Stephanie Powell, Jeremy Samdahl and Jodi Nyman: Stephanie: “You took pictures of me and my kids quite a few years ago shoveling in the front yard.” Jodi: “You have taken a whole bunch of pictures of my boys Ty and AJ. A whole bunch of them. They seem to be always in the paper when they were little. We’re just getting ready for my son’s graduation party. Ty Walker.” (Oh, when you said Ty, I was wondering if it was him.” Jodi: “So we’re just getting ready for his grad party tomorrow.” (How did his golfing go couple weeks ago I got his photo on the way to Babbitt golfing meet.) “Oh my gosh! That cracked me up. That interview cracked me up with those three boys. They were something! They were going to do it alright! A couple of them went on to sectionals/regionals. Ty did not. He went to work. He works for Nickerson Construction so he had to start to work.” Jeremy: “We’re just hanging out.” Stephanie: “Just working and hanging out. I work at the Virginia Region Hospital. I am an RN. I like it.” Jeremy: “I’m a contractor in North Dakota.” Jodi: “So we are getting ready for a graduation party and a long weekend with family, friends and graduations.”Ed Steklasa: “Don’t tell me you’re the Pam Boutelle...” (Ed?! Not Ed Steklasa?). Ed: “Yeah. I am. What’s up?” (What are you doing these days?). “Trying to enjoy retirement. Just hit 80 this winter so things are slowing down a little bit but I’m trying to keep moving and have some fun playing my music of course.” (Oh good! Where are you playing these days?). “Mostly at Zaverl’s, but I also play at Fortune Bay and a few other places around. Silver Rapids once in a while and Samz out in Winton. I play guitar, solo. And sing. You have to sing. Tomorrow night I play at the Alta-Z-maja.... It’s held in honor of the coaches up at Vermilion. Bob Altavilla from Babbitt, Rudy Semeja from Ely and Gary Zaverl. They call it Alta-Z-Meja.” (Just then Tom Grahek walked by and Ed said:) Ed: “Here’s a good guy. You should interview him. Do you know Tom?” (‘No, but hello.” And he agreed to join the interview). Ed: “He used to own Grahek Ford.” Tom Grahek: “That was a few years ago.” Ed: “We don’t shake these hands too often.” Tom: “Life resident of Ely. Born and raised here. Went to school here. Got married here. Owned the Ford Garage for 16 years. I served my time in the service. Was in the Coast Guard for four years, My oldest daughter was born in Guam. That’s something. The 1950s.” Ed: “These darn bugs, the sandflies are killing me.”( I better let you get going but: What are you going to do the rest of the day Ed?) Tom: “He’s going to put his feet against the wall.” Ed: “I’m cutting the lawn, and I’m dumping the mulch in these dead kill areas. Trying to get more grass to grow. Winter kill.” Tom: “It didn’t look like Ed Steklasa. He’s too tall.: Ed: “You’re too short. I’m on higher ground.” Tom: “I know.. but still... I am short. Always have been. Today I’m taking my daily walk and I am going home and rest for an hour or so and then I’m going to have a drink and have supper and watch my favorite program: Gold Rush. Friday night special.” Ed: “Tom, good seeing you again.”Cooper Mayranen and Max Haugen: Cooper: “We’re just going swimming at Miners. We haven’t been there yet this year.” Max: “It deep, really deep.” Cooper: “It’s going to be cold. I like riding bikes. Vacation is good. I’m going into ninth.” Max: “I’m going into eighth.” Cooper: “I like riding dirt bikes.” Max: “Same thing. I like riding dirt bikes.” Cooper: “I am working with my grandpa Eric Mayranen. We do landscaping for people.” Max: “I work for my dad in the summer. We do concrete. We pour concrete and we finish it for people and we pour sidewalks for people.” (I better let you go swimming while it’s still warm out.)Marty Wiekert and his dog Rocket: “My son was just in the ECHO with the article on morel mushrooms. We’ve owned this house for like 23 years and finally up here full time, permanently. We were in Illinois, Florida, The Keys. We lived a little bit of everywhere. My wife Kathy is in the mortgage business so we lived different places. She is a processor and tries to keep people in their homes. I’m retired from General Electric out at the nuclear power plants out in Illinois. I am leaving tomorrow to have my knee replaced so I am leaving to go down to the VA hospital in Illinois to get my knee replaced. I just got my flag up yesterday. Got the rest of my bushes in and the mulch down. I was happy to finally get my flag up. That’s about it really. Enjoying our life. We just love it up here. Always: A bad day here is better than a good day anywhere else. Ely reminds me of where I grew up. A small town. Everybody knows everybody. Your neighbors help each other and they say hi. You don’t get that too many other places any more. It reminds me of Mayberry. Like I says: We love it up here. the best thing I ever did was buy this place and I was just up here on a whim. I was up here on outages in Illinois and I had to get away and I came up here and met some good friends dogsledding and bought the house on the spot. We own the house and two empty lots. We got lucky. Hopefully get raised beds in here next year and a garage. I just love it up here and I love that I’m getting stuff done. A bad day here is better than a good day anywhere else. I believe that with all my heart. I enjoy your pictures in the paper because it’s nice to see what other people are doing in town.”
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