{"id":4017,"date":"2015-06-15T06:00:04","date_gmt":"2015-06-15T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=4017"},"modified":"2015-08-08T09:08:33","modified_gmt":"2015-08-08T16:08:33","slug":"got-minnesota-nice-ya-darn-tootin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=4017","title":{"rendered":"Got &#8216;Minnesota Nice&#8217;?  Ya Darn Tootin&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header\">\n<h1 class=\"entry-title\"><time class=\"entry-date\" datetime=\"2015-06-15T06:00:58+00:00\">June 15, 2015<\/time><span class=\"by-author\"><span class=\"meta-author-prep\">By <\/span><span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn n\" title=\"View all posts by Sparrow\/Watson\" href=\"http:\/\/old.fromabirdseyeview.com\/?author=2\" rel=\"author\">Sparrow\/Watson<\/a><\/span><\/span><span class=\"comments-link pull-right\"><a href=\"http:\/\/old.fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=4021#comments\"><span class=\"meta-comment-prep\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"voyage-icon\" src=\"http:\/\/old.fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/themes\/voyage\/images\/comment.png\" alt=\"comment\" \/><\/span>14 Comments<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<p>by Bob Sparrow<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/old.fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kiss.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4025 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/old.fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kiss-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Kiss\" width=\"205\" height=\"164\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I had the pleasure last week of traveling to\u00a0<strong>Minnesota<\/strong> for the celebration of <strong>Warren &amp; Phyllis Barnes\u2019<\/strong> (Linda\u2019s parents)<strong>70th wedding anniversary<\/strong>. Yes, 70th!! Just to put that in perspective, they were married between the surrender of Germany and the surrender of Japan during <strong>World War II<\/strong>; and so it was on <strong>June 15, 1945<\/strong> that Warren surrendered to Phyllis. Most of you young \u2018whippersnappers\u2019 reading this weren\u2019t even born yet. The anniversary celebration took place in the city of <strong>Rochester,<\/strong> which, as home to the <strong>Mayo Clinic<\/strong>, has a lot of big city amenities, but has still retained its small town, rural charm.<\/p>\n<p>Warren and Phyllis are a treasure. Warren, who is <strong>91<\/strong>, has an easy smile and while he may have lost a step or two, he still has a vice-like handshake, thanks to <strong>20 years of milking cows<\/strong> on their family-owned dairy farm. Phyllis, who just turned <strong>89<\/strong> last Friday, is as sweet and sharp as ever and stays up on family news on her <strong>iPad Facebook <\/strong>account<strong>.<\/strong> On the evening of our arrival she prepared, unassisted, a delicious chicken casserole, corn and fruit salad dinner for eight \u2013 their three children and we significant others . . . OK, maybe we\u2019re not that significant. \u00a0I learned a couple of things about a Minnesota home-cooked meal, <strong>1) you WILL have seconds of everything<\/strong>, or you\u2019ll insult the cook, and <strong>2) you WILL save room for desert<\/strong>. I<a href=\"http:\/\/old.fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/MN-Nice2.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-4027 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/old.fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/MN-Nice2.jpeg\" alt=\"MN Nice2\" width=\"215\" height=\"235\" \/><\/a> happily made room for Phyllis\u2019 homemade, blue-ribbon rhubarb and\/or apple pie . . . ala mode, of course. The dinner conversation moved from reminiscing about the old one-room schoolhouse (called the<strong>\u2018Cigar Box\u2019<\/strong>) that the kids all attended to Phyllis\u2019 wheeler-dealer grandfather, \u2018<strong>John Mac\u2019<\/strong>, to a discussion of what is<strong>\u2018Minnesota Nice\u2019<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p>I learned that <strong>Wikipedia<\/strong> actually has a definition for \u2018Minnesota Nice\u2019: <em>\u2018<strong>the stereotypical behavior of people born and raised in Minnesota to be courteous, reserved, and mild-mannered\u2019<\/strong>, <\/em>but I wanted to ask\u00a0several Minnesotan family members what <em>they<\/em> thought it meant.<strong>Denise Cobb<\/strong>, grand daughter to the honored couple, offered an example where she was called \u2018Connie\u2019 by a fellow worker, but initially was too afraid to tell him he was calling her by the wrong name and then after several weeks of being \u2018Connie\u2019, was too embarrassed to tell him that he\u2019d been calling her the wrong name all this time. Denise\u2019s husband <strong>Gene<\/strong>, leaned over to me and said, \u201cMinnesota nice is about how long it takes for people to say good-bye, just watch. From the time a Minnesotan says they\u2019re leaving to the time they actually leave is probably somewhere around 40 minutes. People will follow you to the door, follow you to your car and still be talking to you as you\u2019re pulling out of their driveway. You\u2019re not really gone until you are in your car several miles down the road.\u201d I checked that theory out over the course of my time there \u2013 he\u2019s absolutely right.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/old.fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/HubbellHouse.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-4028\" src=\"http:\/\/old.fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/HubbellHouse-300x242.jpg\" alt=\"HubbellHouse\" width=\"205\" height=\"166\" \/><\/a>Phyllis\u2019 birthday dinner on Friday took place about 15 miles from <strong>Rochester<\/strong> in the bucolic town of <strong>Mantorville<\/strong> at the historic <strong>Hubbell House<\/strong>, a restaurant that\u2019s been in continuous operation since 1854. Their guest list includes a variety of celebrities from <strong>Ulysses S. Grant<\/strong> to <strong>Mickey Mantle<\/strong>, so we know they\u2019ve served alcohol throughout their entire history.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/old.fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Barnes-family1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4030 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/old.fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Barnes-family1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Barnes family\" width=\"205\" height=\"182\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The \u2018family only\u2019 anniversary celebration on Saturday was in the community room at <strong>Warren &amp; Phyllis\u2019<\/strong> senior apartment complex. They weren\u2019t all in attendance, but their extended family now consists of: <strong>3 children, 12 grand children, 27 great grand children, 2 great, great grand children.<\/strong> I was able to corner Phyllis for a few minutes to ask her the secret to a 70-year marriage. She seemed kind of surprised by the question, like she wasn\u2019t really keeping a secret, but she smiled and said, <strong>\u201cAlways kiss and make up before you go to bed.\u201d<\/strong> It has been clear to me for many years that their \u2018secret\u2019 is in their positive attitudes; they always seem to find the best in people and believe that good things will come their way \u2013 and they have. They have nurtured a great family, they have their health and they still laugh a lot.<\/p>\n<p>On the airplane ride back home, I felt very fortunate to be part of this amazing family and realized that while I still couldn\u2019t quite put my finger on it, I had just personally experienced \u2018Minnesota Nice\u2019.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\">\n<div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\">\n<h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>June 15, 2015By Sparrow\/Watson14 Comments by Bob Sparrow I had the pleasure last week of traveling to\u00a0Minnesota for the celebration of Warren &amp; Phyllis Barnes\u2019 (Linda\u2019s parents)70th wedding anniversary. Yes, 70th!! Just to put that in perspective, they were married &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=4017\">read more<span class=\"meta-nav\"><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[936],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31aN0-12N","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4017"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4019,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4017\/revisions\/4019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}