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Park Bugle
Backyard hockey

The sounds of hockey pucks hitting the boards and children cheering filled the upper block of Chelmsford Street in St. Anthony Park on Monday, Jan. 16, when the third annual Pond Hockey in the Park tournament began in the backyard of Scott and Lori Hamilton. The Langford Park Mites battled it out through the morning, while families and neighbors watched.

 

The informal tournament, which includes players and siblings from the Langford Park Hockey program, from Mites through Bantams, was "abbreviated" this year, according to Scott Hamilton, because one of the two rinks used was having maintenance issues.

 

The event usually includes the rink in the Hamiltons' backyard as well as a rink maintained by neighbor Mark Lundquist two blocks down. Lundquist’s rink had maintenance issues and the teams weren’t able to use it. The plan, according to Hamilton, is to continue the tournament for the rest of the players later in February.

 

Hamilton and Lundquist, who are both involved in the Langford Park Hockey program, came up with the Pond Hockey in the Park idea several years ago after they built ice rinks to help their sons (Lundquist has three; Hamilton has two) overcome the “there’s-nothing-to-do” syndrome in the dead of winter, Hamilton said.

 

The event, traditionally held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, has turned into a neighborly event, Hamilton said, where families bring food for a potluck and neighbors who don't have children in the hockey program come to watch. 

 

The tournament includes Langford hockey players and siblings, from Mites to Bantams. Last year, 66 players and 60 families participated. Story and photos by Kristal Leebrick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top photo: Nora Thomey  (left), Luke Williams and  Lilly Ellis go after the puck. Bottom photo, from left: Otto Ganser, Lilly  Ellis, Luke Williams, Grant  Howatt and Ian Culver.     

 
Inspiration, elbow grease and a few trips to Ax-Man

Creative, low-cost insulation project warms a cold church basement in Lauderdale 

 
By Kristal Leebrick


• Thirteen 12-inch clear plastic salad bowls: $104 
• Yards of recycled 2-inch foam insulation: $200
• Seven 30-by-40-inch sheets of plastic with a mirror finish: $28
• Hearing the words “It’s warm in here” when people head into your church basement: Priceless
 
Pastor Dave Greenlund describes the 100-member congregation at Peace Lutheran Church in Lauderdale as “a creative bunch.” That ingenuity was tapped recently as church members found a way to insulate the cold, concrete basement of this 57-year-old building by using some recycled materials and a little chance inspiration. 

 

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St. Paul Senior Chore Service ends

 

The St. Paul Senior Chore Service ended on Saturday, Dec. 31. This community-based program has aided senior citizens by providing free or low-cost lawn care, snow shoveling, housekeeping and other chores since 1988.

 

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The devil is in the details: School board members weigh in on district's ever-evolving enrollment plan

 

By Anne Holzman

 

As St. Paul parents consider school enrollment options for 2012–13, the district is headed into its second year of shifting programs and attendance boundaries, sometimes making those choices more complicated.
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Artaria quartet celebrates 25 years with a complete cycle of Shostakovich

 

By Judy Woodward

 

Who says there are no second acts in American lives? More than 20 years ago, classical cellist Laura Sewell turned her back on the musical major leagues to return to the Twin Cities, where she planned to start a family. A graduate of the Julliard School in New York City, she was a member of the prestigious New-York-based Lark Quartet when she decided that she “didn’t want to have kids in New York City” and “didn’t want to go on tour with a baby.” 

 

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Voices: Mary Ann Barrows Wark and her Hanukkah puppet show

 

By Judy Woodward

 

Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish holiday that commemorates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem after its defilement by Antiochus of Syria, begins Dec. 20. In this month’s Voice, Mary Ann Barrows Wark talks about a personal Hanukkah ritual that has become central to her enjoyment of the holiday. A resident for many years of University Grove in Falcon Heights, Wark is a philanthropist and an educator. She is the author of We Tell It to Our Children: The Story of Passover (St. Paul, Menschmakers, 2002).

 


Mary Ann Barrows: My favorite thing about Hanukkah is a puppet show that I do. It’s based on a story by [Yiddish author] Isaac Bashevis Singer called “Zlateh the Goat.” It’s Jewish, but it’s secular. I call it the Jewish equivalent of The Nutcracker Ballet. 

 

 Photo by Lori Hamilton
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My Christmas tale

 

By Adam Granger

 

My family was small, overly intellectual, reserved and a bit melancholy. My dad was hired to teach English at the University of Oklahoma in 1953. My parents, with my older brother and me in tow, moved into a little frame house in Norman. They lived there for 40 years and just sort of wore that house out, never replacing, repairing or painting anything. They weren’t unaesthetic—quite the opposite; they were just so busy trying to keep their heads above the troubled waters that seeped from their emotional baggage that they had no energy left over to maintain their physical environment.

 
   Adam Granger's boyhood advent calendar: Scotch-taped and ready for another season.

 

 

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Here comes the sun

Yule celebrants see return of the light as time for reflection, healing

 

By Kristal Leebrick
 
The winter solstice—the shortest day and the longest night of the year—is Thursday, Dec. 22, and if all goes to plan, Teisha Magee will stay up through the night with her husband and four children, exchanging gifts, eating favorite foods and waiting for the sunrise.

 

Teisha Magee      
Photo by Kristal Leebrick     

 

    

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