Celebration of the Lakes; cup and ball? No iPods?

Remember to mark your calendars for the Celebration of the Lakes. It will take place Friday, January 25 and run thru January 27. They are still looking for a few mor chii contest entries, so if you have a recipe that your family absolutely loves, call Laura at 257-5113 to register. In your Search Shopper this weekend, we will have the Celebration of the Lakes circular. This is your guide to all the events taking place that weekend. Make sure to keep it handy so you know when the balloons will be launching, or when the snowmobile drags are, or when the ice fishing contest begins, or when the kiddie parade is or when..you get the picture. Now that the celebration is officially on (we have 50 degree days) I think people are getting excited about the event. This is a great opportunity for you to invite your out of town friends and relatives to come visit. Let us show them just how fun and neat our little community is. They willl be glad they came up. Gary Gerke, whom many of you know from the Chisago Lakes Lions Club or the local food shelf, came in for a visit this week. He brought along a picture in a frame. Knowing Gary, I thought it was going to be a photo of his favorite doughnut from the Lindstrom Bakery. Boy was I wrong. He had framed a letter from his grandchildren Anna and Lauren.

The letter was written in crayon, which I am sure they have seen grandpa fill out checks with crayons, and at the bottom was 10 one dollar bills. The letter said "Grandpa here is our allowance money, please give it to the food shelf. Unbelievable. It made my heart melt. Here were kids under 11 years of age giving away their hard earned money for the good of others. It was so thoughtful and so considerate of these young girls. Last weekend, we sat in a gym, like we do for most of the winter, watching basketball. Our son plays, and when he doesn't have a tournament, we are in a gym watching my daughter's gymnastic meets. Other than a case of sore &%#@^*, I love watching my kids in sports. The team was between games and as usual trying to find any type of entertainment. Last year between games, the boys would have been on their iPods listening to music or playing games. This year, something has changed. They all huddle in some corner of the gym or in the lunch room and play with their cup and ball.

Apparently these things are called Kendamas. They have three cups on the end of a wood handle and a small point. Attached to the handle is a wooden ball on a string with a hole in it. The kids flip the ball up and try to catch the ball in the cup or if they are really good, they try to land the ball on the little spear. It is like stepping back in time. Our kids playing with a wood stick and ball? Where are you supposed to plug that into? How many gigabytes does that have? Where is the headphone jack? The kids go nuts for this primitive toy, and I mean nuts. It is like a Kadama convention. At the last boys varsity basketball game, I noticed the top of the bleachers was lined with what had to be 25 kids all playing with their Kendamas.

The "Old Matt (before my New Years resolution)" would have had a field day making fun of these kids. But honestly, the more I see them, the more I truly appreciate just how simple they are and just how good they are for kids to play with. I never heard anyone say "Quit playing with your Kendama! It will rot your brain!" Today we say goodbye to a good friend here at the Press.  Beth Kline is leaving us to assist her father with his flower shop in St. Paul. Beth has been with us for years and has become one of the best employees we have ever had. While we are sad to see her go, we are excited for her as well. Good luck Beth!