Ursula (Thoennes) & Dick DeBilzan

 

 

Greetings!  We got marrried in January, 1958 and raised 5 children.  We now have 17 grandchildren...and...11 great grandchildren.

We moved to Vadnais Heights, Minnesota and still live in the same house.  I was a stay-at-home mom almost all those years with a few part-time jobs along the way.

We have done some traveling since Dick retired in 1998.  And, for the past 15 years we have spent 3 or 4 winter months in the Rio-Grande Valley in Mission, Texas and hope to do that for many more years.

This picture was taken October 2012 in Montana while visiting our daughter, Linda and son-in-law who live in Billings, Montana.  Beautiful country!

Junior Class 1955

Charles & Jean (Lund) Esala Family

      Charles, Jean, Charles Francis & Kim Esala-Francis

Charlie giving a lesson and tour of his elk farm to Father LeRoy from Saint Ann's Parish and the visitors from their sister parish in Venezuela. 

 

 

The antlers in the velvet stage are used for nutritional supplements. Mature bulls with the trophy antlers are sold to hunting preserves in Colorado and Missouri.

Dennis Korkowski clowning around with Benigno
from Venezuela.       

 

 

 

Charlie of Doraisamy Elk Farm was featured on the Minnesota Cooks calendar.

Brandon HS football game in Millerville 1956

Brandon High School football game in Millerville 1956,

 because of the construction of a new  high school in Brandon. 

Jerry & Judy Klein Family

After graduating from high school, I attended St. Cloud State for one semester…then returned to the farm to work with my father.  I drove milk truck for Millerville Creamery from 1958 to 1961.  I worked with Roy Strom, driving gravel truck, school bus and cattle truck.  I bought my first truck in 1967, driving for Roy.  In 1968 Kenny Schjei took over the Strom Trucking business and I worked for him. 

 Soon after I started hauling groceries for Ludke and Company out of Alexandria, with a back haul of recycle paper and cardboard boxes for Huschke of Alex.  I continued hauling groceries until retirement in 2001, having several truckers hauling through me.  I continued the bookkeeping end of the business until the summer of 2012.

 

I married one of the Strom girls in September 1964 (I think Roy got a good deal but so did I).  We had children for three decades:  Jay in 1969, Jeremy in 1974, Joshua in 1980 and Jacob in 1982.  Weddings began in October 2003, and continued on to September 2004, February 2005 and October 2006.

Then the grandchildren came in groups:  January 10, March 28 & 30, 2006.  February 18 & 21 and April 14, 2008.  February 7 & June 16, 2010.  Eight grandchildren in 4-1/2 years.  They all live in the metro area and our travels are to and from their homes to care for them whenever needed. 

In 2004, I was asked to haul gravel and dirt for Brethorst Excavating of Brandon.  I witnessed the accidental death of our young boss on September 17, 2010 on the job site.  Later I worked for Mark Boesl of Millerville also hauling gravel and dirt locally, which I will continue to do as he needs an extra driver.

In the early 80’s I was instrumental in organizing softball leagues in Brandon.  We got some negative feedback in the local newspaper when we cut down a grove of trees to landscape four new softball fields.

I sang with the Gospel Messengers, also in the early 80’s, a group from our Chippewa Lutheran Church, started by Dave and Diann Thompson.  We sang in many churches in the area and we traveled some, mostly on Sunday’s for a morning or evening service. 

 

Duane Johnson, Jerry Klein, Diann & Dave

Thompson, Marcia Larson Bolin & David Klukken

Classes of 56 & 57

Grade 1 & 2 classmates...please help fill in the question marks and correct spelling of names.

 

Row 1: Grace Lund, James Solum, James Anderson, Christella Goering, Wayne Bends, Marie Stich, Beverly Schroeder

Row 2:  Janice Strom, Karen Solum, Connie Bends,  ?, Annette Nootnagel, Nancy Jenkins

Row 3:  Mrs. Lucy Nordberg, David Wettstein, Jerome Kelly, David Thompson,  ?,  ?

Class of 1957 -- Grade 1
Row 1: Grace Lund, Christella Goering, Marie Stich, Annette Nootnagel, Nancy Jenkins
Row 2: Mrs. Lucy Nordberg, Rodney Nordberg,  ?, Wayne Bends, James Solum, James Anderson

Brandon Warriors Basketball Team 1956

The tournament was held at Glenwood .

Front L- R:    Francis Anderson, Jerry Klein, Jerry Kelly, Dave Wettstein,

                    Dennis Roers & Charles Esala

Back L- R:    Arland Sletto, Jim Pischke,  Duane Lorsung, Norbert Otto, Leonard Cichy, 

                    Wayne Bends & coach Les Anderson.

 The Warriors had an 18-2 record for the season.

6 Year Reunion--1963 Nostalgia

 

 Florence (Bettin) & David Hvezda

Jean & Fritz Anderson

 

Christella (Goering) & Dennis Korkowski

Grace (Lund) Heinrich & Family

Grace  -  Linda  -  Lana  -  Laurie



And then we grew to: Texans--10 and Minnesotans--10 with one Chicagoan.

Thanksgiving Dinner in Texas with deep-fried turkey
prepared by David, right front.

 The tie was broken with the addition of two new Texans--Kate and Caroline
 

Travel anytime...

my packing list is ready to activate at a moment's notice

 

One of many plays seen in Chicago

 The likenesses on these bronze statues to the pictures I remembered
were almost eerie...in Little Rock.

 Sitting in Elvis' booth at the Arcade Restaurant in Memphis...the owners had painted a big Arcade sign on the mirror on the back wall so fans could not see Elvis sitting in the booth eating his favorite banana/peanut butter sandwich.

 My favorite man from history and his family at the Lincoln Museum in Springfield.

Out-of-this-world coconut shrimp at Macky's on Oahu.

 

I am very fortunate to be working very flexible hours as a bookkeeper, about 25 to 35 hours per week as needed, with a friend from my church

in Saint Paul

 

Mr. Arvie Rosenberg

Business Education, Annual & Newspaper Advisor

Dave & Betty Wettstein

After getting a degree in Mathematics, I taught for a couple years in Minnesota before heading west to teach college in Oregon and Washington. In 1985 we left the US to teach overseas in private schools in the countries of Turkey, Egypt, Aruba, England and Indonesia.  We retired on our return to the US where we spent our time snow skiing, biking, fishing and traveling. 

We recently bought an old resort on Pelican Lake near Ashby and have been busy remodeling, where we spend our summers.  Our winter home is Palm Springs, California.

Cheering you on ...

 

 

 

 

Chris & Grace coaxed Lola (Haak) Kvalvog to join in to cheer you on to 

send in your pictures and stories for this blog

 

 

 

Bernice Daas & Family

 

My favorite hobby--dancing with Darold Grimm.

I have been retired for 5 years.  Worked at Trevilla of New Brighton for 31 years.  Worked in laundry and housekeeping.  I still do some housecleaning jobs with my daughter-in-law.  Have been making all my own greeting cards and doing some crocheting.  In the summer we do a lot of canning fruits and vegetables.  We go dancing on weekends.  Attend a few Polka Fests – Ellsworth, Wisconsin – Duncan, Iowa – Stump Lake, North Dakota and a few other ones throughout the year.

We plant a small garden every year.  I have flower gardens to take care of in my yard.    Also have many plants in my house, 20 + violets and many other assorted plants.

Darold is kept busy all summer.  He refinishes furniture and is quite a handyman around the house.  Can’t forget he is a great dancer.  We are kept busy and enjoy retirement.

Jerome (Jerry) Klein & Family

Jerry with walking stick with his family to his left, Steven, Nicole and Bali.  His friends are surrounding them.

Junior Class Play " The Adorable Imp." 1957

Carol ( Berge ) Severson played a colored woman in the play.  She dyed her hair black which made her mother very unhappy.   Florence ( Bettin ) Hvezda was the make-up artist with Grace ( Lund) Heinrich looking on.  Grace supplied the picture.