Photographed on the campus of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota.
THIS TIME OF YEAR, vehicles in Minnesota can get mighty filthy. Road spray films windows with grime. Mud kicks onto fenders.
And the graffiti artist sees opportunity on a mobile canvas.
© Copyright 2016 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
I PHOTOGRAPHED THIS three-letter word on the wall outside the Flaten Art Museum inside the Dittman Center of St. Olaf College in Northfield.
It’s meant, I believe, to be a work of art.
If you were to write a definition of ugh, what would you write?
Would you choose a standard dictionary definition? A synonym?
Or would you draw on a memory? Think of a repulsive smell or taste? Picture a creepy bug or other frightening creature? Perhaps a scene?
Go ahead. Write your definition here. Let’s see what creative thoughts those three letters—u-g-h—can unleash. (Note, your comments are subject to my editorial discretion, meaning let’s steer clear of topics like politics. This is a family friendly blog.)
© Copyright 2016 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
A mural, one of several in the downtown area, promotes historic Faribault. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.
I MAY NOT BE A FARIBAULT NATIVE. But I’ve lived here long enough—34 years—to surface-know local history.
A downtown Faribault mural features Fleck’s beer. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.
So when Brian Schmidt, native historian, collector of Fleckenstein Brewery memorabilia and member of the Rice County Historical Society Board of Directors, called me recently, I listened. Faribault history interests me because, even if I wasn’t born and raised here, this community is now part of my family’s history.
Inside the historic Village Family Theater. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo August 2015.
On Saturday, March 19, a previously publicly unseen piece of local history will debut on the big screen at the historic Village Family Theater in the form of a silent movie. I could hear the excitement in Schmidt’s voice as he talked about amateur film footage shot between 1935-1938 by Charles Fleckenstein of Faribault brewery fame.
Schmidt purchased the unmarked film at a Faribault auction house. When he started viewing the clips, he knew he’d stumbled upon something remarkable. And now he’s sharing that discovery in a 10-minute professionally produced silent film montage reminiscent of a bygone era.
Stacked inside the RCHS Harvest and Heritage Halls are these crates from Fleckenstein, which brewed beer and made soda in Faribault. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo October 2015.
Viewers will see workers digging a tunnel and celebrating a birthday at Fleckenstein Brewery (yes, they’re drinking beer), plus other footage of a long ago golf course in the middle of town, the 1938 Faribault Jalopy Race and Thrill Day, The Top amusement ride on Roberds Lake, and the old Faribault Airport and The Bluebird Inn (a former high-end restaurant) south of town.
An edited photo of a sign at the Rice County Historical Society. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo October 2015.
The silent film, followed by the feature film, The Quiet Man starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, kicks off the Rice County Historical Society’s 90th anniversary celebration. Set and filmed in Ireland, the movie seems the ideal classic for a post St. Patrick’s Day show.
I did a quick drop-in tour of the theater in August 2015. This sign sat in the lobby. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2015.
After the movie, attendees can tour the historic theater, purchased in 2103 by Steve McDonough and since refurbished. The building, just off Faribault’s Central Avenue, was built in 1896 as an Armory, then converted to a funeral parlor in 1912. In the late 1940s, the building became the Village Movie Theater, closing some 40 years ago. It also served for awhile as the Village Bar and as a church.
The wooden floor is original to the theater. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo August 2015.
Schmidt says attendees at the RCHS event should take special note of supporting timbers in the basement. Those were cut to angle the floor for the movie theater. The floor is a floating floor, unattached to the walls.
Surrounded by history while watching history. That’s how I see it.
FYI: The 90th anniversary celebration begins with the silent film showing at 3 p.m. followed by the feature movie and tour. The Village Family Theater is located at 20 Second Street Northwest. Admission is $5 for RCHS members and $7 for non-members.
MY HUSBAND POSSESSES a distinct sense of humor. It’s not an I am funny, ha, ha, listen to me type of joke-telling humor. Rather, it’s understated, punching into conversation when least expected. Humor is one of the qualities I really appreciate in him.
Randy makes me laugh when I need laughter. He makes me smile when I need a smile. His humor balances my serious personality.
He reads the comics. I don’t. Sometimes he clips a comic from the paper and sticks it on the fridge, just for me. He doesn’t tell me. He waits for me to notice. And when I do, I laugh at the appropriateness of the joke. And then I smile because he was thoughtful enough to think of me while reading the funnies.
You gotta love a guy like this.
When it comes to greeting cards, he likes funny. I like poetic and romantic and serious. He chooses cards for the guys in the family. You know, cards about beer and growing old with a humorous twist. Sometimes I nix his choices or add a personal note, Randy chose this card.
When he was tasked to design a onesie for our soon-to-be-born granddaughter, he presented an idea. I had to reject it given our daughter would never put the shirt on her daughter. But then he came up with another idea and set to work stenciling an owl and printing accompanying words. His design is a perfect example of his humor:
Fitting for a newborn, wouldn’t you say?
© Copyright 2016 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Visiting early Saturday afternoon in downtown Wanamingo.
I NEEDED A DAY TRIP. A day to explore small town and rural Minnesota. A day to pull my Canon DSLR out of winter hibernation. A day to document life in this place I call home.
My husband, Randy, crosses the bridge across Shingle Creek in Wanamingo.
So my husband and I headed east on Saturday, through Kenyon and then on to Wanamingo for lunch, a tour of a church, a stop in Riverside Park and a short walk through the woods along Shingle Creek.
Water rushing over limestone. Sun shining. The smell of creosote on a bridge deck. Blue sky striped with thin white clouds.
Lovely.
Walking the puppy in downtown Wanamingo.
Walking with the baby and the dog in Northfield.
And everywhere, people. Walking. Alone. In pairs. With babies and dogs.
Going fishing in the North Fork of the Zumbro River, Wanamingo.
Fishing.
Biking along Goodhue County Road 30 past Riverside Park in Wanamingo.
Or biking.
This bike was parked outside the elementary school in Wanamingo on Saturday.
From Faribault to Wanamingo to Nerstrand to Northfield and back home.
Two bikers stopped at Nerstrand Meats.
In the throngs of people outdoors, I saw spring. Glorious spring, here unseasonably early with temps nearing 70 degrees. Saturday was the sort of day that we Minnesotans think impossible in mid March.
Rollerblading near St. Olaf College in Northfield late Saturday afternoon.
It was a day for lying in a hammock stretched between trees on the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield. Or walking hand-in-hand. Or for rollerblading back to campus.
Motorcycles were out everywhere, including this biker on Division Street in downtown Northfield late Saturday afternoon.
It was a day for riding motorcycle. It was a day to do anything that took you outdoors.
A scene more like May than March in Nerstrand.
It was perfect.
© Copyright 2016 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
The Church of St. Mary rises above Melrose. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2011.
TODAY, AS I PHOTOGRAPHED two rural Minnesota Lutheran Churches, I thought of another church I photographed nearly five years ago in Melrose. The Church of St. Mary. It’s a beautiful Catholic church. Opulent and splendid and filled with a spirit of holiness.
Friday afternoon that magnificent 1898 church 100 miles northwest of the Twin Cities caught fire. Damage is estimated at $1 million.
To current and former parishioners of St. Mary’s and to the Melrose community, I am deeply sorry.
A view from the back of St. Mary’s looking toward the main altar. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2011.
When I photograph a church, I do so because I appreciate the beauty, history, art, and faithfulness therein. I understand the significance of a house of worship in connecting and centering a church family and in building generations of memories and a tradition of faith.
Just look at this detailed side altar. I could have spent hours in St. Mary’s. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2011.
Today I understand even more, though, how important my work of visually preserving small town and country churches. If my St. Mary’s photos from 2011 comfort the folks of Melrose in the aftermath of this devastating fire, then I am blessed.
Click here to see my first photo essay, “Hail St. Mary’s of Melrose.”
Click here to see my second photo essay, “St. Mary’s of Melrose, Part II.”
© Copyright 2016 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
One of the many baby items my daughter and son-in-law received.
AFTER WATCHING MY DAUGHTER and son-in-law open gifts at the baby shower I hosted for them recently, I’ve concluded it takes a lot to care for a baby now days. A lot of equipment, that is.
When my daughter told me she and her husband were getting a Jenny Lind crib for their baby girl, I reacted with enthusiasm. “That’s the kind of crib I wanted for you,” I said. My daughter was surprised that I knew about the Jenny Lind style, which has been around for decades. It was the dream crib I never had for any of my children. They slept in generic garage sale cribs.
When I delivered my three babies 30, 28 and 22 years ago, the essentials included a crib, changing table, diaper pail, high chair and car seat. Nearly all items were second-hand, purchased at yard/garage sales. The crib wouldn’t meet any safety standards today. I doubt the car seat would either. But we managed with what we could afford and what was available. It was better than nothing.
A niece slept in a dresser drawer as a newborn because her mom couldn’t afford a crib. I shopped garage sales to clothe my kids. I used cloth diapers not only to save money but also because I didn’t want a zillion diapers going into the landfill.
Another baby care essential which the parents-to-be received.
Times change. If they didn’t, we’d still be setting babies on the floor of the car, like I did my niece once. Now I shudder that I ever did that. How irresponsible.
If improvements hadn’t been made in cloth diapering methods, parents would still struggle with diaper pins, trying to avoid jabbing the baby. We’d still have bumper pads cushioning cribs and teddy bears stuffed in corners. We’re wiser than we once were about safety issues.
Yet, one care essential remains unchanged. It’s the most important. Babies still need love. Lots of love.
TELL ME, IF YOU’RE a parent or grandparent, what baby care product/products did you find especially valuable?
© Copyright 2016 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
WHENEVER I PLAN a major party at my house—and I’m not talking something as simple as a few dinner guests—I make lists. List of guests. To-do lists. A menu.
I clipped lists and recipes to a clipboard, my party planning organizer, as I planned the baby shower.
Lists help me focus and not feel overwhelmed. They help me budget my time. But plans and lists don’t always jive with how things actually work out.
When I was making these cut-out cookies, I had to be careful not to break or burn the elephant trunks.
Take the baby shower I gave for my eldest daughter and her husband last weekend. Weeks prior to the event, I baked cookies. Elephant shaped cut-out cookies to serve at the party. And M & M cookies to place in thank you gift bags for guests. But before the dough was baked and the cookies placed in the freezer, I had my first mishap. My hand-held mixer jammed, spewing bits of whatever into the cookie dough. Into the garbage went the dough and off to the store I went to purchase a new mixer. As for the mini elephant cookies, I proceeded with care lest the trunks break or burn.
Everything went smoothly during the week prior to the shower as I completed tasks and crossed them off my list. But my luck didn’t hold. Friday morning, the day before the shower, I mixed up a cookie dough dip, not to be confused with dough for cookies. The new mixer worked fine. But the spatula broke and there I was, forking through the dip in search of the missing rubber tip. Not to worry; I found it.
Well in advance of the shower, I penned this haiku and glued it to tags.
Next, I assembled the thank you bags, placing a bag of microwave popcorn, a packet of flower seeds and several M & M cookies inside to match a haiku I’d written with the words pop, grow and sweet. I’d printed the haiku days earlier and glued the poem to muted pink gold-trimmed tags purchased at Target.
The gift bags, fully-assembled and ready for guests. I purchased the bags at Party Plus in Owatonna.
When I was gluing the tags, I remember thinking, I wonder if this glue will hold. I should have listened to that inner doubt. After I’d tied several gift bags, I noticed the glue wasn’t holding. That meant more work—untying the bags I’d already tied and taping all the tags.
A snippet shot of guests gathered in my living room for gift opening at the baby shower.
Both the spatula break and the tag snafu occurred before 9 a.m. This, I thought to myself, is not good. But the rest of the party prep went smoothly as did party day. For a March day in Minnesota, the weather was ideal, meaning no snow and good travel for all. We had plenty of food. Guests had a good time and I did, too.
The next day, after I finished washing dishes, I pulled the drain plug in the kitchen sink. The water disappeared, ever so slowly, emerging in the opposite sink. My husband removed the gooseneck. No clog there. He tried a snake. The clog remained. Then he turned on the air compressor and blew air through the drain pipe. That unclogged the clog. But he still had to head to the hardware store to replace the gooseneck section of piping which was now leaking.
As for me, I was simply thankful this problem didn’t occur on party day. Dealing with a clogged drain was definitely not on my to-do list.
© Copyright 2016 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
HERS WAS A NOVEL IDEA. At least to me. But apparently not in the current trend of baby shower activities.
Three of the onesies painted at the baby shower I hosted.
When my daughter Miranda suggested painting onesies at her sister and brother-in-law’s baby shower last Saturday, I jumped on board. This hands-on project would allow guests to express their love for the parents-to-be and their baby girl in a creative and practical way.
Art supplies for painting onesies. The Scribbles brand 3D fabric paint pens were purchased at Hobby Lobby as were the foam stamps.
Miranda purchased the supplies—onesies in various sizes (which she pre-washed), fabric paint in tubes, brushes and foam stamps. I set up the painting station in our basement, complete with a canvas drop cloth covering our newly carpeted floor. Accidents happen. I saved scrap cardboard to slide inside onesies and provided Sharpies. The paternal grandma added animal stencils to the creative possibilities.
An appropriate design for a March baby shower.
My biggest dilemma was deciding when to schedule this activity during the baby shower. After lunch seemed best. I needed time to clear dishes and store away food before games and gift opening. Unfortunately I had to relocate several guests back upstairs to finish their meals so the painting could begin.
My daughter Miranda, project coordinator, sits at the end of the table.
When time allowed, I headed to the basement with my camera, observed and documented. The results impressed me.
My niece created the ocean themed onesie on the left. Another niece designed the “little stinker” shirt and Miranda created the zoo animal design.
I didn’t follow the design phase, with the exception of one. A niece was planning an ocean theme, a tribute to the dad-to-be who is originally from California. She was a bit dismayed to learn that Marc grew up, not near the ocean, but in the desert. Still, I encouraged her to go with sunny ocean-side. She did.
My creation: Ewe (you) are my sunshine!
Because I was busy with hostess duties during the shower, I didn’t paint a onesie until days later. That gave me time to think of an idea without party pressure.
I crafted this design for Baby Girl from her Uncle Caleb, a student at Tufts University.
I also created a personalized shirt from my son by stenciling a blue elephant. Jumbo the elephant is the mascot at Tufts University near Boston where Caleb is a senior. The university colors are blue and brown. I’ve long lamented to Caleb the lack of elephants on Tufts clothing, although he alerted me that has now changed. Good. But I find university apparel ridiculously expensive. My handcrafted design offers an affordable alternative.
The other grandpa, who will be called “Opa,” painted the shirt on the left.
My husband has not yet painted a onesie. He’s presented several ideas. One I immediately rejected. Let’s just say he’s got a unique sense of humor…
Even more colorfully creative ideas.
SINCE IT’S THE SEASON for baby and bridal showers, let’s hear any creative ideas you have for hands-on activities.
© Copyright 2016 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
At 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, the outdoor temperature in my Faribault backyard registered at 66 degrees. This photo shows the indoor/outdoor temp monitor atop my refrigerator.
IT WAS A THROW the windows open kind of day here in Southern Minnesota. Let the wind sail the scent of spring through the closed-up winter house. Air out the rooms. Turn off the furnace because it’s warmer outside than in.
Eat lunch outdoors. In the sunshine. In temps reaching about 70 degrees.
Tuesday was the kind of winter day that seems pinch me unbelievable. Is this really March in Minnesota? Or is it summer?
© Copyright 2016 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
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