Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
NOVEMBER 16, 2019 – (Cont.) A few miles further—and a few tunes later on ‘Kool 108,’ the radio station that features hits from the 60s and 70s—the announcer said, “Good morning everyone, to the sound of Kool 108, where all day long, we play all the songs you remember from the 60s and 70s.” An open …
NOVEMBER 15, 2019 – Blogger’s Note: For several years quite awhile ago, my sisters, mother, nieces and I wrote daily stories on an online family bulletin board. By the end of our experiment, we’d accumulated thousands of pages of material. Here, in two parts is an entry I posted describing a ride to school one day …
NOVEMBER 11, 2019 – Among my treasures is my memory of my mom-in-law, Cleo Boger, who would’ve turned 99 today had she lived another three years. She was born the same year as the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Cleo lived just long enough to vote for a woman candidate for …
Blogger’s Note: Of 182 posts to date, this is the first to exceed the self-imposed cap of 500 words. It will remain the exception. In the writer’s opinion, slavish adherence to the rule, even via serialization, would detract from the story. NOVEMBER 4, 2019 – This past weekend up at the Red Cabin, I sifted …
OCTOBER 26, 2019 – Sixty years ago I entered kindergarten. My older sisters had blazed the trail, and I remember their enthusiastic anticipation of my first day of school. They told me about all the fun that was in store. “Oh, and you’ll get to ride in the boat, too!” said sister Elsa. “The boat?” …
OCTOBER 21, 2019 – This weekend we had Illiana, our just-turned-four granddaughter, stay with us at the Red Cabin. She’s a dynamo—moving, talking, doing non-stop. During her visit, I wondered what details she’ll likely remember. Gathering “unicorn food” with her grandmother? Sniffing a wintergreen leaf that I folded in half and put to her little …
OCTOBER 20, 2019 – Fast forward two years. Another client, from Florida, had just bought out of bankruptcy, a short-line railroad running from a small manufacturing town 60 miles west of the Twin Cities to a railyard in Minneapolis. He hadn’t acquired the railroad for its freight-hauling business. He’d bought it for all the “sleeper” …
OCTOBER 19, 2019 – (cont.) I’ll never forget the settlement meeting that ensued. The developer was owned by two brothers who’d immigrated from Italy years before. The older brother had been a tank commander in North Africa under Rommel’s command in World War II. Of the Renowned Club principals in the room, one was a founder, …
SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 – Friday, while at historic Fort Snelling just outside Minneapolis, I was struck by a map of Minnesota on which just a handful of names appeared—neither of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and Saint Paul) being among them. The map depicted important sites in the lore and history of the Dakotah Indians who …
AUGUST 13, 2019 – “Doc” Andberg, our town vet and family friend, ran his first marathon a few years after B.C.E. 490 when Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens. I thought Doc was too old to be doing such a thing. He was older than my dad, for Pete’s sake. However, one day on the golf …
AUGUST 12, 2019 – Yesterday, my wife and I continued preparations for 112 guests at our cabin. Nothing else makes the mind so single minded. Among my assignments: cleaning up the writing table in the “scriptorium,” which has become a guestroom. The surface of my desk, which I’d built years ago out of beautiful, reclaimed pine, …
AUGUST 4, 2019 – The next day was another hot, sunny day. Starting around 10:00 in the morning, we jumped on our bikes and patrolled the beach end of Rice Street. Occasionally we’d take a spin around the block. By 11:00 a sizable crowd of swimmers and sunbathers had gathered. Time to strike. I felt an …
AUGUST 3, 2019 – I went to work on my clump of clay: Jedediah Carson passed by here in the year 1845. Bobby watched closely. When I finished, he asked, “What should I write?” I thought a bit and recalled the American Heritage article about the Kensington Runestone—the large stone uncovered by a farmer in rural …
AUGUST 2, 2019 – It was in early August before fifth grade. I’d been down at the beach most of the day. For a change of pace, I went home, hopped on my bike and rode figure eights in the street in front of our house. Something—boredom?—triggered a thought. I pulled out of a figure eight …
AUGUST 1, 2019 – Every good story involves a little background: FIRST: By the age of eight, I was hooked on history. My dad ensured that. He read aloud to me books like William Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico and articles out of his bi-monthly issues of American Heritage magazine. History fired up my imagination. SECOND: Our house …
JULY 26, 2019 – (cont.) As for my part, I was thrilled. Dad, the anti-sports fan, was showing me a new and unexpected side. We hopped in the car and proceeded down West River Road, bound for Bloomington and old Metropolitan Stadium. Along the way we stopped at a burger drive-in in the Camden neighborhood …
JULY 25, 2019 – Yesterday evening my brother-in-law, who is a big fan of baseball, and my sister, who is not, took me—a one-time baseball fanatic—to a Twins-Yankees game at Target Field, an easy walk from their apartment on the edge of downtown and from my office in the center of downtown Minneapolis. The weather …
JULY 14, 2019 – Here are three more “relics of the past.” THE GRINCH. A memo from the department head at my second law firm to all eight department associates, chastising us for being lazy, stupid, and otherwise deficient. The withering diatribe concluded with this: Each of you should reflect on what your career goals …
JULY 13, 2019 – As an early post disclosed, in October 1981 I took a ride on the railroad—the Trans-Siberian—both ways. During the journeys, I drank lots of tea dispensed from the samovar at the end of the carriage. The attendant poured the tea into a tea glass in a commemorative (70 years of Communism), …
JULY 12, 2019 – Recently I moved my offices from the Flour Exchange Building to the TriTech Center, two blocks closer to the center of downtown Minneapolis. What prompted the move was a big rent hike. The new space is fresh, “high-tech,” splashy, and appealing, especially to hipsters . . . like me. It even …
JULY 6, 2019 – Last week I moved my office from the historic Flour Exchange Building to high-tech space down the street in downtown Minneapolis. The move was prompted by a rent hike at the old place and my realization that with the wholesale digitalization of my practice, my office—with space-hogging furniture plus cabinets filled …
JUNE 15, 2019 – It was June 1974. A high school friend who was well aware of my (then) political aspirations had recruited me to sell books door-to-door with a company he’d joined the previous summer. “It’ll be great experience for when you run for office,” he said, “’cause to get elected, you’re gonna have …
JUNE 5, 2019 – One day at Franklin Elementary, where I was a third-grader, the teachers handed out flyers for the Shrine Circus. If you wanted to go, all you had to do was have your parents fill out the form at the bottom of the flyer and pay the dollar to cover the ticket …
MAY 27, 2019 – I come from a family of violinists. Grandpa Nilsson (1891 – 1973) started it all. In Minneapolis in the early 1900s, he played in the pit for silent movies. Later, he established a music school, and at its zenith, he had over 60 weekly violin students. Later still, along came my …
MAY 24, 2019 – The recent flooding in mid-America reminds me of the time when floodwaters inundated my family’s neighborhood. We lived across the street from the Mississippi in Anoka, Minnesota. In March ’65 (I was in fifth grade), the river rose to threaten many homes along our street. One Saturday morning the doorbell rang …