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by Roger


Bart and I got rained out Tuesday from our north woods project, so we took a walking tour of Bemidji. We covered every foot of each east-west and north-south street of downtown.

Although the old stores are all gone, the new stores are pretty good ones.  There's lots of them.  It took us five hours to do it justice, partly because we ran into a couple old timers with lots to share:

I knew that the meat market where Harriet worked was in the southwest corner of town.  I spotted "Downtown Meats" a block west of where I remembered the meat market to be.  We hiked over to it and went in.

The owner told me that he had moved the business from its old location a few years ago, and he pointed out the old building to me.  He also directed me to a large photograph in his entryway of the interior of the old meat market, with the employees included in the picture, which he said was taken in 1965.

I knew Aunt Harriet would be in the picture.  I said, "There she is! That's my Aunt Harriet!"




Here's the old meat market. The two big glass windows have been bricked over:




More old store remnants:




Woolen Mills:




At Northern Surplus, I talked with Bruce Dreyer, the owner of Northern Surplus, a man same age as me, whose dad delivered meat to Bemidji Food Mart back in the 60s, which he explained to me was the store that included the old meat market.  (You all knew that.)

His dad's name was Pete Dreyer.  He told me the owner of Bemidji Food Mart was Bob Spangler and the owner of the old meat market was Haaken Lovik.

He talked and talked about the old stores in town. He of course remembered Gill Brothers Clothing where great uncle Frank worked.

A couple months ago, Donald and I tried in vain to locate the Luebeck farm on Google Earth.  I finally concluded that the buildings, including house and barn, had been razed.

When I told Bruce Dreyer that, he said, "Oh no, I know where the Luebeck farm is", and he showed it to me on Google Earth.  It was right in the middle of the area where I had looked carefully.  I don't know how I could have overlooked it. (Partly because the new buildings threw me off, and partly because the driveway has been moved):






He showed me on the satellite photo the old location of the little bridge over the river on the way out to the farm from town.  He said it was known as the "iron bridge".  Dad told me that passing over that bridge on the way to the farm from town was his earliest childhood memory.

Later I stumbled into this poster on the bulletin board at the gas station.  (Wayne Hoff is Harriet's nephew.)




Earlier in the day, I stumbled into this LP at the used bookstore in Bemidji:



It's a satire on the Kennedy white house, with Kennedy impersonators.  I think it was Kay who bought it in 1962.  I don't know what became of that copy, but I'm looking forward to playing it.  I remember lots of things from it from my childhood.

Quite a day.



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