D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
January 2012
Enchanted Living
From 10,000 Lakes to Las Cruces
Is there a club of Minnesota transplants in Las Cruces?
Ya, shur, you betcha!
by Jeff Berg
For years, Minnesota's license plate motto has read, "10,000 Lakes." Las Cruces' vanity plate could use a sub-motto that says, "Home of at least 55 former Minnesotans."
Actually, according to the braintrust at Wikipedia, Minnesota has 11,842 lakes that are 10 acres or more in size. This includes nine that are named Bass, four that are called Bear, seven or more Big and Birch lakes, the ever-popular School Grave, and — are you ready? — 27 that are named Long.
 |
Minnesota Club organizers Dee Kristian and Bill Smythe. |
So, with all of that wonderful water, complete with lots of seasonal mosquitoes, why would anyone want to leave such a lovely state and move to New Mexico?
Well, as you may have guessed, it is mostly because of weather, as Minnesota has long been noted for its sometimes inhospitable winter weather. The folks I visit with at a recent Minnesota Club meeting in Las Cruces all have weather high on their priority lists.
But herein lies a bit of a contradiction. Many flee Las Cruces in the summer, at least temporarily and most head back to… Minnesota.
Another guest at the meeting, which is organized by Dee Kristian and her partner, Bill Smythe, besides myself, is a representative from the Sons of Norway. Not a son herself, this kind and vibrant woman is here to see if any of the Minnesotans are of Norwegian ancestry, and if so, get them to sign up for her group. At this time, the local Sons of Norway is only part of a virtual chapter, and that isn't going to last forever. A real chapter is on the horizon.
I am a bit rude to her, unintentionally, when trying to sit near Kristian, the most talkative of the group at the luncheon, which takes place (and always takes place) at Las Cruces' Golden Corral restaurant.
Kristian tells me, "The first meeting was held at Young Park, and then I dragged out the accordion for another meeting at Good Sam [a local retirement home, which probably shelters a wealth of Minnesotans since it is sponsored by the Lutheran Church], and then we came here, and we've been made very welcome."
She hails originally from Blaine, Minn., where the winter parking restrictions are currently being enforced (no street parking from 2-7 a.m., until April 1 — optimism reigns!), a city of about 55,000, just north of Minneapolis. "Weather, art, friendly people, that's why I ended up in Las Cruces," Kristian explains. "I've been in all 50 states, and chose New Mexico as my new home two years ago."
 |
Ex-Minnesotans Marilyn and James Basler have been in Las Cruces since 1960. (Photo by Jeff Berg) |
She tells me that she is a retired teacher. "But I wear many hats," the gregarious and upbeat woman adds. "I've worked with the chronically mentally ill, been an accordion teacher, started a singles club for business and professional singles, been a news reporter, and I have a passion to do more live theater. And I started a cat collectors club."
Oh?
I swallow a brief sense of panic, as I know my wife will want in on this, if it is what I think it is. Thankfully, it is not, since Kristian is the servant to only two felines, and the club is devoted to collecting cat-related trinkets. Smiling again, she adds, "I'm a crazy cat lady," flashing a tote bag with a friendly feline mug shot.
Her partner, Smythe, is a retired computer programmer who is on the road for this meeting, but it seems he is as active as Kristian.
"I'm also a Distinguished Toastmaster," she adds, noting that the only thing she misses about Minnesota are her sons and some friends. As do most of these good folks, she makes the trip back every once in a while to see friends and snowshoe to the grocery store.
Karen Oliver is another semi-"newbie" to New Mexico, having been in Las Cruces for only three years. Born in Rochester, Minn., she also lived in Eden Prairie and worked for Northwestern Bell Telephone for — are you ready? — 45 years. That's an awful lot of "number pleases."
She says, "Years ago, the only way you could get a job like that was if you knew somebody who already worked there. I had two sisters who did, and they were thought to be good workers, so they took me on as well."
Oliver, who has also been to all 50 states, shares her unusual if slightly sad tale of how she ended up so far from Minnesota.
"I came to Las Cruces to get married," she starts off. "My eighth-grade boyfriend has a ranch southwest of Las Cruces, 30 miles south of Love's Truck Stop [which itself is about 10 miles west of town]. I have an active life and the ranch sounded like a good idea. So, there was a 50-year class reunion coming up and I called him to see if he was going to come. I was the only person from our class to still keep in touch with him."
Sadly, however, the reunion did not work out; it turned out that her gentleman friend had some health issues that didn't allow for the kind of stable relationship Oliver wanted to nurture. She did, of course, stay in New Mexico, and for her, the pluses include feeling safe and having lots of activities.
And of course, she maintains a Gopher State connection, as she returns on occasion to visit friends who can tolerate the hot and humid summer of Minnesota that Oliver does not miss at all.
Dolores and Arlend Beelmann were full-time RV-ers for some years, and they, too, made it to all 50 states, but what hooked Dolores on Las Cruces were the Organ Mountains. "I really like being able to see the mountains," she explains.
Travel was also part of Arlend's life before he retired from the Burlington Northern Railroad, now known as the BNSF, after 27 years. His employment took him (and the family) to Buffalo, NY, Grand Forks and Bismarck, ND, and finally back to Minneapolis. The Beelmanns have four sons, "all over the country," he notes, adding that his work also took him to every one of the 87 counties in Minnesota.
"I was getting somewhat homesick for cold weather," Arlend says. "Until last winter." For those who may have forgotten, southern New Mexico experienced some record-setting low temperatures in February, giving most everyone pause and burst water pipes.
Dolores' past includes furniture refinishing and buying and selling antiques, "after the kids were in school." But now, like Arlend, she is glad to be settled into their own little neighborhood community that has a number of weekly get-togethers and parties.
"Since we sold the RV, we've been to 35 countries and have taken 17 cruises since retiring."
For now, it seems the Beelmanns have also put the suitcases in storage as well.
Caryl Hammel, from northerly Bemidji, Minn., came to Las Cruces with her husband Bob, who was among other things a licensed hot-air balloon pilot and owner, to "follow the sun."
She says, "I was born and raised in Minnesota, and I still miss the lakes, trees and green, but NOT the mosquitoes." Hammel is a volunteer at the Safe Haven Animal Shelter Thrift Store, and notes with a smile that one of her favorite pastimes is "to shop."
An extended conversation about Paul Bunyan and the attempt of nearby rival Brainerd, Minn., to claim him as its own reveals that Hammel would be a good spokeswoman for Bemidji. Her take-no-guff thoughts on Mr. Bunyan's attempted hijacking leave little room for argument.
Pam Shaffer Reinhard is experiencing her first Minnesotan meeting, hoping to meet some good people. She may have come to the right place. After 40 years in Plymouth, which is just outside Minneapolis, she came here with her husband Herb, who, sadly, has since passed away. A Las Cruces resident for five years, she played violin professionally before retiring. Chamber music was part of her repertoire.
She recalls how her husband found Las Cruces: "We had a motor home and he would pore through magazines and he fell in love with the place and we built a home here."
The couple owned several packaging stores, and of all the folks at this meeting, Reinhard is the only one to voice negatives about Las Cruces. Minnesota offered more in the way of arts for her, also better shopping and a better selection of fabric shops. She is also a quilter and garment maker.
"I'm always busy," she adds. "I'm in the church choir, teach children to sing, do beading, needlepoint, cooking and entertaining."
But she is considering a brief return to the Great White North in the future to beat the heat. "I miss the green."
James and Marilyn Basler are the "senior senior" residents of Las Cruces at this gathering, having been in town since 1960. Originally from St. Paul, Minn., James can also add Arizona and Florida addresses to his resumé, but Las Cruces is the place to come back to.
"I went to the Macalester School for the Blind," he starts off, Marilyn sitting close by. This couple is definitely still in love and maintains a strong relationship.
"I studied math and physics, since there was less competition for a blind math and physics student, and I owe my career to the Germans and Russians," he notes with a smile.
It seems that many years ago, a test V2 rocket that started in New Mexico ended up in a cemetery in Juarez. No one was hurt, and the dead didn't complain, but it was from that incident that James Basler was able to launch his own career at the physical science lab at NMSU.
"I studied wind simulations to help keep rockets on their path," he says. He also was involved in early computer work and describes in detail some of his travails with an early vacuum-tube model, the Burroughs 220.
"It was as powerful as a present-day pocket calculator," he recalls.
He retired after working for 37 years. The Baslers have four kids.
Legally blind, Basler is barely hindered by that, and it never affected his work. He says, "I'd have fired myself if I thought I couldn't do the work."
Besides making friends and enjoying the buffet, the Minnesota Club also plays Minnesota-type games, such as a card game called 500, which is not like rummy 500, but more like bridge. The next meeting promises a drawing for Minnesota souvenirs. I try to think of some — snowballs, Viking helmets, bags of mosquitoes, sets of twins, a blue ox, bottles of water from one of the Long Lakes?
The only common complaints about Las Cruces are the desert summers and a lack of good health care. That issue is the only other negative that gets mentioned at length during the meeting.
But I don't think that any of the Minnesotans would agree with this quote from journalist Charles Kuralt: "It was cold out there, bitter, biting, cutting, piercing, hyperborean, marmoreal cold, and there were all these Minnesotans running around outdoors, happy as lambs in the spring."
The heat is never as hot as you think.
The Minnesota Club meets the third Wednesday of each month at Golden Corral, 601 Telshor in Las Cruces, at noon.
One of Jeff Berg's many ex-wives' uncles once owned a resort in Minnesota, right near one of those Long Lakes.