Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

Sometimes what you see is not what you think it is.

I had a humorous reminder of that this past week. I had spent Saturday morning, Dec. 10, with some buckthorn brigade people cleaning up some buckthorn we had cut earlier. When we were done I went home, took a shower and plopped in front of the TV. By now it was well after 2 p.m.

I stumbled across a Vikings game with Detroit. Having heard a few remaining games were going to be on Saturdays I didn’t think much about it, that is seeing the Vikings broadcast on a Saturday. It was the start of the fourth quarter and the Vikings were trailing. Nothing new there.

Well they rallied and won the game, nothing new there either.

I shared the good news to some puzzled friends that night at a Christmas gathering.

The next morning I got up and looked at the Sunday paper to find out the Lions game was at noon on Sunday. Apparently by tuning in late I missed all the notices that what I was seeing was a rebroadcast of the earlier game between the two teams!

Ooops!

As it turned out, the game I watched Saturday was the better of the two.

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Like many, we attended the Minnewaska Area High School Christmas concert at the high school (after the real Vikings loss Sunday).

It is just a real pleasure to hear the great Christmas music presented so well. Gordy Moeller just really gets these kids of all levels to sing as a group so well. More than once I was tapping Mary on the shoulder and whispering “Wow.”

Thanks to all who make this annual event possible. The kids work hard for this with extra practices. And there are others such as his wife, Diane, who accompanies the choir and those we don’t see who make this all fall together so well.

It was a job well done and one that helps keep us in the Christmas spirit!

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You’re probably never heard of Donald P. Zietlow, but the 86-year-old is the CEO and President of Kwik Trip, a chain of 800 convenience stores spread over Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa (where they go by the name Kwik Star).

He recently announced his retirement effective the end of the year.

We started learning more about Kwik Trip when our son-in-law Brennan Murphy went to work for the firm a couple of years ago.

Kwik Trip has 36,000 employees and this time of the year those employees get bonus checks from the company because it turns 40% of its pretax profits back to the employees.

Headquartered in LaCrosse, Wis., the company has its own dairy and highly automated bakery, kitchen and distribution facilities. It makes many of the things it sells itself.

Zietlow still goes to work daily and attends all of the firm’s regional meetings each fall. That’s something like 35 meetings.

His successor is son Dr. Scott Zietlow who is retiring as professor of surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. The younger Zietlow has been chairman of the board of directors of the company.

Kwik Trip started with a single store in Eau Claire, Wis. in 1965. Zietlow said that he thought the firm would maybe get to 50 stores. In 2000 Zietlow’s family bought out the interest of then co-owners, the John Hansen family, in 2000.

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May you and your family have a very Merry Christmas!