Our Community of Strangers. Your Stories Welcome Here.
Living history
Chris Valenty: “Here are some photos, taken by Milo Casey, that ran in the Forest Lake Times in 1969. I am the young boy pointing at the moon.”
Continue reading “Half a century on, that “one small step” still looms large in our memories!”
The Permanent Family Record
Including: Know thyselves!
DebK of Rosemount: “There being no farm visits on the calendar last week, my college friend KK and I did some visiting ourselves — making a road trip to the Willa Cather sites in Red Cloud, Nebraska, which turns out to be a lot closer to Kansas than either of us realized.
Oh, and were their faces red!
Deuce of Eagan writes: “My brother and his wife have always enjoyed taking part in Twin Cities events, concerts, and exploring historical places.
Continue reading “A funny thing happened on the way to the James J. Hill House!”
Life as we know it
Norton’s mom of Eau Claire, Wisconsin: “Subject: Perhaps winter wasn’t so bad.
“It was just a week or so ago that I submitted an item to BBonward and remarked that perhaps interesting things worth writing about would start happening again.
“I didn’t specify that I didn’t want those interesting things to involve a bear.
Continue reading “It had been a bear of a day . . . and then a bear showed up!”
Our gargoyles, ourselves
Gregory J. of Dayton’s Bluff: “I’ve always thought of myself as a fairly observant person. I might have to rethink that observation. I’ve belonged to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in downtown St. Paul’s Lowertown for five years, but have been attending Mass there periodically for the past 60 years. So why did I discover only a few weeks ago that there are two gargoyles on the church building?
Life as we know it
Laundry Division
Tim Torkildson: “Subject: The Washing Machine and I.
“Today I did a load of laundry, after stopping by Fresh Market for groceries this morning. I asked the cashier, Evi, who comes from the Philippines, for $3 in quarters. The washer takes $1, and the dryer takes 50 cents, so I have enough change to do two loads. I used to spend an additional quarter on the dryer when I did my towels — but now, with summer at last making a tardy appearance, I hang my wet towels out on my patio chairs and let the sun save me the spare change. I try to bring them back in after an hour, since the limp, disconsolate things make my place look like a trailer park.
Continue reading “Like sands through the hourglass, these are the loads of our lives!”
Fellow travelers
Student Division
Gregory of the North: “With the recent discussions of class trips, I’ve been wanting to send you this recollection — but I hesitated, as it wasn’t so much a class trip as a mission trip.
“It was 1968, and those of us living and hanging out in Luther Hall on the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus decided it would be a good thing for us to go to Chicago and learn about the Civil Rights movement. So arrangements were made, and buses contracted, and soon we were off to Chicago’s South Side.
![Join this ‘stupid [but well-meaning!] white boy’ on a midnight tour of Chicago’s South Side . . .](https://bbonwardcom.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/190529bbcut-swede7.jpg?w=610)
