EPISODE 2: Winnipeg to Madison

Just a word about Canada before we leave. I had never been east of Calgary before so I was wondering what I would find. (BTW, no “new” states for me yet, but Saskatchewan and Manitoba were newprovinces). I actually found that the North-South divide was not as great as the East-West Divide. That is, there seems to be more difference between both countries’ coasts and their interior. And both countries’ interiors seem to have more in common than each countries’ respective coasts and interiors. Did I make sense? For example, there is a lot of country music in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. And this was great for me since I love country music but don’t like the brand that is superpatriotic and jingoistic American. And, of course, this was missing from Country Radio in Canada and I thought that was great.

Before leaving Canada for good (or at least until later, east of Detroit) I left to enter the Northwest Angle area. This place always fascinated me since it is a little part of Minnesota that is farther north than any place else in the lower 48. Check out a map. Farther north than Seattle, which is actually farther north (or almost) than Maine. One gets to the NW Angle on a dirt road and then one is supposed to check in at US Customs by Video phone at Jim’s Corner:


NW Angle


Jim's Corner

Well, the American guy never answered the video phone and I could not connect with him but I did call the Canadian customs people by regular phone. So hopefully Homeland Security is not going to catch up with me someday. I did not have any trouble crossing the “real” border a couple hours later, although the border guard at this very small crossing did want to know what I was doing in Ukraine last summer. I was going to tell him that I hope he lets me trough in quicker time than it took us to cross over from Ukraine to Belarus – four hours. But I figured that I should just not mention that. Anyway, he let me in after a cursory search of my vehicle.

Oh, two more observations of Canada. First, they have a lot of A&W root beer stands, most of which (but not all) still serve it in frosty mugs. These are great after a long drive through the wheat fields. Second, the trains (Canadian Pacific and Canadian Northern) are still neat but boxcars have all but disappeared – everything is containers on flat beds. Maybe this is true in the States too. Also, what ever happened to cabooses?

Back in the good ole’ U S of A I headed for the source of the Mississippi in Lake Itasca State Park in Minnesota. Here are some pictures of the source. Note how wide it is as it leaves the lake. They even have steps where you can walk across the Mississippi. I spit in it (it could have been worse) and told my DNA, “see you in New Orleans.”


Miss Source


Little Miss


Miss Step

That night I camped by Cass Lake, which is part of the Mississippi - you can it see here looking out of the back of my cab, my home for two months. The lake is named after Mama Cass because the Mississippi is the mama of all rivers and because everyone around here is always California Dreamin’.


Cass Lake

Here is a sign that I can’t really figure out. I drove about a quarter mile past it before I realized exactly what it said. This is outside of Bimidji, which is the home to Paul Bunyan and his Ox, Babe. They are pictured next. Then comes one of the greatest “Ducks” in the world, a building that is built to look like something else, like Seattle’s beloved hat and boots (wherever they are now) and Tacoma’s Java Jive coffee pot. Here the fish in the hamlet (an exaggeration) of Bena is about to eat my truck.


Paintball


Paul and Babe


Fish

I drove through Grand Rapids, MN, the home of Judy Garland. They refurbished this neat old school and turned it into a shopping mall. I had to take a picture of the Yellow Brick Road out front (supposedly dedicated by people who played the Munchkins in the movie).


Judy

I didn’t even visit the Garland exhibit since as I left Grand Rapids
I saw three ships a coming my way and asked the captain how come he didn’t drive a truck. He said his name was Columbus and I just said, Good Luck.
So I am off to see the hometown of the creator of that line, plus this one:
The last I heard of Ahab he was stuck on a whale that was married to the deputy sheriff of the jail.

Other great lines of note: for those of you who still have to work every day:
20 years of schooling and they put you on the day shift
And for me when I was trying to get my cell phone to work in Canada (I am still trying to figure out how voice mail works):
The pump don’t work ‘cause the vandals took the handle

Anyway, here is beautiful downtown Hibbing, hometown of Robert Zimmerman.


Downtown Hibbing

In the dime stores and bus stations
People talk of situations
Read books repeat quotations
Draw conclusions on the wall
Some speak of the future
My love she speaks softly
She knows there’s no success like failure
And that failure’s no success at all

At the end of the street is Zimmy’s Bar which has been operated by a woman named Linda since 1990. Here is a picture from inside the bar, with a lot of Dylan memorabilia. She lent some material to EMP’s current exhibit and also attended a big party in Seattle for those who lent material. We had a nice talk and she showed me the guest books that a lot of people have signed. BTW, the big theatre marquee sign (Lybba) is from the string of theatres that Bob’s mother’s family owned in Hibbing – I think Lybba was his grandmother’s name. Until recently the only recognition of Dylan in this town was organized by Linda and Zimmy’s. Now they have named a street (sort of) after him. BTW, towards the left center of this photo you can see a picture of Roger Maris who I found out was born here. Bob was actually born in Duluth. Another famous sports figure from Hibbing, which I did know, was Kevin McHale of the Celtics.


Zimmy's

There is a nice exhibit in the local library, although it is in a locked conference room in the basement. A woman named Roberta Maki put this together and also lent some material to EMP.


Library

Roberta was nice enough to look up some addresses of old Zimmerman sites for me, which I then was able to check out and they are in the following photos. The old Zimmerman furniture store now sells photocopiers. I had the address of the old store but the new one does not have an address on it. So I went in to ask if this was 1925 Fifth Ave E, and a woman who worked there said that it was. I said that this was an historic place then but she did not even know that it used to be Zimmermans. Then there is a picture of the former Agudath Achim Synagogue, I assume where Bobby had his Bar Mitzvah. Then the High School where Bob first performed in public. Then the old Zimmerman home.


Store


Former Synagogue


Hibbing High


Zimmerman Home

It is hard to believe that someone from this modest home would go on the write the following lines (which Alan Ginsburg called the quintessential summary of consciousness in the second half of the twentieth century):

Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow

I don’t know what that means but I am sure it is heavy. Speaking of heavy, I am now off to revisit (well, “visit” for me) Highway 61.


Near Winona

This part of the highway south on Minneapolis was described by Dylan to Bono while they stayed up all night drinking Guinness, according to Dylan’s Chronicles. They also talked about their hero, Jack Kerouac – which reminds of two favorite grafittis I have came come up with: “Jack Kerouac lived with his mother” and “Dylan was a ZBT”. Anyway, below is a picture of the boy’s reformatory made famous in the song, Walls of Redwing. Also, a picture of the little depot in town where one of many “Boots on Parade” can be seen, like the cows on parade in Chitown and Pigs on Parade in Seattle. After all, Half the fun of having feet is wearing Red Wing Shoes (which are manufactured north of town).


Red Wing Reformatory


Depot and boots on parade

Farther along the highway is a turn off for this town. It just couldn’t be the inspiration for the greatest rock and roll song of all time as judged by Rollingstone Magazine (they could not have been prejudiced), could it?


Sign


Like a post office

One site back up by Duluth that I need to include is a nighttime picture of Frank Lloyd Wright’s gas station in Cloquet. Sorry it is so dark, but

She’s got everything she needs
She’s an artist she don’t look back
She can take the dark out of the nighttime and paint the daytime black


Cloquet

So, on to the Frank Lloyd Wright portion of this tour. The following pictures are of his home in Taliesin near Spring Green, Wisconsin. The windmill he designed is called Romeo and Juliet because it symbolizes an ideal couple – it is two parts but the wind blows around Romeo in such away that it tends to pull the other part, Juliet closer and they are stronger than the sum of their parts (the guide did not put it exactly that way but that is the general idea). (BTW, as I wright this -sorry – I am in Milwaukee and I have had really the only major disappointment of the trip so far – it turns out that the Johnson Wax building is able to be seen only on Fridays (the people at Taliesin told me Mondays) so I will have to miss that this trip.


Taliesin 1


T 2


T 3


T Tree


Romeo and Juliet

Now a bit about the Lt. Marks part of this trip. I visited Walter Turk, of Richland Center (FLW’s birthplace, BTW) at a place on the Mississippi where he and his sons have mobile homes in a campground. Walt was in the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment along with my father. I first met Walt at the first 501 PIR reunion I attended in 1999 in Green Bay.

But first, maybe a little about the history of the 501st. It was formed in Tacoa Georgia at the end of 1942. It was later to become part of the 101st Division. If you have seen or read Band of Brothers you know about Tacoa – and I will revisit that place where I was conceived later on this trip. Then the 501st moved to Camp Mackall in North Carolina, where I was born. They then moved to Lambourn in England and were there first troops to hit Normandy early D-Day morning. They later jumped into Holland (Market Garden operation), served as part of the Battling Bastards of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge, and occupied Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest in Berchtesgaden.

Back to D-Day. My dad was a platoon leader in Company G and they, along with some troops from headquarters company (including the later to be famous Maxwell Taylor), after regrouping headed for the town of Poupeville. When this town was taken it was the first link up of the airborne troops who had landed inland and the troops coming ashore on Utah Beach.

Unfortunately, as they were taking the town of Poupeville Lt. Marks put his head around the corner of a building (a thing that Walt said he had always taught his men NOT to do) and was shot in the head by a German sniper. (An interesting sidelight. The leader of this attack was Julian Ewell who later went on to become a general and was in Kennedy’s White House along with Taylor. Ewell also put his head around a corner and was hit by a sniper too, but in the helmet and he lived and is still alive today. Such are the fortunes of war – one or two inches difference and it changes a lifetime for those affected and their families).

Walter Turk was right behind my father when he was killed and it has always been a major thing in his life. He often talked to his sons about this incident to his sons – it was the first time he had seen anyone killed in action and he liked serving under my father as he thought he was a good officer. I never knew any of this until I met him in Green Bay a few years ago.

Walt has a great story of D-Day and is rather famous for this incident. As he jumped from the plane his head was hit (either by a cord or by shrapnel) and he was knocked silly for several hours. The last thing he remembers hearing is my father (the jump master) saying, 5 minutes to jump time. Fred Orlowski, who we will meet later in Pennsylvania, saved his life and led him around by a rope like a dog for several hours before Walt regained his senses. He came to just before they reached Poupeville and he saw Lt. Marks get killed. BTW, amazingly Walt was one of only a few people in the 501st who never even got wounded once (except for whatever knocked him silly on D-Day morning).

Below are portions of a picture taken in Camp Mackall in 1943. In the first you can see Lt. Marks seated with the other officers. In the second Walt is standing in the top row, fifth from the left. Orlowski is next to him. Then a picture of Walt and Clarice, his wife of almost 60 years, as they are now. The picture was taken in Gays Mills, Wisconsin where they took me to the Apple Fest – a real bit of Americana, kind of like Vashon’s Strawberry Festival. They are standing in front of the house her parents owned when Walt and Clarice met before the war. He was working in an orchard that her father owned.


Lt. Marks at Camp Mackall


Turk and Orlowski at Camp Mackall


Walter and Clarice Turk

Now on to another bit of history from that time period. I was able to meet Harry Gordon (no relation to my mother’s side of the family) who wrote a book on surviving the holocaust in Kaunas (or Kovno), Lithuania as a boy during the war. I had never met him but had talked to him on the phone and sent him some material – neither of which he remembered. But he is still lively and in good spirits. He now lives in a retirement home in Madison. It took quite an effort for me to gain entry on a Sunday but I was glad that I was able to do so. He turned around his baseball type cap for this picture that I took of him. He is generally in good spirits.


Harry Gordon

And that is the end of Episode 2. I will go to a Brewers game (I have attended a game in old County Stadium – with Michael on his Baseball Tour of 1991). Then north after the game towards the Upper Peninsula and then down through Saginaw (not hitchhiking) to Detroit. One thing I may not have mentioned is that I am trying to avoid the Interstate System at all costs (as in Blue Highways), although Highway 61 turned into I-90 just north of La Crosse. It was great to be back on I-90 and to know that I could travel all way back to Seattle without seeing a thing. That is why the feds made us tear up Mt. Baker (did you ever see the designs for the first proposed tunnel??) and Mercer Island – so people could drive from Boston to Seattle without stopping.

One more thing. If you are ever in Milwaukee don’t make a right hand turn in front of a bus that is stopped at the curb. A cop pulled me over and said he did not know what state I came from, but here that move is not allowed. I told him that I came from a state of mind that he would not understand, and that For the King of Eruke I was employed – he let me go, he was very paranoid. OK, enough Dylan for now.

I didn’t get to see the Johnson Wax building but I just visited the new art museum in Milwaukee designed by Calatrava. It is fantastic. Pictures in the next episode. And there is a Seattle connection too. Also, in the Milwaukee public library where I am now they have a feature book display that includes Ichiro on Ichio.