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Fetal Pig Syndrome
A lot was changing from the summer of ’75 until well into my sophomore year at the Big High School that fall. My neighborhood friend Dan had been working nights as a busboy at Minnetonka Beach’s...
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Letters Never Sent (Part 1)
This is the first of a two-part post. Saturday, July 23, 2011 9:14 a.m. Got your letter yesterday. Well, actually, your letters. All eleven of them. I studied them in a way I hadn’t before: listing...
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Heeeeere’s Danny!
[Dear friends: Completely in the Dark will be taking a brief hiatus next week, returning with a new slate of posts on Saturday, Sept. 10. Thanks for stopping by!] “Summer has just ended. Today was the...
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Busboys on the Roof
Steve Butler—tall, pockmarked, with greasy-curly red hair—lurches from the milk dispenser in his gold and black-trimmed busboy jacket. Grinning stupidly through smudgy eyeglasses, he flicks lit...
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A Tale of Two Grandpas
My grandparents visited Minnesota every summer, without fail. Their visits were so arranged that it was rare to have both sets of grandparents in the house at the same time. That summer of 1976, Dad’s...
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Happy Campers
Someone was talking like Mickey Mouse over the camp office P.A. Friday, July 30, 1976: I’m attending a church camp in Motley, Minnesota—Camp Shamineau—sponsored through our congregation’s youth group....
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End of the Season
We didn’t say a final goodbye to anyone. July 31, 1976, was a beautiful summer Saturday and, the diary reports, “that’s a good feeling.” While all the campers at Shamineau trudged up to a last...
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Long Lost Friend
“Friday after school”—written in loopy ballpoint pen. Lisa’s letter was postmarked May 22, 1978. In 18 days I’d be receiving my high school diploma and the summer of ’78 would be officially underway....
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The Promise
Here’s a story about a story. A short story with a beginning, a middle, and possibly no end. It begins with a small, black-haired boy called “Lil’ Eric” who’s standing outside his parents’ house on...
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Up on the Roof
It’s a little bit funny, this feeling inside. Can’t leave my time with the Family Project at the Casco Point house without lingering on one fleeting moment—being up on the roof. When that exactly...
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