvety. I don’t know what damage it does in the long term, to clean so harshly that you need that kind of product to recover, but I can tell you that the results feel so nice to touch that you’ll probably get hooked like I did, and I say go ahead because there are worse addictions in this world. Good luck.
DEAR ANN: I hate my hair right now and it is my own fault. It’s too short. The stylist showed me what an inch off would look like, then 2 inches, before she cut. All I had to say was “yes, that’s good,” but that’s not what I said. I said, “Let’s go for 3.” I don’t know why I did that because I regretted it right after I said it and there was time to stop but I did nothing to stop her. Now it’s all I think about, how much I hate this length and how long it’ll take to grow out. Why did this happen and what else am I going to do? DEAR READER: Oh honey. It’s scary the first time our innate desire for spiritual growth ruins a hair appointment. But that’s all that happened. You didn’t “do” anything — the part of yourself that craves enlightenment simply slid into the driver’s seat and turned an otherwise routine salon visit into an occasion for self-awareness and improvement in the classic form of forcing you to make do with undesirable hair. You’ll want to buckle up for a good long ride, because it sounds like your inner life coach authorized a trim that requires months if not years for full recovery. The sooner you embrace this fact and start living accordingly, the better insurance that you won’t plunge further into aesthetic self-sabotage. Go buy some product or barrettes or whatever it takes to give you hope and a way forward, and let the journey begin.
Got a question? Submit it at annrosenquistfee.com (click on Ann’s Fashion Fortunes). Ann Rosenquist Fee is executive director of the Arts Center of Saint Peter and host of Live from the Arts Center, a music and interview show Thursdays 1-2 p.m. on KMSU 89.7FM.
COMMUNITY DRAWS By Kat Baumann
MANKATO MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2022 • 45
GARDEN CHAT By Jean Lundquist
Keeping things grounded N
‘If someone doesn’t like to weed, they are not really a gardener’
ow that the days are longer, garden anxiety is setting in. As I told you a few months ago, my intention is to plant everything in the ground this year, with nothing in any grow bags. It’s not that my grow bags didn’t work; they worked great. But just like a raised bed on legs off the ground, they never seem to get or hold onto enough water. I don’t mind going out twice a day (or more) with either the hose or watering cans. In fact, I enjoy it. But especially last summer, I’d look at that shiny fifth-wheel camper sitting in the yard, and feel a sense of loss. We stayed home because of COVID, it’s true, but also because I had to water. It was almost like having to care for chickens. I sweet-talked my friend Karl into coming over to water once for a long weekend, but he has so many irons in the fire, I felt guilty about it. Still do. With the plants and their roots firmly planted in the ground, I figure there is much more leeway in the need for supplemental watering. If I’m not worried about watering, the world’s my oyster until harvest time. 46 • FEBRUARY 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
So what’s my anxiety all about, you ask? I’m afraid my little garden won’t be big enough! Many years ago I had a garden seven times the size of my house. I don’t recall exactly, but I think I planted 36 varieties of tomatoes, and two of each. I had four kinds of bush beans, two varieties of okra, umpteen peppers, three or four kinds of eggplants, zucchini, winter squash, pumpkins, onions, cabbage, kohlrabi, carrots, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers and more. I still don’t think that garden was excessive, even if it was only for Lar and me and the food shelf. We enjoy dining on vegetables. I’m anxious about what on earth I can cut out painlessly. And the answer is: “Nothing!” Whatever I cut out will cause pain. Just a short while ago I was having the time of my life shopping for tomato seeds. They were on sale. But then I remembered I had inventoried all my seeds not too long ago, and if I plant just one of every variety of tomato I have, there won’t be enough room in the garden for them all, let alone anything else. I closed the website without buying a thing.
My biggest fear is that I’ll fall back on using my growing bags. Then I will not only have to water several times a day in the summer heat, I will also have the added joy of needing to weed the garden. Don’t get me wrong. Weeding is undoubtedly the biggest part of gardening. If someone doesn’t like to weed, they are not really a gardener. Of course, with plants in grow bags, there was virtually no weeding to be done. I can’t say I missed it, but I’ll have to get my weeding muscles back for this year. nn n n Last year I tried winter sowing for the first time. That is placing seeds in soil in containers like milk jugs that act as a mini greenhouse and setting them out in the dead of winter. I did not have success. I grew exactly one spinach plant and one broccoli plant. I’m giving it a go again this winter. I set the jugs out in late December — lids off this year. I’m also watering them occasionally. I’m not sure why I am winter sowing. I’m also planning on starting seeds under lights later this month. Winter-sown seeds are said to result in sturdier, healthier, more productive plants, as they decide when to sprout instead of having it forced artificially upon them. I’ll let you know. And I’ll keep that shiny fifth-wheel camper in sight to motivate me. Jean Lundquist is a Master Gardener who lives near Good Thunder. gardenchatkato@gmail.com
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Goldsmith & Gallery Owner Patty Conlin 420 N. Minnesota, St. Peter, MN 507-934-5655 • stonesthrowgallery.org MANKATO MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2022 • 47
FROM THIS VALLEY By Pete Steiner
A
BOOKSHELF
s we near the end of our second pandemic year, we have more people working from home, more sidewalk cafes, more stress on our health system, more stress on society in general, more potential treatments for COVID, more people glad they invested in Moderna, and, for those of us who venture out less frequently these days, more time to read. For whatever reason, in our modern era of short attention spans, I’ve nevertheless recently taken to tackling monster books, in the 200,000 and up word count range: “Crime and Punishment,” “Gulag Archipelago,” and yes, “Infinite Jest” (only slightly shorter than “War and Peace”). I patted myself on the back after checking “hookedtobooks-dot-com” for having attempted four of their Ten Most Difficult — “Jest” and “Naked Lunch” and “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and “Moby Dick.” I wonder if I have enough years left to get to several others in this queue: “Pillars of the Earth,” Don DeLillo’s “Underworld” and “Raintree County.” I mention all this as preface to my major reading accomplishment this past year: completing Steve Coll’s 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Ghost Wars.” For years, the 250,000-word tome had seemingly glared at me from between bookends. Occasionally I would slide it out, flip through a few pages, then put it back. It was mere coincidence that I chose the year of our country’s inglorious exit from Afghanistan to finally read it; it took me all year. “Ghost Wars” recounts in immense detail “the secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet invasion to Sept. 10, 2001.” That is, the first 20 years of 40 years of war, so far, for that “unlucky country.” Incredibly well-researched and
48 • FEBRUARY 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
documented (75 pages of footnotes), the book analyzes the 20 years of faltering foreign policy that failed to stunt the advance of militant Islam while simultaneously laying the shaky foundation that led to our recently failed 20-year war effort. In 1997, new CIA director, George Tenet had declared that terrorists, not another nation, had become the most likely source to deliver a devastating shock to the U.S. Yet many highranking and experienced government officials remained surprisingly naïve about al-Qaida. And for various reasons elaborated in the book, we also underestimated the Afghan Taliban, while failing to form potentially beneficial ties with the so-called Northern Alliance until after Sept. 11. nnnn
In a year that saw the conviction of Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd, I actually read a relevant bestseller (I typically wait until they fall from the lists): Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad.” Mixing fiction with historical fact through compelling characters, it shines an unflinching light on the horrors of “the peculiar institution” – slavery, our nation’s original sin. The reader feels he is journeying with the heroine, the escaped slave Cora, on her harrowing and uplifting odyssey to flee her cruel plantation master and the ruthless slave catchers he sends to try to recapture her. nnnn “Bookshelf” has become a two-way street, as I got some good feedback on last year’s column (pete@ktoe.com). Nancy, a longtime friend who lives in New York and reads Mankato Magazine, suggested I would enjoy
“Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell. It is subtitled “a novel of the Plague,” so it seems timely I have begun reading it as I write this. I also have started “Caste,” Isabel Wilkerson’s acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winner. Amazingly, I found a hardcover copy in one of those Little Free Libraries outside a day care center in the Twin Cities. In her chapter “The Euphoria of Hate,” about Hitler’s ascent in Germany, Wilkerson writes: “Who has the courage to stand up to the multitudes in the face of a charismatic demigod who makes you feel better about yourself …?” Speaking of Hitler … His Nazis burned books in 1933 Germany; the demagogue Savonarola did the same in the original “Bonfire of the Vanities” in 15th century Florence. Thus it was distressing to learn about a central Minnesota school district whose librarian received a request to “investigate” 800 books. Eighthundred! Reading is really dangerous! Meanwhile two Virginia school board members recently called for an actual book burning of Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” and Harper Lee’s masterpiece, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” I remember loving the short Steinbeck classic; I’m due for a reprise on “Mockingbird”; and while it’s still available, I’ve picked up a copy of “Bluest Eye” and put that on top of my pile. Reading may be the cheapest and easiest equalizer among humans. Even a hardcover at full price is $30 or less. And who knows what you might find in the used bookstore or borrow from the public library or grab from one of those little free libraries? Is anything more inspiring than a bookshelf? Longtime radio guy Pete Steiner is now a free lance writer in Mankato.
» C OME JU DGE
for Yourself.
GOLFERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD COME TO CHALLENGE THE JUDGE and the two other golf courses in Prattville at RTJ Capitol Hill. Bring your clubs and come take on Judge hole number 1, voted the favorite hole on the Trail. Complete your day in luxury at the Marriott and enjoy dining, firepits and guest rooms overlooking the Senator golf course. With the Marriott’s 20,000 square feet of meeting space, 96 guest rooms and luxurious Presidential Cottage combined with three world-class golf courses, business and pleasure can definitely interact in Prattville.
THE ROBERT TRENT JONES GOLF TRAIL AT CAPITOL HILL offers three magnificent 18-hole championship golf courses. The Marriott Prattville is part of the Resort Collection on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Visit www.rtjgolf.com or call 800.949.4444 to learn more. MANKATO MAGAZINE • FEBRUARY 2022 • 49
25
FEB
SHRIMPIN
MARDI GRAS STYLE JOIN US FOR A FESTIVE MARDI GRAS PARTY, CAJUN BOILED SHRIMP DINNER & LIVE MUSIC! Friday, February 25th
Kato Ballroom
Shrimp Boil Dinner Live Music with Jack Brass Band French Quarter Casino
Marti Gras Parade Marti Gras Costumes, Beads & Masks encouraged
5:00pm – 10pm Dinner 6:00pm-7:00pm
200 Chestnut Street Mankato, MN
Scan QR Code for more details Tickets on sale at www.gclearningcenter.org/shrimpin Tickets discounted if purchased by February 1st Music only and online experience tickets also available
Your contribution to Shrimpin’ – Mardi Gras Style makes it possible to provide one-on-one tutoring for struggling students. 50 • FEBRUARY 2022 • MANKATO MAGAZINE GCLC is a 501(c)3 nonprofit
EIN 61-1915154
CDC and/or local COVID guidelines that may be in place at the time of the event will be followed.
