The Sauk Centre herald., 1940-02-15
The Common-tater
Chuck Rattle
Lensing the Scene

| affairs was Leap Year party in which the gir
handled all affairs of the evening. They called
for the boys they paid the bills; they exchanged the
! dances; they ordered from the menu All ths
boys had to do sit, wait hint gently for this
| or that One girl was going to assume her new role
| of masculine aggressveness with fervor. She woult
| get the boys car, tell him she would arrive at
| certain hour. Fifteen minutes after the appointed
time she would call, profusely apologizing, and
plain she'd be along in fifteen minutes. While
ne, fidgeted waited Biggest item to girls of the
| evening was cost. Hardest for boys was to sit
| body had fun. On the face of it, it seems JUS
| a happy-go-ucky-re-arr for evening. But
it had its advantages. 1t taught girls that these
evenings in which they're guests do entail expenses
That the niceties, if any, the boys heap upon then
during the course of evening do call for little
| expenditure of thought. That arranging dance
program is more the chore than it seems To the
men it would seem the girls lot is not the easiest
either To sit, waiting for the next dance; to wait
the whims of the escort to be fearful of spend
ing too much of his money not the rose-covered
trails they might seem. They griped male active
ness it passive role he couldn't take forever
:. Surprising curtain ringing item: No report OF
any after-party proposals.
ssss
While we're swinging with society," it comes tc
mind that the Black Cat organization has for long
oeen notable exponent of unique parties. . g.. Late
y they fostered costume party that dazzled mem
bers themselves in the unique get ups It was
conducted in its planning with good deal Of fore
tnougnt. Characters were assigned to each member
and MS guest to eliminate duplication and the wear
and tear on each to conjure up original dress
detail. 1t worked charmlike. Costumes were
superiatve we're told :. There was Daisy Mae
a LII Abner a Pansy Yokum, of those hill-billy
characters. There Indians, soldiers Chinese
French, Swedes, and dozen international figures
::. ~. Yes Yes there was even Hitler. outcrop OF
the thing was that everyone had a good time. That
the party is on the must list Of repeats. 90.
ssss
Familiarity Blinds Us
History centers about a water hole. . Sauk
Lake, that was fished by the Indians before white
man knew that bent pin made good fishhook
is the reason for sauk Centres existence Pion-
GERS who opened this country were interested in a
number of thngs-and water was not the least of
them. Water for mill power-water, great good
free thunderous item of power. Power enough to
all the industries of this nation-to-be. wonder
what kind of dreams those early fellows had?
1t seems everybody wanted to start a mill. Set
tiers in Kandota near Fairy Lake were interested
in water rights In fact it became such item in
that early scheme of things that the story goes
man built his farm just below what he believed to
be proposed mill site dam-so he could collect
damages when the land was inundated. He
might have been among the first of the racketeers
Alexander Moore had a millsite started in This
precinct almost before some Of the other early ar
rivals had their dining furniture lifted off the
stage coaches. man Of unbounded energy, Moore
according to contemporary Whitefield, would work
in water up to his armpts all day long, and then
ride his horse to st. Paul by night" So our in
land waters at once were the economic significance
that planted these towns on the map.
ssss
Sauk Lake wasn't always what it is. It was
two lakes, practically speaking with Sauk River
coursing through the upper and Ashley draining
good flowage into the lower. The Indians had a
word for it that meant Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes
long fishing grounds for native Americans
The Chippewa and the Sioux gared at each other
from opposite banks With going to say fish
poles dangling between But couldn't vouch fol
| the authenticity of fshpoles in Indian regala-
At any rate this section was the fringe of Chip
pewa- Sioux battle-ground. An Indian clergyman
himself Chippewa, told me how the Chippewa took
this desirable section not because they were
such superior lords but because they had access
firearms that long outdistanced the of the
Sioux. Sauk Lake has colorful history that
now to the second and third generations of these
pioneers is fast becoming legend Legend that stacks
with the antics of the Indians here-legend tha
will grow in fcticious qualities the years pass
And places neat halo around the things that once
were.
So the white man. with his ambitious practica
ideas for dam SITES drove the Indian and his fish
ing accoutrements from Sauk Lake. And 10, III
builded himself dams. And what happened? Plenty
| The topography changed and Sauk Lake became
one lake. with upper and lower end and a narrow
channel that obviously called the Narrows. Ant
way up at the head Diamonds Pond became Dia
| mond's Bay, part of the lake. Early mapping'
will show the pond was a distinct body of water
| though will argue it's origin from Sauk Lake
The neck that separated it from the lake proper !.
| now bar that extends far out and under the sur
| face. With the dam Sauk Lake swelled ant
puffed itself up like pompous old egotist. And i
licked the banks until the years land has spilled
into Sauk Lake. 1t is quite definitely certain tha
Diamond Point today is some fifteen or twenty acres
| less than some of the oldsters remember it.
|
There colorful characters that inhabited
! the scenic shores of this lake. Men who drawn
as interminably to the waters edge If by magnet
Water, even inland water, has always attracted
men, given them outlet for adventurous soul tha
was cramped in other stilted living. A certain
Fisherman Gus lived on its upper shores. added hi
name to the aura of legend. And there were others
But in reach of the memory of even fledglings lik
your correspondent was the last of these colorfu
characters-John Hickman. quiet, mysterious man
inwardly known to a few, John Hickman seemed t
me the personificatons of the hermity lake dweler
Or the woodsman. In him was the quiet, mysteriou
there Is about men who lived with the out-of-doors
besides a certain peace that seems to show them
and certain wish for aoneness can't say.
But we've seen it in all of them. He lived in sum
| mer in houseboat far up the lake. And one nigh
| he walked from town to the boat car, symbC
of the other side of living in togetherness crashe