A treasure of a photo

We are thrilled to have received this wonderful historical submission, back from the era in which family photos included chickens. Here's Uncle Joe's caption: "This photo was taken about 1939 on the north-facing side of the Spricks' L-shaped farmhouse. The characters are Grandpa Henry Augustine, seated center; from left to right, Uncle Henry and Aunt Emma Augustine, Uncle Henry and Aunt Emma Stegemeyer, Uncle Otto and Aunt Annie Leonhardt, Claus and Maria Sprick, and front left, two curious leghorn chickens. The economy was still bad, but we were starting to recover from the Great Depression, as you will note from the fine wearing apparel." Click on the photo to make it bigger and easier to check out Grandpa Claus' stern expression and Grandma Maria's sensible shoes.

Dreaming of spring

We love winter, but enough, already, most cousins are thinking as we enter what seems to be its 13th month. Ah, but before spring can come, the ice on Lake Pepin has to honeycomb, wilt and and vanish. The first step in that process is the passage of an ice cutter, and that won't happen for a while. To whet your appetite, here, courtesy of Uncle Joe, is a photo from a past year of the cutter going through. This was taken on March 27, Easter Sunday, 2005. The ice was still 2 feet thick and tough going, Joe recalls. Meanwhile, here are two stories that ran on the Associated Press wire this week about our favorite body of water: How thick is it? LAKE CITY, MINN. -- In an annual sign that spring is coming, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it's about to start measuring the thickness of the ice on Lake Pepin. The corps will begin the work Feb. 18. It measures the ice in different spots on the lake each year to predict when the navigation season on the Upper Mississippi will start. Lake Pepin is usually the last part of the river to break up because the current there is slower than on the rest of the upper parts of the river. The average opening date of the navigation season in St. Paul over the past 10 years has been March 20. Not very, apparently OLD FRONTENAC, MINN. -- Two men pulling an icehouse off Lake Pepin fell through the ice while riding an ATV Tuesday [Feb. 10, 2009]. Robert Hoeft, of Frontenac, Minn., and Scott Balster, of Red Wing, Minn., were pulling the icehouse off Lake Pepin around 4 p.m. Tuesday when they fell through near Florence Beach. A passerby called Goodhue County deputies to the scene. Hoeft and Balster were able to pull themselves and the ATV out of the water by the time deputies arrived.Signs were posted in January on Lake Pepin warning ice fishermen of dangers.

Miller on ice

It's the old "march, march, push, push" for Little Izzbee Miller, age 5, who is learning to ice skate from her dad, cousin Chris, who used to skate for fun with members of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" U.S. Olympic hockey team. We love her pink ensemble, but note that the incongruous orange hat looks suspiciously like a Lake City Tigers leftover (next-day update: Chris says it's a Centennial Cougars hat). Chris sent these photos right from the ice via his groovy new Blackberry.

Hat trick

Uncle Joe said of this one: "Styles have changed since we got married 60 years ago," but he's just quipping, as he's liable to do in that great dry way of his. It's one of those cool time-period photos, taken a few years ago. But it makes us wonder, as do many vintage photos -- why don't people wear hats anymore? Hats are so, way, cool.

The wrestler

Forget Mickey O'Rourke, the resurgent star of the hit movie "The Wrestler" -- we have our own rough-hewn wrestler, cousin Marty B., shown here during a recent match his team from Hopkins High School had in Rosemount. Here the referee holds his hand high after he pinned the blurry fella at left. Hey, you'd be blurry too if you had to wrestle Marty, who's just in 10th grade but is wrestling at varsity level. Says his biggest fan, his dad, cousin Dan: "It makes Marty's dad a little nervous to see him step into the ring, and especially nervous when he is facing an opponent that outweighs him by 25 pounds. [Marty weighs 188 but wrestled in the 215-pound-and above heavyweight category.] This varsity stuff is a whole lot more competitive than JV was last year, and the guys he typically faces look really strong."

Zack's very fine day

Saturday, Jan. 31, was a great day for young cousin Zachary B. ...

For one thing, after weeks and weeks of freezing cold weather, it warmed up! The sun shone brightly and the temperature soared into the 40s, and Minnesotans everywhere were blissful; everyone was outside soaking it up. Zack, for his part, built a snowman wearing a T shirt.

Earlier in the day, our young scholar studied a show on the Food Network and decided to make his own signature salsa. He chopped up jalapenos, hot red peppers, sweet red peppers, tomatoes, onion and garlic. Man, does that sound good. Zack, send us the whole recipe so we can post it!

Uncles go hunting

We're delighted with this great photo from the 1970s, submitted by Uncle Joe, of uncles LeRoy, Ed and John smokin', drinkin' and readin' in the hunting shack at Waldesruh. No word on whether they bagged any deer.

Derby dude

Here's our favorite Cub Scout, cousin Zachary B., with his Pinewood Derby entry, which honors his beloved Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO). Zack placed fourth overall, just out of trophy-dom, in his very first Pinewood Derby. He's No. 1 with us!

One smart cookie, this cousin

Cousin Katie Jo, daughter of Dave and Sarah, granddaughter of Elmer and Mavis, is not only a tennis star, but a terrific student. Recently she was inducted into the National Honor Society at her Wisconsin high school. We're proud of you, Katie Jo!

Welcoming the Year of the Ox

Hundreds of Minnesotans of Chinese heritage gathered Saturday night at O'Shaughnessy Auditorium at St. Kate's in St. Paul to welcome the Chinese New Year. This colorful, merry event heralding the Year of the Ox (and, allegedly, spring, though it was -3 outside) featured cool dancers, singers and acrobats, a golden dragon, red money packets for the little ones (red betides good luck) and lots of very nice people. Right smack in the middle of the balcony was, of course, the Miller family, applauding enthusiastically for the performers, particularly the Minnesota Chinese Day Care and Learning Center, featuring none other than diminutive cousin Elizabeth Le Yuan Yu Miller. Some images: Elizabeth, right, and one of her dancin' pals. A rough little video clip of Elizabeth's troupe (click on the arrow and turn on your computer's sound). That's her at center left, second row, with bangs and bouncing pigtails, swinging her hips with a jaunty air. After her dance, Liz came back to sit with us-all and to watch the other performers. Also cramming into this photo were Mary, Hannah (who is recovering from dental surgery and just got new glasses) and Pam, dressed in red for good luck.

Happy Birthday, Florence!

In the rush of inauguration week, we forgot to wish Florence a happy 83rd birthday on Jan. 20! Hope she had a good one; we suspect so, since we hear that she and Harry on are a cruise down Mexico-way. Here she is a few years ago with the Sprick kids' beloved horse Babe and siblings Elmer, Alverna and Katie.

Happy Birthday to ChrisMiller!ChrisMiller!

Happy 51st Birthday to cousin Chris, the scrapblog editor's favorite brother. He's marking his birthday as he does every year, by coming down with a humdinger of a cold. As he told cousin Sam today, he was thinking of employing the cold remedy routine followed by Uncle Gustav Krociel: a shot of "medicine" along with some nice smoked fish, followed by vigorous loading and unloading of sand and/or large pieces of generally unidentifiable rummage to and from a battered pickup, commencing with an upside-down afternoon nap in some unsuspecting relative's bed, hat over his face and feet nestled on pillow. Sounds reasonable. Happy Birthday, Mr. Dees!

Barack Sprick Obama takes the helm

Despite his controversial middle name, Barack Sprick Obama was sworn in Tuesday as the 44th president of our beloved nation. We thought you might enjoy these snapshots taken by your scrapblog editor. Oops, slight correction: They came from the New York Times:

When it comes to analysis, however, we don't need the Times. We called our own esteemed Gray Lady, senior scrapblog analyst and historical-tour back-seat commentator Anna Sprick Smith, for her assessment. Anna, who would have liked to have been there with all those smiling people in cool hats, instead watched the festivities from the comfort of her armchair in Red Wing, Minn. She pronounced the day dazzling and was especially pleased to see all those happy faces in the crowd. She was gratified that there were no arrests (no arrests?? not even ELCA conventions can say THAT), that Barack was so gracious to G.W. (despite everything, you know) and that the little girls were so well-behaved (though, say! weren't they missing school?), and wondered if Michelle's feet got sore in those groovy green shoes. She predicted that things will get better now. There you have it -- Anna's analysis!

Minneapolis Star Tribune declares bankruptcy

You heard it right, cousins -- the Minneapolis Star Tribune, employer of cousins Pam and Chris, has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. For now, at least, this doesn't mean that Pam and Chris' families, with their many children, pets and knickknacks, will be moving into your basements. We're hoping that our owner, the shadowy private equity firm Avista Capital Partners, can shed some of its outrageous debts via bankruptcy and that our jobs will endure, though probably in very different, more demanding and lower-paid ways. (Chapter 11 involves reorganizing; it's not as dire as Chapter 7, which involves liquidation.) Although print newspapers are all in trouble these days because most people now get their news from free online sites and stellar scrapblogs like this one, it's your scrapblog editor's personal opinion that the Strib's financial troubles are due more to old-fashioned greed and mismanagement than they are to the cultural slouching toward digital-only media. And don't believe anything you read about it being the unions' fault -- our unions have made major sacrifices and are willing to make more, but only if equity is involved. As one of our colleagues told other media this morning, "This paper is more ours than theirs." The Strib we put out -- both print and online versions -- continues to make a profit. But Avista blithely used major debt to buy us, and now it can't get out from under that debt, so it's deep-sixing us to focus on its more profitable oil-drilling and waste-management holdings. Meanwhile, feel free to send cards, large checks and care packages full of delicious homemade cookies or hotdishes to Pam and Chris.

So you think it's cold and snowy this week?

Frosty-faced Minnesota and Wisconsin cousins just coming in from shoveling or having their cars jumped may be comforted to know that this winter is nothing compared to the momentous ones of our youth in which we all walked 5 miles to school barefoot through the snow. For instance, here's cousin Davy up to his derriere in some serious snow back in that well-known Ice Age, the 1960s. The scrapblog editor's favorite weather joke of the week came from her colleague Rohan Preston: "It's so cold that I saw Bernie Madoff walking down the street, and his hand was in his own pocket." And her favorite pondering on the cold is by her friend Laurie Hertzel in her wonderful blog.

Cruisin' with cousins Sam and Bridget and their boys

Once again, we find our winter selves living vicariously through cousins Sam and Bridget and their fabulous sons, Tyler, Alex and Zachary, who summarily and shockingly ditched their beloved cousins, i.e., us-all, over New Year's and went sailing in the Caribbean instead of staying here in the character-building Northland to ice-fish, play 500, jump cars and hibernate with the rest of us Minnesota cousins. On this particularly freezing week, we thought we'd share some photos from their cruise to warm us-all up. You can see lots more photos here. Here's the ship they sailed on. It's almost as nice as Uncle Elmer's fishing boat.

In this photo of empty beer bottles, tall glasses and a non-cousin go-go dancer, you may also notice some cousins. There they are, the scamps -- Sam, Zachary, Bridget, Tyler and Alex. We simply cannot understand how they could have fun without the rest of us. What amusement can lolling in a luxurious swimming pool atop a gorgeous cruise ship in a climate paradise whilst sipping large, colorful drinks with pastel umbrellas in them as groovy reggae music wafts on the gentle flower-kissed breeze possibly be without their extra-large, extra-loud Miller cousins doing cannonballs nearby?

Tyler, Alex and Zachary posed during a leisurely swim outing to some paradise-like location. Almost as nice as the Old Frontenac beach.

Bridget, Zachary, Alex, Tyler and Sam at some mysterious, haunted, ivy-draped ruin. Almost as nice as cousin Pam's historic Old Frontenac outhouse, wouldn't you say?

A serious note -- during the cruise, their ship encountered a small boat carrying Cuban refugees adrift on the high seas. Sam took this photo of folks from the boat going out to meet it. The cruise ship took the refugees aboard and they were later picked up from the Coast Guard. Sounds like some lives might have been saved.

Portrait of the Noah as a young man

The scrapblog editor's favorite son, Noah, has submitted the thoughtful self-portrait above for the blog. We love the symbolism, which reveals his love of learning, reading, music, geography, baseball, big cities and much more. Never stop learning, Noah! So far, the only thing Noah seems to have inherited from your scrapblog editor are those cool Sprick eyebrows (your scrapblog editor plucks hers, so as not to frighten people), although we often witness in him the bold hunger for experience that perhaps brought his great-grandfather, Claus Sprick, sailing into New York Harbor on July 4, 1876. Love you, young Odysseus!

Obituary for Aunt Vi

You can find this obit for Aunt Vi, as well as an online condolences book, at http://www.schleicherfuneralhomes.com/index.cfm. VIOLET "VI" ROSE SPRICK IRVIN April 23, 1913 - Jan. 8, 2009 The funeral mass for Violet “Vi” Rose Sprick Irvin will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 12, at St. Mary of the Lake Catholic Church in Lake City, Minn., with Father Richard J. Dernek officiating. Burial will be in St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Lake City. Mrs. Irvin, 95, of Lake City, died Thursday morning, Jan. 8, 2009, at the Lake City Medical Center–Mayo Health System Hospital in Lake City. Violet Rose Sanders was born April 23, 1913 in Glasgow Township, Wabasha County, to Otto and Rose (Wilde) Sanders. She attended District 68 School, where she participated in softball and volleyball. Moving to West Albany Township in Wabasha County, she was an active member of St. Patrick’s Church, a member of the Young Lady’s Catholic Sodality and choir, and presided as first president of the Rosary Society. Violet married LeRoy F. Sprick on Sept. 9, 1933. They farmed in West Albany until 1945, when they moved to Lake City, where she worked at the Lake City Hospital for 19 years, retiring in 1964. As a member of St. Mary of the Lake Catholic Parish, she acted as treasurer of the Women’s Guild. She was also an active Camp Fire leader, Country Club member, Women’s Club member and Garden Club member and participated in Lake City Home Extension. She served as treasurer of the Wabasha Home Extension Group. Vi’s husband, LeRoy, died Jan. 29, 1985. In 1988, she married Robert J. Irvin of Red Wing, Minn. They lived in Red Wing until 1996, when they moved to Lake City. Robert died on Aug. 11, 2008. She is survived by her daughter, Leah Davidson of Boca Raton, Fla.; two grandchildren, Leah-Jean Purtee of Seattle, Wash., and Richard Davidson of Orlando, Fla.; four great-grandchildren, Christopher Sands and Keith, Kelsey and Chloe Davidson; a brother, Joseph Sanders of Lake City, and a sister, Celia (James Sr.) Danckwart of Lake City. She was preceded in death by her father, Otto Sanders; her mother, Rose Wilde Sanders Tschoepe; her husbands; two brothers, Richard and Eugene, and a sister, Jeanette Danckwart. Friends may visit from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, at Schleicher Funeral Homes' Lake City Chapel and one hour prior to services at the church on Monday. A prayer service will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at the funeral home.

Remembering Aunt Vi

As most of you have heard, Aunt Vi (Violet Sanders Sprick Irvin) passed away this morning. Our condolences, especially, to cousin Leah, her daughter; and her grandkids, Leah-Jean and Richard, and their families. Visitation for Aunt Vi will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 11, 2009) at Schliecher's Funeral Home, 1865 S. Highway 61, in Lake City, Minn., 651-345-5778. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday (Jan. 12, 2009) at St. Mary's of the Lake Catholic Church, 419 W. Lyon Av. (Hwy. 63) in Lake City, with visitation one hour before services at the church. After the funeral, a luncheon will be held at the First Lutheran Church Education Building at the corner of North. Prairie and Doughty streets. Some photos to remember her by:

With Grandma Sprick at the old farmhouse after she became engaged to LeRoy Sprick.

That's her with the Sprick kids. She's the one with the dark hair in the back row.

With daughter Leah, our senior cousin.

With daughter Leah and granddaughter Leah-Jean.

With Aunt Anna.

Singing with the Stump-In Choir. That's her in the middle of the front row.

With Grandma Sprick, LeRoy, Ed and newspapers lauding Lake City native son Randy Breuer's fame.

With Annette and Anna. Note excellent spread.

Some photographic treasures

We're delighted to present these vintage photos of Aunt Katie Kirkwood, then Katie Sprick, fishing on Lake Pepin with her older brother, Ed Sprick, a few years back. We love the happy looks on their faces! Interesting, though, that no fish are in sight.

More family Christmas photos ...

We're delighted to have received more family Christmas photos courtesy of Mary Miller, who took these at Jane and Ted's on Christmas Day: The Kirkwoods: Tuck, Joe, Sandy, John, Jane and Katie.

Uncle John Kirkwood with his lovely daughters, cousins Sandy and Jane.

Hey! Take a chill pill, buddy! Cousins Sarah Broberg and Teddy Hagberg gave the proceedings four thumbs up. You'd better believe it!

Lavone Broberg, in a stellar Christmas sweater, with niece Sarah.

Marty's one tough dude, but we love how he softens up a little, and therefore becomes even more manly in a wonderful gentlemanly way, around his vibrant second cousin, Moriah Miller. Check out their impressive letter jackets!

Frohes Neues Jahr!

Happy New Year to all the cousins and elders! Here's hoping your 2009 is full of health, happiness and priceless blue plates!

Happy Birthday to two Kirkwood cousins!

Happy Birthday to two of our favorite cousins (though don't take that the wrong way -- YOU'RE ALL OUR FAVORITE COUSINS!), Sandy Kirkwood Turner (Dec. 28) and Joe Kirkwood (Dec. 31). Here they are a few years ago with cousins Pam, Jane and Patty-Lou.

Christmas at Hagbergs'

Photos are trickling in from Christmas Day at the Hagbergs' in Woodbury. We'll add our favorites as we get them, so keep checking this posting. The tall and the petite: Teddy Hagberg, Aunt Anna and Bridget.

Oh, those giggling girls! Moriah and Hannah Miller and Katie Hagberg share a laugh.

A bunch of the boys: Teddy Hagberg, Nick and Marty Broberg, Zack Miller and Alex, Zachary and Tyler Broberg.

Teddy, 6-feet-10, with diminutive cousin Elizabeth Miller. They're good pals!

Katie and Teddy Hagberg. Katie is a freshman at Woodbury High School; Teddy is a freshman at Bethel College in Arden Hills.