Beary Good Fun!

Today's story was inspired by a story I heard on the radio this morning about a bear being shot in a suburb of the twin cities.

My bear story took place near Thief River Falls when I was a little girl. My grandpa Kenny was hunting with my dad and his family and he had the good luck of shooting a black bear. The hunters skinned it and hung it in our garage. The next morning my mom got up and got ready to go teach. She had trouble locating her winter boots. She looked around the house and finally found them in the garage...each one on one of the bear's feet. I'll give you three guesses who put the boots on the bear and the first two don't count.

Who's coming for dinner?

As many of you know my mom is a fabulous cook. What you might not know is that my dad was famous for rustling up dinner guests without telling my mom. He'd come in around 4 pm and ask, " Is it ok if so and so joins us for dinner? I figured we have enough food."

Mom would roll her eyes, take out another package of meat and begin the preparations. Although I know this annoyed mom on occasion I don't think my dad could help it. He always wanted to share what he had with others and he was so proud of mom's cooking he wanted everyone to know how great she was. He also couldn't stand to think of someone eating alone.

Dad, we'll miss your extra dinner guests but we'll do our best to keep your tradition alive...we just might give mom a little more than a half an hour's warning.

The 4 am toe tug

I have spent the last few days at the cabin with my mom.  It has been a hard two days because this place is just filled with my dad.  One of the things I thought about this morning was the 4 am toe tug.  Here's what would happen;  If you were interested in fishing in the morning you had to let dad know.  He'd sneak up the stairs and pull on your toe to let you know it was time.  You had about 3.3 seconds to get up or you'd be left behind.  If you successfully made it out of bed you'd soon find yourself in the legendary coon truck and heading to *Potato* Lake.  ( Ok, we never really fished Potato but I can't disclose the good fishing spot to all of you.)  You'd listen to Bobby Bare and if you were lucky you'd be reeling in a walleye within about ten minutes.  Ok, let's be honest.  You didn't need luck if you had dad as your guide. 

I missed your 4 am toe tug this morning dad but I promise we'll be out on *Potato* soon slaying those walleye.

The Unwedding

As many of you know I almost married the wrong guy. My wedding was scheduled, the invitations were sent out and the church was booked. About a month before the big day I got a call from a friend. She asked me what I loved about the guy I was going to marry and I had a hard time coming up with a list. I knew this was a bad sign. I called my dad and told him I was having doubts. He said,"Oh, Heather. This is just a big party that we are planning but being married is for the rest of your life. Let's make some calls and call it off. " He was so supportive and did not ever worry about the money we'd already spent. He told mom that the worst thing would have been to see me unhappy.

Thanks, dad, for your wisdom and calm in challenging situations. I always knew I could tell you anything and you'd understand. Steve is taking good care of me.

Pool Problems

When I was little I often had pool birthday parties at the Best Western.  These were great fun and I looked forward to them each year.  On the year I'm remembering many of my friends were sitting in the hot tub and talking with my dad.  When they got out of the hot tub I noticed they all kept trying to crane their heads around to see the back of their suit.  I asked them what they were looking for.  They said, "Your dad told us that if we peed in the pool our suits would turn red."  I'm guessing the Best Western had to use a bit more chlorine on this particular day. 

Dad also tried this trick on my daughters and I notice that they too occasionally try to see if there are any red marks on their suit. 

Trick or Treat

My dad was a huge practical jokester.  Today I'll share just one of his famous pranks.  I think my cousins were about 5 and 7 at the time. 

We'd just learned that my cousins, Michael and David Olson, were coming for a visit.  This was cause for great celebration!  My sisters and I had big plans.  We'd subject them to barbie doll fashion shows, teach them the Olson "pig dance" and more.  Dad had plans up his sleeve too.  He decided that he and my mom should put on Halloween masks to scare the kids into thinking their Minnesota relatives were monsters.  It worked a little too well.  The kids came up the steps and David and Michael both burst into tears.  It took the better part of a week to convince them that their aunt and uncle were, in fact, human...but a little strange!

Mirror, Mirror

As a father of 3 daughters my dad had very little time in the bathroom. Since we grew up in a house with only one bathroom for all of us it was inevitable that one of us was either curling our hair( some of you have seen my senior pictures...that masterpiece took a lot of time), putting on make up or getting ready. One my dad's favorite things to do was to come in, look in the mirror at his reflection and say, " Thank you Lord, for putting all of your eggs in one basket." We'd roll our eyes and continue getting ready.