Urban I'm Not

I was born and raised in the city of Saint Paul but couldn’t wait to ‘get out of Dodge’ after my discharge from the Army. Old Saint Paul was no place for me or my future. I wanted my space and eventually got it. Yet, surprisingly along the way, I developed a strong interest in urban living, the sprawling suburbs and that place we all call ‘our home.’

Fast forward 50 years and my grandchildren are growing up just five blocks from where I was raised and I love going back into the city to see them. Despite the fact that I’ve spent the bulk of my life in the suburbs, city living still intrigues me. We’ve only owned two homes in our fifty-one years of togetherness, both in the suburbs. The first was a tiny (built on a slab) rambler in Reisterstown, Maryland near my work.

Our second home, where we still live today, is a tract rambler built around 1968 in a third ring suburb called Apple Valley. A little after we moved back to Minnesota, Time Magazine declared that ‘Minnesota was a great place to live.’ I couldn’t agree more.

Despite spending the bulk of my life in the suburbs, I’ve always been interested in real estate from an urban perspective.

Most of my real estate investments were in an urban setting. Owning a couple of apartment buildings in the city made me acutely aware of the policies, procedures, restrictions, and lifestyle choices of my tenants. Over the years I’ve gravitated toward books on architecture, housing, city-living and suburban sprawl.

Now with my favorite source of reading material (Better World Books), I’ve been reading a lot of books about the multitude of changes happening in cities nationwide and worldwide.

Selling the suburbs is nothing new. Back around the turn of the century, major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Boston were advertising outlying townships away from the grim and chaos of the city. California was one of the first to paint this beatific picture of suburban living.

Over time, that attitude of suburban tranquility has gradually changed and a new attitude of better living in the city has emerged. The literature followed.

Palm Springs has been following the trend of many medium-size communities in re-imagining its downtown core. Over the last several years, new retail, commercial, dining and hospitality spots have sprung up and flourished downtown.

A new central business district in Apple Valley is following much the same trend in reshaping the suburb of old into something more pedestrian friendly and upping its talk-ability features.

This propensity for creating a downtown core is nothing new for the suburbs. While trying to replicate a real downtown is a challenge, the idea of a central gathering spot for its residents is an admirable goal to strive toward.

In a real sense, I’ve got the best of both worlds. I live in the suburbs but can still enjoy city-living and all the amenities that the city has to offer.

Better World Books

I love books, I always have. But now the pandemic has changed a lot of my old bookish routines. It’s not that I don’t read as much. In fact, my intake of vernacular material has grown exponentially since COVID began almost three years ago. The need is still there, but satisfying that need has changed directions.

Fortunately, part of what has changed is the length and breadth of material that I now consume on a weekly basis. In the past, I would go to our local library every couple of weeks, grab something interesting off the shelf and consume it as time permitted. Now, after almost three years of an altered lifestyle and most libraries being closed or restricted in their lending material, I’ve chosen an alternative pathway that proved to be better than most libraries I’ve patronized in the past.

It’s called Better World Books. In short, I’ve discovered a discount wholesaler of books of every subject matter, genre, form, and interest. All online, BWB allows me the time and comfort of an easy chair to peruse thousands, if not millions of books to buy, all at a deep discount.

For me, the secret was being exposed to books I would never have found on my own. In the past, I had certain library stacks I would always visit and peruse. I seldom ventured over to new areas of interest. Now with the comfort of a cup of coffee, a relaxing chair outdoors, and plenty of time; I can spend as much time and focus as I want to visit, examine, ponder, and finally decide whether or not to get a book that has caught my attention. I can also travel across genres, formats, categories, and subject matter as my mind wanders across this new online literary landscape.

The subject matter I’ve chosen recently covers a wide range. Listed below are just some of the categories I’ve selected books from.

American history

Western history

World history

Business and finance

Architecture

Adventure

Americana music

Politics

Biographys

Music

Vietnam

Military history

Travel

Real Estate

Urban development

Health and Wellness

Maybe that explains my wide-ranging and sometimes eclectic choice of stories to tell in the form of novels, plays, and screenplays - and now children's books. BWB has provided me with a smorgasbord of thoughts and ideas from which to gleam my own take on a wide range of story material. It’s a journey I probably wouldn’t have taken if it hadn’t been for a pandemic and the ease of the internet. Even with libraries opening back up, I’m sort of stuck on BWB and the journeys it can take me on now and into the future.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone

Music has always played an important part of my life. From early pop tunes to the folk movement to the psychedelic Sixties, music painted pictures inside my head. In high school, it was the teen beat, heart throb, lost love affairs of innocent youth. In college, it was the folkie, hard travelin', songs of the open road.

One particular song defined the breakup of my college girlfriend and I. ‘Where have all the Flowers Gone’ continues to define that era and a poignant reminder of my wandering youth on a circuitous route to maturity. The song and that moment was an element in my life that was at once pleasant, impactful and created visceral memories to last a lifetime.

So when I thought about this past season in Palm Springs, the song title ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone’ just naturally popped into my head. This fall and winter was unlike any other we’ve encountered here in the desert. It was as dramatic and impactful as any drought that has plagued California over the years. Pardon the pun but it could best be described as a flowerless experience.

Instead of exercising at our local hotel, the Saguaro, it meant long walks along the berm or back into Oswalt Canyon.

Instead of weekly trips to the library, it meant buying our reading material from ‘Better World Books.’ Instead of a lot of entertaining, it meant intimate gatherings of a few folks on our back patio.

There were no trips to the coast, no evenings out with friends at local restaurants, no trips to the theater, no local events such as the International Film Festival or Modernism Week or Art Festivals to attend.

There were a few improvements around the house and some literary accomplishments.

My newest novel ’Playground for the Devil’ was finally completed, proofed and ready for printing.

Four new plays were rewritten and tightened up, creating a solid second draft for all of them. Another new play ‘Frenchy’s Eats’ is just beginning to take shape.

By late spring, Palm Springs was slowly starting to open up again. We weren’t comfortable going out to restaurants so it was wonderful to have Melanie and family here for Easter. We get to see the Colorado kiddos this summer.

Besides lemon picking each day, I took Brennan and Charlotte on a nature hike along the Henderson Trail. It was a great opportunity to introduce them to ‘the living desert.’ We explored budding plants, snake holes, moss on rocks and dormant plants.

Even with the vaccine making headway against the COVID-19 pandemic, I envision this upcoming summer will continue to be one of at least moderate isolation. I want to continue with my ‘coffee and chat’ sessions and expand the number of friends included in the group. I want to explore the Twin Cities with a new-found curiosity about the place where I was raised. There are several plays I want to market locally and find markets for ‘Playground for the Devil.’

Hopefully by next fall, the ‘flowers’ will have returned to Palm Springs and we can get back into the swing of things once again.