Victoria MN Newspaper

To the Editor:

With the continued severe weather in the Upper Midwest, people should be keeping their natural gas meters clear of snow and ice and do so safely. People can visit www.xcelenergy.com for information on natural gas meter safety.

Thomas Hoen

Minneapolis, Minnesota

To the Editor:

Unfortunately, due to the weather today, there will be no rehearsal again tonight [Thursday, February 20th]. Please reply immediately to this email so I know you got the message. I'll be starting to make phone calls soon for anyone I don't hear back from.

Those of you who have been attending rehearsals regularly know that we're working on some beautiful new music. It will be crucial over the next several weeks for everyone possible to make it to all rehearsals for the best attendance possible, as we continue to work on Lent, Holy Week, and Easter. Please be safe tonight.

Jamie Moore, St. Victoria

Director of Music and Liturgy

Victoria, Minnesota

To the Editor:

My mom passed away on February 17th, 1991. She was the oldest of 11 kids, born on May 13th, 1927, on a farm near Pierson Lake. She went to a country school until about 5th grade, then to St. Joe's at Waconia. She did the typical farm chores -- milk cows, feed chickens, etc. -- during the fall when the threshers were at the farm, with her dad. She rode a horse with a wagon behind to bring food for the guys.

Mom often told about what she experienced growing up -- the 1940 blizzard, her dad's Clydesdale horses, entering a cow at the Carver County Fair.

In the 1940's she left home at age 16 to work in Chaska's telephone office. She was a telephone operator in the old First National Bank, now Casualty Assurance. The "Hello Girls" wore a huge headset and sat in front of a switchboard with lots of wires. The caller would say, "Hello, Central, I'd like to be connected to the Chaska Diner." The operator had to plug in a wire and it led to the caller's party.

Mom also worked in the canning factory where the local school buses are stored now. A local gent often came to the phone office as he had a buddy there and his sister Ethel was a "Hello Girl" too. The young gent, out of the army and World War II, noticed the young Rosie Poppler.

At the time, Rosie was living with a co-worker Julia Tschiimperle who was widowed with four kids, and Rosie was an instant nanny. One evening Rosie and the gent went for a hike. Rosie comes home saying she met a nice fellow, Gene Meuwissen. They were married April 26th, 1947, at Guardian Angels Catholic Church. A private dinner was held at the farm with a public dance at the ballroom in Waconia.

Mom and Dad lived in a duplex for the first seven years and Dad's blind Uncle Alex built a new house for them on East 6th Street (Chaska) as Mom was expecting twins in 1954. Five kids in a duplex would be a bit small. Five more kids came after 1954.

I remember cloth diapers, wringer washers, glass baby bottles, baby shoes with little bells on them, Mom wearing curlers in her hair and wearing an apron -- a typical '50's and '60's mom.

I see Mom at the Legion cooking up a storm, 38 apple pies from scratch, 40 loaves of bread, 60 pounds of potato salad, 100 pounds of Swiss Steak, 800 or 900 pork chops, goulash, spaghetti, homemade sauerkraut, roast beef commercial dinners, homemade soups, chili, cakes, 60 dozen Easter eggs -- all that and carving turkeys at 4 a.m. for GA's church festival, picking strawberries for Talheim residents, bringing in garden goodies for them, taking them to church, delivering papers to the shut-in elderly people and Meals on Wheels. Mom was the original Run Around Rosie.

Kay Meuwissen

Chaska, Minnesota

To the Editor

Our 500-square foot shoppe expansion and the shoppe's 5th birthday party begins at 10 a.m. sharp on Thursday, March 6th. And because we need spring now, Spring Floral, Easter Bright and Beautiful Decor will be waiting for you. Let's hope we can say goodbye to the last Polar Vortex! Cheer yourself up by coming into my Real Deals shoppe on Stieger Lake Lane in Victoria. Celebrate TGIT or TGIF or TGIS (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) with me and enjoy all my shoppe has that will save your home from ordinary.

Ruth Ertl/Real Deals

Victoria, Minnesota

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