Do You Have a Pen: Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota has a strange dichotomy because it is rural and urban and it seems to work together.  I was surprised by the lack of major cities beyond the Minneapolis  -  St. Paul area.  Once you pass there on the interstate,  you are in farmland.  I fell in love there and even strongly considered moving to the St.  Paul area.  It is gorgeous,  though I was surprised when I crossed the Mississippi River as to how small it is up there. 

After one visit to Minnesota,  I wrote the following piece for my Vagabonding America travel blog titled The World’s  (Second)  Largest Ball of Twine after a stop in Darwin,  Minnesota out of pure inspiration from a Muse:

A tribute to the American way of life is our,  at times, boredom.  The two largest balls of twine in the world aren’t in Saudi Arabia,  Japan,  or Mexico.  They are right here in the United States!  Today I will focus on what is technically the second largest,  but I believe it to be the de facto largest and I will also explain why. 

Seated in Darwin,  Minnesota is a big ass ball of twine and without a doubt it is the largest in the state.  In Kansas there is a larger ball of twine,  but I believe that one deserves an asterisk since it was complied by multiple people,  visitors,  every year.  The ball of twine in Darwin is the largest ball of twine put together by a single person.  The Darwin twine ball is the largest in Minnesota without argument,  but I argue the case for this to be the largest in the world. Period. 

I was telling one beautiful Minnesotan about my experience seeing the Largest Ball of Twine and she instantly said,  “Minnesota’s got a lot of weird things like that.”  I was sad that she didn’t punctuate that statement with,  “geez,”  but she doesn’t have that Minnesotan accent. 

The twine ball was rolled by Francis A.  Johnson,  a life-long Meeker County resident and son of U.S.  Senator Magnus Johnson.  Most likely an outlet for an obsessive compulsive disorder,  Johnson would roll twine in his basement for hours starting back in or around 1950.  Eventually the twine ball was moved outside while he was still able to get it out of his basement and it was placed on his front lawn.  To make sure it stayed round  (it is a ball after all),  he used railroad jacks to secure the ball from all sides.  Finally in 1979 Johnson retired from the project after 29 years of his love labor.  A circular building was built to protect his time investment.  Johnson died shortly thereafter from emphysema,  assumedly from breathing twine dust for 29 years. 

The town moved  “Minnesota’s Largest Ball of Twine”  or  “The World’s Largest Ball of Twine Rolled by One Person”  to its current location near the Darwin Water Tower and a relatively sealed protective shelter made of wood and plexiglass shields it but makes it fully visible. 

This was really one of the coolest experiences of my life.  First,  it says loads about America and our greatness because the rest of the world doesn’t have time to just sit and roll twine.  It also says a lot about small town America and the pride we have in the most iniquitous things.  Beyond the twine ball you see America on all sides.  Flags,  a youth baseball field in a park,  a quaint little library lending box on the street corner,  and white picket fences.  Though it may seem boring to many and frankly it is,  it’s a way of life free from box stores next door and everybody knows everybody else.  This Twine Ball represents the anthesis of my piece title Times Square and that duality is what makes this country so damn beautiful.  

The reason I wrote about this specifically was to emphasis the small nature of some areas and how beautiful that can be also.  At no point would I try to lessen something like this because it’s still a really cool accomplishment.  It’s not cosmopolitan and it will never be discussed at a dinner party in Seattle or added to the New York City Museum of Contemporary Art,  but it is part of a beautiful real life.  In the 2016 election,  regardless of whom you supported,  we all learned the term  “flyover states”  and Minnesota is one of those. I think the term is disenfranchising to people living in those states that aren’t on the coasts and offer a lot of America’s real beauty.  The phrase isn’t just to do with politics,  but is a mentality of those states in the middle not being worth much more than a layover at the airport when there really is a lot to learn about our country from these types of places. With all the traveling I do and the number of times I have been in New York City,  Minnesota has been equally as influential on my life now as New York City has been.  

One thing that really struck me the most about Minnesota was the cold.  I was there one time at the end of April and was shocked that the lakes and ponds were still frozen except around the edges,  but three weeks later for my next visit,  everything was perfectly thawed and gorgeous. 

If you are into antiquing,  the whole state has a lot of nice finds along Interstate 90 and Interstate 94.  Rochester,  Minnesota is home of the famed Mayo Clinic and it looks like the city’s economy is pretty much built around it,  so it creates a small cosmopolitan area in what would be some hilly farmland. 

I love Minnesota and it’s one of my favorite places—in the late spring and throughout the summer.  I am not strong enough to survive the winters there,  however.