There are thousands of us like that. We grew up believing we were innocuous, unremarkable folks who took care of business and tried to be well-thought of.
Thus, it came as a revelation when Garrison Keillor and Howard Mohr (who was a writer on The Prairie Home Companion radio show) began pointing out how truly different we were. In 1987, Mohr published his (locally) famous book How To Talk Minnesotan-A Visitor's Guide. It's a funny book.
Sorry. I'm starting to sound like a Wikipedia article. I guess the upshot of all this is that the moment we discovered we were kinda unique, the uniqueness began to disappear. It always happens that way.
There was a time when "Minnesota Nice" was a common expression. Now the expression is "What ever happened to Minnesota Nice?" (I think we're still pretty nice, though.)
7 comments:
You've always been special to me !! And the grandkids and great granddaughters think of you as " The Bomb " , "Awesome", "The Best Ever". We are lucky to have you in our lives ! I Love You Mom !
I like Garrison so much that I buy red sneakers.
They broke the mold after Garrison Keillor was born, didn't they? I love that guy. Seeing him in person is on my wish list.
And I totally agree...How to Talk Minnesotan is a VERY funny book!
There are more "Minnesota Nice" people here than there are "Not Minnesota Nice" people.
I think you are very nice, Ms. Sparrow. As is a dear friend of mine from MN with a Norwegian background. (She went to Luther.) We were in IKEA once, and I was looking at their frozen fish. She point to one and said, "You don't want to cook that fish. It stinks." I forget the name (didn't buy it) but learned folks your way either love it or hate it.
(And my friend loves your blog!)
Did you ever see the Garrison Keeler/Prairie Home Companion bit about renting/hiring a New Yorker? (For those nice Minnesotans who can't stand up for themselves.) Brilliant. Sadly, I can't find it on Wikipedia.
I meant YouTube, not Wikipedia!
Cindy: I'd love you even if you weren't my biggest fan!
Joanne: It makes you wonder how red footwear became his signature look.
Cheryl: I always marvel at the way he can see the humor in the mundane things we say and do. His recordings are so funny I laugh out loud! You're right about Minnesota Nice, I just wish there were more of it.
Kittie: Your Minnesota friend may be a bit of a snob when it comes to fish. With all our fishing lakes we can be choosy about which kinds of fish are best--walleye or northerns. Almost everybody goes fishing and has recycled milk cartons full of frozen fish in the deep freeze.
Mitch: No, I've never heard of renting a New Yorker! I would love to hear it. Garrison owns a bookstore here in St Paul called Common Good Books. They sell all of his CD's and books (as do most bookstores). I'm gonna be looking for that one! I read a Keillor quote once, "New Yorkers think Minnesotans are shy because we don't interrupt. New Yorkers interrupt all the time." (I'm sure that doesn't include you.)
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