YCGL - Minnesota - Day 13 - Friday , April 29 - Windom - 40 miles

 Anddddd, Carolyn made chocolate chip cookies for me this morning, and then gave me jars of homemade pickles, spaghetti sauce, and tomato soup!  This is like Harvest Host in reverse.  Not only do you stay at the house, the hosts give you homemade food!  Far Out!

However, also that morning, Darlene called me and said that Ralph had a heart attack and was back at Mayo's.  (Thank Goodness, one of the world's leading medical centers is also the local hospital.  I spent three weeks there in 1961. I had pericarditis, an infection in my pericardium around the heart and it affected my lungs and my liver.  I had 54 penicillin shots in 20 days in my butt.  I felt like a pin cushion.  Butt, its a great place to be when you need it. )  He had an angioplasty in his right descending coronary artery and was doing much better and would probably come home tomorrow.  Wonderful news.

Today was another "goal" day.  I was heading to Windom to have lunch with some of my classmates.  Now, let me explain that sentence.  Windom was Sally's hometown.  She graduated from Windom High School in 1968, same year as I did in Conroe, Texas.  Her class had 127 graduates.  Everyone basically knew everyone else in the school.  Many had gone K-12 together, and some, church nursery-12.  Over the years, I had gotten to meet and hear about many people there when friends would come visit.  

One of Sally's friends, Gwyn, got married the week before we did, and Sally was a bride's maid.  I met a lot of classmates during the wedding weekend.  (The following week, Gwyn was one of Sally's bride's maids since Gwyn and Dave were honeymooning in Colorado.)  

Sally and I started attending the class reunions at the 15th, and we haven't missed one since.  We volunteered to cohost and host the 25th and 30th and I was in charge of finding people.  Over time, I finally found 123 of the 127 classmates.  And I knew their names, spouses, addresses and emails.  (There was far more personal information available on line back then.)   So at the 30th, I was made an official class member of the Class of 68.  There was a group of guys who decided after the 50th reunion that they would get together on the 2nd Friday of every month.  They agreed to meet this 5th Friday so I could join them.  

Mike and Susan, Ed, Roy, Steve, Herm and Joe

We had lunch for two hours.  They are fun to be with!   Laughter, stories (and I believe many of them were true!)  I brought up the idea of the 55th reunion and everyone was interested.  Mike said he sure enjoyed the pizza and beer night the Friday  of the weekend.  I said, "Great! You're in charge of the next one."  So, I officially got the ball rolling for next year.  (Don't worry Mike, we'll have other people to help.)  (BTW, notice the ketchup bottle in the bottom of the picture.  That's what I was talking about on Day 0.)

I hooked up at the Cottonwood County Fairgrounds.  $10 for electricity and asphalt and a surprisingly good wifi signal, in fact one of the best on the trip.

Herm.  Sally always considered Jim Meiers her brother of different mothers.  One day, one of the kids at school called Jim Herm, and it stuck.  He is usually the first and last person we see when we are in Windom.  Herm had me over for dinner that night.  Walleye!  Herm is a enthusiastic fisherman and has taught his two sons to love fishing also.  They live in Sioux Falls, SD and SD is where Herm prefers to fish.  He bought a pontoon boat that the boys keep with the understanding that when dad wants to go fishing, one or both will go with him.  It's quite a deal.  Herm remarried about 5 years ago, and we met Tracy at the last reunion.  Great couple.  Tracy's mom, Mary, lives with them.  Mary is 89 and is very pretty but has a problem with short term memory.  I think we all can understand that.  And she likes the Andy Griffith Show.  :)

It's good to be home in Windom, but I still haven't driven past the house.