Our Community of Strangers. Your Stories Welcome Here.
Live and learn!
Zoo Lou of St. Paul reports: “Subject: ‘The newspaper is not a toy!’
“Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. I remember putting out these one-page papers (Opie did the same thing in an episode of ‘The Andy Griffith Show’) that dished the dirt and spread rumors like a Hedda Hopper or the National Enquirer.
Continue reading “How the rookie copy boy learned his lesson: ‘The newspaper is not a toy!’”
The Permanent Sisterly Record
The Gram With a Thousand Rules: “Subject: A Tale of Two Sisters.
“My sister Ruth kept a daily diary from her teenaged years until she suffered a stroke in her late 80s. When she experienced a damaging flood in 1981, Ruth dried out the waterlogged books and salvaged as much as she could. Some of the passages were unreadable, but the bulk of them survived. She told her daughter that they ‘weren’t a secret’ and she hoped she would read them someday.
Continue reading “Seven decades later, the memory is as fresh as the cement they stumbled across!”
Gee, our old La Salle ran great
Leading to: Please release me! (responsorial)
The REF in White Bear Lake: “Subject: Gee, our old La Salle Ford Falcon ran great.
“Seeing the post from John in Highland about Fizbee touting Clark Super 100 brought two things to mind: that The REF in White Bear Lake is from Highland, too (but that’s neither here nor there for this discussion), and that I have the program from the Rose Bowl of January 2, 1961. (January 1 fell on a Sunday, so the game shifted.)
Gee, our old La Salle ran great
Leading to: Please release me!
John in Highland writes: “Remember Fizbee?
“He was the comic commentator who gained local fame in the 1950s and ’60s as the radio spokesman for Clark gasoline stations. He was a big fan of the 1960 Gopher football team, which played Washington in the Rose Bowl.
“I can still hear Clark’s jingle (earworm), which played over and over on the radio:
What is right with people?
‘Tis the Season Division
Deuce of Eagan: “Subject: Hospice Holiday.
“‘I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know . . .’
“St. Joseph’s Hospital of St. Paul has made the local news lately. Rumors have started of the possibility of its closing within the next three years. That got me thinking: I bet there are many hundreds of stories that the staff, health-care providers, former patients and volunteers could tell.
Metaphorically speaking
LeoJEOSP writes: “A female relative is currently visiting from a very large northeastern city. She was married a few years ago and said that she and her husband were trying to get in a family way.
Continue reading “How is the beginning of a pregnancy like the end of a hockey game?”
‘Tis the season!
And: The kindness of strangers
Deuce of Eagan writes: “Subject: ‘A Holiday Memory of Kindness,’ or ‘No Trike for the Tyke.’
“For many of us, this time of year provides nostalgic thoughts. They are reflected in the holiday songs, illustrated on the greeting cards, and retold at family gatherings. It is not unusual to hear the sentiment ‘It seems just like yesterday’ near the end of those stories.
