MARILYN HAGERTY: Chili is simmering around Minto as prelude to deer hunting

• Marilyn Hagerty

Marilyn Hagerty

Talk about it

Dear Shirley,

We put Halloween away this week. It’s all over except for the broken jack-o-lanterns and the bowls of candy sitting around. With the coming of colder weather, people start cooking up a storm here in the flat north land. There’s a bundle of church bazaars and luncheons coming up this weekend.

Thursday in Minto, N.D., they are holding their annual Chili Cook-Off at 7 p.m. The aroma will be drifting all over the area because they expect teams from Oslo, Grafton and Forest River, as well as Minto.

Chris Misialek, who runs the Harvey Avenue Saloon at Minto, says they always hold the Chili Cook-off the night before deer season opens.

They give the proceeds from the event to the Minto Historical Museum — an amazingly good little museum that is open in the summer and in winter by special arrangement.

They like to eat up there in Minto, Shirley. I drove up recently for a pie baking contest. And they just held their annual fall supper with about 700 in attendance.

You see, Shirley, they have a beautiful community center in Minto. It was built about three years ago with the town putting in 25 percent of the cost and 75 percent coming from the will of the late mayor, Paul Koehmstedt.

While the people are sampling chili up at Minto this evening, there will be a Holiday Open House at the Plain and Fancy Antique Mall next to the Italian Moon on S. Washington Street. Victorian Rose and Red Geranium stores have a smashing display of Christmas waiting in the wings.

This Plain and Fancy Antique Mall is an amazing place with 18 dealers, Shirley. The owner is Monte Whitney, and he gets a lot of help from his son, James, 18, a senior in East Grand Forks. I found myself wandering through the shops one day recently. I saw beautiful old jewelry and things from the past such as egg beaters and flour sifters. It was a trip back in time.

And here in Grand Forks, they are introducing women to curling at Tuesday morning classes. Have you ever heard of it, Shirley? The instructors are Brenda Staveteig, Cindy Sampson, Jerry Bugliosi and C.T. Marhula. They have at least 50 women launching stones and sweeping away already. Then there’s junior curling that begins Nov. 21 also at the Grand Forks Curling Club, 1124 7th Ave. S. The season lasts from the first of November to the first week of April.

That’s about the time you will be saying farewell to the snowbirds who spend the winter in Tucson!

Right now, the weathermen are gingerly talking about snow. And it might just fall on us this weekend. I guess I am ready, but that one big elm tree in the backyard is still clinging to its leaves. I have a feeling the city is done with its annual pickup. They have made three complete sweeps of the city. Now they are retrofitting the trucks for snow removal.

I could not get an exact number of leaves collected from the city public relation departments. I did learn that you can still dump off leaves at collection stations around town. There are 10 of them listed on the very last page of the city calendar.

Basketball is getting under way now. The women had an exhibition game with University of Minnesota-Crookston women last night. Coach Gene Roebuck was out there — jolly as ever. And as I told you last week, I have been enjoying volleyball and women’s hockey at UND. So I am not really grieving at the end of summer and fall. Ask me how I feel in February, and I probably will be hunting for bargains on airplane tickets south.

Love from your sister, Marilyn, watching the last leaves drift like butterflies from the trees.

P.S.: Granddaughter Carmen in Pittsburgh is 8 years old now. The other day she was watching a cooking class on television and decided to copy down the recipe. She wrote: “Clam, musle, suffern, shrimp, garlic, fish crushed tomatos, scallop, pasta, olive oil, bazil.”

Reach Hagerty at mhagerty@gra.midco.net or (701) 772-1055.

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