Fall colors are making their way across the Saint Paul landscape this month and out on the high plains of northern Montana the hues of autumn have been upon the landscape since August.
This past June Bill completed his five year Montana project. It was the renovation a long vacant main-street building in the little town of Opheim. The Outpost Café had a sixty day run. Bill was the waiter, chef and bottle washer seven days a week, eighty hours a week. It had been twenty five years since he had last cooked commercially and though he’s a strict vegetarian he learned again to make a great meatloaf and meatballs. He also made apple pies from scratch and knew they were good when customers left no crusts behind. Why was the Outpost only open for sixty days? See the ‘Café for Sale’ link on the Homepage to learn more.
Last fall in Saint Paul Bill finished his campaign for a seat on the city council. All seven seats were up for re-election. He finished a strong second in the primary then went on to the general election against the incumbent. In all he walked over 400 miles while door-knocking every block within this ward, twice. He enjoyed greatly what few other politicians do; face to face conversations with the constituents.
Bill ultimately missed his opponent by 6% or 334 votes for the Ward Two seat. The establishment won. Bill mentions the “establishment” with a smile because to stop him it took the incumbent, many of his supporters, the mayor, special interest groups, elected state officials and both major newspapers, all of them, to keep Bill and several volunteers from changing the status quo, to keep him from winning as an Independent, non-partisan candidate.
The loss Bill handled well enough, the sadness he has is that for the time being this “establishment” continues to hold down Minnesota’s Capital City. They’ve become a clique. The status-quo is good enough, the bar high enough, particularly for downtown and the core waterfront area which form the heart of Ward Two. While it is certain, long established, remarkable areas and neighborhoods exist here - regionally and nationally however the city of Saint Paul will continue to be viewed as and therefore remain a nice city, in the shadow of its bigger twins; Minneapolis and nearby Bloomington; home of the Mall of America.
This year marks the fourteenth anniversary of Hosko Gallery. Bill has just begun to offer the gallery for sale so that he may devote more time to creating new art images of his hometown and places beyond. See the ‘Gallery for Sale’ link to learn more.
Change is constant. An everyday part of our being and the environment we live; whether in a larger city such as Saint Paul or small Montana village like Opheim. In our lives sometimes it’s barely perceptible, as is our aging process or sometimes it is significant, like the death of Jim Senior in May; Bill’s great friend from England whom he wrote of last year. More changes will be coming to Bill’s life in the coming months. In another year or so he’ll let you know how and where he landed.
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