Couple honored for ag service

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM--Vernon and Myrtle Gieseke were of few words as they received the New Ulm Farm-City Hub Club's service to agriculture award Friday evening, but a few of their friends had plenty to say.

According to Frank Stuckey, Vernon was one of the first people to join the club when it started nearly 30 years ago.

Both Vernon and Myrtle grew up on farms; she's from Winthrop and he's from rural New Ulm.

The two met on a blind date in 1952 and "each sat on their own side of the car," according to Stuckey.

They got married two years later. They lived in Winthrop, where they had two children and farmed before they moved to New Ulm.

During that time Myrtle had many jobs--working at 3M, McDonald's and Dunheim's Kustall. Her hobbies included baking, cooking, cleaning, scrubbing and hanging wallpaper, Stuckey said.

Vern "once unplugged a pressurized manure spreader and spent five days sleeping in his shed. People said he had bad body odor," Stuckey told the crowd of about 110 people at the Holiday Inn Friday night.

Vernon Gieseke was also a member of the Farm Credit Bureau and Zion Lutheran Church. He works in his woodshop and occasionally, Stuckey said, "people tell him it's good."

Jeannie Albrecht, president of the New Ulm Chamber of Commerce, said she remembered Myrtle's first day at Dunheim's.

"She came rushing into the kustall and I wondered 'What does she think she'd doing? What's she trying to prove?'," Albrecht said.

Eventually, Myrtle was made store manager and she never made anyone do a job she wouldn't do herself, which included stacking milk bottles six bottles high.

Albrecht also commended Myrtle Gieseke for her steadfast volunteerism.

"Need a volunteer? Call 359-MYRT," she told the crowd. "She was so busy, she quit her part-time job to do more."

Friends Rodney and Mona Nelson also shared their bag of memories. First, they gave the Giesekes earplugs to remember the night the four of them took a camping trip and ended up parking next to a refrigerated truck that kept Myrtle and everyone else up all night.

"And we never went on a camper again," Mona remembered.

Mona, who said Myrtle rarely does anything silly, told the crowd about a time when Myrtle called to say she had locked her keys in her car. She explained later that the extra set were in her purse... which was inside the car, which was running in the driveway. Mona took Myrtle to the dealership in Gaylord and they got a yet another set of keys.

Stuckey apologized to the Giesekes children "for making them sit here and find out what their parents are really like."

Tim Gieseke, one of Vernon and Myrtle's eight children, shared a story about his father. When they were kids, Tim, his brother Don and Vernon went to Sleepy Eye to buy cattle in a 1962 Ford Fairlane. Don was 16 and Tim was 9 at the time. Tim said the boys liked to go there because Vernon let them bid on the cattle.

The boys had bid on--and won--a pair of 80-pound calves, which they took out into the parking to find they had no way to get them home. Vernon went and got the car, asked the boys to put the back seat down and to put the calves inside.

"We were driving through New Ulm ducking," Tim said. "But we made it home okay."

When it came time to take the podium themselves, the Giesekes were brief and to the point.

"It's indeed an honor," Vernon said. "I'd like to thank everyone for this award."

Added Myrtle, "This is such a surprise."