Looking Down

I hate to fly, but never tire of looking out the window. I am forever trying to piece something to a bigger picture. As a child when I would fly with my Dad I liked to spot swimming pools. Fargo had its share of them, despite the long white winters. Now I love Google Earth from the comforts of my recliner: flying without fear.

On this last junket to DL we crossed two hundred miles of North Dakota. My trusty Nikon, with the different lens choices, granted me some photos of our great state.

Some of my thoughts were about water, not in swimming pool form, but water - God given water, just plain sitting due to the lay of the land. Plenty of potholes this year, more God given moisture. We could see Devils Lake to the north, it glistened for miles and miles and more miles. It is bursting at the seams. No, it has burst at the seams and nobody wants to stake a claim on its drainage: Eco systems in jeopardy, farm land in jeopardy, on and on. Having lived downstream of Minot for six years during the tumultuous flooding of the 70's, I know how touchy water issues can be, not only to keep our farm afloat (no pun intended) but how to manage water to keep most all happy and prosperous. Nobody is ever on the same page.

As we flew over Harvey I saw the McClusky canal, dry as a bone. Another water project with good intent. I am not up on the current politics and why it flows near Turtle Lake/Audubon outlet but empty by Harvey. Wait until we don't have any!! It made me wonder which is more virulent in history: water or religion?

Before long we were between Carrington and New Rockford. My thoughts went to North Dakota State University. NDSU was a land grant college started in 1890, it was to be a "People's College" with more emphasis on Agriculture, Science and Engineering. In its early days it was North Dakota Agricultural College. Growing up I recall my father (an NDSU alumni and Achievement Award winner in 1977) telling my mother, "I'm going to run out to the AC." In 1960 it became North Dakota State University.

The following pictures are of the Experiment Station at Carrington which is run by NDSU. Experiment stations are outreach farms and ranches around North Dakota (nine to be exact) which test and trial varieties of grains, vegetables, trees, grasses and legumes, etc. If it involves agriculture and ranching in North Dakota, NDSU has data from research. That is what made it a People's College, and still is.




A patchwork of research.

This next one is just west of Fargo, a mile or two from the University, it must be a mini plot for SU. Carrington has this one beat hands down for design, curb appeal.



North Dakota is now home to many, MANY turbines for wind energy. Renewable energy, sometimes it seems like it would be a never ending energy; wind is a part of North Dakota no matter how you look at it. Question: do the wind towers contribute to more wind???







Many years ago I read the book "The Checkered Years" by Mary Dodge Woodward. It is her diary of living in Dakota Territory outside of Fargo, during the early bonanza farming days in the later part of the 19th century. This following picture made me remember the book. Mary Dodge, while living in their shanty on the prairie, recounts of seeing only three lights, two in Fargo and one in Moorhead on bitter cold winter nights. Soon the people came and homesteads sprung up on almost every corner. The flat Red River Valley is not home to the prairie pothole as in central and western North Dakota.



The lush fertile soil of the Red River Valley, remnants of glacial Lake Agassiz, made for many a prosperous farm. There were many to look down on and it didn't take too much imagination to realize the land had been good to them, generation after generation. Good land and good farming practices made it possible for these farms to grow and to stay within families. This one looks like it supported more than one family.



It was a good fly day and made me think about how much I love North Dakota, even if it was from the right seat of the Cessna.

Fifty Years and the Meter is Running

In 1960, back when life was pretty simple or at least I thought it was, I started the first grade at Clara Barton Elementary school in Fargo ND. My teacher was Mrs. McLaren, a petite, gentle matron who commandeered her young students with a kind, firm hand. Up against Miss Bettschen, the other first grade teacher, I thought she was an angel. I was afraid of Miss Bettschen when we would file off to her room for music. I liked Mrs McLaren.

Back in those glorious days, school didn't convene until AFTER Labor Day, August was dedicated to summer, not classroom business for heaven's sake. After all, Fargo was a live-at-lake-in-the-summer town. School couldn't possibly start until the Tuesday after the first Monday in September. Otherwise who would be there?

And so it was, after the world returned to the city, I started the first grade and embarked upon a friendship, a friendship that would take me through the years of my life - my life so far that is. A best friend forever, as my girls say now, a BFF or a bestie! That would be Susan.



The year 2010 heralds the 50th year of our friendship; well deserving of a celebratory convocation. We did meet in Las Vegas in January to see Bette Midler, but didn't have our golden ducks in a row to lay claim to this fete. It was only after squawking to Ron about some unremarkable topic that I said, "Ya know, Susan and I have been friends for about fifty years." did I get to ciphering. Gosh, this is fifty years, at least after Labor Day.

My earliest memory of Susan was when she came over to my house to teach me how to spell Elizabeth, her first name and my middle. She went by Elizabeth in school so she had to learn how to spell it before I did. I went by Mary or Mary Liz. It was high time I learned to spell that long name. Susan thought my last name was Elizabeth so she would call our house and say, "Hello, Mrs. Elizabeth may I please to speak to Mary?" From then on the the meter was running.

I really wanted to get together before this year was over, go the extra mile signaling this milestone. Phoenix wasn't in my foreseeable future, at least not until after Christmas, so I had to act fast. And guess what?? Susan just happened to be at the lake for the waning days of summer and to close up the cottage before she went back to Phoenix to cook, bake and broil.

Plan A initiated. It worked out to the letter.



Ron and I flew down to the lake for lunch and a little Susan time. From Velva, Lake Melissa is a good 4.5 hour drive, given the season of construction and Labor Day traffic, air travel just seemed the way to go (once again ML bit the little plane bullet). The weather cooperated and we were home before dark. It was a nice day for the memory book.

We took in the Flea Market as we both love the old and interesting. I bought a LAKEGIRL sweatshirt (a had to have!!) and she bought some Halloween decor (her friend Lynn told her NO MORE boiled wool knitted candy corn for Halloween!! It was time for her to rethink her ornamental strategy). Rather reserved purchases considering there was a tremendous boatload of stuff. One end table did catch my eye but I knew I couldn't smuggle it in the back seat of the plane without a detailed answer. "What the hell are you going to do with that? Jeez, don't you have enough junk?" It wasn't worth the drama.



Lunch was at the Shoreham Hotel. Note: the poor centering of this photo is only to include the established 1910 portion of another Hotel Shoreham sign. The Hotel is a funky place and known to really rock, especially on Thursday nights when Karaoke cranks up the crowd. Gosh, 1910 makes the Hotel 100 years old. Good thing I had two beers with my lunch, one for Susan and me, and one for the Hotel. If someone in the joint would have had a birthday I'd have probably had three!

Shoreham is a little hamlet located between Lake Melissa and Lake Sallie. The Hotel, The Pegary (LAKEGIRL fame) and Shoreham Chapel comprise this widening of the road. When I would stay with Susan as a kid there was also store where we would go to buy comic books and candy. You could buy candy cigarettes there too, which weren't available in clean cut ND.

My Dad remembered going to Shoreham and the Hotel when he was a kid and teenager, as the Snyder cottage was on Detroit, just down the road a piece. At one time there were ferry rides that boarded at the Hotel located on the channel between the two lakes. Old photos show women draped in long white dresses and tabletop sized hats to make the cruise. Google gave me no information as to where the hostelry factor comes in. My guess, at one time there must have been little cabins to stay in. Had I reread the walls of the hotel I probably could have answered those questions, as many news clippings and photos decorate the interior.

We then made a sojourn to the cottage. Susan's brother Tim and her sister Judy joined us in the merriment. Oh yes, and Lucky, Susan's dog. We reminisced, laughed and caught up on family and people. My brother Tom went to school with Tim and Judy was the trailer, three year behind. We all knew the same names, places and events, each with our own slant.




It was a short visit but a sweet visit. I always love time with Susan and her family. Ron did very well, he trailed along like he was supposed to do. He knew what this visit meant to me so he remained in check. Thanks sweetheart, you are the greatest!!

So fifty years have come and gone. Changes, changes and more changes. Miss Bettschen and Mrs. McLaren are long gone, so is Mrs. Elizabeth. Susan, you and I will probably face twice as many changes in the next fifty as we did in the first. What took five years then now takes five months. I couldn't ask for a better friend to grow old with. All the laughing we do when we are together will keep us young. Remember NO BOWING OUT EARLY; I bought at the fiftieth, you have to get the check at the hundredth. And we'll then have three beers!