Ruth Ellen Brosseth McKay

The new millennium started off just fine for me, how about you? I had a good year in 2000 - - good health, good family, good friends, good job and good leisure times. I enjoy relatively good health for a person my age (only a few aches and pains most days) and I have a job where I like the people I work with, and the salary I earn pays the bills. The good family and good friends help make my leisure times enjoyable and memorable.

I still live in Blair, Nebraska, where I have been since 1962. I taught school for several years here and then became "Mrs. Girl Scout of Blair" for about the next 10 or 15 years, holding almost every adult position in Girl Scout Neighborhood NR. 13, from Brownie Troop Leader to Camp Director to Prairie Hills Girls Scout Council Member. I did substitute teaching for several years and am now employed as an Administrative Clerk in the Procedure Management Group at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant, a part of the Omaha Public Power District. Fort Calhoun Station is located just 5 miles south of Blair.

I have my 92 year old mother Grace Brosseth in Good Shepherd Lutheran Home here in Blair. She has been here 3 1/2 years. She has a very hard time getting around, but her mind is still good. I visit her everyday that I am in town.

My sister Carol and her husband Rod have a new home in northern Minnesota near Brainerd. They have both been retired from teaching in Bloomington, MN, for several years. They spend their winters in the south, mostly Florida but sometimes Texas. My brother Allen is now in Albuquerque after about 5 years in Denver and before that about 15 years in Hawaii. He is semi-retired and plans to start building his retirement home in Durango, CO soon. Unlike my siblings, I think I will have to work forever.

I enjoy traveling and try to see my two daughters a couple times a years. Kristy lives in Lake Wales, Florida, and has a son Jeremy James, age 7. She does subrogation for State Farm Insurance. Kim lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, and has a daughter Payton Rebecca age 8, and a son McKeon James, age 3. She is a CPA working for Cassady & Schiller. I visited Kim's family the third week in May of 2000 and for Christmas 2000, and I visited Kristy's family the previous Christmas and the first week in September, 2000. Both girls and their children will be here with me in Blair, for the Fourth of July week 2001. I am looking forward to having them here. Besides Florida and Ohio, I have also traveled to Europe, Hawaii and the Bahamas and I am planning a future trip to Alaska. I like to take little trips, too and have been to lots of places in Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, North and South Dakota and Kansas.

I also enjoy "the arts." I have a membership to Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, a season pass to the Henry Doorly Zoo, season tickets to the Dick Walter Travelogue series, and season tickets to the Omaha Community Playhouse. I also try to take in Blair High school theatre and musical productions; theatre, musical and environmental events at Dana College in Blair; and Blair community events like the Blair Community Theatre and the Community Band. I am a member of First Lutheran Church and am active in a circle, and in the past have served on council committees. The Bridge Club to which I belonged, disbanded a few years ago and now we try to just get together once a year for lunch and camaraderie.

I have been a widow for 20 years. In all that time, I haven't found anyone who can fill Jim McKay's shoes. Some of you may know that Jim has been inducted into three athletic Halls of Fame, all posthumously, so I was able to accept the awards on his behalf. He is in the Nebraska Softball Hall of Fame, the Omaha Softball Umpire's Hall of Honor and the Farmington High school Athletic Hall of Fame. There is a scholarship at Dana College in Jim's name. We all still miss him very much.

I attended my 40 years class reunion at Winona State University, Winona, MN, the first weekend in May of 2000 where I saw a couple of good college friends (Ramona and Barb) whom I hadn't seen since graduation. It was a fun reunion reminiscing with them. I am looking forward to reminiscing with all of you this summer and getting caught up on what has been happening in your lives -- after all, we haven't seen each other since our 25th reunion, almost 20 years ago. (2001)