“Where the coffee’s hot, the lakes are cold, and all the children are above average.” — Serving the Chain since 1897.
Tuesday, August 4, 2026 · July 21 Edition · 7 stories item(s) in this section.
Forty Years
Walt and Carol Sorensen marked forty years married Saturday with the second official early close in the hardware store’s history — same reason as the first — and discovered that half the town had bought a card, hidden it badly, and believed itself the only one.
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County Fair
The window shut Saturday on the largest open-class field in years. The fair itself runs Wednesday, August 19, through Sunday, August 23 — midway from Thursday, giant-pumpkin weigh-in the final Saturday at 10 a.m., on the scale about which nothing further will be printed here.
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The Old Co-op Creamery
The Holts set the opening for a Saturday afternoon, confirm the sign is revealed “at two sharp, or when the knot gives,” and decline, with visible enjoyment, to say anything further about the name.
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After the Smoke
Wednesday delivered the promised air. The Daybreak cracked its front windows at noon, ceremonially; the porch furniture came back on inspection; Harold Aas was returned to his bench under escort he called “unnecessary and appreciated”; and at dusk, without anyone organizing it, boats drifted out.
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The Bear
Thursday night the season’s most discerning visitor followed the bread smell to Second Avenue, examined the grain bins, the loading door, and its own reflection, and departed with nothing. The Holts had installed a self-closing latch “out of respect.”
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The Hagen Pasture
Written comment closes Tuesday, August 18. Clerk Skoglund reports the essays are getting longer, the margins are getting fuller, and the file is one folder from requiring new furniture.
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After the Smoke
The haze is gone; the inventory remains. A short accounting of what nine borrowed days deposited around town, now that the sky has been returned to its owners.
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