Available exclusively at the Silver Lake Café, Silver Lake, Minnesota
Volume III, Issue 1 Fall 2007
Animals in a Cage
Imagine a large pen with cute rabbits inside. The rabbits are well fed and there is enough room for them to exercise. They sleep well and get along with each other. As a result, they are happy and healthy.
Now the rabbits are moved to a much smaller cage with limited food. They become anxious and fight among themselves when food is presented so that a lot of their food is wasted. There is no longer room for them to run. Also, a coyote has discovered the pen. The rabbits live in fear. Because of all this, they are not happy or healthy.
We are the rabbits. Prejudices are the smaller cage. The resources of our planet are the food. War is the coyote. --Larry Yost
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Coffee Cake
There is no better breakfast on a weekend morning than a cup of coffee and a nice piece of coffee cake. Mix together the following ingredients: 4 well beaten eggs 1 cup sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 2 cups flour 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt
For a fruit flavors, pour half the batter into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Add a 16 ounce can of fruit filling and then the remaining batter. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 325 for 40 minutes. Frost with a glaze of powdered sugar and milk. For caramel flavor, mix 1 cup brown sugar with ¼ cup melted butter. Put all the batter into the 9 x 13 pan. Then crumble the brown sugar/butter mixture on top. Swirl into the batter with a knife. Bake at 325 for 40 minutes. Yummy. --Helen Yost
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The One
All of the clean moments that came easily before Wooden eyes akin to the shadows of an amber forest floor Early autumn, my biggest surprise, those eyes Demurely folded, purely, with promised ties Single, though devoted was he, I unknowing, but aware Silence, I expressed silence, prediction I was to bear Inquisitive wooden eyes, melting into penetrating daydreams Shared dreams that may fall into future sorrowed streams A quiet year ached to pass him by, he was not mine Solemn, he breathed with officially borrowed time Questioning glances, easy at a distance, notable Wish of a touch, a hint of his being approachable I turned with one last look, and he was looking back at me As he stood beneath the sheltering shade of an oak tree
--Lisa A. Dauscher
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Silver Lake Gazette is now available online. Go to www.onzo.biz/SLG.html to read current and past issues of Silver Lake Gazette.
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From The Past -- Historical news items gleaned from the morgue of the defunct Silver Lake Pioneer-Commercial
26 Years Ago December 31, 1981 Pioneer Commercial The end of an era in Minnesota sports occurred a couple of weeks ago. Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, the site of numerous unforgettable major league sports events, hosted its final event prior to its meeting with the wrecking ball. The event was a gridiron clash between the Minnesota Vikings and the Kansas City Chiefs. Four young Silver Lake residents were witnesses at the historic event: twins Kendall and Keith Bielema, Eldon "Goof" Ball and Scott Rustad. The group brought home some tangible pieces of the stadium and other souvenirs, including foam padding from a centerfield grandstand, an armrest -- Eldon forgot the socket set in his El Camino so they had to leave the rest of the seat behind -- and a chunk of porcelein from a restroom toilet bowl and a Lonnie Warwick keychain. The foursome are planning to put the items on display soon at the historical museum. And the brats and kraut were as good as ever, they said.
50 Years Ago November 11, 1957 Pioneer Commercial Dr. B. F. Diele, former Silver Lake dentist now living in California, widely known as an adventurer, author, lecturer, conservationist and deacon at Silver Lake Lutheran, has authored a new novel of the Indian uprising in Minnesota in 1862. Entitled "Holy Cripes, What Do We Do Now?!", the novel has just been published by Good Read Books, Inc., of Denver, Colo. Dr. Diele was born near Morton, Minnesota, where he learned to know and understand his neighbors, the Sioux Indians.
90 Years Ago October 12, 1917 Pioneer Commercial The number of arrests made in any community varies inversely with "the degree of wetness or dryness" of that community is the explanation young Sheriff Tom Larson gave yesterday for the small number of persons who were detained last year in the county jail. Last year, the first dry year in Poplar County, shows the fewest number of persons, who were "sent up to Sheriff Larson's reception parlors on the hill" for many years. There were 31 persons detained in the county jail in 1916. In 1915, the last wet year, there were 48.
The teachers at Brownton will return from their Thanksgiving vacations after moving into their new home on the school grounds. The housekeeper for the teachers' club is Miss Beattie Hanson. State Inspector Bjorn Kildegaard said that the Brownton teachers' manse will prove "epoch-making in the history of education in Minnesota". --compiled by Mrs. Trygve Strindberg
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Tornado
I met this guy in a bar the other night. His name is John. We got to talking about how he lives on a farm with his family, his mom and his brother’s family. They have three houses. Telling about the three houses led to describing how they are physically arranged, which led to the story of a tornado destroyed the house that was previously on one of the building sites. John was watching an NBA game by himself at his house, about a quarter mile away from the other two houses. The weather alert scrolling across the bottom of the screen didn’t make much of an impression on him. However, when a tree came flying through the air by the picture window beside the TV he ran down into the basement. The southwest corner had stuff piled in it, so he went to the northwest corner. There was nothing to hold on to, and he hunkered down against the cement wall. Within seconds the house was ripped off the foundation, a three hundred pound fuel tank flew into him, and a tree branch rammed him in the face. Then it started to hail on him. John staggered upstairs and saw the devastation. All his trees and buildings were destroyed. His pickup was battered and sitting strangely atop a pile of rubble. Barefoot, he climbed the pile of nails and broken glass and got into his truck. It started and he drove it off the pile. He tried to drive to the rest of his family, but every way was blocked by fallen trees. When he got out of the truck, he saw his dad (who was still alive at the time) running to him. His dad had seen that the house was gone and expected the worst. John got a pretty big hug from his old man that day. Now it’s eight years later, and John and his family have rebuilt. Their days of wearing Salvation Army shoes and clothes are something to joke about. There is a new house on the site and a new pickup in the garage. John is a little luckier than the people who made it through after going down with the 35W bridge – no survivor’s guilt. Juts a renewed sense of the joy of being alive. --Fritz Urke
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I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. --James Baldwin
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Patriots
I was drafted into the Vietnam War. I didn’t like it and I didn’t believe in what we were supposedly fighting for, but I went. Now we’ve got another bogus war going on and my son is there as part of a volunteer army. Once again, I think the politicians who started and continue this war are wrong. That’s my right as an American. It’s unfortunate, but some people make speeches and write letters to the papers saying that those of us who don’t like their war aren’t patriots. That is their right as Americans. But their ideas about patriotism are as wrong as their ideas about the war. -- Pat McMahon
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Silver Lake Gazette Contributors
Helen Yost – my wife, owner of the Silver Lake Café Fritz Urke – semi retired plumber, regular customer at the Café Mrs. Trygve Strindberg – President of the Silver Lake Historical Society Lisa Dauscher – librarian at Sleepy Eye High School Pat McMahon – co-proprietor of Jack and Jill’s Quilting and Music Larry Yost – editor (LarryYostSLG@aol.com)
Sponsored by:
Jill & Jack’s Quilting and Music On Main Street in Silver Lake since 1997