NOVEMBER 4, 2009 - INTER-COUNTY LEADER - NORTHERN CURRENTS, SECTION B - PAGE 3
Stars and Sharing the theme for Taylors Falls Lighting Festival
I don’t know when the fear first arises,
TAYLORS FALLS, Minn. – The Lighting Festival committee announces the 2009 theme of Sharing Simple Pleasures Under the Stars. The whimsical wire star town ornament is now on sale for $8 from downtown stores and shops. Again this year, the committee invites town residents to do outdoor lighting for the holidays. Taylors Falls is called the Christmas Card Village, so outdoor lighting and decorating adds to that title. The first three residential winners will receive cash prizes. Commercial winners will be given a framed certificate. Winners will be announced on the town bulletin board and in the newspaper. Carrying out the theme, festival goers are encouraged to bring nonperishable food items for the local food shelves. The festival schedule indicates the drop-off locations. Schedules are available at www.fallschamber.org and will be in TF stores the second week in November. Bingo for cash will be Saturday, Nov. 28, starting at 6:30 p.m. in the Memorial Community Center. This is just one of the many family events during the Friday through Sunday, Nov. 27, 28 and 29, Taylors Falls Lighting Festival. submitted
NARFE meets Nov. 12 LUCK - The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Chapter 1581 will hold a dinner meeting at noon on Thursday, Nov. 12, at the Hog Wild restaurant on Luck’s Main Street. All active and retired federal employees are welcome. Reservations may be made by calling 715-327-8658 by noon on Monday, Nov. 9. - submitted
and (I imagined) lighthearted reply. He never wrote back. More accurately, he disbut inevitably it comes. appeared completely. His profile was “What if I end up spending the rest of my promptly removed and I suspect he might life alone?” still be cowering in the safety of his tomato It does not matter if there are lots of plants. friends to shoo away this pesky phantom of I wondered if I was perhaps providing a living alone surrounded by empty cans of bit more information about my life than cat food. It does not even help substantially these gentlemen were looking for. I am one to go out and have a nice dinner with a of those people who, when asked “how are lovely stranger. The friends might be you?” will reply with the unexpurgated wrong. The lovely gentleman is just that— truth. This may be acceptable in some parts a stranger. of the world, but it is certainly not part of I realized that it may take a very long time midwestern culture. I also wondered what before I would encounter a likely romantic there was in my post to encourage farmers prospect walking down the street of the and cowboys. I fully expected my next corsmall Wisconsin town I call home. I am respondence to come from either a baker or fairly certain this individual will not be a Letters from a blacksmith. regular at either of my town’s local taverns. I concluded I was too forthcoming in my I decided that if I was serious about this correspondence. I suspected my cheery not-dying-alone business, I had better minibiographies were frightening off all my buckle down and get proactive. I decided to prospective butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. go online. I have decided to dial it back a bit, but to stay onMy initial forays into online dating were not enline and keep trying–even if it requires an ego adjustcouraging. Immediately after posting my profile, I heard from ment from time to time, even if it means a bit of a cowboy. He wore cowboy boots, a pearl-buttoned embarrassment. I really am not afraid of ending up shirt and a 10-gallon hat. He liked to chase storms alone surrounded by empty cans of cat food—my cat across the plains. After a bit of reflection, I decided Lucy only eats dry food and I rather enjoy my own that I had no problem with cowboy culture and he company. But, given a choice, I would like to share seemed rather adventurous. After numerous post- my time with someone who sees the world in a simponements, we finally secured a mutually satisfac- ilar way, someone who enjoys doing the things I do, tory day in which to share a glass of iced tea. At the someone who will laugh with me and occasionally bottom of the glass, he said it would be nice to get to- laugh at me. I figure the key is to find someone brave enough to gether again. I never heard from him again; he disappeared continue the conversation, but informed enough so without a trace. I decided this dating thing was that if they actually meet me, they might make it to a second glass of tea. harder on the ego than I had anticipated. I next received a nice note from a tomato farmer. Till next time, He looked charming sitting on his tractor and sent – Carrie me the link to his Web site which showed photos of his tidy tomato farm. I replied with a rather lengthy
Carrie Classon
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A lucky day for a move LUCK - On Saturday morning, Oct. 31, Wild Rivers Habitat for Humanity loaded up two trucks and a very large van with the contents of their office in Siren and moved into the office space next to Tomlinson Insurance on the north end of Main Street in Luck. The trucks were unloaded in short order, and the task of setting up the new office began. Soon a group of children came to the door dressed in costumes - Halloween trick-or-treaters were at the door. Soon another group came, and another. Habitat office manager Jackie Thorwick said, “It was great to meet so many of our new neighbors within a couple of hours of moving in! We hope more will stop in when they can.” On learning Habitat for Humanity had just moved into Luck, one woman asked if it was possible that she and her kids could be a Habitat family and said they lived with her parents in very crowded conditions. She plans to return to pick up an application. Another man said, “You’re Habitat? I’ll be back to help.”
Grandma’s car Part 1 by Carolyn Marquardt “I’m sorry, Sport. Rules are rules.” Officer Bob patted my hood. “Eighty thousand miles is the most I can drive you. I’ll miss you, old boy. We made a good team.” My antenna drooped as I said goodbye to Officer Bob. What will happen to me now? A strange man opened my door and plopped down on the driver’s seat. He weighed more than Officer Bob and my springs creaked in complaint. He turned the key and my engine roared to a start. “You sound good, Old Boy,” the man said as he patted my steering wheel.
Northwest Regional Writers The Northwest Regional Writers meet at 1 p.m. the second Friday of the month either in Frederic or Grantsburg. Call Mary Jacobson at 715-349-2761 for more information about the organization.
It couldn’t have been a better welcome to the neighborhood. Wild Rivers Habitat for Humanity, now serving all of Polk and Burnett counties, is nearly done with the two homes they have built this year, one in Amery, and one in Siren. Contact them to learn about Habitat or to volunteer to help at 715-472-6080 or email wrhfh263@gmail.com. The new mailing address is PO Box 136, Luck, 54853. submitted Main Street trick-or-treaters greeted Wild Rivers Habitat for Humanity the day they moved into their new office in Luck on Halloween morning. – Photo by Jackie Thorwick
Writer’s Corner We headed out of the station parking lot and, after a turn or two, entered the freeway ramp. As we headed onto the freeway, the driver patted my steering wheel again. “You speed up like a pup.” I blinked my lights with pride. Soon we arrived at another parking lot. A big one with lots of car just like me. Are we at a carnival? No. Looks more like the mall lot Officer Bob used to drive me through. “Just checking,” he’d say. But no, there were strange sounds coming from a huge building. “Going, going, gone!” What could that mean? Soon the man steered me into the building. A crowd of people stared at me as I crept toward a large platform. The driver got out, patted my fender, and handed my keys to a gruff-sounding lady on the platform. “What am I bid for this Crown Vic? Just arrived from the police station.
He’s a honey. Only nine months old!” “I hear 1,000. Do I hear two? 2,000, do I hear three?” Her voice was so loud I wished I still had my siren so I could drown her out. But early that morning, Jim, the repair man, had taken my siren off, and my lights. Then he unscrewed my police radio and my radar. That’s when Officer Bob came over to say goodbye. He looked sad to see me without my lights and siren. “Three, do I hear 4,000?” The lady kept yelling. But the crowd grew silent. Suddenly I noticed a gray-haired, old woman standing next to a handsome, young man. “Go for it, Mom,” I heard him say. “4,000,” the lady yelled. “Four, do I hear 5,000? 4,500? 4,250?” She paused for a long time. “Going … going … gone to ... the gray-haired, old lady.” The man got into the driver’s seat and the woman into the passenger seat. He turned the key in the lock and I roared to life. He put his foot on my accelerator and I leapt forward, just as I had for Officer Bob. “Wow, this car really moves, Mom!”
He was more careful the next time he touched my gas pedal. The man drove me out of the parking lot, back onto the freeway, and soon into a driveway in front of a big, brick house. They left me there all alone. I wished I were back at the police station with all my lights and siren. And my antenna drooped. I had a lot of learning to do at my new home. Some people called the old lady Mom and others called her Grandma. Since she had gray hair, I decided to call her Grandma. Life at Grandma’s was so boring my tailpipe sagged. Grandma drove me to the grocery store. She drove me to church. She drove me to school. And she drove so-o-o-o-o slow.
PoCo Penners The PoCo Penners meet the second Friday of the month at 2 p.m. in the Conference room, next to the restroom, in the Justice Center in Balsam Lake. Contact Brenda Mayer at 715485-3571 or Iris Holm 715-294-3174 for more information.
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