Marilyn Hagerty: 'Red. This is it. We are done with you and your ice'

Water from the melting snow has been making a gurgling sound as it runs down the drain near my house on Cottonwood Street. There are a couple of crows swooping around - acting as though they own the outdoors.

And I have decided this is break-out week in Grand Forks. So I went over to the banks above the Red River. I got as close as I could, and I shouted.

"Red," I said. "This is it. We are done with you and your ice. Start sending some catfish so people like Ernie the Angler don't have to do ice fishing."

There were things I needed to talk about down by the river. After all, Sunday has been designated Earth Day.

How should we celebrate? It seems we could at least make mud pies.

Monster trucks

The weekend arrives with what they call the Toughest Monster Truck Tour on Saturday at the Alerus Center. And it all begins with a parade at 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Grand Cities Mall parking lot.

Friend of base

The life of the late Marijo Shide will be remembered and honored today at Grand Forks Air Force Base. There is a ceremony at 2 p.m., and a bench with her name will be unveiled.

Guests will gather ahead of time at the Emerado Community Center for transportation to the main gate of the base.

In my mind, she didn't die last year. Marijo Shide just went on ahead. She left behind the lessons of a life well-lived. She served as an ambassador for Grand Forks Air Force Base. Earlier in her life of service, she tended an office in Washington D.C. when she was international president of Federated Women's Clubs. With her husband, the late Don Shide, she raised a family and tended a farm south of Larimore. And one of the messages she left: You need to grow where you are planted.

Alexander Griggs Day

There was a time when it took a proclamation from the governor or mayor to set a day aside as something special. Nowadays, anybody and everybody can proclaim special days. There's the so-called National Sandwich Day. There's Run for Dinner Day.

So why couldn't we have Alexander Griggs Day? Recently, I was talking to Leah Byzewski, director of the Grand Forks County Historical Society. She told me Alexander Griggs on April 26, 1875, transferred ownership of the town of Grand Forks to the town of Grand Forks. Previously he had been proprietor.

Byzewski has a grainy-looking copy of the original document.

It seems this calls for a celebration. Someone just has to figure out how.

Mary Ann and Mark

Cheerful persons of the week: Mary Ann Devig and Mark Hadlich.