Outside Looking In

Perfect attendance
When I was in school, anyone getting perfect attendance for an entire year was considered a hero, or their parents didn't enjoy having them home all day.
If someone went two years in a row without missing a day of school, those kids were considered either the children of a doctor, their parents didn't like them at all, or they had a special immune system.
When I was editing the 25, 50, 75 and 100 Years Ago column for this week's paper, I came across someone who not only was awarded perfect attendance for one year of school, this young man, Patrick Sarazyn, went all 12 years of school without missing so much as one day.
Sarazyn was among 73 seniors from the graduating class of 1972. A photo of Sarazyn in the Mascot showed high school principal Gerald Olson presenting him with a certificate of recognition for 12 years of perfect attendance.
A certificate? Anyone going that long without missing school should get a new car, or at least reserved seating in the teacher's lounge.
Like Sarazyn, I was rarely sick during the school year. The only difference was that I faked illness at least four or five times a year.
You have to really like school to go 12 straight years without missing a day, right?
"No, I didn't really like school," said Sarazyn with a laugh. "I liked shop and math, and that was about it."
Sarazyn, who lived in rural Taunton, attended school in Taunton for eight years and then attended four years of high school at Minneota. It was noted in the photo that there was no bus service during his years spent going to school in Taunton.
Sarazyn came close to missing school one year in grade school. He contracted the measles two days after school was let out for the summer and missed his class picnic.
Consider there are around 200 school days a year. If you multiply that by 12 years, that's approximately 2,400 consecutive school days that Sarazyn went without missing.
"It is what it is," he said. "I only missed four or five days of work in 50 years. I just don't get sick very often."

New vet in town
Dr. Lynn Buysse of Minneota Veterinary Clinic announced that Dr. Laura Pelzel, a 2022 graduate of Iowa State University, has joined her practice.
Pelzel is a Minnesota native and completed her undergraduate work at South Dakota State University. Pelzel and her fiance moved to Minneota with their dog, Ollie. Her plan is to work with both small and large animals, with a special interest in surgery and ophthalmology, according to Dr. Buysse.
The public is invited to come out to the veterinary clinic on Thursday, June 2 to meet Dr. Pelzel from 4-7 p.m. and to also enjoy a meal while helping celebrate the 25th anniversary of the clinic.

Hope 150th
Hope Lutheran Church is planning a two-day celebration to commemorate the 150th anniversary of its congregation on June 11-12.
It is expected that several former pastors and members will return to celebrate with current members of the church. For those returning, the Minneota Public Library and Opera Hall upstairs will be open from 9 a.m. to noon to see all the changes that have been made to the historic former Big Store building.
Hope Lutheran is planning things for its sesquicentennial.
Among the events planned for Saturday, June 11 is morning golfing at Countryside Golf Club. From 3-9 p.m. the schedule includes games, parsonage and cemetery walk-thru, outdoor service, root beer floats, kiddie tractor pull, memorial lantern lift-off, and fire pit fellowship.
On Sunday, June 12, there will be a service 10 a.m. followed by a ham dinner and cemetery walk-thru.
The public is welcome.