Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
APRIL 23, 2024 – Next door to the Benzians lived Harlan Thurston and his wife, and next to them, Harlan’s brother, Clayton and his wife and son, Gladys and Charlie. If I was ever inside Harlan’s house, it would’ve been ever so briefly—seconds, maybe—and in the company of my mother in connection with some fund-raising …
APRIL 22, 2024 – In a sleek, elegant, modern, low-profile house with a well-maintained lawn that swept down to the Mississippi River lived the Benzians—Dick and Margaret and their three sons, Peter, John, and Stephen. From the street, the house was all but hidden by trees that separated the dwelling from the open half of …
APRIL 21, 2024 – Replacing the Tobins were the Joslyns—Warren, the dad, a realtor and jazz trombone player; Audrey, the mom, who was always well attired and perfectly even-keeled and had some part-time job outside the home, and the four boys: Mark, in Nina’s class; Dave, two years ahead of me; Jim, two years behind …
APRIL 20, 2024 – The next family to move into the Perkins’ old house on Rice Street were the Tobins. Mr. Tobin was a traveling salesman of whom sightings were extremely rare. He drove the family’s nice car, I remember—a late model Mercury—while his easy-going wife Mickey was stuck with an ancient green Ford. I …
APRIL 19, 2024 – In the enormous house on the other side of the Ridge (Roecker, Fenwick, Snyder) house first lived—during my life on Rice—the Perkins, followed by the Tobins, and the Joslyns. I spent lots of time in the house, especially under the Joslyn regime, since they had four sons, three of whom were …
APRIL 18, 2024 – (Cont.) The next fall, Bobby and I, along with other neighborhood boys, had stepped up our game substantially. In addition to various forms of football and baseball, we were now playing war on a regular basis. I didn’t yet know much about WWII. (Dad had a permanent deferral based on his …
APRIL 17, 2024 – (Cont.) In retrospect I’m interested in the origins of my own personality traits, good and bad; or if not the origins necessarily, perhaps their first manifestations. On the plus side, I’d always had a modicum of empathy for my peers. If another kid got hurt or dissed or bullied, no matter …
APRIL 16, 2024 – (Cont.) Over the two or three years during which we chummed around, Bobby and I alternated between being good friends and not-so-good friends. Perhaps it was boredom that bred contempt or just the opposite—with no one else to play with, we decided to make the best of time with the one …
APRIL 15, 2024 – After the Fenwicks moved out, the Snyders moved in at 443 Rice—the parents, Ivan and Dorothy, the son David, who was a year ahead of my oldest sister, then Jane, in Elsa’s class, Beth, a year older than me, and Bobby, who was two grades behind me. Bobby and I spent …
APRIL 14, 2024 – After the Ridges moved to St. Cloud, their old house was occupied in succession by the Roeckers, the Fenwicks, and the Snyders. As mentioned in the Introduction to this series, The Neighbors, a while after acquiring their airplane, our friends the Roeckers moved to the other side of town. That made …
APRIL 13, 2024 – (Cont.)The house next door to Johnsons changed hands three time from 1954, the time we moved to the neighborhood, to 1968, when I flew the coop for boarding school, later college, then the world. When we moved to Rice Street, the Ridges—Will and Ginna, Becky, Johnny and three years later, Tommy—occupied …
APRIL 12, 2024 – Perhaps my own vocational destiny was inevitable, given how well the law was represented at our end of the neighborhood. There was Judge Green next door, of course, and Dad himself, who was clerk of court, but then on the opposite corner of Rice and Green from our old house was …
APRIL 11, 2024 – (Cont.) Of all our neighbors, the first whom I observed close-up and most regularly was Judge Green, whose modest but well kempt home and lot were on the north side of our family’s original house and grounds at the corner of Rice and Green. As a little kid I assumed that …
APRIL 11, 2024 – (Cont.) When Mother and Dad built their dream house on the lot between our original house and Rathbuns, they asked the general contractor to hire ol’ John to do the plumbing. I remember well the evening when the contractor, John and several other sub-contractors appeared at our house so Dad could …
APRIL 9, 2024 – (Cont.) My daring ventures into Rathbuns’ house occurred over several times during my youngest years. Those were still the times when we could follow Mrs. Rathbun from the street all the way up the long driveway along the side of the house to the back and the only accessible entry. As …
APRIL 7, 2024 – Because they were our immediate neighbors, I observed much about the Rathbuns, but based on what I later learned about them, I wish I’d inquired more when I’d had the chance. Their intense non-conformity made our family look entirely normal. A quick drive-by revealed that much about the Rathbuns was actually …
APRIL 6, 2024 – I remember well that beautiful summer day between second and third grade—warm and filled with sunshine. Lyle Roeckers, two doors down, had recently acquired an airplane and was offering rides to our family. I say “rides,” plural, because there were more of us than there were seats in the plane, and …
APRIL 5, 2024 – One thing that happens as you approach an age involving a zero and the first whole number following six is that you turn reflexively 180 degrees to feast on memories. This is understandable, since what await in the opposite direction are far fewer years and much lower prospects than what filled …
MARCH 15, 2024 – (Cont.) Once launched the book was on a roll. Our neighbor directly across the street happened to be building a business promoting local authors. She offered to help me gratis to enhance her resumé. She landed multiple signing events at area bookstores and appearances on locally popular talk shows. Before the …
MARCH 14, 2024 – (Cont.) When I emerged into the public space of the bookstore, I was flabbergasted. In implementing my marketing efforts for the signing event, I’d given no thought to crowd limitations imposed by the Minneapolis fire code. The entire downtown workforce seemed to have turned out. If half of them bought a …
MARCH 13, 2024 – (Cont.) Several months before my inaugural signing event at the Barnes & Nobles store in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, I happened to be in the store for another lawyer’s book debut. The book itself was flimsy in form and substance and smacked of a DYI project. I knew full well …
MARCH 12, 2024 (Cont.) It so happened that a year before I was fired, David, a member of the law department applied for an open position in my group. He made it to the final round and was scheduled to meet with me. We’d never even heard of each other before the job had been …
MARCH 11, 2024 – (Cont.) That evening I went for a long run—a very long run. As I circled Lake Como in St. Paul, a mile from our neighborhood, I resolved to see my firing as a positive event. Just as a Politburo member’s “catching a cold” had been laughable code for “falling from power,” …
MARCH 10, 2024 – (Cont.) Two weeks later, the newly anointed boss came to town to meet his former peers, now subordinates. He was as inscrutable as ever. I imagined that behind his back he carried a sharpened ax. From his perch in Dan’s old office, he began a series of one-on-one meetings with his …
MARCH 9, 2024 – (Cont.) As most of my peers and I had foreseen, the day arrived when Dan departed for a bigger and better job in the corporate empire of what was now Wells Fargo Bank. The merger had taken everyone by surprise, including the president of Norwest Bank, who reportedly was informed of …