Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Denise Rosenau Column, 7/16/2001



I have been kicking around the idea of writing a regular
column for quite some time, pretty much since the beginning of my employment
with the Winsted-Lester Prairie Journal. The problem I have run across,
however, was what to write about.

Unfortunately for me, the subject matter became crystal
clear as I left my office Thursday afternoon.

We had a little negative excitement here at the office
this week. And it’s time for me to vent.

I have a message to the person/ persons that felt that
they had the right to steal my personal belongings from my car and the car
of my co-worker ­ what comes around, goes around.

My vehicle, parked innocently in the back parking lot of
the newspaper’s Howard Lake office, where our staff designs and lays out
the newspapers each week, was invaded.

And you will never guess what they stole . . . they had
the nerve to steal my 23 bottles of Mountain Dew soda, right from the front
seat of my car. Nothing else, just my pop.

And why did I have not one, but 23 bottles of pop in my
car? Because my co-worker, Lynda, the Herald editor, did something nice
for me and got some when it was on sale.

They didn’t take the change that I keep in the cubby hole,
didn’t take the watermelon that I was bringing home, and didn’t take my
sons’ toys from the back seat. Just the one thing that I really wanted that
afternoon.

Now, hold on, and let me explain. I realize that pop is
just that ­ pop. Not much to get bent out of shape about.

The problem lies in that it was my pop, in my vehicle,
in the parking lot of my job where I go most days of the week.

You just don’t mess with a person’s caffeine intake on
a day that is close to deadline!

When the stress hits, there is always that one little reward
for a job well done ­ my afternoon pop. It’s my reward for working hard
in the morning, not to mention a little pick-me-up to help finish off the
day.

Well, when I went to my car to get my reward, it was gone.
No reward for me. And I had worked just as hard on this day as I do every
other day. Bummer.

I can’t really complain, considering that Jami, the counterpart
to my job on the Herald side of the office, used to have a CD player in
his vehicle up until now, thanks to the sticky hands of an unknown perpetrator.

Needless to say, I got the better part of the deal. We
weren’t planning on calling the police because of some soda ­ they might
have laughed us right out of town (not that I would blame them). But a CD
player is another matter.

Up until that point, it really was kind of funny. But that
was where it lost it’s humor.

What can you do? Nothing but vent, and that is what my
intention was to do, to get this off my chest.

I’ll really feel better, however, when (and when being
the operative word here) we find out who did this.

You may notice that there is a classified ad asking about
my “lost” pop. Who ever said that the media doesn’t have a sense
of humor?

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