DHA XCV
(12/23/2004)

Calendar

Weather permitting, museum open Sundays and legal holidays including Christmas Day* and New Years Day, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sunday, January 2 is Taste of Denmark day, Community Center, at 6 p.m. Museum will remain open to 6 p.m. or as interest indicates. January 2 is also DHA's Christmas Tree contest at museum 2 to 5 p.m., as previously announced.

*The regular museum host plans to have some popped corn and Christmas candy for snacking by viewers Christmas Day, as long as it lasts, with any left over available on Sunday. (Not homemade. As usual, water from the cooler.)

In the Museum

DHA's "First Christmas Tree" is an "antique" found among the stuff buried in the museum basement. Wonder if it came from the Lockwood Vet Clinic or the earlier Gross Hatchery family?

Some new display material has been received and several new display cases have been brought into the museum.

Mange Tak

From "Toots" Peterson:

"A big thank-you to Mike and Steve Hoesing for going to Sioux Falls and getting a load of stuff (display cases--LRL) for the museum in their pickup and trailer; and for Palmer Peterson going along to lead the way.

"How great it is to live in a community that will help one another and dig a little deeper in their pockets to help things important to all of us living here in Viborg and surrounding territory. Mange Tak!

"A wonderful turnout for Saturday's clean-up day--good fellowship--good lunch--and a bunch of hard workers--Tak - Tak- Tak. ---Toots"

To second Toots' "motion" of thanks to all those who worked cleaning and organizing in the museum's back room and basement. Reported as among them are the following: Scouts Ryan Kludt and Paul Olson, Scoutmaster Everet Fredricks, Palmer Peterson, Richard Skola, Merton Nelson, Curtis Rasmussen, Jay Parsons, Melanie Parsons, Darrel (Buck) Sampson, Mary Paulsen, Roberta Rasmussen, Marge Peterson. (Please report any that were missed. This reporter was missing due to forgetting!)

To others: For Ervin Andersen for bringing his daughter, from Rapid City, in Sunday. To the Fisher Family of Viborg, Sunday. To Michael Weier, recently moved to Hooker, for his Sunday visit and conversation. To Melvin Osborn for his visit Sunday.

Mange Tak Two

DHA recently received a very generous "Christmas Present" in the form of a "Memorial to the Living" in honor of DHA Vice-President, Mrs. Alphie (Toots) Peterson, given by her daughter, Corinne Christensen. A seasonal and emulable gift much appreciated, not only by Toots, but by DHA as well.

DHA also recently received a generous memorial.

Mange Tak and Mange Tak. Meeting

The DHA Board of Directors meeting was postponed one day to Thursday, December 16th at the Kountry Kookin' Cafe, for the convenience of some members. Present were Directors Melanie Parsons, Toots Peterson, and Lester Lauritzen. Others included Palmer and Marjorie Peterson and Richard Skola.

A continuing and early need for the museum is a wheelchair lift for the side entrance to the museum. Much interest in the museum displays is expressed by people unable to climb the steps into the building. A similar need is another entrance to the basement. This will likely be on the south side also, between the planned site of the wheelchair lift and the sidewalk. Other pending needs are to extend electrical wiring into the west addition to the building, and doors and windows there also.

In the museum, various displays vie for time, space and location. An"art" area is one, to display works of historical and contemporary artists of many media. Other areas include medical, dental and veterinary, and taxidermy. And, of course, continuing historical artifacts and archivals of all types. Also a rural school, an old church, old cars, farm items, etc. etc.

Recollections

"Tis the Season"

(A personal recollection by LRL)

Does, or did, anyone have a toy similar to this one, named "Handy Andy"? I have a vague memory of something like this. Maybe I only saw it once, and not in my home. Possibly it was in a Viborg/Centerville home of a relative, neighbor or family friend. Or, possibly in a store.

A store window was the location of the toy seen by the man whose tale this diagram illustrates. As a teenager in December 1935, in Princeton, N.J. he had chanced to watch one working in a store window. He was joined in watching by Albert Einstein. Einstein commented that the toy nearly achieved"perpetual motion."

The tale was in the copyrighted feature, "My Brush with History" page in the back of the Aug.-Sept. 2003 issue of American History magazine. With the hopper on top filled with sand, the cart would fill, lifting the weight as the cart descended the incline. At the bottom, momentum dumped the sand. The weight then returned the cart, triggering refilling the cart, etc., as long as the hopper had sand. Much simpler that a computer or a cell phone.

If only the dump point was high enough to dump into a toy dump truck. Which could have gone (by child power) up a ramp to dump the sand back into the hopper. (Not quite "perpetual motion." But, what boy would have cared!) I'd like to see a photo of such a toy, or have a photo or toy given to the museum.

Cherry Mistmus and Nappy Hoo Year!