Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
OCTOBER 9, 2021 – Our granddaughter is several weeks into kindergarten, and as close-by grandparents, we share in pick-up and after-school “entertainment” duties. For us the kindergarten experience was in a galaxy far, far away, but not so many light years that lots of details can’t be remembered. Our hard drives had ample storage. One …
SEPTEMBER 28, 2021 – When you’re a kid, you view life through a narrow prism. When you’re a geezer, the perspective delivered only by age allows you to see through a wider lens. Take, for example . . . learning to ride a bike. That rite of passage brought extreme anxiety when I was a …
SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 – No one’s asked me recently, “If you could do life over, what vocation would you pursue?” If I were asked, I’m unsure what I’d say. I might surprise myself and answer, “Law.” With partial sarcasm, I’d say, “Construction crane insurance agent,” because an insurance executive once told me “that’s where all …
SEPTEMBER 8, 2021 – While hiking recently on our “back 40” I encountered a patch of wild strawberries. It reminded me of Wild Strawberries by famous Swedish filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman. I first “experienced” Bergman’s films while I was a student at Interlochen Arts Academy—by name and curricula, an “artsy-fartsy” establishment. It was attended by many students …
SEPTEMBER 5, 2021 – Whenever I hike to the old family cabin, I think about our grandparents, Ragnar and Hilda Nilsson. “Ga,” as we called our grandmother, and Grandpa followed long-established cabin rituals, which fascinated us impressionable kids. Ga came from Småland, a southern province of Sweden. She’d grown up on a farm and attended …
SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 – Late yesterday afternoon, after a day of business and busy-ness, I took to the woods to do some trail work. As the light faded behind an overcast sky, I repaired to the dock and peered at the windswept lake. Not a single boat—underway or stationary—appeared on the water. I scanned the …
AUGUST 10 2021 – Yesterday my sisters and I gathered for one more long visit together before dispersing to our respective “corners.” The last time we’d assembled like this was a full four years ago. With my wife and a brother-in-law as patient observers, my sisters and I sat on the veranda of the place …
JULY 28, 2021 – By appearances, my boyhood town, Anoka, Minnesota, was a provincial place at the confluence of the Rum and the Mississippi. Many of my grade school classmates were farm kids. Some came from homes without telephones. Many folks had been stuck in Anoka or its immediate environs for much too long. Their …
JULY 17, 2021 – Only when I was older and visiting the house in which I spent my first six years did I realize how steep the staircase was between the ground floor and the second story. I’m sure it wouldn’t comply with modern building codes. As I navigated up and down the stairs during …
JULY 16, 2021 – Grandpa had been a fisherman, as I knew from the rods and reels that hung on the back porch of the cabin. There was also the large fishing net that always got snagged on stuff in the green boat box down by the dock. Then there were his stories about canoe …
JULY 4, 2021 – Every country needs one—an “Independence Day,” “Victory over Evil Day,” or “Big Thing to Commemorate Day,” when every citizen, clinically crazy or not, can light off every conceivable kind of sound-and-light device, from a Black Cat firecracker to a whole pyrotechnical display audible and visible miles away. Who cares about speeches, …
JUNE 18, 2021 – Today is our 38th anniversary, but who’s counting? Actually, when you stop counting, years accelerate, and one day you wake up to a number that’s significantly more than half the years of your life (so far). The story of how and where we met and married is as good as any. …
JUNE 16, 2021 – Over the weekend I was visiting with my sister and brother-in-law while sitting in front of the family cabin. Our perch atop the pine-guarded bank that rises sharply from the north shore of the lake afforded a wide-angle view of the water, shimmering from sun and wind. Suddenly the wind changed …
JUNE 7, 2021 – Every Boomer guy I know has the same story. As a kid, he collected baseball cards and built a stable of stars but now has only a vague notion as to what happened to the collection, including superstars like Mantle and Maris. Today they’d be worth millions—or at least a few …
MAY 30, 2021 – When he was old, my Grandpa Holman liked to joke about his age when someone stopped for idle chat. “Know how old I am?” he’d ask with hardly any lip or jaw movement. “No,” the person would say. “Neither do I . . .” Grandpa would respond, adding, “because my birthday …
MAY 12, 2021 – Yesterday I noticed a few doors down, a parked van belonging to a plumbing outfit named, “Weld & Sons.” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a business name that included “Sons” or “Brothers” (or “Bros.”). Back in the day—my day, anyway—you’d see a lot of trucks, stores, and commercial …
APRIL 19, 2021 – From 1897 through 2019, the Boston Marathon was held on Patriot’s Day—April 19 (after 1968, the third Monday in April). This year the traditional date coincides with the third Monday in April, though thanks to Covid, the race will run in October. I “ran Boston” five times, but my first—1978—was most …
APRIL 18, 2021 – Most “lake people” nowadays have a light-weight aluminum dock installed by easy-to-manage sections or by its own big wheels mounted under the front. In either case, most lacustrian dwellers hire out the task to a friendly, local service for a not-so-friendly fee. I don’t know of any research into the possible …
APRIL 5, 2021 – Being tree-hugger, I can’t stand a good piece of scrap of lumber going to waste. I caught this disease from my dad, who, in turn, had inherited it from his dad. My other grandpa collected scrap metal. Figures. He was an industrialist kind of guy. My dad and paternal grandpa, however, …
MARCH 23, 2021 – Forty years ago this month I embarked on a solo trek around the world. Traveling alone, I was never lonely. Without today’s technology, I navigated via guidebooks, paper maps, and total strangers, whom I learned to size-up quickly by their eyes, posture, and corners of the mouth. Though I chose destinations—such …
MARCH 22, 2021 – One day when I was a little kid my sister Elsa told me how to spell Hungary. I’m not sure of the circumstances, but in her usual, authoritative way, she informed me that although the country name sounded like “hungry in the stomach,” it was spelled with an “a, as in …
MARCH 20, 2021 – Friday marked the death of Byron Hanson, musician and teacher extraordinaire at Interlochen Arts Academy. I first heard about Mr. Hanson from my sister Elsa. As I prepared for my first year at Interlochen—immediately following Elsa’s last—she told much about his genius, dedication, and inspiration. A graduate of Edina High School …
MARCH 18, 2021 – As I lifted the receiver and started dialing home, Barbie S_________ (don’t worry; by fifth grade she’d become “Barb” and “Barbara”) interrupted me. She was one of my party group and consistently the smartest, most aware kid in our class. “We’re not leaving in the middle of the movie, are we?!” …
MARCH 17, 2021 – Often I play a mind game involving conversations with people of my past, including myself; past—as opposed to future—is only natural, given that “my movie,” you might say, is well past intermission. Speaking of “intermission,” I remember clearly my introduction to the word. The occasion was my eighth birthday party, or …
MARCH 16, 2021 – Hanneys were unusual for our insular town, which straddled the Rum River where it debouches into the Upper Mississippi. Father Hanney spoke with a Welsh accent, and his wife Nell talked with an English one, though I couldn’t distinguish between the two accents. To my young American ears, the older Hanneys …