Becoming Lake City - Season 1 Preview

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Transcript

Jim Heise 0:02

Every household has probably 50 short stories and at least one or two novels.

Danielle Hegge 0:07

My sister always encouraged me and she's like, "Do it! Do it!" She always said that, but I just never thought I could do it.

Anne Tabat 0:16

I personally believe baking cookies for kids when they're in middle school does far more to prevent school shootings than almost anything else you can do.

Dawn Mikkelson 0:27

This is Becoming Lake City, and I'm Dawn Mikkelson. In 2022, I moved to my spouse's hometown of Lake City, Minnesota, population 5,306. Jim's family has farmed outside of this town for over six generations. I, on the other hand, have spent most of my life in larger cities. Becoming Lake City was born of my desire to understand what it means to live in a small town through the stories of my neighbors. Within weeks of starting school, my 10-year-old daughter Evelyn brought home a business card. It read "Anne Tabat: Cookies and Conversation", followed by contact information. Evelyn shared that Anne invites kids to her home to bake cookies once a week. As someone who was raised in a time of stranger danger, I was both intrigued and a bit worried.

Anne Tabat 1:18

If you Google my name, you get my checkered cookie passed about passing out cookies. Nobody knows my history or my anthology or what I am. They only know what I choose to share.

Dawn Mikkelson 1:30

You get to reinvent yourself.

Anne Tabat 1:32

You do. And that's exactly what I'm doing here.

Dawn Mikkelson 1:36

It wasn't long after moving to Lake City, Jim and I were at the farmer's market when an outgoing redhead bounded our way.

Danielle Hegge 1:44

Hi there.

Dawn Mikkelson 1:45

Danielle gets her energy from her social network, nurturing deep friendships, volunteering, and attending practically every community event I've ever been to. When I asked the community to nominate their neighbors for this podcast, Danielle was described as a "truth teller and a vibrant personality".

Danielle Hegge 2:05

I was not the ideal high school student, so I wasn't sure if they would want me back here. I don't think I was seen as what people felt a teacher looked like.

Dawn Mikkelson 2:30

I met Mr. Heise at parent-teacher conferences. When we arrived, my spouse Jim eagerly rushed over to Mr. Heise's table. Mr. Heise made history and literature fun for generations of students who went through Lincoln High School. So when I reached out to the community for recommendations on who to talk to for this podcast, Mr. Heise's name was at the top of the list. His storytelling and memories of Lake City are legendary.

Jim Heise 2:50

It was the age of "Dazed and Confused", which is a very accurate film, by the way.

Dawn Mikkelson 2:54

Nice. I haven't seen that in years. I'll have to rewatch it.

Jim Heise 2:58

Every day was an adventure. At 8 O'clock we went out the back door. We grudgingly came in at lunch. We grudgingly came in at dinner. We were outside until dark playing Kick the Can and Hide and Go Seek. Lyon Avenue was almost like the Berlin Wall. We were southside kids. It was almost tribal between the two groups, except for summer T ball and also swimming lessons, which just for most of us, the fear of the cold, dirty water at Lake Pepin united us together as we struggled through the waves and whatever flotsome came down from St. Paul.

Anne Tabat 3:41

People say, What brought you here? And the only answer is destiny. So I walk out to my deck and I hear it's the marching band practicing. The high school band has been around for 70 plus years. That's 70 years of memories of people hearing the marching band practice.

Anne Tabat 4:08

St. Mary's is 150 years old, so for 150 years, three times a day the bells of St. Mary's have rung. And everyone that lived in that distance was hearing the bells of St. Mary's. It is part of their sensory memory of Lake City, is hearing that.

Anne Tabat 4:36

The trains have been coming by since the 1850's. So that is also deeply embedded in our memory of Lake City and the Lake City identity.

Dawn Mikkelson 4:44

After over 25 years of teaching, Danielle got another opportunity to reinvent herself.

Danielle Hegge 4:52

I got some really weird signs, really amazing signs from my sister who passed away a year and a half ago. What is it? Oh, thank you. Welcome to Mrs. Hegge's store. Thank you, Rachel.

Rachel 5:09

Can I hang it up for you?

Danielle Hegge 5:11

Sure. Yay, thanks for bringing food for the food shelf.

Jim Heise 5:17

I love teaching. I really did. I really love teaching. You know, on a given day I could teach the Battle of Gettysburg or parts of the New Deal or the beginning of the Cold War. I'd be teaching Hamlet, or we'd be looking at poetry by Robert Frost or Emily Dickinson. And then in the afternoon, I'd be, you know, maybe boarding a bus to play a baseball game at Cannon or, you know, Friday Night Lights coaching a football game. I mean, talk about four passions to be able to do that every day.

Dawn Mikkelson 5:52

Do you think we have a responsibility to our hometown, i.e., the place we live?

Jim Heise 5:59

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Anne Tabat 6:01

My mother was a Quaker, so I'm kind of in the Quaker camp. So when I get troubled about big things, I always hear, just as clear as anything, don't worry about that. I'll take care of that, you bake the cookies. So we have this arrangement. I bake the cookies. And it works rather well. But I do think you start brick by brick, cookie by cookie, person by person. So I'm back up to my old tricks.

Danielle Hegge 6:28

My goal is to be open for the community, to provide a spot to thrift, to provide a spot to stop and feel like you're welcome.

Jim Heise 6:38

Every day was an adventure.

Dawn Mikkelson 6:41

You can hear more of Jim, Danielle, and Anne's stories when you subscribe to Becoming Lake City. As we explore what it means to be of a small town. A place like many in this country, full of beauty, complexity, and the opportunity to understand one another a little bit better. Becoming Lake City is a production of Emergence Pictures with music by David Ross Wilson at Soundbarn Studios, Minnesota. Logo by Jar Lanska. Special thanks to Marianne Combs for her advice and encouragement. This podcast is made possible by the Voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.