July 8, 2022
In the summer of 1955 I was 11 years old and we were living in St. Louis Park. My mother signed me up for bible camp. I have no recollection of where it was other than “up north”. I got so home sick, that an older couple was enlisted to drive me to Upsala and my Godfather, Ralph Johnson, drove me the rest of the way back home to 1620 Colorado Avenue in his brand new Chevy. I turned 12 at the end of August.
The next summer Ma sent me packing once again and this time I remember packing a carton of Pall Malls so that I could make money selling packs to other campers. This is was the beginning of my “delinquent years”.
I left this off my resume when I applied for this job at MPR in 1999.
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.” Henry David Thoreau