Status Updates From Days Like Smoke: A Minnesot...

Jon suffers through piano lessons. Most people I know who had to take them are now glad they did.

Hassler briefly touches on the Depression. His parents spent much of it living with his mother's parents and six other family members. His father said they played a lot of Bridge. His father also took a course in baking at Dunwoody Institute which would come in handy when he ran a Red Owl grocery store in Staples, Minnesota.

Jon's first experience with death. (I remember mine). Jon's friend, Jackie, dies of rheumatic fever.

Hassler was apparently a movie fanatic as a kid, especially westerns. Hop-along Cassidy was his favorite because he didn't sing. Hassler isn't reluctant at all to tell us that he cried a lot at the movies.

Hassler is doing short character sketches of the people in PLAINSVIEW. Vern Stephens, the smartest man in town, could quote from the Rubaiyat, by Omar Khayyam, but he worked at a menial job.

Jon's father owned a Red Owl in Plainview near St. Charles in Minnesota. Hassler worked there as a boy, learning a lot.

Hassler taught English at Park Rapids, Minnesota, for six years, then moved on to Community College in Brainerd and eventually St. John's in Collegeville near St. Cloud. Weaver cites STAGGERFORD and some of Hassler's other novels in his foreword. Weaver knew him when he was a high school teacher, but he doesn't say if he was one of his students.

Hassler taught English at Park Rapids, Minnesota, for six years, then moved on to Community College in Brainerd and eventually St. John's in Collegeville near St. Cloud. Weaver cites STAGGERFORD and some of Hassler's other novels in his foreword. Weaver knew him when he was a high school teacher, but he doesn't say if he was one of his students.