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07-21-2014, 01:17 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Osceola,WI
Posts: 3,083
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My home town
When I tell people in the VBA that I am from North St. Paul,MN they immediately think of a large city. Not so. Check out the article that was in the Minneapolis Star Tribune recently.
Day trip: North St. Paul is an old-style small town in town Article by: BILL WARD , Star Tribune Updated: July 19, 2014 - 9:19 AM It would seem to be difficult for a town with a 44-foot-tall stucco snowman to fly under the radar. But somehow, North St. Paul does it. With few exits off Hwy. 36, it’s often referred to as “the town the freeway forgot.” More accurately, it’s the town that time forgot — an erstwhile planned community with an old-style main street, the state’s oldest continuously operated bar and more historical museums (two) than stoplights (one). History matters here. Every new commercial façade has to be deemed historically suitable by a city commission. The result, according to shop owner Del Howard: “We get a lot of customers who say, ‘What a cute little town!’ ” And certainly one worth visiting. Day starter — and brightener Technically, Shar-el’s (6030 50th St. N., 651-773-8636) sits in Oakdale, a few feet from North St. Paul’s eastern border, but this is where locals go for breakfast and lunch. Open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, it’s a real-deal diner, complete with a sign on the wall reading: “Let me drop EVERYTHING and work on your problem.” You half-expect to see Aunt Bee in the kitchen, pulling the homemade caramel cinnamon and pecan rolls out of the oven. “We get people from North St. Paul who come in two times a day,” said Savannah Weiden as she and her cousin, Myles Buersken, delivered stacks of steaming pancakes and topped off coffee cups. “We see a lot of familiar faces every day.” Let it snow, man Who needs a dumb ol’ spoon and cherry bridge when you can have a ginormous snowman statue? Rising 44 feet on a plot of land next to Hwy. 36, the 20-ton, stucco-and-chicken wire structure is the town’s official logo and unofficial mascot. Back story? Seems that a lack of snow once kept the good citizens of North St. Paul from building a “real” snowman for their annual Sno-Daze festival. So a permanent one was built in the early 1970s. Believed to be the world’s largest snowman statue, it certainly has the widest smile: 16 feet. Despite its dimensions, townspeople are ambivalent about the kitschy-but-cool landmark. “It’s an icon, good and bad,” said merchant Howard. “Let’s put it this way: When people come here, that’s where they get their picture taken.” Lakeside play dates The city was incorporated in 1887 as a “planned community” around Silver Lake. Founder Henry A. Castle even named the streets (Margaret, Charles, Henry, Helen) after his children. While his lakeside summer villa is gone, and the planning never quite took hold, the Charles McKenney house (2569 18th Av.) evokes the Victorian splendor of the town’s halcyon days. Beaches and playgrounds dot the lake today — from the northern side’s Dorothy Park (which boasts a slide that debuted when baby boomers were babies) to shiny new jungle gyms on the east-side beach. This Sunday, the annual Silver Lake Splash festival features live music, vendors and kids’ activities around the lake. Scouts honored One of the more modern buildings along North St. Paul’s “main street” ****— 7th Avenue — houses a semi-*hidden gem: the North Star Museum of Boy Scouting and Girl Scouting (2640 7th Av. E., 651-748-2880, www.nssm.org). Even with 150,000 objects and some stellar displays (a 1915 uniform, a medallion honoring a St. Paul troop for its fundraising during World War I, several Norman Rockwell paintings depicting scouting), the museum is a work in progress, said executive director Claudia Nicholson. “We’re moving from a collectors’ place to a history museum. We want to tell and show visitors things that will transport them back in time.” So far so good. Bookends from the past The wood floors creak in the town’s post office (2523 7th Av. E., 651-770-8388; 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturdays), and the mid-century-modern P.O. boxes add to the retro feel. But it’s the giant mural on the east wall, above the manager’s office and bulletin boards, that seals the New Deal look. Donald Humphrey’s tempera “Production,” painted in 1941, depicts dairy farmers at work. At the other end of the town’s main street, check out the World War I-era howitzer outside and sundry treasures inside the Historical Society (2666 7th Av. E., 651-747-2432; 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturdays). Libation lore Neumann’s, a tavern as old as the town itself, has been serving Hamm’s beer ever since it opened in the late 1800s — not from the same barrel, thankfully. Although the bar (2531 7th Av. E., 651-770-6020, neumannsbar.com) has been gussied up a bit, it still has its original tin roof. Legend has it that during Prohibition, the proprietors served “near beer” on the main floor, had a speakeasy upstairs and sold homemade hooch out of the basement. There’s good tavern fare, including a weekend special on gyros. Up front near the windows, there’s a terrarium with two well-fed frogs of indeterminate age. “They were here when I bought the place seven years ago,” said owner Mike Brown, “so I’ll go with them being here since Jim Neumann opened the joint in 1887.” Our kind of Garage sale You can find a little bit of everything at La’ Garage and Gallery (2550 7th Av. E., 651 770-8405, lagarageandgallery.com): clothes, furniture, cards (playing and holiday), toys, garden décor (including birdhouses made from license plates), books, electronics and all manner of home furnishings. It’s basically a general store without the groceries. Del and Carolyn Howard’s store has done so well that they were able to buy the current building they’re in and put up a facade of Old Chicago brick. “They’re building this town to be like a town, not a suburb,” Del said. “All these businesses are mom-and-pop operations.”
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Mike "GIBBY" Gibson Osceola, WI VBA # 1279 2011 National Rally 2012 NCR Rally 2012 Antlers Rally 2013 National Rally 2013 Antlers Rally 2014 NC/SC Rally 2014 Antlers Rally 2015 VRA/VBA Rally 2016 NCR Rally 2016 Antlers Rally 2017 Antlers Rally 2018 NC/SC Rally 2018 Antlers Rally 2019 Antlers Rally 2020 Antlers Rally 2022 Antlers Rally 2023 Antlers Rally 2021 Indian Roadmaster Limited 2022 Indian Roadmaster Login or Register to Remove Ads
Last edited by GIBBY; 07-21-2014 at 02:55 PM.
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07-21-2014, 02:27 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: South Shore, MA
Posts: 4,629
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Having trouble reading the little purple letters.
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VBA # 02424 VROC # 35971 2010 Nomad 1700 Metallic Diablo Black/Metallic Titanium |
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07-21-2014, 02:28 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: South Shore, MA
Posts: 4,629
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Hope you don't mind I made it easier to read.
Day trip: North St. Paul is an old-style small town in town Article by: BILL WARD , Star Tribune Updated: July 19, 2014 - 9:19 AM It would seem to be difficult for a town with a 44-foot-tall stucco snowman to fly under the radar. But somehow, North St. Paul does it. With few exits off Hwy. 36, it’s often referred to as “the town the freeway forgot.” More accurately, it’s the town that time forgot — an erstwhile planned community with an old-style main street, the state’s oldest continuously operated bar and more historical museums (two) than stoplights (one). History matters here. Every new commercial façade has to be deemed historically suitable by a city commission. The result, according to shop owner Del Howard: “We get a lot of customers who say, ‘What a cute little town!’ ” And certainly one worth visiting. Day starter — and brightener Technically, Shar-el’s (6030 50th St. N., 651-773-8636) sits in Oakdale, a few feet from North St. Paul’s eastern border, but this is where locals go for breakfast and lunch. Open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, it’s a real-deal diner, complete with a sign on the wall reading: “Let me drop EVERYTHING and work on your problem.” You half-expect to see Aunt Bee in the kitchen, pulling the homemade caramel cinnamon and pecan rolls out of the oven. “We get people from North St. Paul who come in two times a day,” said Savannah Weiden as she and her cousin, Myles Buersken, delivered stacks of steaming pancakes and topped off coffee cups. “We see a lot of familiar faces every day.” Let it snow, man Who needs a dumb ol’ spoon and cherry bridge when you can have a ginormous snowman statue? Rising 44 feet on a plot of land next to Hwy. 36, the 20-ton, stucco-and-chicken wire structure is the town’s official logo and unofficial mascot. Back story? Seems that a lack of snow once kept the good citizens of North St. Paul from building a “real” snowman for their annual Sno-Daze festival. So a permanent one was built in the early 1970s. Believed to be the world’s largest snowman statue, it certainly has the widest smile: 16 feet. Despite its dimensions, townspeople are ambivalent about the kitschy-but-cool landmark. “It’s an icon, good and bad,” said merchant Howard. “Let’s put it this way: When people come here, that’s where they get their picture taken.” Lakeside play dates The city was incorporated in 1887 as a “planned community” around Silver Lake. Founder Henry A. Castle even named the streets (Margaret, Charles, Henry, Helen) after his children. While his lakeside summer villa is gone, and the planning never quite took hold, the Charles McKenney house (2569 18th Av.) evokes the Victorian splendor of the town’s halcyon days. Beaches and playgrounds dot the lake today — from the northern side’s Dorothy Park (which boasts a slide that debuted when baby boomers were babies) to shiny new jungle gyms on the east-side beach. This Sunday, the annual Silver Lake Splash festival features live music, vendors and kids’ activities around the lake. Scouts honored One of the more modern buildings along North St. Paul’s “main street” ****— 7th Avenue — houses a semi-*hidden gem: the North Star Museum of Boy Scouting and Girl Scouting (2640 7th Av. E., 651-748-2880, www.nssm.org). Even with 150,000 objects and some stellar displays (a 1915 uniform, a medallion honoring a St. Paul troop for its fundraising during World War I, several Norman Rockwell paintings depicting scouting), the museum is a work in progress, said executive director Claudia Nicholson. “We’re moving from a collectors’ place to a history museum. We want to tell and show visitors things that will transport them back in time.” So far so good. Bookends from the past The wood floors creak in the town’s post office (2523 7th Av. E., 651-770-8388; 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturdays), and the mid-century-modern P.O. boxes add to the retro feel. But it’s the giant mural on the east wall, above the manager’s office and bulletin boards, that seals the New Deal look. Donald Humphrey’s tempera “Production,” painted in 1941, depicts dairy farmers at work. At the other end of the town’s main street, check out the World War I-era howitzer outside and sundry treasures inside the Historical Society (2666 7th Av. E., 651-747-2432; 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturdays). Libation lore Neumann’s, a tavern as old as the town itself, has been serving Hamm’s beer ever since it opened in the late 1800s — not from the same barrel, thankfully. Although the bar (2531 7th Av. E., 651-770-6020, neumannsbar.com) has been gussied up a bit, it still has its original tin roof. Legend has it that during Prohibition, the proprietors served “near beer” on the main floor, had a speakeasy upstairs and sold homemade hooch out of the basement. There’s good tavern fare, including a weekend special on gyros. Up front near the windows, there’s a terrarium with two well-fed frogs of indeterminate age. “They were here when I bought the place seven years ago,” said owner Mike Brown, “so I’ll go with them being here since Jim Neumann opened the joint in 1887.” Our kind of Garage sale You can find a little bit of everything at La’ Garage and Gallery (2550 7th Av. E., 651 770-8405, lagarageandgallery.com): clothes, furniture, cards (playing and holiday), toys, garden décor (including birdhouses made from license plates), books, electronics and all manner of home furnishings. It’s basically a general store without the groceries. Del and Carolyn Howard’s store has done so well that they were able to buy the current building they’re in and put up a facade of Old Chicago brick. “They’re building this town to be like a town, not a suburb,” Del said. “All these businesses are mom-and-pop operations.” __________________
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VBA # 02424 VROC # 35971 2010 Nomad 1700 Metallic Diablo Black/Metallic Titanium |
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07-21-2014, 02:32 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: South Shore, MA
Posts: 4,629
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Nice article. It sounds like a quaint town. You should post some pics.
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VBA # 02424 VROC # 35971 2010 Nomad 1700 Metallic Diablo Black/Metallic Titanium |
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07-21-2014, 03:40 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Sebastian, Florida
Posts: 1,016
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Sounds like a nice place Gibby. I live in a beautiful small town. After growing up in Queens I love it. I had to pick my son up in Orlando today and it sucked. I love the peace and quiet of my beach town
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2008 Nomad Red/Black 1998 1500a VBA #02113 Antlers, Oklahoma '12 Blairsville, Georgia '13 Antlers, Oklahoma '13 Eureka Springs, Arkansas '15 Login or Register to Remove Ads |
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07-21-2014, 03:54 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Newmarket Ontario Canada
Posts: 35,387
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Seems like a great town.
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2002 Nomad aka Bountyhunter VBA #27 VROC #18951 |
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07-21-2014, 06:31 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: North Central Illinois
Posts: 8,575
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This song seems appropriate... at least for my little home town.
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"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." "You can have your own opinion, but not your own facts." Former VBA NCR Assist Regional Leader Formerly: 2004 1500FI Bronze Nomad: 2009 & 2014 HD Ultra Current Rides: 2017 HD Ultra Limited & 2011 Can Am Spyder RTS-SE Attended: VBA National Rallies 2009, 2011, 2015; VBA/NCR Regional Rally 2010, 12, 14, 16 and several rides throughout with regional members. VBA Member #652 HOG Member #3935417
Last edited by glwilson; 07-21-2014 at 06:34 PM.
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07-21-2014, 08:16 PM | #8 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Auburn, CA
Posts: 416
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My children are fourth generation in my small town. However, the city folk keep moving in and they are bringing everything with them. Supposedly, Walmart and Costco are moving in next. Good for the local economy I guess, but not good for the locals that loved their small town. Be grateful that the highway forgot your little town. Hopefully it will stay like it is. As for me, I will be trying to move further up the mountain in the next ten years if I can afford it.
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2005 1600 nomad |
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07-21-2014, 09:27 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: 6th Floor up at the The Nervous Hospital up in East Central State, NC
Posts: 7,454
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Look what happened to this poor girl:
She went back home and the government, and existentially a bunch of greedy crony capitalist pigs with their filthy, stinking, rotten money, tore the whole town down, paved it over and put up shopping malls all over the place. You just cain't have nothing!
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??-Mar.2,2012 "Rocky" My Beloved Dog RIP Mike Tripp VBA#767 '96 800 Vulcan Classic 06 1600 Nomad 07 1600 Nomad "The shoes you buy at the Salvation Army is already been broke in"- Aunt Kawhead |
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07-22-2014, 12:03 AM | #10 |
Top Contributor
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: North Wilkesboro, NC
Posts: 6,289
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Nice. Here's Good Morning Americas take on my little hometown (the year I graduated HS).
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Christopher "Monkeyman" Gray ---------------------------- Widows Sons "Overseers" Patriot Guard Rider USArmy 1987-1990 2021 Can Am Spyder RT 2018 Can Am Spyder RT Limited - SOLD 2014 Nomad - SOLD 2012 Victory Vision - SOLD 2007 Black Nomad - SOLD VMC #9367 VBA #1860 |
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07-22-2014, 07:03 AM | #11 |
Sr. Contributor
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 18,287
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That sounds a really kewl town! Thanks for sharing.
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Gerry Martineau / 802 VT / VBA #0892 /[email]glmjgm@gmail.com[email] |
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07-22-2014, 02:20 PM | #12 |
Sr. Contributor
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Way East Valley
Posts: 12,016
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My wife is up there in Minneapolis this week on a business trip. Ever bbeen to Al's Breakfast or the Blue Door Diner? What about the 5-8 Club or Matt's Bar?
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Ponch VBA 0019 VROC 8109-R BMWMOA 162849 BMWRA 41335 BMW: When you care enough to ride the very best. My Motorrad Blog My Motorrad YouTube 2009 BMW R1200RT Previous bikes:2007 Nomad | 2001 Vulcan 800 Classic | 1984 GPz750 | 1978 KZ1000A2 Rallies: Custer '09|Prairie Du Chien '10|Crescent City '11 |
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07-22-2014, 03:21 PM | #13 |
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Osceola,WI
Posts: 3,083
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The original 5-8 is very close to where I live. Don't hang in Minneapolis much. I'm more of a Stillwater kind of guy. (small town on the St. Croix River)
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Mike "GIBBY" Gibson Osceola, WI VBA # 1279 2011 National Rally 2012 NCR Rally 2012 Antlers Rally 2013 National Rally 2013 Antlers Rally 2014 NC/SC Rally 2014 Antlers Rally 2015 VRA/VBA Rally 2016 NCR Rally 2016 Antlers Rally 2017 Antlers Rally 2018 NC/SC Rally 2018 Antlers Rally 2019 Antlers Rally 2020 Antlers Rally 2022 Antlers Rally 2023 Antlers Rally 2021 Indian Roadmaster Limited 2022 Indian Roadmaster |
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07-22-2014, 07:31 PM | #14 | |
Sr. Contributor
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Way East Valley
Posts: 12,016
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Quote:
http://bmwmoa.org/TheRally/The2014BM...onalRally.aspx
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Ponch VBA 0019 VROC 8109-R BMWMOA 162849 BMWRA 41335 BMW: When you care enough to ride the very best. My Motorrad Blog My Motorrad YouTube 2009 BMW R1200RT Previous bikes:2007 Nomad | 2001 Vulcan 800 Classic | 1984 GPz750 | 1978 KZ1000A2 Rallies: Custer '09|Prairie Du Chien '10|Crescent City '11 |
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07-23-2014, 08:14 AM | #15 |
Sr. Member
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Central Alabama
Posts: 2,188
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I grew up in a very small town and like all teenagers couldnt wait to leave. I spent the next 25 years in the big city and seeing the world in the Navy. Finally I couldnt stand it any more and moved right back where I came from, within a few miles of my original home as a kid. Some friends remained, some were gone, and the town had tripled in size and people but it was still a fantastic change of pace. I couldn't imagine living in a city with 4 million people again. I hope your town stays just the way you like it Gibby...
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I would be patient, but it takes too long!! David Hollinger 2002 Beige 1500 "Hannah2" VBA # 02195 |
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