It is said that as people age they often get a bit forgetful about things that have happened in their long lives. John Stenbroten, who was feted at a 90th birthday party this past Saturday, admits there is one thing he can't remember. "I have no memory of our trip across the ocean from Norway to Wisconsin." After a pause, he says with that wry, almost impish grin that is often so much a part of the stoic Norwegian immigrants, that it reminds you of Garrison Keillor's stoic Lake Wobegon Norwegians. "Of course, I was only two months old when we got on the ship to America." "But," he said, "my very first memory in America was when I was two years old and my sister, Ruth Stenbroten-Duerst, was born. At that time all the births were at home."

It would seem that when the entire area turns out to help you celebrate your 90th birthday you would be the celebrity at the head table. But not so for John. As you entered Barnaby's this past Saturday, there was John, just inside the door acting the part of the greeter and not the guest of honor. But that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who knows him.

He loves to talk about the area in Norway where his family came from, Bagn Valders, which is the Norwegian equivalent of our counties. "Only 30% of the land is usable. It's beautiful country with long valleys, high mountains, rivers, pine trees and lots of beautiful scenery." But, he warns, "this beautiful scenery can very quickly become fatal because of the tons of heavy, wet snows and five months of darkness."

When he and his parents came to America, it was the end of a long journey to get here. In Norway, the prevailing farming tradition at that time was the oldest son gets the farm and the younger siblings had to go out on their own. John's father, Oluf, was the oldest son who inherited the family farm. "Dad had eight younger brothers in the Dakotas near Manville, North Dakota. They came over when the land was free."

"Dad would get letters from his brothers telling him how great the United States was. They extolled all that they had here, doctors and dentists and many things like this." Two of Oluf's good friends had returned to Norway for a visit. During that visit Oluf asked them to put in a good word for him, so that he could come to the United States. At that time, those hoping to come to the United States needed a sponsor. It took seven years from this conversation until a farmer in the Town of York looking for help offered to sponsor John's parents. Ultimately, John's parents purchased their own farm in the Town of York. As this played itself out, John mentioned that from about 1860 to 1925 there was a very large emigration from Norway to the Town of York.

In 1973, John and his Dad returned to the family land in Norway where John met 42 of his cousins, as well as eight aunts and uncles. Still a fluent speaker of Norwegian, John said they complimented him on his Norwegian language skills, which needless to say made him feel quite good.

After getting married to Beatrice Voegeli, Monticello, daughter of Leon Voegeli, in 1946, the newlyweds rented a farm owned by Ben Feldt, near Monticello in 1947. "In 1954, Leon asked if I would be interested in taking over his business, Voegeli Chevrolet/Buick dealership, as Leon was planning on retiring."

For quite a few years Leon and John worked together in the dealership, and as three of John's four sons got out of high school and college, they became involved in the dealership as well. Reflecting on his years in the car business, he looks back at all the advances that have been made over the years.

One that he is very proud of was the founding of the Wisconsin Automotive Trades Assn. "That group really cleaned up the auto business of bad practices. The group promoted good business practices and lobbied for good laws that cleaned up business dishonesty. They made Wisconsin the cleanest state for automobile sales!"

In looking back on his many years in the car business he said there have been a lot of changes. "When I started in 1954, Green County had 28 new car dealers. Today we have seven."

"Many things have changed in the car business. One of the biggest things that helped all the car dealers was the establishment of the Cuba City, WI, car auction. That gave new car dealers a place to market their used cars that were not sellers in their own market, and it established what the true price of the used cars were really worth."

When asked what the single biggest change was in the car business during his many decades the answer was surprising, "The moon landing. The moon landing brought on an entirely new world of technology that never existed before. Go back in the shop now and each guy has a computer to aid them in making the necessary repairs."

Overall, the American car scene has changed tremendously over the past 50 years. John points out that not too many years ago General Motors alone had 56% of the market share in the United States. "The Buick nameplate today has only one manufacturing plant in the United States. The rest all are in China."

Perhaps one of the biggest changes for the dealership came in 1995, when the Stenbroten family purchased the former Karlen Ford dealership in Monticello. That purchase closed the circle of from where Voegeli Chevrolet and Buick came from. A couple of years before the beginning of WWI, Leon Voegeli started his first dealership in Monticello, a Ford dealership, which he sold to the Karlen family when Leon went off to Europe during WWI. Today Monticello Ford is operated by Steve Stenbroten, John's son and Leon Voegeli's grandson.

During the heyday years of auto sales, the Voegeli operation typically sold 7-800 cars per year. It is also worthy of note that Voegeli Chevrolet is the third oldest Chevrolet dealership in the United States.

In addition to his fatherly duties and running a large business, John also gave much time to community service, spending four years on the Monticello Village Board and 22 years as village president. John chuckles a bit when asked about his village government time. "When I got on the board we had only two village ordinances, stop signs and speed limits, and John Stenbroten observed both ordinances."

Now retired, John drops in most days at the dealerships and still has an office at the Chevrolet facility. Up until this year he was an avid golfer and, in winter, a card player. He also has gotten back to an early love of his that developed while in grade and high school...music. He related that after high school he and several friends had a dance band for a number of years. John has been taking music lessons for the past few years and has taken up both the guitar and keyboard.