Customer Reviews

Minnesota Memories

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
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You'll be charmed by the North Star memories these 2 ladies evoke of their lives in Minnesota in the '50's. How I had forgotten the polio epidemic, the love-affair with Elvis most of us had, the local swimming holes, and the scrap books I kept but now can't find. I laughed, I cried, and I sent in my own submission to their upcoming Vol. II because I too was introduced to my first theatrical performance at the high school gym when basketball nets served to hold spot lights and the velvet curtain was strung between them. Their writing even captures the speech patterns I wanted to lose, but my Minnesota accent still gives me away. Their guest writers capture memories that my family holds dear--the local church pageant, the one-room schoolhouse that educated most of my family, and the centennial parade with its primite floats and antique cars that stole our hearts and made us yearn for those by-gone years of the simple life, valued time with family, and Christian values that are never appreciated till later in life. This is a fun read, one that all Midwesterners can identify with and appreciate.

Minnesota Memories is the kind of book you finish at three in the morning and wish you had more chapters yet to read. It evokes thoughts of the quirkiness in Minnesota practices--calling casseroles hot dishes, referring to going to any of Minnesota's l0, 000 lakes as "going to THE Lake", or referring to the noon meal as dinner and the six p.m. meal as supper. Remember when adventure was having the family sit down for supper at
seven?

Authors Joan Graham and Kathy Megyeri, both native Minnesotans, recall some of their favorite tales of growing up in the North Star state. The book brings forth pure joy. It is clean, totally charming, and recalls a Minnesota where hard work, innocence--or not getting caught-- and having a little fun was the way to go. The descriptions of the localities, the stories, the lifestyles and even the pictures of ancestors, proms, school and First Communions bring back memories and smiles.

Growing up in Minnesota in the 50's, 60's and 70's meant that what happened in your house, stayed in your house. You learned to keep your mouth closed and talked about politics, the price of strawberries or the weather. As we were growing up, we all thought we were the only ones who had strange relatives, wanted to juggle on the Johnny Carson Show or were fearful that someone would find out we were different.

Minnesota Memories authors share their own family practices and stories, and guess what? The same things that were shushed in our houses, also happened in the authors' homes. As you cuddle in a soft chair to read the stories, you'll remember long forgotten thoughts and memories of life in Minnesota.

One particularly endearing tale tells of Joan Graham mother who had been raised during the Depression and had learned to live with the frugality of many of our parents. She longed for something utterly beautiful and regal. Finally, she was able to send away for an elegant eight place setting of Bavarian china. For almost twenty-five years the treasured china was never used, however...

The writing style is honest and freshly straightforward. You find yourself right there in the room with the story teller. You put the book down and the events stay with you and mingle with your own past memories. This is one sweet little book that feels like a visit back home to Minnesota--or to any state that was once home. This is one book not to miss.

Marilyn Mikulewicz Baranski
Minnesota native--thirty years removed

The book is a collection of brief true stories of incidents from the lives of several Minnesota writers. Some are funny, some are sad, and many of them brought back memories for me of people and places I knew growing up in Winona, Minnesota. The first story, named "Toyota City," plays on mistaken identity. Another, "Mother's Good Bavarian China" portrays that peculiar trait of saving our best for a time that never comes. "Shop til You Drop" recreates the ambiance of the old downtown many small town Minnesotans knew before we all started going to malls. I enjoyed the book immensely, it's an easy, humorous, and gratifying read.

I bought this book at a local flower shop, and ended up reading it to my mom while she was recovering from surgery. We both enjoyed these short true stories tremendously. Joan Claire Graham really knows how to tell a story! This book is funny, poignant, and completely delightful.

Personal history--two words that, for many, generate mixed feelings. The value of getting something, anything down on paper is inarguable. How many of us wish that Mom or Dad, Grandma or Grandpa had left us something written to remember them by? How many (or few) generations back do you have to go before ancestors become merely names, because the details of their lives have become forever lost? On the other hand, the task of writing personal or family history is incredibly daunting. Where to begin? How to get it all down without becoming tedious? In Minnesota Memories, Graham and Megyeri provide us with a delightful example of personal history done right. Their formula is simple: take a topic and run with it. Imaginary friends, moving away, Elvis, old photos, summer, the skeleton in the closet. Forget the timelines and the begats, the crises and grudges, instead write about the everyday stuff of life. With humor and grace, the authors explore both the ordinary and the odd. They help us feel we have experienced what life was really like in small-town, mid-century America. Minnesota Memories provides would-be family historians a fine example of what a successful memoir looks like. But would someone please tell me, what in heck are "kickerinos"?

One story, "Toyota City", is worth the price of all of the "Minnesota Memories" books. Joan and her fellow writers take us back to our childhood and memories of friends and relatives. Even though I am from North Dakota, these collections of stories ring true to the stories we were told when visiting the "Home Place" in Minnesota. Never been to Minnesota? Read the books and find people as they really are. People like you and me or like we wish we were. Fill your wagon with real stories of real people as you join Joan and friends in a journey to the real Minnesota. We were privileged to have Joan visit our home. She is as delightful as her books and her time with us is now one of our very own "Minnesota Memories."

Readers of this book write and say, "Send me another; I want to give it for Christmas to my relatives who already have every refrigerator magnet and walleye shot glass from Mall of America." Tell newcomers or those who have retired from Minnesota winters and relocated in Florida that this is one book they should share with anyone who still holds the North Star State dear to their hearts. It's a gem!

I have friends from Minnesota and I lived there when I was in Elementary School (Horace Mann in Minneapolis). These stories were wonderful! My only suggestion would be that the photos would have been better with the stories rather than all placed together in the middle.