Alright, hello and welcome to "Hangin' Out with
Bob." I'm your host, Bob Edholm, and we're here
for another great podcast with one of my friends.
"Hangin Out with Bob" is a podcast where guests tell
us their stories, where they grew up, where they
lived since then, what they're doing now, what
kinds of shows they stream, which kinds of books
they read, which kinds of teams they cheer for,
kind of music they like to listen to, and yada
yada yada. And the more laughs we have as our
guests share their lives, their stories with
us, the better. With that said, let me introduce
my guest today. He's Jon Lawrence, my friend
from Northeast Minneapolis. Let's listen to that
applause, Jon. They're loving you already, so.
Thanks for being here with us today. Glad to
be. Okay, Jon and I have known each other for
about at least six or seven years, I'm guessing.
It all started at a bus stop in downtown Minneapolis.
I learned that he and I both worked at Voya Financial.
And the reason we caught the same Metro Transit
bus from work, the 11, it was 11, right? 11,
yeah. Yeah, because we both lived in Northeast
Minneapolis. And it also turned out that we both
had an interest in sports, especially the local
teams like the Twins, the Vikings, the Gophers,
and so on. So I'm going to step back for a few
moments and I'll let Jon, or my guest, John
Lawrence, tell us a little bit about himself.
Oh, wait, just a second. I got one great joke
for you. Speaking of buses, what does the bus
driver say to the frog? I have no idea. "Hop on."
Not funny. All right. Well, without further ado,
I forget to turn the volume level up on that.
Without further ado, take it away, Jon. It's
all yours. Tell us about yourself. Sure. Uh,
Jon Lawrence, I grew up in Northeast Minneapolis.
Uh, I still live there. In fact, uh, I live in
the house I was born in, uh, a long time ago.
Spent, uh, my first, uh, 14 years in Northeast.
My family moved to southwest corner of Missouri,
rural Ozark Mountains, Missouri. And there I lasted
about a year and a half. It wasn't, you know,
inner city Minneapolis to rural Ozark Mountains.
Wasn't the... the culture change I was looking
for at age 14. So that was a rough one. For a
year and a half you were there? Yeah, two school
years. This time of year August until the end
of the second school year in June. And then I
hotfooted it back to Minnesota. Just for the
sake of geography, where was it? What was the
town? The biggest, uh, town near us was Joplin,
Missouri. Uh, Springfield, Missouri was, uh,
an hour away, uh, to the east. So, you know,
we're, we're down in the corner. We were actually
about, uh, 10 miles from Kansas and about 12
miles from Oklahoma. So right where those three
states come together, that's pretty darn close.
And that's considered the Ozarks? Well, that's
kind of the start of the Ozarks. Yeah, the foothills
exactly. The further south you go, the more mountainous
it becomes. But I assure you, digging holes to
build the fence in that soil, I... found out
I was in the mountains. It was really rocky or
stony. Oh yeah, yeah. You couldn't even dig in
the dirt without hitting a rock. It was ridiculous.
Okay, so once you came back, then you finished
high school? Yeah, finished up at Edison High
School, Northeast Minneapolis. Spent a couple
years there, you know, junior, senior year. I
was taking care of my grandparents. My grandfather
was terminally ill at the time and he didn't
last much longer after I got back to Minnesota.
And then my grandmother, I would say split time
at best in Minnesota. I would say I was there
on my own for a good part of the next several
years. You know, had to grow up a little bit
fast, you know, take care of all the bills and
all that sort of thing. And while I was still
in high school. Yeah. Now, and then after high
school, um, what did you do that? Where'd you
go then? Um, well, let's say I bounced around
quite a bit. So right after high school, um,
spent the summer working for Dean Phillips, actually
his dad at Phillips and son's liquor business,
uh, liquor distributor in Minnesota. Yes, exactly.
Loading trucks. And then it was off to, uh, for
a planned four years of college football in in
back in Missouri which was aborted by about three
years and nine months we we weren't quite ready
to be a college student at the time. And this
was an era when you actually had to go to school
and make grades to play football. So. Wow. Okay.
Okay. That's kind of how that went. But then
where did you did go to college already? I did.
I did. So let's see after after that. Mechanic
school, worked as a mechanic for a few years.
I went to mechanic school in Anoka, worked as
mechanic. I did a little time in a factory and
eventually started going to college at night
school. Which school? Minneapolis Community College,
um, which was right in my backyard practically.
Um, did it got a two-year degree there, went
on to, uh, Mankato State now known as Minnesota
State, Mankato. Uh, finished up my, uh, uh, four-
year degree in political science. Um, I had several
majors during those years. Uh, but, uh, yeah,
uh, concentrated on pre -law, thought I was going
to go to law school. I was paying for all this
on my own and I looked at the price tag of law
school and that didn't look feasible at the time
for me. So it was off into a career. And obviously,
I knew you, too, were working at Voya, but you
worked at some other insurance companies as well?
I did, actually. While I was in college, I worked
for a security and communication company, worked
my way up into management there. a few years
after college doing that. A friend called me
one day and said, Hey, Prudential is looking
for underwriters. I think he'd be good at it.
I know a guy over there. Do you want to go over
an interview? Um, about that time I, I had to
buy a house and cell radio was making, probably
wasn't going to cut it. So I, uh, I moseyed on
over there and, um, yeah, they, they liked what
they saw and, and my underwriting career was
launched. So seven, eight years at Prudential,
another, uh, 12 years. at a company that was
known as Fortis when I first started, but they
went public and became Assurant Health. I worked
there for 12 years. Obamacare put that company
out of business. It was some unfortunate decisions,
but essentially every sick person in the world
signed up for our insurance and we hammered losses
right away. So then, I went to Voya. where I've worked
for eight and a half years. Yeah. Okay. Great.
Great. Alrighty. Um, you've told us a little
bit about yourself, Jon. I want to know a little
bit more about the neighborhood, specifically
the neighborhood where you grew up in Northeast
Minneapolis. Kind of describe what part of Northeast
that is and then what, what you did there growing
up and where did you hang out? Where did you
and your friends play baseball or what'd you
do in the winter time? Where'd you go sledding?
That kind of stuff. Yeah. So, um, my, uh, uh,
youth was, um, really spent in and around Marshall
Terrace Park, which is right next to the NSP
power plant, now known as Xcel Energy. There
was a park there, a neighborhood park, and there
were a lot of kids around my age. We played sandlot
baseball in the summertime. We would play occasionally,
mixing some... tennis court hockey in the summertime
and then you know. on ice hockey all winter.
When you say tennis court hockey, was it broom
ball? No, it was floor hockey. It wasn't ice,
you were playing on the tennis court. In the
summertime there was no ice, so we made do with
what we had. Tennis ball and hockey sticks and
a couple of nets. For the benefit of Millennials
and Zoomers, tell them what sandlot baseball
means. Sandlot baseball is not organized by any
organization. There's no adults involved. It's
a bunch of friends getting together, picking
up sides. Usually you didn't have nine guys per
team, so you'd modify the rules to make it work
for the number of players that you had. And many
an afternoon would be spent completely... No
pressure involved at all and just just fun and
it was great fun I I feel bad sometimes because
when I go by all the ballparks and softball diamonds
here in Northeast and Columbia Heights, they're
always empty. I mean, I never see, like, impromptu
pickup games It's always got to be like organized
where you know, the parents are there and you
know, they got officials But we we were on our
own. We thought absolutely we learned how to
work together and play together Just just get
may do with what we had. So, yeah, it's unfortunate
today's youth were dealt some not-so-good cards
either. I mean, you know, there's, you know,
a danger element that exists for kids being on
their own compared to, you know, earlier years
when the neighborhood trusted one another. And,
you know, so that was, you know, we were enabled.
Because of that degree of safety, whether or
not it actually existed, um, you know, the parents
felt safe to let their kids play on their own
and not have to worry about them. And it is a
different time. I acknowledge that, but it's,
you know, kids didn't have, we didn't have phones
to keep us busy or video games. And our folks
would basically just, uh, tell us to go and play
and then come home and it was dark out. Right.
We live by a park. I remember in Columbia Heights.
And when it got to be dark out, if we weren't
home yet, my dad could whistle, you know, and
we could hear his whistle like, you know, blocks
away so we knew it was time to get home. You
had better at that point. Different times, I
guess, in that respect. So interesting thing
about neighborhoods. I've mentioned in a previous
podcast, Jon, that in the neighborhood where
I grew up in Columbia Heights, about a mile north
from here, it was a golf course until the 1940s.
It was called Hilltop Golf Course. And because
you're from Northeast, Columbia Golf Course,
that's the one and only golf course in Northeast.
Did you ever golf there or did you ever go sledding
there in the wintertime? At Columbia Park, absolutely.
I learned to golf. My first full round of golf
at Columbia was a junior high school activity
day. They used to have, at Sheridan Junior High,
they used to have a couple of activity days a
year where the students could sign up for whatever
interested them. There was probably 15 different
activities you could sign up for. And there would
be a teacher or two or three that would lead
that particular activity. And I signed up for
the golf and our egg. activity leader for that
golf. And the guy that taught me to golf that
day was Jerry Wickman, who was a famous guy from
Columbia Heights. He was a pitcher that pitched
three time All -American for the Minnesota Gophers.
And on to play in the New York Yankees farm system.
And I think he made it to AAA before he blew
out his arm. Later on, he pitched for the Columbia
Heights town ball team and I think they... won
some championships with that. I remember reading
about that town baseball team with his kids.
A really good team. But that's how you got introduced
to golf, then, through gym class. Well, actually,
Jerry Wickman was my math teacher, my algebra
teacher in junior high school and a really good
guy. He was a friend of my uncle's, knew him
well, so I knew him before I was ever a student
of his. Uh, super nice guy. Uh, good teacher,
too, by the way. Yep. And then the winter time,
did you go there? They had some great hills.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I used to occasionally
go there and slide. It wasn't a regular activity,
but I, you know, it's probably a couple dozen
times throughout my youth where I went, went
sliding. And you could walk there too. It wasn't
like you had to go across town. So in fact, one
time I, uh, I was sliding me and my sister, we
get dropped off there and I'm sliding down. This
would be kind of in the back of the park over
by, I can't remember the name of the company,
but Zalk Steel. Yeah, there's a Foley manufacturer.
Yeah, Foley over by. Now it's a pickleball court
and a whiskey distillery. That's the place. So
we're sliding on the hill that goes toward Foley.
Coming down the hill and I hit a tree. Ow! Oh,
and it knocked the wind out of me and I'd never
had that sensation in my life and there I'm lying,
and I don't know what happened to me, but I feel
like I'm dying. And, uh, there just happened
to be some Army Reserve guys there that were
doing medical training, winter medical training,
and they came running over and I was a real-life,
uh, practice, uh, uh, for them. And did you break
anything or not a concussion or no, no, I didn't
hit my head. I hit my ribs, I guess, on the tree.
I must've moved my head at the last minute or
whatever, but, um, boy. That was quite a sensation.
You'll never forget Columbia then, right? Yeah,
exactly. Did you know, Jon, I looked this up,
I guess, a couple of years ago, but did you know
that that whole area by the golf course was once
a lake? Yeah. Sandy Lake. Right. Like over on
the back night, over on the south end of the
golf course. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I did. As a matter
of fact, there was a big article one time in
the Northeaster newspaper about that. Yep. I think
I probably saw the same article. Right. But every
time I drive by there, I'll think to myself,
actually a little beach or you know they're over
a hundred years ago because the golf courses
have been there since like 1916. It's been a
long time. It was improved by the WPA in the
30s. Through the seventies, eighties into the
nineties, before they kind of re -irrigated,
it became perfectly clear that it was a lake.
Whenever it rained hard. I remember that some
holes were just completely underwater. That whole
end of the golf course was a lake for a few days.
You could see geese swimming on what was a fairway.
Well, that's just another example of why they
called Minneapolis the city of lakes, because
there were so many of them. The city of inadvertent
lakes in that case. And just for the benefit
of those of us, those who aren't from the area,
you know, Minneapolis was called the "City of
Lakes." Yes. And, you know, that was a perfect
name. And of course, the team that LeBron now
plays for. Right. Before they moved to L.A.,
they were called the Minneapolis Lakers, and
rightly so because of the lakes. So I got a sports
trivia question, Jon, just thought of it today.
Where was the last Minneapolis Lakers game played?
And against which team? Well, it's a guess. I
know they certainly played some games in the
Minneapolis Auditorium. They played some games
in the Armory. I'm gonna guess the Armory. And
let's see, what team would that have been? I
had to look this up. I know the year, but I didn't
remember the team. So they were a playoff team
often, you know, championship team many, many
times. So they were kind of winding down their
success, but maybe they were in the playoffs
then. I'm just going to take a guess and say
the Celtics. Well, you're close. They actually
did make the playoffs that year. Okay. And they
went to the Western Division finals. Okay. And
their last game at the Armory was against the
St. Louis Hawks. It was game six. Nice. And they
got wiped out. It was like one, I wrote it down
117 to 96. Elgin Baylor had like 38 points.
He's a rookie that year. Right. And a guy named
Bob Pettit played for the St. Louis Hawks. I
think he's in the Hall of Fame. He might be.
But anyway, so they won the division finals and
then they played the Celtics in the finals, but
they lost that in seven games. So they're always
good series. And I think that was Boston's second
straight championship. And didn't they go on
to win like nine or 10? I mean, that was in that
era. They were starting that era. Bill Russell
was playing and so on. But anyway, I thought
that was interesting. Just that little side about
sports. So, yeah. Okay. Again, the name of this
podcast is "Hangin' Out with Bob." I'm your host,
Bob Edholm. And my guest today is Jon Lawrence,
my friend from Northeast Minneapolis. Um, I want
to go back to Missouri again. You had mentioned,
we've spoken before about this, but you told
me that in that part of Missouri, where you played
high school, there were actually some really
good players like division one caliber where
you played. Yeah, definitely. That was the one
saving grace for me. You know, the, the huge
culture shock. Um, I'll say that the area in
Missouri where I lived was very religious, very
Baptist. And I don't think I ever knew a Baptist
in Minneapolis. You know, that was just wasn't,
wasn't the thing. Not that I didn't go to church,
you know, I went to, uh, Lutheran church when
I was a kid, that's really what my family's religion
was. But all of my friends, all of my buddies,
all the kids that played sandlot baseball with
me were Catholic kids that went to Holy Cross
School. And several of them were actually altar
boys. So I would go to church and watch them
serve. And sit up front. try to distract them
and be mischievous. Here's a non-Polish Catholic
kid sitting in the front row making faces at
the altar boys. That's hilarious. That's hilarious.
So yeah, so back to the so I played football
and I was pretty darn good at it. Actually played
several sports but football was really what I
was best at. You were lineman, right? I was a
defensive and offensive tackle much better defensive
player for some reason. And I was very proficient
and I got to be friends with a lot of really
good football players pretty quickly, actually
really good athletes. They were really good.
So my best friend, my first best friend there,
the first Black kid I really ever knew, his name
was Joe Wright. His older brother, Felix Wright,
played for the Vikings. Although at the time
he was playing for Drake University. He led the,
uh, NCAA in interceptions, uh, the year that,
uh, one of the two years that I lived there in,
and, uh, there were four, I don't even know what
division Drake University was then maybe division.
Well, I remember they were Division One back,
at least in the Seventies. And I remember Karl
Kassulke from the Vikings. So I think they were,
yeah. Yeah. From the motorcycle accident, Mankato
or I think down during like summer camp or whatever.
But, um, yeah, they did have Division One. Then
I think they dropped football for a while. I
don't know if he's back again. So maybe it was
Division One at the time. So anyway, but yeah,
really good. And, you know, obviously I followed
Drake because my friend's brother. Matter of
fact, I appreciated a new style of music to me.
Funk was introduced by Felix Wright's record
collection. You know, of the mid- to late-seventies.
at several albums, and I really liked this music.
What were a couple of the albums that you remember?
Let's see, there was some Rick James, Gap Band,
the Brothers Johnson, you know, several, you
know. It was before hip hop. Oh, yeah. before
hip hop. In fact, hip hop happened. Sugarhill
Gang, I think, came out right before I moved
back to Minnesota. So, you know, around 79 or
something like that. But yeah, but this was music
just before that era. I remember it well. I remember
Earth, Wind & Fire was real big in the mid-
seventies. Right. Yep. So that was, uh, that
was my introduction to a different type of music
than just, you know, straight classic rock, uh,
you know, which I had listened to quite a bit.
Sure. Sure. Sure. Well, speaking of that, Jon,
and thanks for filling us in about Missouri.
That's cool. Um, the last thing I'm going to
talk about is your favorites, I guess, growing
up like, uh, your favorite TV show, the type
of music you listened to, maybe the best concert
you ever saw growing up, the teams that you followed
the closest. Just kind of get a flavor of what
you... what things you were interested in. So,
uh, huge, uh, Minnesota sports, uh, and Vikings,
North Stars, Twins, twins were really big for
me. I, uh, when I was, uh, around 13 years old,
Jimmy Carter was president. We had something
called the energy crisis going on at the time.
And Carter was doing everything to keep people,
uh, conserving gas so they came out with a program
where they subsidized public transportation systems
and at the time if you were an adult you could
ride the bus anywhere for a dime. Which was discounted,
I think from, from what it had been previously.
And if you were under 18, you could ride for
free. So, uh, by that time I was, you know, had
odd jobs, paper routes and things like that.
I had my own money. Um, so I, uh, would, would
hop the bus on 8th and Marquette in downtown
Minneapolis right on out to Met Stadium. And
I, I spent a whole summer, uh, going to Twins
games whenever I could. um you know Not too much
night, night games, but if it was a twilight
game or any afternoon game, I was definitely
there. And even a twilight doubleheader, I might
go see the first game or something like that.
I still remember those afternoon games at Met
Stadium. There's nothing better. I just used
to love those afternoons. So what was the first,
um, record or album you ever bought? Who was
it by? First album I bought with my own money,
I think was Dire Straits first album. "Sultans of Swing"
on it. I don't know. I liked music before that.
My folks would buy me albums. What kind of stuff
would you have? I had quite an extensive collection
of Queen albums. I can remember the evening at
the "nut house," the Northeast Neighborhood House,
which was a settlement house in our neighborhood
that had an open gym. The first time I heard
"Bohemian Rhapsody" and I was transfixed. I was
like, what is that music? And that's the first
place I heard it. And I was an instant Queen
fan. And so my folks would buy me every new Queen
album that would come out, which was usually
Christmas time. So what, what TV shows do you
remember watching? You know, just for the benefit
of our younger listeners, we couldn't stream
back then. Uh, you basically had like three or
four channels to watch and you had to watch it
when it was on. You couldn't say, "I'll tape it
and watch it later." You had to, but do you remember
like, what was "must-see" TV? Well, so, um, other
than sports, which I watched a lot, um, my big
favorite was "The Rockford Files." Oh, I'm still
a big fan of "The Rockford Files," even though
I think it's one of the, uh, better TV shows
ever made. If you have seen "The Sopranos," it's
essentially the same concept. In fact, David
Chase was one of the writers for "The Rockford
Files," and the guy that created "The Rockford
Files" was a writer and had an important job on
"Maverick," the TV show. And that's, that's where
it started. So you take a typical cliched type.
like a cowboy-Maverick-and you, and the character
plays against the, against the stereotype. So,
so Maverick was a guy that. got out of situations,
not by gunfights, but by fast-talking his way
out of things and running scams. And Rockford
was kind of the same way. You know, we'd had
Sam Spade, the macho detective type and a hundred
copies of Sam Spade. And here's Rockford, who
admits in the first episode, he doesn't want
to fight a guy because he doesn't want to get
beat up. Same kind of thing. And "The Sopranos,"
uh, little, slightly different, but kind of the
same. So you take this typical mafia boss and
all the, you know, the stereotypical, you know,
"godfather" guy. Well, here's this guy who's this
big bad mafioso guy who has to deal with his
pain-in-the-ass wife and daughter and mother
and all the typical stuff that a suburban dad
has to deal with. He has to deal with. And, you
know, that doesn't make it to the godfather or
whatever, you know, so that that's kind of. concept
was this, you know, take the stereotypical character
and then, you know, play him against type. "The
Rockford Files." That was one of your favorite
TV shows growing up. What was the first concert
you ever saw? Do you remember? There was a couple
of them, but I can't remember what the groupings
were. There was a couple of them at Met Stadium.
Okay. Or Outdoors, you mean? Outdoors, Met Stadium,
you know, the base. It wasn't that Eagles concert?
Eagles. There was an Eagles one. I remember seeing
the Eagles, Steve Miller, Pablo Cruise. Yeah.
And I don't know if those were all in the same
concert. I think that was all one. There were
like sixty-some thousand fans. Yeah, yeah. It was
huge. And what a party in the parking lot. I
can imagine. You know, the Met Stadium was special
because. It was open parking, one parking lot,
not like, not like the downtown stadiums that
we have now was one parking lot and that parking
lot wasn't part of it. No matter what, no matter
what the sporting event was. Yeah, it certainly
was. Okay. Again, the name of this podcast is
"Hangin' Out with Bob." I'm your host, Bob Edholm.
And my guest today is Jon Lawrence, my friend
from Northeast Minneapolis. This is a blast,
Jon. It's fun talking about, or fun hearing
your story, I guess. Listen, growing up in Northeast
Minneapolis, like where I've lived most of my
life. So, um, and I think we've just scratched
the surface. I mean, we've talked about this
outside the podcast that we could do, uh, and
we will, we'll do podcasts about music. More
than that, we can talk more about Minnesota sports
teams, how they've broken our hearts over the
years. We can go on and on about that, but that'll
be fun. So, okay. Well, that's about all we have
time for today, but I want to thank you again,
Jon, for coming here. I appreciate it. Glad.
Thanks for the invitation. It's always fun to
get together. You know, I've got so many friends
or people in mind that I want to have on future
guests as well. Again, we'll get together with
Jon again, but I've got family. I've got friends,
people that I grew up with, people that I've
worked with in the past, people I've had lunch
with, people I've drunk beer with, that I
want to be able to have on future podcasts. So
again, thanks again to Jon Lawrence for coming
here today. And to our listeners, we hope you'll
be back for another person's story on another episode
of "Hangin' Out with Bob." And until then,
Bye-eeee!