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In the Midst

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"...for Cokato, Anderson and Calgren. Play Ball!"

5/6/2023

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Gordon W. Nelson. "...for Cokato, Anderson and Calgren. Play Ball!" In the Midst Of, Cokato Historical Society (Spring 1998) v. 18 no. 2. 
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Members of the Cokato Team outside the Sweet Shop: Gordy Forsman, Clair Peterson, Wayne Larson, Alden Burkstrand, Harold Anderson, Clay Calgren, and Gordy Nelson.
It could be any Sunday afternoon from May through August during the golden era of Cokato "town team" baseball from 1933 through 1939. The locale for today's game is Legion Park, arguable the finest baseball facility in this part of the state, certainly among the very few with a grass infield and sunken dugouts. So what if left field slopes slightly away from the infield toward the tennis court. Credit and a sense of deep appreciation should go to Luther "Fisk" Peterson for the countless hours he spends each summer maintaining this community asset.

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Jerry Knapp & Elite Enterprises

4/18/2023

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Revised: Museum Staff. "Jerry Knapp & Elite Enterprises." In The Midst Of. Cokato Historical Society. (July, 2022) vol. 42, no. 2.
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Laser 917 designed by Jerry Knapp.
Did you know that Cokato was home to a race car driver and kit car designer? Did you know that one of his designs ended up in the Disney movie "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo"?

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Lost Cokato: Movie Rental Stores

3/17/2023

 
Museum Staff. "Lost Cokato: Movie Rental Stores." In The Midst Of Blog. Cokato Historical Society. (March 25, 2023) www.cokatomuseum.org.
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Dana Buttenhoff at "Dana's Movies Unlimited, 1984. Photograph is property of the Dassel-Cokato Enterprise Dispatch, used with permission.
In the late 1970s, movies were transferred from theatres to homes in Cokato with the invention of a device called the Video Home System (VHS). A black plastic rectangle encasing two white reels wound with magnetic tape, the VHS was projected onto people's televisions using device called a Videocassette Recorder (VCR). The VCR was an innovative system, which allowed a VHS tape to be physically played, rewound, or fast forwarded. There was no jumping from scene to scene like streaming devises allow today. VHS tapes were affected by dust and humidity, and when watched would produce thin lines that would dart across the screen. VHS tapes also had poor audio and fuzzy resolution (at least compared to today's standards). Content on VHS tapes could even be recorded over. In fact, to prevent the risk of someone recording over something important, like your wedding video, there was a special tab on the VHS that had to be removed. As the popularity of VHS tapes and VCRs began to grow in the early 1980s, businesses like Blockbuster emerged in the U.S., providing the public with a variety of movie selections through rental. In Cokato, one of the first movie rental stores was "Dana's Movies Unlimited."1

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Picture
  • History
    • Akerlund Studio
    • Cokato History
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  • Events & Exhibits
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      • Featured Events
      • Annual Events
    • Exhibits >
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      • Online Exhibits
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