Swine flu scare

In a recent China trip to see her family my wife found that they were scared to death she was going to infect them with swine flu. She was able to prove or convince her immediately family that she was not sick, Her friends and acquaintances refused to have her near them.

She is Chinese and was to be a tour guide for some friends from Chicago that wanted to see the Great Wall and other historic sites. They were part Asian in heritage and looked like they were natives as my wife is. They had no problems with moving around. The populace wasn't scared as they didn't know my wife and friend were from America but her family did.

My point is that the government of China has scared their population about Americans carrying the swine flu that even family members wouldn't get near my wife. Government control of the media at work creating mass hysteria causes lack of freedoms along with common sense. This was a very eye opening stark example of government media and controls.

blog by conrad : www.loveforbookwritng.com and www.myovercoat.com and boomertweet on twitter

Boomer memories #6 of many

The FarmBoy that walked many paths

Kenny Larson, Lawrence Rasmussen, Elf Erickson and Warren Morton were buddies and were all bachelors. On Sunday afternoon they would drive around the various area and look at the crops or machinery for their entertainment. When it was early summer they would go stripped gopher hunting. If there was an event that had machinery or cattle they would take me along to see things. Most of the area towns had events in the summer to go to. Kenny would always have to drive so most of the time two of the guys would come to our place and then they would get in with Kenny and go toward the direction of the fourth friend and travel that direction that Sunday.

On those Sundays I would find something to do and it usually was practicing my baseball throwing or football or basketball or my golfing course. I always had to do the lawn. It was so boring that when I was mowing I thought of all of things. I had noticed several gopher holes scattered around the yard. I filled them up with rocks to about 3 inches from the level ground. I had found over time several golf balls and tennis balls. I didn’t have a golf club but I had a Ted Williams bat. I would use the bat like a putter and hit the various balls I had from hole to hole around the house for hours. I would have different people playing against me assigned to the various balls I had.

When it became football season I would hang a car tire to the highest branch I could find so I would have the longest rope length possible. I would pull the rope as far to the left as I could then I would then run to my football and try to throw it through the tire opening as it swung back and forth.

When it was near winter I would shoot my basketball through a heavy wire I bent in a half moon shape and nail it to the barn wall between the silos as this area was the most protected from the snow and winter winds. For the baseball season I had a slick deal I made a strike zone stand with a net to catch the balls that I would be a strike. If I missed the net I would have to chase farther to get the balls making the effort to get strike’s the least work. I worked out a contest where if I got three straight strikes I got an out and if I walk a batter the opposition got a point. Then I would be the opposition and do the same.

We would raise roosters for butchering and my job was to feed them and chase them into the chicken coop at night if they weren’t all in already and lock them in. One evening after eating a late supper, I was reminded that I still needed to lock the chickens in. I ran outside to finish my chores. I would at times imagine that as I was going to the chicken coop that there were bears and lions hiding along the way and I would escape by making running moves and darting here and there. I was running back to the house and up to the door I went and into the porch I came with a bound just miss being caught by a lion. Birdie our golden retriever usually accompanied me to do these chores. She had crawled up on the back of the couch in the porch and was watching me outside running and coming in. I didn’t see her as I came in the porch. She was so happy to see me she leaped from the back of the couch right at me. The porch was almost dark; I was just getting in the porch in the nick of time avoiding this big lion. I still remember my shock when my dog jump at me.

Our annual one day vacation was the annual trip to the Minnesota state fair. We would get up early enough to do chores and get to the State fairgrounds so we could park in the machinery hill area and under a shade tree for the afternoon shade. We usually got the same tree on the same block by the John Deere pavilion. It was a three and half hour drive and the gates opened at Seven AM. We stayed until 7 PM -8PM and did chores after we got home. Grandma always had enough lunch packed that we didn’t need any fair food. I would hear the race cars warming up and I would walk around the track looking for a knot hole to see through. I loved that roar. I believe by the time I was 12 I knew the fairground like our farm. We had set times to meet and eat something but other than that I didn’t sit around. I always had bags and bags of literature and free stuff that lasted a month later for things to look at. Machinery Hill was 80 acres and I think the whole fair grounds were 240 acre’s.

Blog by Conrad Larson for Blogger and www.loveforbookwriting.com and www.myovercoat.com plus Boomertweet on Twitter 7/25/09

Lubbock Texas

Our local Fargo Moorhead Kiwanis Club has had many years of a successful Pancake breakfast event raising thousands of dollars for charity. Two years ago the Kiwanis Club invited the Guinness World Records people to their event held at the Fargo civic center to verify the possibility of a world record for making and serving the most pancakes at one day event.

The event had many local volunteers and the NDSU Division I Bison football team too as servers and waiters. The day started very strong and ended strong with many pancake eaters on a winter blustery day at that. The Fargo Moorhead Kiwanis club became the world’s record holder.

Latter that year the previous record holder the Lubbock Texas Lions Club set out to win the record back. They also had the Guinness World records team onsite to witness and verify the event.

A side bar to this event held in Fargo –Moorhead I have previously been at another record event where a community won the record for the largest strawberry shortcake and the most people served when I was working in Europe several years ago. The strawberry shortcake tasted very good too as did those Kiwanis pancakes.

Well the Lubbock Texas Lions Club reclaimed the record with a fantastic number of pancakes served.

Now the BEST of the story, like Paul Harvey’s Rest of the story,

Fargo- Moorhead had a record flood this year and through the efforts of volunteers and civic minded people we survived a probable major disaster under the leadership of the mayor of Fargo Mr. Walacher and mayor of Moorhead Mr. Voxland. This flood was considered even more severe than a 100 year flood.

I drove Evac bus moving senior citizens out of harms way. My home was out of danger but many were under duress every day until the Red River of the North receded.

Lubbock Texas Lions club sent a huge donation of Cash to the Fargo Moorhead RED CROSS in help for the flood recovery. What fantastic people we have for friends in Lubbock Texas.

Blog by Conrad Larson www.loveforbookwriting.com, and www.myovercoat.com ; and as Boomertweet on Twitter and ping.fm, I also blog on Blogger.com 7/25/09

The FARM BOY that walked many paths #5

The FARM BOY that walked many paths.

The barn cleaning usually was done with our friend Lawrence and we would do his pens and than ours or vice versa. We would have three tractors and spreaders, two drivers, he and I and Kenny would load. We would haul from right after chores in the morning until dark, do evening chores, eat supper, sleep, and start again. The soybean acres would then be planted after the manure was spread on those acres. If we wouldn’t get all of the manure hauled on those acres then but would start up again after the first crop of alfalfa was baled and finish the manure cleaning project towards the end of June spreading on the alfalfa acres.

This was one of my first years hauling manure. I was coming back toward the farm yard and my foot got stuck between the two brake pedals. You can tell by that how young I was. I was leaning down to help free my foot and I turned the steering wheel and down the ditch I went. Instead of slowing down I steered back out of the ditch and wow I went over the road and down the other side. I started to correct the steering and this time was able to keep on the road after coming out of the ditch. I didn’t think to slow down which didn’t help the situation. Now coming out of the yard was Lawrence and I thought he would say something or shake his fist or something but just like Lawrence, he gave me the thumbs up sign. How much of my bad driving did he see? Then for the next few loads before we stopped to eat I worried about what Kenny would say when he found out. I knew that it wouldn’t be good. Dinner time came and we all stopped and went to the house to eat and I was feeling pretty low. I felt the world would be coming done on me soon.

The smell of the food and usually fresh bread met us at the door and soon we were eating and Lawrence never said a word. We headed back to hauling and I never got confronted on that incident.

Lawrence was the opposite of Kenny. He always had something cheerful to do or say. Kenny was all business all the time. The work kept accelerating for me year after year as far as equipment and responsibilities. I had now taken over the silage pile stacking for the corn silage run in the fall. The work load slow enough that it would give me time to play a little. I would take my football and throw in the air and run and dive for it at the edge of the silage pile. I would catch the ball in the air and tumble 10 feet down the soft silage as though I was some super football star. The fall silage season usually was cold in the morning and hot in the afternoon. The morning I am remembering was the same way. I took off my coverall around 10AM and it felt very comfortable being such a nice fall day. Lawrence always had a trick up his sleeve and I thought of one myself for him. He would bring a load of silage to the silage pile elevator and would unload into the elevator. Then after that he would leave I would take my tractor with loader or push blade and level the pile again and pack the silage by driving back and forth for the time it took for the next load to come.

I could time the process precisely. I took my coverall and filled it with silage and made it look like someone was actually there. I even added a hat. When I knew Lawrence would be able to see the elevator I started the elevator up and sent this stuffed coverall up the elevator and as he got close, I had it timed that the coverall filled with silage would fall off the end of the elevator. I also hide along side of the tractor that was running the elevator so he couldn’t see me. I think Lawrence got a pretty fair chuckle out of that one as during dinner time he did tell Kenny of my mischief.

www.loveforbookwriting.com and www.myovercoat.com ; boomertweet at twitter blog by conrad larson This is a series of blogs , by Conrad Larson

The FARM BOY that walked many paths #4

I would get to drive things home later that year otherwise it was only in the field that I would get to drive. One of the most critical was drive the grain wagon along side the combine so Uncle Kenny could unload while combining at the same time. I can remember being hollered to keep in line enough that I figured how to do it very quickly. One time I thought I heard whoa and I stopped and got grain dumped on my head before Uncle Kenny could stop the auger. I got hollered at quite severely and was given the tasked to clean up the grain from the ground and pay more attention the next time. Usually I could figure out pretty close to where I needed to be when the combine hopper was nearly full and be there ready to go. I didn’t have a lot of time to clean up the grain but I work hard at it and was just ready for the next dump. This one went better and I think I had figured things out a little bit better. We also combine for neighbors. I think Uncle Kenny liked the idea that I could drive along side and he could dump the grain into my wagon and not stop combining because we always got more acres done and when there was another combine in the field we always stayed ahead. When I would get a full wagon load I would go to the end of the field and unhook the full wagon and hook up to an empty wagon. The WD Allis was a perfect tractor for a young boy as I could use the clutch to shift and still not worry about steering because I also had that hand clutch disengaged. Then I could move in the seat and pull the hand clutch and the tractor would go.

When the end of the combining day would come we still had chores to do. We also hooked all of the full wagons together and take them home sometimes four hooked together. We had a long shed so we would drive the whole group in one door and be ready in the morning to drive out the other end just in case it rained at night. Combining never got started early because of the dew in the morning so we unloaded the wagons after morning chores. When we were able to combine in the morning we would unload those loads over noon eating by the grain auger as we unloaded. This way other than stopping to eat the combine never stopped.

We always had a lot of chores to do. We had beef feeders to feed, we had chickens to feed, we had pigs to feed, and we had fryers to feed. We usually had a couple hundred or more on feed. We had at times three locations for feeders.

In the following years Grandma Larson had hip replacement surgery in St Cloud, Minnesota Hospital. I believe this one of the first of its kind. I was around 11 at that time and I was giving the duties of fixing food, picking and cleaning eggs, washing clothes as well as the cattle chores. I think I made gallant effort but the egg cleaning and dish washing really got behind. I would get reminded in no uncertain terms that I needed to get those things done. I think we eat all right but it probable was the same foods every other day. Grandma was in the hospital a long time and was not able to do much

At home for a while either. This is when we went to town on Friday evening and we started to take the wash into the Laundromat right away and then we were taken to Morkens for some canasta playing. Herman and I against Sophie and Grandma. Kenny would have the clothes picked up when he stopped by and we would go right home. The next morning after chores I would have the clothes hanging duty before I could be doing big boy stuff. I usually had to mow the lawn too that day and it was a big lawn. I really started looking forward to the rain storms so that we would have a break. Uncle Kenny bought a C Farmall tractor so I could start cultivating. Cultivating was a slow job and it was hard to keep the corn clean with just one cultivator. When the cultivating started Kenny would set the cultivator and he would watch how it worked and then would go and get the 70 John Deere and start cultivating with that. It didn’t take more than a year and I was driving the 70 and Uncle Kenny had bought a 4020 John Deere. We know could get some serious cultivating done. We had nearly 200 acres of corn to cultivate. We tried to get through the all of the acres three times but sometimes other things got in the way. There was always a battle for what to do after the crops were planting, we would have to clean all of the barns, pick rocks and then cultivate corn, none of which were my favorite things to do especially picking rocks. These projects all had to be done before the first crop of hay was to be cut, raked, and baled. We usually had 100 acres of hay to bale a year. The rest of the farm was divided up into 40-60 acres each of Barley, wheat, flax oats and soybeans.

posted by Conrad Larson 7/20/09 www.loveforbookwriting.com , www.myovercoat.com , Boomertweet on twitter; fourth blog in a long series

The FARM BOY that walked many paths

Dad had been in the hospital now for two weeks and I had always helped with the cows. I probable couldn’t do much back them but I fed them and carried milk pails. I was always around the barn when dad was milking and or working. Uncle Kenny did chores until a hired man was found while dad was in the hospital. It was such a lonely time without dad and I was told I would start doing chores way to early in the afternoon as if this would bring dad back home mother said. The hired man was supposed to have said I was able tell him he did all of the chores correctly as he was learning the work load. It was many years later that I heard that the hired man was a student at the Ag school in Morris from Underwood, Minnesota. His name was John Larson no relation.

I remember trying to convince Grandma Larson to take me to town to buy something for my Dad. Riding to Morris from the school in Cyrus I asked the pastor if dad had died. He didn’t say a word. We got to the hospital and we went inside and Grandma Larson took me aside and told me my dad had died this morning. I am not sure that a 6 year old can comprehend this. I remember asking the pastor if my dad had died but what does this mean to a 6 year old.

I wanted to see my dad and again denied. My next memories are at the funeral and it was Glen Hellberg a neighbor talking to me at the funeral. Glen was older and the only one that I remember talking to me. I can still feel being so small walking around all these people and they were so big. I still sense that I was walking around and around and finding nobody. I still remember Glen saying how sad he was.

I think it was the next year Mother had a big birthday party for me. Phillip. Koehntop, Barry and Edwin Gades, Glen Hellberg, Roger Strand, Raymond Strand, Donny and Jerry Jesness were all there. The big thing back then was to be caught and have a birthday spanking and a pinch to grow an inch, which the guest had fun doing. I remember being able to run fast enough for getting away from everybody but Glen. I think it was Ruth Ann Stark and Rhoda her mother were over to help with the party. I had ran into the house to get a drink and Rhoda said I should put these aluminum pie pan in my shorts to protect my behind from the spanking. That didn’t work that well so I went outside and it was a race again and finally I was caught by Glen.

I was told by mother that Rhoda came to the rescue and she said Rhoda had brought two boxes of pop sickles and gave one to everyone and then we were told to go and wash up and the birthday cake would be ready soon. I believed this would be 1954. Rhoda was a close friend of mothers and they did a lot together.

One of the winters during this time we had record snowfall and we have a picture of railroad equipment cutting through a snow bank that was as high as our trees. I believe there is a picture someplace showing the equipment.

Christine Larson, a very distant relative came to live with mother after dad had past away. This was also the time I was moved to Grandma Larson’s to live. Many years later I found out that mother was not fond of this move but was kind of forced into the arrangement.

In those days most farms had 200-500 chickens for income. The term that comes to mind that would describe the process as egg money. Christine a lady that stayed with mother after Dad passed away, I was told she was very hard worker and she took care of the chickens for Mother. Grandma Larson had chickens too and was in charge of them at the farm were I stayed. I would do the picking of the eggs and feed the chickens for her as part of my chores.

There was a man from Kensington that would come to the farms and pick up the cases of eggs two times a week. He would also be our supplier of butter. His coming to the farm was a big event. I don’t remember seeing anyone other than him come to the farm during a whole week. If I remember correctly we would go to town every other week to shop.

Grandma Larson had relatives in Morris, Herman and Sophie Morken; I believe Herman was Grandma Larson’s uncle. Uncle Kenny would bring us to the Morkens. We would play Canasta until Kenny would come and get us.

The chores and things to do were never ending. At the time I was too young to understand that Grandma needed more help. I would run the ringer washer and hang the clothes on the lines from the house to the garage every Monday. I dreaded this chore as I would rather be driving the tractor. I was usually done by noon and would get to drive the tractor that pulled the baler. This was an Allis Chalmers WD. This tractor had a hand clutch so I could run the tractor because I was too small to use the foot clutch. Uncle Kenny would get the tractor, baler and wagon ready and I would pull in the clutch and run the throttle as well as steer. The windrows were quite big so we were going fairly slowly and I remember getting hollered at to do things right but it didn’t take long to be pretty good at it. We always had a lot of hay so I had many days of this and became very good at driving the tractor for baling. I probable started doing this at 8 or 9 years old. I was driving for baling, picking rocks, and grain wagons those first years.

Blog 3 : www.loveforbookwriting.com, www.myovercoat.com author conrad larson 7/20/09 Boomertweet on twitter

The FARM BOY that walked many paths.

Three weeks before this day I was wakened up after 10PM in the evening and my memory is very vivid now and very sad too. I was told I was wakened up. I do remember the rest of the evening. There were several of the neighbors in our house and it was after my bedtime so it was after 10PM by now. Mother was in tears. A side note for that era was that the telephone lines where party phone lines. When some one called to another place the ring was heard at every house on that line. Each house had a certain ring sound. I believe the number at our home was Walnut 152 which meant a short ring, a long ring and two short rings. Grandma Larson’s number was Walnut 30 which was three short rings. Mother had called the operator and that was one long ring. The late night calls were very rare so when Mother rang that one long ring the neighbors were concerned and all went to their telephone and pick up the receiver to hear if anything was going wrong. What they heard was Mother asking for an ambulance because dad was very sick. The neighbors that heard this and all being friends, and concerned, drove over to our house to see if they could help mother. Everybody new each other rings and would know who the call was for. Mother having dialed the operator so late had the neighbors thinking someone needed help.

I still did not know what was totally going on but shortly the ambulance arrived. They backed up to the back door which was our usual door and they couldn’t get there gurney in through the entry. They drove around the house and backed up to our front door which had no entry and came in with there stretcher. They help dad unto this stretcher and put him the ambulance. I can’t remember who all were there but I think I was told Arnold and Hazel Strand where there. Grandma Larson and Kenny came too. Grandma Larson stayed with us that night, me age 6, Sherlynn age 4 and Eileen age 2. Mother went with the ambulance to the hospital with dad. I don’t remember much of the next few days other than I couldn’t find out anything or get permission to go see dad.

The year before Mother had been hospitalized for nine months or more in Sister Kenny in Minneapolis with a disease called polio. She had to be put into an Iron Lung. I remember because of the polio epidemic and mother having polio I had to go through a series of medicines handed out at the school. I also had to go to Minneapolis to have some more of the polio medicines. I remember the big rooms and waiting but not much more.

Blog by Conrad larson ; www.loveforbookwritng.com ; www.myovercoat.com ; twitter - Boomertweet , This is page 2 of a series of blogs 7/19/09

The FARM BOY that walked many paths.

Lost and at the same time an internal compass that can get to anyplace, anytime. Full of turmoil but calm and relaxed but ready to spring to action. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat flow through my blood like ice water.

It all started in the summer of 1947, the time flies and it seems there is more forgotten than remembered. For the sake of the next generations I am writing this book as a reminder of times past. I also hope in writing this that my family will investigate their past and know there roots. I am now the only living Larson in mine and past generations. I have the great honor to say I have five sons. I am the first living grandfather our family has had as far back as I could find family information.

We usually don’t pay much attention to the past until the past hits us in the face. Then we don’t have the contacts to ask the questions we have. My sons have not reached this age yet and since I am the only one left I feel an obligation to try and chronicle a time line to help with their search when they are ready. Our family was small besides that I am the only one left in the oldest generation in the year 2008. I do have one first cousin on my mother’s side of the family that is still living. His name is Loren Anderson.

Memories of the first years get mixed up in hearing stories of those times and actually remembering them. I am going to error on the side of recalling the stories I have been told along with memories to get a bigger picture of those times as I can. We have pictures that will enhance these comments.

I was at the Cyrus Lutheran Church in Cyrus where our class was placed for the second grade year school. I was picked up to go to the Stevens County Hospital by the pastor from our church Scandia Luthern Free Church. This is the most intense early memory I have. My dad had been in the hospital for three weeks when I was taken to the hospital. I had asked to go many times but was told that I was too young to go to the hospital. I understand that back then youth having restrictions to visit the sick was a normal situation.

Page 1 ; www.loveforbookwriting.com , Blogger / BoomerMemories ; Twitter / Boomertweet ; www.myovercoat.com conrad larson 7/19/09 There is a series of blogs following.

Emergency

Can you imagine being 5'8" tall and weigh 355# , your ankles loosing feeling as well as some of your lower legs. You go to your doctor and he says you are going to DIE if you don't lose weight and a bunch of it.

My friend Ken and I were golfing last year and he rented a golf cart to manage the course. Steve and I walked . Steve had a pull cart and I carried my bag. Ken became tired and asked if we could sit out a hole and let the next group pass through. Steve said to Ken he better take care his weight because he could die. Ken got an appointment with his doctor that very next week. Ken still played a pretty good game as he and Steve tied and beat me by 10 strokes. The only thing that mattered was that Ken needed to take care of himself.

He made his doctor appointments and after counseling and medical physicals he was cleared for gastric bypass in October of 2008. He started on a pre-surgery diet regimen in November and by end of December he had lost enough weight to be cleared for surgery in the middle of January 2009. Ken was scared now as he had no prior hospitalizations or even close to surgery.

I had to have major surgery in September 2008 and Ken couldn't bare coming to see me. This was not his bag of tea. As they rolled him to surgery he tried his best to cancel it and told them he could lose the weight on his own. Ken knew better but the thought of surgery was terrifying. The operating room was so cold and scary too. The nurses knew better and explained the process and soon he feel asleep. The surgery went well and Ken was home in a day. The weight started to come off right away making Ken feel happy. The intake transition was very hard to overcome but Ken being a perfectionist handled it well.

Ken son Ted was to graduate in late May therefore Ken set a goal to lose all the weight the doctor thought was appropriate. Graduation was drawing near and Ken looked lighter and his attitude was fantastic about how he looked and he accepted his graduation goal was too big and that he didn't need to push himself so hard. When he weight in he had lost enough to be 200#. He had met his goal right on the money. Ken was the hit at the graduation party as almost all of the relatives had not seen Ken for a year or even knew of his operation. The attention really motivated Ken to set his next goal of 185 #'s for our golf tournament in July. He made that goal and the Doctors are satisfied he has done well.

Ken is so happy and rejoicing. His blood pressure was never an issue but that even improved. Ken saved his own life. His loss of feeling in his lower legs won't come back but it has been stopped. Congratulations Ken. He is one of my favorite musicians and I will be posting some of his work shortly.

blog by Conrad Larson ; www.loveforbookwriting.com, www.myovercoat.com , boomertweet at twitter

Tunisia Business Trip

This is the fourth blog First Serious Overseas Business Trip

Culture shock for me was the closest to how things were on this trip. When I arrived I was singled out right away by police and then no one to meet me where I didn’t speak the language was a new experience. I did find my hotel after some trying times.

I check in and went to my room. I needed a bathroom break pretty bad after the long ordeal at the airport and trip to find the hotel. Well as a novice at traveling I saw my first bidet and what it was for?

I was also very hungry and returned to the main floor to get a bite to eat. I went into the dinning room that was quite busy and reviewed the menu. I could not read a word of the menu. I started looking at the plates being brought to tables and I did not see anything I wanted. For those of you that don’t know me I am a plain meat and potatoes guy. I had to point to the menu and try something. I couldn’t eat what was the main course but did get fruit I enjoyed. At a table a couple of rows away there was a commotion that got very heated and a customer left crying. I asked for some more fruit and they brought some which helped a lot.

The next morning while at the counter exchanging some Marks for Tunis money a lady heard my voice and hollered MATY MATTY you speak English and ran up to me and gave me a hug. I recognized her as the lady that left the dinning room crying from last night. She spoke pretty good English but it wasn’t her natural language. She calmed down enough to understand her problem as she was a vegetarian and every time they brought food it was wrong. She was on vacation from Rome. Later the previous evening I had overheard a German accent and approach a man and found him to be able to speak English and he was on a business trip from Frankfurt and he worked for Pepsi Europe. I told the lady from Rome about this gentleman and that I would introduce her to him this evening so she could order some food. The hotel manager found out my help and invited me, the German Pepsi salesman, and the lady from Rome and three other foreign guests to a private roof top restaurant which was a treat.

I would walk the beach every night to cool off and the local kids would follow me as though I was someone they knew. The beach was too hot to walk on during the day but evening it was like okay. I could see ships coming in and out to sea everyday. The family that owned the poultry house invited me to their house for a meal the second week. I was very hopeful as I was very hungry as I didn’t find much to eat as I am fussy eater.

I had a good time but struggled with the food. They brought out strawberries for desert and I was overjoyed. They also brought out whipped cream for the strawerries!WOW!

I covered the strawberries with the whipped cream and set in to enjoy. It wasn’t whipped cream.

The owner had a son that came to take me to the downtown one evening and we went to an open restaurant. They had a camel hitch to a pole walking around a machine right in the middle of the restaurant making some kind of food product. Some local residents that seemed to watch out for me took me to the Soukes (SP) the first day off we had which was a four level mostly open front stores that had merchants selling their goods. I was ushered around safely and shown some very authentic Tunisian merchandise. I did buy some things that the family still has.

We had a real serious altercation at the hotel one evening and in the morning my building owner had to intervene to get me out of the hotel for work as being an American they wanted to be sure they knew where I was.

The project remodeling went well and when it was time to leave the owner was very reluctant to let me leave. It took some interesting conversations and phone calls to get me to my plane on time. I was able to make my connections coming back alright. I experience my first real rough ride over the Atlantic that trip but was told it was a normal drop for that time of the year in bad weather situations.

Fourth blog about First Business Trip written by Conrad Larson 7/19/09 If you would like to read the first three blogs you can probably find them in the archives, Time frame reference 1979. www.loveforbookwriting.com and www.myovercoat.com ; Boomertweet on Twitter

Third blog on First Serious Overseas Business Trip

This is a third blog about First Seriuos Overseas Business trip

The boss arrived 7AM at the hotel and I was ready to go. The temperature was very warm already but the newness of everything made incidental stuff seem very small. The building was a cement block building nearly 200 feet long by 40 wide. The entry way was piled up with open boxes and parts all over.

The entry to the chickens was ajar and we went in. I saw workers manually feeding the chickens and this was to be automatic. The owner could speak very little English and struggled to tell me of his problems, but I was familiar with the equipment and he seemed happy I could see some difficulties.

The cage laying systems were designed for ease of operations and having to feed, water, and pick eggs manually made this building harder than the floor system. There were eggs falling off the conveyors. There were piles of feed on the floor. The birds in the top deck were panting already suffering from lack of water. The system was design to have gravity water pressure enough to work the water spigots. The bottom rows seemed all right so I raised the corresponding supply tanks for row two and the top row to the same distance above the row as the bottom row and that solved that problem. The lack of water had caused a good amount of top row chickens to die and I tried to tell the owner he needed to remove the birds and he didn’t understand my direction. I decided I needed to explain by doing and the workers caught on right away and stepped in to do the removal of birds. It was then I noticed that the cage partitions were set up in erratic sizes with 3 birds in one cage and 10 plus in others.

I went to the entry way and looked through the supply of boxes and found partitions that had not been installed. I showed a couple of workers how to do this and they seemed so eager to be of help that I turned them loose to go through the whole building and be sure all cages were the correct size and each one had only three birds in each cage. Over half of the partitions were missing and having found several unopened boxes of them buried under piles of stuff we knew what we had to do.

The owner recruited several more workers to help. He also had his daughter from the hotel come to help with the language barrier. She had taken several English classes at the university and enjoyed a chance to use her skills. The process was slow but helped anyway.

The electrical system is 60 cycle in the Middle East and they installed USA 110 cycle motors and the system didn’t work. The owner brought in a local contractor with some correct motors. When they were ready we started the system up and it ran but what a mess we created as this is when we found out that the rats had invaded the drive boxes. The workers shut off the system and came running to me to come and look what was happening. I immediately opened the drive box cover and that is when I was confronted with the rats. Rats came out like scared birds jumping all over and I was jumping all over too. The workers thought that I was the funniest thing they had seen.

They tried to trick me into opening another gear box because they thought my being scared of rats was so funny. I calmly as I could explain that I was not going to be able to work on the gear boxes until they got the rats out of the barn. We had run the system long enough that I saw some other major problems. The level of the cages was uneven and the augers didn’t ride correctly in the feeds through. When we found this out we had to make shims and add to the support legs in several places in each row to make things work. The rows were 150’ long and had many ups and downs in each row. This was a major task as we had to loosen the whole system up in order to level the trouble spots. We tied an end of a roll of twine to a starting point and tied the other end to a hook strategically placed at the end of the building and leveled every thing to that string. The owner continued to watch and bring me more workers as he saw the need.

The work schedule in Tunis was very different for me. I was working away the first day and didn’t notice that all of the workers had left the barn until the owner arrived and ask me to come with him and he brought me back to the hotel and it was noon. He said he would be back at 3 PM for me. Also during the mid morning I did notice two workers leave but since I was new I didn’t say anything. In about a half hour they were coming back in the barn carrying a paper feed sack. The rest of the workers all came together and they had the long roll of bread ( long loaf ) and each broke off a piece and dipped it in butter and some brown paste stuff. I originally thought it was peanut butter but soon found out it wasn’t. We also had some American Coke. This was our mid morning break. They also did this around 6 PM but when they came back the butter had completely melted and they scraped their bread on the paper bag to get the butter on the bread. I believe the temperature where nearly 120 degrees those days. We finished around 9PM every night and I was brought back to the hotel.

I almost lost it the first couple of days at these breaks when most of the workers would go to the cages and grab an egg and crack it open and eat it directly from the shell. We had the system running real smooth during the second week. It took most of the first week to get the partitions in correctly all the while doing this with birds in the cages and taking care of the birds. It was amazing that they had any birds alive by the time I got there. It showed the workers where very diligent in caring for the birds. The excitement in seeing the system work better each day even brought area visitors to watch.

The pressure of strangers watching was not bad but the daily visit of the police going through my stuff was worrisome. This was in the late seventies and American relations in the Mid East were strained to say the least.

Written by Conrad Larson as third blog of the First Business Trip 7/18/09 www.loveforbookwriting.com ; www.myovercoat.com ; Boomertweet on Twitter

The fourth blog to follow. If you like this blog you can find the other blogs here or in the Archives about my First business Trip. This trip takes place in 1979 for your reference.

Family traditions

Family Traditions are needed.

This recipe for a delicacy is now passed on to my sons as my oldest son Travis makes Krumkaka for the holidays now too. We need to do more of these things to keep in touch with our roots. I have another blog about food and you like to see it at www.loveforbookwriting.com


KRUMKAKA ; a delicious Thanksgiving and Christmas treat a LARSON tradition

Every Christmas season I make 20 – 30 dozen of the best luxurious Christmas treats. These morsels of melt in your mouth treats are just fantastic. The recipe has been in the family since my Norway and Swedish family members came to America. I am the last in the Larson family in my generation and my Fathers generation have all passed on. I have five sons and now one of them has started making these just fantastic treats as a family tradition.

It seems so sad that many of these traditions fall by the wayside and are lost. It was such a thrill to see my son take a hold of this and continue it for the next generation. I continue to make these morsels of pure joy as I get requests now for KrumKaka every year from friends and friends of friends.

I remember my Grandmother cornering me to help making these treats when I was a small boy. She bribed me with letting me eat a couple while making them to encourage me to pay attention and work. Grandma Larson’s health was failing so any help I could give was appreciated. In those days these treats were special gifts to the family for Christmas time from Grandma as we didn’t have many gifts.

My five boys just love that I make Krumkaka for their families and friends. The recipe is very simple but the technique is precise so it will probable take a batch or two to master the techniques. The taste will still be awesome however the shape will be awful. Keep practicing as the recipients will be astonished.



Larson KrumKaka recipe;



4 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 ¼ pound stick of butter melted

2 table spoons of corn starch

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cup of white flour

Blend the eggs lightly but completely , add sugar and the melted butter and vanilla,

Sift flour corn starch, flour, sugar and stir well and add to egg mixture

When add the flour last and blend in ¼ cup completely and blend in each ¼ cup the same way.

Dough will be sticky to be dropped by spoon



You need a KrumKaka iron, KrumKaka rollers, spoons to move dough to iron, spatula to remove baked Krumkaka to roller board. All of the items available at kitchen stores in a mall near you.



Roll and let cool on rollers until next batch is ready and remove from roller and roll the next one. You will have to be timing this process well as the KrumKaka iron will burn the dough if left in to long.

Feel to double and triple the batch when ready for big time production.



www.myovercoat.com , www.loveforbookwriting.com Blog by Conrad Larson

First Serious Overseas Trip 2/blog

Second blog; First Overseas Business Trip

I have blogged about this trip before. If you want to go back and get more of this story check out the archives.

I was in this line and it wasn’t moving and my flight was to leave in 10 minutes. I budge to the front of the line with many very bad looks sent my way. The counter lady said get back in the line the flight to Frankfurt is delayed three hours.

I retreated to my old place and found out that the rest were also waiting for this plane. The lined finally started to move and we were on the plane in a little over two hours. The schedule to make connections in Frankfurt was still possible. We started to taxi away from the terminal. Well back them there was no cells phones and we sat on the approach for over an hour now my flight probable would be missed.

The attendant told me that when we were at cruising altitude she would try to help me. This was new world for me, my first overseas trip; many passengers were upset about the delays making the situation tense.

We made arrangements to be put up in a hotel paid by the airline. The rest of the flight would be figured out by the time we arrive was the plan. When we started to descend I was told that there were no flights to Tunis for a week. I was also told they could not do anything more for me but pay for the hotel. I was told to come back to the airport tomorrow AM and talk to the ticket agent.

I did sleep but not very well. The building owner in Tunis was scheduled to meet me this AM and I was still in Frankfurt. The hotel allowed me to send telegrams to my company in Luverne, MN and to the building owner in Tunis. I wasn’t told that these messages would not be delivered for 24 hours. I made arrangements to go to Paris to get a flight to Tunis. When arriving in Paris I found out that the airport I was landing at wasn’t the airport I was leaving from. I didn’t speak any German in Frankfurt and I was not able to speak French in Paris either. I did get from one airport to another and they held the plane for me so now I was feeling things were back on track.

I arrived at Tunis and headed down the ramp wide eyed and hoping nothing else was going to go wrong. Well things got real interesting very fast as I entered the airport. Two policemen escorted me to a holding area right away. I was put into a room and one of the policemen stayed with me. My bags were brought in and opened in front of me and everything was laid out on the table and then I was padded down by another officer.

I didn’t speak Arabic so I was at a loss as to what situation I was in. They indicated I needed to put things back in my suitcase. When I finished they escorted me out of the airport and one policeman stayed very close. Nobody approached me as I walked back and forth in front of the airport for over two hours. I finally showed an address to a cab driver and paid him some money and we started driving. Well I finally made enough commotion so he stopped and I got out as he didn’t seem able to find the address. A policeman stopped within minutes of me getting out of the taxi. I was either very lucky or I was being followed. I gave the policeman the same address and he took me to a hotel on the Mediterranean and we went in and he showed the address to the clerk and she was the daughter of the person I was to see and they had me staying at this very hotel. The family came to see me and it was figured out that they had walked the airport the day before for two – three hours looking for me. The telegram showed up two days later telling of my flight problems.

This is the second blog of First Serious Overseas Business Trip with more to follow of this interesting trip. My next blog will be about the work I had to do. The fourth blog of this story will be about the living experience I had in the desert heat on the Mediterranean.

Written by Conrad Larson for www.loveforbookwriting.com and www.myovercoat.com My tweeter name is Boomertweet

First serious overssea business trip

I was a young man now working for Northco out of Luverne, Minnesota. Northco was a company that made confinement egg laying buildings. I joined the company as a service manager in 1977 moving from Moorhead, Mn.

Northco had just developed a new four deck system. This means four levels of bird cages that had automated egg gathering and automated feeding. I was to install the first building near Wall Lake, Iowa and shortly thereafter put on an instruction school for dealers from around the United States.

We were nearly completed with installation when our CEO came for a visit to see our new facility. While touring him around the poultry barn He asked me if my passport was in order. Well being a little naïve in these matters I sheepishly asked what he meant by passport in order. He told me that he wanted me on a plane to Tunis, Tunisia Monday after our dealer meetings latter next week.

I was so taken back that I said what do I do? Where is this Tunis place and what am I going to be doing there? He said that the office manager would get all of the arrangements made. You are to go and take a look of a building in Tunis and get it running so we can get paid our money. I honestly hadn’t even remembered hearing of Tunis.

I went home and we got the map out and found out were I was going. When I went back to work the next day I learned that an Italian company had built the facility and the owner was withholding funds as things weren’t running properly. The communication was not good enough to determine exactly what was wrong the building.

I had flown before but it wasn’t a common occurrence for me. The week really went fast as I had to get ready for the dealer meetings as I was to instruct them on how to install the four deck system as well as get ready for the Tunis trip.

The dealer meetings went very well. The new four deck system was putting us in the lead for the largest egg laying systems being built. A highlight of the dealer meetings was the dealer dinner at Magnolia Steak House in Magnolia, Minnesota. I was attending for the first time also. The new people were told that they should order the house steak. I was lucky that I was a staff member and had duties to do before ordering. I saw what was brought to the table ala cart before the steak. The food was in quantities where I couldn’t imagine being able to eat and the steak hadn’t come out yet. Well the steak turned out to be a 32 ounce steak that hung over the edges of the plate. The plate of onion rings was as high as it was wide let alone the vegetable and potato plate after salad at that.

I boarded the plane for Tunis at Sioux Falls on Republic Airlines for Chicago and beyond around noon for the connecting flight in Chicago to Frankfurt Germany and then to Tunis. At 10 PM I was still the check in line and afraid of missing my flight. It was my first time in Ohare in Chicago. The rest of the story gets even more exciting! Look for part 2 of First Overseas Serious Business trip. Check out www.loveforbookwriting.com and www.myovercoat.com

Written by Conrad Larson 7/16/09

Trip to Spokane area

Swedish Food KLUB

It was July Fourth Weekend traveling to and from a fantastic visit to some special family in Idaho. I flew in and out of Spokane Washington. The views flying in were so extraordinary that when I got to travel by car I was even more surprised by the great views however things are always better when sharing with someone special. The time spent went by so fast that time was a blur.

When I went back to the airport in Spokane to return home. I went straight to passenger inspections. While taking off my shoes and putting things into plastic trays, I was asked if I had any liquids. I answered and immediately a worker asked me if I was Swedish. He approached me with a smile offering a few Swedish greetings. The experience caught me off guard as I hadn’t previously been noticed by my accent or voice before. I am Swedish and Norwegian born and raised in Minnesota but have worked all over the USA plus some stints in Europe and the Middle East so my accent hadn’t been an issue.

The activity at the airport was quite slow so there was time to exchange niceties. The gentleman was an average big Swede with a robust smile and voice. He asked me about a dish of food he hadn’t been able to get since his grandmother passed away sometime back. He asked about KLUB and I told him to give me his email address and I certainly would be able to get him a recipe.

My family hadn’t made Klub but I was sure my good friend DeLois Martinson from Alexandria, Minnesota would have a recipe available. She is from the Dahlgren family rich in Swedish traditions. Her family have been very active in historical Scandinavian events and community events.

I got home and sent an email to DeLois and as expected had a return recipe to me within hours. I appreciate her so much. She is a first cousin to my mother and was a dear friend to my mother through her years here on earth.

DeLois and Marvin Martinson had their 50^th anniversary in May this year celebrating in Kensington, Minnesota a famous little town known for the Kensington Runestone. The site was a very fitting place for the anniversary as this was the home town of DeLois just fifteen minutes southwest of Alexandria, Minnesota. The facility was filled to capacity with many friends from the area and also from other states including Spokane, Washington.

Delois and Marvin's sons put on a very attractive event. Ken the middle son from Nashville brought along some of his friends that cater for the stars to do the food which included Swedish main dishes as well as Swedish deserts. Swedish meatballs were the feature favorite with a massive display of gorgeous food second none. Calvin and Keith sons from the Alexandria area did their part also which included a 1957 two door hardtop Chevrolet put on display within the banquet room as the car was a replica of the car the honored couple took their first date in. Many special guests were introduced and participated as well as the Martinson Brothers singing group originally from Glenwood, Minnesota, including Marvin. Glenwood is their hometown just south of Alexandria on beautiful Lake Minnewaska. The couple that went on that double date was in attendance also.

Many churches in the area publish cookbooks and they are the source for many of us that relish the old dishes and make occasionally for special gatherings

The recipe for KLUB is from the Covenant Church recipe book. The Covenant church is in the City of Kensington, Minnesota.

I found the following recipe in the Kensington Covenant Church cookbook

2000 edition, which Nancy (Skoglund) Johnsrud had submitted as her father's recipe:

KLUB FOR GRANDPA LUTHER

5 lbs. potatoes (russet are best)
1 cup oatmeal
1 tsp. salt
4 cups flour
1 lb. salt pork or bacon, cut in cubes

Peel and grind or grate potatoes.

Combine grated potatoes, oatmeal, salt and flour.

Shape tennis size dumplings with several pieces of

salt pork in center of each.

TIP: Dip hands in flour before shaping balls. Place in salted, boiling

water. Cover and cook over medium heat for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Serve

hot with melted butter and thick liquid from cooking. Makes 15 - 18.

Also good sliced and reheated with a little milk. Some like maple syrup over.

Blog written by Conrad Larson 7/8/09 for www.loveforbookwriting.com and www.myovercoat.com