The list of credits for online and offline dedication to the Cooler Crew continues to grow. Many people have helped get this thing off the ground, which means if you see that a name needs to be added to the list, contact the webmaster. Credit will be given to both those who have inspired and those who continue to aspire to great things for the Cooler Crew Online Community. Those who perspire heavily and for no good reason will likely be left off the list (unless a medical certificate is included with an explanation for all that sweat).

Attendees: Dave Young, Eags, Allison, MJ and TT, Emmy and Hannah's Mom and Dad, Green, Radar, Inks and Terry Valentine. We had our favorite waitress there, too. Her name is Katie. She's a very mature 16-year-old, and she's a real sweetheart.

We wandered in as usual, in a span of about an hour. Most of us were there by 5:30 p.m., with Eags and Dave Young coming a bit later. Allison brought some games to share.

We had dinner - and it was wonderful! We ended up playing Scattergories most of the night. There were lots of laughs, lots of fun, and lots of great company! Eags brought some pictures from the prehunt bash, the rehash bash and our meeting with Bob e, and the torte-eating contest that Dave Young entered at the Fitger's Bock Fest! It's fun passing pictures around. Now that the snow is about gone, it seems like quite awhile ago that we were hunting. Time does fly!

Then as the evening ended...we all went home, got on our 'puters, and talked with each other online.

Those attending the 1999 Fitger's Bock Hunt and Festival in Duluth, MN: Dave Young, Eags, Ian and his wife Micki and sons Kris and Kollin, Allison and his friend Kirsten, Inks and Terry Valentine.

The Cooler Crew was extremely successful this year! Of the seven bocks hidden, and the six found, the crew found five of them! Kris found the King; Micki found the Queen; Inks, Kirsten and Ian found three of the months.

The prize associated with the King was a night's stay at Fitger's hotel. The Queen was good for dinner at Bennett's (the restaurant at Fitger's). Inks won a $25.00 gift certificate to the Wine Cellar and Ian won a sweatshirt. Kirsten won a $25.00 gift certificate for the Lake Superior Brewery store.

That hunt is just so much fun! It's four hours in length: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. All the bocks are hidden in stores throughout the Fitger's complex. It's great being able to hunt indoors after a full week of digging around in the wet snow of St. Paul for the Winter Carnival medallion.

A fellow Crew member, "Bob e" joined us at about 12:30 p.m., and we ended up visiting more with him than hunting after that. Although we did continue to hunt and peck around the complex, we had already found most of the bocks and had nothing further to prove.

After a meal in the Fitger's complex and a nice drive up the North Shore, we planted ourselves in a Duluth coffee shop called Browser's. They serve coffee, tea, and Internet access, so we had some beverages and posted to the Pioneer Planet Water Cooler from there. Eventually, we all went back to the hotel, where "Emmy & Hannah's Mom" had brought her computer with her! She was connected in the hotel room, so we slogged a bit and some of us posted a few messages.

While "Emmy & Hannah's Dad" took a nap, we decided to head back to Fitger's. Dave entered the torte-eating contest. Dave, you see, has a full, Santa-esque beard. He didn't win the contest but was declared the best character. You should have seen that beard - what a mess!

We then stayed to watch the team beer-drinking contest. The "Bubba" team won that event (the name says it all). That festival is full of good times and great fun!

Later that evening at Canal Park, we heard the bridge. It was up all the way! There was a long, 1,000-foot ship leaving port! It was an unexpected surprise, as it's a bit early for shipping. But, somehow, it added the perfect touch to our perfect weekend.

Attendees: E&H's Mom and Dad, Allison Wonderland, medallionstallion, Radar, Green, Eags, Mr. Mags, Dave Young (with his friends Bob, Scott, and Stanley), Lady Lou and Big B (Buzz) - from Wisconsin, Inks and Terry Valentine, Q (all the way from Texas) and her Mom, Grandma Red.

Our first official STB-L! at Tuscany Grill was a great success. Katie, our waitress is the greatest. She helped us feel right at home. The place is so comfy. The meals are very reasonably priced and you get generous amounts. I'm sure we'll go back there again.

As usual, we arrived in a staggered fashion and left much the same way. Most of us were there by 6 p.m., though Q and her Mom, Grandma Red, didn't get there until about 9 p.m. Q's birthday had been earlier in February and Green's birthday was the next day (Sunday). We celebrated with cake and gifts, sang a very good rendition of Happy Birthday, and the birthday girls blew out their candles. (To avoid number confusion, each birthday celebrant had a "?" candle!)<

We visited, laughed, tried some Trival Pursuit - Baby Boomer Edition questions, and visited some more.

Allison brought a road rally from Rand McNally - "The Valentine Massacre." Stallion volunteered to copy and fax the instruction book (about 50 pages) to those that wanted to participate. The entry is due March 1 so we don't have a whole bunch of time. It should be fun to try it out though.

Q and the rest of her family will be back up in Minnesota this summer. We're hoping to do a picnic while they are here.

Lady Lou and Buzz made the trip again from Wisconsin. We've been invited to their lake home sometime in summer.

We had a great time. Allison and Stallion are good additions to the Crew. We hope they will become regulars at our gatherings.

Allison has also been working on a hunt at Como Park. The powers that be at Como like the idea, but can't do it this year. They've already allocated their resources for other projects this year but would like to do it in 2000. It will be a riddle, word puzzle kind of hunt that will require finding answers that will be written on an entry form. No physical digging required. Stay tuned for more about this. Allison is noodling if we could do it somewhere else this year.

Bock a long, long time ago... In northern climes a group of folks met on the Internet to hunt a prized blue disk in a wonderful magical medallion hunt sponsored by a wonderful, loving Mom (i.e., Pioneer Press).

Many of these folks hunted at nite and the Chief Hunter - the one fullest of wisdom and hunt knowledge (Greg Sax) - suggested that all Cooler Hunters (hence forth called, as they are known today, Cooler Crew Members) wear something white on their upper body when hunting so that a) when one Cooler Crew Member came upon another in the heat (what HEAT?) of the hunt they would recognize each other and b) the white would stand out in the dark.

Many an item was worn - a diaper (New Daddy) around the arm, a sock, and even a baseball cap. And so white became the official color of The PioneerPlanet Cooler Crew, a.k.a. Coolerheads!

Time went on in this beautiful locale in the environs of St. Paul, MN... and spring came...

Some of The Cooler Crew got together for a bock hunt - hunting wooden goat heads - at a northern brewery to keep honed their hunting skills for the next Medallion Hunt. At that hunt, one Crew Member (Cheryl) gave all gathered Cooler Crew Members a white plastic pith helmet - white, as it is the Official Colour of The Crew... and a pith helmet as the original Cooler Crew Members first met at that very special, magical *hunt* - The St. Paul Pioneer Press Winter Carnival Medallion Hunt - and first and foremost are hunters!

Our Medallion Page continues to grow, now with the added shimmer of a front-page St. Paul Pioneer Press article which mentioned our place as one to come to for more medallion information. Okay, so it's not really fair to take glory when "Mom Press" sponsors our community-building efforts, but, hey, it's primarily been an online affair until this year. The e-mails are starting to pour in, some with great new ideas, offers of additional help, and fresh material to add to the site. As with any architectural effort of this magnitude, construction will always include a little help from our fine, union friends. Please continue to send whatever medallion stories and images you have on file; and if you don't have 'em on file, write 'em down. Together we will make this site a treasure trove of medallion lore.

Attendees (Names often given as Water Cooler Message Board handles): Snohuntress, hubby and SnoHunterJr, Ian (Micki and Kollin made a cameo appearance), Hollywood, Pablo, medallion stallion aka Stallion, SueBee, SueBees' huney, E&H's Mom and Dad with Emmy and Hannah, New Daddy with spouse and 13-month-old son (congrats on the soon to be 2nd child!) Green, Inks and Terry, Allison Wonderland, Wright Winger stopped in but couldn't stay, Wish You Were Here also made a cameo appearance, MJ with hubby TT and daughter LuLu, Eags, Dave Young, and a special appearance by Aaron Neidorf who led a parade of medallion seekers out to see where the prize had been found. Several people sent regrets that they couldn't make it because of previous engagements. We hope they can make it to one of our other events this year and the Third Annual Rehash Bash next year!

[Note from Webmaster: We will be promoting the third bash like no other. Two years in a row we've had the medallion finder(s) with little to no advance advertising. The past two years have been grand, next year will be stellar.]

This was a pot-luck affair. Ian brought his special sloppy joe medallions and a fabulous pie, MJ brought chili, Eags brought her special artichoke/crab dip and noodles, Mom and Dad brought barbecued pork for sandwiches, Terry and Inks brought a sour grape and nut noodle salad and Valentine cookies, Snohuntress and family had cookies, nuts and something else (beans?), New Daddy brought pizza, Green brought deviled eggs and corn on the cob - no potato salad...but someone else did, Dave Young brought the best citrus fruit - Clementines, Allison brought sweet-and-sour chicken, and there were other Valentine cookies, peanut M&M's, chips and a cheesecake. I know I'm probably missing something here...but the list should indicate that we were not hungry after sampling all that food. And everything was delicious! We have some wonderful cooks in this crew!

We had a sign-up sheet for a later clean-up at the park. It sure looked desolate. Nothing but ice and dirt wherever you looked. I suspect that little actual damage was done that a bit of spring weather and a good ballfield tender won't be able to fix in a short time.

The staff at the park were great! They brought us tables and chairs to use and made us feel welcome. Of course, they were invited to eat, too. Bet that was the best meal they had had for a long time. They were very accomodating.

It was fun to see some hunters from last year and to meet new ones from this year. There was the usual re-noodling the clues and a periodic groan from one of us that it is really over for another year.

But things are looking up! We have the bock hunts at Schell's and Fitger's to get us through 'til Spring...and it's only about 50 weeks to the next hunt!

images courtesy of Dave Young
for the full set, visit his Cooler Crew Photos web site.

Attendees (Names often given as Water Cooler Message Board handles): Eags and her friend Vickie, Eags son Magnus and his friend Brent, MJ, Green and her friend Sue not the Vet (SnotV), Radar, Dave Young, Ian and his family - Micki, Kollin and Kris, Mom and Dad, Reid - aka Goat Boy, SueBee and SueBee's Honey and his friend, last years medallion finders - Maureen Hursey, her husband Dan and her brother Steve, Inks and Terry Valentine, and two families totaling five people (including SnoHuntress and Marie G. Clark) that came because they knew we'd be there! I sure hope I didn't forget anyone. That makes 29 people!.

It was great seeing so many people all suffering from medallion fever. Some were people we knew before and others were new friends.

The two families that totaled 5 attendees included a young man named SnohunterJR who had a special Coleman shovel he brought to show the rest of us. He is a serious hunter! They had folders of information they had printed out from our web site. It was wonderful to see all that information being put to good use and being noodled over. These families have only hunted a couple of years, but they have medallion fever big time!

Some might recall Reid is the hubby of Cheryl Straight who posted quite often during last year's hunt. They had also gone to Duluth with us for the Fitger's Bock Hunt. On that note, Ian's son, Kris, found one of the three bocks found at Fitger's. That is a family of serious hunters!

Sue not the Vet (SnotV) had Winter Carnival buttons to sell. That was great. People without buttons yet had a chance right then and there to get them. (No scalping, we promise, okay Winter Carnival organizers?)>

It was great seeing Maureen and Steve - the resident royal family members who found the medallion last year - and to meet Maureen's hubby, Dan. A couple Cooler Crew members touched them, hoping their good luck last year would rub off on them for this year.

Most of the evening was spent visiting with regulars, catching up with others from last year and meeting new folks. We had a few drinks, ate dinner, and continued visiting.

We had hoped to find a modem connection for someone's cell phone, but couldn't get one of the right type in time and within anyone's budget. We wanted to go live to "The Medallion Hunt" board from Patrick McGovern's when the clue came out at 11:30 p.m. Our plan B was to have Patsfan (from Missouri) call Mom's cell phone at 11:30 with the clue.

Shortly after MJ got home, she had logged on and found the clue had been posted - several hours early! She called Mom on her cell phone and gave her the clue. Green talked to her and would not believe that it was real. How could Mom Planet post the clue so early? This must be a hoax.

Then Mom's phone battery went dead. How was Patsfan going to call us? We noodled that for a bit and Eags came up with a plan. She called her brother, talked him through posting her cell phone number on the board for Patsfan and then we waited. Not long and Patsfan called! Eags then had her brother delete the message. It was so nice of Patsfan to call with the clue. He is one of us, even though he's separated from us by a couple of states.

The clue was the same! It was not a hoax! We could hardly believe what happened. It turns out the clue was posted on the official medallion clue board at the Pioneer Planet and then taken down again. Our guess is that an early posting of the clue will not happen again during the hunt.

Once we knew we had the clue, those that were still at McGovern's left and went to check out the Cooler Crew Mobile that Mom's employer is lending us for the hunt! It has a potty, a stove and fridge, a furnace and seating so we can warm up while we drink our coffee or hot cocoa!<

The hunt is on!!!

Our next gathering will be our 2nd annual Rehash Bash on Sunday, February 7, 1999. The time will probably be at 11:30 a.m. and the place will be determined once the medallion is found.

Most online forums have their nuisances, and the Medallion Hunt discussion group has been, unfortunately, no exception. Flamers, ranters, potty-mouths...they all turn up now and again. Oftentimes, the troublemaker will suddenly go mum as the group moderator clams them up with magic knobs and switches at Pioneer Planet headquarters. But one young fellow (at least we presumed he was young based on his k12.edu e-mail address) was a reasonable enough flamer to NOT have posting privileges taken away. He called himself many things, but mostly he was Joe Medallion.

His name is mentioned in the past tense for the sake of consistent tense, but he's certain to be around for 1999 and beyond as his antics seem to amuse himself more than anyone else. Joe would often have conversations with himself under different monikers, usually during the school day, leaving us to wonder how our public funds were being spent and whether or not this strange young man was somewhat schizophrenic. There would be times that he seemed generally interested in following ideas about where the medallion was hidden, and there were other times when he seemed to relish in spurning the group and calling us all freaks that needed to get a life.....and then he would apologize for his behavior or blame it on one of his alteregos. It was all very confusing but fascinating as well – so we tolerated it and eventually named a Cooler Crew nonevent after him.

That nonevent, the "Joe Medallion" or "Joe," is when anyone gets a post that falls on a 0. Post #11,340 would be a "Baby Joe," but post #35,000 would be the truest of a true "Joe." The practice stems from Joe's own annoying habit of posting continuously until he would achieve a magical 0 number, followed by the exclamation "I got it!" Rather than fight it, we took it as our own and nurtured it. Maybe Joe was right.....maybe we are all freaks that need to get a life. Or maybe our cynical definition of "life" just isn't the same as his. Seeya next year, Joe.

Epilogue - by Joe Medallion himself. Sort of.

These days old Joe can still be found around these parts. Yes, he's no longer a part of the forums. He hasn't been since the Water Cooler disappeared in 2002, and ever since we've been using a pay to post site, he hasn't bothered to pay to post. However, all sites need some sort of "anonymous" user, since not everyone wants to post stories publicly as themselves. Over on Slashdot, that poster is given the name "Anonymous Coward". Here, in Joe's honor, any anonymous posts will appear to come from our own Joe Medallion.