From Where I Sit

By Pat Spilseth, Columnist

Minnesotans often take a summer vacation up to the lake or drive out to South Dakota to see the Black Hills and the presidents on Mount Rushmore or fly to Disneyland with the kids. Parents in Minnesota are largely education minded and hesitate to take their kids out of classes during the school year. Family time is valued here in Minnesota. “Get the kids in the car and let’s drive up to the cabin” is a normal state of affairs here in Minnesota’s short summertime.

Personally, I love to stay at home just sitting on the deck or the dock and enjoy the lake. Rather than fly to some exotic locale or drive long distances from home, Dave and I have decided to stay right here and enjoy sites we’ve talked about for years. We’re interested in seeing the Swedish artist Karin Larsson’s exhibit at the Swedish Institute and enjoy lunch at FIKA. It’s about time that we return to an outdoor concert at the Lake Harriet bandshell and rose garden. Last time we were there Buddy, our mischievous Beagle, grabbed and devoured a woman’s hamburger. Maybe we’ll visit the zoo and even the History Center or the Guthrie for a play.

Minnesota is a unique state. Though Minnesota has a large German heritage population, there are lots of Scandinavians living here promoting our tell-tale accent, favoring white foods, love of the outdoors and our Minnesota legendary stoic reserve. It’s ironic that Minnesota has a French motto (L’Etoile du Nord = Star of the North) and the largest concentration of Somali and Hmong residents in the United States. 

Explaining our culture is complex and confusing. Minnesotans are big Viking and Twins fans, and play pickleball, baseball and tennis. Many of us love attending the Guthrie Theatre, the Ordway and the Orpheum theaters. Steak or chicken and potatoes are our meal choices, but some favor lutefisk with white cream sauce or meatballs and have acquired a taste for Asian and Indian food. We’re a huge contrast: we fight to camp and kayak in our preserved Boundary Waters, yet we love our wine and dining at French and Asian restaurants. We favor sweats and jeans, but love gussying up for a dinner date, concert or play.

We love our short summers on our famous 10,000 lakes (actually there are 11,842 lakes); fishing, swimming and boating are big hobbies yet we’re considered to be the “frozen people of the north” who drill holes in the lake to ice fish in the winter, ice skate, ski and shovel snow in down parkas, mittens and boots. We’re a complicated populace that few in this vast country understand. Folks rebel about moving here, yet once they’ve experienced our Minnesota niceness, excellent schools, terrific restaurants and numerous museums and theaters, they choose to remain rather than transfer to a warmer state. Though we love Minnesota, the biggest push to move elsewhere is our high taxes. We boldly state that Minnesota’s freezing temperatures “keeps the riffraff out,” but money woes often tempt us to leave, even states where the riffraff can sleep on park benches.   

We’re not for everybody. Minnesotans are a select few. As Garrison Keillor professes, Minnesota’s Lake Wobegon is “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.”

Our popular Minnesota State Fair features a sculpture of our lovely, healthy dairy princesses in blocks of butter next to exhibits of numerous piggies suckling and blue ribbon cows, sheep, goats and chickens are on display for all to ogle and sometimes pet. We have the Mall of America and our parks, restaurants and theaters renowned for their beauty, variety and talent. 

We love knotty pine walls in our cabins, where we have to clean out mice and debris every spring before we put in the boat. We’re known for our libraries and that our folks love to read books and newspapers. Minneapolis and St. Paul are in the top 10 of America’s most literate cities. We’ve produced well-known writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Louise Erdrich and Garrison Keillor. The LOFT teaches writing classes and produces many new writers. 

Though we have native tribes and Indian reservations as well as Hmong and Somali residents, we’re not very diverse. Of our 5.3 million residents, more than 4.5 million are white. We have divisions among races as well as tensions between rural and urban. We have gracious McMansions on Summit Ave, Lake Minnetonka and Lake of the Isles, but we also have neighborhoods with drive-by shootings, inner city school problems and crime.

I love living in Minnesota. As Dave says, hopefully, we’ll stay here on the lake until they carry us out feet first.

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To contact Pat, email: pat.spilseth@gmail.com.