January 2025 Newsletter

January 1, 2025    News   

“Keep Going”

A Visit with Maxine Rasmussen

By Dale Dauten
Maxine Rasmussen remembered for us the first time she ever saw The Resort. It was back in 1986. Maxine and husband Leroy were on their way to Silveridge to rent a place. They had friends renting there and were ready to join them for few weeks to get out from the winter back home in Minnesota. But, as they drove to Silveridge, Leroy spotted a sign outside The Resort: “One month = $125.” That was about half of what they were expecting to pay at Silveridge; so, Leroy, with his farmer’s eye for a bargain, turned in. Maxine recalls what they found inside: “It was new and not very full. But, the clubhouse was nice and the people were friendly and there were plenty of activities. So we signed up for the month.”

 

They had a good experience that first visit, but the following winter they gave in to the advice of some friends and instead tried a visit to Florida. But, like so many desert lovers, they couldn’t take the humidity. Maxine recalls Leroy summing up the Florida experience by saying, “The bed sheets are wet when you get into them.”

 

So it was back to The Resort the next winter, and specifically to K Street, as Maxine says, “We got a place on K Street and it was the party street.” And, although, she’s since moved all the way to J Street, Maxine adds with a smile, “I still get invited to their events.”
So, starting back in the late ‘80s, the Rasmussens starting spending winters at the park. Sadly, Leroy passed 21 years ago after a years-long battle with cancer. Even when he was in that fight, he looked forward to the trips to Arizona and only near the end did he admit he wasn’t up to the travel. “I knew he wasn’t going to make the trip — he was fading too fast,” Maxine recalled, adding, “but it took him a while to say it. And he told me, ‘I know how you like it – you should keep going.’” And she has, every year. (Photo: Maxine and Leroy, taken shortly before his death in 2001)
But let’s back up to earlier times, and as we do, get a chance to reflect on just how far living conditions have come over the course of a long life.

 

Maxine grew up on a family farm near a town with the charming name of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, but went to high school in nearby Springfield. Just six months out of high school she married Leroy and the two moved to a rented farm. She described the place as “A very poor farm – we didn’t have electricity for the first two years.” Two years without electricity? In response to my surprise, Maxine laughed and said, “You’re talking to a hillbilly.” Then, after another year had passed, the young couple found a farm to buy in nearby Lucan. This came with a another major upgrade: “It was the first time we had running water. And a bathroom.”

 

The Rasmussens lived on the farm in Lucan till they retired in 1988. Along the way they had four children – three sons and a daughter. You may have met that daughter: she’s Resort resident Barb Beranek. Back in Minnesota, one of the sons still runs that farm. (Maxine’s only family photo here at The Resort is from his marriage. That’s Maxine in the middle and that’s Barb and her family on the left of the newlyweds.) Maxine now has ten grandkids and 22 “greats.”
Asked what she has enjoyed most about her years coming to The Resort, Maxine mentioned painting classes and her years in the quilting club, as well as her time heading up one of the breakfast crews; however, she lit up talking about two current activities – playing cards, especially Shanghai Rummy and 65, and her work making greeting cards. (In the photo below you can get an idea of her work, but in person the cards have a lot of dimension and some even have stitching, like the center one in the photo. She makes cards for personal use, but you can also find them at the park’s Craft Fair.)
It’s been 38 years since Maxine and Leroy first spotted The Resort, and it looks like this will be Maxine’s last winter to travel to Arizona. Now in her nineties, she’s moved into an Assisted Living facility back home in Wabasso and expects to stay there fulltime. She says of the cold in Minnesota, “I’m not afraid of winters – they have everything for you there, so you don’t need to go out.” This from a woman who started out on a farm without running water, a bathroom or electricity. She will be missed and says of leaving the park, “I will miss the friends. I’ve made so many friends.”

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