In January, 2011, three classmates flew from the white winter snows of Minnesota to the warm tropical breezes of Bonita Springs, Florida. Cheryl Nesseth and Cookie Williams met up with Tenetta Anderson (who had flown in from Wyoming, via Denver, Colorado) at the Minneapolis Airport to begin their adventure. They arrived later in the day at the winter home of first-time snowbirds, classmate Pat Boudreau and her husband, Wally.
The four women toured the area for three days, seeing such sights as Sanibel Island and the Everglades, even taking an airboat ride (and surviving “Bubba’s” airboat wheelies!) through the mangrove swamp. They ate a lot of great seafood and tangerines (picked in the Boudreau backyard)and really enjoyed the evening at the Lanai Kai in Ft. Meyers Beach watching the amazing sunset.
Carol Christen James traveled to MN to visit her mother. She stopped and spent the night with Jean-Margret Merrell-Beech in WI. This is how Jean-Margret Merrell-Beech spends her day.
I have a small (115 acre) farm and raise sheep and chickens. We had 51 lambs born this spring – they are a cross of Finn, Ramboulliet, and Dorset breeds. I try to market the wool and lambs privately and sell eggs. I spin wool and sell to spinners.
The tillable is all on shares with my neighbor so that I don’t have to own any equipment except a sprayer for the pastures, and a wagon to remove manure. I grow most of our food with a huge garden, small orchard, and eating a lot of lamb and chicken. I miss the pork and beef, but don’t have the fence to fatten one, although I keep thinking about it with calves selling for $15 around here.
Farms have consolidated around here in the last 20 years, just like they did around Northfield when we were finishing HS. But these are more hilly, more appropriate for dairy or sheep, and less suitable for grain and big equipment. As a result, my neighborhood has gone from 40 or more dairies down to less than 5 over the 23 years I’ve been here – but one milks 600. However in the last 3 years, these small farms are being bought up by the Amish and revitalized, often as dairies.
From the film archives of the Class of 1965, we have finished the edit and produced “Class of 1965 25th Reunion Golf Tournament”, played August 11, 1990 at the Northfield Golf Club.
And as any golfer knows, some golfers have good days, and others don’t.
Veterans Day may have come and gone, but today, like every day, Mark Alston-Follansbee will carry on his own personal veterans mission: combating veterans’ homelessness in Greater Boston and Somerville. It’s an issue he understands well. Follansbee is both the director of the Somerville Homeless Coalition and a Vietnam vet, who traveled a difficult path, himself.
Diane Tibbetts Giese (Jensen) walked to the Northfield News on 02/23/1959 and got this photo. She said it was taped to the window at the Northfield News.
From sources we have determined that the class of 1965 was in the 6th grade. Are you in the photo? Do you know where the party was? For those who can supply the right answers, there are many prizes available.. Lets hear from you.
(Editors note: if you right click the image and chose “view image”, you will see the image as it was shot.)
