Returned home Sunday after having enjoyed what is possibly the greatest gift a snowbound Minnesotan can enjoy, 10 days of summer.

Thursday, January 25, 2001

Returned home Sunday after having enjoyed what is possibly the greatest gift a snowbound Minnesotan can enjoy, 10 days of summer. I left Jan. 10 and was the guest of Skippy Gordon in Naples, Fla. She still has many friends here in Albert Lea, and asked me to say hello to them for her and to convey her regards and best wishes.

While I was in Naples, Skippy took me to visit Bob and Jo Andersen, also former Albert Lea residents. Bob, Skippy and I were all in the first ACT production, &uot;The Man Who Came to Dinner,&uot; So it was rather like old home week.

Skippy is still involved with community theater, The Naples Players. They not only have a beautiful theater, but also a smaller theater. I saw a play while I was there and it was very well done.

It seems only yesterday that we were beginning here with our community theater. Hard to believe that it was more than 35 years ago. The late Dr. John Campbell and his wife, Nancy, had the knowhow needed to establish ACT. They did more that get it off to a running start. gave it the foundation it needed to continue after they left Albert Lea.

Not too many years before the beginning of ACT, the Albert Lea Art Center had its beginning. It was largely inspired by the late Lloyd Herfindahl, Albert Lea artist.

Both the Art Center and ACT exist because they had the support of the community, but it’s well I think to remember with gratitude those who gave time and energy to making them possible. We have much to be grateful for

Everyone was complaining abut the cold in Naples the day I arrived and it took two or three days for things to

warm up. Any day, though, when I can trot around outside in the dead of winter without wearing a winter coat is warm for me.

The flowers were beautiful. To add to the excitement of my visit, Skippy had just acquired a new puppy. We picked him up the morning after I arrived. A French toy poodle, weighing almost a pound, a mere handful of white and brown fur.

He has an imploring voice that could come from a much larger dog, and trots around so fast on his little short legs that he appears to be rolling on wheels. Because his family name was Demitri, Skippy had named him &uot;Demi.&uot;

It is amazing how anything that young can be everywhere at once the way Demi is. Before I left to return to Albert Lea, he managed to fall into Skippy’s pool. He swam valiantly, dog paddle, of course, but there was no way he could get out. So he had to be rescued.

I had a number of calls waiting for me on my answering service when I returned home. One from Jim Carney in St. Paul, repeated several times. Some of you will remember that he and Jim McCluskey were reporters for several years for the Albert Lea Tribune and managed to pile up an enviable number of awards.

For many years they and other former Tribuners used to get together for reunions. We were rather like a family. The last I heard was that Jim McCluskey was not in good health. He had been living in Illinois. Carney’s call, though, was to tell me of the passing of Alice McCluskey. He had received a note from one of the daughters.

When Alice lived in Albert Lea she was active in many things, the AAUW, women’s groups in the Presbyterian Church. Since it seems unlikely that an obituary will be coming, I introduce this note of sadness, that her friends here may be informed.

It is my understanding that a writer has recently had published a book that proves there is no such thing as time. I am hot on the trail of that book. It be that the belief of time and growing older proven to be as unreal as the belief that revolves around the earth. Mortals can talk themselves into so many misconceptions. But oh the freedom of finding out that we need not!

Perhaps the greatest thing about a vacation is coming home again. I don’t like cold, but the snow is beautiful and and February is a short month. Weatherwise March isn’t a month to look forward to, but whatever the weather, the first day of spring falls within March. Someway a March blizzard isn’t quite as depressing as a November blizzard. One begins to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Love Cruikshank is an Albert Lea resident. Her column appears Thursdays.