I can tell we are moving into spring but it still more comfortable inside as you can see by the picture below. The sun is nice but the snow is deep. It is slowly melting away but there is enough that the access around the farm yard is still difficult.

I spend my time in my shop cleaning up and going through the stuff that has collected in the back corners. I ran across this old toy reed organ. I opened it up to see the inside, It is amazing how things have changed. Instead of a chip that generates almost perfect tones, this uses reeds and a small fan to blow air over them. The simple electric circuit is just a battery holder, switch and a small electric motor to run the fan. I played with it some but I used my power supply instead of batteries. Interesting too, is that it is made in Italy not China. I don’t know the age but I had a note stuck to the box, telling me to check it out dated 1988. The quality of sound is not very good but it does look neat. Today I just can’t put it in the garbage. Another day maybe or I might be able to think of a clever use for it.

These are shoe related pictures and Advertisements.The following items are all NEW old stock that we purchased in 2002. They were made in the 1990’s by Victorian Gallery out of Burlington, Kansas. They are all reproductions of old pictures and are beautifully done on a very good grade of paper. There are three note card and three Lithograph Prints. I would like to get $22.00 plus shipping. Please contact me at donnaanderson@frontiernet.net. I do take Pay Pal and I am negotiable.

Hamilton Brown Shoe 5 x 7 Note Card John Mundell and Company 5 x 7 Note Card Nox em all Shoes 5 x 7 Note Card

C.T. & W. F. Bidwell Boots and Shoes 6 ¾ x 9 ¼ Lithograph Print

Ladies night Out 11 x 14 Lithograph Print

Fixing Dollies Shoes 11 x 14 Lithograph Print

An old fashioned blizzard came last Saturday and Sunday. First warm moist air blew in from the south and ran into the cold air coming from Canada. The snow came down heavy and the wind blew hard from the South East. Then during Sunday the wind switched to the North West and gusted up to 35 MPH. We were lucky they had predicted gusts over 40 MPH. The temp dropped through the night to 8 below 0 Fahrenheit. You won’t last long outside in weather like that. The good thing is the dropping temperature ended the snow.
I stayed in mostly, took a few pictures outside, and checked that everything was OK. I can’t take the cold like I used to.
It brought back memories of the days when I was a boy. Storms were exciting, if they came during the week you would have days off from school. One of the best things was I was allowed to stay up as late as I wanted. The whole family would be home and during the storm, outside work was held to a minimum. Often we all sit by the kitchen table and play games, read by the gas lamp or just talk.
The wood fire in the kitchen range would be burning at maximum. The draft damper on the back of the stove would click as the wind gusts swept by the chimney. The sound was fascinating, a regular tapping that was completely random. It was like a strange kind of music. I don’t think anyone else ever paid attention to that sound.
In the 1940’s the road through the farm was the main north south highway. It connected the two county seats , Willmar and Olivia. I can remember having people snowed in for the night. The one I remember best was a fellow with a grocery delivery van. He had become stuck on the road by our farm grove and dad pulled his van in the yard with his team of horses. It was war time and many things were rationed. All the fruit and food that could be damaged by freezing were carried into the house for the night.
He was outgoing and full of fun, with a loud laugh. I was given bananas, cherry’s and other goodies to eat, and he encouraged me to eat more of what I liked. When dad would remind us that we should be conserving these good things, he would laugh and say it would all have been lost in the cold if it wasn’t for you, so enjoy. I remember the laughing and talk going on into the night. I think I fell asleep in my mothers lap, I don’t remember. When I awoke the next morning, the storm had ended, the snow plough had come by, and the fellow had left.
Below is a picture early Monday morning. The sun was shinning bright, the air is clear and cold at a minus 9. I always remember it being beautiful after a blizzard. My sister and I would take the sled or shiny scoop shovels and slide on the new drifts.
The work horse’s would be so happy to run free in the barn yard even if it was cold, after being cooped up for a couple of days. They would run,jump, buck and pass gas noisily.

It is so beautiful outside. Sparkling white in the bright sun. One could feel a bit of warmth from the sun and a crisp cold from the air. We had 15 inches of snow but it never lays still on the prairie. The next picture shows my farm field, you can see soil showing through the snow cover. The wind has swept the snow into farm yards, fence lines and road ditches. When the wind blows from a different direction the snow will move again.

I have two more pictures to show. The first shows a job for me . the snow flying off the snow plough lays the mailbox down often. Not serious, just a bit of work, worth it to have the road open. The second one shows why we had a quiet time during the storm. That little amount of snow that stuck to the dish, blocked the TV signal from the satellite very effectively.

A friend was cleaning out some of his junk and found some old car magazines. He had little interest in them so he brought them to me. I traded some old model cars for them, as I enjoy reading old magazines and looking at the pictures.
Later going through them I spotted the Vol, 1, No. 1 printed on the top. Needless to say I became a bit excited as the magazine is in near perfect condition.. This was like taking a trip back in time.The magazine is short, just 23 pages, but full of interesting pictures. Even the ads are fun to read.
I have read Hot Rod Magazine off and on for most of my life but this is a little before my time. I really didn’t get into cars till the mid 1950s, Anyway, saving them all would have been impossible.
I have no idea of its value or if many of these have survived. I would be interested if anyone could tell me more about this Magazine.
Just learned it is a reproduction done about 1987—-Oh well it is still interesting. I am still curious if it has any value.

first one

This what winter in Minnesota sometimes looks like. I’m standing on the county blacktop road in front of my place. As you can see there is no problem with traffic for taking pictures. I think the wind was gusting to about 35 mph with the temp below zero Fahrenheit. I couldn’t say for sure if it was snowing because all the snow was moving side ways.

When I went back inside, the words of a friend Clarence Mages, came to me. “Rod even the ducks know enough to go south when it turns cold”. It wasn’t long we had the car loaded, the heat turned down, water shut off and the other details taken care of. We headed south without a plan. No schedule, no timetable, Just some cash and a credit card.

By the time we got to Arkansas it was comfortable in shirt sleves. We stopped at antique stores, junk shops and whatever caught our eye. below are pictures of a custom 49 Ford I looked at.The light was wrong for picture taking but two did turn out. He had many projects under way and some really cool customs. If you ever get to Mena AR stop at LAWRY’S USED CAR’s and check it out.

That Ford body was on a S-10, using the chassis, engine, drive train,dash, firewall, controls and much of the interior. The rear of the Ford body was extended to match the longer wheel base.
We found warm weather for a couple of days in Galveston, TX. We took a boat ride on a paddle wheel boat in the bay as the gulf was too rough. I and Donna enjoyed walking in the historic district, touring old houses and checking out the antique shops. Than as the weather cooled we headed down to South Padre Island. We had a few day of beautiful weather and enjoyed walking the beach. Our room had a balcony over looking the gulf and the sun rises were beautiful. Then the temp dropped to 28 degrees one night and the rain turned to sleet. the only bridge to the island was closed, The help couldn’t get to work in the hotel. They had 15 minuet rolling black out at random intervals, so people would get stuck in the hotel elevators at times. We had about a quarter to one half inch of ice on things, I don’t think it would have been noticed in MN. Brownsville shut everything down for two days.

Called a friend at home the morning it was 28 degrees. He told me it was 35 degrees and the sun was shinning in MN.

Yes we still walked the beach when it turned cold and the wind was gusting to 28 MPH. I was amazed the sand drifted like snow and I liked the sound of the gulf. This is a picture we took on the beach the morning after the Ice storm.

After wandering around for a bit we headed over to Jay, Florida. Donna’s brother Gene and sister Doreen live in that aria. Her brother has been fighting cancer. We wanted to see how he was doing. As the picture shows he looks great.
Back home again the weather looks about the same as when we left.
We had a great time but it is good to be home again

The Old Apple

We are having an old fashioned winter. So I have been spending most of my spare time in the lab where it is nice and warm. My wife wanted the old Apple out of the house as it had been taking up storage space for years. Looking at it again brought back fond memories. I just had to set it up again to see if it would still run. I couldn’t bear to pack it up and hide it away. It was an amazing machine in it’s day.

The year we acquired it, my son Jeremy was in Jr High and was very interested in computers. We had an  Apple II my sister had sold me. He put a lot of hours in on that old machine. The Principle of his school took me aside and told me I really needed to buy a  new Apple GS  for Jeremy. He said it would be an investment in Jeremy’s future.

My son had been talking about how great a machine the GS was, as he had limited access to one in school. I checked on price and was told a little better than two grand. That was a lot of money for the family at that time. Farming hadn’t been going well, I was working part time and had started a small retailing business.

I told Jeremy that if gross receipts exceeded X amount for the coming season we would buy the new GS. What followed was a fabulous summer vending, our sales were well ahead of the year before. I say our sales, because Jeremy was very active in the business. He was a master salesman.

Needless to say we picked that Apple GS up in Willmar that fall. Complete with a color Monitor, extra memory, a 5.25 inch floppy disc drive (remember those), a 3.5 inch disc drive, and  a dot matrix printer. With the tax it was over 3,000 bucks.

We both put in a lot of time on that machine, it was a world ahead of the Apple II. I even started doing books for the business on it. It was a good buy for the time. We put lots of hours on it, so the price per hour wasn’t bad. He even took it to college his first year  but times were changing fast. My son got a Mac lap top and the GS stayed home in my office.

After college my son worked in the computer world, Anderson Enterprises kept growing.  Machines  came out that had hard drives, Internet access ,were faster, bigger and much cheaper. So we moved on.

The GS seems primitive now. Back then it was state of the art. The first home computer with graphic operating system and a mouse. Windows copied much from Apple.

I set it up so my grand kids can see this antique work and play a game or two. I like to look at it too.

I must brag a bit. Here is my son Jeremy and my grandsons Thorwald and Gunnar on the stump of the old Ash tree we took out of the flower bed just south of the house. It is early march but the weather was very nice. My son and Thor were just here for the day but Gunnar stayed for a couple of days .

I like this picture of Thor. He mastered his fear of heights and climbed up (and down) onto the loft in my pole barn.  I showed him how to make sure his hold was secure on the steps, move one hand or one foot at a time, and keep your weight close to the latter. Don’t be ashamed of fear  because it makes you careful, just don’t let it paralyse you. Think before your every move and all will be fine. Living in the Big City the Boys don’t have the opportunity to climb and explore like I did growing up on the farm in the 40’s and 50’s. Life was a continuous adventure with minimal supervision. I survived the cuts and bruises and gained confidence and respect for danger.

Here is Gunnar all ready to drive Grandpa’s garden tractor. He has the hearing protection on and note the smile. Gunnar loves to be with Grandpa in the garages and shop on the farm. He does think that Grandpa should either fix or get rid of the rusty junk that he has accumulated in the corners. Below is a young man taking driving very  seriously.

The captain at the Helm

That’s me, when the rest of you were soveling snow.  At 68 years of age I had the wheel of a two masted ship at sea. True I wasn’t really the captain, but it’s OK for an old man to dream. It was a great ride for an old hotrodder.

Here Donna and I are on the beach.                                           We really enjoyed the days at Key West.  It is very cosmopolitan, museums, art gallery’s, shops, restaurants and open cafes. It reminded me of the way city’s were in the 1950s. The weather was great, with lots of sun shine. The town is full of tourists from all over the world and  I really enjoyed visiting with people.  My only regret is that I didn’t have my red convertible down there to ride around in.

There are many beautiful and interesting  things I could write about and I will add more later. Here I am at the end of the day, isn’t the sun set grand.                                                                                                                                                                                 

The first Saterday of each month the Willmar Car Club has a breakfast get together.  Nothing formal, it’s a gathering of people from all walks of life who like cars.  If its nice we drive our rides. If our ride isn’t running or it is still in the dream stage we come anyway, and join the conversation. I always enjoy the stories people tell, and I have found most car people like to talk about cars. Check the locations and schedule at the following link, then drop in and join us, you will be welcome.  www.willmarcarclub.com/calendar.htm

Now we always have lots of door prizes which adds to the fun. As you can see from the following picture, some are extra nice.  The way we do things, a table is filled with prizes and each lucky person gets to chose the one they like best.

The last Breakfast, Lady Luck smiled on me. My name was the first name drawn, so I had first choice. Check the picture below and note the headlight bezel clock on my shop wall. Sharp isn’t it, can you name the car it came from?

These are hand made by Brian Pearson of New London MN. They are not cheap plastic but solid metal,  made from the real headlight bezels. He makes a wide variety and can be reached at pearsongs@charter.net. Brian also does some other interesting things. Check this site  at www.aabaca.com/pearsong.html

Car Clock

I just attended my 50 year class reunion this week end. I had a good time and it brought back lots of memories. Out of a class of about 260 their were, I’m guessing, some over 110 members present. A good turnout but it was somewhat disappointing that a lot of the people I chumed around with weren’t there. I ran with the guys that liked cars. and most of my friends joined the blue collar world after school.
It was an impressive bunch at the banquet, preachers, lawyers, engineers, professors. Many people with impressive resumes. I’m proud to have known them and it was fun visiting with everyone. Probably best was the forgotten memory’s it brought back. It made me think hard about my life and the choices I have made.
School was tolerable, but hardly the best time of my life, I was eager to move on. I got pretty good grades but almost never studied. I had some good teachers and I enjoyed those classes. Then their was Russ the coach who could make an interesting subject like history unbelievably dull. I loved to read, still do, read all my text books cover to cover by the end of the first quarter.
I received about six and one half percent of my education in high school the rest of my education has been spread over the my life time. I found that education costs money whether you get it in the “Halls of Ivy” or on the street as I did.
I am satisfied with the way life turned out and I wouldn’t trade with anyone. I would be the first to admit I made a lot of mistakes and did a few stupid things. Even if I could I wouldn’t go back and change a thing, it might screw up the end result. I have traveled as much as I desire, Europe, all 50 States and Canada. Along the way I learned I would rather listen to people, than instruct them. I have found most people are friendly, weather on the streets of London, or New York, or a small town in rural America, and if you do find a hostile person, its not you they are angry at, but the problems in their own life. One thing is certain they all have interesting stories to tell.
I have been very fortunate in that my best friend in life is my wife of almost 48 years. I have a great family, My two children have done much better in life then I ever did, all this in a world that is much more difficult. I believe my grand children are very capable and are being well equipped to deal with the future.
As for the future, I have been hearing that the world is “going to hell in a hand basket” as long as I can remember. It was always from old people and it hasn’t happened yet.  I’ll admit I feel that way myself sometimes but then I think how good I have it. I believe that feeling is just a symptom of old age and the fear of change.
That the world is changing there  is no doubt. Some change is bad,  some is good but most is just different. Change is also opportunity, as a fellow I worked for pointed out to me. The cruel fact is No one looses money without some one else gaining it.
If anyone from the class of “59” reads this, I would be happy to hear from you. Conversation is something I truly enjoy.   E-Mail me at rodander@frontiernet.net