Mickey’s Diner
2010
Have you ever been to Mickey’s Diner? Well, I have. The first time was about four or five years ago. But I remember it clear as day. It looked like a house trailer. When we got there, I was amazed by how small but cool it was. I went inside, and everyone was nice, joyful, polite, and seemed like they were always in a great mood. We got a booth by the window.
Lady Elegant’s Tea Room
2010
"My favorite place in Saint Paul is Lady Elegant’s Tea Room. Lady Elegant’s Tea Room is special to me because that’s where I had my first cup of tea." It’s fun to go there because in the back of the room is a wall lined with hooks. On each hook is a different hat. One hat in particular is special to me. That hat is red velvet with a fingertip veil in the front and three red bows on top of each other on the side. I wear it every time I have tea there with my mom, and it’s my favorite.
November: A Karen Immigration Story
2010
Not everyone in my family made it to Saint Paul. My parents were village people, until the villages were burnt down. Hiding in the jungle, their food was stolen; their friends and relatives starved. Our people, the Karen, were attacked because we have a different culture, language, and religion. My father was shot through his hand. It took a long time to heal. Let me explain. My name is November Paw. My parents fled Burma (Myanmar), over mountains and a great river, before I was born in 1992.
Smiler
2010
“Hey kid,” he coughed out at me from the mint green armchair, “I’ll take it neat.” As he spoke, a rare shaft of late afternoon sun bounced at an odd angle through the dimly lit garden apartment and caught my great-uncle across the face. The mix of dusty light and smoke rising off his Chesterfield cigarette formed a sepia haze around his head. For an instant, his pallid complexion regained some youthful color reminiscent of the once-handsome Marine war hero. Ludwig was his real name, but he went by Smiler. If Smiler earned his name based on congeniality, it was a long- vanished attribute.
WATCH THE VIDEO: Support your local Almanac!
2010
Our goal is to work mutually in Saint Paul communities to support a diverse, connected, and engaged city of people around local literature and art. Arcata Press organizes the Saint Paul Almanac as a people's meeting space for sharing the stories of our community through our annual book, public readings, community editor mentorship program, and other activities that showcase and honor local, diverse voices and artists. This Tuesday is Give to the Max Day. Please visit our website on Tuesday and contribute to our important work. A gift of $25 makes a big difference.
Give to the Almanax Day; Weather love; Coming events; New writing from Greg Brick and Margaret Hasse; Schools fact
2010
At the Saint Paul Almanac, we know we all do better when we know each other. Our goal is to use storytelling to help everyone in Saint Paul become friends and neighbors—one big block club of Saint Paulites that understand and support each other in good and difficult times. The Almanac creates spaces to enable people to share the stories of our community—an annual book, our website, public readings, community editor mentorship program, and other events that showcase and honor local, diverse voices and artists.
Nov 8th, 2010 Lowertown Reading Jam: Tish Jones presents “The Truth: Wants More”
2010
The Saint Paul Almanac continues its year-round literary celebration of Minnesota’s capital city with the acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams. The second season of the eclectic series, curated by Tish Jones, will be presented on Monday, November 8, 2010 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Café, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. The Jams will continue on the second Monday of each month through July 2011.
Exploring the Fort Road Sewers
2010
Back in my younger and more foolish days, I spent a lot of time exploring the sewers under the Fort Road neighborhood of Saint Paul. The tunnels run under every street at an average depth of about thirty feet. These tunnels, which carry raw sewage, were dug out of the St. Peter sandstone bedrock with handpicks more than 100 years ago. Their floors are paved with brickwork. I once painstakingly measured the aggregate length of this sewer labyrinth on sewer maps and found it was thirty miles long—the length of the famous Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. The funny thing is, it’s almost totally unknown to the public.
Big Hair
By Margaret Hasse ● 2010
This fall, our son’s chosen to grow his hair out long. He keeps his tresses clean, Otherwise lets the fields lie fallow, Doesn’t cultivate with comb and brush. One woman on Grand stares so long at his hair, she trips over the curb...
Restoring Sanity in MN; Lowertown Loves Love; Recent Milestones in Saint Paul; More Minnesota Nice; Chow Yun Fat sighting?
2010
Our beloved loons and human snow birds are starting to migrate now, and we hope they stay safe from the miles and miles of oily Gulf Coast waters. The hunting season of our other state bird—the mosquito—has come to a welcome end and—whatcha know?—the long fall shadows of tree limbs extend on our Saint Paul sidewalks like stills from a Tim Burton movie. This blog includes new Almanac writing from David Mura, Janet Preus, Linda Kantner with memory support from Jane Sevald, and Norita Dittberner-Jax.
Memories of Russia with a Dentist in Frogtown
2010
Dr. Sobkoviak of Frogtown, our dentist, stood looking out the window of his office at Western and University and saw Russia. As he changed the point of the drill, looking straight through Old Home Dairy across the street into the Kremlin, he warned me about Nikita Krushchev. He was slow and thorough, stopping to polish his glasses in front of that window. In his starched white tunic, he was a true professional.
On the Mythical Sighting of Chow Yun Fat in St. Paul
2010
She was working first shift at Taco Bell when out of Hong Kong and the two-fisted guns and that scene in the kitchen where he rolled through flour for dumplings and rose white faced as the angel of death...