“Where the coffee’s hot, the lakes are cold, and all the children are above average.” — Serving the Chain since 1897.
Tuesday, July 7, 2026 · July 7 Edition · the Spelldown, band camp, and the summer notes
Schools
The vote was 6–0 with one abstention, entered on spelling grounds. First Spelldown: last Friday of September, Lakeside gym — no entry fee, because she would not have heard of one.
Read the full story →School Notes
Band camp. Opens Monday, July 13, at Lakeside, 8 a.m. — Hannah Moe (’14) at the front of the room for her first summer, succeeding Phil Brekke’s thirty-one years. Trombones audible from the water tower by Wednesday, per tradition; melody expected by August.
Fall sports. Physicals for all Pike athletes, Wednesday, August 5, in the Lakeside gym — bring the form, the fee, and proof you can touch your toes or a note explaining. Denny Dahl posts practice times the same week.
Bus routes. Finalized late July and posted at all three schools — and argued, unofficially, at the Daybreak, where the coffee is hot and the map is wrong.
New this fall. Paul Reardon takes the science rooms, and Megan Tollefson (’17) joins Oakview once the library releases her (see News). The custodians, meanwhile, are waxing floors no one will be permitted to walk on until September, which is how they like them.
The buildings, meanwhile, rest. The children are at the lake, enrolled in the real summer curriculum — swimming, fishing, and the long, underrated art of doing nothing in particular. We will see them, and the floors, in September.