Today’s helpful hint
Email from Donald: “Subject: The best advice I ever got.
“Rich worked for years in the pro shop at Tartan Park, but now he’s charming customers at Eagle Valley. I hadn’t seen him since he changed locations, but when my sons and I played there recently, he had his usual smiling face to accompany a warm greeting.
“After we’d paid and chatted a bit, Rich said: ‘The scorecards are over there. If you want to have a really good round, fill them out before you tee off.’
“What a guy!”
Then & Now
Golden Age of Department Stores Division
The Gram With a Thousand Rules: “Little Sister, thank you for opening the window to a host of memories of the Fabulous Fairyland called Dayton’s [BB, 11/11/2016].
“It always was a day’s entertainment ahead when Dayton’s was our destination.
“Mom and I would board the Greyhound bus from our house on Old Shakopee Road and head downtown. We usually didn’t buy anything, but oh, my, the looking was so much fun. Mom always let me dream as long as I wanted to in the doll department, and Mother did her dreaming in the model-room section. We would stroll from room to room, pretending we lived there. So many memories; I could easily be a copy hog.
“I do have photographic proof of one memorable buying expedition, confirming Little Sister’s memory of ‘getting dressed up’ to go downtown. I needed a new coat just before Easter in 1943, and my mother spoiled me with a brand-new navy-blue one from Dayton’s bargain basement. It was already too short for me — but in 1943, with wartime clothing shortages, it didn’t matter. I couldn’t wait to wear it, so my mom put my old one in the box and let me wear it home.
“Lucky for me, a sidewalk photographer caught us.”
BULLETIN BOARD SAYS: Lucky for all of us!
And now Lola: “Oh, Little Sister, what memories you brought back with your story about Dayton’s.
“I didn’t get acquainted with Dayton’s until I was 17, having just graduated from high school and starting my job as a legal secretary in downtown Minneapolis. It didn’t take long for me to get to know every inch of the store. I didn’t have much money, but just walking around and looking at everything was quite a treat for a farm girl. And those revolving doors!
“My granddaughter wants to experience walking through revolving doors, but I don’t know if there are any left, other than at Macy’s in Minneapolis. Help?”
BULLETIN BOARD SAYS: Wander around downtown Minneapolis or downtown St. Paul (or any other downtown, anywhere, we’re guessing), and you will find revolving doors enough for a lifetime!
Our pets, ourselves
Animal Heroes Divison
An Armistice Day (1940) memoir from John of Hopkins: “When reading Bulletin Board this morning, I was reminded of a dramatic incident from my childhood. I was 4 at the time.
“We lived on a farm near Lewiston, Minnesota. Although my father was a World War I veteran, he did not belong to the American Legion, but my mother was a member of the Legion Auxiliary. The Auxiliary always put on a banquet for the veterans on the anniversary of the end of WW I. I imagine that my folks left quite early so that Mom could help prepare the meal.
“Quite some time before the banquet, the blizzard struck in all its fury, and they were unable to make it the five miles home.
“At some point after the storm began, my 15-year-old sister, Georgia, took it upon herself to try to rescue our herd of beef cattle, which was feeding on corn stalks and straw piles in what we called the hundred-acres. Very shortly she became hopelessly lost. With no sense of direction left, she grabbed the tail of our dog, Rex, who guided her safely home. As she passed the machine shed, which was open on one side, she saw the herd tightly huddled inside.
“If it hadn’t been for Rex, Portland State University would not have had one fine English professor in the latter years of the 20th century, and I would no longer have a living sibling.”
How far back?
Rivermouse: “May I share my father’s earliest memory, as he described it in his memoirs? (He had a massive heart attack the day before Thanksgiving 10 years ago, surviving just a few more weeks. It had always been the tradition for him to roast the turkey in his outdoor smoker-oven grill. No turkey that year. That Thanksgiving, I hope, will retain its dubious honor in our family as being the . . . worst . . . ever.)
“On with his story:
” ‘My sister Evelyn was my friend and companion from as early as I can remember.
” ‘My earliest memory is a compassionate act by [her]. I was being taken in the rear seat of a Model T Ford with a canvas top and side curtains to a doctor in Velva [N.D.] to receive treatment for some illness I was suffering. The weather was very cold. I was bundled and blanketed from head to toe – except the back of my neck was not covered and I could feel the cold! Before I found it necessary to complain, Evelyn covered the bare spot on my neck with her little mittened hand.
” ‘My next memories also involve Evelyn. We lived at the Ditmer Place, two miles south of Velva on North Dakota State Route 41. It had a nice house, a beautiful ‘basement’ barn, a chicken house, two granaries and a machine shop. The barn was called a ‘basement’ barn because it was built on the side of a gently sloping side hill, allowing drive-in access to the hay mow, which provided the roof and ceiling over the level where the horses and pigs lived. The walls below the hay mow level were built of natural stone and mortar — cool in the summer and surprisingly warm in the winter! The farmstead was bounded on the north by a small grove of plum trees and on the south by a grove of box elder and cottonwood trees.
” ‘Evelyn liked to play “house.” Our play “house” was a shady spot delineated by four box elder trees. Our furniture consisted of apple and orange crates. We kept the (dirt) floor swept scrupulously clean. We made mud cakes and decorated them with wild berries, cotton from the cottonwood trees, etc. I recall getting very bored with playing “house” —probably long before Evelyn did.’ ”
What is right with people?
Veterans Day email from Mrs. Patches of St. Paul: “The back of the man’s shirt said: ‘I am not a hero, but I walked beside a few.’
“We saw this man at Applebee’s in Inver Grove Heights today while Bob was getting the wonderful free meal from them.
“I stopped him on his way out and said: ‘I don’t believe your shirt! In my opinion, you ARE a hero!’ We had a nice chat with him.
“I like to try to talk to some of the vets, as they all have a story to tell — and I think they want to tell it . . . in most cases. I know there are those who cannot talk about their service . . . and I say a special prayer for them.”
In memoriam
Willard B. Shapira of Roseville: “I am among many mourning the death of singer Leonard Cohen.
“The night before he died, a friend in my apartment complex who had never heard of him was paring down her CD collection and gave me his two-disc greatest hits ‘Live in London’ CDs. [Bulletin Board wonders, idly: If she had never heard of him … oh, never mind!] I felt it was only right to reimburse her, unaware that when I did this, Cohen probably was on his death bed in his home at L.A.
“My late wife, Leslie Carole Johnson, introduced me to Cohen by schlepping me to a movie at a theater in Edina featuring Cohen in concert. I was hooked.
“You can find a terrific story about Cohen in a recent edition of The New Yorker, written by the editor-in-chief, no less, David Remnick. Just the other day I was trying, by email, to persuade him to do the same kind of story on another fabled Canadian singer, Gordon Lightfoot, who has sold out the house in his many appearances here over the years.
“If you’re unfamiliar with either of these giants, now’s the time to acquire some of their recordings.
“R.I.P., Leonard Cohen; you are, indeed, my man. Hallelujah.”
So … worse than, like, y’know, tons of iconic . . . whatever!
An up-the-wallism for The Retired Pedagogue of Arden Hills: “Subject: Give it a rest, please!
“A term I hadn’t heard before, and hope to never hear again, was used and overused in the coverage of the presidential campaign: ‘Will this/Has this moved the needle?’
“I’ll be more at rest if the needle has finally come to rest.”
Only a __________ would notice!
Mattzdad of Rochester: “Subject: Only a Mattzdad Would Notice!
“I drive a maroon 2014 Toyota Avalon. I pulled in to Menards South here in Rochester and parked.
“As I walked toward the door, I noticed another maroon 2014 Toyota Avalon parked a few spaces closer. What got my attention was that that car’s license is one digit after mine, with the same three-letter sequence. That meant Toyota Rochester not only sold that auto about the same time, but they went and applied for the license plate at the same time as mine and got the next plate in the sequence. What are the odds of that happening and them being the same maroon color?
“This is almost as good as getting a B-M on BB.”
Our theater of seasons
5/7/5 Division
B. Dazzled of South St. Paul: “Subject: Fall haiku.
“November branches
“rake the passing breeze and snag
“the full moon briefly.”
Our theater of seasons
Retired Teacher of New Richmond, Wisconsin: “Mounds View Swede‘s fall leaves pictures were spectacular [BB, 11/5/2016 and 11/11/2016]. We toured the fall leaves of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in October. We were told by a traveler, many years ago, that the U.P.’s were the best he had ever seen. He was right. We drove from the Wisconsin border to Copper Harbor, with beautiful color all the way. Here is a photo of Lake of the Clouds in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.”
And now more autumn visions from Mounds View Swede: “As we neared Lake Superior on our first photo visit to the U.P., we saw signs about a ski jump that was open for visitors on Sunday, the day of our arrival. We stopped at it and took the ride to the top. That gave us a view of what we could expect: miles of colorful trees. In this first photo, the distant hills at the top of the photo are the Porcupine Mountains.
“We got there three days later to see what that was like — and looking back, we could see the ski jump in the far distance.
These are ‘for-the-record’ photos, but not something we would submit in a competition or anything like that.”
BULLETIN BOARD SAYS: Good to know — because, as longtime Bulletin Board loyalists have repeatedly been advised, Bulletin Board is a collaboration, NOT a competition.
Now & Then
Grade School Taunts Division
Red’s Offspring, north of St. Paul: “Subject: Hey, you, with the dunce cap!
“More wisdom from the lanes:
“While reminiscing with Larry, a member of another team in the bowling league, he came up with this putdown from his grade-school years: ‘Just because your head comes to a point, it doesn’t mean you’re sharp!’ ”
Band Name of the Day: Bargain Basement
Website of the Day, from Double Bogey Mike: “Fabulous Hollywood Stars & Their Classic Cars,” at http://www.rense.com/general96/fabcars.html
Bulletin Board 