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The Larger than Life Lehners |
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Dedicated to the sunshine of truth, the moonshine of meeting deadlines, and the starshine of Victoria. |
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8661 Deer Run Dr. * Victoria 952-443-2351 |
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by Sue Orsen Life is barely big enough to contain the Lehners. Their pages overflow with large stories that center on fate and faith. Their electric personalities can be shocking. Their fashion is flamboyant. The spectrum of color in their galleried life exceeds anything done by Crayola. If a normal home is like a chicken coop, Al and Louise Lehner are the roosters. If a normal home is like a beehive, Louise is the Queen Bee. If a normal home is like a jungle, Al is the Lion King. The Lehners celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on October 11th with an elaborate evening of dinner, wine, music, showmanship, and more exhibits and photo displays than the Carver County Historical Museum. When Louise spoke at the microphone, Al didn’t take his admiring eyes off his bride. When Al spoke, Louise nodded approvingly. Al doesn’t mind that his wife is the CEO in their family, as long as she recognizes that he is the president. Back in 1990 when Louise wanted to buy a lot at Deer Run in Victoria, Al had said, “We have three kids in college! How are we going to pay for it?” When Al went pheasant hunting, Louise put money down on the lot. Says Al today without rant or rancor, “The CEO made another decision without the president.” It’s been 50 years of moving mountains and making memories. Their lives began -- separately, of course -- in central Minnesota where Al grew up milking cows by hand and Louise was also a farmer in the dell. Ever since they met and married, however, their stories have been larger than rural life. Al switched out his pitchfork for a golf club. Louise turned in the tractor for a pink Cadillac. *** Alphonse Clarence was born to Joseph and Anna Lehner on July 24th, 1941, at St. Francis, Minnesota. It’s near Albany, which is near Alexandria. Al’s dad came to the U.S. from Germany when he was 11 years old. “I was born in a farmhouse,” said Al. “All nine of us kids -- six boys and three girls -- were born in that house. It’s still there. My dad sold the 160-acre farm for $25,000 while I was in the Service. That was fine with me. I guess it was pretty good money back then. I didn’t want to farm.” “We raised everything,” he continued. “We needed to survive. It was a dairy farm. I had to get up every day and milk cows before school. That’s why I joined the Army. Then I learned I had to get up at four o’clock in the morning to do calisthenics.” Where did Al and his many brothers and sisters go to school? “It was a country school, District #177,” he replied. “It was one room for grades one to eight. There were 32 kids in the school -- four in my class, three boys and one girl.” How about high school? “I went to Upsala High School, home of the Cardinals,” said Al. “We used to whack Louise’s high school in Holdingford in every sport.” What did boys do for fun out in the boonies? “We got together with the neighbors from St. Rosa and Greenwald and played baseball in the cow pasture,” he said. Al graduated from Upsala High School in 1959. Shortly thereafter, farm life changed for the better. “We got hit one too many times by a cow tail, sometimes a wet tail,” he added, “so Dad got surging machines and then it was a piece of cake. We hooked up the machine and watched it go to town.” What were his parents like? “Mother was pretty strict. Dad was easygoing.”
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The Victoria GAZETTE |
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Victoria’s Corner Bar. Nightly Specials and Menus. 952-443-9944 |
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November 2014 |
