Morris
Minn. Christmas 2014
“Silent night, holy night, all is calm all is bright”
With the words of this familiar hymn I greet you once again with my annual
Christmas letter.
Weather news:It was a very cold winter ,with a lot
of -0 temps, and snow, a late spring again, it was late May, before major
fieldwork got going, but once they got going ,farmers were able to get crops in
w/out too much trouble, some local heavy rains during the early summer led to
some crops getting drowned out, and major damage to the local library and St.
Mary’s school here in Morris ,by mid- summer things dried out, but some timely
rains gave crops a good boost. Harvest proceed without too many delays, yields
were good although not as good as previous yrs. Most farmers were done by early
Nov. and just in time, as winter returned early this yr. with about a ft. of
snow and some cold weather on Nov 11th. Mid Dec brought some unseasonably mild
weather that melted a lot of the snow, but it did not last long.
Church news Rev. Mary Dodgson who had been our
interim pastor at St. John’s/ Kongsvinger since early Oct ‘13, resigned her
position in Oct., she and her sister moved back to the cities. A farewell dinner
for her was held on Oct 12th, her final day here was Oct 15th.
Rev Rochelle Anderson from Morris, filled in for several weeks, until Deaconess
Deb Robinson from St Joseph MN accepted our call to be the new interim pastor,
her first Sun here was Nov 30th; we had a welcoming dinner for her
on Dec 7th at Kong. Discussion is still
ongoing as to the future of our parish. We had two young people confirmed in
our parish this year. Other events included ss program at Kong. , Klcw advent
brunch, 4th of July celebration, community block party featuring the music of
the Orpheum family from Grand Rapids MN, a number of joint services and the usual
assortment of pot luck meals. GSLC news:
this summer PR. Mike and Martha Hanson sold their house in Glenwood and bought
the First Lutheran pastors house in Morris, moving into it on Aug 1st, his wife
accepted a job teaching in Brainerd ,he stayed in Morris for a few months ,until
accepting a call in that area. It is a very nice house, close to the school, and
a nice big green lot next to it. PR. Martha resigned as pastor of St John’s-Starbuck
in July to become a full time mother, and pastor’s wife, she helps out with ss
at GS now, we shared VBS with Zion this summer, Sun a.m. adult Ed was
discontinued in favor of weekly bible studies,. We had a special service to
remember the victims of abortion; advent and Lenten
services, the new addition has made things much nicer esp. during coffee hr. a
new “boulder” sign was recently installed in front of the church funded in part
by memorial gifts. Future projects
include paving the parking lot, and putting a steeple on the church. Other
church events were living nativity at faith, a concert by the Hainey family in Elbow
Lake, “new wine” homecoming concert at First-Morris, feed my starving children
had another successful packing event in Morris again this summer, paraphrase theatre,
and All state Lutheran choir concert at the LCMC church in Alex, captive free-
great plains concert at the Kensington LCMC church, and Dakota road in concert
at Trinity-Cyrus
Community news our annual Donnelly threshing bee
featured some nice ford TRs this year with the horse pull and parade popular
attractions again this year. Next yr. we will celebrate our 50th
with a double feature anything made in 1965 and farmal tractors and machinery
feature. We had good attendance at ice cream social and Halloween party this year;
our royalty were busy representing Donnelly again this yr. at about 2 dozen
parades and other events
Family news: As I am out and about the three most
common questions I get are: “how do you like living in town”, “How you are
doing”? And “How is Mark doing?” While I am happy in town, and glad to have a
nice home, in a nice location, I do miss the country esp. in the summer time “You
can take a boy of the county but not the country out of the boy” I get my “fix”
by making trips to Donnelly, usually at least once a week, often times going
across country to see what the farmers are doing, how the crops look etc. I
bought a good used electric golf cart this summer, after giving up on my old
gas one, after it kept burning out the coil and also invested in a used snow
blower (easier on my back). My health is fair, blood sugars are better, still
working on getting them more consistent ,as I tell people as long as I can get
up in the morning and put two feet in front of ea. other I am doing ok. Mark is
also doing well too; the follow-ups to his eye surgery last fall have all been
good. He is scheduled to go to Mayo in Rochester early next yr. for some tests
in his skin. His sister Linda, and her sister in law Sue, surprised him with a brief
visit here this summer, she is hoping that she and her brothers Jimmy and Bobby
will be able to come back this summer for the Herman all school reunion. We do
not see ea. other as much as we used to, as he has his interests and I have
mine, and usually are not the same. I am still writing my weekly column
Donnelly news for the Morris paper I continue to receive a lot of compliments
for it .esp. from former residents as I have found out “you can take a kid out
of Donnelly but you cannot take Donnelly out of the kid” When not doing that I
spend a lot of time on-line esp. on Facebook.
I was on the road again a lot this summer traveling to many community
celebrations, fairs, parades and other events in the area. The rest of my
family is “status quo” my aunt Pearl lives in apt here in Morris, I go visit
her on occasion, my cousin Jan and her husband Dennis still live and work in Alex,
my other cousins Carl (Billy) his wife Pat and sister Elnora are still in SC, I
am still a member of the donnelly community club, Stevens co genealogical
society, and the Stevens co rep party.
My contact info is e-mail aeanders@fedtel.net ph. 585-6435( h) 288-8692 (c) ad is 11 e 9th
st morris MN 56267 my website is donnellyminn.blogspot.com
One of the signs that you are getting older is the
increasing # of visitations and/or funerals you wind up going to during the yr.
and decreasing # of celebrations birthday parties, anniversaries etc. you go
to. I did attend two significant ones this yr. a 60th wedding
celebration for some friends, and a 99th birthday party for a former
Donnelly resident at the nursing home in Morris.
Wishing you a very blessed and happy Christmas The Anderson‘s: Allen and “Pr Buttons”
Dear Deaconess Deb this letter is a family tradition,
50+ yrs. ago my mom got the idea to start writing it after reading about it in
a farm mag and started doing it. She wrote
it out long hand, and then usually found somebody to type it up for her, and had
it mimeographed at the Donnelly school. As I grew up I began to help her esp.
after I took typing in h.s. By then we could have it copied it at the bank.
After I graduated from h.s I started doing more of it, then after she became
ill I have continued on with the help from family and friends and now modern
technology (i.e. computer & printer) make it a much easier job. My mom had
a stroke in ’88 and spent the next 6 years in the Morris nursing home, my dad
passed away in ’05 he was 97 years old. I have no brothers or sisters they were
married late in life and she lost her first child was told she could no longer
have other children but God knew better and a few yrs. later I came along. Mark
is a former neighbor of mine who moved back up here after spending 30+ years in
FL. He stayed with me for several months until he found an apt of his own, he
is the one who named my cat Pr. Buttons.
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