1950 Election special!

The "S" Club of South St Paul

 

 

     "Members of the South St. Paul High School "S" Club are initiating a program to raise funds in order to assist with expenses due to unusual athletic injuries incurred by local athletes.  The first project by the "S" Club members will be a "Rollin Glewwe Night" slated for Thursday, November 30, at the High school gymnasium.

          Rollin, 17, an outstanding member of the football team was hospitalized due to an              unusual injury and will be the first athlete aided under the new "S" club program.  He is

the son of Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Glewwe of 147 Fifteenth Avenue South."

     A gala evening is in prospect with teams composed of local High school football players and "S" club members battling it out on the basketball court.  Following the cage conflict the Jimmy Gerald orchestra will take over the festivities to furnish music for a dance.

     The game will start at 7:30 p.m. with tickets for the worthy "S" club project to be made available in the near future.  Other organizations in this city have signified their intentions of co-operating in making the initial effort a success."  SSP Daily Reporter, November 18, 1950, pg 4.

 

    

 

 

And what a great night it was.  It made the paper all week leading up to the big event.  Rollin, who was recovering at home was told by two of his teammates "not to worry about Joan, they would escort her to the dance."  And what a dance they had. 

 

The "S" Club handed Rollin's parents $500 to be used to help defray the costs of his injuries and stays in the hospital.  In a letter written by his folks to the "S" club they wrote,     "Dear Bernie:  We are very grateful to your splendid organization for the noble service they have rendered in collecting funds to help defray the expenses incurred during the time our son Rollin was hospitalized because of an unusual injury received while playing football with the local high school team.  Rollin's recovery thus far has been a miracle and he joins us in expressing his gratitude toward every member of the club for their unselfish and untiring efforts to accomplish what has been done.  We wish continued success to the S Club in promoting such worthy projects, but hope that never again become necessary to solicit funds for a similar cause.  Here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Sincerely yours, Mr & Mrs Reuben Glewwe

 

 

 

 

Hall of Fame (part 2)

     Rollin Glewwe, high school football standout and down for the count......

     The other day, Rol in talking with his fellow teammate, Allan Stalmasik Elder , and mentioned that Allan had told him about what had happened during that Stillwater game back on Friday, October 13, 1950.  Allan remembers Rol playing the first half of the game and going back to the locker room during halftime.  While returning to the field, Rol had mentioned to Al that he was feeling woozy and was going to ask to sit out for the opening kickoff.  Al then told Rol that the next time he looked up, Rol was be taken off the field in an ambulance.
 

     Rol was taken to Riverview Memorial Hospital that night and for the next 10 days he would be a patient.  And while he was awake and resting, the problems persisted.  He would get weaker and his nosebleeds were increasing as the week wore on.  By the end of his ten day stay, he was losing all feeling in his body and was partially paralyzed.  The decision was made to transfer him to the Charles T Miller Hospital, also in St. Paul, MN. 

     It was here that Dr Robert L Merrick would make the discovery that had been keeping Rollin from recovering from his concussion.  Dr Merrick, who went on to become the chief neurosurgeon with the University of Minnesota, came in early Saturday morning and asked Rol if he was left-handed.  Up till now, the doctors had been looking for blood clots on the right hand side of the brain and would come up empty.  As Rol's condition was worsening, the doctors were stumped.  With Rol's answer in the affirmative, surgery was set up immediately with the doctors now looking on the left hand side of the brain.  It seems that left handed people's brains affect the function of the left hand side of the body.  The surgery took from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. in the afternoon.  Rollin was given many transfusions and what followed was many days of continual bleeding and convulsions.  His father, Reuben, wrote in his journal on November 2nd, that "Rol's speech was improving" and they were "very much encouraged."

    Rollin was released from the hospital on November 11, 1950, one month from when he took that first hit.

    But there is more to this story.  One about his great grandmother, Ursula Marxer, and one about the "S" Club and how this injury changed their mission.

Hall of Fame (part 1)

     Five years ago, the South St Paul High School Athletic Department started a Hall of Fame for past graduates who went on and made a name for themselves either in athletics/coaching or other endeavors and how participation in activities contributed to their career.  For such a small school district (3500 students total), but large in years of existence, (since 1853 when it was a mission school for the Kaposia Indian village), we have had a good number of students go forth and become famed athletes.  Such football notables like Jim Carter with the Green Bay Packers, Jim LeClair with the Cincinnati Bengals, and Stan Kostka with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Or take the hockey standouts such as Warren Miller who played for Canada and the NY Rangers. Or Phil Housley, leading all-time scorer until recently, who played for the Buffalo Sabres as well as the Toronto Maple Leafs.  We've had our share of good coaches too, Doug Woog, who went on to coach for the U of MN and was the assistant coach for the US Olympics in 1984 to "Lefty" Smith, who went on to coach for Notre Dame.

     Not all high school stars continued on with their athletic careers though.  One case in point is my dad, Rollin Glewwe.  He was considered a high school stand out.  His position on the team was center and also captain.  The football team won the MN State Football Championship in 1949 and Rol was up for the All-Suburban Center for that year.  They had a strong team and 1950 was looking to be another banner year. 

    The first big loss was handed to the team at the Friday night game on September 22, 1950.  Anoka Tornadoes won the game 20-0, handing the South St Paul Packers their first defeat in twelve games, something that had not happened since 1948.  The following week, the Packers crushed White Bear Lake by the same score, 20-0.  Facing the Hastings gridders the next week, the Packers blasted through, winning 19-6. 

     But it was during the next week that things began to change.  Practice had began as usual for the Packers.  Rol took his place as center and the scrimmage began.  When I questioned him about this practice and did he remember getting hit, he responded that he had been hit and thought he had pulled a muscle in his back.  He also mentioned that during practice, the players did not always wear helmets.  By Thursday, Coach John Kulbitski, in an article in the local paper, reported that "Rollin Glewwe, starting center and outstanding linebacker, had strained his back and may not start tomorrow night.  In case the star performer is benched, he will be replaced by Keith Wells." (South St Paul Daily Reporter, vol. 58, no. 92, Oct 12, 1950, p4).

     It was October, Friday the 13th, 1950, when the South St Paul Packers trampled the Stillwater Ponies 35-0 and gained the first place lead in the suburban conference.  The following week they would play St Thomas Academy.  Homecoming was slated for Friday, October 27, and one of the girls up for Homecoming Queen was my mother, Joan Brossoit.

     Rol, wanting to play and still benched by a nagging back problem, went to the doctor.  While there, it was determined that Rol had suffered a concussion as by now his arms were tingling and were becoming numb.    Rol started in the Stillwater game but did not see it through to its finish.........

    Wednesday, October 16th, the headline on page 4 of the local paper read "Rollin Glewwe Out For Season.  A pall of gloom hung over SSP High school today when it was announced that Rollin Glewwe, first string football center and All-Suburban candidate for 1949 at that berth, was not expected to play for the rest of the season.  Coach John Kulbitski said this morning that a temporary  injury was forcing the benching of the top-notch athlete and that he would be badly missed."

      Homecoming night pitted the SSP Packers against Columbia Heights Heighters, with the ending score South St Paul winning 25-6.  It was the last game for the team's fullback Harold "Pinky" Pawlik, as he would be ineligible to play any remaining games due to his age.  But he made it a great game, with SSP rushing for 396 yards to Heights, 75. 

    Four members of the SSP football team were named to the All-Suburban Football team that last week in October, tackle Allan Stelmasik, backs Eddie Helseth and Harold Pawlik and center, Rollin Glewwe.  In the news article it said that "Rollin Glewwe, now hospitalized and seeing only limited action in the Stillwater game and none in the Columbia Heights encounter, impressed all with his prowess in both offensive and defensive  capacities during three earlier league contests to gain a berth on the All-Suburban team."

The SSP "Packers Crush Robbinsdale 33-0 in Season's Finale" was the headline for the last game of the season.  In three years, the football team had only lost one game, and for one player his last game.


    
    
    
 

A Pantry Full of Canned Goods

     It starts with going to the farmer's market.  When I was a child I would go along with my father, who was the produce manager for the local grocery store.  We would go during the week and it would still be dark out.  I loved the smells of fresh and not-so-fresh vegetables, of cigar smoke and exhaust, the overhead lights swinging from single bulbs and the sounds of bushel baskets thumping on the ground, greetings being exchanged and prices being haggled over.  It was magical to a little girl.  It still is magical to me, and my hubby and kids and my grandkids.

     We still to go to market, but now its Saturday mornings and we can't seem to get out of the house before 8 am.  By then the sun is up, the parking lots are full, the strollers and baby carriers are in abundance as you step your way around the sea of people who are out for a few items.  The selections have changed also.  Now it is about presentation and unique items.  The truck farmers have given way to immigrant farmers who have stepped up their game. What used to be farmers with potatoes, beets, corn, tomatoes and few other items has given way to specialty items of syrups, breads, soaps, sorbets, mushrooms and herbs and greens that I have no idea how to use.  It has become a place to have breakfast and lunch.  Dessert to follow. 

     In the early spring there are bedding plants, lots and lots of bedding plants and hanging baskets.  The lettuce and peas and spinach growers show up as do the egg farmers.  These give way to the strawberries, then the raspberries.  Then the early tomatoes and first corn crop come in and the stream of people increase to a sea of people.  Finally by late August, the first of the cucumbers arrive.  And by September, the apple growers have taken up residence next to the potato and squash growers.

      Call it my upbringing, or something my DNA or my need of one-upsmanship, but when late summer rolls around, the canning jars come out and the mad dash starts.  So far this year I've put up 14 quarts of pickles. And 28 quarts of Colorado peaches.  And tomatoes....so many tomatoes.  Whole tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, frozen tomatoes.  So many that I've lost count of how many quarts of tomatoes.  We also bought 15 dozen ears of corn which we cooked outside in the big 20 gallon pot, decobbed (is that a word?) and froze.  I think there were over 40 bags.  And I'm still looking to put up pears and our family favorite, applesauce.  Can't have cheesebutton without homemade applesauce!  My ambitions get the best of me.  The half bushel of green beans I bought at market to put up hot and spicy, ended up in the compost pile three weeks later because I never found the time.  And I haven't been to the grocery store lately to see if the pears are in. (I'm sure they are.)

     But when I look at the pantry with the shelves full of quart jars lined up like soldiers, I feel like I have done my job.  It brings peace of mind and the anticipation of good meals to come.

The Quest - To Dream

     Last month I posted the eulogy that my father gave for his dad who had passed away 26 years ago.  I had taken a picture of some small wooden momentos from his office and on returning them,  I spied the wooden figurines that I had bought for him from a garage sale a long while ago.  They were of Don Quixote, the knight-errant , and his sidekick, Sancho. 

     Don Quixote was the main character in "Man of La Mancha", with its wonderful score,and was made into a movie in 1972.  We played the record over and over while I was growing up, learning all of the words and singing them often.  My sisters and I  would laugh at our father, think of him as Don Quixote with all of the adventures he would take us on.  At the end of the movie, when Don Quixote was dying, while laying in bed, he remembers the "quest" and jumps up and shouts to Sancho and his Dulcinea:

     "What is sickness to the body of a knight-errant?  What matters wounds for each time he falls he will rise again.  And woe to the wicked!  Sancho!"

     "Here your Grace."

     "My armor, my sword!"

     " More mis-adventure?"

     "Adventures, old friend."

     The cry of more mis-adventure became the battle cry at home when Dad would get the urge to go for a drive on Sunday afternoons with all of us in tow.  It was the battle cry when we would take family vacations together in RV's that had a tendency to break down.  It was the battle cry when they built the addition on the the family home.  It was the battle cry when illnesses and injuries came into play in the family.  So I could not resist when I saw them at a sale for about $3 those many years ago. 

     It also was the battle cry for the family when twenty some years ago, my brothers, at the urging of my dad, started a business called Roadware Inc.  We all went to work for this company when economic conditions, bankruptcy of another company and the desire to dream came together.  It became his quest.  To start his own busines, work with his family, become successful and make a difference.  The figures became again a centerpoint in his office, as we all realized that we could reach that unreachable star.

To dream...the impossible dream....

To fight...the unbeatable foe....

To bear...with unbearable sorrow....

To run...where the brave dare not go....

The business started in the family garage.  We laugh now when we think about how living in Minnesota, no one got to park in the garage in winter, semi-trucks pulling up in front of the house and stopping all traffic in both directions as we would run out and empty or load said truck.  Or how the company took over the lower rooms and bedrooms to house the business and the handful of employees and owners who worked every day.

To right...the unrightable wrong....

To love...pure and chaste from afar....

To try...when your arms are too weary....

To reach...the unreachable star....

Today we have moved that business into its own home, manufacture our own products and ship them throughout the world.  We get steady paychecks, we get calls from all over the world, we have more adventures.  We have a family who are friends and friends who are family.

This is my quest, to follow that star....

No matter how hopeless, no matter how far....

To fight for the right, without question or pause....

To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause.....

And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious quest,

That my heart will lie peaceful and calm,

when I'm laid to my rest....

And the world will be better for this:

That one man, scorned and covered with scars,

Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,

To reach...the unreachable star....

You have been a good role model, mentor, teacher, friend, storyteller, and a great father!  You have instilled in all of us to dream the impossible dream, to run where the brave dare not go.  To right, to love, to try and to reach the unreachable star!

Happy Father's Day !

Reuben Glewwe - As I remember him

This eulogy was given by Rollin Glewwe at the funeral of his father, Reuben Benjamin Glewwe, twenty-six years ago in May.

     "Most who knew him called him Rube.  Mom called him Reuben.  Lois called him Daddy, to Elva he was Dad.  To his seven grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren he's Grandpa and to the couple of handfuls of foster children he and Mom raised, all and any of those names were used with affection.

     Many admired his gentle nature, more recognized his inner strength.  All remember his sense of humor.  He was a happy man.

     A few will remember him as a boy working in the celery fields at Emil Glewwe's.  Probably even fewer recall his days driving a hay wagon at the Stockyards.  But I'll bet nobody remembers the night he came home with a sack of freshly caught bullheads over his shoulder and a grin from ear to ear.

     Some here had their cars and trucks repaired at the R B Glewwe Motor Co. back in the 30's, and maybe a few were able to plunk down the $795 it took to drive away in a brand new Willy's that night.  He passed on his love of the motor car to his grandsons - all mechanics in their own right.  They still pick up and use some of Grandpa's hand-forged tools and more important, a lot of his hand-me-down knowledge and know-how.

     My dad was the strongest man I ever knew - as a boy his brother Ed says, "Rube never picked a fight but he sure settled a lot of them."  My high school coaches would often tell me how Dad could chin himself 25 times one-handed without touching the ground.

     I was never so proud as a lad when, my Dad while giving a Sunday school object lesson, bent two steel bars in half with his bare hands!  For years I put him right up there with Charles Atlas and Bronco Nygerski.  It was years later when I found the two bent bars of body solder in his shop that he told me his secret.

     And yet with all his strength, I never saw him raise his hand in anger or even his voice.  He did raise some strong onions one year however!  Dad had a rare inner strength that not only matched but exceeded his physical strength and it was to that inner strength that we all were drawn.


     Many of Dad's friends will remember him as Minnesota Highway Department's District Stock Supervisor - a job that entailed a great deal of traveling, keeping track of all the equipment, supplies, fencing, paint, signs, bridges and what-not that the department owned.

     Several will recall the exhaustive time and motion studies and standards he undertook in that job and the certificates of merit and the plaudits he received when he retired after more that 30 years of service.

     Today as I travel to those same shops throughout the state in my business, I am constantly reminded that Dad was there ahead of me by the friendly handshakes and the inquiries as to his health and whereabouts.

     But a little known fact about my Dad - one that his office at home will attest to - is that he really would have rather have been a postmaster.  A maze of nooks, cubbyholes and crannies line the wall - each one stuffed with the letters, papers, notes and memorabilia that represent in a small way the many facets of Dad's life.  In one we might find the plans to one of the many custom-built doll houses he constructed from scratch for his daughters, grand-daughters and nieces.

     In another a character of a cow that he would turn out on the jigsaw by the dozen.  In still another, we would discover the minutes, records and bank books of the Oak Hill Cemetery board on which he served on for 20 years.  Looking further, we might discover the notes and plans for the many remodeling and construction projects he undertook on his and Mom's home as well as Lois' , Elva's and mine, the last being an entire apartment in my house which he built in the summer of 1982, just 4 short years ago.

     Yet Dad was more that a master builder.  He also was a master writer and historian.  Faithfully for the past 47 years he has recorded the daily family history from the number of runny noses his great-grandchildren had last week to the number of runs the Twins had last night.
 
     Yes Dad kept the records.  In fact the IRS used to have their new agents audit him just to show them what the words "good record keeping" means.  He also kept a remarkable memory for the people he met and loved and that includes all of us here today.

     This memory enabled him to recall the marvelous yarns and stories that have kept us laughing for the past 81 years and I'm sure I'll catch myself retelling those stories and reliving those memories for the rest of my life.

     I could go on talking about my best friend but I would rather have each of you stand and put your hand as Dad would have - shake the hands of those around you and call them by name or introduce yourself as Dad would have and smile.

     And Dad, as we shake hands here today in your memory, we just know that the next hand you shake will be the Lord's.

Reuben Benjamin Glewwe ~ 14 Aug 1904 - 09 May 1986

Who was Harold Stassen?

     Harold E Stassen, born April 13, 1907on a farm in West St. Paul, Minnesota, was the middle son of William and Elsbeth (Mueller) Stassen.  His father, William, was a not only a truck farmer but was also elected as Mayor in 1921, serving three terms, on the Board of Education for many years and over 30 years on the police commission.  Needless to say, public service was no stranger to Harold.

     Harold graduated from Humboldt High School when he was 15 years old. He went to the University of Minnesota by day and worked many a part-time job by night.  He was elected All-Class President of the University in 1925, a debater and orator and captain of the rifle team, where he joined the MN R.O.T.C. and scored a perfect 400 at the rifle match in 1925.  He completed law school in three years and was admitted to the Minnesota Bar at age 21.

     The following year he married my great aunt Esther Glewwe and soon after was elected Dakota County Attorney.  Prohibition was underway and South St Paul was known for its "shady" characters and get-away cars due to the high number of "dry" bars and proximity of the stock yards and plenty of money exchanging hands.  This gave many opportunities to County Attorney Stassen to bring about justice in the courts.  He successfully argued his first case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court when he was 26. 
         
            "'Turmoil' is too weak a word to describe the political situation in Minnesota in 1938.
          
           Labor strikes and retaliatory lockouts produced killings in the streets; thugs and gangsters
       controlled the powerful Teamsters Union; angry mobs marched on the capitol building in
       St Paul and took over the Senate and House in a "sit in"; waste and political favoritism in
       government reached scandalous proportions. . . .
         
           Harold Stassen, then president of the Minnesota Young Republicans, formed an organization
       that startled not only the state but the nation by electing him governor in 1938, at the age of
       thirty-one.  His "Diaper Brigade" included a lieutenant governor even younger - twenty eight
       years - and the speaker of the lower house of the state legislature just under thirty years." 1

  

Their legislative record:

•        Minnesota's first civil service law "to raise the standards of public service";
•        New state purchasing system to eliminate political graft and reduce costs;
•        A program to develop low grade iron ore;
•        A law "to curb the small-loan sharks";
•        A single tax commissioner to equalize tax assessments and make tax collection uniform;
•       A balanced state budget
•       A Labor Conciliation Law that provides for a "cooling off" period.

I Want To Be With Them

     With the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 by the Japanese brought more change to Harold's career.  When he ran for reelection as governor in 1942, he announced in a radio broadcast from the Governor's Office on March 27, "The offensive drive for victory against the totalitarian forces that threaten the future of free men will be conducted in the main by the young men of my generation.  I want to be with them." 2 He won reelection.
       

     True to his word,  he would serve until the end of the legislature session and on April 27, 1943 would resign and leave the next day for active duty in the United States Navy.  Harold was assigned as Assistant Chief of Staff to Admiral William (Bull) Halsey, Commander of the Third Fleet in the Pacific. 

The United Nations

          "The nations of the world must not merely agree that they wish to live together in peace;

they must establish a mechanism of government to achieve that end." 3

     In February of 1945, President Roosevelt, named Stassen as part of the American delegation to the Founding Conference of the United Nations.  Two months later, with the death of President Roosevelt, the new President, Harry Truman, reappointed the original UN team and their negotiations began in late April.  At the end of the conference, Stassen was voted as one of two delegates who made the most effective contributions to the development of the UN Charter.  After signing the United Nations Charter, Stassen rejoined Admiral Halsey's staff aboard the Missouri.

The End of World War II

     Harold Stassen was on morning watch on the bridge of the USS Missouri on August 12, 1945 when news came that Japan had surrendered.  He wrote in the Admiral's official log book "So closes the watch we have been looking forward to.  Unconditional surrender of Japan - with Admiral Halsey at sea in command of the greatest combined fighting fleet of all history.  There is a gleam in his eye on the bridge that is unmistakable!"   H.E. Stassen  4

     Before the formal surrender ceremony was to take place in September, Harold Stassen and Commodore Roger Simpson were given a special assignment, to supervise "Operation Benevolence" and rescue 14,000 American prisoners from a Japanese war camp.  Although Japan had surrendered, the war camp had not received official notice to release their prisoners and the fear was that the prisoners would all be killed before being released.  Family lore tells how Harold pulled up to the gates of the prison camp in a jeep, jumped out and said his orders were for the release of all prisoners.  The Japanese said they had no such order from their commanders and and by whose orders were these given.  Harold unholstered his gun and said by these orders and all of the men were released.

      Following their successful rescue mission, Harold returned to the USS Missouri and stood on deck with General Douglas MacArthur on September 2, 1945 for the signing of surrender from the Japanese and the end of WWII.  Harold was promoted to Captain and received the Legion of Honor, the Bronze Star and many other commendations and ribbons.  He returned to civilian life in 1946.

  Presidential Candidate 

        "Government of free men is the most difficult form to operate which man has ever devised.  It requires a high caliber of administration.  But the fruits are

 worth the labor."  5

     Harold Stassen took his first run for President in 1948.  Doing well in the primaries and garnering delegates, Stassen went to the Republican National Convention confident that he would do well.  But behind the scenes, wheelings and dealings put the Dewey-Warren ticket together and Harold's time was over.  He returned to Minnesota and in August of 1948 was invited to become president of the University of Pennsylvania.  He accepted at the urging of fellow president of Columbia University and close friend, Dwight D Eisenhower.   He stayed in this position until 1953. 

Special Assistant to the President

          "General, you should be the next president of the United States. 

It would be best for future world peace, and best for the

national security and economic prosperity of the United States." 6

      Meanwhile, in 1951, Eisenhower left the States to take over as NATO Supreme Commander in Europe.  Stassen was determined that Eisenhower should run for the nomination of President in 1952, but Eisenhower was currently living overseas.  A committee sent Harold overseas to convince Eisenhower to return and run for President.  While waiting for Eisenhower to return to the states and retire from the Army, Harold Stassen, in an effort to keep the nomination from Robert Taft, mounted a second campaign for President.  At the National Convention in July of 1948, during the first ballot, Stassen had all of his delegates switch their votes to Eisenhower, guaranteeing him the nomination and the "I Like Ike" campaign was underway.

     After Eisenhower's win as President, Harold Stassen was called to Washington D.C. to take on a new role, as Director of Mutual Security, in charge of all foreign operations - foreign aid, foreign relief, all foreign operations except covert ones run by the CIA.  It was a Cabinet rank and he would also sit on the National Security Council.  Stassen was also named as Special Assistant to the President.  He was instrumental in helping the President write his remarks given at the Geneva Convention in 1949, when Eisenhower insisted that all embrace the "Open Skies" procedures allowing for arial photography of military facilities.  Stassen butted heads many times during the years with Secretary of State John Dulles, and after many years of travel and world peace efforts, Harold resigned from the Cabinet on February 15, 1958.


     He returned to Philadelphia and established a private law firm specializing in international law.  For the next twenty years he wrote many a paper expounding ways to bring peace to the world.  He ran for President a number of times.  He remarked when asked about those campaigns, "Certainly, I never suffered any delusions that lightening would suddenly strike and I would be nominated.  1948 gave me my one real chance; but each time, when I announced that I would run for President, I got a temporary forum to expound my views on economic policies, foreign actions, and on the UN.  Future world peace continues to be my most compelling interest." 7
 

     In 1978, Harold and Esther moved back to Minnesota and Sunfish Lake.  He set up his law practice in the Stassen building, which was in the original pasture of his father's farm. Harold, as the only original signer of the UN Charter still living, worked tirelessly on his views about the United Nations and the need for a new charter.  He published a draft charter that was published in October of 1985.  My father recalls the many times at family gatherings when all the men would gather around Harold and listen to his stories of international intrigue and the "who's who" of family and friends.  Harold was a gracious man, always listening and always listened to. 


     The family held a party for Harold Stassen on his 90th birthday, at the Radisson St. Paul Hotel overlooking the Mississippi River. Stassen received tributes from Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the current president at the time, Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 8  Always the statesman, Harold also handed out copies of his book "Eisenhower, Turning the World Toward Peace." 


     A few years later in 2000, the State of Minnesota dedicated a new building the Harold E Stassen Building which now houses the MN Department of Revenue.

     Harold E Stassen, passed away on March 4, 2001, five months after his beloved wife Esther.  They are both buried at Acacia Cemetery in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.

Happy 105 Birthday
Great Uncle Harold!

1. "Eisenhower, Turning the World Toward Peace", Harold Stassen and Marshall Houts, Merrill/Magnus Publishing Company, St Paul, 1990, viii.

2. "Man Was Meant to Be Free, Selected Statements of Governor Harold E Stassen, 1940-1951", Edited by Amos J Peaslee, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1951, p.25
3. "Man Was Meant to Be Free", Peaslee, p45
4. "Eisenhower, Turning the World Toward Peace", Stassen, pxiii
5. "Man Was Meant to Be Free", Peaselee, p179
6. "Eisenhower", Stassen, p1
7. Ibed. p viii
8. http://npaphistory.wikispaces.com
Other excerpts are from "A Moment is History on the occassion of his 90th Birthday", Lois Glewwe 1997

Harold E Stassen's Keynote (continued)

     The last post was the opening remarks that Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen made as the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention in 1940.  His remarks as still valid today as we continue:

            As we face the future we see plainly that if this nation is to fulfill its high destiny, if we are to make America strong, and our way of life secure, whether the next years be years of peace or of conflict, we must advance with a decisive and determined step upon four major fronts:
                 The front of National Preparedness.
                 The front of Fifth Column Defense.
                 The front of Domestic Economic Welfare. 
                 The front of Governmental Effectiveness and Integrity.        

(I will only repost two of these fronts, the domestic and governmental effectiveness)

  Domestic Economic Welfare

     What of our advance upon the front of Domestic Economic Welfare?  First, let us make clear the general features of this advance.  No one shall suffer for want of food, shelter, or clothing.  The needs of that portion of our population who have no other means of livelihood shall be met by society as a whole acting through its government.  But it must be equally clear that this is not the answer to our problem.  After meeting the immediate need, the great challenge before the nation shall be to furnish more real jobs for the unemployed in private industry.  We must recognize that in a free economy, government, in meeting the need of its people who are unemployed, is not solving a problem, but is only temporarily easing the consequences of an unsolved problem.
    
     We must recognize that the answer to all of our problems of a domestic nature is not to shrug our shoulders and say "Let the government do it."  The role of government must be that of an aid to private enterprise, and not of a substitute for it.  More and better jobs, better housing and improved living conditions can best be secured through recognition of this principle.
    
     There has been talk to the nation of a more abundant life.  In a vain attempt to secure it the government has gone from a greedy contest over the division of past accumulations of production to an irresponsible squandering of mortgages on the future.
    
     We must exercise to the least possible degree the powers of government to meet definite abuses, rather than using abuses as an excuse for the government to reach out and grab all the power in the name of regulation.  Those powers which government takes must be clearly divided as to legislative, executive, and judicial.  There is hardly any greater deterrent to private capital, in its desire to develop more jobs, than the morass of uncertainty which exists when great autocratic powers to be rule maker and investigator, witness and prosecutor, judge and jury are all lodged in the same bureaucratic hands.
    
     We must recognize further, on the domestic front, that the farmers are the very backbone of America.  The maintenance of millions of free farm families living on soil that they can call their own is one of the greatest bulwarks for future freedom.
    
     Aids must not be looked upon as a solution to the agricultural problem, but only as a temporary expedient to ease the maladjustment that exists.  We must seek real solutions in keeping with the natural economic forces that are involved in our system.
  
     Through development of more jobs and more purchasing power for consuming public, we must expand the domestic market.  We must advance in research and discovery of new uses for agricultural products.  We must furnish new jobs for the excess population upon our lands, so that instead of being a burden upon agriculture they become productive portions of our population and new units of consumption.  We must preserve, as far as it is economically sound to do so, our own markets for our own farmers.
    
     The great productive processes of a free people under a system of individual enterprise has made this nation the great power that it is.  It has given to our people the highest standard of living in the world.  This system has been and will be subject to its depressions and its recessions, its maladjustments and readjustments as the years roll by.  We must recognize that we gain together and we lose together.  We must continually work to readjust and correct injustices and inequalities that are present and that will arise.  Then we can have faith that this system will rise again and make ever greater progress in the interest of all of our people.      

Governmental Effectiveness and Integrity

     Events at home and abroad bring forcefully to our attention the challenge to democracy to make itself more efficient and effective without surrendering it own basic principles.  The delays and confusion of yards and yards of red tape, the waste and inefficiency of overlapping stumbling boards, bureaus, departments, divisions, and agencies, the lack of effective lines of executive authority, the intermingling of powers that are legislative, executive, and judicial -- and the proper performance of none, the incessant conflict between governments of different levels, federal, state and local -- these are the things by which Lilliputians are restraining the slumbering giant of democracy and free enterprise and making him ineffective.

     The inefficiency of our government is a travesty in a land that has developed such magnificent efficiency in private endeavor.  There is need of a sweeping, decisive reorganization of our government -- a real reorganization that streamlines our government, simplifies our procedures, consolidates and eliminates useless and overlapping boards, bureaus, and agencies, establishes simple and effective lines of executive responsibility and separates the powers that are legislative, executive and judicial.  We need in public office servants of the people selected for their merit instead of corporals of a political army enlisted at a patronage pie counter.

     It is a sad commentary that we have given the aid of our inventive genius, of our raw materials, and of our productive ability to those with philosophies foreign to ours as well as to those with philosophies similar to ours.  We have thus aided the manufacture of the implements of destruction that Russia used upon Finland, that Germany used against the Allies, that Japan uses against China, that Italy uses against France.

     It is the responsibility of government in its foreign policy to endeavor in every honorable way to create and nurture a world environment in which its people can proceed along life's path in peace, expanding their material well-being and developing their way of life.  It is thus also clear that our interests lie with the encouragement of freedom and progress for all mankind and the development of order among nations based upon eternal moral and spiritual laws, rather that upon lawless force of economic strangulation.  Failing in the creation of that environment, it is the clear duty of government to make its people strong in their own defense, to so prepare them that other portions of the world may not stamp out their way of life and may not encroach upon their well-being.

     The great need for our future foreign policy is a leadership that is frank and fair with people.  The people must have confidence that their leaders place the nation's welfare above their own political future.  the people must know that their leaders, while resolute in support of these basic policies, nevertheless have the earnest hope to keep this nation out of war.

     Have we been too harsh in our judgement?  No.  In fact, we have not even referred to the strong self-indictment of the obvious effort to break down one of our bulwarks of freedom by violating the third-term tradition.  Cleverly and surreptitiously this administration has strengthened the iron-hand control of the President over the Democratic party.  Building upon the corrupt political machines of Kelly and Nash and Hague and their kind, it has erected as a superstructure a political machine such as this country has never before seen.  Democracy within the Democratic party has been destroyed.

    

     Let us fully recognize that this very situation is an added challenge to our party.  We must furnish the leadership for the men and women of all parties.  To do so we must make our party truly representative of the people, independent of domination by any group, and fair to all.

     Fellow delegates, if we could reverse the magic of radio tonight, if we could turn the millions of radio receiving sets throughout this land into microphones, and if we could turn our microphone here in this great convention hall into a receiving set, we would hear an overwhelming message sweeping in upon us.  It would be a cry for statesmanlike leadership to make America strong and our way of life secure.  Shall we rise to meet this challenge?  Let us proceed with our deliberations.

     Let us present to the people of this nation a program worthy of their support.  Let us nominate a man to carry out that program, a man the people will elect the next President of these United States.

     Let us remember the words George Washington spoke in this very city:  "If to please the people we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work?  Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair.  The event is in the hands of God."

Peaslee, Amos J., Man Was Meant To Be Free, Selected statements of Governor Harold E Stassen 1940-1951, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1951, pp 7, 9-13

Harold E Stassen - A Man for All Seasons

     Harold Edward Stassen, the husband of my great aunt Esther Glewwe, was a man ahead of his times.  To better understand who he was and what role he played, I'm going to include some of the speeches that he gave throughout his lifetime. 

     Harold Stassen, known as the "boy governor", became the Governor of Minnesota in 1938 at the age of 31, the youngest man ever elected to this position in the state. The world went to war in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland.  In May of 1940, Winston Churchill gave his famous speech of "blood, sweat, and tears."  The evacuation of Dunkirk had begun.  By June, the Germans entered Paris.  A week later, on June 24, 1940, Harold Stassen gave this keynote address before the Republican National Convention at Philadelphia.  It is as timely today as it was 72 years ago.

     "Our forefathers erected here a great lighthouse of liberty.

     They showed a new way for men to live.  At last men and women could stand erect.  They were free-free to think for themselves, to speak and to work and to worship for themselves.  Free to use their hands and their brains to build homes for themselves.  And free to choose from among themselves their own rulers.

     When those founders of our nation met in this historic city a century and a half ago,  the dark shadow of despotic government covered most of the earth.  The wealth, the traditions, and the power of the Old World were all arrayed against them.

     Yet they succeeded.  The framework for a government of free men which they drafted here became a beacon of liberty and progress for the entire world.  The people of thirteen struggling states adopted their work, and made of it the living Constitution of these United States.  The people took from their number a great leader and made of him, George Washington, their first President.

     Their task was well done.  Let us strive to do as well in this our time of crisis.

     For once again the black shadow of despotism falls over the world.  Fellow Republican delegates, even as we meet, lights are going out in Europe.  Blackouts of dictators take the place of lighthouses of free men.  It is our grave responsibility to keep burning brightly the light of liberty.

      The challenge of the hour clearly calls for our Republican party to rise above narrow partisanship.  Ours is the high duty to place the future of this nation above all other considerations, including our own desire to win.

     Let us face, with calm courage, the task that is before us.

     Let us announce here and now that we have faith in the future of this nation and its way of life.

     It is for us realistically to take inventory, to draw heavily from the lessons of the past, and resolutely to turn our eyes to the future.  Our first task is to cut through the clouds of confusion and of petty superficial political issues, and present to the people, crystal-clear, the great underlying problems and principles upon which our real future progress must be made.  We must brush aside the brambles of prejudice, bitterness, and hatred and lead through to national unity based upon understanding, tolerance, and confidence.

     Every citizen of this nation, regardless of his station in life, his political party, his nationality background, his creed or his race, faces two great responsibilities during these next months.

     First he faces the responsibility of supporting his government, as now constituted, in every measure for the public good.  So long as the now President of these United States is in the White House, so long as the now senators and representatives are in the Capitol they are our President and our Congress, and when they together take action of vital public concern they are entitled to have and they will have the support of all men and women, including in full measure the support of the Republicans of this nation.

     But there is a second and even greater responsibility facing every man and woman in this country.  That is the duty of deciding quietly and calmly who shall exercise the leadership of this nation in the next four years of its existence.  Then, in keeping with that decision, each citizen should go to his ballot box next November and cast his precious vote.

      These two responsibilities are both of major importance, and each is distinct and separate.  He who would confuse them and would withhold support of such action now because of the conviction that there should be a change on November is guilty of a disservice to the future of this country.  And he who seeks to claim that support now must carry with it surrender of the right to change in November is equally guilty of a disservice to the future of this nation.

     It is not a pleasant task to criticize those in positions of government authority.  Yet it is absolutely essential to the functioning of democracy.  It was not easy for the people of England to criticize their prewar government, yet how essential--in fact how belated--was their change.  It was not easy for the people of France to criticize their prewar government or their prewar generals, yet how necessary and how fatally delayed was their change.  When democracies face a crisis, their first step must be an extremely frank and fair analysis of their leadership as they prepare to meet their hours of peril.



To be continued.......

Peaslee, Amos J., Man Was Meant To Be Free, Selected statements of Governor Harold E Stassen 1940-1951,  Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1951, pp5-7

Picture from Minnesota Historical Society Collection, mnhs.org

The Women in My Life

     March is Women's History Month and  I would like to mention and honor the women who have made a difference in my life.

     Of course, we all think of our Grandmother's and I am no different.  My grandmother on my Mom's side was Hazel Jensen Brossoit.  She and my grandfather had 5 children in a very small house.  We spent many a day there, both with and without my parents. While in grade school, Washington Elementary, if my mom was not home at lunchtime, my sister and I would walk the few blocks to grandmother's house for peanut butter sandwiches.  She was one of my first Girl Scout Leaders, having meetings down in the basement and afterwards allowing us to go up and watch cartoons on the color television set, which none of us Brownies had at home.  She grew many varieties of flowers and taught me how to arrange them, which led me to working at a local florist after high school.  She baked bread and cookies and would invite us over to help with the baking chores.  I still use her pie squares and apple dumplings recipes as they are the best.  She ironed in the kitchen to the soap operas on the radio and canned tomatoes and pickles in the small pressure cooker on the stove.  In her later years, she didn't can as much but would come over to our house and can with us.  Her last canning was when she joined us for putting up pears in late August and she passed away in October.  I still use her pickle recipe and some say she could pickle herring like no other.

     When we would go over for dinner, as the folks all relaxed in the living room, she would let us go through her jewelry box and rearrange the contents and wear the necklaces and play "Grown-up".  We would set her hair with curlers and play "Beauty Shop."  Her and Grandpa taught us how to play "500" and cribbage and "I Doubt It". We played "Button-button" and would hide a button and tell us if we were "hot or cold" in looking for it.  She played the piano by ear while my Grandpa played the fiddle/violin.  She was the "Bookmobile Lady" and we shared a love of books.  I remember her giving me my first adult chapter book to read about marionettes and sharing the knowledge that we both read "Mandingo."  She taught me how to knit, made mittens or afghans for all of the grandchildren.  I still have my afghan, a pink number that was the same color as my bedroom when I was a teen.  It has been washed too many times but I cannot bring myself to throw it away.  But I never acquired the knitting habit.  Or crochet.

     She would always tell us "that it would get better before we got married", and taught my sister how to drive and hold a cigarette like a lady.  She belonged to the secret society of "Royal Neighbors" ladies who would gather monthly for a meeting and play cards. I was invited once to fill in when they were shorthanded.  Later in life, her and Grandpa would go to estate sales and Mom and I would go with.  We came home with many a treasure, some which I still have today.

     We often reminisce about Grandma and how she was a lady, never spoke ill of anyone, accepted all who came to her door and made everyone feel welcome.  I aspire to carry on those traits.



     My grandmother on my Dad's side, Ethel Rozella Marie Nascher Glewwe, was totally a different kind of lady.  Where Grandma Brossoit was Danish, fair skinned and a strawberry blond, Grandma Glewwe was dark-haired, larger boned, and larger than life to me.  She ran a tight ship.  We knew what was expected and where we could/could not play.  She had a wooden spoon that hung in the kitchen and if we acted out, she would threaten us with it.  I remember thinking how she liked my older sister better, because she was always scolding me.  (It was never because I did anything wrong.  Hee-hee.) 

     Grandma Glewwe was a seamstress.  She had a sewing area in her bedroom.  Her bedroom was a magical place to me, partly because of the sewing area and partly because of the furniture.  The dresser was large and dark with a marble top, a hairbursh vanity set, and looked Victorian and seemed like a princess' bedroom.  But back to her sewing.  She made matching outfits for my sister and I.  She made aprons for everyone.  I have a pink checkered apron that goes to the floor that I wore in a college production of "Oklahoma".  (Do you see a recurring theme of pink?)  And she made Halloween costumes.  Our first that I remember was for ghosts, made out of old sheets, with machine sewn mouth and eye holes.  She had "Little Bo Peep" and a clown and George Washington and many other pieces.  The costumes were kept upstairs in the crawl space in large, round, wooden cheese containers.  They smelled of mothballs and were the best!  I still have those costume boxes and I still make costumes for all of my children, even now that they are grown.  We had sleep overs with cousins in the basement, played office at Grandpa's desk and watched in wonderment when she would wring out the wet clothes in an old-fashioned washer/wringer machine. 

     Grandma G had a three-season porch in the back.  We would spend many hours playing there and outside in the backyard.  It was a small back yard with a very tall hedge that shielded the view from the neighbors.  She also had a large vegetable garden and would grow lettuce.  She would serve lettuce leaf salad, my Dad liking it best with just sugar sprinkled on top.  And she had a large rhurbarb patch, where we would grab a piece and eat with suger.  She also grew hollyhocks in the side garden and lily- of-the-valley in the front.  But she was best remember for her birthday cakes.  Oh they were special, because they were layer cakes with banana filling and "Seven Minute" frosting that would firm up and be like candy.  But the best surprise were the wrapped-in-foil "charms" that would be hidden inside.  Maybe a penny that would speak to your future poverty, or a dime.  Sometimes it would be a button or a game piece from the Monopoly game.  Each piece of cake held one surprise and it wasn't until much later that I found out how the charms were "baked" into the cake.  She also made the best applesauce this side of the Mississippi River.  She always said that the best applesauce came from free apples.  I know that the best applesauce is still homemade and I can 3-4 bushels of apples every year.  To go with the cheesebuttons that I learned how to make standing beside her in the kitchen.

     I came to realize how much like my grandmother I really am.  Especially now that I have blogged about her.  I remember the last conversation that I had with her while she was in the hospital.  I came in from teaching religion class and we talked about teaching kids about God and the Lord's Prayer and how we both taught the same things.  Different religions, same calling.  She too, was a Girl Scout leader, a religion teacher, a community volunteer, mother to many and matriarch.  I follow in her footsteps as well.

     Other women who made a difference in my life - my piano teacher when I was in 4th grade, Violet Barr.  She not only taught me the piano, but the organ as well and the guitar.  By the time I was twelve, I was playing the organ for Sunday masses and the guitar on Saturday nights and sang at the ones in between.  She encouraged my love of music and using it for service.

     And there was my art teacher in high school, Phylis Anderson.  School came easy for me, I don't remember really applying myself to study or do much homework.  My grades got me by and I had many friends.  But my passion in school was drawing and painting.  She taught us all how to really see the body and draw from live subjects (our fellow students).  My final oil painting, a copy of Ruben's "Two Sayters" was not quite right.  We were to be judged by our peers as well as Ms. Anderson, so the night before I took home my painting and reworked it.  At class the next morning, she wanted to give me a "C", but I felt that I deserved an "A" as did my all my classmates.  She taught me how to stand up for what I deserve but to also work hard for the reward.  I did get that "A".  I thank her for pushing me to be a better artist.

     And I also thank my other art teacher, the one who taught me everything about using watercolors, Ginnie Adams.  She was a local artist and she encouraged me every step of the way, not so much with instructions on "how-to", but more of "how much" I reminded her of her younger days and pushed me to keep on painting.  She has since passed away, and I haven't picked up a brush in over two years.

    At not least, but first, my own mother Joan Adele Brossoit Glewwe.  We have had lots of adventures together.  She always believed in us.  She taught me how to sew, cook, can, sing lullabies and care for babies, play games in the car to pass the time, make lists so as not to forget to pack something we might need, and how to wallpaper.  We've shopped, lunched, went to ceramics class together, played the piano together, wrapped presents late into the night and she has taught me how to make the perfect bow.  I learned how to dress for any occasion, set a table properly, host any party and have the best garden on the block.  She has allowed me to rearrange the furniture for every season and have the biggest Christmas display indoors and out.  She is my father's best friend, closest confidant and doesn't let sickness or mishaps slow her drive and spirit.  We've read the same books, corrected each others works and loved the best we could.  I recently came across an email that my sister wrote to her about ten years ago.  The sentiment still works for the both all of us.

"Dear Mom,

Yesterday, while on the phone, you said something that surprised me.  You told me that I was a better mom than you.  That is so untrue and I need to tell you why.

Everything I know about parenting I have learned from you.

1.  Never use bad language and always be a lady.

2.  Love your grandchildren unconditionally.

3.  God is love.

4.  When your child walks into the house, always smile and say hello with such warmth that they know they are the most special person in the whole world.

5.  You always listen to me, no matter how many times I complain about the same thing.

6.  How to mend clothes, cuts and broken hearts.

7.  How to cook with love.

8.  How to always make room for one more at the table.

9.  How to always have good friends no matter how old you get.

10.  How to keep a marriage strong and how to work at it if it's in trouble.

11.  How to never give up when you believe in something strongly, be it an opinion, a cause or a person.

12.  Always try to look your best, take care of your body, your grooming and your clothes.

13.  Gifts made from the heart are the best.

14.  It is okay to laugh at yourself.

You have taught me us all that and much more.  Never doubt the influence you have on us all.

(We) love you very much.

So to the women of my life, you have made me who I am today.  Thank you.