Viola Linderbaum turned 89 in April of 2022. She presently lives at the Ossian Senior Hospice nursing home. She lived on a farm south of Ossian from 1953-1996, and then moved to Ossian and lived in the same house that her grandparents and parents had also lived in during their retirement years. We had great fun (not really) cleaning out that house during COVID when we hauled out things from back to the 1940s!
My dad, Elmer Lien, told me “Work hard, have a good attitude, don’t be a quitter!” and “Don’t forget church and Sunday School are important.” and “Make sure you have good, honest friends.”
How about the worst?
I don’t remember getting any bad advice.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I thought about being a school teacher in my younger years but after teaching a class of Bible School, I decided that wasn’t my thing.
What do/did you do?
After high school, I went to work at Sid’s Steak House in Decorah. I met a lot of people while working there. There were three of them whom were telephone operators at Bell Telephone. I really thought I might like that job so I applied and got the job. I worked there from 1951-1953. I was lucky operator #13. I really enjoyed this work. In 1953, I was married and we moved to the farm where I became a farm wife and mother. There were always plenty of chores to do along with milking cows and preparing food for anyone who stopped by the farm or was there for threshing and later combining etc. We had a son, Dennis, and daughter, Dianne.
If you were stranded on a desert island, what three things would you want with you?
My Bible, Coffee, and my Grandpad! (Sidenote: Viola’s nephew and grandnephew – Scott and Isaac Lien – invented the Grandpad and Viola is a “Grand Advisor” and tests out some of the apps before they go live. Scott calls her every Sunday.)
Try to describe yourself in one sentence.
I always try to have a positive attitude and patience.
If you could eat anything every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Lutefisk with lots of butter and lefse with sugar on!
Name one thing you could not live without.
Viola on the front of the tractor with all her siblings. They referred to themselves as the Iowa version of the Beverly Hillbillies (whose last name was Clampett) because it was like the Clampetts, gathered on their old rickety truck only in this case, it was the tractor. / Photo courtesy Viola Linderbaum
My family
Tell us about your wedding day.
My wedding day was a cold day in February (February 22, 1953). All of my siblings as well as my husband’s siblings were in the wedding along with some of our friends. There were probably 150 people there and Springfield Lutheran Church was full. We held a candlelight ceremony at 7 pm on a Sunday night. After the ceremony, we went to the church basement and had sandwiches, fancy cookies, and cake and ice cream. Our wedding colors were blue and rose and the men wore gray suits – not tuxedos. The rehearsal dinner was at my parents’ home the night before. Afterward, we left for our honeymoon to Des Moines and some other Iowa stops. Our wedding cake was made by a lady from Ridgeway. She used pans she bought at the hardware store that were meant to feed or water livestock in various sizes to make the tiers of the cake so it looked like the bride and groom were descending down stair steps – pretty unusual for that time and many others had this lady bake their cakes afterward. We had little nut cups that we made with paper flower petals at the head table to hold nuts and mints as was popular at the time. We made big white bows for all the pews in church but it was nothing like some of the wedding productions you see today. My friend was there all Sunday afternoon helping place the bows and putting flowers out. We were married for 61 years before my husband passed away in 2014.
Inspire(d) Summer 2022 cover artist, Lauren Bonney, created this coloring page for you to make your own! Click the image below to download a pdf and print it at home, then find your medium (crayons, markers, colored pencils, whatever works for you, and color as you see fit. We hope you find an intentional moment of calm coloring this summer!
In the fall of 2021, Linda Tacke went on a bike ride. The Lanesboro, Minnesota, resident pedaled her 16-year-old Bacchetta titanium recumbent from San Diego, California to St. Augustine, Florida. Numbers help tell the story. Days: 58. Miles: 3,100. Miles per day average: 63. Elevation Climb: 0 to 8,000 feet. Temperatures: 37 to 104. Pounds lost: 4. Flat tires: 7. Boogie Board: 1 (waiting for her on a Florida beach).
“Biking is solitary, but it also builds friendship,” says Lanesboro’s Linda Tacke. / Photo courtesy Linda Tacke
Wait, one more. Linda took this adventure two months shy of her 70th birthday. Lots of stories in those numbers. Lots to learn, too.
Twenty-plus years ago Linda was working at Park Avenue Methodist Church in Minneapolis. A weeklong senior high bike trip was going to be being cancelled if they couldn’t find one more adult counselor. Linda volunteered. “I did it and fell in love with biking,” she remembers.
When Linda and her husband, David, bought a home in Lanesboro in 2008, she became a RAGBRAI regular (13 times so far) and even started considering a cross-country ride. “David knew I was dreaming about doing that,” she says. “He made me promise I wouldn’t do it alone.”
Linda was the only one riding a recumbent bike in the group with Adventure Cycling. “There were probably side bets on whether I’d make it,” Linda says. “I did!” / Photo courtesy Linda Tacke
Linda kept her dream, and her promise, after David passed away in August 2017. “I signed up with Adventure Cycling for their Southern Tier Route and traveled to San Diego to join a group of 11 bikers and two guides. We were from all over: Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington. I was the only Midwesterner. Other than our guides, I was also the only woman. Ages ranged from late 30s to early 70s. They were all really decent human beings, serious bikers, who shared a love for biking.”
Their journey began on September 25 with the traditional bike-tire dip in the Pacific Ocean and took them on a carefully planned route through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. Each day presented unique road conditions, some unpredictable weather, and a fixed daily routine (pedaling each morning by 8 am, meet back by 4:30 pm). Sleeping accommodations were a mixed bag, from RV parks to Quality Inns to KOAs to a police station to church lawns to pitching tents in the gravel parking lot of the Apache Gold Casino in San Carlos, Arizona. “You learn to be flexible,” Linda says.
She wanted to see America by bike and she got her wish. “In California and Arizona we biked through state and national parks with fabulous scenery. Pedaling through beautiful date and pecan groves is a special memory. Lots of hours under big skies, too. We hit 75-mile stretches in Texas that didn’t have a single intersection.”
Two small towns became highlights. “Marfa, Texas has a growing reputation as a unique arts center,” Linda says. “We arrived there on one of our ‘rest days’ and had a great time exploring.” Merryville, Louisiana, a community of about a thousand people, provides wonderful hospitality to long-distance bikers. “For Sunday dinner they fed us seafood gumbo, crayfish pie, fried alligator, and scratch chocolate cake. Phenomenal!”
The group made fast friends. “We lined up fastest rider to slowest–we knew who we were!” says Linda. / Photo courtesy Linda Tacke
Spectacular scenery, plenty of food, and miles of roadway made for quite a trip. Challenges, too. “On our first night as I rode into camp, the seat fell off my bike,” Linda says. “Bad timing. I was hot, sweaty, and scheduled to cook dinner for 13 people. I texted pictures of the broken bike to my engineer-brother, John, and he prescribed epoxy and c-clamps. It worked.” Days later, with the chipseal roads of Texas tearing up her tires, an emergency side-trip to an Austin, Texas, bike shop led to modifications on her bike-frame that allowed for bigger, more durable tires. That worked, too.
Facing all the challenges, Linda hung in there. “I never seriously considered quitting,” she says. “Physically I was fine; on not one day did any part of my body hurt. I missed a turn in Los Cruces, New Mexico, and ended up a bit lost. Twice during the trip I had to take a ditch when it looked like a car behind me wasn’t moving over. But I just kept pedaling, moving ahead mile by mile. The guys called me ‘the girl with grit,’ and I took that as a compliment.”
A colorful little beaded angel rode with Linda throughout her trip to represent loved ones she had lost in the past. / Photo courtesy Linda Tacke
Why did she take a trip like this? “I enjoy challenges,” Linda says. “Taking this on made me feel very alive.” All those miles on a bike also gave her an unexpected gift: time alone. “Adventure Cycling has a policy of no media. My original idea to listen to audio books wasn’t going to happen.” She never felt lonely, though. “A number of loved ones have left this world too soon. David, of course. My friend and biking companion, Shannon, died the previous March. My youngest sister passed in 2014. While I was on the trip another friend died from cancer. Those faces were always with me.”
Without a doubt, the trip changed Linda. “I had time to consider priorities,” she says. “It made me think about simplifying my life and the importance of gratitude. I’m enormously grateful that I could do this trip and for all the people who helped me along the way.”
The last day – November 20, 2021 – was maybe the most memorable. “We only rode 40 miles so we could coordinate our arrival with family and friends coming to St. Augustine to welcome us.”
They ended the trip by dipping bike tires at St. Augustine, Florida. “My big smile shows how happy I was,” Linda says. / Photo courtesy Linda Tacke
What a welcome it was. After their triumphant Atlantic Ocean bike-tire dip, it was time for warm hugs, a few sips of champagne, and photos all around. Her friend, Kim, who’d driven from Sarasota to welcome Linda back, had a surprise waiting. “She pulled two boogie boards out of her car trunk,” Linda says with a hearty laugh. “We both jumped into the ocean – me still in my biking clothes – and for the next hour and a half we swam, laughed, and splashed in the waves.
“I felt great that I had met this challenge at this point in my life. It made me realize how good it is for me – for all us – to venture out of our comfort zones. We really can do more than we think we can. And we can have a great time doing it. Playing in the ocean that day made me feel like a 7-year-old!”
A 7-year-old. That may be her best number of all.
Steve Harris is a freelance writer and the author of Lanesboro, Minnesota, whose happiest trail is the 42-mile Root River State Trail from Fountain to Houston.
Bike Safely! Riding by Highways: Heads up is best!
When you find yourself biking on the shoulder of a highway, special precautions are needed, says Linda Tacke. “We ended up riding in those conditions more than a few times on our trans-America trip,” she recalls. “To stay safe you need to stay extra careful.”
What practical tips does she recommend?
• Always wear a helmet. Always.
• Make sure your bike has a mirror. You need to see what’s going on behind you as much as what’s going on in front of you.
• Make sure you’re visible! Cars need to see you. We rode with “slow-moving vehicle” triangles on our backs. Our bikes also had flashing lights. Bright clothing helps, too.
• Ride single file – always.
• No ear buds. Stay alert to traffic and to your surroundings. Hearing is an important part of that.
• If cars slow down and bunch up behind you, pull off the road and let them pass. Safe for you, safe for them.
• When at all possible, avoid highway-shoulder biking. Utilize good secondary roads and roads with less traffic, or at the least, roads with good wide shoulders.
• If you need to stop while biking on a highway shoulder, make sure you quickly move at least 10 feet off the roadway.
