Country Music Hall of Fame

Yesterday I spent a few hours at the country music hall of fame in Nashville. From the moment I stepped in the building I kept thinking about how much dad would have loved it. The Patsy Cline exhibit was fantastic and hearing her recordings made me think of dad's favorite song of hers....Crazy. He also liked Walking after Midnight. Seeing Tammy Wynette and George Jones' costumes took me back to the days when mom and dad would play their records and we'd all sing along. The Heehaw exhibit reminded me of fun family nights spent watching Heehaw and eating buttered popcorn. I know you were with me,dad, as I listened to all of those old tunes and thought about how country music was always a consistent thread in our lives. PS...I looked for Bobby Bare but I don't think he is a member of the Hall of Fame yet.

Nashville

Top reasons reasons I am missing dad in Nashville: 1. This is music city and he loved country music. When I heard George Jones and Tammy Wynette piped in at the hotel last night I knew dad would have loved it here. 2. Today I am going to try to get to the Patsy Cline exhibit. She was one of dad's favorites. 3. This is a work trip and I used to always call dad from the road and tell him what I was learning. He always wanted to know about the latest theories of school reform.

Election Returns

As I am nervously watching election returns come in tonight I am missing dad. I know he would have been on the phone with me offering commentary and predictions. So far I think he'd be pretty excited about the night's results.

Faulty Umbrella

Today's story was another that I heard from Uncle Stan this weekend: When dad was about five years old he and Stan had gone out berry picking. My suspicion is that Grandma Vi wanted some berries to make a pie. As they picked the clouds got darker and darker and it started to rain. Dad started to get scared and began crying. Each boy had a bucket so Stan had the brilliant idea of letting dad use his bucket as an umbrella. They emptied all the berries into Stan's bucket and dad put the bucket over his head. The problem was the the bucket was made of tin and only exaggerated the sound of the raindrops. Dad cried even harder and Stan had the difficult job of explaining himself when he got home.

Deer Hunting Weekend

Dear Dad, Well we survived deer hunting weekend without you. I think everyone was a little lost without your guidance and oversight. Steve managed to bag a decent sized buck and Shawn got two huge bucks. Even Mike shot something that wasn't out of the nursery. You'd have been proud! Mom kept everyone fed with her homemade buns, wild rice hotdish, sweet potato pie and caramel rolls. We attended church today and Stella decided we needed to sit in the front pew. In retrospect this was probably not a good decision since we each went in and out at least twice with the little ones. The kids loved seeing your bench at the cemetary and we told them they could sit on it if they had something they wanted to tell you. Stella kept asking where grandpa Myles was. We love you dad and we miss you more than we can say. I think it hit us all at different times this weekend but we are plugging away and trying to make you proud.

Potatoes from the garden

We enjoyed a great day in Thief River Falls today while Jason and Steve hunted. The highlight was mom's mashed potatoes made from potatoes we planted on the day of dad's memorial service. It was Katy's idea to do something that dad would have loved so we got all the kids into the act and planted those potatoes. Today we enjoyed the fruits of our labor. They were delicious!

Fast Money

We are up north in Thief River Falls for the whitetail opener. As we drove further and further north today I was struck by how much I love the prarie. I know many people don't find these vast stretches of open land beautiful but something about all this open space speaks to me. It's probably because it's home! We enjoyed a delicious pre-hunting meal made by my mom...my favorite wild rice hotdish. As we visited about the past few months and shared stories Uncle Stan told me a great story about dad for tonight's blog. The Olson's spent a lot of time as young boys trapping gophers. Back then Kratka township paid 5 cents for a gopher tail and so both Stan and Myles had a jar of gopher tails filled with salt to turn in to the county for their compensation. About this time the family took a trip out to California. When they were in Nevada they stopped at a gas station and Grandpa Rufus let each boy spend one of their hard-earned nickels on a slot machine. Dad struck it rich and came back with a handful of coins. "This is way better than trapping gophers", he remarked. Now we know where his love for the casino came from.