Margie, Rocky & David
(The first in a series of 20 chapters tributing my friends)
All through my college years it was the constancy of summers off and then back to school; and – if she ever reads this – Marjorie Stennes is going to be surprised she is the first “steerer” in my adult life.
It was the first week of senior year at Hamline Univ., 1971, and Margie gave me a copy of the Compendium entitled “The Movement Toward a New America,” 752 pages of photos and stories about 1960s political activism across America. (Fifty-two years later it still has a prominent place on my bookshelf.) 
Having realized that I was never going to have another summer off and then back to school, that compendium steered me to what I wanted to do with my life – join The Movement. You knew me well – Thank you, Margie!
Before finding my way into The Movement, two other college friends have to be mentioned. RockyBarfuss was a sophomore, a party animal, and a member of the TKE frat house – just the kind of person I told my parents I would try to avoid while turning over a new leaf in college. My second week as a Hamline freshman, Rocky showed-up at my dorm to recruit for the fraternity and invited me to go with him to Project Give-a-Damn, a fraternity-sponsored tutoring program in the Frogtown neighborhood of Saint Paul. Rocky became a life-long friend and showed me all sorts of ways to have fun and still give a damn. Frogtown eventually became my life-long neighborhood and the area I represented in the state legislature.
caption: Rocky & Family – Rocky in the middle; wife Nancy to his left; sister Anne & her 2 kids to his right; sister Gail behind him. Rocky, Nancy, Anne and Gail all died young.
David Ilse was another TKE, another all-American guy – still is, always has been. Years later, once I returned to Minnesota to be a lawyer and he was working full-time in child protection, he co-signed for my first car when I didn’t have any credit. Dave and his wife Sherokee retired to Tucson, AZ, but we catch up every now and then.
Back to the last day of summer vacation before the start of senior year, a really hot day. On the spur of the moment, David and I decided to go on a motorcycle trip for a dip in Lake Superior’s cold waters. That’s 150 miles one way. Thought we found a private spot behind a sand dune, stripped, raced to the water, jumped in, but . . . once in the water, discovered it was a crowded beach! Had to wade back in, chagrinned. Just a one minute dip and we were headed back to Saint Paul.
For me, it was quite a “trip.” On the way home, it dawned on me this was the last day my life was going to be one of “back-to-school-in-the-fall,” and hence the importance of Margie’s gift of the Compendium a few days later.
caption: David & Sherokee on their honeymoon.