Football, boomers and attempted murder

Mr. Dave Zika asked that I write about my love for the baby boomer generation this week. 

Dave happened into the Pioneer office this week while Deb Bently and I were interviewing a potential new writer for the paper. 

A discussion about Generation Z, those 25 years old and younger, and Boomers took place. 

As Deb and I agree, a person doesn’t know what they don’t know. 

Deb likes to say she wishes, metaphorically, as a teacher, she could pry open a person’s mind and pour some understanding in there. 

People who are 60, 70, or in regards to a story in this week’s paper, 96 years old have somewhere around triple the years of life experience I, or another 20-something have acquired.

But some young people think they know better. 

A person simply doesn’t know what they don’t know. 

I like to suggest that until a person realizes how little they truly know about anything at all, they are not an adult. 

I tell Deb Bently from time to time, I know some stuff about newspapers, how to ask good questions, and how to be kind to people. That’s about it. Oh, and I do know a thing or two about sports. 

But even there, not so much. 

Congratulations to the Waseca High School football team. Dave and I were talking Friday afternoon. At that time, he (and my dad) were pessimistic about Waseca’s chances. 

I, for a change, felt the opposite, with an enduring “gut” feeling everything might turn out in the Bluejays’ favor. Call me naive or ignorant, but I just felt good about the game. 

Dave asked for my prediction on the score and outcome of the game. I responded with 14-7 or 21-14 (plus or minus missed extra point opportunities).

Dave then asked me who I felt was going to win. 

I told him I expected Waseca’s offense would score 7 points, but saw 14 as an outside possibility. I also commented that the “automatic” 7 would probably not be enough for a win. 

I also predicted Fairmont would not score more than two touchdowns. 

After all that, I told him I was picking Waseca: My head told me to expect disappointment, my heart and my gut told me Waseca was going to win. 

The final score, for those who don’t know, was 21-13, Waseca, in overtime. And Waseca’s offense did, in fact, only put two touchdowns on the board. A defensive touchdown by Laird Keeton tied the game at 7-7 early in the second half. 

Thinking back to the rest of the week, Waseca High School celebrated 39 students' induction into Honor Society. This year I came prepared with a tripod and a (heavy) new camera lens to capture those moments. Thanks to my planning (i.e. tripod), I saved myself some aches and pains from holding 5 pounds of camera equipment up for 30 consecutive minutes. 

In other news, my sister testified in the attempted murder trial. Expect a longer story next week, or the following week, whenever I can chat with County Attorney Rachel Cornelius. 

My sister was working the Bar at Bardens the night of the incident. I talked to her and others after the shooting happened. My sister spoke with the police afterwards and the police officer mentioned that the folks involved with this incident were also involved with the Janesville shooting. From what I heard, members of the “friend” group were fighting over something. One person told me it was drug related, another over a woman. I don’t know what’s true, but it was alarming to hear that the two incidents were connected. 

When I heard that, I went down to the police station and spoke with a person of authority. I guess some of the folks involved in these shootings all moved here from Chicago. If memory serves, that’s what I was told. The person of authority told me there was no connection between the two and after I told him what my sister told me, he informed me the bit about some of them coming from Chicago. 

I, of course, was worried, and the Waseca Police department didn’t want people to be worried either. It appears things have settled down now. 

In other conversations, I believe the first trial had a “hung jury,” and so this took longer. My sister had to testify again. She was worried her pregnancy would interfere with the trial, but the baby came more than a week early, so it didn’t. 

Sentencing has not occurred yet and I expect to talk more with county attorney Cornelius when that happens. 

“If you are going through a lot, you are going to get a lot.”

― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words