The City of Holdingford is hosting the Stearns County Municipal League's Semi-Annual Meeting 6:30 pm Jan. 15.08 at Holdingford City Hall
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities
1/15/2008
Holdingford Fire and Rescue Dept Given Award
From Mayor Schmit's Report: On behalf of the Community I would like to congratulate the Holdingford Fire and Rescue Department for being awarded the “Link To The Community Award” from Life Link Helicopter service. They were nominated because of their professionalism and creativity in getting an injured person on board a helicopter back in September, thereby saving a life. The award reads “In recognition of your dedication to patient care, outstanding teamwork and commitment to the good of the community. It is our privilege to work along side you.” Flight Supervisor, Life Link III. And also on behalf of the community, I would like to thank all the members of the Fire and Rescue Department for the great job they do for this community, we are lucky to have such a dedicated group of people. Thank You!
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities
1/13/2008
Millions (a lottery story) web site
Here is a link to the Paul La Blanc and Jordan Katon movie Millions (a lottery story) website. It has a little trailer to the movie
The following is the plot summary on the movie from the Internet Movie Database
"For many Americans, winning the lottery represents the ultimate dream come true. Rags to riches stories and their sordid flip side - tales of millions wasted by undisciplined winners - are common fodder for the tabloids and TV news outlets. But the public is rarely, if ever allowed more than a superficial glimpse into the world of instant, unexpected wealth. Millions (a lottery story) follows the lives of six different big money winners to enable audiences to see in detail just how dramatically life-changing the experience can be for the average person. From the farms of the Midwest and the heart of the Bible belt to the hurricane-riddled retirement communities of South Florida, Millions documents the true stories of people as rich in personality as they are (or once were) in material wealth. By using the everyday lives of its subjects the film gains insights into such diverse subjects as fame, growing old, the plight of the small farmer, and the role of evangelical Christianity in contemporary society. Millions paints a vivid picture of how extraordinary circumstances can deeply affect one's identity, and tells a poignant story of luck, loss and redemption."
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities Holdingford Millionaires Movie
The following is the plot summary on the movie from the Internet Movie Database
"For many Americans, winning the lottery represents the ultimate dream come true. Rags to riches stories and their sordid flip side - tales of millions wasted by undisciplined winners - are common fodder for the tabloids and TV news outlets. But the public is rarely, if ever allowed more than a superficial glimpse into the world of instant, unexpected wealth. Millions (a lottery story) follows the lives of six different big money winners to enable audiences to see in detail just how dramatically life-changing the experience can be for the average person. From the farms of the Midwest and the heart of the Bible belt to the hurricane-riddled retirement communities of South Florida, Millions documents the true stories of people as rich in personality as they are (or once were) in material wealth. By using the everyday lives of its subjects the film gains insights into such diverse subjects as fame, growing old, the plight of the small farmer, and the role of evangelical Christianity in contemporary society. Millions paints a vivid picture of how extraordinary circumstances can deeply affect one's identity, and tells a poignant story of luck, loss and redemption."
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities Holdingford Millionaires Movie
1/12/2008
Lake Wobegon Trail Visitors Guide Winter 2007-2008
Check out this link to the" Lake Wobegon Trail Visitors Guide Winter 2007-2008" for this story on Holdingford's Petals to Pedals Garden Club fountain project.
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities Lake Wobegon Trail
1/11/2008
Millions (A Lottery Story)
The independent film "Millions (A Lottery Story" I had made a post on it after it first came out last year, although I still haven't had a chance to see it. It has hit the big time as far as I am concerned, now that my favorite movie reviewer Roger Ebert has reviewed it. Following is Mr Ebert's review of the movie. I am in particularly pleased with the way he wrote about the Holdingford people, as my wife and I moved here 40 years ago when I started teaching and raised our family here. I know the Holdingford folks in the movie and the other local winners, they are all good down to earth people,and everyone around here is happy for their good fortune. Below is the review.
By Roger Ebert
'Millions (A Lottery Story)" is not so much about six lottery winners as about six+people who I watched with growing fascination and affection. What did I expect when the movie began? Former millionaires now on Skid Row, I suppose, contrasted with misers counting their compound interest and intercut with bizarre misadventures. What I found were people who, if I may say so, are utterly unfazed by their sudden wealth, and who have developed strategies for coping not with wealth or poverty, but with life. They all seem happy, and it has nothing to do with the lottery.
The movie follows four kitchen workers from a Minnesota high school and two New Yorkers who were once famous because they were the first to win $5 million at the dawn of the lottery and became the stars of television ads. The Minnesotans, 16 altogether, split up $95,450,000 on a shared Powerball ticket, which works out to $5,965,625 apiece, a figure none of them ever once mentions.
They're from Holdingford, Minn., a town which Garrison Keillor himself once called "the Lake Wobegon-ist town in Minnesota." The town is so typical of his monologues that not only are the high schoolers' grades above average, but the interstate highway makes a four-mile detour just to avoid it. Of the four women we meet, all come from large families (I'm talking like 11 or 16 kids), all worked hard on family dairy farms, many still keep dairy cattle as a second job, and none of them quit their jobs in the high school kitchen.
Phylis Breth is most eloquent about staying on the job. "These are my best friends, and I love my work." She is a dishwasher and uses a little laugh to end many sentences. "I've got bad knees, I've had four surgeries, and this job keeps you going. On days when they serve mashed potatoes or cheese, it gets pretty hectic." Like some of the others, she bought a new house, not a mansion, just comfy, and she finally has what she long dreamed of, a refrigerator with an ice-cube maker. She still hits all the garage sales, pouncing on a $2 ice cream scoop.
Of the New Yorkers, who won in the early 1970s, Lou Eisenberg lives in retirement in West Palm Beach, Fla., in a very basic condo. All of his winnings are gone, and he gets by on Social Security and a small pension. But he has a girlfriend, knows people everywhere he goes, bets at the dog track daily. He spent every lottery check almost as it came in. Why didn't he invest for the future? "I never thought I would live to be 76."
The other, Curtis Sharp, has also run through his winnings. Some of them went to invest in a company claiming to make an electric automobile that could run forever without ever being recharged. At one point the company was valued at "billions," he assures us, before the government came in and charged the organizer with selling fraudulent stock. Curtis still believes the guy was on the level: "Someday that investment is going to pay off." Having been "a drinker and fornicator," he moved to Nashville to buy a beer joint. Then he saw the light, found Jesus, and is a preacher.
The two of them became famous for their New York Lotto commercials. "A Jew and a black man," Lou says. "A good fit." Curtis was known for his bowler hats and collected 100. Before winning, Lou had owned a beauty shop, but something came over him one day, he developed panic attacks and found he could not speak or look people in the eye. He got a job at $240 a week screwing in light bulbs. The Lotto saved him: "It was like a shot in the arm." It sure was. We see clips of him gabbing away on TV with Johnny Carson, Regis Philbin, Ted Koppel and Sammy Davis Jr.
At times in this film I am reminded of work by documentary maker Errol Morris. The director, Paul La Blanc, has the same ear for the American vernacular and the same eye for obsessions. Take Phylis Breth, for example. Many women clean house for days before letting a camera crew into their homes, but let's say her housekeeping is not Wobegonian. But then we meet her daughter Susan, the opposite. As she provides a tour of her orderly pantry shelves, ticking off "1994 pickles...last year's tomato juice," she proudly shows us that most of her preserves are in jars that originally held the retail version of the same substances. Her homemade salsa is in a salsa jar, for example, with the original label still on.
If there is one thing the Holdingford ladies are sure of, it's that their winnings will send their children through college. Apart from that, they carry on as before. Sue's husband Donny is known as the "Wood Man," because if you have a fallen tree, he comes around and cuts it into firewood. With pride, he shows a shed jammed with logs. The Breths heat their home all winter with wood in a climate that goes to 30 below. "I've burned wood all my life, and I will keep on burning wood as long as the good Lord lets me," he says.
Getting to know these people, I realized I knew others exactly like them. The women could come from my Downstate family. Giving me a recipe once, my Aunt Mary said, "One tater for everybody, one for the pot, and one for fear of company." For fear. Perfect. I wrote it down as part of the recipe.
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities Roger Ebert Roger Ebert Millions (A Lottery Story)
By Roger Ebert
'Millions (A Lottery Story)" is not so much about six lottery winners as about six+people who I watched with growing fascination and affection. What did I expect when the movie began? Former millionaires now on Skid Row, I suppose, contrasted with misers counting their compound interest and intercut with bizarre misadventures. What I found were people who, if I may say so, are utterly unfazed by their sudden wealth, and who have developed strategies for coping not with wealth or poverty, but with life. They all seem happy, and it has nothing to do with the lottery.
The movie follows four kitchen workers from a Minnesota high school and two New Yorkers who were once famous because they were the first to win $5 million at the dawn of the lottery and became the stars of television ads. The Minnesotans, 16 altogether, split up $95,450,000 on a shared Powerball ticket, which works out to $5,965,625 apiece, a figure none of them ever once mentions.
They're from Holdingford, Minn., a town which Garrison Keillor himself once called "the Lake Wobegon-ist town in Minnesota." The town is so typical of his monologues that not only are the high schoolers' grades above average, but the interstate highway makes a four-mile detour just to avoid it. Of the four women we meet, all come from large families (I'm talking like 11 or 16 kids), all worked hard on family dairy farms, many still keep dairy cattle as a second job, and none of them quit their jobs in the high school kitchen.
Phylis Breth is most eloquent about staying on the job. "These are my best friends, and I love my work." She is a dishwasher and uses a little laugh to end many sentences. "I've got bad knees, I've had four surgeries, and this job keeps you going. On days when they serve mashed potatoes or cheese, it gets pretty hectic." Like some of the others, she bought a new house, not a mansion, just comfy, and she finally has what she long dreamed of, a refrigerator with an ice-cube maker. She still hits all the garage sales, pouncing on a $2 ice cream scoop.
Of the New Yorkers, who won in the early 1970s, Lou Eisenberg lives in retirement in West Palm Beach, Fla., in a very basic condo. All of his winnings are gone, and he gets by on Social Security and a small pension. But he has a girlfriend, knows people everywhere he goes, bets at the dog track daily. He spent every lottery check almost as it came in. Why didn't he invest for the future? "I never thought I would live to be 76."
The other, Curtis Sharp, has also run through his winnings. Some of them went to invest in a company claiming to make an electric automobile that could run forever without ever being recharged. At one point the company was valued at "billions," he assures us, before the government came in and charged the organizer with selling fraudulent stock. Curtis still believes the guy was on the level: "Someday that investment is going to pay off." Having been "a drinker and fornicator," he moved to Nashville to buy a beer joint. Then he saw the light, found Jesus, and is a preacher.
The two of them became famous for their New York Lotto commercials. "A Jew and a black man," Lou says. "A good fit." Curtis was known for his bowler hats and collected 100. Before winning, Lou had owned a beauty shop, but something came over him one day, he developed panic attacks and found he could not speak or look people in the eye. He got a job at $240 a week screwing in light bulbs. The Lotto saved him: "It was like a shot in the arm." It sure was. We see clips of him gabbing away on TV with Johnny Carson, Regis Philbin, Ted Koppel and Sammy Davis Jr.
At times in this film I am reminded of work by documentary maker Errol Morris. The director, Paul La Blanc, has the same ear for the American vernacular and the same eye for obsessions. Take Phylis Breth, for example. Many women clean house for days before letting a camera crew into their homes, but let's say her housekeeping is not Wobegonian. But then we meet her daughter Susan, the opposite. As she provides a tour of her orderly pantry shelves, ticking off "1994 pickles...last year's tomato juice," she proudly shows us that most of her preserves are in jars that originally held the retail version of the same substances. Her homemade salsa is in a salsa jar, for example, with the original label still on.
If there is one thing the Holdingford ladies are sure of, it's that their winnings will send their children through college. Apart from that, they carry on as before. Sue's husband Donny is known as the "Wood Man," because if you have a fallen tree, he comes around and cuts it into firewood. With pride, he shows a shed jammed with logs. The Breths heat their home all winter with wood in a climate that goes to 30 below. "I've burned wood all my life, and I will keep on burning wood as long as the good Lord lets me," he says.
Getting to know these people, I realized I knew others exactly like them. The women could come from my Downstate family. Giving me a recipe once, my Aunt Mary said, "One tater for everybody, one for the pot, and one for fear of company." For fear. Perfect. I wrote it down as part of the recipe.
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities Roger Ebert Roger Ebert Millions (A Lottery Story)
1/10/2008
Getting Older - Healthy Aging
Since about one third of the people living in Holdingford are considered elderly I thought it would be appropriate to promote healthy aging. I got this list from Changing Aging blog is a good read.
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities aging in a small town
10 New Years Resolutions for Successful Aging
Do you have New Year’s resolutions for successful aging you’d like to share?
We’re all aging right now. And although genes dictate a lot, we also have a lot of control in how we age.
Here are 10 resolutions for traveling the path of successful aging.
Get a Physical: Find out what your health is like today. What health risk factors do you have? Work on a plan to address them.
Exercise Your Brain and Body: Physical exercise (30 to 60 minutes of fast walking a couple times a week) has been proven to reduce the risk of dementia. It also makes you feel a lot better when those endorphins are pumping.
Make Meaningful Connections: You just feel better when you have someone you can share with. Animals count.
Do Work You Enjoy: Even if you’re retired, and you didn’t like the work you did, now you have time to do work you enjoy. Work also means volunteering.
Nurture Your Spirituality: The mind-spirit-body connection works together. Spiritual experiences give greater vibrancy and meaning to our daily lives.
Learn and Teach: The people who always seem most vibrant are those who are continually learning. Often those are the same people who help others grow by sharing that knowledge. That sharing feels good, too.
Define Your Legacy: How do you want to be remembered when you leave this earth? Write it down. Act upon what you write.
Smoking: STOP.
Eat Smartly: Mayo Clinic specialist Dr. Edward Cregan says emphasize green leafy vegetables, four to six servings of fruit each day, fish and poultry rather than red meat (in moderation), and attention to unsaturated fats such as olive and canola oil. You don’t have to be a total vegetarian, just be sensible.
Plan: Where do you want to live when you are 100? Will home be your home now or somewhere else? If you need care, who will provide it? You can make options realities with planning.
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities aging in a small town
1/01/2008
Holdingford awarded $10,000 grant by Initiative Foundation
The city of Holdingford awarded $10,000 grant by Initiative Foundation
The city of Holdingford through Healthy Community Planning Program was granted $10,000 in support of the following community projects:
*Assist Holdingford Lions Club covered bridge project on Lake Wobegon trail.
*Holdingford Lioness Club in conjunction with the City of Holdingford and Holding Township compile a Welcome Packet for new residents in the Holdingford Area. Lioness Club will also develop and distribute brochures about the community of the City of Holdingford and Holding Township, to new residents moving into area.
*Holdingford Area Historical Society
Holdingford Area Historical Society will be incorporated as a non-profit organization. Historical Society will be incorporated as a non-profit organization, to be officially recognized by the MN Historical Society. Secure rights to a one room schoolhouse from the holdingford area, plans and have blueprint for foundation for schoolhouse.
*Petals to Pedals Garden Club
Two park benches will be installed between fountain and "Triangle Garden."Install fountain, electric outlets for fountain and for Christmas decoration. Expand wild flower garden at trailhead: benches, holding pond for fountain, lawn in front of garden.
*Healthy Community Planning Steering Committee
Construction of skate board park in Veterans Memorial Park, as Eagle Scout project
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities Initiative Foundation
The city of Holdingford through Healthy Community Planning Program was granted $10,000 in support of the following community projects:
*Assist Holdingford Lions Club covered bridge project on Lake Wobegon trail.
*Holdingford Lioness Club in conjunction with the City of Holdingford and Holding Township compile a Welcome Packet for new residents in the Holdingford Area. Lioness Club will also develop and distribute brochures about the community of the City of Holdingford and Holding Township, to new residents moving into area.
*Holdingford Area Historical Society
Holdingford Area Historical Society will be incorporated as a non-profit organization. Historical Society will be incorporated as a non-profit organization, to be officially recognized by the MN Historical Society. Secure rights to a one room schoolhouse from the holdingford area, plans and have blueprint for foundation for schoolhouse.
*Petals to Pedals Garden Club
Two park benches will be installed between fountain and "Triangle Garden."Install fountain, electric outlets for fountain and for Christmas decoration. Expand wild flower garden at trailhead: benches, holding pond for fountain, lawn in front of garden.
*Healthy Community Planning Steering Committee
Construction of skate board park in Veterans Memorial Park, as Eagle Scout project
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities Initiative Foundation
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