The Mystery Photo from last week's column was correctly guessed by Lorraine Nelson, Keith Kronbach, Lois Nogosek, Jamie Johansen, Donna Wheeling, Troy Alderman, Sharleen Larson, Sheryl Tolson, David Olson, Shirley Bezanson, and Joann Johnson as that of Keith and Kathy Kronbach.

This week's photo is of a young lady who grew up in the Ryder area, graduated from Ryder High, married, had a family, and she still lives in ND. Good luck and I hope I have as many responses this week as I did last week!

Our sympathy goes out to the family of Edward Dobrinski of Minot and longtime Makoti area resident. Ed passed away Saturday Jan. 14 in a Minot nursing home. He is survived by his wife Tillie, and their three children, Phyllis (Hilman) Anderson, Everett (Peggy) Dobrinski, and Cheryl (Arnie) Stein; 7 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.

Julie Fedorchak, daughter of Duane and Doris Liffrig, now is the state
director for U.S. Senator John Hoeven. Her dad grew up at Ryder, graduating from Ryder High School. Her mother grew up at Parshall.

Julie became state director in November. She had been the senator’s deputy state director since January 2011 when he took office.

Her 21-year career has been in communications and public policy, including serving as the communications director for former North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer.

Julie and her husband, Mike Fedorchak, live in Bismarck. They have three children. Her husband is formerly of Minot, where his parents, Mike and Betty Fedorchak, live.

The Liffrigs live in Bismarck. Doris Hermundstad Liffrig recently wrote a book, “Growing Up Rich In A Poor Family.” The book is about her childhood memories from the Great Depression. The book, written for young people, is available at Barnes & Noble stores and online at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. She has been giving presentations at Bismarck schools and stores about it.

The basketball season is nearly over again. The North Shore/Plaza girls have only 2 home games left. The first one is on Feb. 2 at Plaza with one game against White Shield and that starts at 7:00. The last one is on Feb. 13 against New Town at Plaza and there are two games with the first starting at 5:45.

The North Shore/Plaza boys have done very well in their district. They do not have anymore home games; but, you can watch them play at the Minot Auditorium on Jan. 28 against Sawyer. There will 2 games and they begin at 1:30. Then, they have the District Tourney at Stanley on Feb. 9, 10, 11.

The 5/6 & 7/8 BBB teams are playing now also but, their two games left in Jan. are at White Shield and Mandaree.

Last week's McLean County Independent was full of familiar names and some pictures for us people around the Ryder area.

David Starks, son of Pam and Jonathan Starks, was on the Dean's List at U of Mary in Bismarck.

Amanda Peterson, daughter to Dana and Theresa Peterson, was part of the winning Garrison Galactix dance team. They won first in the two divisions in which they entered. Go, Amanda!

Jayden Hansen, son of Jay and Missy Hansen, received the ND FFA "Beginning SAE Grant" of $750 at the FFA Winter Leadership Conference in Bismarck. He is part of the Garrison chapter. I bet this made grandparents, Wayne and Carol Hansen and Marlene Otteson, very proud

We also got to see Karley Hansen, daughter to Jon & Debbie Hansen, and Andrea Skarphol, daughter to Fern and Harlan Skarphol. They were part of the Max FFA Chapter that traveled to the same FFA conference in Bismarck. Jayden Hansen and Karley Hansen are cousins. Keep up the great work and representation of your schools.

The North Shore/Plaza school held their Winterfest Dance last week. They always crown a king and queen and this year's queen was Julia Peterson, daughter of Denise and Richard Peterson and the king was Chandler Karna, son of Mickey and Mary Karna. Congratulations Julia and Chandler!

Here we have another installment of Ryder Happenings from the Jan. 18, 1912 Ryder News…Landlord Fredeen (The Fredeen Hotel) has installed a public telephone pay station in his hotel, which will be a great convenience.

Next we want to send out birthday wishes to the following: Jennifer Schenfisch, Colleen Learned, Megan Johnson, Tadd Franklin, Dennis Endreson, Amber Ouellette, Dwight Raszler, Darcy Behles, Lorraine Forsman, Charles Morris, Maria Bigelow, Edwin Olson, Larry Guttormson, Rondi Deaver, Marvin Mead, and Barbara Magandy.

We also want to send a Happy Anniversary out to the following couples, Marlys and Wendell Hanson and Donna and Herb Shafer.

There is Bingo every Friday night starting at 8 PM at the Senior Citizen Center in Ryder. The Ryder Community Club has purchased the Ryder School gym to eventually be used as a community building so they will need your support at Bingo to raise funds towards getting the building ready to use once again.

Jenn Cooper sent me the latest info on her son's Lane's wrestling. She says, "Just an update on the weekend…we traveled to MN to wrestle in 3 tournaments…One down, The Frazee Open in Frazee MN…Lane took first and got a beautiful hand carved plaque shaped as MN with his picture on it! Sunday morning we are in Moorehead, MN to do a team duel in the morning then an individual tournament in the afternoon! Hopefully the weather holds out so we can get home, snowing here now."

Well, Lane, that is just great and I hope to hear when you get back that you did fantastic on the other matches as well. Congratulations on that first win!

Shane Suydam (son of Todd and Marsha and grandson of Jim and Bonnie Suydam of Roseglen) and his wife Lindsey (daughter of Jay and Linda Wollan of Wisconsin) will have their Sept. 23rd wedding (they were married in Chicago) aired on the TLC channel on the show Four Weddings at 9 PM. If their wedding is the winner out of the 4 then they will win a honeymoon trip to Hawaii.

We get the TLC channel on our local cable channel 268 so I will be sure and watch it. The lead in for the show says, "Every bride thinks she's having the perfect wedding, but what if four brides agree to be guests at each other's weddings to decide which is best? Tune in to find out as these brides score each other's big day for a fabulous honeymoon vacation prize.

Okay, I think this is it for this week…so stay safe, stay warm and just think, spring is right around the corner!! Oh yes, send me mystery photo pictures, I am running out!!

Why is it that at class reunions you feel younger than everyone else looks?

The Department of Defense's "50 Heroes From 50 States" web page features our Keith Smette.
Click on the following link and then click on North Dakota. http://www.defenselink.mil/home/dodupdate/heroes/50heroes/.

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 sbradley@restel.net