column
By Lori SorensonAugust 23, 2023A young couple showed up on our porch in June with a gift. “We have something we’d like to give you,” they said in a phone call earlier that day. Their business is Twisted Farmers Fab, which specializes in custom metal art — commercial signs, personalized wall hangings, fire pits and, their latest, hanging wind spinners. On this warm summer evening they handed us a heavy metal circular wind…
By Rick Peterson, general managerAugust 22, 2023I chalked up another birthday earlier this week. The years go by fast with age, as most of you know. Funny thing about getting old … my thoughts aren’t so much on the future but more on remembering the past. Mary and I took our two granddaughters to Arnold’s Park a couple weeks ago, and boy, did that bring back some memories. The Arnold’s Park memory that came to mind was while growing up in…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterAugust 15, 2023As I stood at the starting line of the Celebrity Donkey Races at the county fair, a feeling of doubt came over me. Doubt that I could even get on this animal’s back. Doubt that Ex-Lax (the donkey’s stage name) would even want me riding him around the course. I was wrong to doubt. When organizers announced that the women riding in Heat 3 were to go counter-clockwise around the course, I gained a…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianAugust 15, 2023The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older. The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on Dec. 2, 1943. William John Spease, Luverne, now 75, is of the opinion that a man is just as old at 50, or young at 80, and it is the latter goal that…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterAugust 08, 2023“Thanks for coming!” Maybe you’ve heard or said those words recently or often in your life. I sure have. I’m a “thank you” sayer. I’ve thanked police officers after pulling me over and even said thank you to another driver who hit my car in a parking lot. To be fair, the thank you was at the end of our interactions after the accident. I was thanking the man for taking responsibility, working…
By Rick Peterson, general managerAugust 08, 2023Today, Thursday, our youngest grandchild, Ellee, turns 6. Like all grandparents, Mary and I are proud as punch of all our grandkids. Those of us that make up our morning coffee group that are grandparents share stories (brag) about our grandkids at least once a week. Most of the stories are sports-related or how old they are or what grade they are in school, or recently, where they might be going…
By Brenda Winter, columnistAugust 01, 2023Dad and I hold our forks in mid air, staring into space the way people do when they sample food. We’re trying to figure out Mom’s potato salad recipe. Potato salad was Mom’s premier dish. Her barbecued chicken was good, and so was her apple crisp, but nothing compared to the potato salad. It was the German version – heavy on the mustard and onions. She used Miracle Whip, not mayo. A little salt…
By Wyatt VanSteenbergAugust 01, 2023I have been on a journey to lose weight over the course of two years dating back to September of 2021. For background, I am 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed 275 pounds at my heaviest. I am down 75 pounds and currently weigh 200. This isn’t my lightest so far, but it is where I am today. I’ve been working as an ad sales rep at the Star Herald over the past year, and I really wanted to use this…
By Gracie Rozeboom, Star Herald advertising and design internAugust 01, 2023On Saturday my family and our Verne Drive-In family of workers hosted the first annual “Carson’s Cause Car & Truck Meet” to raise awareness about brain health and suicide prevention. It was a chance to remember Carson Ehde who died last fall from suicide at age 21. And it was a chance to raise money for the foundation we started in his memory. I poured my whole heart into this event — because…
By Betty Mann, Rock County HistorianAugust 01, 2023The following article is part of the Diamond Club Member group that began in the January 7, 1943, issue of the Rock County Star Herald. Members of this group consist of persons of age 75 and older. The following appeared in The Rock County Herald on Nov. 25, 1943. Perhaps one of Luverne’s best known residents is Frank H. Fritz, retired plumber, whose experiences if listed in…
By Greg HoogeveenJuly 27, 2023This week is the 2023 Rock County Fair, and it’s a big week for the sports guy at the Star Herald. I have committed to being on the Star Herald teams for Wednesday night’s Donkey Races and Friday Night’s Ag Olympic. Being a city boy with limited barnyard experience, I am a bit scared and excited to see how these events go. Growing up, I have had the opportunity to ride a pig or two at a relative’…
By Rick Peterson, general managerJuly 25, 2023If you don’t know it’s fair week, you must be living under a rock. The four-day event actually takes months of planning and preparation by the volunteers that make up the Rock County Agricultural Society. The behind-the-scene work is so good you don’t even notice it. I mean that as a compliment. You probably won’t notice the freshly painted buildings, the new additional sidewalks and the upgrades…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJuly 18, 2023A few weeks back I spent some time in this column running through the basics of shooting at long-range targets. I am no expert on this subject matter but certainly have gotten bit by the long-range-shooting bug. What prompted my entry into this discipline was an introduction to a gentleman by the name of Todd VanLangen. Todd is a 25-year veteran of the Army Special Forces unit where he spent 13…
By Mavis Fodness, reporterJuly 18, 2023For more than a decade I’ve been mad at God. It seems funny to be mad at someone you’ve never met or really know if he’s even real. My Christian upbringing, however, says he is there and, thus, he is the one I am directing my anger toward. My sister died unexpectedly in 2011 and I’ve never forgiven God for taking her away from her family. We all prayed for a miracle that she would recover and…
By Brenda Winter, columnistJuly 11, 2023Because my husband and I no longer have children of our own to subject to long, unbearable car trips, we borrowed a niece and a nephew for a drive to Denver to visit our daughter and their cousin. Technology has lessened the misery of car trips considerably, but even technology has its limits. We were nine hours into the 10-hour drive back home. Both kids, ages 12 and 8, had traveled like rock…
By Rick Peterson, general managerJuly 11, 2023We don’t have a lost and found department here at the Star Herald office, but from time to time someone might stop in the office and drop off a set of keys or maybe a glove that someone apparently accidently lost outside on the sidewalk. Up until last week the items turned in as lost have been of the smaller size. Well, not anymore. Monday morning when I pulled up to the back door at the office,…
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