A Plodding Mediocrity

Aside from being known as the place that gave the world such wonders as the Tonka Truck and Minneonka Moccasins, the Lake Minnetonka area is historically famous for being the premier nothern lakes vacation spot for the whole of America from about 1880-1945; beginning with the construction of several hotels along the shoreline and ending with the accidental burning down of the large Hotel Del Otero. and the closure of the Excelsior Amusment Park. However, the true heyday of the lakes area really only lasted until the Hotel Lafayette burned down in 1897.

Excelsior Amusment Park is somewhat famous for—amongst other things—in 1964 being a tour stop for the first American tour of The Rolling Stones. As the story goes, there was no accounting for taste that day as the 'Stones were literally booed off stage. Later that day, it is told, Mick Jagger ran into Mr. Jimmy Hutmaker in the now closed Excelsior Bacon Drug. It was a brief conversation between "Mr. Jimmy" and Mick that is said to have been the inspiration for the classic song "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

By the time I was born, the golden years of Lake Minnetonka had long since past. Tonka Bay was a forth-string suburb, sort of a border between the gateway to civilization and the true Minnesotan backwater. It was in this fertile valley that I enjoyed my early boyhood.

At this time, I was an only child. Parents did not live in fear of letting their kids run wild through the neighborhoods, and that is exactly what I did. The only time that I know of when my Mother was genuinely concered about my whereabouts was when I missed my stop home on the first day of Kindergarten and rolled in an hour or so late when the bus driver still realized he had one more rider after the last stop.

My Mother was a stay-at-home Mom, and I enjoyed all the benefits of having one. My Father on the other hand, worked all the time. He had his own record label and personally managaged serveral acts, always keeping his eye out for the next big thing.

In 1982, someone told my Father that he should buy a computer for his office, primarily to manage finances with the new and revolutionary VisiCalc application.

More to come as time permits...