Kettle River News

National Night Out in Kettle River is Tuesday, Aug. 1 at the Kettle River Senior Center. The fun begins with supper of hamburgers and hot dogs at 5 p.m. The police and fire department will have activities for the kids. There may even be rides on a firetruck. So, mark your calendars and come out and visit with neighbors and friends.

The Kettle River city council meeting is 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8 at the Kettle River senior center.

Ma & Pa Kettle Days is Saturday, Aug. 12. Mark and Tina Tollgaard are Ma & Pa Kettle, and Sam Huhta is the grand marshal. In addition to Ma & Pa Kettle Days on Saturday, there will be a steak fry at the Star Club on Friday night, and author Mark Munger will give a presentation at the Soumalainen Kirkko on Minnesota Highway 73 on Sunday.

The next Finnish luncheon is at 12 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 16 at the Kettle River Senior Center.

The city council voted unanimously this month to create a pickleball court on the basketball court. Paddles, ball and net will be available at the Norwegian Pickler Ice chest on Main Street.

In April of 1963 I was working in pediatrics at St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee, south of Chicago, when a tornado hit Olivet Nazarene College a few miles from the hospital. We had scores of people come into the emergency room within minutes. Fortunately, the student nursing dorm was next door to the hospital, so some of the injured were able to be triaged there. All the students were called into action. We received three very young children into pediatrics with just tags with numbers on their legs at that time. They weren’t old enough to give us any information. All area doctors were called to respond to the emergency room.

The tornado took off the top two floors of the five-story administration building and damaged a trailer park used for student housing and some homes nearby.

One home had some pillows stacked in the corner of their living room. Their house was gone, but the pillows were not disturbed. The mother from that home had laid down near her home over her baby. The mother was killed and the baby was one of the children brought into pediatrics to be identified. The father finally found his baby.

One nurse was working at the time and her mobile home completely disappeared. Another couple who worked at the hospital were in their mobile home when it was flipped over. Both were injured and were off work for quite a while.

I hope to never have to live through a disaster such as that again. Just seeing the damage done by tornadoes on TV will bring back my experience when a tornado hit right where I lived.