Book 11: 1987-88
May 1987: Our family returns from a magical, family-strengthening 6-months of world travels. Steve and Patty Paulus host a "Welcome Home" party at their home (no photos). Fred Sewell celebrates his 55th at our cabin. On May 24 Fritz is 16 turns 16! (In his disguise he is flanked by Lizzie, Katie and Tori Hoeschler.) Over Memorial Day weekend we play croquet and celebrate the usual Hoeschler-Ranhaim birthdays (Fritz and Bjorn,10).
John & Loann Snidarich. Cuties Tori, Lizzie & Katie Hoeschler inspect turtle eggs. KBH at Birdwing. Deborah, Claire and Royce Nelligan visit the cabin. Sonja and Steve Lovas with baby Zachary.
Gem Lake wildlife. Linda with the lovely Gert Hoeschler. Manny Elson jumps for joy after his orchiectomy surgery.
Jack, Fritz and Manny. Hildur Lovas, Laura Doyle and Linda sit 'neath some of our new 25 umbrellas we purchased in Thailand on our world trip (also got 50 silk lanterns to hang in the yard)! Bat visits our house.
Sailing on White Bear Lake with our new-used E boat scow: Fritz takes over the helm in the Wed-Sun races, is not very good, but eventually becomes an excellent sailor! Steve, Sonja and newly-minted Zach Lovas visit us the 3rd week of July with record heat.
On July 26 we host a really great party (if I do say so myself!). It's a Fitzgerald-inspired Roaring 20's dinner dance, with cars of the period ferrying guests down the road to the cabin.
Nana, Gramps, Janice & Heather. Barbara and Sherm Winthrop with Lee and John Mannillo. Nancy Arganbright and Dallas Weekley with Mary and Ron Erickson. David Lilly. Jack and Heather.
Emilie and Henry Buchwald with Kristen. Bruce Allard Trio plays for cocktail hour. Don and Arlene Helgeson. Janice and Nancy Weekley.
We transition to the South lawn where Bruce Allard's 5-piece band serenades us during a Deco-catered dinner; dancing follows.
Kristen dances with her favorite partner, her father. Jack and LLH take to the dance floor. Helgesons cut a rug (pardon, battleship linoleum that Jack borrows from Minnesota Dance Theater). Jack dances with his mother, Janet.
Some of our Thai umbrellas; Jim and Laura Johnson (ctr right).
A few days later Kristen hosts her entire class to celebrate her graduation from SPA (actually they only gave her a "certificate of completion" due to annoyance that we went to Peru and on trip with us!) Her classmates' band was pretty pathethic but all had a great time with games and picnic. KBH with Kitty Mandu, our beautiful, intelligent Shaded Silver Persian (his parents upper right). Family cabin dinner with John and Laura Doyle, Steve and Sonja Lovas.
KBH, Kate Doyle & baby Zach Lovas. The Doyles. Our "New" 15th century table arrives from Florence, Italy--restored by antique craftsman, Romano (who also makes Renaissance chairs and restores a church bench for seat at window). We walked by Romano's window when we were living in Firenze and saw a suitable table (It had to be narrow to fit in the area), only to learn he was a wholesaler and that table was sold. But it was mutual love and respect so...
With the heat we bathe Baby Zach outside in a tub. Siblings Linda, Laura (with Zach), Steve with Katie. On August 26 we drive our girl to matriculate at Linda's alma mater, Barnard College (Columbia) in NYC.
En route we stop at Mohonk Resort in the Catskills; Kristen is so overwhelmed by the aggressive guests at the dinner buffet, she questions her decision (but turns out to do well in NYC! Lake on top of mountain. We visit Aunt Helen Nelligan in Thornwood, NY. She and her sons, Bruce and Ward, become lifelines for Kristen in NY.
At Barnard we take Kristen to her "616" dorm where LLH lived her junior year ('64-65). We show Kristen my good friend's home--Anne Keeler--after a shocking visit to Gracemere in Tarrytown (where I lived age 3-10) now taken over by the Moonies!. Manny Elson with his sister Ruth Waller. Jerry and Dagmar Getz (he was Jack's NYU classmate and friend in Chicago [Vista] who wed the lovely Sweden-born Dagmar).
On our return home from NYC we visit Beaver Dam in eastern Wisconsin, Janet Hoeschler's birthplace.
Nana's schoolhouse. McMillan house where Grandma Mabel McM Bowe was born and raised. The Bowe farmhouse. E.J. as a born-again musician. Mandu.
Labor Day fun at the cabin with Doyles. We rolled Manny out of the canoe--he was always game and such a good sport!
Gem Lake scenes...we are so thrilled to have the cabin! Mandu explores all...high and low.
Fall, 1987 at the cabin.
Indian Summer cruise on the St Croix River with Jake and Tori Hoeschler, LoAnn and John Snidarich. (I believe that Elaine Aiple, a dear friend and client of Jack let us use her boat.)
KBH (in absentia) & Luther Ranheim October birthday celebration at the cabin. Fritz joins baby Abigael with her parents, Judy and Judy Hoeschler. Ranheim Quartet. Our whittled down trio
Sep 26: Mandu and one of our new Jøtul stoves in the two lower cabin fireplaces; with Jack. Photos from Portland: Zach & Steve Lovas.
Katie and Lizzie are log rollers from the get go... Janice and I canoe Gem Lake mid-Oct and break lake's surface into fine ice sheets!
More October scenes at Gem Lake.
Jack goes to Hawaii with Roger Katzenmeier to receive his PhD. (Jack accompanied Roger on this trip; he also gave a trip to Italy to Cliff and Marguerite Olson, as a thank you for their help with the First Bank deal.) JGH found the plane ride way too long!
More photos of Hawaii.
Baby Zach. Gem lake kitchen remodel by North Star, replacing the men's hunting cabin set-up with a more functional, more attractive room.
Pre-Xmas fun at Gem Lake. We cut our trees off the property. Formally dressed for the Assembly Dance (a club only--no benefit!) in St Paul. We loved that tradition.
Christmas 1987: Zach Lovas with Santa in Oregon; Christmastime at our Edgcumbe home with Janice and Meagan. LLH holds up a Gem Lake Croquet Club shirt!
Christmas Day gathering at Ranheims. 1st draft reject of our Xmas card.. Dec26 Helgeson wedding and Frank Kennedy at our home.
New Year's Day at cabin--the start of our sparkling tradition, complete with Strauss waltzes for figure skating, ice hockey, sledding, skiing and snowshoeing. Nana Hoeschler shows her stuff (yellow jacket, fur hat) playing ice hockey!
Manny, Jake and Meagan. Jack purchases a gasoline-powered pump to spray lake water onto ice surface--a homemade Zamboni. We're really getting into this! The Hoeschlers with Manny and Mandu. I take Meagan out on the ice in the kicksled. Dan Murphy does great work installing the new kitchen--I have no idea how I cooked and served so many people while under construction! Fritz' updated bedroom with Hmong bedspreads and a new rug.
Cabin with new LR valances and Nakashima furniture: it's becoming ours! Jan '88 trip to Florida with KBH (she trains with Columbia women's crew in Tampa, so I visit my father in Largo, south of St. Pete). Jack turns 46 so we celebrate with Ranheims at the cabin.
We spend a delightful weekend at Val Helgeson, near St. Cloud, with Don and Arlene.
Feb 13: Skating with Joni and Jim Bussen on Gem Lake. Jack is a GREAT skating rink attendant!
Sunrise: we love sleeping overnight at the cabin in our living room couch hide-a-bed. Commercial photos of the 1988 St. Paul Winter Carnival ice palace.
LLH writes and produces a musical singalong "This is Your Life" for John Musser's 80th birthday party; Philip Brunelle on piano. Utah ski trip. Susan Halper comes for a visit--at Ordway. Katie Hoeschler's 7th birthday so LLH produces my usual custom poster for the front door of some of her life events.
We host a surprise party for Gloria Sewell on her 50th birthday in March; Philip Brunelle plays for a quartet and we have a singalong for the rest of us (LLH writes lyrics)! Fritz visits Steve and Sonja in Oregon.
More remodeling at the cabin since we use it so heavily: utility porch re-do and living room ceiling interior insulation.
Sterling, a full brother to Mandu, joins our family. Gary Rower, champion painter, freshens up the kitchen utility porch.
Zach Lovas photos. Spring at the cabin (replete with babies on my bluebird trail--I also welcome tree swallows and chickadees) Mother's Day at Edgcumbe with Tori and Meagan.
Mandu and Sterling.Janice & Meagan swing at the cabin. Brooke Mordy & G-daughter Hannah Friedlander. Fritz, the awesome dude turns 17!
1988 Memorial Day family concert at the cabin on the breezeway. Abbie Hoeschler sits on the gravel as Bjorn Ranheim plays. Audience includes Nana, Jay, Heather and Janice.
Post-concert swim and croquet party, following British (and correct) rules!.
Birthday boys: Fritz and Bjorn share a sailing-theme sheet cake. Fritz is 17, Bjorn 11.
We bring the gang over to the White Bear Lake Memorial Day parade. No band, however, just a boombox. Fritz and Tori on the sailfish.
Beatific Tori at the cabin. Jack is "in jail" for some fundraiser. Fritz' cello recital--Tom Austin is his kind teacher.
We travel to Randolph Iowa for Aunt Hulda Wilson's funeral. Claire, Kate and I visit our first cousin, Joe Wederquist in a nursing home. where he will die, do to running his motorcycle into a tree, in despair.
Robert and Bonnie (Hulda's daughter and LLH 1st cousin) Smith farm, just outside Randolph. In Malvern we visit our great g'parents' farm: Lottie & Ludwig Wederquist. KBH with roommate Meagan at Gem Lake.
Sonja & Zach Lovas. Off to the Symphony Ball.
Kate with cousin Dick Wederquist (Dick and spouse Sylvia drive to cabin from Colorado Springs). Miriam Schoenfield visits us (parents are composer Paul and Dr. Lynn Schoenfield). Drought! (After two summers of drought I never complained about rain again.)
Philip Brunelle is 45 so we host a party at the cabin. Martha Kaemmer hangs spoon on here nose (reminiscent of our trip with Philip to Aldeburgh. Pat Lund recites poetry about Philip. Songs and singalong. Irma Forniesero visits us from Florence, Italy.
July 4, 1988; another party, but of course! Schoenfields join our picnic.
Irma and LLH on double lounge; Lynn Schoenfield; Kristen and LLH; Paul and Miriam; Irma.
Fritz & friend; fun on Gem Lake shore with sailing and logrolling (the latter a gift from Judy Hoeschler).
Hildur Lovas with flag. Steve & Zach Lovas. Maureen Hoeschler's mother, Gloria, and her grandmother; Katie and Lizzie Hoeschler.