Roots and Ties: A Scrapbook of Northeast Minneapolis
$21.95
229 Photos. 262 Pages.
For purchase, contact:
gennykieley@yahoo.com
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$2.50 for postage on each book.
I was
privileged enough to be included in Rhythmland's final skate on June 30,
2001. After 40 years of owning the rink, Don and Peggy Gese and their
family were closing down. Times had changed and it was time to move on. It
was a bittersweet night for the friends, family, and longtime patrons of
Rhythmland. A group of people came to say goodbye to their old hangout and
share some of their treasured memories…
Just walking through the place that night made me feel the spirits
of those who fell in love at Rhythmland. So many people laughed and cried
and loved and lost under the mirrored glass disco ball that still hung
over the middle of the rink. And the multicolored lights that provided the
atmosphere of romance were still there…
Evelyn Wilson met her husband at Rhythmland. She skated seven days
a week in the 1940s. She says it was not unusual for people to meet the
one they would marry at Rhythmland, because there were so many to choose
from and they were there so often. She thinks there were about 50 couples
she knows of that met each other there and eventually got married. On the
weekends she would work all day, go horseback riding at night with the
gang, then skating at Rhythmland, then to Larry’s or the Roadhouse for
dancing, and finally bowling at Central Avenue Bowl on Twenty-fifth and
Central. All in one day! She hung out with the same group of friends. They
loved to do the Circle Waltz, Chicken Scratch, Dutch Roll, and Two
Step…
Roots and Ties is a wonderful scrapbook of memories with special attention to the housing and architecture, grocery and hardware stores, the parochial schools, community sings, parks, and park pageants. It also includes Van the Cop, Plane Crash on Memorial Day, Cemeteries and Funeral Chapels, More sports, Interviews, Snapshots and Vignettes, Pottery shops, the Ethnic Dance Theatre, Rhythmland and the California Building. Wonderful old photos capture the past-234 pages and 262 photographs Nodin Press 2002.
Comments for Roots and Ties
We left the Minneapolis area about 35 years ago, are now retired and living on Whidbey Island, near Seattle. The book was so impressive that I bought and have sent out three copies to people from "Nordeast" who have relocated in other parts of the country.
TIM
FAHEY
Coupeville, Washington