Tribune writers look back on memorable quotations

Published 12:00 am Friday, December 29, 2006

By Albert Lea Tribune staff

Local people sure had a lot to say in 2006. A lot of interesting material was recorded by the Tribune staff writers. The following represents some of the most memorable:

&8220;There was only one like her. And as she would say, &8216;It&8217;s a good thing, too.&8217;&8221; &8212; Kevin Sweeney, managing editor of the New Ulm Journal on Albert Lea Tribune writer Love Cruikshank, who died in June at 89.

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&8220;When I got out of the movies, I was Rita Hayworth. Of course, when I&8217;d walk down the street and look in the store windows, I could see I wasn&8217;t.&8221; &8212; Hollywood actress Marion Ross, recalling going to see movies at the Broadway Theatre when she was a child in Albert Lea. She spoke at the Civic Theatre on July 1.

&8220;I&8217;m a hometown Minnesotan. For me to see this green, it&8217;s so great. It&8217;s great to see the people. They smile more. It smells better.&8221; &8212; Army National Guard Col. Rod Peterson of Kasson during a stop in Albert Lea after returning to Minnesota from Camp Anaconda in Iraq. He grew up in Clarks Grove.

&8220;The wall is my favorite because a lot of people have fun on it.&8221; &8212; Sarah Anderson, 11, on the climbing wall local Kiwanis Clubs installed at Frank Hall Park in July.

&8220;I&8217;ve never seen it before, it&8217;s something new. It&8217;s kind of like a demolition derby and a sport, like a race kind of.&8221; &8212; Lisa Morin, a spectator of a car football game held in July during the Hollandale Harvest Festival.

&8220;I&8217;m just out shaking hands and kissing babies.&8221; &8212; U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht in Albert Lea in October. The Republican candidate failed to win a seventh term as the 1st District representative.

&8220;I definitely never planned my life around doing this. But my life prepared me to do this. People were asking for a real citizen with leadership capability.&8221; &8212; Mankato teacher Tim Walz in February at the Albert Lea Union Center. DFL candidate Walz

defeated Gutknecht to win the 1st District congressional seat.

&8220;It sure seems there are a lot of them that want to keep Albert Lea in the Stone Age.&8221; &8212; Commercial developer Scott LaFavre, who purchased the Albert Lea Golf Club in May for $1.07 million and said he plans to develop the 100.3-acre property into 120 high-end residential lots.

&8220;I&8217;d like to suggest to Mr. LaFavre that he probably needs to get a new public relations director. His instruction to us &8212; &8216;it seems there&8217;s a lot of them that want to keep Albert Lea in the Stone Age&8217; &8212; is hardly an indication of an individual who wants to be a working member of the community.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea Planning Commission member Paul Overgaard, the lone dissenting vote in July on the commission&8217;s approval of the preliminary plat of Scott LaFavre&8217;s Eagle Rest development. The approval came with many riders needed before approval of a final plat.

&8220;Words simply cannot express the pain he has caused. In one selfish act, he took away someone&8217;s mother, daughter, sister and friend.&8221; &8212; Jennifer Dempewolfe, close friend and neighbor of Tammy Hughes, said about Robert Michael Hughes before Freeborn County District Court Judge John Chesterman sentenced him to life in prison in October.

&8220;I was a little scared because I had such a good junior year and I know that everyone expected us to win and play well this year.&8221; &8212; Lake Mills senior volleyball player Megan Pederson in November. Her season ended with her sharing the all-area Player of the Year honors.

&8220;It&8217;s hard trying to do the Lord&8217;s work in the city of Satan.&8221; &8212; Sen. John McCain said during a Republican campaign rally supporting Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Rep. Gil Gutknecht Nov. 1 in Mankato.

&8220;She&8217;s certainly allowed to make a mistake. You reach a stage where you just screw up.&8221; &8212; Gubernatorial candidate Mike Hatch said about his running mate Judi Dutcher&8217;s E-85 slip during a campaign stop at Trumble&8217;s Restaurant in Albert Lea on Nov. 2.

&8220;It&8217;s a simple attack piece that distorts the truth.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea lawyer Matt Benda, a Republican candidate for District 27A representative, at the press conference at the Albert Lea dump in October. He held up a DFL Party flier attacking him and asked opponent Robin Brown to ask her party to stop printing them.

&8220;I know that people don&8217;t like it, and I don&8217;t like it. I feel they&8217;re absolutely wrong. I have never campaigned that way.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea High School teacher Robin Brown, a DFL candidate who won the race for District 27A representative, about the DFL Party negative campaign fliers that came out against opponent Matt Benda.

&8220;I don&8217;t want to take a lot of credit for this, but when we win, thank me.&8221; &8212; Political commentator Al Franken joked during a short stop in Albert Lea Nov.5 supporting the Democratic candidates.

&8220;You&8217;ve got to just roll with the punches. There&8217;s lot of ifs and ands, but that doesn&8217;t change anything.&8221; &8212; Crystal Hammer said Nov. 27 after her house burned down the night before. This was the second time during the last 25 years that the family&8217;s house burned down.

&8220;It&8217;s time for me to move on, move to the next level. I&8217;ve been here for five years. I&8217;d set a goal for five years, and five years are here. This is my time.&8221; &8212; Freeborn County Administrator Ron Gabrielsen said Dec. 7 as he announced his resignation at the Freeborn County Board meeting.

&8220;The bulletproof glass worked well.&8221; &8212; Guardsman Ross Miller of Alden, speaking in October. He survived two roadside bombs in Iraq, one of them partially thanks to glass in his Humvee.

&8220;I really like Albert Lea because it&8217;s one of the few towns that always voted for me no matter what I said.&8221; &8212; Former Vice President Walter Mondale said during a DFL campaign rally in Albert Lea Oct. 17 at the Ramada Inn.

&8220;It&8217;s not just &8216;I am a cute little girl in a skirt,&8217; it&8217;s &8216;I&8216;m a cute little girl in a skirt who is an athlete who knows what&8217;s going on.&8217;&8221; &8212; Albert Lea High School cheerleading coach Brandy Erb in November on the importance of her cheerleaders knowing about the sport they are cheering for.

&8220;Growing up my kids&8217; friends would call and want them to go to a movie, and they would rather be out in a pen roping steers and riding horses. I thought that was cool. My wife complained about spending money on horses, but at least I knew where my kids were.&8221; &8212; Cory Carlson talking in August about the impact rodeo has had on his Wells family.

&8220;I am.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea&8217;s state champion Ben Berhow&8217;s response in March when asked what he thinks when he hears that he is the state&8217;s best heavyweight.

&8220;I knew I would have a long road to recovery but I thought I could do it. I was hoping to be on the podium &8212; being on the podium was my goal &8212; getting first is just icing on the cake.&8221; &8212; NRHEG&8217;s Krey Cory after winning an indvidual state wrestling title in March.

&8220;There&8217;s not as much fighting as you see on TV.&8221; &8212; Sen. Norm Coleman, elaborating in September on how there is more bipartisanship on Capitol Hill than people realize.

&8220;I wish I could understand what Mr. Barnett is saying, but he&8217;s talking gibberish as far as I can tell.&8221; &8212; Freeborn County Attorney Craig Nelson in court in May on third-degree burglary defendant Larry Barnett, who wanted to fire his public defender and felt his rights had been violated. A judge had difficulty trying to explain to Barnett that his rights had not been violated.

&8220;For some reason I&8217;ve always been interested in taxis, but I have no idea why.&8221; &8212;

Joe T. Anderson, who started Joe T. Taxi in 1996, speaking in March.

&8220;I like the people, bands, floats, just the excitement of the Fourth of July I enjoy.&8221; &8212; Delores Nasby of Albert Lea, speaking on July 3 about the city&8217;s annual parade.

&8220;One of the hardest things about &8216;Our Town&8217; is for people to understand that this is a play about life. It&8217;s vibrant. There are many funny moments in the show. In our production you will see the events of everyday life.&8221; &8212; Director Patrick Rasmussen on the Albert Lea Community Theatre&8217;s April-May production of &8220;Our Town&8221; written by Thornton Wilder.

&8220;People make what they want out of life. People look in the gutter and see trash. They look in the sky and see the sun.&8221; &8212; Freeborn County Administrator Ron Gabrielsen on people who claimed his FOAD1 license plates did not mean &8220;freedom offers Americans democracy.&8221; The Minnesota Department of Transportation required him to replace the plates.

&8220;I received permission from both judges.&8221; &8212; Freeborn County Sheriff Mark Harig in October on allowing inmate James Colstrup to attend Mason Lodge meetings.

&8220;I checked Mr. Colstrup&8217;s files and did not find any written request from you or the jail administration in his files.&8221; &8212; Freeborn County District Court Judge James Broberg in an e-mail to Sheriff Harig explaining that release requests need to be documented.

&8220;He buys the groceries. He makes the pancakes. He buys the syrup. As a Mason he&8217;s a very good person.&8221; &8212; Sharon Colstrup on her husband, James Colstrup.

&8220;No, I will not let you go down that road. Do you have another subject you would like to beat to death?&8221; &8212; Freeborn County Board Chairman Mark Behrends to Commissioner Dan Belshan after Belshan repeatedly brought up County Administrator Ron Gabrielsen&8217;s Wisconsin tax issues at a meeting on July 19.

&8220;I think past mayors have ignored the job of reporting neglect, dereliction of duty and waste on the part of an officer or department of the city.&8221; &8212; Chad Hayson in July announcing his unsuccessful bid for mayor of Albert Lea.

&8220;If I&8217;m not elected, all I can say is that I tried to do the best I could, and I don&8217;t think you can do anymore than that.&8221; &8212; Rex Stotts said about running for Albert Lea mayor 2 1/2 weeks before the Nov. 7 election.

&8220;I&8217;m happy for the results and looking forward to the challenging task of being mayor. I was a little nervous because it was a close race, but I&8217;m thankful for the outcome.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea City Council member Randy Erdman said after finding out he was just elected as Albert Lea&8217;s mayor Nov. 7.

&8220;It did have some impact, and a pretty serious impact where we have been affected.&8221; &8212; Taco John&8217;s CEO Paul Fisherkeller in Austin Dec. 20 on how an E. coli outbreak hurt business at the Tex-Mex fast-food chain.

&8220;If you see something suspicious, something out of place, something out of the ordinary, immediately report it to your department head. Feel free to get any law enforcement officer involved.&8221; &8212; Freeborn County Administrator Ron Gabrielsen, in a June memo to county employees after a woman carried 14 boxes and bags of household garbage, old clothes and toys as well as fireworks and boxes of bullets into the Freeborn County Government Center and left them at the information desk.

&8220;You guys past yourself on the back. I think the project&8217;s at a reality now.&8221; &8212; Freeborn County Commissioner Dave Mullenbach on Oct. 2 at the groundbreaking of the Freeborn County Veterans Memorial.

&8220;If you like history during Albert Lea&8217;s sesquicentennial, think about a project that has a stone from 1896, built by the class of 1956 and given as a gift to the Albert Lea Area Schools in 2006.&8221; &8212; Lyman &8220;Manny&8221; Steil, a member of the Albert Lea High School class of &8217;56, on Inspiration and Ponder Point, a three-tier seating area overlooking a small pond across from the main entrance of Albert Lea High School. It was dedicated Oct. 6.

&8220;The Mayo Health System has a strong commitment to the needs of patients being served locally. We think that Albert Lea is going to have an enhanced ability to meet those needs now for both this community and throughout the surrounding area.&8221; &8212; Donnis Lassig, Mayo liaison, at the Sept. 1 groundbreaking for an expansion of the Albert Lea Medical Center.

&8220;My mother came to this country with nothing. She has a house, she has a dream, she has a home, some place she has lived for 30 years. And to take that away from her is not fair.&8221; &8212; Adele Hellickson, whose mother lives on Bridge Avenue, where an expansion plan recommends the purchase of 32 properties on the west side of the busy arterial street. She spoke at a hearing in September.

&8220;What we did this year really was special to go undefeated in the conference and make it to the section final for the third year in a row.&8221; &8212; NRHEG head coach Mindy Sparby in April on her very successful Panther girls&8217; basketball team.

&8220;The Senate wanted an earmark and the governor wanted one, so I said I wanted one, too. It wasn&8217;t any more complicated than that.&8221; &8212; State Rep. Dan Dorman, on convincing state lawmakers in May to give the county $500,000 for the the reconstruction of County Road 46, from Interstate 90 at Petran to County Road 38 on the eastern edge of Albert Lea.

&8220;It was like a prison.&8221; &8212; Eighth-grader Brianna Gormley of Bricelyn, on eating at the cafeteria at the Kiester Middle School. The cafeteria was in a building with a weakened roof. In May, the school required students to eat outside or in a gymnasium.

&8220;Sometimes when people cooperate with the police they do them a favor.&8221; &8212; Marvin Yahnke, father in a household in Frost where authorities in March found large quantities of explosives, speaking in April about challenging the validity of information used to secure a search warrant of his home.

&8220;It turned out that they aren&8217;t people bent on hurting people.&8221; &8212; Faribault County Attorney Brian Roverud, speaking in December on the Yahnke family. Charges against family members were reduced or dropped and one juvenile son accepted responsibility for the explosives.

&8220;You know, you spend $5 million dredging, and if it turns just as green as Fountain Lake, when we&8217;re done we can all leave town.&8221; &8212; Shell Rock River Watershed Board chairman Harley Miller, on the need to get permit from the Department of Natural Resources to show it has shut off the flow of pollution coming from upstream of Albert Lea Lake. The comment came in April during a 4-2 vote to not hasten the dredging of Albert Lea Lake.

&8220;She&8217;s one of those teachers that puts in long hours all summer long. She really reaches out to every child.&8221; &8212; Hawthorne Elementary School Principal Corrine Tims on second-grade teacher Pam Carlson.

&8220;There&8217;s a warmth about the people in the Midwest you won&8217;t find anywhere else.&8221; &8212; Diamond Jo Casino General Manager Jesœs Avil?s in March. The casino opened April 6.

&8220;I&8217;ve noticed business is better when the weather&8217;s worse.&8221; &8212; Randy Delger of Kaffe Hus on the fog that blanketed southern Minnesota in early March.

&8220;Probably the only similarity at this point is the word &8216;influenza.&8217;&8221; &8212; Lois Ahern, director Community Health Services for Freeborn County in January comparing seasonal flu and bird flu.

&8220;It&8217;s overwhelming. It&8217;s nice to know that people&8217;s good hearts are still there. It was like the world had stopped and they were all coming to help me.&8221; &8212; Terminal cancer patient Denise Kubu after her house in Wells burned down in May on the support the town gave her.

&8220;To me the whole issue is blatant discrimination. People should be allowed to marry, whether gay or straight.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea man Ted Hinnenkamp on an informational rally in support of the Minnesota Marriage Amendment March 19 at the First Presbyterian Church in Albert Lea.

&8220;We want Sen. Sparks to vote to get the legislation out of committee; he has said he would vote for it if it were on the floor of the state Senate.&8221; &8212; The Rev. Reuben Unseth of Faith Lutheran Church in London, on efforts in March to lobby Sen. Dan Sparks to support the Minnesota Marriage Amendment.

&8220;I believe marriage is between one man and one woman.&8221; &8212; State Sen. Dan Sparks at a town hall meeting in February.

&8220;I find real beauty in this landfill.&8221; &8212; Dairyland CEO Bill Berg on Waste Management&8217;s 4.8-megawatt power plant at its landfill site in rural Lake Mills, where it will generate enough power for 4,000 homes for the Dairyland Power Co-op.

&8220;That was an ear buster!&8221; &8212; Dean Adams, after measuring decibels in a loud motorcycle contest during Glenville Days in August.

&8220;Most horses either need surgery on these types of intestinal entrapments, or they end up dying from them. In this case, we were just fortunate that the treatment medically did work.&8221; &8212; Tom Lang, a Clarks Grove veterinarian who treated Champ, a Budweiser Clydesdale who became sick when the famous draft horses visited the Freeborn County Fair in August.

&8220;Rural development policy should be viewed as something other than just ag policy.&8221; &8212; U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary of Rural Development Tom Dorr during a Exol ethanol plant and SoyMor biodiesel refinery in August.

&8220;Make sure you stay hydrated! We don&8217;t want you to collapse or anything! Of course, if you do we&8217;ll take your stuff!&8221; &8212; Announcer at the mud bog races in Hayward in July, which came during 91-degree heat.

&8220;My favorite part is the water slide. I like it because you go fast and splash big.&8221; &8212; Cody Wichmann, who swam at the Albert Lea swimming pool on opening day, June 5.

&8220;We&8217;ve both worked so hard our entire lives and now everything we own is gone.&8221; &8212; Chris Reule, after his family&8217;s house on Lake Chapeau Drive burned for five hours March 17.

&8220;I think this is entirely too much government.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea City Council member Jeff Fjelstad on a no-tobacco policy the council passed 4-3 in November.

&8220;One of the main reasons I quit smoking was for my kids. I wouldn&8217;t want anybody else smoking around them.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea mother Chris Gomez in September.

&8220;If we build one of these things, we can use it as an example to the other landowners that have a site.&8221; &8212; Shell Rock River Watershed Board member Gary Pestorious in March on a holding pond for his property that was a pilot project for the watershed district.

&8220;We try to learn everybody&8217;s names. Usually we end up knowing them by drink.&8221; Dana Schroader, a Starbucks Coffee shift supervisor, commenting in January.

&8220;For the most part, it put itself out.&8221; &8212; Bricelyn Fire Chief Tim Beyer in October on a fire atop the grain elevator in Bricelyn caused by lightning during a storm that dropped golf-ball-sized hail.

&8220;One thing about bluegrass is it&8217;s always like a big ol&8217; family reunion.&8221; &8212; Don Haynes of the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America, which hosted its ninth Fall Bluegrass Music Weekend and Camporee at the Freeborn County Fairgrounds in Albert Lea in September.

&8220;I value life more now. It seems like life isn&8217;t worth as much there as it is here.&8221; &8212; Trevor Nelson, a National Guardsman stationed in Iraq, said in September.

&8220;It sounded like a 747 was going to take off from the lake.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea Lake resident Ken Nelson on a Dec. 9 phenomenon that many people suspected was the release of a methane bubble from beneath the bottom of the lake.

&8220;This year we&8217;ll hopefully have swimming. Because I&8217;m good at it.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea resident Leon Bure in September wishing the Special Olympics would add the sport to its competitions.

&8220;We want to promote Albert Lea, and promote it in a positive way. I want everyone to be happy, but I know what&8217;s right. I have the final decision.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Susie Petersen on denying www.albertlea.com advertising on screens at the county courthouse in February.

&8220;When I saw it, I thought it was a plastic pail or something, and I went to get it and said, &8216;Omigosh!&8217;&8221; &8212; Vicki Evenson on a puffball mushroom she found in her back yard in September.

&8220;These are very tough decisions, and it&8217;s not something we enjoy.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea school board president Ken Petersen on $1 million in cuts the school district made in September for the 2007-&8217;08 school year in case a proposed levy referendum failed in November.

&8220;There&8217;s going to be bigger class sizes and less opportunities for students.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea Superintendent Dave Prescott after the proposed levy referendum failed in November.

&8220;I am familiar with every hockey player that comes up the ranks because I have wtached them since they were in squirts.&8221; &8212; Albert Lea boys&8217; hockey head coach Roy Nystrom in November.

&8220;You can&8217;t come in as a City Council member and declare it&8217;s OK.&8221; &8212; Strip bar owner CJ Hanson during a Myrtle City Council meeting in May, speaking to City Council member Dana Lawson. During a discussion on whether the bar should get a liquor license, Hanson alleged Lawson brought alcoholic beverages into her establishment, among other claims during a heated debate.

&8220;In two years we&8217;ll be having another presidential election and I can&8217;t help wishing that those who offer us candidates in both parties will remember that intelligence is a helpful prop to any politician. I&8217;m not saying that the last two candidates for president offered to us were not intelligent, but they concealed it so well. I&8217;m not asking for an Einstein, but couldn&8217;t we have someone with just a little common sense?&8221; &8212; Tribune writer Love Cruikshank in late May, her second-to-last column.