First Kiss
2015
Amid the ransacking rumble of semitrailers, we stumbled the sloped hill of Pierce Butler, the truck route near the train tracks.
A Copy Boy’s Tale
2015
It was a little before seven on the morning of June 1, 1966, when I entered the stately building at 55 East Fourth Street and hurried up the stairs.
Round Earth
2015
MARY STUCKY GOES around the world. The journalist knows the earth is round, and what goes around comes around, so she has been going around and around.
Immigrant Status
2015
We were ice cream truck connoisseurs
And knew which Popsicles would stain our tongues.
We were rich in playground sand
And told one another, if you step on it, you’re it.
Inchworms and God
2015
When we were ten. We saw a country called Viet Nam on WCCO as we ate dinner on our TV trays from Shell Oil, but that country would go away at the turn of a knob.
I Only Wanted Chicken
2015
I always like to think about the fun one could have around the late 1960s. We could dance the night away. The clubs you could go to if you wanted to dress up or dress down.
A Garden That Changes
2015
Even though it seems like the economy has gone through the wrong tunnel, we as a community have to keep going through the right tunnel. We come together as one, to a place where everyone can pitch in and get something in return.
Imniza Ska (“White Cliffs” of Saint Paul)
2015
One day in June 2011, my wife, Mary Beth Faimon, and I took a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi River from Harriet Island in Saint Paul. On the cruise, I saw, for the first time, Imniza Ska, the white cliffs that line the Mississippi River.
Respite
2015
Skin flakes like the brown earth. The grass, each small and singular strand, lies listless, without hope.
Bratz
2015
A HALE FELLOW with a flair for retail, Todd Romocky grills, listens, hustles, grins. “I’ve been a meat-cutter for the past twenty years.
An Eleven-Year-Old’s Profile in Courage
2015
It is a good collection of boys, my son’s Midway baseball team. They won their share of games, but the biggest victory came with the biggest loss for one of Sid’s teammates. It was an unparalleled profile in courage, not just for him but for all the boys.
Up and Far Out of Sight
2015
It was a hot day like so many days in July, the weekend of the Taste of Minnesota. Weekends around the house always but always, to the dismay of the teenager of the house, consisted of time-intensive, labor-filled yard projects.