Todd County Museum Annual Meeting

The annual meeting and banquet of the Todd County Museum was held at the American Legion Club in Long Prairie, and Nancy and I were invited to do our Farm Heritage Program, which included my book, A Farm Country Picnic.

The audience came early and before dinner they had plenty time to check out Nancy's Farm Heritage Photo Display, which featured pictures of farm activities from the mid-1900s.

As we waited our turn to eat, Nancy and I visited with a number of members who had lots of interesting stories. Shirley (Rhoda) Lano (above) expained that her grandfather, Albert Rhoda, came over from Prussia in 1850 and got into the banking business in 1890 in Long Prairie. Her father, also named Albert, followed his dad into the banking business by 1905, and her mother worked in Hart's Department Store in Long Prairie as a milliner.
When she found out that I directed plays when I was a teacher, she asked me to name a few. When I mentioned The Egg and I, she laughed and said that when she was 14 she had met the author, Betty MacDonald, when she was living on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

Stories always go best after a good dinner, and I had fun doing my show because the audience was ready to reminisce, laugh, and allow sentiment into their hearts. 

Thanks to Shirley and De for arranging my visit and to Charlie for the great introduction. Special thanks to those wonderful people who bought my books and intend to pass on farm heritage by passing those books on to the generations of the future.