Best Place To Grow Up: MINNESOTA

[frigilux]

Though few of us lounging around AW are raising kids, I say three cheers for the Land of 10,000 Lakes! Those living here have known it all along. We are top of the list, baby, and that's despite the fact we haven't been able to convince Michele Bachmann to move.

<p>Minnesota has it all:

<p>1. Climate: It's like New Orleans in the summer and Siberia in the winter.
<p>2. Mosquitoes: We have tons of them. And with a nod toward the state's diversity, there are a billion different kinds.

3. A mixture of vanilla pudding, Cool Whip, and crushed Oreos is considered a salad.

4. Lutefisk: I mean, c'mon; who can resist a smelly, gelatinous mound of raw fish cured in lye?

5. Our snazzy accent.

6. 'Minnesota nice' (or passive-aggressive behavior as it's known elsewhere)

7. One of the LeFever brothers.

 

We're number one!  We're number one!  We're number one!

[this post was last edited: 8/13/2016-12:18]

 

[vacerator]

You have harsh winters,

but one should love where they grew up, or move.
Motown didn't used to be so bad. It still beats Gary Indiana for sure, and a few south side Chicago neighborhoods.
Our kids are all grown now, and my partner and I did a good job. They lost their mom to breast cancer when they were in junior high, so we had no choice.
Just my opinion, but Michelle Bachmann is a twitt. Jessie Ventura not so much. Conversion doesn't work, but hey, the mind can will the body, for a short time. Ask my partner of 22 years. Many hetero marriages fail before ten years.

 

[vacerator]

Andrew Zimmern

is from Minnesota, so yeah, it's great state for one reason, and more. He knows food, even likes some 'hot dish' recipes and is a Hebrew who eats pork to boot.

 

[washman]

I'll add a couple of things

Nordic Ware, produced in Minneapolis and Tom Knapp, the greatest exhibition shooter to have lived. God rest his soul.

 

[ilovewindex]

I was raised in North Carolina... I'd never raise kids there... Utah, Colorado, Nebraska or just up the road in Washington would be fine..... Even So cal is a bit sketch IMHO... I would have loved to have grown up in Denver... I dunno why, but i would have

 

[arbilab]

Lookit whoall beat Texas!  Some credible, some less.  Lookit how many beat Hawaii; I KNOW that's wrong.

 

[vacerator]

Every state

has it's beauty, and drawbacks.
Home is what you make it.
Some say we are living in perilous times. Haven't we always been?
Peacefull people do not commit unpeacefull acts.
Like Billy Joel wrote, "we didn't start the fire."
Star wars comes to mind. Will it ever be the real future? Well, humanity has to make it that long first. The actor who played R2D2 died last night in his sleep.
Three ft. 9 inches tall, and suffered with breathing problems a very long time. 81 years young.
I can identify with breathing issues from allergies and pollution, and I've never been a smoker. Only contact smoke.

 

[frigilux]

Tom Knapp: OK, I had to look him up, knowing nothing about exhibition sharpshooters. Daaaaayuuummmmm! Watched a video in which he shot two eggs out of the air; shot the lure a fisherman had cast; and shot two aspirin out of the air. Who knew?!

He looks a bit like Hunter S. Thompson in this photo. Minus the drugs, alcohol, and psychotic behavior, of course.

Hi, Ben!

 

[vacerator]

I've not been

to the shooting range once this summer. Maybe I need to un cobweb the 300 Savage and Winchester 1400 semi auto 12 gauge.

 

[washman]

Frig let me tell you about Tom Knapp

It all started around 2001 or so when I saw him shoot in Martins Ferry OH. He had a website at the time and we got to talking and I sort of became his forum moderator. Well the rest was history. I went to several of his shows in Ohio, particularly Ashland. He'd call me from time to time and invited me to his place in MN for a stay. We'd almost always hit the bars after his show and closed down more than one. He was a fantastic guy no doubt. I own 3 Benelli shotguns and always dreamed of being able to shoot like he did. I have several signed clay targets, signed brochures, and loads of pix.
He was more than just a shooter, he hunted and was a tremendous ambassador for the outdoors. He never put on airs, he basically was a regular bloke like you and me.

Attached are some pix when he came to Newcastle to put on a show.

Trap shooting is one of my other hobbies besides Speed Queen, Goodman, and husky non union riding mowers.

 

[vacerator]

Non union

shmunion I say. Get a new excuse. Most are jealous they never made as much, or had the good benefits.
My grand dad was a foreman at Midland Crucible steel. He had lazy butt losers before the union ever got in.
If anyone came up here trashing the UAW, IBEW, etc, they'd be liable to get a butt full of buck shot too.

 

[vacerator]

Further more,

a politician running for office the first time says Carrier will come back from Mexico with those jobs? Now even if he could do that, would the owners of Carrier want to? No, and they sure as heck aren't going to vote for anyone who would try forcing them to.

 

[washman]

sarcasm vacerator

just sarcasm. I have some anti union comrades who browse various boards, including this one and they know my handle so I know they look for my posts. It is my attempt, lame perhaps, to get a dig back at them.

FWIW my dad was UAW for 29 years. Because of his union negotiated paycheck and benefits, we managed to live a middle class lifestyle.

Men in denim built this country; men (and women) in suits have ruined it.

Union or not, my goal is to buy US made whenever possible. That is a lot harder with each passing day. So even if the Goodman is non union, at least it is USA made. Which is more than I can say for a usually HIGHER priced piece of junk sourced from Mexico or worse, China.

 

[vacerator]

True Washman,

I agree! Most folks in Pa. are sensible. My moms Polish ancestors settled in New Castle from Teschowe Poland near Gdansk in 1920. Mom was born in Koppel, then they moved to Midland.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Californ'ya? Don't say I didn't 'Warn Ya&#39

I always thought where I grew up Detroit, MI was the Best Location in the Nation!

 

That is until my dad lost his job at GM (Laid-off in Dec. 1979, due to the proliferation of buying Imported cars) which coincided w/ my strings teacher deciding I was no good on my violin to be in Orchestra (a new-found extra-curriculum pursuit a girl and another guy in my class (who afterwards voluntarily quit) was in that influenced me joining, sometime in early-1980)...

 

After which I wish we'd just moved to Cali. just like the Lee Sklar's & Sonny Bono's of the world (ain't no way, they'd'a been who they are had they'd stayed here! From Milwaukee for the former, and also from Motown (actual a booming one) for the latter...) or just been a Richard & Karen Carp' (my sis & I had the right resemblance, though w/o the cross-country transplant from Det. to Downey & the same teach thought the world of her proficiency on the cello, which she'd later gave up, while I had a set of toy drums)...

 

 

-- Dave

 

 

 

[frigilux]

On Your Connection With Knapp: That is pretty damn cool. Watched a few more of his videos.  Impressive skill + artistry.

On Unions: I suspected there was more than met the eye in your posts concerning unions, Ben. Full Disclosure: I belong to two unions. Neither pursues unsustainable benefits, but both ensure I work under safe circumstances and am treated fairly. 

 

[washman]

For Frig

Some pix of me and Dad @ Quail Creek shooting 5 stand. His shotgun is a $300 Russian Baikal, heavy, ugly as all get out but shoots like a dream.

IIRC we used Federal Gold Medal premium that day. Normally we'd shoot Rio made in Spain or Remington STS.

 

[vacerator]

re; California, quail

An aunt and uncle left Pa. winter 1953 when the first snow came, and never looked back. Did very well in the HVAC field. You can imagine with A/C just taking off. They asked my folks more than once to move out there.
You had to be there by 1976. Housing prices soared out of reach after that for easterners without much equity to transfer. One in seven actors find success.
I know one from here who is a flight attendant or was for Jet Blue out there.
He and his wife lived right at Hollywood and Gardiner. He pays his actors guild dues hoping for that big break.
I think Sonny Bono's dad worked for Ford, unless I'm confused with someone else.
Pam Dawber is from Livonia, and Mark Harmon Redford? Julie Harris grew up in Grosse Pointe, and even Valeri Bertinelli lived in Clarkston, her dad was transferred with G.M. from Delaware, then to Van Nuys Ca.
So we can still hunt quail in the mitten here, but I recommend keeping the barrel of the gun away from fellow hunters feet (Dan, and Dick Cheny).
I couldn't let that opportunity slide.

 

[washman]

I miss quail hunting for sure

Nothing like watching a german shorthair sniff out the birds then suddenly BOOM, a covey explodes like dynamite. You line up, perhaps give a slight lead, gently squeeze the trigger and voila! One for the pot. Or as my pic showed, the fryer.

They certainly are good eatin!