This weekend, Sunday, 9/21/25, from 12-5 pm, I’ll be setting up my tent for the 2nd annual Festifall, Downtown, St. Cloud. https://www.facebook.com/events/1492286145117042/
to sell “Around Clearwater” and my Minnesota Main Street Women novels.
I’ll be at the former Ace Bar location, East St. Cloud, 423 Wilson/St Germain. Our family ate here a lot, and friends threw a personal shower for me here…54 some years ago. Here I had my first frog legs–and my last. No, they didn’t taste like chicken.
This part of St Cloud is a reminder of family. When Mom had her restaurant, Dad and I came up to wash clothes at the laundromat. We often ate at Tom’s Lunch, which was across Wilson. while we waited to throw the clothes into the dryers. I suppose if Dad felt rich, he’d let me throw a dime into the jukebox and listen to “Johnny Angel” or “Sealed with a Kiss.” On Friday nights, we often caught up with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson at Carl’s where they were stocking up for the week ahead. We banked at St. Cloud National Bank, and unfortunately, met friends and loved ones at Benson’s Funeral Home.
But our family’s roots go deeper a few generations. My dad and his sisters came to stay here with Uncle Christ Hauck after their parents died in South Dakota. Uncle Christ owned Hauck Coal & Supply. He raised his children here. My mom was also born at home here (Look at the picture of her being held on the sill of a 2nd story apartment on East St. Germain and guess what the building is now).
Many cousins, uncles, aunts and great and grandparents all lived in the area. Home.
Come share in the reunion with me. Let’s alk about women in history, how they survived, what many of us need to remember and teach other young men and women about for equal rights.
Hope to see you Sunday afternoon.