Boxing Day, December 26th

[epaul]

Dec 26, 2022 11:45:49 GMT -5 Marty said:

Dec 26, 2022 11:16:59 GMT -5 epaul said:

I didn't actually give her the Swifter. I did, however, re-gift her with a nice set of free scissors Menards gave me for my birth month that had been lying around the house for the last two weeks. Seems to have worked.

You reminded me of a story one of our old drummers told.

One year as a joke his sister, of which he has many, gave her sibling the most horrid green plaid coat for Christman. Well the next year she got it back and the tradition was started. So every year one of the female members of the family will get that damn butt ugly coat to pass on to whomever she chooses. Also with that is coming up with a way of wrapping it so it is not obvious of the content of that gift and there are no rules other than the coat must remain intact.

My three brothers and I have a rotating Uncle Milton's Ant Farm that's been in circulation for about 15 years, when it replaced the Sea Monkeys aquarium, which had its own 10-15 year run.

[drlj]

Great gifts, although I see you neglected to include X-Ray Specs.

[billhammond]

Owatonna (Minn.) People's Press

This is another story about Christmas past when two Owatonna men exchanged a pair of moleskin pants during the holidays. The two who made the exchange attracted attention both statewide and national. The two men were Roy Collette and his brother-in-law Larry Kunkel. For 25 years the two exchanged the ugly pants which were received one Christmas as a gift from his mother back in 1967. The pants were certainly not Collette’s favorite and he decided to get rid of them by mailing them to Kunkel who was living out east at the time. That’s when the yearly exchange began. As the years went by, the containers housing the pants became more and more challenging. I never found out who originated the exchange but the pants went back and forth each Christmas for 25 years. Getting them to the recipient became more and more challenging. Semi-trailers were often used. The pants were sent in packages ranging from tractor tires filled with cement to crushed cars to glass-encased rocket ships. It was the responsibility of the recipient each year to use the next 365 days figuring out how to retrieve the pants and research a unique way to send them back the next Christmas.

I discovered the exchange when I saw the story by Jason Davis of Channel 5, KSTP. For several years, Davis followed the exchange of the pants. We began broadcasting from the house of either Collette or Kunkel when we were tipped off that the pants were on the freeway heading to Owatonna on a semi. I remember the delivery to Collette’s house when the pants were delivered in a rocket ship that was encased in glass. The recipient then had to determine where the pants were located in the unique package. Once the location was discovered, it was up to the recipient for that year to dig them out and send them back the next Christmas. One year the recipient found the pants in the glove compartment of a car that had been crushed to postage stamp size.

The annual exchange of the mole skin pants began attracting national TV attention as a results of Jason Davis reports. He followed the exchange for many years and eventually various national media joined the holiday hype. We, at KRFO, didn’t broadcast from the exchange until the later years when the pants arrived in their cantankerous containers.

In case you didn’t know, Roy and his brother-in-law exchanged the horrendous looking pants beginning in 1967. As I mentioned earlier, they first were a present to Roy from his mother. They certainly weren’t Roy’s favorite. Roy wondered what to do with them and he decided to send them to his brother-in-law. That began the yearly exchange. In about 1989 the pants were burned to ashes in a processing attempt by Collette that failed. The pants were delivered by semi to Kunkle’s house in a small urn that remains in the Kunkel mantel. One will never know if the demise of the pants was an intentional one designed to end the exchange. The urn remains in the ownership of Larry Kunkel, never to be exchanged again.

Several times the Manke brothers became involved as they provided equipment large enough to deliver the annual package. We all anxiously waited for the first sighting of whatever was used to transport the pesky pants and what held them inside. Every year we thought there was no way the pants could survive their encasement. Every year, after the media hype ended, the pants were somehow retrieved and brought to life the next Christmas.

Collette, who died earlier this year, told me when I was interviewing him on the radio, “We had a good time, but it kind of got out of hand. Gosh, as a result of the national publicity, I made contacts with classmates of mine that I had completely lost track of."

It appeared that both Roy and Larry breathed a sigh of relief when it was finally over. For citizens of Owatonna, the exchange of the Pesky Pants was something that everyone looked forward to. It ranked right up there with the OHS Carolers, the parade of lights, and the Arts Center Christmas display. The pants now rest in peace on the mantel of Larry Kunkel.

[millring]

I have spent my second day off mostly sleeping. Dar's been listening to the Jan Karon books so in my napping I'm hearing that background noise. It's not unlike falling asleep with a football game going on on the TV.

[paleo]

I'm back home in Iowa. The drive from Stoughton, WI wasn't too bad although it took 45 minutes more than it usually takes.

There were a couple exciting moments in the hills of western WI, I was running in 2 wheel drive, and going up two of the hills the truck decided it needed to downshift. That broke the rear tires loose and the back of the truck kicked out, thinkingit would pass the front. I didn't have cruise on so letting up on the gas and a little counter steering straightened it out.

It snow a few inches here last night so I ran the snowblower for about 45 minutes after getting home, might go out and blow a little more snow this evening. Gotta have a clean place for people to park and walk for tomorrow's music practice.

[billhammond]

We're up to double digits! ABOVE zero!

[Marshall]

Here's the grandkids from yesterday's fun extravaganza. The red headed girls are step grandkids.

[howard lee]

Dec 26, 2022 16:23:23 GMT -5 Marshall said:

Here's the grandkids from yesterday's fun extravaganza. The red headed girls are step grandkids.

Marshall, they look like great kids. Lucky Gramps.

[billhammond]

Dec 26, 2022 16:23:23 GMT -5 Marshall said:

Here's the grandkids from yesterday's fun extravaganza. The red headed girls are step grandkids.

All beautiful.

[Cornflake]

^^^ I agree.

[Village Idiot]

That number of grand kids at once, you couldn't help but have a great day.

[Village Idiot]

With all the below zero weather and being stuck in the house for days, the sun finally came out and it reached a balmy 12 degrees. Which means I escaped the house and went to the grocery store in Waterloo (Hy Vee) just to get out. I saw this and found it odd:



I mentioned to the clerk that they were really low on ice. With a straight face she said "That is because we have been selling a lot of ice."

I said "oh."

She looked at me like I'm an idiot.

[epaul]

It's safest to say nothing. I haven't talked in public for years.

[Marshall]

Oh, and last night my daughter and family went to a Chicago Bulls game. Trevor's company has good seats. So I was watching the game at home and during the 3rd quarter after an exciting point at an ensuing time-out, the cameras panned the crowd. I quick grabbed the remote and replayed the crowd pan and took this picture of the TV screen with my phone

[drlj]

Dec 26, 2022 18:54:59 GMT -5 Village Idiot said:

With all the below zero weather and being stuck in the house for days, the sun finally came out and it reached a balmy 12 degrees. Which means I escaped the house and went to the grocery store in Waterloo (Hy Vee) just to get out. I saw this and found it odd:



I mentioned to the clerk that they were really low on ice. With a straight face she said "That is because we have been selling a lot of ice."

I said "oh."

She looked at me like I'm an idiot.

Hy Vee stores are interesting. The one in Ankeny had a large sit down restaurant just off the produce department. It was actually pretty good.
The ones I have been in had great bakeries and lots of ice for sale. Waterloo must be home to one of the B grade Hy Vee stores.

[Marshall]

The lack of ice is because with the Holidays, everybody is buying and serving liquor at parties and get togethers. I ran to the liquor store Christmas Eve to stock up on ice for the beer cooler for our Christmas gathering. It was as zero out.

And New Years is just a couple days away