Without a cat trying to wake me up at 0dark30, I was actually able to sleep in to a more reasonable time of day. Like, oh, let us say 0730. Avoiding Starbucks, which I can find just about anywhere in the world, I picked up coffee this morning at Caribou Coffee. At one point it was a completely independent chain in the Twin Cities with a few stores as “far south as Chicago.” If I am remembering, it is now actually owned by Peet’s but has its own definitely local feel.
Catching the Green Light Rail Line, mid-morning we headed toward what was one of our old neighborhoods in St Paul. George’s Legal Services Office had been located upstairs from W A Frost on the corner of Selby & Western. I lived in an apartment a couple of blocks away on Western for slightly less than a year my final year of residency (until the Commodore Hotel blew up in March of 1978 and I lost all the windows in my apartment. It was COLD about then).
There are huge changes along Selby. New construction, a lot of traffic, higher end stores, coffee shops and boutiques. But the St Paul Curling Club is still there as are a few other locations that I faintly remember. We have friends that live a block off Selby who we joined for an early lunch and a chat before enjoying a walk back to the Green Line. University Ave has also under gone massive changes.
The reunion dinner started with a mingle around at 1730 with dinner following. Few speeches, trying to remember a lot of different people. Of note, with extremely rare exception, just about everyone has retired in the last 4-5 years. A few of us early, but not many. Most of the chat was about family, changes in medicine, and a bit of “what have you done for the last X years.” Proportionately, there were more attendees from a distance (California, Seattle, Idaho) then there were those local to the Twin Cities. What should be no surprise to anyone was me avoiding photos.
Back to the hotel at a reasonable time. I provided our contact information to several people, so it will be interesting to see if anyone follows up. Several might, as the Bay Area is a nice place to visit and the Welcome Mat is always out,
