We Did It!

In my last post, I told you I was going to my forty-year high school class reunion. A week ago tonight we had a good turnout and everyone had a wonderful time. We started with a tour of the newly renovated high school and saw just how much things had changed in the forty years since all my classmates graduated.

Before the tour, I spent about ninety minutes with the high school principal learning about all the good things happening besides the bricks and mortar changes. Their enrollment is growing, they are offering new classes, students may now get college credits for some of their coursework and several other highlights were just gushing out of his mouth. He is truly excited about the direction the school is taking! That was a fun conversation for me.

After the tour, we gathered for a social hour and then banquet. It was great fun seeing some people I had not seen in forty years! It was a challenge recognizing some people and there were only a few I did not recognize. One of my former teammates came up to me, did not say anything and I just looked at him. I was drawing a blank, and then I asked him to smile. As soon as he smiled, I blurted out, "Kevin Johnson!" I did not recognize the bald head, but I certainly recognized his smile!

The entire evening went by far too quickly, as they always do at events like this. At one point during the social hour we were all asked to go outside for a group picture. I am going to put a photograph here of someone trying to organize all my classmates. It was like herding cats!

Click on the image to make it larger:

Someone had lined up a row of chairs that was supposed to be the front row. So, I had someone move the middle chair, parked myself and waited for people to fill in around me. It seems simple enough to me, but it proved a little more difficult for a group of middle-aged people!

Saturday was the big hometown festival called King Turkey Day. There is a whole other story to that which I will not go into, but suffice it to say there are all kinds of activities for just about any demographic group's interest. The big part of the day is always the parade. We had a Class of '73 float which consisted of a flatbed hay rack with bales down the middle for people to sit on, and we opened up a spot in the back for me to sit.

Here is a photograph of me getting on the float using a front-end loader, which is the same one they used to get me on the podium when I spoke at last year's Turkey Day:

Once again, click on the image to make it larger:

Notice I am wearing a black poncho Deb (Bourassa) Peterson graciously lent me as the rain was just starting to come. Randy Haack, Bill McCuen and partially hidden Dave Baker all helped get me onto the float. I do not plan on riding on another float anytime soon!

Seriously, I was in no danger. It is always just a little scary being put in a situation where I am completely out of control. That comes from experience!

After the parade, they were more events that ran long into the night. Unfortunately, I only lasted until about 9:30!

All this week I have been collecting photographs, as I am sure many of my classmates have been of the weekend events. I believe I can safely say everyone enjoyed himself or herself.

Now it is back to all parts of the country from Florida to California to Oregon and all over the Midwest to resume our lives and rekindle our memories of our forty-year high school class reunion.

One more thing, I would like to thank everyone on the committee who organized the tour, evening's activities, slideshow, parade arrangements and anything else I may be forgetting. Also, thank you to the guys who helped get me on and off the float.

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Yes, I Know What Day It Is …

Of course, I know today is the twelfth anniversary of one of the most horrific days in American history; however, this post is not about September 11, 2001. What it is about is a celebration of the fortieth class reunion of my fellow classmates in Worthington, Minnesota. I say my fellow classmates because I never graduated with them. After my accident, I spent the first seven and one-half months in three different institutions, came home and quickly developed my first pressure sore which led to six months in bed and three surgeries. That followed into their senior year when I tried to go back to take classes for three weeks, but the sore kept me in bed and I never graduated with the class.

The spring of 1973 when my classmates were finishing their high school education, I had started school at Worthington State Junior College. Technically, I am a tenth grade dropout! However, I do have a college degree.

They timed our reunion events around the annual celebration in Worthington known as King Turkey Day! Friday will start out with a golf event for those that choose to participate in the morning, followed by a tour of the newly renovated high school. After that, it is off to the new Worthington Convention Center for an evening of reminiscing, exaggerating old stories, seeing friends I have not seen for many years, meeting spouses, sharing stories of children and grandchildren, showing pictures on people's smart phones and just having a good time. I am extremely excited and looking forward to that night, Friday the 13th!

Saturday will bring the annual all-you-can-eat free pancake breakfast, a small art fair, a midway, a 5K walk and a 10K run which grows every year. Following the race, will be the featured speaker who will have an incredible speech to follow since yours truly was last year's speaker! I wrote about it in a post last year. You may read that post by clicking here.

That is followed by the annual race of the turkeys between Ruby Begonia from Cuero, Texas and Worthington's own Paycheck. Last year, they even made me kiss Worthington's turkey. I never saw the picture, but I have been told it made the local paper.

Our class is having a hay wagon for us to ride on in the parade. If we can figure out a way of getting me onto it, I will ride in the parade for the second straight year.

Following the parade will be many people from all walks of life who will want to talk with me. That is a part I truly love! Not that the rest of the events are not fun, but as happens every time I am around anyone who remembers me, from my accident or all of the events that followed forty-two years ago they will want to tell me stories of their recollections of that time.

Much of my book, comments on my blog and Facebook posts are filled with people's recollections of that time so many years ago. I have always said, "It's amazing to me how an instant in time can affect so many people's lives!"

People still tell me it feels like my accident happened yesterday! I feel that oftentimes too! I have mentioned this before how I cannot believe how fast life travels. This weekend will be another reminder of that phenomenon.

That being said, my personal care attendant, Robert, and I will leave tomorrow afternoon for four days of storytelling experiences. I am looking forward to it. Bet you cannot guess what my next post will be about?

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

My Trip Last Week

I went home twice last week and had many memorable moments. I saw lots of former classmates, teammates, teachers and coaches. I met new friends, had so many great conversations I cannot begin to count them all, relived experiences back to 1963, spoke a couple times and even rode in a parade for the first time since 1966!

We drove to Worthington on Wednesday and had a 5:00 am wake-up call to get to Edgerton where I had two classroom visits and an assembly for middle and high school students from four schools, Edgerton Public Middle and High School, Southwest Christian Middle and High School and several adults from the tiny town where I went to third, fourth and fifth grades. Included in the audience were my second cousin, Darlene Bailey and her husband, Bob, and Annabelle, Ernie and Trudy Schellhaas. Annabelle was the other den mother with my mom for the three years I was a Cub Scout.

I had to drive by our old house to see how much the trees had grown my dad planted. I was pleased to see the service door and handle were the original items from when our garage was built almost fifty years ago! They were proudly made in America. I spent about an hour with a former neighbor, Rick Vanderstoep, at his furniture store, which he co-owns with his brother, Curt, who played basketball, baseball and football for my dad. I drove around town and thoroughly enjoyed seeing houses, stores and points of interest I remembered as a young boy.

It was almost two hours after the school day had ended before I finally left Edgerton. I took a different route back to Worthington and found another quaint little town, Kenneth, population 67. There was a cute little antique store with a ramp. It is called The Backyard Antiques and More. I cannot pass an accessible antique store and not stop!

I found out from the owner the building was the former post office so it was newly remodeled, complete with a nice ramp and full of things I could not live without! Did I buy anything, you ask. Of course, I did, Silly. So did my attendant, Kelly. She had never seen anything like Kenneth and The Backyard Antiques and More. An hour later, we were back on the road to Worthington. It took us four hours to get forty-five miles from Edgerton back to our hotel in Worthington! I was in no hurry and this post will probably be the basis for a chapter in my next book!

Friday was a marketing day, so I spent it at a pep fest at the high school, sold a couple books to the media center, and made a couple other stops before going to Center Sports to make sure we were set for my book signing the next day. Then, the fun started! 

I stopped at The Cow's Outside which is a little leather goods store located in a cool, old 1901 bank building to see Bill and Lori Keitel who had played a key role in getting my book signing arranged in Worthington. Bill had already left the store to go home and prepare for friends coming over for dinner.

Since their house was only two blocks away, I drove down there to thank him, leave and get a quick meal before going to the high school football game. It did not happen like that! Bill was in the house working, saw me arrive, so we went into this well-sculpted back yard that was obviously built and maintained by two artists!

They were preparing for their good friends, Jim and Judy Brandenburg to come by. Yes, THAT Jim Brandenburg! I was privileged enough to spend the next two hours swapping stories with one of the greatest nature photographers of all time! He had great stories about his trips all over the world.

Brian Korthals was also there and he is a successful photographer in his own right. Jim is also one of his mentors. He is the third person in this picture:

Brian now has Jim's old job at the Worthington Daily Globe and has a history of taking my picture at Turkey Day. He also shot me the next day while I gave my speech. Jim insisted I hold my book, which has one of his photos in the background, and Tom Wallace, who is now a very successful photographer for the Minneapolis StarTribune, who was mentored by Jim Brandenburg, took the color photo. 
 
Click on the image to make it larger:

Those two hours were the highlight of many highlights on my trip to two of my past lives. Turkey Day was a whole other story!

Saturday started out with a quick speech at Mayor Alan Oberloh's Turkey Day brunch, then Kelly and I rushed to set-up for my book signing at Center Sports from 10:00 am to noon. We grabbed a quick bite and it was time to get me on to the stage with a front-end loader. That was a first! 

I rode in the parade tied down by the red straps you can see in this photo by Doug Jenkins:

Again, click on this image to make it larger:

After the parade, they set-up a booth for me to sell books and take orders since my publisher did not get my book order to Worthington until Monday. That was frustrating!

I spent several hours there, then moved out to the Nobles County Fairgrounds and got more orders there. I had very few times during the afternoon and evening that I went more than five minutes when someone came up and introduced themselves. 

I recognized many of the people, which surprised some folks who thought I would not remember them. I was having a great time! It was the fortieth reunion for the Class of 1972, so there were many friends I got to spend time with people like Lynn, Alan, Pete and Peg, Dale and June, Denny and Margaret, to name just a few. 

By 9:00 pm I was exhausted and it was off to the hotel. I had a great time and I would like to thank everyone who helped make my trip a success.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Later,

Mike

What do these people have in common?

Robert Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Walter Mondale, Sargent Shriver, Nelson Rockefeller, Babe Winkelman, Andre Kirkwood and Liz Collin all share something in common. Do you know what it is? 

If you grew up or live in or near Worthington, Minnesota, you might know they are some of the people who gave the keynote speech at Worthington's annual King Turkey Day celebration. 

This Saturday, I get to add my name to the list! I will let you know how it goes in a post next week. And to think some people believe you cannot go home. I am going to do it twice in three days. Besides going to Worthington, I will be going home to Edgerton, Minnesota tomorrow.

Here is the link to the Worthington Daily Globe's article from today's paper: Just click here.

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Who says you can't go home?

I went home twice in the last two weeks. First, I went back to my old high school, did a presentation for the entire student body and received two standing ovations. I spent the rest of the day in three classrooms building on points from my ninety-minute program. And, I had a blast! I needed to be in that gym that day. I fed off of the energy from the students and everything just clicked. I had them laughing one minute and just like that you could have heard a pin drop. I took them on a long roller coaster ride, and based on many conversations I had that day, and the following weekend, I made a difference. That's the whole idea. I only have students long enough to plant the seeds, then I turn them back to the teachers to nurture them.


Then, last weekend I went home again and watched the high school football team win their first game of the season in impressive fashion by a score of 26 to 12. After the game, I asked the coach if I could go into the locker room. I gave a very short pep talk and congratulated them on a well-played game. There was a lot of positive energy in the room, the kids were pumped, as was I, and I entered the locker room for the first time since the night I got hurt in 1971.


After the locker room cleared out, I sat and talked to the head coach, Dennis Hale, and a longtime assistant coach, Don Kuiper. Coach Kuiper was actually one of the assistant coaches when I got hurt. He has spent close to 40 years teaching and coaching in the Worthington school district.


They showed me a new type of offense they were running called, "The Wristband Offense." I had never seen a team play that style of offense before. I have to say it looked pretty complicated. It was very impressive to watch their team play an entire game without huddling and watching the kids read the plays from their wristband.


We went over their scorebook and analyzed what had just happened. I was curious to know how many more plays they could get in without running a standard offense where the team huddled after every play to call the next play. They were able to run 78 plays while their opponent only ran 54. With that kind of play count advantage over the course of the year they will certainly have a dramatic advantage over their opponents. Besides that, it was fun to watch. Their offense was spread out all over the field. They threw the ball 38 times for more than 225 yards. That's a lot of passing plays for a high school team to run in a single game.


Another one of the highlights for me that evening was talking to several students who approached me and thanked me for my presentation the week before at Worthington High School. I know how difficult it can be for a teenager to approach me sometimes. It's not that I'm not approachable; it's just not something many young people have an opportunity to do because speakers aren't usually around a school a week later.


That's one of the reasons why I like to spend an entire day in the building when I visit a school. I truly believe a major part of my success comes from the fact I don't just go into a building, do my presentation and go on to the next building. I believe a lot of learning takes place in the classroom visits that follow my assembly program.


The classroom visits allow me time to do a couple of experiential exercises that build on very important points I make in my assembly. It also gives students an opportunity to ask questions they might not otherwise get to ask in a large assembly in a gymnasium or auditorium. When classrooms are connected to the Internet, I like to take kids to my website and show them pictures of my accident, my hospitalization, my van and several other cool things. It’s all about those “teachable moments.”

It’s not true; you can go home.