Category Archives: Minnesota

Walking to Kindergarten

History, Minnesota

In 1970, at five years old, I began walking five blocks to Richard Gordon Elementary School in St. Paul’s Macalester Groveland neighborhood.  This was the same school that Charles Schulz went to, so I definitely identify with the Peanuts gang trudging through fall leaves and snow drifts wrapped in wool.  I thought of this when I read about the troubling conviction of a mother who allowed her five year old child to walk a half mile to gather feathers at a pond.  Not only did I walk to school when I was elementary age, I was frequently sent to shop for groceries or to buy something at the local hardware store.

As a recent NY Times article points out, the paranoia around child abductions arose after the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz.  Although kidnappings are incredibly rare, the dominant attitude among U.S. parents now seems to be that children under ten should not be allowed outside the home alone.

A more legitimate danger for children is the automobile.  In 2025, parents of a 7 year old child killed by a car while walking with his older brother were charged with involuntary manslaughter.  I certainly had to cross multiple streets getting around where I lived in St. Paul, but the neighborhood was pedestrian friendly and walking was common.  Most children now live in suburbs designed to facilitate fast driving.

This is another factor that explains the insane traffic jams that are found around schools, where parents drop their children off.  In the 1960s around half of students walked to school, and for those who lived within a half mile it was almost 90%. Today only 11% of children walk or bike to school and most are driven by parents in minivans.  Of course this traffic only makes it more dangerous for children who are trying to walk or bike to school.  (In 2023, Jason Kottke produced a great video discussing this problem and possible solutions).

I’m aware of sounding like the grandpa trope of “when I was a kid we walked miles in the snow to get to school”, but this suggests things were so much harder when in fact I am suggesting things were easier.  Not being dependent on cars–biking, walking, taking the bus–gave kids freedom that the suburban or exurban environment denies.

Minnesota Boat Club/ Paul S. Kramer

History, Minnesota, Museums

My mother gave me this signed print by Minnesota artist Paul S. Kramer (1919-2012). It is of the Minnesota Boat Club, a St. Paul rowing club, which dates back to 1870 and claims to be Minnesota’s oldest athletic institution.  Their boathouse on Raspberry Island was built in 1910 and can be rented for weddings or other events.

Kramer’s original 1998 painting is oil on canvas, measures 28″ x 37″ and is part of the Dan Shogren and Susan Meyer collection.  Shogren and Meyer’s collection focuses on twentieth century American art and has been featured at The Minneapolis Institute of Art.  A beautiful survey of Kramer’s art titled Other Realities was published by Julie L’Enfant, who taught at the St. Paul College of Visual Arts before it closed in 2013. 

Kramer grew up on a farm, first in North Dakota and then South St. Paul.  After serving in Europe during WWII, he studied art in France then returned to St. Paul, where he took classes at the St. Paul School of Art with Clement Haupers.  Next, he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and spent more time in Europe, before returning to teach and become Director of Exhibitions at the St. Paul Gallery and School of Art, which is now the Minnesota Museum of American Art.

The museum struggled financially in the 1990s and early 2000s but seems to be thriving at its current home in the 1889-1890 Pioneer and Endicott buildings designed by Cass Gilbert and James Knox Taylor.  The museum is also free and hopefully can be part of a revitalized downtown St. Paul cultural scene!