A History Tree

Our Christmas tree is a history tree. Beginning with the tree itself, that we cut from our farm, and planted some ten years or so ago. Since 1961, when Ruth and I married, our Christmas tree has hanging on its branches the history of our family.

A little wedding bell was one of the first ornaments on our tree. In not many more years, three more little ornaments appeared, one for each of our three children. And this was followed with ornaments helping us remember family vacations, here and there around the country. Then little rolled up pieces of paper tied with a ribbon, depicting high school and college graduations. And ornaments showing jobs the children have held over the years. For Steve a camera. For Sue a teacher’s desk. For Jeff a tiny pair of skis (he once worked at Vale resorts).

Children, spouses, grandchildren, and now great grandchildren each has a special Christmas ball with his or her name on it hanging on our tree.

Ruth uses little matchboxes as containers, and fastens an image of a book cover for a book that Jerry wrote that year. Inside the matchbox, Ruth lists the important events of the year, those both joyful and those less so.

So if anyone, at some future time, wants to learn the history of our family, they do not turn to a book, but they check the ornaments on our Christmas Trees.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: A Most Merry Christmas to all.

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:

Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guide book for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

Radio Broadcast and Book Signing.

Photo: Sue, Jerry and Rauel LaBreche at McFarlanes in Sauk City.

It had snowed enough to remind us that winter was just around the corner. And if the snow wasn’t enough, a cold northwest wind put an exclamation point on that reality. Sue and I were on or way to Sauk City, to McFarlanes. To a hardware store that sells more than nuts and bolts, and paint and wrenches. McFarlanes also sells books— books written by Wisconsin authors.

Starting at ten a.m., Sue and I were a part of an hour long, live radio broadcast originating at the hardware store and aired on Baraboo’s 99.7 FM and 740 AM radio stations. Rauel LaBeche, animated and with never a dull word, hosted the show, asking us questions: What makes Old Farm Country Cookbook different from other cookbooks, why did Sue refuse to try the fried squirrel recipe, why did I write the Never Curse the Rain book, and more.

Some 40 plus people were seated in the little studio, carved out of a corner of the hardware store, listening, laughing—having a good time.

Sandwiched in between the questions and answers, Curt Meine and his Prairie Spies musical group offered live Christmas music. Curt, beyond his musical skills, is also a well know author and Aldo Leopold’s biographer.

Sue and I had a fun time.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Want to get in the Christmas mood? Plan a stop at McFarlanes in Sauk City. You won’t be disappointed.


UPCOMING EVENTS:

Sunday, Dec. 17 –Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello 1 p.m. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:

Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guide book for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835

Dregne's in Westby

It’s called the driftless area. That part of southwestern Wisconsin where the last great glacier failed to reach. A place of steep hills and long valleys. A place where a goodly number of Norwegians settled back in the mid 1800s.

On Saturday, Sue and I signed books at Dregne’s Scandinavian Gift shop in Westby, south of LaCrosse and deep in the driftless area. As an aside, it is here where I found my wife, Ruth, with a last name of what else, Olson.

Dregne’s is celebrating their forty-second anniversary as one of the region’s premier gift shops for all things Scandinavian. Want to know how to make lefse? They have the books and equipment that will get you started. Want some Swedish herring with dill, this is the place. A gnome? Sure, lots of gnomes. Norwegian Christmas ornaments? Many choices. A sweet tooth? How about some Swedish milk chocolate with caramel?

But there’s more. I quietly asked Jana Dregne, she and her husband Dave, own the place, if she had anything German. “Sure,” she said, and was soon showing me some beautiful wooden ornaments made in Germany. “We’ve got some Irish stuff, too,” she offered showing Sue and me some “Inis,” a unisex cologne that “makes you feel close to the ocean no matter where you are.”

And books, lots of books at Dregne’s. Books about Scandinavia. Books about Wisconsin. Kids books. How-to books. Gift books. Many books.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Plan a stop at Dregne’s in Westby. Something for everyone, especially if you are Scandinavian, or married to one.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Thursday, Dec. 7, 6:00 p.m. Waupaca Historical Society, Trinity Lutheran Church, 206 E. Badger Strreet, Waupaca. Christmas on the Farm

Saturday, Dec. 9 McFarlane’s, Sauk City. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie

Sunday, Dec. 17 –Readers Realm Bookstore, Montello 1 p.m. Old Farm Country Cookbook. Jerry and Susie

Purchase Jerry’s DVDS and his Books from the Patterson Memorial Library in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (a fundraiser for them):
The library now has available signed copies of Jerry’s DVDs:

Emmy Winner, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps (based on The Quiet Season book.)
Jerry Apps a Farm Story (based on Rural Wit and Wisdom and Old Farm books.)
The Land with Jerry Apps, (based on the book Whispers and Shadows,) and Never Curse the Rain, Jerry’s newest DVD based on his book with the same title.
Also available are several of Jerry’s signed books including: Jerry’s newest nonfiction books, Never Curse the Rain and Old Farm Country Cookbook, and his newest novel, The Great Sand Fracas of Ames County. Also available are Wisconsin Agriculture: A History, Roshara Journal (with photos by Steve Apps) and Telling Your Story—a guide book for those who want to write their own stories.
Contact the library for prices and special package deals.
Patterson Memorial Library
500 Division Street
Wild Rose, WI 54984
barnard@wildroselibrary.org
www.wildroselibrary.org
920-622-3835