He's copying me!
Or so it seems to former Minnesota Vikings football player, Bob Lurtsema as he talks about Vikings Defensive End Brian Robison. 

Lurts was a darned good player. But he is also remembered for his endearing commercials for Twin City Federal Bank (TCF). In these he showed his sense of humor when featured as "Benchwarmer Bob".  He could kid about sitting on the bench instead of being out on the field playing.  

Now it is reality that in pro football you don't always get to be the star. But Bob made that fact less embarrassing as we empathized with him in these commercials.  They ran on the air for about 12 years and even showed Lurts being traded to Seattle.  According to the commercial he didnt get to fly out there... he drove an old rusty pickup!

So how does this relate to present Vikings defensive end, Brian Robison?

As a rookie last year, Robison ended up being a starter. That looked pretty good for this year's season. 

Until the Vikings hired Jared Allen as probably the highest paid defensive end in the league! And Robison got a taste of the sidelines again.    That brought a reminder of "Benchwarmer Bob", all right!  And that brought the thought of updating those commercials by having the old "Benchwarmer" train in his successor!
 
But with one change... we'll leave the benchwarming to the fans and have Robison known as "Blitz 'Em Brian"!

So I contacted the Vice President and Director of Marketing at TCF and told him of my idea. He was kind enough to explain that they weren't running any TV commercials right now but may decide whether to add some next year.
So going back to writing my column, I asked folks for questions they would like to ask "Blitz 'Em" Brian.

Here they are:

Q: What's the most surprising thing you have learned in your first two years in the NFL?
A: How hard it is to keep my mind off football when the game is over.

Q: Calls of "holding" appear to vary from ref to ref... do you believe that offensive linemen "hold" on just about every play?
A: Without a doubt.

Q: Do you think "trash talk" is effective?
A: It can be if it get's in your opponent's head.

Q: What kind of superstitions or rituals have you seen?
B: One of the guys has to hide his shoes under the training room table, before every game.

Q: Who is the biggest worrier about the games... you or your wife, Jayme?
A: Definitely Jayme.
 
 

Q: How do you wind down after a game?
A: Eat a good dinner and relax for the rest of the evening.

Q: How long does it take for you to stop hurting after a game?
A: About a day and a half.

Q: In the off season, where do you live?
A: We have a ranch in Texas.

 

Now whether "Benchwarmer Bob" ever gets "Blitz 'Em Brian" trained or not...
it's been fun to think of these two Vikings as part of a sport that has fascinated so many people all these years.

  Photo permission by Minnesota Vikings

Although Vikings Defensive End, Brian Robison #96 ended up last year as a starter, this year the Vikings hired Jared Allen in his position and Robison hasn't had much chance to play.

This reminded me of "Benchwarmer Bob" Lurtsema.  He was a good athlete but he became even more popular with his good natured kidding of his sitting on the bench during a game.

But I decided that Brian Robison, should leave the benchwarming to the fans in the stands and we can call him, "Blitz Krieg Brian"!

Go Blitz Krieg!  The rest of us Benchwarmers are rooting for you!

***

          Minnesota Vikings Country - Brian Robison Fan Club is strictly just for fun!

There are no dues and no rules.    

For information about any parties or game plans -

contact unofficial coordinator,  Rosie via e-mail:  Minnesotavikingsfans@yahoo.com

"Laughing Waters" or not... whatever you want to call it... it's beautiful!

Although it is said the translation is incorrect, I still like the thought of calling the falls in Minneapolis - "Laughing Water"

According to Wikipedia: "While the name is often translated as "Laughing Water", the correct translation is "curling water" or "waterfall". The name comes from the Dakota language elements mni, meaning water, and ȟaȟa, meaning waterfall."

(Information from Mpls Parks website.)

Overlooking the Mississippi River, Minnehaha Park is one of Minneapolis' oldest and most popular parks, attracting over ½ million visitors annually. It is located at the intersection of Hiawatha Avenue and Minnehaha Parkway.
The 193-acre park features a 53-foot waterfall, limestone bluffs and river overlooks. The park contains oak, elm, silver maple, basswood, hackberry and cottonwood trees, as well as native and prairie woodland wild flowers.
Visitors take advantage of abundant activities in the summer, including concerts, picnics, walking and viewing the Falls.

 The life-size bronze sculpture by Jakob Fjelde (and see below in the background)... depicts Hiawatha and Minnehaha, characters from the poem "Song of Hiawatha" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It bears the inscription:

Over wide and rushing rivers

In his arms he bore the maiden.

 On exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, the sculpture was purchased with pennies donated by school children in Minnesota - an effort organized by Mrs. L.P. Hunt of Mankato - and dedicated in 1912. The sculpture, which rests on a small island in the creek, can be viewed from the water's edge a short way above the falls.

When I was a teenager, we stepped on stones to get over to the island and have our picture taken with the Indian maiden and her warrior.

Don't know if I ever read the whole poem though!

That didn't stop me from writing a poetic attempt at a humorous play for a high school fund raiser which was based on the Longfellow poem. I remember having the football coach swing across the stage strapped into a harness like Peter Pan! I have no idea why the school administration went along with my play!

Guess they were just good sports!

This is the time of year to look for the Dwarf Trout Lily!

The only place in the world that this little endangered species of wildflower grows is within a few miles of the Cannon River Valley, 35 miles south of the Twin Cities.

It only blooms for a couple of weeks before it disappears back into the ground.

The Dwarf Trout Lily (Erythronium propullans)

 is a federally endangered forest wildflower. 

It grows on fewer than 600 acres of woodland habitat,

rich slopes dominated by maple and basswood

and adjoining floodplains dominated

by elm and cottonwood. 

The tiny lily blooms before the deciduous trees

develop their leaves. 

 Its flowers are about the size of a dime or less,

pale pink, with a variable number of petals. 

The lily possesses a genetic and chemical makeup

unlike that of any other plant.

   As rare as this flower is...

There is one thing

  more rare...

And that is YOU!

They disappeared in the night!

It was in the middle of a dark cold winter night. While the children were sleeping, their parents disappeared. When they woke up the next morning they had no idea what had happened.
The neighbors didn't know either.
A couple of weeks later the two younger children were taken away by the police. They didn't know what had happened to their older brother.

This didn't happen in Nazi Germany... or Imperialist Japan... or some other foreign dictatorship.
It happened in the U.S. A... in the heartland... in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The youngest child was now visiting the recent exhibit at the Cannon Falls Library about the imprisonment of approximately 15,000 German-American civilians between 1941-48. Fred Theberath lives outside of Northfield, MN.
He and his wife, Fern, found his name in one of the photo panels in the display.

 

Fred recalled that night back on December 8, 1941. He was 11 years old when the FBI came around 2:30 a.m. and took his parents, Peter and Marie away. The children woke up to find them gone. "No one told us." he explained. His sister Gertrude was about 13 and his oldest brother, John, was 16.
The neighbors had no idea what had happened either and helped the children by feeding them along with their own families.

Two weeks later, Fred and Gertrude were taken by the police to a detention center were they were housed in separate buildings. Fred recalled that his room was like a bare 8 x 10 foot jail cell with a cot and a metal stool. This is where he spent Christmas.

The next two years he stayed in a Home for Dependent Children (Orphanage) and then was put into foster care.
Fred didn't know what had happened to his older brother. John had to find a job and a place to stay. He found work at a bakery and a lady there had a son near his age and invited him to stay with their family.
Fred's mother was released in early February but the only job she could find was as a cook and she couldn't earn enough money to keep the children with her.

Family history in pictures displayed by Fred Theberath include his wedding picture in 1953. His wife, Fern, met him when she worked for the FBI and he had been drafted into the Army.

The center photo is of his father, Peter, in 1944 and on the right as a soldier in WWI. Peter had emigrated to the U.S. in 1928. Fern explained that her father-in-law felt war with Germany was imminent in the 1940's so he had applied to the German Embassy for his disability check from being wounded while in the German Army in WWI. He apparently figured it would not be available later. But this might have caused a problem for Peter Theberath and his family later.

Fred's father was sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia and then on to Bismarck, N.D. These were among over 50 detention centers or internment camps in the U.S. Although Germany surrendured in May 1945, Peter wasn't released until after Japan surrendered in August.
Their personal property had been stored in a warehouse but years later when they were able to retrieve it they found most of it was missing.

Ironically, when Fred was 22 years old he got a draft notice for the Army. He said he wondered how the government could trust him then when at 11 years old he was a danger to the country?

The book, Vanished, reports internee's stories like Fred's. It is edited by Michael Luick-Thrams, Executive Director of TRACES, a non-profit educational organization in St. Paul, MN created to gather and preserve stories of people during WWII with German heritage from the Midwest and make their history known.