GHS 1927: Absolute Zero

In honor of the 90th anniversary.

Hands down, the greatest Glenwood High School football team in history.

Coach E.N. "Ed" Nordgaard led the 1927 Glenwood Sooliners* to an undefeated AND unscored upon season.

Coach Nordgaard. Multi-sport athlete at Luther College.
Member of that college's athletic hall of fame. 42 year Glenwood teacher, coach & Superintendent of Schools.**

Team Members.  (Note - not all are pictured below)

***

*   Note: The "Laker" nickname was not adopted until 1947

** E. N. Nordgaard. Coach.  Long-time Glenwood Superintendent of Schools xxx- xxx.  Member of Luther College athletic hall of fame - football, basketball, track.  42 years in Glenwood as teacher, coach, administrator.

*** Cliff Hansen went on to play for Luther College and professionally with both George Halas' Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cardinals in 1933 He tore up his knee tackling famed Green Bay running back, Johnny "Blood" McNally and walked with a limp for the rest of his life. He returned to Glenwood, serving as teacher, coach & athletic director for 29 years. Also a member of Luther College Athletic Hall of Fame. 
Note: the Chicago Cardinals became the St. Louis Cardinals and now the Arizona Cardinals.

And for those who want to relive 1927, here are Glenwood Herald / Pope Country Tribune game reporting.

       

     

 

Acknowledgments

• Yearbook photos courtesy of Jeannine Gilbertson Churchill.
• Newspaper clippings courtesy of Minnesota History Center.

Lots of familiar Glenwood names on this roster. Please help me out. If you have information on other members of this team, I would be pleased to update this post with that info.

Copyright © 2017 Dave Hoplin

Wimpy

I suspect every village has its characters, orphans from society's mainstream.  In my hometown, there were Fluke and Spook. But the most memorable character of my childhood was "Wimpy", presumably nicknamed for his resemblance to the Popeye comic character.

Wimpy lived alone in an apartment above McIver's Store and as far as I could tell, made a living by digging. My father would hire him, in those days before backhoes, to dig the myriad of ditches a plumbing and electrical business required. Sewer lines deep below the frost line; ditches for buried electrical wire from yard pole to house or business ... and perhaps a grave for the funeral business. And Wimpy was a master ditch digger, creating beautiful ditches, if you can say such a thing about a ditch. Straight and true with perfectly vertical sides. And then, once complete, his creation destroyed, filled in, like a wave destroying a sand castle.

Wimpy could often be seen on main street, standing by the wooden, outside stairway to his apartment above McIver's, rocking back and forth from one foot to the other - for hours. You might expect that he would be a target of ridicule, particularly by ignorant juveniles. But I cannot recall witnessing a single instance. He was one of the innocents. I can't recall ever hearing Wimpy utter a single word so it was tempting to view him as a kind of robot, but of course he was not.

A case in point: ... Hoplin & Nelson hardware had a long canopy over the front door and the display windows. Above the canopy was a high redwood front which required regular painting.

My father was up on the canopy doing that tedious task and when he was about to take a break for lunch, he discovered the ladder to the canopy was no longer there ..

and Wimpy below,  laughing.


Copyright © 2017 Dave Hoplin

Left in the dust

A century ago, railroads were the dominant US industry, the playground for the monopoly moguls of the late 19th century, the J.J. Hills & J.P Morgans of the world. But today, when you think of corporate behemoths, you would probably think Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg,  Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet & perhaps the Koch brothers. Computers, social media, investment companies. What happened to Great Northern, Union Pacific, Atchison - Topeka & the Santa Fe? Of course there are many reasons for businesses to decline and fail. New technology supersedes the old. You can't sell buggy whips in an automobile age or film in a digital camera age.

I believe many businesses, railroads among them, failed to prosper due to a lack of vision and an unwillingness to evolve - a denial of a changing world. In the case of railroads, had they defined themselves as "railroads" rather than "transportation companies", or even "land development companies", history might be different. Railroads did not decline because the a need for passenger and freight transportation disappeared. With bolder vision, you might be flying "Great Northern Airlines" or receiving your Amazon delivery from B&O Packaging Service (BOPS) instead of UPS. (Southern Pacific seems to have been more prescient - it evolved into Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Network Telecommunications - SPRINT).

There are numerous examples companies that died on the vine by single-minded focus on their product rather than the benefit they can bring to their customers. Typewriters rather than "word processing", buggy whips rather than "motivational devices", CDs rather than "music industry", newspapers rather than "information delivery", film rather than "images". Who's the next buggy whip company?  

Through my hazy crystal ball, here are 16 predictions for things that will become obsolete in your lifetime.

1. Checkout clerks & bank tellers. ATM-like machines will become more and more sophisticated. "Amazon Go" allows you to grocery shop and then "just walk out".  Tap your phone on entry and your purchases are logged and your Amazon account is charged.
2. The Post Office. You know it in your heart every time you walk to the mailbox. Most of your mail is junk and bills.
3. Your checkbook. "Plastic" or more to the point, Paypal & Apple Pay.
4. The delivered newspaper. Sad but true. No one but us old guys gets news there.
5. Telephone land lines. Nearly dead. You don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it.
6. Printed books. You say you will never give up the book that you hold in your hand and turn real pages. That is me and I represent the last vestiges of that antiquated thought. Actually, the book itself may be endangered. Seems no one under 50 reads books any more.
7. Owning your own car. Car sharing, on-demand rental e.g. Uber, ZipCar is the future.
8. Hospital Orderly. Think "medical robotics".  But - nurses will never be replaced by robots. Nurses are "unautomatable."
9. Long-haul truck drivers. Self driving vehicles and drone delivery portend their demise.
10. Radiologists. AI computers already read x-rays & MRI's better than humans
11. Assembly line jobs. The worker-less factory is in sight and in fact, any repetitive task job is doomed. Robots. 
12. Law clerks, stock brokers and any job that involves discovering information from printed or online material. The "Big Data" era is upon us. 
13. Movie theaters & Network TV. You are already abandoning this for streamed content.
14. Armies. Well, maybe not. Governments always seem to manage to engage in warfare. But cyber warfare, robotic machine gunners and drone attacks will change the way wars are fought.
15. Human friends. Welcome the "Personal Assistant Robot". Amazon's Alexa & "Hey, Google" are just the first incarnation. Envision this, "Hey, friend. You've been watching TV for 6 hours now.  How about taking a walk?". "Hey, friend. You've gone through a half a dozen ice cream tubs since your last vegetable." Couple this with your Facebook friends, you may never have to interact face-to-face with a real person again.
16. Privacy. Look back with nostalgia. It's gone. It's been gone for a long time. Most recently Congress approved giving internet providers the ability to sell your browsing history. A recent article in Wired described "How to Stop Your Smart TV from Spying on You". There are cameras on the street, in most buildings, in your computer and cell phone. Buy something, and your online ads seemingly instantaneously change to reflect that purchase, trying to get you to buy something else. Again and again.

And the disappearing department store is of course a foregone conclusion.

All we will have left are our memories.....  barring Alzheimer's.

BTW,  I've got a Walkman for sale.

Copyright © 2017 Dave Hoplin

The Strange Case of Mrs Snar

Nelson land on Stowe's Lake

The case of "Mrs Snar" is a strange piece of family lore. My great-grandfather, Carl Nelson, immigrated from Sweden in 1886 and purchased a farm north of Brandon, MN on Stowe's Lake.  (See my Fageras to Brandon post). In 1900, Carl and sons entered into an unusual agreement to acquire the property of the widow, Brita Snar. 

1895 Douglas County Census

According to 1895 Minnesota census records, Brita was the widow of Erick Snar, a Brandon doctor who had died in 1898. Brita was 77.

From 1900 to her death in 1909 at the age of 89 years, Brita Snar lived with the Nelsons on the Nelson farm in Brandon. She was known to spend her days sitting on the porch smoking her pipe. She upset my grandmother Esther by drooling on the wood stove. 

The following is an excerpt from the "Bond for Support" signed & sealed by Carl, and sons Gust and John Nelson as part of a land transaction:

“… Lot No. 16 in Block 2 in the original townsite of Brandon, said Douglas County, .. in consideration of the following promise, covenant and agreement for the support and maintenance of the said Brita Snar made by the said Carl Nelson, to-wit:

The said Carl Nelson, in consideration of the premises, does hereby promise, covenant and agree to and with the said Brita Snar to support and maintain the said Brita Snar for and during the term of her natural life, rendering furnishing and giving unto the said Brita Snar during all of the said period good and sufficient food, clothing, shelter and care, and medicine and medical attention in times of sickness and infirmity, … 

the said Brita Snar to reside with the said Carl Nelson as a member of his family in the dwelling house of the said Carl Nelson situate on the southwest quarter of the northeast of section 8 in the Town of Brandon, said Douglas County, or in any dwelling house that said Nelson may hereafter reside and occupy with his family …  And the said Nelson further agrees at all times to treat the said Brita Snar in a kind, considerate and respectful manner and as a member of his family. 

… The undersigned further covenants and agrees to pay unto the said Brita Snar the sum of Five Dollars each and every year for and during the term of her life, if she demands the same. … 

Now, if the said Carl Nelson, his heirs, executors, administrators or assigns, shall well and truly perform each and all of the covenants conditions and agreements herein contained on his part to be kept and performed toward the said Brita Snar according to the true intent of this agreement, then the above obligation to pay the sum of $500 shall be null and void, otherwise to remain of full force and virtue.”  

IN WITNESS WHEREFORE 9 March 1900 ...

The photo below shows Mrs Snar (seated) with her nephew, Jacob Nelson and his wife. (The woman on the far right is unknown.  I also have no idea if Jacob Nelson might be related to the Carl Nelsons.)

Mrs. Snar (seated) presumably taken at their Brandon Home

The Nelson family, with in-laws and Brita & Erick Snar (3rd, 4th from left) 1890's - in front of the Nelson farm home
(Caveat: the identification of the Snars is based on photo comparisons and is unsubstantiated)

Bond for Support document