A reminder about PBS' "The War"

A reminder that filmmaker Ken Burns' epic "The War" is showing this and next week on PBS. Aunt Florence called to say that she and Harry, who fought heroically in the absolutely hellish Battle of Tarawa (during which the above photo was taken), watched the first episode tonight and were very impressed. A recent presentation by Burns at the Star Tribune had even crusty old journalists looking misty-eyed, and Burns was by all accounts warm, friendly and respectful during a visit afterward to Luverne, Minn., which is featured in the documentary. World War II pretty much shaped our parents, cousins. Who knows? Maybe we'll even see one of the uncles in the footage.

Pam's confirmation day

Pam got confirmed in 1970 at Bethany Lutheran Church in Lake City, Minn., by the Rev. Carlton Spatzek. Her fellow confirmees were Ricky Dettmer, Jon Roschen, Doug Wiebusch, Lucinda Luhmann and Dana Jahns. She was older than the others, having been deemed behind because of years of being a Presbyterian. The scrapblog editor was very "pious" back then, as her siblings like to say.

Alverna, ready for anything

A nice old photo of Mom/Aunt Alverna. No info on when or where it was taken.

Good friends, fine wine, large cake, lovely night

Another shout-out to good friends, in this case Chris Welsch, Silke Schroeder, Michie Thuman and some other delightful friends of Chris' whom we met for the first time Saturday night. They all came to dinner to celebrate our old friend Chris' autumnal-equinox birthday. And no, the scrapblog editor did not eat that large piece of green-tea cake (though she wanted to); she was divvying it up.

Little Annette and Emma

Aunts Annette and Emma, and Nona (their cousin?) in a long-ago photo. It was undated, but must have been taken in the 1920s on the Sprick family farm.

Scrapblog editor picks on her siblings

The scrapblog editor proudly, and perhaps even a tad gleefully, presents these photos of her formerly annoying siblings during youthful dates. That's Chris and Lori Gerken before the 1975 prom at Lincoln High School in Lake City, Minn., and Chats and her date Kevin (no last name on the photo) before the Hamline University homecoming dance in 1979.

High on hay

That's Aunt Alverna atop a hay truck on the Sprick farm. The scribble on the back of this undated photo reads, "Nice looking hay." Sweet Aunt Anna must have been very nervous to see her sister in such a perilously high place!

Claus the carpenter in 1912

That's Grandpa Claus Sprick (10/13/1874-11/24/1942) and August Hall (whoever he was) outside the Mount Pleasant Town Hall outside Lake City in 1912. We suspect that Claus, a master carpenter, built the place. Note that the two have their carpenters' aprons on. (You can make this one bigger by clicking on it.)

Mystery photos

We can't tell you much about these two photos, which we found in Alverna's garage. They're undated and unmarked, and we weren't able to make them any bigger than this. We think we recognize Claus and Maria in them, and looks like they were taken on someone's farm. Perhaps our scrapblog staff historians (you know who you are, Anna and Elmer) can help us out.

Partying like it's 1989

The scrapblog editor had four aunts and her mom over to lunch at her Burnsville apartment in January 1989. That's Mom and Katie in back, Anna, Emma and Florence in front. The Millers in late 1989. The scrapblog editor was a little bit pregnant. Note cousin Chats' curly 'do.

Yet another photo of aunts all in a row

The back of this August 1954 photo says "Earl Carroll's beauties!!" Who the heck is Earl Carroll? We do not know. But we do recognize Adelaide, Annette, Emma, Alverna, Marion, Florence, Kate and Anna. Actually, we're not 100 percent sure that's Emma (third from left) and Florence (sixth from left). What do you think?

All-time oldest photo we've found

Found this one in Alverna's garage. Her handwriting on the back says: "German home of Grandfather Augustin was destroyed by firebombs in World War II. They have since rebuilt a home on the same location. Picture given to me on July 4, 1983." We gather this home, which housed both humans and farm animals (huddled together for warmth, we suppose), was the early-childhood home of our great-grandfather Henrich/Heinrich/Hinrich Augustin/Augustine, father of Grandma Maria Augustine Sprick.

Joe and Tanya at the Sprick centennial

Uncle Joe held granddaughter Tanya at the Sprick family centennial celebration in 1976. His dad and our granddad, Claus Sprick, arrived in New York harbor on July 4, 1876.

Ed in the kitchen

Not sure what Uncle Ed was up to in this June 1983 photo. Either he was about to fry fish, a messy job, or Alverna was about to cut his hair. Maybe both at the same time??!! At right, Ed in 1984, when lung cancer was starting to have its way with him.

Stormy weather

Seems like Minnesota has a lot of violent storms. That was true back in 1930, when a bad one overturned the corn crib on the Sprick farm, and true tonight. A couple of hours after posting the old photo, the scrapblog editor came back to add the brand-new little video of hail pelting her front yard. The weather is bad enough to force cancellation of a leisurely vacation dinner and trip to the groovy movie "Once" she had planned with St. Paul pal Totos, and to send her trotting down to her basement with her purse, just like Aunt Anna taught her, when the sirens went off.

Brobergia

Portraits of the Broberg cousins: 1) Sam, Sarah and Dan in 1974. 2) Wally and Marion with the three kids in 1980. 3) Dan and Sam in the 1980s, when they went to Minneapolis Washburn High School.

Annette as a dashing young horsewoman

We're hoping Joe and Anna can provide more info about this unmarked old photo we found of Annette riding a horse.

Annette's favorite place

Annette loved Old Frontenac, but we think she loved the North Shore even more. In the top one, taken in 1986, she looked out over the great lake from a bench at Castle Haven, which was operated by her friends the Linds. In the bottom one, she and her lifelong friend Liz Proehl, who has since died of Alzheimer's disease, on the Caribou Trail in 1985.

Cute cousins, all grown up

Cousin Sandy in Texas e-mailed this happy photo of her wonderful kids, Kelly and Paul Turner, taken this August upon the occasion of Paul's graduation from Texas State Technical College with a degree in computer science technology. Paul got a job offer the same day, and is working at July Business Service in Waco. Kelly graduated from Vogue Beauty College in July and is living with Sandy in Nacogdoches while studying from her state license exams. We know she'll ace 'em! These are some smart (as well as cute) cousins. Among Kelly's talents that the scrapblog editor has often witnessed are gourmet cooking, and among Paul's are virtuoso piano playing.

Say it ain't so, Joe!

Are we hallucinating, or is that our own Uncle Elmer looking street-tough and showing off a knife in the company of two shady characters?? We're shocked, shocked! We trust our own esteemed senior investigative scrapblog correspondent has an explanation for this one, which we found wayyyyy at the bottom of the family trunk.

Exemplary Elmer

We were pleased to find these undated photos of Uncle Joe, clearly a football champ and all-around nice guy in his youth. Or was he??!! See the blog entry above this one, cousins!

No frozen nose for Anna

Alverna, Chats and Anna posed after a shopping trip in early 1983. Anna sure knows how to bundle up.

Return of the historic photo

Darned if we didn't find some more old photos buried deep in the family chest. Here's one from way back. Those smiling faces are Adelaide, Marion, LeRoy, Alverna, Vi, Anna, Ed and Annette, with young Florence, Elmer and Katie in front. The only Sprick kids missing were Clarence, who had died, and Emma, who maybe was taking the photo.

Cousins (try to) go curly

Every once in a while, the cousins all try to go curly. Check out cousin Davy's 'do in the top photo, taken in 1986. Below that, the Miller kids all got perms for cousin Chats' 1984 graduation from Hamline University in 1982. And at right, cousin Janie was a curlette in 1984.

Party gal

Aunt Alverna loved to party, but even she had her limits. Top, she hammed it up on Christmas Day 1980 with her verse of "The 12 Days of Christmas." (Reference, Strange Rituals of the Spricks, Christmas Habits.) Bottom, the camera caught her snoozing on New Year's Day 1986 after staying up all night partying.

Siblings a-go-go

It wasn't easy being Big Sis to young cut-ups. The scrapblog editor spend the 1970s trying to preserve her dignity by avoiding these two knuckleheads.

For cute, these cousins take the cake

We love these childhood photos of cousins Paul and Kelly, children of cousin Sandy in Texas and her former husband, John. (They're now college graduates.) In the top one, Grandma Sprick was clearly tickled as she held Kelly Marie, 5 months, on Christmas Day 1985. That was Grandma's last Christmas, and Kelly made it extra joyous. In the second one, also taken that winter, Paul held his little sister. At left, Paul, just 2 in 1984, displayed his winning smile.

Cousin Chris and his firstborn

Cousin Chris and his firstborn, Zack, who is now in college, always had a special relationship. Here's some snapshots of tender scenes from Sparky's babyhood where Chris teaches him these important Miller skills: 1) yodeling, 2) putting his feet in his mouth, 3) boxing and 4) napping.

Laurie visits Old Frontenac

On this amazing perfect blue-and-green late-summer day, old pals Pam and Laurie Hertzel drove down to Old Frontenac and walked around in the lovely old historic town site and down by Lake Pepin. Laurie wrote a sweet account of it on her delightful literary blog, in which she referenced this interesting historic website about Frontenac. Laurie was impressed with Pam's historic old outhouse and shed, which is full of ancient scythes, rakes and buckets, not to mention mouse nests. She took the photo at right. It was such a perfect day, it had the scrapblog editor humming her current favorite song, "Heavenly Day," which songwriter Patty Griffin wrote for her dog after a particularly idyllic day in the country. (Laurie loves her dogs, so she'll appreciate that.) Here's a Youtube link to her performing it live.