Dear Dave McFarlane,
By now, you and Kathy are probably back in Florida after your holiday trip to Minneapolis. You visited kids and grandkids there. Did you make it up here to Grand Forks?
I can see why you needed to get back to Florida for the start of pickleball season. Did you know we now have quite a few pickleball players around the Forks?
Yep, and they enjoy it indoors in winter and using the parks in the summertime.
Things around the Forks are getting back to normal - whatever that is - again. This week there are two UND basketball games at the Betty. There's a women's game with Omaha on Wednesday and an Omaha men's game Thursday. Denver is coming in for hockey on the weekend. Things have been going only so-so on the hockey front. But Central and East Grand Forks high schools are blazing trails with their hockey teams.
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I guess you have a little of everything except high school hockey in Florida. I can see why you love life down there in Ft. Myers. You say that for you a cold snap is in the low 50s.
Arizona, Florida
There was a time when I went to Tucson in March to see my sister, Shirley. After she died, I went to Florida occasionally to visit friends and warm up in winter.
Now I play bridge and go to basketball games.
Winter runs its course, as you well remember after all your years in business here at McFarlane Inc. This week began with clear, sunny skies. The streets are kind of slippery, though.
Still, I know some rural people who love winter. They don't want to go south. So they come in from rural homes and stay put here in Grand Forks.
Today at noon there is the annual combined meeting of service clubs. It's a long tradition, you know, and it is being held at Muddy Rivers downtown.
The Chester Fritz continues to bring first class entertainment to the Forks. Tonight it's Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. And on Feb. 4, Rock of Ages will be here on its tenth anniversary tour.
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January's charm
Yep, January comes and goes. She is not the favorite child of Mother Nature. But she has her own type of appeal. Sometimes you can throw a spoonful of water out the front door and it will freeze before it hits the ground. The only hill in the city, you know, is the dike over by Lincoln Park that turns into a great place for sleds.
Let me know more about what all the winter visitors to Florida are doing. And please at least send warm thoughts up north.
Your friend, Marilyn, at the Herald.
P.S.: My New Year's resolutions are fading. I was going to lose 10 pounds off my middle. I was going to clean kitchen cupboards. And I was going to be polite to Doug Norby.
