The Untapped Girl Scout Cookie Customer

It all started when I read this article (http://www.kare11.com/story/life/2015/02/18/girl-scout-cookies-ice-fishermen-chisago/23654355/) about a girl in Minnesota who found a new customer base for Girl Scout cookies in ice fisherman  I told my daughter and she was super excited to venture out to find ice fisherman in our area (of which there are quite a few). So, Saturday morning that’s just what we did. Just two miles down the road from our house I was certain we would find some fishing close to shore, but alas, there were none there. So, further along the Great River Road we traveled. A few miles south we found a few men fishing near shore, but we opted to go further south yet. When we came upon a few dozen fisherman I could not figure out how or where they parked to walk/drive halfway across the main channel of the Mississippi River. This, I told my daughter was out of the question. I was much too nervous to walk that far on the frozen river to sell cookies.

To make the story a little shorter we traveled back north to where the few fisherman were parked along the road. Down a set of stairs, across the railroad tracks and onto the ice all while carrying a large bag of Girl Scout cookies we went. All four fisherman fishing near shore not only bought cookies, but one took a picture of us with our cookies, and us of them, another burst out laughing as he unzipped his ice shanty window and said, “I have friends emailing me and friends calling me [asking to buy cookies], but I told them that I had to see a girl scout.” Alas, there he was on the ice seeing a girl scout. We were directed to travel south and was told how to get to the few dozen fisherman in the middle of the river……find Mike! Mike, works at the bait shop/motel and he gives roundtrip rides to fisherman on his four wheeler for $5. We set out to find Mike and see if he would give us a ride to the fisherman further out, not for $5, but for a box of cookies. By the time we found Mike he had already heard about the girl scout selling cookies on the ice. He said he would give us a ride, not for cookies, but for free and he would buy cookies. My daughter and I giggled as we rode in the trailer of his four wheeler across the bumpy icy covered in a few inches of snow and off we went!

This is how far out on the ice we walked before hooking up with Mike.

Fisherman from Indiana with their purchased cookies
(standing in front of their beer cans, they didn't want them to show up in the picture :)
These are the guys who told us about Mike.

In the middle of the river he took a picture of us and dropped us off with his business card, instructed me to call him when we were ready for a ride back, and his sled loaded with boxes of cookies.

Riding in the four wheeler pulling a sled.

Mississippi River, here we come!

With Mike being dropped off. Next stop, that red ice shanty in the background.

Nearly every fisherman bought a box (or more!) and many even told my little Brownie to keep the change! One man told us the ice was thicker than my daughter, which made me feel safe. Even though there were pickup trucks parked all along the ice, I still couldn’t believe we were walking across the frozen Mississippi! There was even an old golden retriever out there who we got to love on. A few told us what a great idea this was and disappointingly told us that if the fish were biting there would have been many, many more fisherman for her to sell cookies.

Off she goes!

It's windy out on the open ice. We learned that fisherman don't fish near each other unless they know each other. 

"Any fish down there want to buy Girl Scout cookies?!"

Making a sale.

After Mike picked us up he took another picture, one with our cheeks pink and our load lighter and asked to post it on Facebook. He asked Laura’s name and mine and I said he could just put “Laura and her mom” I then told him my name and he smiled and said, “OK, Laura and her mom”. Mike bought three boxes of cookies and said she could come any time and he’d give us another free ride out.

Three hours and 60+ boxes of cookies later we were home cold and tired from our trek.

I got home and looked up Water’s Edge Marina and Motel on Facebook and there we were! I had fun reading people’s comments and was proud of my Brownie entrepreneur. On Sunday, the wind chill was -20° and she was ready to find more icefisherman, but I directed her instead toward her loyal neighborhood customer base.   

The fish weren’t biting that morning, but many people caught girl scout cookies that day! I have a feeling that next year on opening cookie selling weekend you’ll be able to find us back on the river selling…

Love Story

Twenty years ago on January 28 I met my husband, I was a nineteen year old college sophomore. Twenty years ago on Valentine’s Day I had my first Valentine. I wasn’t sure what to expect with our relationship being so new so I had low expectations. He gave me a card and we took a walk, he on his crutches with a sprained ankle, around the pond behind my dorm. My room overlooked that pond and every spring ducklings were born and raised on that pond. I loved that pond. I vividly recall spending time alone mourning the death of my maternal grandfather while sitting aside that pond when he passed away in March of my freshman year after a short battle with stomach cancer.

Twenty years ago in late March of that year I went home for Spring Break and was told by my dentist that I needed to have my wisdom teeth removed after returning to school. I was crushed, not only because I had never had surgery of any kind, but because I felt lonely. College was 1,000 miles away and I had no car and zero knowledge of oral surgeons in my college town. 

I had no choice but to ask him, after he insisted, to drive me home post surgery. The days following the removal of my wisdom, a little over two months from meeting my first Valentine I decided I wanted to marry someone like him. Our relationship was new and I was 19 years old so I didn’t think it would be him! The moment I fell in love with him was the night I asked him to bring me a banana, my first solid food following my surgery, from the dining hall. After dinner he hadn’t come. I was disappointed and annoyed. Why ask if he could bring me anything from dinner if he wasn’t go to?! Then an hour or so later after the dining hall closed he rang the bell to my room from downstairs. I went down to open the door only to see him holding an entire bunch of bananas! There were none in the dining hall that night, he said, so he went to Walmart, at least a 15 minute drive from campus and bought me an entire bunch! What a guy!! Up until this point in my life I’m not sure I knew his “type” existed, at least it hadn’t in my life, not in the form of a boyfriend anyway.

So, here we are twenty years later with two respectful, compassionate and empathetic kids, going strong and I woke up sick as a dog on Valentine’s Day! (I never really met a sick dog, but for a lack of a more descriptive phrase I’ll use that one). My daughter wanted to bring me breakfast in bed with a get well card, as she had when her dad was sick the weekend before. I had no appetite and the idea of toast, as my husband suggested, sounded like swallowing sandpaper on my already sore throat. I told him, however, that bananas and strawberries sounded good. A few minutes later this amazing daughter of ours carried in a tray with sliced bananas her dad, my amazing husband, cut into hearts and strawberries she cut to look like hearts. 

This Valentine’s Day marks the year I have exceeded the years of having a Valentine versus not having one. 

That pond, humorously named Palmer “Lake” is now filled in and more University buildings sit atop it. My husband and I’s love has lasted longer than that pond. Twenty years later he is still my Valentine and has blessed me with two little loving Valentines, leaving me never to be Valentine-less again.

Ruby Bridges: Then and Now

Things I hope to always remember about what Ruby Bridges shared tonight.

1. When she was six years old after learning that she passed the test (to be integrated into an all white school) everyone was so excited that she honestly thought she was going straight from first grade to college.
2. When she walked into the white school, that was supposed to be separate but equal, she saw her reflection in the floor it was so clean and she thought; this must be college, because it was so different from her black school.
   
3. Evil comes in all races and religions, do not decide if you can trust a person based on what they look like. Give yourself the time to get to know them before deciding if you can trust them.
   
4. When she was driven to school by the US Marshals her neighbors “walked” her to school by following the car every day. They were a community and it takes a community to raise a child.

The one thing I hope my children forget about the night, but I worry that they never will.

1. I brought the wrong camera lens and therefore was not able to get a family photo with Ruby Bridges after she signed her books for us, even though we tried.
2. We stood back in line with their first grade teachers (their Mrs. Henrys) at 9:30 pm so I could take a photo of them with Ruby Bridges….and their teachers….and a retired first grade teacher I did not know. And they got home and went to bed at 10:00 at night.

In hindsight I should have been less selfish and just tried to take the photo of the kids with Ruby Bridges myself rather than handing my camera off to someone so that I, too, and my husband could be in the photo. At 10:15 pm I am afraid that the last 30 minutes of our night overshadowed her message; which is what we really went there for, not a photo, that was just a bonus. I’m hoping that in the morning my stomach doesn’t still feel like it’s in my throat.

MLK - 2015

Yesterday, Martin Luther King, Jr. would have turned 86 years old. A number that seems young to me. Young in the sense that he should still be alive and enjoying grandchildren and the changes that have been made in the country he tried to bring together. 

Last night I learned that Ruby Bridges, THE Ruby Bridges http://www.biography.com/people/ruby-bridges-475426, is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at our community’s MLK celebration on Monday night. I have yet to attend this event in years past merely because it doesn’t start until 7:00 pm and I am a stickler to sticking as close to my kids’ bedtimes as possible. This year, however, my husband, myself, and our 11- and 8-year old will be there by 6:00 and stay long after the last word is spoken. There are other events planned for that evening, but I most look forward to listening for a pin to drop while Ms. Bridges is speaking.

Last night my daughter read two books to me that I was proud to have had on our bookshelf for years, both children’s books; one was Ruby’s story and one was Martin’s story. When I told my daughter that I wonder what Martin would think about President Obama she wasn’t quite sure what I meant. When I explained that he was our country’s first African-American president her jaw dropped and she couldn’t believe it. Then it occurred to me, there may still be racism and discrimination in our country but I AM RAISING CHILDREN IN A WORLD WHERE AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT IS “NORMAL” AND SO IS A MARRIAGE BETWEEN TWO WOMEN (OR MEN) WHO LOVE EACH OTHER! On New Year’s Eve we attended the vow renewal/government sanctioned marriage of two women I have known and admired professionally for many years. Their three children stood at the altar with them as about 100 people witnessed the love their family holds.

After my daughter read to me I began reading another book to her; this one of the story of Rosa Parks. I was proud that her teacher had talked about Rosa at school that day. 

I am hoping with all my might that Ruby will be available to meet with when the evening is done. I will bring the book we have, just in case. To have her adult signature in the book about the day her six year old self walked into the white Louisiana school surrounded by U.S. Marshals would mean as much to me as the several Holocaust survivors’ signed memoirs that sit on my shelf.

Hanukkah Thoughts

Tonight as I mixed latkes, finally, on the fifth night of Hanukkah I had these thoughts:

Born to two Jewish parents I was raised celebrating Hanukkah and the commercial Christmas. For 14 years now I have been married to my Catholic husband. We share the same spiritual beliefs and are raising our children to be compassionate and respectful human beings. This time of year we light the Hanukkah candles, string the Christmas lights around our house and on our tree. For eight nights they open gifts from us and on Christmas morning they revel in gifts from their grandparents and Santa. We live in a town that at last check was 46% Catholic and 46% Lutheran. There is a church on every corner, some across the street from each other and there is one Jewish Synagogue that I/we have visited on rare occasions. 

I’m invited into my kids’ classrooms, sometimes by them and sometimes by their teachers to share about Hanukkah and our traditions. I thoroughly enjoy these occasions but it also leads me to deep reflection. Growing up we only exchanged Hanukkah gifts if we couldn’t wait until Christmas to give a specific present to a family member. I attended Hebrew School from first grade until mid-year in 7th grade, at which point I became a Hebrew School drop out before my bat mitzvah. I don’t recall much from Hebrew School other than that one of my classmates’, Rachel’s, mom’s was our 2nd grade teacher and that in 4th grade we did a few big art projects. I wonder if my teacher was an art teacher by day. The strongest feeling I remember though was that I did not belong. I felt stupid and that everyone else, except Jacob, were more Jewish than me. Whatever that meant. I remember once going to Rachel’s house for a Hanukkah party and having fun. During the day at school I was the only Jew, other than Aaron, who did not attend Hebrew School with me, that I was aware of.

My oldest child turns 11 next week and I have worked very hard these past 11 years to create traditions for 

Ruggelach made last week by ME!

my family. I do not recall many memories from my childhood, but the ones centering around Hanukkah are fewer than most. A few (or maybe many) Passovers were spent at my aunt’s house with long sedars, always beginning with delicious matzo ball soup.

Ironically, to me, I felt the “most Jewish” when I was in college in Alabama. Life pointed me toward enrolling in Judaism 101 and like Hebrew School many years before I dropped the class. But I did later fulfill my foreign language requirement by enrolling in Hebrew 101 and 102 (or was it 201? - the numbers are irrelevant). My teacher was an Israeli grad student and I enjoyed the class and remember studying hard and feeling successful. I attended services at the Hillel House on several Fridays and felt a sense of belonging that I had never felt at any synagogue I was a member of as a child.

So, here I am tonight making latkes and wondering why I have chosen to give my children a gift a night for Hanukkah. Hanukkah, I keep reading, is the least significant Jewish holiday, yet it’s the only one my children know. Which leaves me thinking, “Am I celebrating the commercial Hanukkah?” 

I love that Hanukkah is about the miracle of the oil burning for seven nights longer than expected, but most of all my spirit loves that the underdogs, the Macabees, won the war against the Greeks to continue practicing their religion. America is about freedom, freedom of religion included so I am also left wondering tonight if I am simply American? I have felt a deep connection with my Jewish heritage for many years; but as a culture rather than a religion.

One of our basic needs as humans is the sense of belonging and I guess I continue to search for this, even after I think I have found it externally, I search within. 

Shoes and Gender?

Kids' shoes come in the same sizes regardless of gender, but once your feet get above about a size 6 you then have men’s or women’s feet and the sizing changes?! Anyone else confused by this?

Random Thoughts of the Day

1. There’s a professional football player named Rambo?!
2. Old traditions brought into a new home is a wonderful feeling.
   
3. I actually wish it would snow. I want to go crosscountry skiing and the view out my windows is much more picturesque when it is covered in a white blanket of snow. Can it really be that we had a white Thanksgiving, but won’t have a white Christmas?!
   
4. I baked many cookies this weekend, it was wonderful!
   
5. The first two weeks of this month were incredibly busy, can’t remember the last two weeks that were this hectic. I’m looking forward to Winter Break as much as any kid.
   
6. I hope I can reschedule the massage I scheduled for late January for MUCH sooner!
   
7. My motivation for running is lagging, I hope Santa brings it back to me.
   
8. I love traveling with my kids, but miss the days of only needing to buy 2 plane tickets.
   
9. Yesterday was 12/13/14, things like this make me smile. I wish I had to write the date more.
   
10. Today marks the second anniversary of the horrific events that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I wish every 12/14 was on a weekend so that all children affected didn’t have to go to school on this day.