GaryOsberg.com

My second car was a 1957 Chevy four door hardtop, red with a black top and spinner hub caps.  In 1962 I was working up the ladder on my way to be a Gas Station Manager.  I worked the night shift at a Standard station on highway 55 in Plymouth.  One evening a client needed a ride home so I offered to give him a lift.  On the way back, an old man made a left hand turn from the right lane and I hit him going 55 mph.   No seat belts back then so I had a very serious back injury. 

I ended up in Swedish Hospital (photo attached) in downtown Minneapolis and I laid there for three weeks undergoing tests.  One of my classmates, Martha Gustafson,  from Upsala class of 1961, was a nurse at Swedish and she did give great back rubs. Finally Dr. Virgil P Lundquist told me that there was a chance that a risky operation would work.  I told him to go for it.  A week later I took a bus home to my mother’s house in south Minneapolis.  I suffered for a while but the operation was a success. 

Now I have been dealing with terrible pain and an inability to walk normally, due to compressed nerves in my spinal cord.  Dr. Benjamin Mueller, of the Twin Cities Spine Center,  will be performing surgery next Tuesday morning at United Hospital in St. Paul.  I don’t know how long I will be out but Dennis Brooks, [email protected] will be covering for me.  I hope to be as good as new in a little while. There will be no Friday notes for a while.

Live from Here this week is a rebroadcast of a show with special guests The Lumineers, Raphael Saadiq, Sarah Jarosz, Jeff Daniels, Aparna Nancherla and Maria Popova.  You can enjoy the show on your radio, computer or your smartphone. 

“Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.”  Joyce Brothers