Growing Up Then and Now

After learning a little bit more about each other we went out dancing, which I’ll tell about in a minute, but first I’ve got to back-up to when I first learned what her name was.  In the 80s the Twin Cities Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild would have a New Year’s Eve party in a downtown warehouse to raise money to send a soon-to-be law school graduate to be a Law Clerk somewhere doing social justice work following our creed:  “Human Rights Before Property Rights.”  In 1984 our Awardee was Ellen Anderson to go to Brownsville, Texas to work on immigration issues.

Human Rights Before Property Rights

After the award ceremony, there was always lots of dancing and general merriment.  At one point that night Ellen and I and some guy I didn’t know are on the same elevator, and she seemed really unhappy but I didn’t ask why given there was this other guy.

Now back to being on me & Ellen’s first date, I ask her, “Whatever were you so unhappy about?”

“Oh dear,” she says, “Did I look that unhappy?  Well, I’d just that minute broken-up with my boyfriend of 6 years.  I decided it was time to let him know right after I got that award.”

“Well am I ever glad you did, come on let’s dance!” was my pretty nifty response.

Ellen tells our first date story better than me.  I’m better at telling about our first dance.  Since I’ve never been sure if Ellen quite appreciates The First Dance story, let’s skip it – at least for now.  Ellen always tells everybody it was a great first date because, besides not having the pressure that comes from being alone by yourselves, we went out dancing with three of my former girlfriends.  (Former is important – read “My Apologies to Hannah & Annie.”)  So, how did it come to pass, you ask, that there’s so many of us on a first date?

Tomorrow:  Third Time

Getting Married in a Baseball Stadium [8^th inning]

Having so much fun dating, playing ball and getting into politics, I didn’t settle down until the age of 45.  There are lots of stories about my long-time partner, Ace (who got her nickname playing poker), in these Growing Up Then & Now stories.  This is about our baseball connection.

By 1995 Ace & I were both elected office holders, and for sure we wanted to have a big wedding, so I suggested the St. Paul Saints ballpark for the venue with its 6,000 + capacity.  To Ace’s credit, she dropped any hint of skepticism once she saw there was plenty of space under the grandstand in case of rain.  We had lots of fun planning.  First we got Mike Veeck (the son of Bill Veeck – an early hero of mine – the owner of the Chicago White Sox growing up) to agree to let us use his park.   Then we got former Chief Justice Sandy Keith to preside.  Then we decided on Willie Murphy to be our musician (over Trailer Trash).  Then we got our friends at Red Lake to fish us some walleye and my farmer friend Bob to bring in a field of corn on the cob.  Besides spreading the word, the only thing left was designing a Frisbee golf course.*

Although her tiny wrists kept her from ever being a baseball slugger, Ace can play Frisbee with the best of ‘em.  Hank Aaron, baseball’s all-time Home Run hitter (after Babe Ruth and before steroids),  gives his father credit for becoming such a prodigious slugger:  Growing up, every night before bedtime, Hank would have to pull a comb through his kinky hair 100 times lefty and then 100 times righty to develop wrist strength.

Yep, that’s a frisbee

At any rate, so long as there was going to be a Frisbee golf course, Ellen (Ace) was okay with having our reception at the Saints baseball stadium.  We actually got married at a small, mostly family, ceremony in her flowerful backyard before traveling the 5 minutes to the ballpark; but for me the bigger deal was the reception.  Keep in mind that it took a really, really wonderful lady to get me to the altar.  I was steeped in the politics of marriage being too tied in with convention and said more than once the only way I’d get married is if it were in an opium den in China – i.e., not likely.   But with a beautiful bride and the Bill Veeck / Mike Veeck connection to my love for baseball, it was as good as an opium den.

Ellen went on to be the Saints best champion at the legislature and Mike continued in the tradition of his father when he had Minnie Minoso Day at the Saints Stadium.  Minnie was in a White Sox uniform when I was born, playing for Mike’s dad, and in the year 2000 Mike signed Minnie to a one day contract so Minnie could say he was the only professional ballplayer ever to have played in seven decades.  The hit Minnie got that day, pinch hitting in the 8^th Inning, was a little like my fly to McHugh in the 7^th – but that’s a story for another rainy day.

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*It was in 1975 that I started playing Frisbee golf – in fact I consider myself the inventor of Frisbee Golf.  Maybe somewhere else others were doing what I was doing, but I was the only person I knew who played with myself.  Out the front door; hit the dentist sign on the corner; go for the stop sign; cross the river at an angle with a good approach shot (otherwise just skitter it across the bridge); and so on for 9 holes until I arrived at the law office and wrote down my score – doing the back 9 on the way home.