Sunday, February 2, 2014

Cars, Coins and Corps Values...  Part I

My earliest memories include special trips with my mother and sisters to Southdale Shopping Center in Edina, MN; a short distance from my childhood home in Minneapolis. As one of the first 'malls' of modern design in the U.S. with anchor stores, indoor shops and open-air commons, this was the time and place where a mother could tell her eight-year-old (Cub Scout!) son to watch his two younger sisters and stay by the goldfish pond while she went into a nearby shop. I was happy to watch those fish for hours, often sneaking a penny or two out of the water while loosing track of my sisters. And there were those two, life-sized wooden children on stilt-like poles stuck in the plant-filled gardens; real enough for my imagination to want to join them. There were live birds in these very tall caged areas; almost free. Indoor nature at it's best. It was clearly imprinting upon me in ways I was scarcely aware of... A unique setting of people and animals amidst natural environment and conceived structure.


(Lot layout courtesy Dustincropsboy)

(Courtesy Greg Villet; Life Magazine 1956)

 

(Courtesy of eBay)

(Courtesy nreinonline.com)

When it was time to leave, often after a special treat from the Fanny Farmer candy store or a sausage stick from Delaurio's Deli, it came down to me finding the car. I always could. You see, Southdale was innovative in that they used animal signs to designate areas among the massive, multi-level parking lots which could be very confusing. There was the Tiger lot, the Elephant, Giraffe, Camel, Owl, Bear, Alligator etc. I had a knack for seeing those signs and remembering it. I also learned early that I had a gift for finding things. Like money. I have always and still do find coins, bills and wallets yet to this day. One of these finds was for thousands. I took special pleasure in re-connecting that billfold with it's rightful owner. (It held a half-inch thick stack of fresh 100's for an international business trip he was about to leave on. He had 'forgotten' that he put his wallet in a partially zipped bike bag that didn't stay put after a fateful bump on his last ride. I came upon it on a run.)

I once found a five dollar bill. That doesn't sound like much after the wallet story above but it was 1962. Five bucks filled up a big gas tank, a bag of groceries or 3 months of daily paper delivery! I was seven and Dad and a friend took me to a Minnesota Vikings game at the old Metropolitan stadium. We were walking in to the game and I can see it like it was yesterday; there on the ground saying "Gary... here I am...pick me up!" I did. Gave it to my Dad and he said "I'll be damned..." in an endearing tone. He gave it back to me and said "That's yours, son. Finders keepers.". I wanted to know where it came from...especially if I was the 'keeper'. My father was a Marine and he also taught us that what's yours is 'earned' as opposed to 'given'. I look back and can see the set-up for understanding much of what I became and how I was formed in those first ten, critical years.

Fast forward 20 years and I'm doing landscape work as a part-timer digging holes and planting bushes. Picture this; it's early spring and there are still snow banks and frozen areas along the edge of this property. I noticed something that didn't seem to belong in the frozen snow. After breaking it out; yep... it's a wallet! When I brought this to the attention of the associate I was working with, he told me he had lost his wallet on this job the fall before. I opened it and viewed the owner's driver's license in the front of it.You got it. It was his and he had never expected to see that again.

In very subtle ways, I was taught to look. I was rewarded for it and so it caught and stuck with me. I was aware that I just saw things. I didn't know that. But I felt it.

1 comment:

  1. Do you remember the time we were at Southdale (I am sure you were there, because Mom always took all three of us when we went to Southdale) when someone opened the canary and parakeet cages and flocks of birds flew out of Woolworth's into the mall? I remember noticing the contrast of the "free birds" and those in those tall cages in the middle of the mall. Do you think they "felt free?'
    What does Spider Logic say about the cages/webs we keep ourselves locked in? Do the spaces we keep ourselves in keep us protected and limited or do they create spaces for us to explore our passion? How do we make the most out of the spaces we find ourselves in? Is there freedom within any space, no matter how close the "bars" seem to us?
    Can't wait to hear your perspective Gary!
    only love....

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