Ed's Museum (and the ladies who cleaned up after him!)

Wykoff Minnesota just kept getting better and better as we met Ruth in front of Ed's Museum for our personal tour. Ruth was a member of the Wykoff Progress Club AKA the women who threw out tons of Ed's crap and organized it into something pretty amazing.
Ed Kreuger lived his whole life in Wykoff. For many of those years he ran a grocery store on Main street and lived in the apartment above. What made Ed special is that he NEVER threw anything away. Ed left all of his lifelong collections AND the contents of his store to the town with the stipulation that it all be made into a museum after his death.
The Wykoff Progress club has more than lived up to their part of the bargain. The women of the town spent two years cleaning out, getting rid of and organizing. Walking through the front door fo Ed's museum is walking through a portal into the past. Unlike other museums, everything is out to look at and touch (carefully!).
There are lots of old food packages, a player piano, toys, old candies and every LIFE magazine ever printed. Some of the more unusual things on display are Ed's gallstones (in a baby food jar) and his beloved cat (in a sealed box).
We all thanked Ruth for the tour and walked back to the Wykoff Tea house for lunch where we were embraced by a collection of town mothers and grandmothers as we headed out to our next destination...