Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Wheeling across the basketball court at Unicon 21 in Bemidji July 26, 2024

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A Swish player shoots a basket in a July 18 game against a French team. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)

SWISH, AND HE SCORES. Or Swish, they score.

The scene from the balcony. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)
I love the Swish uniform graphic with a basketball and unicycle overlapping. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)
Things were pretty informal with folding chairs serving as team benches. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)

Swish, a team from California, earned the bronze medal in unicycling basketball competition this week at Unicon 21, the international unicycling convention held in Bemidji July 14-26. I saw them play early on against a French team in the high school gym. They lost that match in a close game.

More basketball action… (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)
Watching from above. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)
Aiming for the basket for the French team after being fouled. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)

Although winning was the goal, it’s clear these basketball players are dedicated to a sport they love playing. I can’t imagine that hopping onto a unicycle, then dribbling and passing a ball, guarding and shooting baskets is easy. You gotta love the challenge this version of basketball presents.

Fans sat on folding chairs or on the gym floor, up close to the game. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)

As the toddler daughter of one Swish player napped in her stroller, the game progressed. Nothing awakened Rosie, not even errant basketballs bouncing toward her and deflected by Grandpa, in Minnesota from Mississippi for the competition.

Most players simply threw their unicycles down when not riding them. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)
Posted on the entry door to the school. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)
Playing hard, the California team vs the French. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)

I watched the game, watched Rosie, got up and walked around looking for photo ops. Basketball, actually sports in general, don’t hold my interest for long, even an international competition. Plus, and I hesitate to write this, but the gym smelled of sweaty locker room. I stepped out occasionally simply to breathe fresher air in the air conditioned hallways.

A unicycle lies atop Paul Bunyan’s axe blade on the gym floor. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)
On the exterior of Bemidji High School, Paul Bunyan’s axe. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)

While wandering, I noted the Paul Bunyan legendary influence. On the gym floor, a unicycle lay on the blade of Paul’s over-sized axe. It’s only fitting that the school mascot is the Lumberjacks given Paul is a lumberjack.

Unicon 21 attendees got Paul Bunyan-themed tote bags. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)

His likeness, and that of his sweetheart, Lucette, and Babe the Blue Ox, adorned red buffalo plaid Unicon 21 swag bags scattered across the gym floor. The stuff of folklore, Paul and Babe are a major marketing brand in northern Minnesota. Statues of the pair stand along Lake Bemidji, for example, and are widely used in branding throughout the region from Brainerd northward.

The game ends. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2024)

I wonder what the Californians thought of the whole Paul Bunyan lore, or if they even noticed. Swish was in Minnesota, after all, to play basketball. While Rosie napped and I wandered in and out of the gym, they wheeled across the gym floor, focused on scoring, on winning the game.

© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Building the Eiffel Tower in France, then Minnesota June 22, 2023

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Completed 3-D wooden puzzle of the Eiffel Tower. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2023)

CONSTRUCTION OF THE EIFFEL TOWER in Paris took two years, two months and five days and a whole lot of engineers and factory and construction workers.

Construction of the Eiffel Tower in Faribault, built by one man, took 30 minutes.

Clearly there’s a difference in what, exactly, was constructed. My supposed-to-be-retired automotive machinist husband assembled a 3D wooden puzzle of the Eiffel Tower by B.C. Bones in a half hour. Information on the puzzle box estimates construction time at 1 to 2 hours. I am not one bit surprised that Randy fit the 32 pieces into a tower in much less time. His mind works that way. He sees a bunch of parts and he immediately envisions how they all work together.

Me? I would still be struggling to build the Eiffel Tower, especially given the missing architectural blueprint in the puzzle box. That and a missing fact file were likely the reasons this 2003 puzzle was in the freebie pile at a Northfield garage sale.

That Randy managed to construct the tower in such a short time and without a cheat sheet blueprint impresses me. But then I am not one who likes puzzles or has the ability to figure out how stuff connects. We each have our talents. Puzzling puzzles is not one of mine.

Now this two foot high tower sits on a vintage chest of drawers in our living room, displayed not as a completed puzzle project, but rather as a work of art. Just like the real tower in Paris, a tourist draw for 7 million annual visitors who appreciate its architectural and artistic beauty.

Engineer Gustave Eiffel designed the tower, built in 1889 to celebrate the Exposition Universelle. The structure reaches 1,083 feet heavenward and weighs 10,100 tons. But the fact I found most interesting on the official Eiffel Tower website was the 2.5 million rivets used in construction. That’s a whole lot of rivets holding the metal pieces in place.

Only slots hold the tight-fitting wooden puzzle together. But it’s amazingly strong and can be carried without falling apart. That gives me some insight into just how strong the real Eiffel Tower was engineered to be.

This garage sale freebie proved an interesting and engaging find. I learned something about architecture and engineering and facts about the Eiffel Tower unknown to me, mostly because I’ve never researched this architectural icon. And for Randy, this puzzle proved easy. For a garage sale freebie, I’d say we got our money’s worth.

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TELL ME: How would you do assembling this 3D puzzle without a blueprint? Do you do puzzles? Have you visited the Eiffel Tower in Paris?

© Copyright 2023 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Grieving with the people of Paris November 17, 2015

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Eiffel Tower

 

DURING MY WEEKLY SUNDAY evening phone call to my mother, who lives in southwestern Minnesota, we talked about the terrorist attacks in Paris. Mom shared how she could not stop watching media coverage of the tragedy.

And then she asked about my eldest, confused as to when my daughter and her husband had been in Paris. Six months ago, I assured her. Not recently, as she thought.

I, too, had been thinking about the May trip and how thankful I was that my loved ones were safely back home in Minnesota. But then I thought of the mom in California who will never welcome her daughter home. And I considered all the other families grieving the deaths of loved ones. How could I possibly relate or understand?

But I can. As human beings we can understand grief. I need only view the still photos of the tragedy in Paris and the aftermath to feel the grief. As I click through image after image after image, my grief rises and spills into tears. These photos tell a story and record history in a way that no words ever can. All too often the media is criticized for focusing on the negative. But it is their job to cover events, good and bad.

This sculptor of Alexander Faribault trading with a Dakota trading partner stands in Faribault's Heritage Park near the Straight River and site of Faribault's trading post. Faribault artist Ivan Whillock created this sculpture which sits atop a fountain known as the Bea Duncan Memorial Fountain.

This sculptor of Alexander Faribault trading with a Dakota trading partner stands in Faribault’s Heritage Park near the Straight River and site of Faribault’s trading post. Faribault artist Ivan Whillock created this sculpture which sits atop a fountain known as the Bea Duncan Memorial Fountain. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.

I’ve never been to France. I have no personal connection to the country. But I live in a Minnesota community with a French name—Faribault—founded by the son of a French-Canadian fur trader. French names like LeMieux, Archambault, LaCanne, Chappius, De Grood, Decoux and La Roche are common here. Whether these families are still connected to folks in the Old Country, I don’t know.

But we are all connected—no matter where we live—by the commonality of humanity and by grief, the most basic of human emotions. Today, and in the days since the most recent attacks in Paris and elsewhere, we are a world grieving.

© Copyright 2015 Audrey Kletscher Helbling