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Tom

I went to view the Roger Maris Museum in the mall on Thursday, December 11. The small museum is a collection devoted to a baseball player who was raised in North Dakota. This museum has a timeline of his life and all of his achievements. The exhibit also contains jerseys from three of the baseball teams he played for (Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Athletics, and the Yankees) along with awards and trophies he earned. Maris broke and set several home run records. He was most famous when he played for the Yankees who were arguably the most talented team at the time. One of his greatest achievements was winning the American League's Most Valuable Player. The museum also has a small room where they play a video on the life of Roger Maris. Maris was still successful in life after he retired from baseball as he went on to own a Budweiser distributorship in Florida. In 1983, Maris was diagnosed with lymphoma. This sparked the development of his foundations raising money for cancer research. The museum in West Acres is a dedication to a man, and a way of saying "thank you" to Roger Maris for his generosity in giving back to his community.

So how does this tie in with history and the plains? We had a lecture that was focused on community involvement on the plains. Roger Maris is a positive role model that adds to the identity of the city of Fargo. He never forgot his roots and eventually gave back to his community, and I would guess the majority of people from Fargo know who he was. I think his personality is a reflection of the warm-hearted people found on the plains. It is usually a big deal when small towns in North Dakota have athletes that go professional. Examples of this are found with Travis Hafner (Jamestown, ND) and Jimmy Kleinsasser (Carrington, ND). A huge billboard was put up on I-94 honoring Hafner. In Carrington, old Kleinsasser jerseys are hanging in the high school. I think this plays into a community placing itself on the map through its children who have become famous.~Chris Schmaltz

I recently read "Solomon D. Butcher, Photographing the American Dream." Solomon D. Butcher was born on January 24, 1856 in Burton, Virginia. He first moved out west with his family in March 1880. Butcher experienced numerous hardships and moved back and forth from places in the East to Nebraska. He finally settled in Nebraska with his wife Lillie in October 1882. Butcher attempted many different business ventures, all of which proved unsuccessful. His love was always photography but there wasn't always a demand for photographers on the Plains. Amidst many get rich quick schemes, Butcher had a dream of photographing and compiling a history of Custer County and some surrounding counties in Nebraska. He began traveling around to different homesteads and photographing them and writing down the family's stories. As usual with Butcher, money soon ran out and he thought the project was a failure. It is only because of a gift from E.S. Finch, a wealthy cattle rancher, that the project became a reality. The book sold over 1,000 copies.

Butcher's collection of photographs is extremely valuable to anyone interested in early life on the Plains. Most of the photos in the book have people outside their homes. Some include additional buildings and livestock. One of my favorite photos in the book is of Lookout Point in Cherry County, Nebraska. Butcher took the photo because there was a strange grove of trees there. It stood out because trees were rare in the area. Strangely enough, by the time the photo was taken, all the trees had been cut down. Butcher took the photo anyway and did some old-fashioned photo-shopping and drew trees in. He actually did "editing" on a number of different photos sometimes to cover up flaws in the actual photo. It makes the photos very interesting because his edits don't look real at all. I enjoyed looking through the photographs and seeing the different homes, buildings, and people. Butcher did Great Plains history a great favor in preserving images of early settlement on the Plains of Nebraska.

This year I attended the Charles Dickens Fest in Garrison North Dakota on Saturday November 29th. At the Dickens Fest, all of the vendors dress in clothing from the period of Charles Dickens and plenty of entertainment is in store for everybody. Some of the entertainment available is, wagon rides, a light parade, a craft show, street vendors and the play, “God Bless Everyone.” The street vendors and the craft show are my favorite part of the festival. One of the vendors sells Turkey legs every year and they are really good. Also the craft show has lots of interesting things for sale such as homemade fudge, crochet angel decorations, and many others. I personally know the ladies that sell the crochet angels, and it’s interesting to see how much work goes into crocheting the angels and then starching them so they are stiff enough to stand up. The horse drawn wagon is also fun, especially at dark, because you are able to see the lights that decorate the homes of Garrison.
The Dickens Fest is a way for the tiny town of Garrison, North Dakota to draw tourists and make some money for their town. Garrison even calls itself the Christmas Capitol of North Dakota. Every year about 1,500 people come to the Festival every year. I think it’s neat to see all of those people in old fashioned clothing; it transports you back to that time period in its own way.

"Men with Brooms" is about a curling team, brought back together after ten years apart when their curling coach dies. In the coach's will he tells the team that he wants them to start the old curling team up again. Throughout the movie there are conflicts between the two daughters of the deceased coach due to their interest in a member of the curling team. This movie is centered in Canada, where curling seems to be a pretty important sport. The entire movie is about resolving old feuds and sticking to family in hard times. I thought this movie was fairly good, but I don't personally find curling to be a very thrilling sport. They try to make curling more dramatic by using slow motion and the right music, but unless you are really interested in curling, it's hard to truly be impressed with this movie. My favorite part of the movie is when the ashes of their deceased curling coach are put in a curling rock. In the coach's will he makes this odd request, but throughout the movie you get the impression that the spirit of the coach is supposed to be there with them. The team talks to the rock and brings it with them, especially when they are going through a hard time. Parts of the film are kind of goofy, but overall I think it's a good movie.

I Interviewed Grandpa Ernie Hart on Sunday December 7th. The reason why I interviewed my grandpa is because when I was growing up he always told me and my cousin stories about when he was a young boy and about his dad. My Grandpa is one hundred percent German. But my Grandpa comes from a special kind of Germans his relatives came from the German-Russians across the Volga River.
My Grandpa always likes telling stories about where he came from and how they came to live where they live now. When I talked to my Grandpa he told me about how my Great-Grandfather had to escape from Russia by swimming across the river. My Grandpa wasn’t sure exactly which river that he had to swim across but he knows his dad had to sneak out in the dead of night and swim across the river to freedom. His dad and mom came to where they live now out in the country east of Parkers Prairie by a little town called Rose City. My Grandpa was born in 1938 and as he was growing up till he went to school all they spoke was German in the family and then him and his brother Dale went to school which was 2 miles from there house. They had to walk it everyday they went to school. I know for a fact they had to walk up hill both ways because I have ridden horse that way many times. When my Grandpa went to school he went home and taught his mom and dad English because they didn’t know how to speak a lot of English. My Grandpa also talked about his dog snippy that his parents had given him. He told me stories of how snippy would follow him around and pull his little wagon around with him in it. That story made me laugh a lot. My grandpa also told me stories about how he and his dad worked on their family farm growing crops and raising animals. Grandpa’s favorite animal to work with was the horses but nothing has changed from that he still to this day loves working with his horses. My Grandpas passion has always been working on the family farm ever since he was little. For a while he worked at the local granary but he always came home to the farm. Even my dad and his brothers and sisters worked on the farm.
Today the family farm is still in the family our family the Hart’s but as my Grandpa was telling me our last name wasn’t always spelled Hart it was spelled Hardt which is High German which meant a bank or slope with trees, it is not found in German language today. I thought it was really interesting how my relatives came all this way not knowing how to speak English and made a life and turned it into a family farm. I would have really liked to meet my Great-Grandparents just to hear of there adventures from Russia to the United States to what is home now. My close family all live within a 10 mile radius of where my Grandpa and Grandpa live which I love because we are so closely tied. Even though when my Grandpa was a little boy and he spoke mostly all German till now where he recognizes words but can’t speak it fluently anymore he still has the memories of it. My Grandpa only told me some stories but I know he has a lot more and I hope that some day soon that I can record all of his stories and the stories of my ancestors.


Reference:

http://www.reference.com/search?q=Hardt – Reference on the word Hardt.


http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc/articles/magazines/articles/mcintosh.html -Germans from Russia Heritage.

http://www.rollintl.com/roll/grsettle.htm - Settlement map of German Russians.

When "Picnic" was first played in 1955, it was one of the "sultriest, sexiest" movies at that time. Now days it’s not nearly as "sexy" as many of the movies we have today. The movie is about a drifter (William Holden) who makes his way to a small Kansas town by way of freight train. William"s character is looking for his successful buddy from college, who offers William a job at the grain elevator he owns. William's character ruins his job opportunity by chasing after his college friend’s girlfriend (Kim Novak). The day after Williams character’s arrival, there is an annual picnic. This is where things start to go wrong. William’s character starts hitting on his friend’s girlfriend (Kim Novak) and they start talking about running away together. Of course in the end that is exactly what happens. The drifter catches another train because he needs to desperately get out of town and his friend's girlfriend follows him on the next train headed in his direction.
I thought this movie was somewhat corny. In 1955 I’m sure it was probably considered "sexy and sultry" but for a movie today it's nowhere near "sexy and sultry." The movie starts out with William Holden taking off his shirt, which in 1955 is probably a big deal. Also the mother of Kim Novak's character keeps saying how she should marry the rich boyfriend she already has. Her mother makes it seem like marrying into money is better than marrying for love. I’m sure that her mother is just concerned about her daughter's well being, but money isn't everything.

"Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story," is a biography of the father of Canadian Medicare, Tommy Douglas. Tommy Douglas started out as a pastor with a concern for the people of Canada. When Tommy decided to run for a position in the Canadian government, he quit his job as a pastor and began spreading the views of the socialist Canadian Commonwealth Federation to anybody willing to listen. Several comments were made that Tommy and the CCF (Canadian Commonwealth Federation) were communists, but Tommy finally won over the people of Saskatchewan and served as Premier for many years. Tommy started to push for government paid medical care when he how his sick father was not able to afford much needed medical attention. When watching this movie, Tommy Douglas seemed to be very passionate about his goals and never really gave up. There was even one part in the movie when his staff goes to his wife because they are worried Tommy is working himself to hard.
I thought this movie was interesting because I didn’t really know much about Canadian Medicare before watching this movie. It was also interesting to see the differences between the Canadian and American governments carry out business. This is a good movie for anybody interested in politics, history, or biographies. The movie is very historical, but is also entertaining.

In response to what Amanda was saying I think you kind of missed what I was trying to say or possibly I just did not word it right. I was not trying to say the book was boring because I did find much of the book interesting especially with regards to the big things however the point that I was trying to get across is that the book is a good reflection of the style of writing in the region and it fits in well with our culture here. But I think you do have to admit that the chapter about prairie grass did not exactly leave one on the edge of their seat with excitement.

Dakota Circle is an awesome book and the class discussion was interesting. Everyone seemed to view the book the same way in that: it was a narrative, it was written towards adults but in easy conversational language, and it was written on secondhand accounts of stories. It seems like Mr. Isern hears a lot of stories and has to investigate. This I'm glad for because it made me more curious and I see others are now too. We all agreed on that Mr.Isern spends a lot on gas, and he is a conversationalist. Meaning the whole book felt like we were back in class and he was just talking to us which was comfortable. We also came to the conclusion that the stories discover the identity of the plains. They show how the people are and where they are coming from. Also that the book is entertaining. Most of the stories were funny and gave a reason for people reading the book a reason to laugh. I can tell the whole class enjoyed the book as much as I did. I'm sure we all will miss the class dearly.