My Fun at Minnesota & Chicago About 58 Years Ago

 

Jim Walz, the Democrat Vice President nominee has brought back my memories of Chicago and  Minnesota.  Here goes:

I was released from Navy active duty July the 9^th 1965.  About a year later I bought a Triumph sport car.  I decided to drive my new car on a long trip to my Navy friend Don’s parents’  house, in Chicago. At the time I lived with my parents, two blocks from Highway 41.  The directions were simple:   go two blocks east and turn left on Highway 41.  Go north until you see 79^th Steet and turn left again and go down to Troy Street and Don’s parents is on the corner.  That was before Interstate Highways, I think.

After a long trip of 800 or 900 miles I was exhausted.  I  passed out at their dinner table.  His mother was a happy positive person, it is hard to believe she had physical combat with their foreign speaking woman nextdoor neighbor.  Don’s father was blind in one eye.  He worked for the railroad in Chicago.  Railroad employees that worked on the rails had a little BB gun game of shooting each other as they passed each other, shooting from the RR cars.  Don, Sr. was shot in the eye.  Don’s brother was a Chicago Cop, and he also had a teenage sister.

Don at the time worked for the Chicago Tribune, the same as when he went into the Navy.

We had planned ahead saying we were going to drive through Wisconsin and visit our Navy buddy Sam in St. Paul, Minnesota.  But first Don showed off Chicago to me.

When we got on the open road in Wisconsin we pulled over a little store and bought beer and cheese to enjoy on the way through Wisconsin:  When in Rome….

Sam lived in an old two storied house, in an apartment.  That night we barhopped in St. Paul and Minneapolis.  The next day or so we looked up my old cube mate’s name in the telephone and he came by for a visit.  For a while in our office in the  office manager was Ron.  He got out of the Navy about 6 months before we did.  He was a nice guy but being our manager and made sure that anything typed that left our office was perfect.  He was always telling me “Hunter!  CLEAN YOUR TYPEWRITER! 

Sam said he had ran into Ron a few times in Minneapolis and he had a good prestigious  position at a bank.  We decided to visit Ron at work, unannounced.  We went to the bank Ron worked in, looked up in their directory what floor he worked on and visited him.  A secretary was at a desk just outside his door.  We told the lady we would like to speak to Ron.  She said he was at a meeting, would we like to leave him a message.  We said yes, then we said we would leave Ron a note on his desk.  We barged into his office, dumped all his pens, pencils, other office stuff, on top of his desk and left a sheet of paper with Magic Marker thick ink saying, LANGLESS! CLEAN YOUR TYPE WRITER! And left.

Back in Chicago, before driving back to Marietta Don’s mother packed me a lunch.  What I didn’t know until I was blocks down the street on the way to Georgia, Don’s brother Mike wrote me a “Illegal Parking Ticket.

One picture is Don at Marina City.  While Don was giving me the tour of Chicago we visited the famous Marina City apartments overlooking the Chicago River.  We looked a the Model Apartment.  It was shaped like a slice of pie.   I’m sure the apartments’ sales lady representative  did not mind wasting her time.

The other picture are my Navy friends Don and Sam in  a little park in St. Paul overlooking the Mississippi River.