NSH Activities August 2025
SUMMER MEMORIES
Play Ball
Some of Jerry’s favorite summer memories include playing baseball in Milwaukee with a great league. Jerry played catcher. Some of his team mates were good enough to get into the big leagues. His friend Tony Kubek played short stop for the New York Yankees. Kubek was 21 years old in 1957 when he won the American League Rookie of the Year Award.
Midnight Serenade
Our homestead was a beautiful elm forest on the bay of Green Bay. The elm trees were strong, more than 100 years old, and at least 75 feet high. We had a screen porch that reached out into the trees. I was a night owl, it was two o’clock one morning, and I needed to practice for a clarinet lesson the next day. Out on the porch, I started to play my clarinet and discovered that the elm forest had the acoustics of a grand cathedral. The musical sound was incredible and I poured my heart and soul into the performance.
Suddenly my mother was standing at the porch door. There was a storm cloud over her face and she said, “What do you think you’re doing?” I put my clarinet away, and went to bed.
The next day, Mr. Jaeckel noticed I had not practiced my lesson very much and he asked what was going on. I said, “My mother wouldn’t let me practice.” But then I told the truth, that I had been serenading the whole neighborhood at two in the morning.
Field Notes
Many of you remember Molly Hoffman’s radio show (Field Notes) on WTIP about the birds and their songs. Ken was a silent partner on most of those hikes. He remembers hearing the boreal owls at the edge of the wilderness one day. Ken became interested in the birds as a young boy in New Jersey; some of the first birds he noticed were the little warblers with their mix of bright colors.
To The Rescue
After working a long shift at the El-Ray (now the Blue Water Café), Linda Johnson, Peggy Smith Peterson, and Ione Pearson, headed up to Johnson’s cabin on Devil Track Lake for some summer fun. They discovered that Linda’s dad Tumsey and her Uncle Paul had taken out a small sail boat and the mast was damaged. Linda used her uncle’s motor boat to help them out. Tumsey towed the damaged sail boat to shore with Paul still riding in it. Paul got all wet because of how Tumsey towed the boat. Tumsey thought it was pretty funny that his brother got soaking wet.
Fish Tonight
Joan grew up on a dairy farm and when chores were done early enough, the whole family would go fishing on Washington Lake (between Darwin and Tassel): Mom, Dad, two brothers, a sister, and Joan. They were a family of six. They didn’t need a boat, just fished from the shore using simple fishing poles and worms dug from the garden. They usually caught, sunfish (crappies). Any northerns caught were thrown back because northern pike didn't taste good and had too many bones.
They kept fishing until they caught enough for dinner, enough to feed the whole family. At home, dad would clean the fish and mom would fry them up, a delicious meal all around. These wonderful family fishing adventures were a nice break from the hard farm work.
I hope our summer memories inspire some of your own good memories. Good memories keep us good company.
Fisherman’s Picnic Parade
Fisherman’s Picnic parade was fun this year. Two residents rode along in the ambulances and threw candy and kisses to the crowds. You may have seen us. Other residents joined their families and enjoyed the parade from the sidelines. Back at the care center, the rest of us saw the parade with the Grand Marais Harbor camera giving us rotating views on YouTube.
We are enjoying the new patio pavilion and just relaxing outside on these lingering summer days.
-- Jean Marie Modl, Activities Director