IF YOU ARE NEW TO RETAILING.......

Today's attitude has to do with new clerks in retail stores. We had spent the morning on the net looking for the best deal on a lure made by SPRO. It is a top water unit we happened across and when you look at the ones in the bottom of the tackle box, you know they have died from over use. The old lures were kept as a prompt to replace them.

I am an old stick in the mud--if it works, don't fix it sort of person. I suppose I have gotten that way because there isn't youth around me to crack open new fields of interest. And when it comes to lures, if I find one that works, I hoard. Is it magic? Maybe not but I used something called a black rat for two summers and did well....until a couple of years ago and all the bass in all the lakes were saying, "There is that old lady again, can't trick us anymore".

That is when I started on SPRO. First ones were always reddish brown. I can't tell you how many that were replaced but I liked the lure and could cast a 'far piece' with it on the line.

So yesterday morning, we were on a mission. It was to find the best price on the SPRO product without having to pay shipping. Prices ranged from $11 down to $6.37, a difference of over four and a half dollars. We ordered thirty. I used the live chat to find out about two others which did not show in the catalog. It is out of stock AND the manufacturer was on to making products for the 2012 season. The chat agent knew his stuff.

And that is how we came to be at the retail store. Tom went to look for more gloves. I went straight to the lures. I was approached by what seemed like a pleasant person.

"May I help you?" he asked
"Yes, I am looking for SPRO frog lures"
"I don't think we have those"
"Odd, don't you think that they carry them in the catalog and not here?"

He offered another frog. I reminded him I was brand specific. Why didn't he just say he was new?

"Look, I said, Here they are!"
"Oh, we have lots of those", he said.

I started at the top going left to right, looking at each color and size. We needed KILLER and RAINFOREST BLACK .

"Is there something special you want?", he asked.
"Yes,Killer and Rainforest black".

And then he committed the sin, he pulled off something I did not ask for.

"No, I said, I specifically need the colors I mention".

He read top to bottom. Eureka.


And yes, I know it may be suggested selling. It is like a drive through asking if you want fries with that or an apple pie. Or like Ryen stated on Face Book, did he want more grinders, after all there were still eight available. Ryen went on to say on FB he only needed two, one for coffee and one for spices and he already had one.

Next we looked at Rapalas. He showed me the end cap, I was looking for one that only went down three feet. I had stated that. I did not wish to have one that would dive to eight. I scanned the entire isle of Rapala's and did not find a three footer. I stated I would send Tom, if there was a three footer in that sea of lures, he would find it. There was none to be found. Suggesting a four foot diver was not the answer.

The next helper was a seasoned rugged outdoors type. He was trying to sell rods. I told him I was brand specific and if it wasn't a Fenwick, I wasn't interested and where were the Fenwicks. Well, of course, they didn't have them. :). He kept telling me about how good a St. Croix rod was and it cost less. Tom stepped between us and suggested he didn't go there.

So the rugged guy wasn't talking to me anymore, now he was talking to Tom about how he was a guide and we should fish the Sheyenne River for catfish. Rugged did not hear we fish bass with top water lures in the slop. We had already tried fishing for catfish and gave all the tackle away because we simply did not like it.

Maybe it is really all about presenting what we know regardless of the monologue. Maybe we spew the known and are deaf to others. And maybe when someone says, THIS WORKS FOR ME, instead trying to change their mind, maybe we should accommodate them instead.

Maybe I am not a stick in the mud. Maybe I am just old enough to know what works for me.

And the lure price? With the ten percent coupon and the sale of 25% off, the lures were 10 cents more. Just maybe, that new guy now knows where the SPRO frogs are. Maybe. Take that, Newbie!

So there

e

WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE STANS?

Grand Uncle Olaf Opseth was a reader. He was also a collector of books. Grandma said her brother had so many she didn't even know where to start counting. Many of them were lost to mold and poor storing. A few sets of leather bound books were given to Julia, his sister.

Grandma had them for several years until she decided she really wanted that glass cabinet for pretty things like dishes and cups. She gave the books to Old Trunks in about 1964 and they have been with me ever since. In Fargo, they are displayed in the glass doored book cases which separate the dining room from the living room in this 1922 house.

Richard, a former classmate, sent me a link called Rethinking Schools online. It is an urban educational source. The instructions state to drag each country name to its proper place on the map. Now, this is an up to date map and it sure does look like there are a lot of new countries on here that weren't on here before! This is not an explanation as to why I got an F, only that the names are foreign to me. By hook, crook, and comparison, I did get most of the countries filled in. I will admit I had one left over but if I was putting a fan together, I would have parts left over, too!

Now, one of Grand Uncle Olaf's sets of books is named, Ridpath's History of the World in nine volumes. The last copyright is 1901.

Now, most of us know where Jordan, Damascus, Mt. Sinai, and Mt. Ararat, Jerusalem, and Egypt are because of our early Christian teachings. We may know where Turkey is because Becki Ferber was there was an exchange student. The Persian Gulf war was play by play so we should know where that is.

We can guess that Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan must be in a cluster as we have heard about our troops fighting there for too long.

If we even had World Geography in high school, no doubt our books were grossly out of date.
A 1939 text book would indeed offer Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Jerusalem, Armenia, Turkey, Iran, and even Kuwait--etc, etc, etc. We need to understand that pre WWII, most of the Middle East was still protected by Britain, France and Italy. Only Turkey and Iran were independent.

I don't know the answers, I still get an F. I just hope someone does whack off a piece of the United States and become independent.

e



What it looks like to me is, Persia exploded one day and gave us countries like Uzberkistan, Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikstan.

HI, I AM KUWAIT

The other day, a former class mate sent me a world map game. It was an inter active game where you have a list of countries and one drops them into place. He had an advantage, he had lived in the middle east as do part of his family.



I looked at the list and they hunted for the smallest country. I knew that Kuwait was mini size because the scout troop was presented with that country to learn about for an international celebration in February.

Never mind that Kuwait was not much more than 15 years free from the United Kingdom. We could resource from the library, (yes, hard copy books). Finding someone to talk to the girls about customs was going to be the trick. Who did I know that knew someone that had been there?

You see, we couldn't hop on the Internet and find the information nor could we 'friend' someone that lived there.

And maybe there is something to be said about hard copy and physically touching the information verses not storing it within ourselves because we can always find it or something like it on line.

What happened to I know someone that knows someone? Is it because I am replanted or is just the way it is because of the Internet?

Certainly I flunked the middle east quiz. But I knew where Kuwait is, how about you?

e

YES, THEY DID LIVE IN IT

Grandpa Benhard and Grandma Julia spent the summers in this hand made trailer while Benhard was doing construction in the area around and about northern Minnesota.

They were one of many couples, or in the case of Great Uncle Bennie, singles, who constructed this units and lived in them in a clearing somewhere near the job site.

In another photo, which is too bad to even consider publishing, there is Grandma, looking as if she is washing in a bucket. Another person is sitting on a chair. The same chair, it seems, that was painted over and over and once was used photograph the family dog, Snowball.

It appears as if the trailers were brought in with a trailer, then a series of logs was used to roll it off. The logs are depicted in the bad, bad, photo. Off to the side out of view of the picture of my grandparents is an out house. One would have thought it would have been set farther away, let's hope it was, at least, down wind.

The trailer, as you can see, is not big. Most likely it held a bed and a couple of chairs. No doubt all cooking was done outside. There was no refrigeration. It does not appear there was a stove, how did grandma bake bread?

We know from the history of my parents, they lived in one of those units, also. Their design was just a little different. As I go through the books gathering the information which I lost in the December purge, I will find it.

Meanwhile. I am going to turn on the stove, put something in the oven, and have hot buns from freezer to oven to plate.

And what is with her fat ankles? Too hot?

TEN TOP FOODS TO KEEP YOU HEALTHY

Well, okay, I suppose there is enough research for all of this NOW but what about us poor folk who didn't even know what yogurt was and as for chocolate and nuts, only at Christmas time would we be healthy. Daddy said if you were lucky you got an apple in your Christmas stocking. IF you were really lucky, you got an orange, too. Oranges, by the way, are not on the list.

I like to think that a man I adored, who was raised poor and ate beans and boiled the corn cobs for the chickens to make broth, should had a healthy heart, but it was not so.

I like to think that whole grain flour, which, in Grandma's day, was considered for poor people, would have made her heart healthy. She longed for fine white flour to make her bread the best it could be. Odd, isn't it, that I have said to my kids, "White bread makes you dead" even though my wonderful grandmother budgeted for white flour?

And how in the name of heaven where land locked folks in Northern Minnesota supposed to get salmon? I know, it is all fish but watch out for the mercury! BOO

Tomatoes and berries were canned during the season they grew. How much food value was really left after processing it? Could we just be healthy in the supper sneaking into the cemetery behind Mae's house and stripping the raspberries? I know how we got caught, we had seeds in our teeth. What was the deal? The fruit was to mature and then be canned for winter. Yet, isn't it better to eat the fruit fresh right off the bush?

Was it wrong to crawl on your knees at Hermanson's truck farm and EAT the strawberries right off the vine and take the punishment because you didn't fill your pail?

Why not let a child sit in the garden and eat the carrots with a little sand instead of letting them get to maturity only to be woody?

And if you are making beet pickles, why not pick them as mini's rather than letting them get so big one pickle equals one jar. I know the answer, it is all about MORE. Is more better? If you think so, then you never had Mother's mini beet pickles.


According to the article yogurt and raisins prevent gum disease. It does NOT say that if you eat these two foods you won't have to have your teeth scaled at regular intervals. It does say that gum disease leads to heart problems. Is knowledge always king? I think not.


Why all the anti oxidants?

Guess we must have smoggy insides.

e

WAS RANY CANDY?

This is a picture Randy sent to me this morning.

If you are wondering if blogs work, this is an example to share that it does. Randy was looking for information on the Prowlers, which is the team mascot name for Lincoln High School in Thief River Falls, MN.

Randy keyed in something that triggered the blog to post. It was a picture of the 1960 basketball team which went to state. His team, in 1974 also went to state in basketball.

Thanks, Randy, you are a sport
Certainly you are candy.

e

AND MRS JOHNSON SAID.......

You just take some old bread and put it in the bowl and cover it with eggs, milk, and sugar and put it in the oven. YOU DON'T GO BUY BREAD FOR IT!!!

And as I key, the bread pudding bowl in in the oven with old cinnamon bread and all the rest except I put brandy. :) Little zip!

The bowl is the story. She got it from the Jewel Tea man who came door to door and sold ingredients and you got prizes. The bowl is the prize.

I have never made bread pudding except in that bowl. And as Mrs. Johnson said, "Each of us had a serving and Tom ate the rest".

And so it will be tonight.

e