10/19 - Apparently Thresa Ebsch is the only senior citizen in the mid-Menominee County area admitting to having gotten older in October of '99. The Senior Center in Daggett usually honors 5 or 6 members at their monthly birthday party.
This time there was only Thresa. At 81 she has plenty of friends and about 20 of them enjoyed her celebration by sharing the noon meal, an afternoon of playing bingo and cards, and the traditional birthday cake-and-coffee afternoon snack.
Thresa raised 8 children and always enjoyed cooking. She spent seven years as the cook at the Mellen Elementary School, was a substitute cook at the high school for several years and then spent another 20 years cooking for the priests at the rectory of the Catholic church in Stephenson. She has her favorite foods and recipes but says she really enjoys making soups - all kinds.

10/18 - The Stephenson High School year 2000 graduation ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 21 at 2 p.m. in the high school gym. The School Board voted to make it official at their meeting Monday night.
Following a report on how our students compare with others in the state several board members expressed concern over consistently low ratings, at the high school level, on writing ability. Our students equal or exceed state ratings in all other areas. Board president Mike Nuttall noted that for at least the past 6 years high school students have ranked below state levels in writing skills and he feels it's time to try new ideas. School administrators agreed to discuss the problem and work with teachers to challenge students to complete writing assignments not only in English classes but also in art, math, industrial arts, etc.
Board member Mark Nordin suggested that perhaps board members should take some of the tests students are required to take to better understand the situation. There was no motion to vote on his suggestion.

10/17 - Participants in the pre-school story hour at the library last week learned it might not be wise to bring pet animals to the library. Why? Well...like maybe giraffes would try to read over everyone's shoulder. An exception was made for Marian Koldos, an adult, who brought her collection of 20 attractive, well-mannered giraffes and arranged them in the display case at the entrance to the library. They got a lot of attention, serving as a welcoming committee for the annual Weekend With Friends put on by the Friends of the Menominee County Library.
There was food and drinks, of course, and plants and flowers to add to the warm, welcoming atmosphere. Works by local art students were also displayed throughout the building. Andrea Fister had a watercolor and prismacolor montage of Arabian horses on a table with a color study of feathers by Amy Tessmer. There were floral abstracts done for an O'Keeffe study, and a wide variety of other exhibits by our talented young people.
On Sunday afternoon Debbie Kapplinger, a lst grade teacher at Mellen Elementary School, took a group of about 20 people on an "armchair" tour of the Scandanavian countries, sharing experiences of a June '98 visit to that area. Along with absorbing the history, culture and scenery along th way she admitted to giving in to a typical tourist weakness. "I went into a building to mail a couple of postcards and came out with an irresistable wool cape with a moose leather collar." Everyone understood how things like that happen.

10/17 - The feathers, if there were any, have disappeared over the past 30 or 35 years that the St. Mary's Sanctuary Society has sponsosred Feather Party fund raisers, first at St. Fredericks catholic church in Daggett and now at the catholic church in Stephenson. It's still a favorite with bingo players and pie lovers however. Bill Kiszely called the numbers in the church basement Sunday night for 128 people hoping to win a frozen turkey (lst prizes) or frozen chicken (2nd prizes).
Janice Keener of Menominee, a turkey winner, and her sister Sandra Thoune tried to remember their earliest feather parties. Sandra guessed she was about 17 the first time she helped with one. The women all bring homemade pies to serve at the break following the first 10 games of bingo. There are always lots of good fruit and cream pies. Nobody could remember every getting a bad one. Marie LaDuron of Wallace said the strangest pie she ever tasted was one her daughter bought at a grocery store in Slinger, WI last summer. It was an apple-blueberry-cherry mixture called bumbleberry. According to Marie it tasted better than it sounds.

10/16 - Church groups and individuals from Menominee, Stephenson, Escanaba, Iron Mt., Marinette, Peshtigo and Wausaukee worked together Saturday loading a railroad boxcar in Menominee with clothes, school and health supplies. Area Lutheran churches sponsor the gathering of donations each year as part of the Lutheran World Relief Clothing Drive. Items are distributed in 19 countries worldwide and to disaster areas as needed.
Pat Mertens of Marinette who, along with Barb Neverman, works as the project coordinator said by the end of the day the boxcar was about 85% full. She said they were very impressed with the sincere desire of so many people to get involved in helping others, including several groups of young people who were actively involved in much of the work.

10/l5 - Here, from a beat-up little book from a rummage sale years ago, is a not-too-serious horoscope for anyone born in October. It's probably as accurate as any of the others: You are wise, witty and wonderful, but you spend too much time reading this sort of stuff. Your lucky number is on a house somewhere, and your lucky word is "No."