White Creek News!

11-21-08 Estelline Lynn Hoitsma

Welcome to White Creek News! Happy Birthday Lynn Hoitsma! If you know Lynn, you know why there is no surprise as to why SO many people showed up Friday night to help celebrate his birthday. On Friday night, the band entertained for the Hoitsma’s and all of their friends at the Legion hall in Estelline. It was really a lot of fun because there were so many familiar faces at the event.

Lynn’s wife Sandy set up the event as a surprise and everyone must have kept the secret pretty well because I don’t think Lynn knew about it. If he did, he hid that fact really well! After the event we were sitting down having a barbeque or two and Lynn came over with a plastic gun shooting us with foam bullets which he thought was pretty cool. It was pretty funny as everyone was ducking for cover! It did look like a water gun! Anyway, he had mentioned that someone in his flight club had told him Happy Birthday recently. Lynn thought that was weird because his actual birthday was last month but whoever it was said that they saw it in the newspaper!

Another sign that it was a surprise is that if Lynn & Sandy attend a White Creek event, they are usually one of the first ones there and they are dancing to the first tune! Evidently a boiler had been giving Lynn some grief and he was working on fixing that so it delayed Sandy in being able to get him to the hall on time. In any case, it turned out to be a blast.

Mike Smith of Lake Benton, MN joined the band for the evening. As most of you probably know, Mike entertained with his band “Probable Cause” for many years. It’s great having Mike on stage with us as he brings harmony, rhythm guitar, and lead vocals on some songs to the stage. Everything really jelled nicely on stage. Mike brought his own guitar obviously but also tried out Rockin’ Rod’s new toy, the ’89 Fender guitar. He also played through Rod’s Mesa Boogie amp. I think he liked it! I’ve played that guitar just a little and it is SWEET!

Another welcomed guest to the stage was Joe-Joe Blandino who came up and entertained with us for about 3 songs. It’s always fun to have Joey back on stage because it’s sort of like old times. Joey did a couple songs that we always used to do including “Little Willie.” G announced the song as being for all the guys out there with a “little Willie”… you know who you are! It’s been so long since I played the song, I couldn’t remember how it started but once Joey strummed the first strum, it came right back. It is a song that everyone likes, dancing or not. He also sang “Put another log on the fire” which is one that I always like to hear. Joey sang this one at deer camp out west this year too.

I mentioned that there were a lot of familiar faces at the event. There were folks there from Watertown, Castlewood, Brookings, Estelline (of course), Arlington and Hetland. There was even a couple there from Boston! If I remember right their names were John and Julie who are friends of G’s. I just talked to John for a bit but could hear the Boston accent right away. It was also good to see Jeff, the former owner of the Castlewood Steak House at the event. It’s been a while since we have seen him.

As I have already said, we had a blast at this event and I think the crowd did as well. We hope that Lynn & Sandy had a great time. We had so many great compliments both during and after the event and we greatly appreciate all of the kind words.

This edition’s Thanks! goes out to the Hoitsma family for hiring us to entertain for Lynn’s party. We are all fortunate to have you folks as friends and White Creek fans. We also thank all those who came to help Lynn celebrate the big 50.

“Time can tarnish a dream but it cannot lesson its importance.”

November 21, 2008

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