Saint Paul Almanac

Radio Crew

By Gayla Ellis, January 7, 2012

Ione’s cousin, Elaine, and Ione, dressed in her work coveralls. (Photo courtesy Gayla Ellis)

Although I live in Minneapolis, I have a strong connection to Saint Paul. When I worked as a legal secretary in downtown Saint Paul, I could see across the Mississippi from my twenty-second-floor window to where my mother, Ione, worked in 1943 during World War II: Holman Field. Born in Spicer, Minnesota, Ione moved to Minneapolis in her early twenties. During the war, she had a long commute from North Minneapolis to her job in Saint Paul: A bus took her to downtown Minneapolis, then a streetcar brought her to downtown Saint Paul, and a shuttle carried her across the Robert Street Bridge to the Northwest Airlines Modification Center, where she worked on a radio crew for the B-24 bomber plane known as the Liberator.

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Filed Under: Memories, People Tagged With: Fridley, Gayla Ellis, Holman Field, Mississippi, Northern Pacific Railway, Northwest Airlines, Robert Street Bridge, WWII

My Mother's Garden

By Tiffany Lee, May 31, 2011

Tiffany’s mother Sy's garden in 2010 (Photo: Tiffany Lee)

Her garden, growing on Germain Street, needed just as much as a baby, every bit of her attention, love, and care. We moved so many times. The house on Germain was the fourth we moved into, but not the last. The backyard of this house was a bit narrow and long and even had a little hill that led to a small woodsy area. Almost every day from spring until early fall, my mother came home to her garden ready to care for it. She threw on her black short-sleeved shirt, navy blue shorts, size five black Old Navy sandals, and a pair of yellow rubber gloves.

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Filed Under: People, Places Tagged With: Childhood, children, gardens, Germain Street, mother, Tiffany Lee

Gordon Parks Recalling 1920s Rondo

By Anura Si-Asar, May 31, 2011

Gordon Parks was an acclaimed artist who confronted poverty and racism with such creative grace that he became an internationally admired cultural icon long before his death in 2006 at age ninety-three. An accomplished photographer, writer, composer, musician, and film producer and director, Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1912, and later moved to Saint Paul, where he spent his formative years. His memoir, A Choice of Weapons, which describes his experiences from 1928 through 1944, was first published in 1966 and reissued in 1986 and 2010 by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.

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Filed Under: History, People Tagged With: 1920s, african american, Anura Si-Asar, Cecil Newman, Dale and Rondo, Gordon Parks, Minneapolis Spokesman–St. Paul Recorder, Rondo

Remembering Katie McWatt through Arthurs' Words

By Anura Si-Asar, May 11, 2011

Katie McWatt was about thirty-three years old when she ran for Saint Paul City Council: In March 1964, civil rights activists Reverend Denzil Carty, Kwame McDonald, and Alpha Adkins convinced Katie McWatt to run for a seat on the St. Paul City Council. There had never been an African-American on the Council in the history of the City. Her experience as an advocate for improved educational opportunities, the hiring of more African-American school staff, lobbyist for non-discrimination in housing, employment of African-Americans in the building trades and a dedication to social justice were critical issues for McWatt.

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Filed Under: Memories, People Tagged With: african american, Anura Si-Asar, Arthur McWatt, civil rights struggle, Democratic Farmer Labor Party (DFL), Katie McWatt, Masonic Lodge, Minneapolis Central High School, North Central Voters League, St. Paul City Council, Summit University

Angels in the Skyway

By Terry Ford, April 30, 2011

Waiting in the Skyways. (Photo courtesy: Sharon Mollerus/Flickr Creative Commons)

In April 2009, my wife and I lost our house, then I decided to be homeless, and being depressed didn’t help things. This was a year from hell. Then I met some angels in the skyway of downtown Saint Paul. I did research and found out about the Dorothy Day Center. I stayed there at night, and I met some people I liked. Lindsley was someone I could talk to about religion and baseball—he was the first person to give me hope that things would get better. It was there that I learned a lot about people like myself who are homeless. I got to see that a lot of them are pretty caring people and very intelligent. They’re people just like you and me.

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Filed Under: People Tagged With: Dorothy Day Center, Downtown, hard times, Saint Paul Central Library, Skyways, Terry Ford

High Water

By Captain Bob Deck, April 30, 2011

Pig’s Eye Bridge from southbound towboat Paul Lambert (Photo: Captain Bob Deck)

A grizzled old towboat mate of twenty-six named Steamboat Bill explained the dangers of working in high water to me in very simple, very direct terms. “Rule number-one is: Don’t fall in! If you fall in, you’re dead. It’s that simple. The current will drag you under and you’ll drown!” He told me this from the deck of a barge moored in South Saint Paul in the spring of 1975, when the Mississippi River was rising fast. Years later I watched as another young deckhand learned this lesson.

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Filed Under: Memories, People Tagged With: barges, Captain Bob Deck, Harriet Island, Lafayette Street Bridge, Mississippi, Mississippi River, Pig's Eye Island, Pig’s Eye Lake, Shepard Road, transportation

Building a Bridge with Words

By Wendy Brown-Báez, March 25, 2011

Students at Face to Face Academy Writing Workshop (Photo: Carole Mannheim)

At the writing workshop, I ask the students if they are here because they think writing is important. A couple of them raise their hands. Then I ask if they are taking the workshop because they will receive extra credit, and most of the hands shoot up. I had offered to share my love of language by teaching this workshop at Face to Face Academy, a charter school for homeless youth in crisis, after learning that 70 percent of all teens in foster care end up being homeless for a year or two—foster parents no longer receive help from the government when the child turns eighteen.

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Filed Under: People Tagged With: Face to Face Academy, Wendy Brown-Báez, writers, youth