Today’s guest post is by Joanne.
Ever since I got interested in theater in high school, the thought of moving to Minneapolis took hold of me. Whether instinct, destiny, fate, or what have you, I was drawn to the City of Lakes, home of the famed Guthrie Theater and the Jewel of the Midwest. Green Bay, Wisconsin was not a small town, but back then it was just Packers, beer and cheese it seemed.
After a year and a half of college in Green Bay and a year stint working in a creamery, I was definitely ready to fulfill my dream of acting and finishing my degree at the U of MN. The final step was registering for classes in person during the summer at a prescribed day and time at the Minneapolis campus. I took a few days off work from the creamery and got a friend to drive with me. I didn’t want to go alone to the “big city”, so we found a cheap motel room close to campus. Anybody know of the Gopher Motel? There was no internet to check these things out, so I just winged it as best I could using a (paper!) map.
We arrived at our seedy hotel room early in the evening on a Monday night, excited about our adventure. On a whim, we called the Guthrie just to see what was playing. Back then, they had Monday night Rush tickets with a show at 8pm – and they had a few seats available for Monsieur de Moliere playing that night. It was nearly 7:15pm – should we do it? The person at Guthrie ticket office assured us we were only 15-20 minutes away. With frantic excitement, we called a cab, got dressed and ready for our special night on the town.
We arrived with just enough time to buy the last $5 (five dollars!) rush tickets and the last ones seated. Unbelievably, these were the best seats (known as house seats, which are saved to the last minute in case of mistakes or surprise VIPs). While local critics panned this particular play, I was absolutely enthralled. I think it was about the life of Moliere and his benefactor, King Louis IV. Everything about the production was amazing to me.
I was seated on the aisle, close to front and center. I’ve never had such excellent seats again at the Guthrie! At one point in play, the actor playing King Louis XIV was in the aisle next to me, seated on his “throne” while watching or talking to Moliere onstage. I just stared at him. His costume was magnificent – a white satin with rich gold brocade material on everything –hat, waist coat, pantaloons, shoes – with poufs, gold braid and lace accenting every detail. A long elaborately curled wig adorned his head. The costume was gorgeous, excessive yet tasteful as was the fashion of the period.
I clearly remember ogling that costume so close to me and thrilling to the amazing acting I experienced during the production. My first few years in Minneapolis, I felt the Guthrie could do no wrong.. Every time I attended a play there was a thrilling event for me. Before kids arrived, I had season tickets for 2 years for cheap seats on Sunday matinees (I hate driving at night). Eventually, I realized even the Guthrie had occasional clinkers, but it never dimmed my enthusiasm and the special thrill I felt each and every time I went to that magical place.
There is always a bigger town somewhere. Name one that boasts a unique and intimidating experience you’re excited and afraid to have?
Trail Baboon 
Rise and Shine Baboons!
I have yet to make it to the Great City itself, New York City. What intimidates me is actually getting to whatever hotel/motel I book–I don’t know how that works, so I just can’t quite get myself there the first time. I know you can get a cab, but everything I hear about NYC cabs tells me they are not reliable enough to actually get me where I want to go–the drivers no longer speak English, they rip you off, they get stuck in traffic, etc. Once I get to the hotel in a neighborhood I want to see, I know how to walk anywhere I want to go. But when I have investigated a trip to NYC transportation from the airport to the hotel is the hurdle I cannot overcome.
So I mastered Minneapolis right off the Iowa turnip truck, Paris, London, Rome, LA, Atlanta, Chicago AND MANY, MANY MORE, but somebody is going to have to show me how to get where I need to be in NYC. And let me tell you, the internet is no help at all with this one. Apparently people just transmorgrify from JFK to Manhatten. And I don’t want to go anywhere and get lost. When I am lost I just cannot get re-oriented.
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I was totally in awe of New York, too, but got to live in Brooklyn for 2 years in my twenties, when I had very little fear. I learned my way around from locals, and then got a job as a messenger for a typographic place in lower Manhattan – knew how to get around on the subways, though I never did take cabs, that would be new.
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I love NYC – but I have to admit there aren’t too many places that I’ve traveled that I don’t love. My friend Sara says that my favorite place is the last place I’ve been. Might be true.
The first time I visited NYC I stayed w/ a friend in White Plains and took the train into the city every day. Despite her exhortations to keep my Michelin Green Guide in my bag and to not look up and gawk at the buildings, I did the tourist thing up to the hilt. I know people don’t want to look like hicks coming into the big city for the first time, but why not? I love it.
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Was in NYC twice on a trainee’s budget, – first was with Mr. MNiS, stayed at a youth hostel a block from Central Park ($90/night for the both of us including breakfast: bagel & fruit, cream cheese extra for 25c and I saw a middle-aged business-type East Asian guy at breakfast), we roved the Park, saw Stomp! and went up the Empire State Building. I don’t remember how I got back and forth from the airport, though I usually take public transit the first time in a city if it’s not a business trip.
– Second time around I was interviewing at the “#2 Cancer Center” (*per U.S. News — was rejected and subsequently accepted at “#1 Cancer Center” which just goes to show how little such rankings may mean) and took SuperShuttle. Hotel was twice as expensive as youth hostel of my previous experience and not much more comfortable. Split cab fare to
airport with other interviewee.
I was thinking of going back to NYC later this year to see How To Succeed In Business…
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how about pee wee. hes on broadway too
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I’m kinda with Jacque – NYC intimidates me. I have been a few times, always with a (relatively) native guide. I had cousins who lived there for awhile, as well as a high school friend. I worry less about getting lost or anything like that than just looking like a rube from the midwest. I had directions by cab from the airport to my friends place in Brooklyn in my PDA so I could direct the cabbie and not look totally oafish (also, she lived on a one way that sometimes confused even the locals). I did once wind up flying the “I’m a tourist” flag in large yellow paper form when I went to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a college friend and he got us lost getting from there back to the Columbia campus – he had grown up in Brooklyn and managed to get us on the wrong Manhattan bus…which took an unexpected turn into Harlem. Not all bad, necessarily, but I tallish Norwegian-looking woman and a stocky red-headed Irish guy kinda stick out in the part of Harlem that butts up to Morningside Park (at the time, it was not a nice park – and not one to walk through, even during the day, unless you were looking for something to satisfy, ahem, a variety of human urges or addictions). We got off the bus before it could turn further into Harlem – and then trudged, large yellow Met bag in hand, through the mostly empty streets, around the park to Columbia (which sits on the other side of Morningside park). New York is dizzying in a variety of ways and only seems friendly to tourists in the places that they expect tourists, not in the cool side neighborhoods, or the Chelsea flea markets (which are welcoming, but the good ones can be hard to find w/o a local to help you), good Irish music, and the off-off-off Broadway theater where you have tickets for a show…
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Forgot to say Joanne – I totally agree about the magic of theater, especially moments like you describe so well on that Monday night with Moliere. Lovely descriptions – you really bring it alive.
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Anna: I have a suggestion for the Blevins Book Club. I fear that if I enter it, it will go in as a comment under your lovely summary, and nobody will see it. So if you don’t mind, I’ll start with it here.
I have read several really fine books that I would happily loan to fellow baboons. Should/could we add a book exchange feature to our meetings? Members would bring something they’ve read and now are willing to loan out. If we do this, should we try to communicate first so we don’t “waste” time competing for prize books in what would otherwise be meeting time? I don’t want to sabotage the meetings with a lengthy book exchange, and yet it would be nice if others could enjoy some of the books I’ve already bought and read.
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Fabulous idea, Steve!
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im in
organize it or let it lyand see what happens.
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This is a fine idea, Steve.
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Sounds like a grand idea – I doubt this would eat up a ton of time, unless of course it comes to fisticuffs over some book or other…
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Nove Joanne. Nice
All my febrile desire is pointed the other way and always has been, alone in the woods. I am finishing an older and much better biography of HDT. Do not regret my life, but reading the book makes it very clear to me where I, like Henry, best fit: alone in the woods but into the village for the site and sight of a human face and personality.
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That “Nove”–tim snuck in my home and did that, for NICE.
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Nice blog, Joanne. The Gopher Motel, if memory serves, is where my ex and I spent our first night in Minnesota.
India has fascinated me since I was a kid; it’s a fascination that endures to this day. Of course I’d like to visit Agra to see the Taj Mahal, but the place that really intrigues me is Mumbai. India, and Mumbai in particular, have a rich history and culture that I’d love to experience first hand. The vastness of the place, the mass of humanity that lives there, the juxtaposition of immense wealth and abject poverty attract and appall me in equal measure. I’m told that the heat, smell and pollution are oppressive, and that combination alone, will probably prevent me from ever going there. I was offered the opportunity to live there a year when I was twelve years old, but my dad would not let me go. He had been to India several times himself and hated the place, and was sure I would too. Now I’ll probably never know.
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Paris – I was a French major for a while, and I SHOULD have gone then when I was at my peak. Now I probably wouldn’t go without someone French to go with. I know a lot of people speak English, but what fun is that?
Your descriptions are great, Joanne, I can almost feel like I saw that play. And I do remember driving past the Gopher Motel, and wondering what it was like. 🙂
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What lovely writing, Joanne! I remember the early Guthrie much the same way, back when that thrust stage seemed a radical innovation to this young rube.
The magic city (I have echoes of Oz in my head as I write this) was London. Right after my marriage, I was a grad student getting paid a modest stipend to do a job that mostly existed to employ grad students so they could take classes and barely keep alive while working on their programs. My young bride was unemployed. The monthly rent for our apartment just off campus was $67, and we lived carefully like church mice.
One day my mother asked us to come to dinner at their new home on Crystal Bay of Lake Minnetonka. I sensed something queer in the air. Mom greeted us and said she had a proposition. They had recently had a windfall and were determined to spend the money in the most fun way they could imagine, by sending us to London, all expenses paid. My parents fervently hoped we could accept. They had tickets for a trip that would last nearly three weeks. And, Mom added, “We have budgeted for your dogs to be boarded. It shouldn’t cost you a cent to go! Please say you will.”
We couldn’t have afforded to travel to Mankato for a weekend in those days, but three weeks in England would be cheaper than living at home. The whole thing had a fairy-tale quality, and became one of the adventures of our lives. And as I wrote a day or two ago, renting a Mini Cooper and driving in England was a “unique and intimidating experience” if there ever was one . . . me zipping into English traffic “roundabouts” with my windshield wipers waggling to signal turns.
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what a wonderful, wonderful gift and how wonderful that you were wise enough to accept it.
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What a nice memories, Joanne. I always found Minneapolis daunting, but that isn’t surprising since I thought Sioux Falls was pretty scarey and urban when I was growing up. My first experience in a really huge city came when I was 16 and I studied Spanish in Saltillo Mexico for a month in the summer. Part of the experience involved a weekend in Mexico City. We traveled there overnight in a bus, and I remember waking up at dawn to see a purple and misty landscape like something out of a Carlos Casteneda book. Then there were mountains and the sprawling city. I rode my first subway there, and the contrast between the poverty and wealth, modern architecture and pre-Columbian monuments was striking. I felt I could handle anything and travel anywhere after that experience.
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Morning all. I had to think about this one for awhile.
Since I’ve been lucky enough to travel quite a bit for my job, I realize that I’m not really daunted by cities. It’s the non-city spaces that give me pause. For example, Alaska is the only state in the U.S. that I haven’t visited yet. The teenager and I have talked about taking a cruise someday up the Alaska coast. Cruising is not my favorite form of travel, but the thought of striking out on my own in a place as vast and unpopulated as Alaska gives me the willies. I’m not exactly known for my directional capabilities and when I imagine getting lost up there with no one around to ask directions… yikes!
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I haven’t traveled much, so I’m pretty easily awed and/or intimidated. Never been to NYC.
I’ve been to Chicago a couple of times, and have found it a pretty friendly place to go. Easy to get around. I remember on one trip while I was reading a local newspaper I ran across a letter to the editor about the Maxwell Street Market, so I walked there to check it out. Apparently it was somewhat controversial – there had been issues surrounding traffic control and licensing and such, although the larger issue seemed to be that a majority of the vendors and customers were people of color, and not particularly wealthy, so some middle class white folks got nervous about it, though others embraced it and celebrated its history.
I had a pretty good time at the market, though it was a little disconcerting – the vendors have tables that they appear to use as a sort of base from which to operate, but most of them wander around in the market offering their goods to the customers. For someone of German descent who’s a little reserved, not to say standoffish, it takes some getting used to – having a fellow coming up to you and thrusting a handful of men’s socks toward you, saying “Need socks? Six pairs, five dollars, they’re nice socks.” I bought a couple of small things. Most of the stuff was a little on the junky side, but there was a sort of Axman appeal to the place.
The letter to the editor that I had read in the newspaper defended the market by pointing out that the roving merchant technique is widely used in African villages, and for people of African descent, it’s a cultural norm.
The market has since been relocated and renamed the New Maxwell Street Market, according to this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Street
I’d like to see the new one sometime. I hope they preserved the spirit of the original.
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field trip september or october or is it seasonal and needs to be planned for june of 12?
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I really can’t think of a city that I want to visit. I’m just not a city person. I enjoy the arts and culture that are available in large towns but I have to take it in smaller doses, I guess. Big, busy, hectic, noisy cities exhaust me at the end of the day. When I worked in St. Paul and commuted back and forth, I was so anxious to get back home. The only city that really attracts me is Duluth. For some reason, I’m comfortable there and I don’t get too overwhelmed and tired. Maybe it’s the air and the proximity to the lake and the open country that makes the difference.
I would like to travel to Italy someday. It’s my #1 travel dream. I have never traveled much – the farthest I’ve been is to Mexico and Canada.
Steve, yes, I will bring a guitar. tim, I could also carry your guitar but I’m going up earlier than the rest of the group. It would have to go with me on Wednesday. I’d be happy to do it if you need me to. Send me an e-mail: willi693@hotmail.com.
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COMPLETELY OT. I have the tulip bulb catalog in my hands… can I order now for our October tulip fest? What else do I need to know/worry about?
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Yes, you can order now. Just remember that bulbs like bone meal as fertilizer and don’t like fertilizer high in nitrogen. I am going to order my tulips in a couple weeks.
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vs, they won’t send them to you until fall planting time, so I agree, order now for best selection. I also agree, it’s a good investment to buy some bonemeal.
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October will probably be a bit early for planting. Rule of thumb is to wait until the nighttime low temperature is consistently 50 degrees or below, so that the ground will be cool enough to keep the bulbs from sprouting prematurely. It sometimes takes longer than you would think to reach the consistent lows, and some years there is an early snow followed by a warm spell. Most years mid-November or maybe even around Thanksgiving is a good bulb planting time.
Cool ground also means squirrels are less likely to dig up the bulbs – the cold makes it harder for them to scent the bulbs. You can also dust the bulbs with cornstarch before planting, and sprinkle cornstarch over the surface after planting. This is supposed to help disguise the scent. And be careful not to leave bits of bulb skins on the surface where you’ve planted. Those sometimes attract critters.
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What kind of squirrels do you have in St. Paul? Goodness, ours sure have better things to do out here than dig up bulbs. Maybe they think I”m bribing them to leave my bulbs alone with all the hazelnut bushes we have? I have never had squirrels do anything like that in the 23 years we have lived here.
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I don’t know why it’s a problem for some people and not others – I’ve heard speculation that certain individual squirrels just have a taste for bulbs, usually tulips and crocuses. I haven’t had a problem with it personally – I’ve always used the cornstarch, because it’s cheap and I’ve always considered it an ounce of prevention. Other people tell me they’ve had large freshly-planted beds dug up, bulbs gnawed on or reburied somewhere else.
In any case, it’s not a problem once the bulbs have been there for a year and the soil is no longer loose.
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go for it. stick em in the ground and wait thats how we learn. dakota squirrels would have to sen out the announcement via squirrel underground ethernet. i thin you are safe, october is like putting up your christmas lights early. have never done it bit bless those who do. th ekey tool is the ole digger. i have a dandy and would fed ex it to you if you’d send it back when you are done
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Actually, depending on how many bulbs you plan to plant, there may be a more efficient way of planting them. I usually excavate the area where I want to plant to the depth that I want to plant the bulbs, then space the bulbs in the excavated area along with the bone meal, and then cover the whole kit and caboodle with dirt (or soil as MN would say). Then I sit back and wait for spring!
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great premise for the blog totay joanne. nicely written and inspiring.
i love the cities that concern me.. nyc, chi south side, new orleans bourban street area. whichever area of sanfransisco has turned scary since last time i was there and didn’t realize it, tiajuanna is nothing but scary but the one that comes to mind is amsterdam. no holds barred. beautiful women for 50 dollars, hash and weed for taste testing to see how you like the buzz, mushrooms but be careful , and then go look at the canals and the art and the ann frank house and eat wonderful vegetarian food and the best people watching anywhere. but how can you monitor the hold on a minute button when you throw caution to the wind. that kind of has to be decided beforehand. if i am alone and am the designated to get me to the plane in the morning that needs to be factored in. ive gotten into some interestng situations in hong kong but nothing like what i could have gotten into in amsterdam
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I find travel in China intimidating.
I read/speak Mandarin Chinese well and a couple of other dialects passably, have had Japanese spoken to me by flight attendants (I don’t speak it) and have wandered through cities like Paris, Montreal and Chicago alone, yet I don’t know that I’d be comfortable doing cities in China alone.
The solution would be to have a travel partner — now that I’m married, going with hub is follows naturally, but a blonde-haired blue-eyed guy in tow completely blows my cover. I have a picture of him getting his picture taken with/by a bunch of locals at West Lake. Being Minnesota Nice, he doesn’t have the heart to Just Say No, elbow out or push past.
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Just crossing the streets in Beijing as a pedestrian is one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. I’ve never seen traffic like that anywhere, absolutely mind boggling.
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Greetings! Fun reading today — thanks for all your kind words and sharing your stories. Good thing I made my big move when i was young. Now i have a hard time just driving into Minneapolis! Going to any large city is intimidating to me now. While traveling would be cool, I just don’t feel the need to go out and explore the world right now. Traveling is tiring, so it would have to be first class and top notch all the way with local guides. My computer at home just died — totally. Hard drive failure. So I can only get on occasionally when someone else in house isn’t on their computer — sheesh! and using the internet at work for non-work activities is forbidden. so I’ll catch you when I can.
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I’ve been humming this one all day….
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Nice!
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Evening–
Nice Joanne, Thanks for sharing.
I have to say I enjoy small towns perhaps more than big cities… could just be I don’t have enough experience. I haven’t been to NYC either but I want too. Yes, with a guide please.
We’re headed to Chicago soon but won’t see much except around the college. We are looking forward to visiting there in the future once everyone has their bearings.
But to stumble into a small town and see what’s on main street and check out the side streets and old homes and I’m telling you– there’s (sometimes) nothing better than a small town cafe!
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Blackhoof would be interesting, but everyone seems to have moved out . . .
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Morning all. We’re off to the zoo today… hope everybody has a good day!
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Good day to all,
The one place I can think of that I think would be interesting and also a little scary to think about visiting is Mexico City. I’m not too sure what I would find there, but it is a very large city and I am sure there are some amazing things to see. We hear so much about the problems of crime associated with drugs and the war on drugs in Mexico and this makes it seem like a scary place. I would need to do a lot of checking on the risks of traveiing to Mexico City before going there. I heard a very interesting interview with a man who said that the local government in Mexico City is very progressive with a lot of participation of citizens groups in decision making. It would be interesting to find someone to hook up with there who knows how their local government operates.
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I was there almost 40 years ago, so I can’t comment on what a visit would be like now.
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