40 minute read
Day Trip Destinations
from Mankato Magazine
Minnesota has an abundance of quaint small towns that are worth your time
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Small towns are the unsung heroes of American travel. They can be easily overlooked, but these charming slices of Americana have a lot to offer. Unique restaurants, museums, state parks, walking trails — the list goes on. And Minnesota has plenty of small towns to venture out to this spring and make a day of it.
Little Falls, population 8,343 Hometown to aviator Charles Lindbergh, Little Falls has a lot to offer in its quaint town. There’s a lot of history that was made in Little Falls, and with that, many places to visit. Things to do: n Charles Lindbergh House and Museum The museum will be back up and running after its completion of construction later this month (April 30). The museum gives its visitors a comprehensive look at the life of Charles Lindbergh. There are model planes, interactive exhibits and a full-scale replica of the Spirit of St. Louis cockpit. According to its website, visitors can envision themselves “performing a tricky takeoff in New York, surviving an ice storm over the ocean and landing safely in Paris.” The museum also shows original footage from the aviator’s famous flight daily, and all day, in its 50-seat theater. For those interested, take a tour in Lindbergh’s childhood home. The tour guides the visitors through his home, including original items from the home. (More info at mnhs. org/lindbergh)
n Minnesota Fishing Museum The museum is open year-round 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The museum holds more than 10,000 fishing-related artifacts. But the museum insists that it’s not “just a collection of old fishing items.”
“Rather, a collection of historical possessions that belonged to individuals from across Minnesota who were (and are) a part of history of freshwater fishing in our state,” according to its website. Some items include ice fishing houses, boats and tackle, some of which date to the early 1900s. Tickets to visit the museum are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and students and $15 for families. More info: mnfishingmuseum.com Also check out: Pine Grove Zoo, Linden Hill Historic Estate, Charles A. Lindbergh State Park. Highest rated places for grub: Little Fiesta, Mexican cuisine; West Side Cafe, comfort food; A.T. The Black & White, American cuisine. Fun fact: Actor Jessica Lange, known for her roles in “King Kong,” “Tootsie,” and the “American Horror Story” series, lived in Little Falls with her family until the late 1950s. Plan your trip: littlefallsmn.com
Grand Marais, population 1,359 Grand Marais, French for “Great Marsh,” has always been a bustling area. In the 1700s it had been a popular fur-trading station. Today the town is a gateway to the popular Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Grand Marais also prides itself on its arts and music culture during the summer. The Grand Marais Art Colony is the oldest artists’ colony in Minnesota. It is also the home of the Devil’s Kettle, a geological oddity in which Brule River splits, sending half its flow tumbling 50 feet over a cliff, and other half into what appears to be a hole in the rocks. (Spoiler alert: Scientists solved the mystery a few years back. The water returns to the river a short distance downstream.)
Things to do: n Gunflint Trail This is one of the best places to see moose, according to its website. The variety of nature and wilderness even landed Gunflint Trail, which is actually a road, in one of the world’s “50 Places of a Lifetime.” It is also one of the most popular areas to go canoeing. On an overnight (or just a late night) trip, take a look at the stars. This area has some of the darkest skies, and there’s also a potential to see northern lights when the conditions are there. If you can’t get out to Grand Marais but still want to witness the cool nature from the comfort of your home, check out their webcams at visitcookcounty.com/ resources/webcams. Also check out: World’s Best Donuts, Lake Superior Trading Post, Grand Marais Lighthouse, Artists’ Point. Highest rated places for grub:
Sven & Ole’s, pizza; South of the Border Cafe, American comfort food; My Sister’s Place, beer and burgers. Fun fact: Grand Marais is the hometown to musician Cobi, former band member of Gentlemen Hall, known for their hit “Sail Into the Sun.” Plan your trip: visitcookcounty. com/community/grand-marais
Lanesboro, population 732 Located on the far southeasterns side of the state is the small town of Lanesboro, founded in 1868. It features an arts council, professional theater, downtown shopping and the Root River State Trail path. There’s even an Amish community in the area. Things to do: n Niagara Cave The cave has been named one of the Top 10 caves in the U.S. by attractionsofamerica.com. It has also been recognized on CNN, the Travel Channel and The Weather Channel. The limestone cave is 200 feet deep, featuring stalactites and stalagmites. There’s even a 60-foot waterfall. Visitors can take a guided tour through the caves in which they can hike one mile underground. According to its website, participants can also see fossils up to 450 million years old and an underground waterfall. The cave also hosts weddings in the subterranean wedding chapel. Niagara Cave is open from April through October. Admission is $16.95 for adults, $10.95 for children ages 3-12 and free for children 2 and younger. (Niagaracave.com)
n Bluffscape Amish Tours Escape from the world of technology and tour through the Bluffscape Amish tour. The threehour tour stops at six Amish farms — through Lanesboro, Preston, Canton and Harmony — where visitors can learn about Amish history. At each farm, take a look at the stores that are full of Amish crafts, hardwood furniture, candy, fresh produce and more. The tours run from mid-April through Halloween. Admission is $30 for adults, $20 for teens, $10 for children ages 6-10 and free for children 5 and younger. (bluffscape.com) Also check out: Scandinavian Inn Mystery Nights, International Owl Center, Commonweal Theatre, Root River State Trail. Highest rated places for grub: High Court Pub, bar and pizza; Pedal Pushers Cafe, comfort food; Lanesboro Pastry Shoppe, pastries and breakfast. Fun fact: Buffalo Bill was such a frequent visitor, the town hosts “Buffalo Bill Days” each August. Plan your trip: lanesboro.com
TOP COP
Amy Vokal came to Mankato law enforcement 29 years ago fresh out of college; now she’s the first-ever female to lead the department
With a dozen or so refugees gathered around her, Amy Vokal, then a police commander with the Mankato Department of Public Safety, started saying things she thought needed to be said.
The department had been getting a lot of calls at that time from and about refugees and their families. From repeated cooking fires and kids running amok to language and interpreting issues, the department decided to do something about a growing communication problem with the city’s immigrant community. So they sought a grant and teamed up with local nonprofits to engage in outreach. And now, with a firefighter having just completed a fire demonstration, it was Vokal’s turn to educate them.
“And I was like, I got this, I know this,” she recalled from that day 10 years ago. “And I said, ‘Here’s the deal: You call 911.’ I was the expert, right? I knew more than anyone else in the room about this.”
This was a meeting of a group that would eventually be called the Tapestry Project, an effort to help immigrants and refugees understand the more practical parts of American and Minnesota culture. After law enforcement officials spoke, it was time for the immigrants to tell police officers and firefighters their personal stories. And that’s when Vokal, confident after explaining how 911 works, felt her confidence melt into something else.
She listened to a Sudanese woman’s story of fleeing Sudan with her family and how she and her husband separated. They ended up in separate refugee camps; she in Kenya, her husband in Ethiopia. To get to him, Vokal recalled, this pregnant mother walked eight months at night carrying a child and a sack of rice on her shoulders. “I was humbled. Absolutely humbled,” she said. “And I was embarrassed because I was so arrogant. But I went in there as a cop. I didn’t go in there as a human being. Not to say cops aren’t human beings, but I went in there to teach cop lessons, and I got taught life lessons.
“How dare I come in my little uniform and say, ‘I’m gonna tell you what you need to know’ instead of really looking at the resilience and the strength and the hope people have that have gone through situations I could never even imagine,” she said.
Vokal, 50, arrived in Mankato in 1991. Idealistic and bookish, she came fresh out of St. Thomas University to a job as an undercover agent on the Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force. Twenty-nine years later, she’s the director of the Mankato Department of Public Safety. And that moment — while she listened to an immigrant talk about her family’s difficult journey to come here — illustrates a lot about her approach to leadership and public safety, and why she’s risen to the top of her profession. Vokal, while she loves to talk, also loves to listen. And she’s not afraid to critique and evaluate herself if it means bettering herself, bettering her department or bettering the city.
Oronoco flow
She was born and raised in the little town of Oronoco, a few miles north of Rochester. She attended John Marshall High School in Rochester. She says she was lucky in that she grew up with loving parents in a happy home.
“I lived out in the country and lived on a lake when it was not cool to live out in the country on a lake,” she said.
Mom was a nurse at St. Marys Hospital, Dad worked for IBM. They still live in the house where Vokal, who was born Amy Atkins, grew up.
After high school she enrolled at the University of St. Thomas, which was then called the College of St. Thomas. She did well, graduating summa cum laude with a major in sociology and a minor in Spanish. It wasn’t until her senior year at St. Thomas that she considered a career in law enforcement. Her sociology studies exposed her to the world of criminal justice and the works of Supreme Court justices. She also scored an internship with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension fall semester, which led to a parttime job with the BCA during spring semester.
“Profiling was kind of hot back then. It was fascinating,” she said. “The BCA when you’re 21 years old is pretty damn cool.”
After graduation she attended skills training, which is required for all licensed peace officers.
“When I went to skills the week after I graduated, I was the dumbest person there,” she said. “Everybody else had studied statutes. I never studied statutes. Everyone else was so much more prepared.”
She’d considered trying to find a job with a federal law enforcement agency, such as the FBI. But a veteran law enforcement officer told her that, if she wanted to pursue a career in federal law enforcement, the best way was to become a police officer. So, after a recommendation from a BCA agent, she applied for a job with the Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force.
Drug deals and goat thefts
And that job was exactly what you’d expect a drug task force job to be. She worked undercover, buying drugs from dealers, working cases that resulted in drug crime arrests. It only occurred to her later that she maybe should have been more scared than she was.
“I was 22-23 years old, nothing seemed dangerous,” she said. “Was there a propensity for things to go wrong? Sure. But when you’re that age, you don’t know any better. And then later I came to patrol and I thought, ‘What the hell was I doing? What was I thinking? That’s crazy!’ But you know me, I’m a talker. I can talk my way into things, and I can talk my way out of things.”
After two years on the drug task force, Vokal went to work as a Mankato police officer. Like any officer who works patrol for any length of time, she’s had her share of memorable calls.
Case in point: She was the commander on duty when the infamous-but-adorable goat theft occurred.
“I will always be most famous on Google for the story about the goat,” she said. “Fantastic story.” Police received a call at 11:30 p.m. Aug. 11, 2011, about two children, roughly 6 and 5 years old, walking a goat down Riverfront Drive.
“They borrowed the goat. They tried to forcibly adopt the goat,” Vokal said. “They had been at a family gathering at Sibley that day. Then they went home and hatched a plan that, when their parents were asleep, they’d sneak down to Sibley Park and get the goat.”
When questioned, the girls were ready with a story. They said it was a family pet and they were taking it for a walk. Further, they’d said, the goat lived in their closet, hidden from Dad, who had yet to be told the family had a pet goat. “I actually got international calls about that story,” Vokal said. “It went local. And by the next day (KARE-11’s), Jana Shortal was down here from the metro. A week later I started to get pockets of people out East calling me and saying, ‘We saw you on TV.’ Excellent story. Absolutely awesome story.” But, obviously, the work hasn’t all been rosy. “I had a case that involved a 12-year-old boy who committed suicide,” she said. “Trying to wrap my head around that … It was just such a feeling of hopelessness. I still think about that.” She also recalls when fellow officer and beloved coworker Troy Mueller died from complications from pneumonia. “That was a really hard time,” she said. “Having a department that’s just broken ... that was just really a tough time.” Vokal was just a few years into her tenure when she was promoted to commander, a promotion she credits to the vision and mentorship of former Public Safety Director Glenn Gabriel. She said that, while Gabriel’s abrasive style may have ruffled a few feathers,
everyone under his leadership had clear direction and knew exactly what was expected of them every day. He had a mandate to promote women within the department, Vokal said, and he did his best to carry out that out. “Glenn is probably the most talented manager I’ve ever seen. He’s been a great mentor to me over the years,” she said.
Praise from peers, superiors Craig Frericks, a police commander who has worked with Vokal for over two decades, said he was pleased to hear she’d been chosen to lead the department. Her leadership style is inclusive, and she’s earned the trust of people in both the fire and police departments. “Amy is good at bringing people together,” he said. This is evident, Frericks said, in her work with the Tapestry Project. “And that’s been good not only for the department, but also good for the community,” he said. “We’ve always wanted to forge bonds with different groups, and Amy was really one of the people on the forefront of that from the start.” City Manager Pat Hentges agreed. “She just has that ‘it’ factor, and the ability to lead,” he said. “I’m sure there’s always a few employees that have different
opinions, but generally speaking most people are very complimentary of Amy. … Amy is an example of the new type of leader you’re going to find in public service, and she’s building a reputation as a community leader.” Hentges said Vokal also helped the city restructure its public safety department. Previously the structure was simply police on one side, fire on the other. Now they’ve transitioned to a different dual structure. One side includes 24-hour emergency services (police and fire response), while the other includes more strategic initiatives such as investigations, rental inspections and fire marshal duties. “Different leaders in the department were really excited how we reorganized,” he said, “and many appreciated Amy in terms of what she brought to the table in terms of her leadership.” Hentges said getting an internal candidate to replace outgoing Public Safety Director Todd Miller, especially after restructuring, was the city’s Plan A. “It would have been hard if we’d gone outside and brought someone else in and said, ‘This is the organization structure, this is what you’re working with,’” he said. “Amy was the person that had worked longest in a management role in public safety and, not to say the others weren’t qualified, but she was the logical choice to lead it.”
It’d be disingenuous to not point out that Vokal is the department’s first-ever female director. And in an age when women are still fighting for equality in the workplace, it would surprise no one to hear about a law enforcement agency having never had a female leader. Vokal doesn’t want to dwell on that.
“I’ve never thought about it,” she said. “Somebody might have mentioned it, but it’s not something I think about. I’ve been in this community for so long, I think people don’t think of me as a girl or a boy.” Still, the significance isn’t lost on her. “I would hope that certainly girls would see the importance of having a woman in a high-level position,” she said. “But this has to do with my skills and confidence of my community. I want to be judged on my skills and abilities.” Community support Vokal said she misses being on patrol. That’s why, a few times a year, she puts on her uniform and walks a beat downtown. She says it helps her stay connected to a job she loved doing for so many years. It also helps her stay connected to the community. Whether it’s emails or phone calls from the public telling her specific things officers or firefighters have done in the name of public safety, shouts-outs of support from college students while on bar-closing patrol downtown, or letters from school kids thanking them and calling them heroes, she said her department’s connection and positive relationship with the community is special and, actually, kind of rare. “Is there room for improvement? Yes. Is there still mistrust from some? Yes,” she said. “But we’re doing things like our work with the Tapestry Project and our meetings with students on campus. Partnering with the Diversity Council has been fantastic. And we’re doing things like Time to Talk through the YWCA. So we’re trying to get there and trying to make ourselves accessible. But at the same time, you don’t want to go and force yourself on someone who is afraid. You want them to feel empowered.” When talking about the Tapestry Project, Vokal reflects for a moment, thinking back to that day with the group of immigrants, and how much it encapsulates her approach to leadership. “I think the most important quality I’ve ever developed is empathy,” she said. “Telling stories, being vulnerable — when we all have empathy, we have a very different ability to relate.” MM the rst one and then go into ‘generic’ or just law rm best lawyer ad without the mention of
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Welcome Paul Allen, originally from Canada, came to Mankato 30 years ago for a job at Minnesota State University. Photo by Jackson Forderer
home
Mankato is home to many transplants; what is it about this community that makes people want to stay here?
By Diana Rojo-Garcia
Mankato is the sweet spot for most of its residents. It’s a safe place to raise a family, yet big enough to still have plans out and about downtown. Many musicians roll around to our very own backyards, like Bob Dylan, Elton John even Marilyn Manson. And it’s only a 1½-hour drive to the Twin Cities for extra adventures. For some, Mankato always has been their home. They’ve seen the city grow and expand, went to either East, West or Loyola high schools, and they’ve never left.
But for others, the dot on the map marking Mankato
was a mystery to them until they arrived. Some moved here when Mankato’s status as a regional hub was just emerging. Others came more recently. Regardless of when they came, they all stayed. And many have no plans to leave. Mankato has become a part of them. They’re all engrained in its culture and have been embraced by their neighbors. For them, like us, Mankato is home.
home to Western Texas College. He followed the path of his older brothers who had also come to the U.S. for school. “Our family tends to be, I think looking back on it, we were pretty independent and not scared of stuff,” Allan said. “I think it was more adventurous than anything else.”
Allan graduated from Western Texas College in 1982 with a degree in education and history. He wasn’t really sure what he wanted to do with that degree, however. So, the adventure didn’t stop there. After graduation, he headed to Northern Arizona University where he did a graduate assistantship in athletics doing sports information work for three years. “I fell into doing this as a career,” Allan said. When he was 25, he found another opportunity and continued his adventure to Mankato. He began working at thenMankato State University in the mid-’80s and has been a member of the MSU’s Athletics Department staff ever since. He’s now the associate athletic director/ communications. In Mankato he met his wife, Lori, who is a ‘92 MSU alumna. They had three kids — Sean, Seth and Jack — all of whom went to Mankato East High School. And during his time from 1985 until now, Allan witnessed many changes in town. In 1985, there wasn’t the Vetter Stone Amphitheater nor the Mankato Marathon. There was no, River Hills Mall or Taylor Center. No Division I men’s or women’s hockey at MSU. At least not until an NCAA decision in the mid-’90s threatened to remove the men’s hockey program, which at the time was playing at the Division III level. “The NCAA legislation, which had really nothing to do with us but was going to affect us, was going to do away with the ability to play Division III hockey,” Allan said. “We were a Division II school in everything but hockey.” The rule was that unless the school was Division III in everything, the school couldn’t isolate itself to having just one Division III program. “There was no Division II championship, so at that time, we can’t be Division III and there isn’t Division II, so what are our options?” Allan said. “ Division I or Kathy Brynaert moved to Mankato with her husband, Tony Filopovitch, in the 1970s and never left. Photo by Pat Christman
no hockey.” However, MSU didn’t have a Division I rink. There was only the All Seasons Arena, which is not suitable for Division I competition. During this time, where the civic center is now, there wasn’t a whole lot happening in the downtown area. The River Hills Mall was being built on the other side of town, and a lot of businesses followed. Can you imagine? A place like Mankato, which prides itself in its hockey, to not have hockey? Mankato wouldn’t be the same place if it had gone away with the sport.
Thankfully, with the collaboration between business owners, the city and MSU, the half-percent sales tax (which still exists today) was passed. With that tax, the city built the Mankato Civic Center. This allowed MSU to elevate its men’s hockey program to Division I. Their first game as a Division I program took place in 1995. “We’re getting 5,000 people per game,” Allan said. “By the time playoffs are done, we’ll have over 100,000 people who attended MSU men’s hockey games this year.” Anyone who has ever been downtown during hockey nights understands the importance of the sport to Mankato’s community and identity. But key to all of it is the strong leadership and progressive leadership that has always existed in Mankato, Allan said. “That whole thing didn’t happen in a vacuum. There’s this combination of events, leadership within the community, that leadership at MSU, that leadership within both the city government and business, where that all sort of came together.”
Kathy Brynaert, Detroit Kathy Brynaert is a well-known name around the Mankato area. She was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2007 until 2014. She was on the Mankato School Board from 1995 until 2005. She also volunteered at the Mankato Co-Op and was the board president before it closed its doors. Brynaert’s face, and work, has become ubiquitous in Mankato, a community that has been Brynaert’s home since the late ‘70s with her husband, Tony Fillipovitch. The couple moved to Mankato in 1978 after her husband was hired by MSU to teach urban studies. But before moving to Mankato, she and her husband had lived in bigger cities: Pittsburgh, Portland, Oregon, and Ann Arbor, Michigan (where they met). The smallest city they had lived in before coming to Mankato was Tulsa, and at the time, the population was 400,000. Her husband also grew up in a big city — Chicago — so the two were accustomed to big-city living. And moving to Mankato was vastly different than the metropolitan areas. So when they came to Mankato, it was kind of a shock. In comparison to all the other places
28 • APRIL 2020 • MANKATO MAGAZINE they had lived, Mankato was a small town. “We didn’t have a lot of resources at that time because we had been graduates. So a lot of our entertainment value was street life,” she said, such as finding music on the corner, going for downtown walks or shopping at retail stores. Despite the small town, the two decided to follow their big-city living tradition and took a walk around the downtown area. They parked near Second Street, where there used to be a bakery, and noticed all of the beautiful historical buildings. So there must be something to this little town, right? “We walked around downtown, I mean, we walked around twice. We looked at each other and said, ‘Two years and we’re out of here,’” Brynaert laughed. The following year, they welcomed their first daughter, and their perspective started to change. “We had our girls. Kids get you into community life, that’s kind of what they do,” she said. “We started feeling comfortable here in terms of the connections we were making personally.” Life is incremental, Brynaert said, and sometimes you don’t notice what’s happening until you look back. And naturally, with their backgrounds in urban studies and philosophy, they became heavily involved in the community. Starting with the food co-op, her husband’s work at MSU and Brynaert’s volunteerism at the Suzuki School of Music, Brynaert realized Mankato had something special. “What we started to experience … is there were a lot of interconnections at this point,” Brynaert said. There were various groups and organizations in Mankato, but they didn’t isolate themselves. “There were a lot of tentacles among those groups of people,” Brynaert said. “What we came to know about that is that Mankato is a pretty collaborative place.” What kept Brynaert involved in the community and eventually running for office wasn’t partisan or political. It was the community. “People weren’t very protective of their territory, and they were more about ‘What can we do together to make things work?’” For Brynaert and her husband, this definition of community was the exact reason they decided to stay.
“And living in a community where, in a grocery store, you met people that you might have seen at the PTA or City Council,” Bryanert said. “There is a mix of people, with not always the same interests, but similar concerns in the way that you felt we could make a difference.” Plus, Mankato is close enough to the Twin Cities to escape for a little bit, all while feeling safe with kids riding their bikes around the block surrounded by historical buildings. Thinking back, Brynaert said it makes her smile to think that two big-city kids have spent more than half of their lives in what they originally called a “small town.” “And we have been really happy here.”
Vusa Bentley, Wisconsin The Midwest has always been some kind of home for Vusa Bentley.
Bentley had come to the U.S. nearly two decades ago from Azerbaijan. She attended Drexel University in Philadelphia. She then trekked her way to Minnesota State University, Moorhead. Shortly after, she moved to Wisconsin where she assisted as a paralegal at Zalewski Klinner & Kramer in Wausau. In the 10 years she had spent in the neighboring state, she coordinated the program Wills for Veterans. The volunteerbased program held clinics every other month to help veterans write up wills. In 2011, Bently was chosen as Paralegal of the Year in Wisconsin out of more than 3,000 in the state. Nearly after a decade, Bently moved to Mankato with her two sons when her then-husband found a job at the IRS in Mankato. “I knew I wanted to live in a place where it was close to the city — no more than an hour and a half from the airport — but an active place,” she said. Mankato hit the nail on the head. Bently has been living in Mankato for the last five years. She’s found solace in various parts of town, including one of her favorite places, Sun Moon Yoga or Body Concept’s salt room. Some might recognize her from her and Jack McGowan’s mobile pizza wagon — aptly named Bentley McGowan Wagomobile.
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“I love to feed people,” Bently said. It began in 2017 and started with finding out how to use her passion of cooking for others while also giving back to the community. The BMW pizza wagon took Mankato by a storm, creating dozens of fundraisers for various organizations, including the National Guard, the Children’s Museum, La Leche, SMILES Center for Independent Living and local schools. All of the product, Bentley’s time and the pizza wagon were donated to the space. All profit made during times of operation went directly to the organizations. “We raised anywhere between $752 to $2,500,” Bently said. Some others might recognize her as a covergirl for the River Valley Woman magazine or perhaps as a mediator or, most recently, a paralegal at Birkholz & Associates law firm. But something that Bently found, specifically in Mankato, was a deeper passion and sense of community in the fitness world in Mankato. She says that Mankato has many great options for fitness (and jokes she has a membership to most). It was in Mankato she felt she was able to fully find herself in the fitness world. “Finding my fitness passion in this town is a burst of my true character and is the rebirth of my passion,” she said. “It was a burst of where I felt free enough with myself to express myself.” In 2018, Bently decided to serve the community with her talents in a different way. She created Vusa Fitness: Fitness for All Walks of Life. “I wake up, and for most people, they don’t leave until they brush Vusa Bentley, originally from Azerbaijan, came to Mankato 20 years ago. Photo by Pat Christman
their teeth or put their pants on. My training is my pants, it is my brush,” Bentley laughed. “It’s not like an option. It’s a mission.” She takes the health and fitness of her clients seriously, ensuring success for those who train with her.
But they’re not just her customers — they became an important part of Bentley’s life and community. “My clients have become my family. They’re my clients when I train them, but they’re not as soon as that training is done.” Between everything that Bently has accomplished in the short term she has lived in Mankato, she continues to develop her passions in each way she can, but always striving to serve her community as much as possible. Eventually, she hopes to open her very own restaurant featuring organic and grass-fed beef and is also training to beat the women’s world record in planking. But that’s another story. And she isn’t planning on leaving anytime soon. “This was a place where I found my true passion, my true passion is in athleticism, my true passion is in serving food, my true passion is in giving back to the community,” Bentley said. “My true passion is making sure I am there for my children, and listen to them when they say this is their home. The fact that my children are my home. And the fact that they call this home, it makes my home.” MM
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Adventures in Autograph seeking Signed, sealed, DELIVERED
Ithink the pleasure I get from obtaining autographs by rock stars and writers and basically anybody I admire has something to do with my mom’s love, which itself didn’t really dawn on me until Glen Campbell’s autograph came in the mail. I was 6 or 7 years old, home sick and occupying the white vinyl couch in our tiny living room in Chicago’s south side. Instead of Sister Mary Philomena’s grim sentencings of our souls and math, this one day I was instead quietly, happily taking in 7UP, soft-boiled eggs and toast. And, naturally, television – the key to life. At that age and time, life was a series of either 30- or 60-minute increments, and for all the good Sister’s work, nothing grabbed me by the soul more than the “Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour” on CBS, which allowed me to see the genius whose 45s I listened to as much as I watched TV. He had high hillbilly harmonies and seemed to really push those on the TV show. And I’d get upset when family members laughed at or imitated him. I took it personally because I took Glen Campbell personally. Maybe I’d grow out of it and someday see why he’s laughable, but for the time being I listened to him constantly and loved that show. I’m quite certain it was the first mail I’d ever received. Two pieces, actually. The mailman showed, and my mom nonchalantly handed me a large 8-by-10 envelope and a regular business envelope, both addressed to me and both with the return addresses of: Glen Campbell. The smaller envelope contained a typewritten notice on “Goodtime Hour” letterhead welcoming me to the Glen Campbell Fan Club and letting me know my first newsletter would arrive soon. That was the larger envelope. Along with the newsletter in that envelope was an 8-by-10 black and white glossy photo of Glen, who in his own ever-lovin’ Wichita Lineman’s hands wrote: “Joseph, thank you for joining my fan club. Glen Campbell.” It had all been my mother’s doing, months and months earlier. She told me she’d almost given up on hearing back from CBS. She was as thrilled as me that it finally came. And it hit me then, even as a young kid and even with the excitement of that delivery, that it was the nicest thing anybody had ever done for me. And by my mom, of all people, that lady who made the soft-boiled eggs and toast and poured the soda in those tall Tupperware cups. Maybe she wasn’t laughing at Glen Campbell or me after all. What follows are a few scenes in pursuing autographs and, more so, the spirit of that great sick day when a major adult in my life made me feel ever-so-legit in my tastes. That’s a pretty cool thing to do for a kid. The one that got away Long before I had my autograph epiphany, Mom and I were downtown and about to take the bus home when she excitedly pointed out to me a tall man in a suit and skinny tie, laughing and talking to about four or five people, clearly fans of some sort. Let’s go say hello, Mom said, and it looks like he’s signing autographs. I didn’t recognize his weird name and insisted we continue home because “Cartoon Town” would be starting soon. Mom pointed out that he was so close and seemed so willing to talk to fans and sign autographs. I countered with some sort of reminder that I could psycho-brat this scene immediately unless we got on that bus. She relented, we took the bus home and I contentedly watched
“Cartoon Town” while mom told my dad how she almost met Cassius Clay. Chuck Berry For some reason likely involving taxes, Chuck Berry played at the Rock County 4-H Fair in Janesville, Wisconsin, in the mid-’70s. Toward the end of his afternoon show, we were all sufficiently frenzied, dancing in the pouring rain collectively not believing we were seeing Chuck Berry, reeling and rocking across the stage for his final song, the wind and rain whipping him as well. He didn’t care. He was sopping wet and doing that duck walk of his across the stage and aiming his guitar in front of him like the world’s happiest weapon. When it was over, everybody scrammed for shelter but I needed more. I found an empty popcorn box, tore a panel off for paper and darted to the tour bus, where there was one other person, my buddy Matt Arnold. He and I met in sixth grade, the year my family moved to Wisconsin from Chicago. He and I had bonded on Elvis music so now, a few years later, it wasn’t surprising to find him here as jazzed as I was about what had just happened. We hadn’t really hung out since we were in grade school either, but now holy hell the bus door was opening. The driver asked who we were and what we wanted. Nobody and autographs, we dribbled. He shook
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his head. “You can stand out in the rain all you want. He’s not signing autographs.” And the door shut. We decided to stand all we wanted, and 10 minutes later the door opened again. “He’s all the way in the back.” The bus had shades drawn, low light and forget the noise of a county fair outside, it was silent and solemn as we walked down that aisle toward the back. And then. Centered perfectly with his guitar case on his lap and a pen in his hand, Chuck Berry gave Matt and I a smile and very gentle “hello.” His wet hair was combed back and he had on a long-sleeve burgundy shirt. It was royalty. We mumbled something, surely, maybe not, as he signed the plain side of my popcorn box panel and whatever Matt had. We thanked him, walked back down that quiet aisle and started playing in bands together with names like Phase II, Escape and The Press. We always, always played Chuck Berry songs and damn if we didn’t always try to make it rain. Johnny Cash At the end of a phone interview with Johnny Cash for the Mankato Free Press, I told him a rather long story that I hoped would illustrate how much his music meant to me. It wasn’t a great story and I won’t bother you with it here, but he nonetheless chuckled politely and told me to make sure I stop by and say hello in person when he played in town the following week. “Well,” I told my contacts at the Mankato Civic Center, “Johnny Cash wants me to stop and say hello so whatever you can do to make that happen…” A few minutes before his concert, I found myself last in a line of about 15 people waiting like me to say hello to the Man in Black, who as it turns out is also gigantic. He emerged from a dressing room and man, did he have a presence and booming voice. Next to him was some sort of manager who was rushing him along, despite Johnny’s desire to talk patiently to each fan. I was holding his latest CD, the Rick Rubin-produced, bare-bones solo acoustic “American Recordings,” which launched a resurgence of Cash’s career. In front of me, the Mayor of Mankato held a paper grocery bag. And the
manager next to Johnny was getting antsy. “OK, Johnny,” he’d say as Cash would move to talk to another fan, “We gotta make this quick.” The fewer people in front of me, the more adamant the manager became. “Johnny, that’s it. No more.” Johnny persisted, calmly. By the time he got to the Mayor of Mankato, the manager was losing his mind. The Mayor of Mankato introduced himself to Johnny in a fairly mayoral way, then reached into the paper bag and announced he was giving Johnny the very first Key to the City. The Man in Black smiled and accepted the gift gracefully. The manager, meanwhile, was delivering kitten number four. The Mayor of Mankato then asked Johnny if he’d ever heard of our area’s annual Dakota powwow and proceeded to give Johnny a short history of the celebration and its relevance to our area. It was show time. The manager thanked the Mayor of Mankato, grabbed Johnny’s arm and led him away. But Johnny turned and walked to me and I blathered that we talked last week on the phone and asked if he could play something from the “American Recordings” CD, which he signed for me. The show was incredible, of course. He opened with “Folsom Prison” and June Carter was there and they sang beautifully together about growing old and waiting on the other side. People of every age were wiping away tears. At one point he pulled up a stool, grabbed an acoustic guitar and said: “I had a request to do some songs from
my new album.” Yeah, I know: He was going to do them anyway. But still. Some moments are too big to fit into one night. That was one.
Nancy Young When the Internet hit, I spent a lot of time trying to track down out-of-print books by Richard Brautigan. So did a bunch of other people, apparently. (Before that time, I’d find them at the best bookstore of my time, The Once Read in downtown Mankato.) At the time, a website of a large bookstore chain had a section of rare and out-of-print books. You could not only search for a rare book, but a checklist allowed you to narrow your search to first editions, or signed copies or hardcover. My searches for
signed copies of anything by Richard Brautigan showed prices in the high hundreds. One day, though, as I checked the boxes to see about finding a signed Brautigan paperback, the prices that scrolled by were predictable at first: $1,500, $980, $500, $9, $1000 – and I backed up. Nine dollars? Yep, I checked it out. Nine dollars for a signed paperback copy of Brautigan’s “Rommel Drives On Deep Into Egypt.” Somebody out there made a terrible, terrible mistake, and that mistake was going to cost me only $9. I ordered and prayed the book would be sent before the seller checked the Internet. It took weeks and weeks, but on a snowy white morning I looked out the window of our Liberty Street home and my heart jolted at the red, white and blue Priority Mail envelope sticking out of the mailbox. The joy of Priority Mail is the ease of opening the cardboard envelopes with a satisfying zip, satisfying like you’re some kind of accidental millionaire. I pulled out that book of poems and opened to page one expecting my life to somehow align in this little way
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with San Francisco poets and Beat writers and alcoholic tragedy and history all thanks to one man’s name.
Technically, I got what I paid for – a signed copy of Richard Brautigan’s paperback book of poetry, “Rommel Drives On Deep Into Egypt.” Except it was signed by Nancy Young. Nobody else. Nancy Young, former owner of a nice paperback who was probably pleased to see that some guy in Minnesota bought it for $9. My mom laughed when I told her about that. Now, of course, sitting here looking at dozens of autographed CDs and books, I wish I would have told her why I was even bothering. MM
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