NHS 1965 News

This was taken this summer at Picalos (Pat/Wally bouldreaus pizza in Eagan) when Tenetta Anderson (Goertz) was home to Minnesota.  Candace Rice Williams also stopped by to have pizza with us.

David and Sandy on the island of Ischia, in the Bay of Napes, Italy.

I keep reading about old classmates who are now retired. I guess I should probably let any of you who may be interested in knowing that I am not retired and don’t really plan to for some time. I’m having much too much fun in my job. In the summer of 2006 I was hired as Executive Director of the American Philosophical Association, this after 31 years of teaching philosophy at colleges in Iowa, Texas, and Pennsylvania. My new job carried me to Newark, Delaware. Delaware is a pretty small place. I tend to think of it as the state “where everybody knows your name.”

Since I’ve moved to Delaware I’ve had a bit of contact with a couple of classmates. I visited Wally Snesrud when he was in Las Vegas (before his wife, Peg, passed away last year). Wally and Peg were also both classmates of mine at St. Olaf. I also had a really enjoyable afternoon visit with Carol Christian James in DC. That’s about a two hour trip for me, and is where Carol does her work. Of course, my closest class contact is my cousin, Mary Albers Auge, whom I first met when we were in the nursery of the Northfield Hospital as she was born just a couple of days after I was.

In any case, my work gives me all sorts of wonderful opportunities to travel. Last summer I had a week-long meeting in Madrid, Spain, and then about three weeks of meetings in China and Korea. In Korea I was elected to the Steering Committee of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies. That gives me even more terrific travel opportunities. This past week I attended a meeting on the island of Ischia, in the Bay of Napes, Italy. The wine was great, the food even better, and our daughter and her husband (whose grew up in Italy) flew from London to spend a couple of days with us enjoying the thermal springs that pop up along the island’s coastline. This fall I’ll be going to a meeting in Moscow. There’s also a good bit of US travel as well. Anyway, I figure if I have a job that pays for me to go to all of these really fun places I’m going to stick with it for awhile. I’ve heard it said that “work is the curse of the drinking class.” Fortunately, my work just gives me opportunities to drink better stuff than I could afford at my local liquor store.

I hope you’re all doing well and, retired or unretired, having almost as much fun as I am.

Posted by  David Schrader

Edited by n. larsen

Jim and Linda Grisim,  Dan and Cheryl Nesseth returned to Palm Springs in March to continue practicing the life of retirement.

We flew into San Diego and drove to Palm Springs. It took all four of us, but we found our way to the condo in the dead of night and settled in for a week of fun and relaxation.  Palm Springs is beautiful with the desert and the mountains all the way around you.

We did the local things such as the street fair and downtown artists fair. We went to the Living Desert which is a zoo with flowers and cactus. Drove 6000 feet up into the mountains to a town called Idyllwild, population 300.  In the 60s the hippies took it over but now it’s just a tourist attraction.  We tried to find any leftovers from the hippies but with no luck, all we saw was snirt (snow/dirt).  Lots of quaint little shops and restaurants.  Our eating varied from a $3.00 burger basket at the local Elks to an organic pork chop for $15.00 at Calloway Winery.  We later toured and sample the wine and we all decided we are definitely not wine drinkers.  The guys still say beer is the best.

Managed to find a few happy hour specials, relaxed at the pool and hot tub, played a little BINGO at the complex.  Does that sound like retirement seniors????  We went to a casino to try to find our fame and fortune but all we found was 99 cent margaritas.

There is a lot to do in Palm Springs as this is our second year and we saw different things this year from last year.  Last year we saw wind mill generator farms, toured the movie stars home, air force museum.  Very beautiful and relaxing.  Highly recommend,  especially if you are a golfer.
Posted by Cheryl Nesseth

Edited by n. larsen

I was selected to receive two tickets for the presidential inauguration from Congressman Dan Lungren of Sacramento.  He is the former California Attorney General and had visited our child abuse and neglect program at UC Davis Medical Center (caarecenter.org) several times over the years, and he is very good on the issues.  I emailed him the morning after the election asking for tickets for this historic event.  Every congressman received 200 tickets to distribute. I asked my sister JoAnn (NHS Class of 1970) to join me and we were on our way to Washington D.C. We had great tickets — in the standing blue section immediately behind the seated section below the Capitol

Everyone that JoAnn and I met at the inauguration was positively buoyant, happy, and friendly.  People just started conversations and introduced themselves to one another on the monument grounds, in the metro, and at adjacent tables in restaurants.   It was an amazing experience to be among a million people at the Sunday concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial singing together with Garth Brooks, “Bye, Bye Miss American Pie”, other pop songs that we all know, and the national anthems.  An estimated 2 million people were at the Inauguration.  Everyone was respectful, careful with one another in such large moving groups, joyful, and fun to talk with! Signs were everywhere in restaurant windows about celebrating change and moving forward.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast in the Adams Morgan area of NW Washington.  So many interesting people — the sound design engineer for the inauguration, congressional staffer, pastor, literary agent, parents with young children.  We would eat breakfast together and come back at the end of each very cold and exhausting day and tell our stories;  then watch CNN to get full coverage of what occurred that day.

We also went to the Blue Diamond Inaugural Ball hosted by Jackson Browne at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  He played the entire time from 8 p.m. to midnight with his band.  Graham Nash (Crosby, Stills and Nash) also played and sang with him.

The “call to action” from President Obama is strong and compelling  There is something about President Barack and Michelle Obama that makes you want to do more, and to figure out what that can be for our community. What are the various possibilities for us in Sacramento?  Augment the Channel 10 Coats for Kids Drive that got 40,000 coats donated this past year? Work with Habitat for Humanity? Figure out how to raise money for Afghanistan to build infrastructure to resist the Taliban? Provide needed food, clothing, and household supplies for needy CAARE Center families? Reduce driving and consumption of gas? How can we coordinate with other individuals and organizations who have similar interests? What steps and organizing can we undertake to strengthen our community?

It was a memorable experience and I was glad that my sister JoAnn and I could go together.  We had a lot of fun together.

Written by Marilyn Strachan Peterson  and posted and edited by N. Larsen

Marilyn Strachan Peterson traveled to Tucson and spent Thanksgiving weekend with us.   We had a great time sampling the boutique wines of Arizona.  This picture is taken at Sonoita Winery with the Santa Rita mountains in the back drop.  A great time was had by all.

Sonoita Winery with the Santa Rita mountains

As always,
Janice Schumacherand Tom Severson

posted by n. larsen