Distant Innocence

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Vintage Lowry Photo

Help me out here. There are several people in this 1950ish Lowry photo I cannot identify.

Identified:

Leo, Blanche, Barbara Dahl
Signe Greenfield
Martin, Marian, Lorraine, Harold, Merlin Heggestad
Ole , Esther Hoplin
Glenn, Ruth, David Hoplin
Dave Nelson
Olaf Nelson
...

Who are the rest? Please use the comment field below to help me out. Thanks in advance.

Friday, June 9, 2017

Since the 1880's, Lowry Hill has been one of the posh neighborhoods of Minneapolis, situated to the immediate west of downtown, surrounding the Walker Art Center. (see red outline). The even posher Kenwood borders it to the west.

Minneapolis also has a "Lowry Tunnel" and a "Lowry Avenue" and a "Lowry Bridge" and a "Lowry Park". This strong Lowry presence piques my interest as I hail from the sleepy village of Lowry, Minnesota, somewhat to the west of Minneapolis. Turns out there is a strong connection.

Lowry Bridge (author photo)

Lowry Park (author photo)

Lowry Tunnel (Star-Tribune)

The lawyer, Thomas Lowry, arrived from Illinois in the late 1860's. Interestingly, Thomas' choice of profession may have been influenced by the family's lawyer - Abraham Lincoln. In the early 1870's Lowry and a partner acquired 148 acres of "prairie" to the west of Minneapolis, albeit with a rugged hill known as the "Devil's Backbone". The hill was considerably higher than it is currently because in the course of developing the area Lowry had the top of the hill "chopped" and hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of dirt moved to the marshy lower area - now the Walker's Sculpture Garden. An 1879 artist rendering of the area is on a Loring Park historical marker located at Grant St. , west of Nicollet Mall. See https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=91406

Thomas Lowry home (Mpls Historical)

The first "Lowry Hill" house was Lowry's own, located where Walker Art Center now sits. With Lowry's exemplary "model home", the area soon became the place to build for the city's shaker's and movers. Donaldson of department store fame, W.S. Nott of fire engine fame and Lowry's architect himself, Frank Long among his neighbors.

Lowry subsequently became involved in other ventures - the Twin Cities street car system - and, significantly to me, a partner in the Soo Line Railroad, which had a station at a lonely spot in west-central Minnesota in the 1890's. The residents decided to name the spot "Lowry" after the railroad and street-car tycoon.

So out of curiosity, I recently did a bicycle tour of Lowry Hill Neighborhood looking for some of the early homesteads. I was happy to see that not every residence was a "mansion". Most of the houses pictured below were built between 1900-1910.

Somewhat ostentatious. Original owner was Charles Pennington, Soo Line President.

Once the home of Minnesota Governor, John Lind

And even better ...

Saturday, May 27, 2017

What do you wish for your children?

Unfortunately I cannot credit the source, but I once read a survey of mothers of the world by nationality. The single question asked was: "What do you most wish for your children?"

The results are of course generalizations, and perhaps predictably, the most common reply from Chinese mothers was "honor" and from American mothers "happiness". I was struck, however, with the response of Italian mothers. They wished their children to be "good". This is something my grandmother Esther might have said, although I suspect she might have said "kind".

It's the preference for the active over the passive. You can be assessed "good" by what you do not do. You don't lie or cheat your customers or your spouse; you don't bully your classmates; you don't bad-mouth people. But to be judged "kind" requires action - the proverbial "random act". It implies a life of dedication, service, self-sacrifice. It means placing the needs and wants of others ahead of your own. It means living the golden rule. It means treating everyone you meet with respect. I believe this style of life is the road to inner happiness, so perhaps the Italian mother and the American mother are really expressing the same wish, albeit the Italian mothers' hope offers a "highway" to happiness.

Unfortunately, I fear many Americans equate happiness with pleasure. Pleasure is fleeting. Pleasure is a feeling. Happiness is a state of being. Happiness endures and despite the Constitution cannot be found by endless pursuit. (I must be careful here and not trespass on the realm of philosophers and theologians.) But, I believe true happiness is an inner quality and in its truest form, stems from an examined life and positive action in the lives of others. It's a hard road in today's society. Why live morally when the immoral seem to prosper? A little Socrates never hurts with a difficult topic: Socrates says that virtue (i.e. kindness/goodness) and happiness are inextricably linked.

There is a New Testament translation that renders the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) as "Happy* are they ..." rather than KJV "Blessed are they ...". When I first read that, I was uncomfortable. I thought it sounded trite. But on reflection, when I think of happiness as inner contentment and purpose and not glee, I find that "Happy are the pure of heart, for they shall see God" apt.

*The original Greek word for “Blessed” is "Makarios, which means "happy." The term beatitude comes from the Latin noun beātitūdō which means "happiness".

Copyright © 2017 Dave Hoplin

Friday, May 19, 2017

A Meeting in the Pacific

In March of 1944, at the height of the war in the Pacific, this article appeared in the Minneapolis Star Journal and was republished by the Pope County Tribune (article below) & the Starbuck Times. It tells of a meeting for a reunion between two sailors: my father, Glenn Hoplin, an electrician's mate aboard the battleship USS New Jersey, and his brother Oliver, a pharmacist's mate aboard the carrier USS Nassau.

What a heart-warming story for the folks back home! However ... if you believe the US Navy would provide a motor launch during wartime between ships so a couple of brothers could have a reunion, I have some land in the Everglades you might want to purchase. The story is completely bogus - this non-event was verified to me by my father. It was one of a series of Navy propaganda stories for consumption by the home front.

Sorry to disillusion you.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

#scenesonabikeride

When I was a kid, during the summer, my Schwinn bicycle was my ticket to adventure. With my baseball glove looped on the handlebars, I could cruise the 4 north-south & 4 east-west streets and 2 alleys of Lowry with impunity. And accompanied by other adventurers, we would venture into the great unknown - down the "old road" to the stockyards, across the tracks past the depot to the old elevator road, west to Chippewa Creek, south to Malmedal Lake or east to the Horse Lake dump grounds.

This love for the bicycle has never left me.

I still cruise my community, albeit a bit more expansive than Lowry environs and regularly venture outwards to the greater Minnesota unknown. The Twin Cities and Minnesota in general have a treasure of amazing trails.

I often take a photo or two on my rides. What follows, in no particular order, offers you a tag-along on a few of my rides. These are all Minnesota locales, with the exception of Wisconsin's Red Cedar Trail.