Self proclaimed hockey hof is in eveleth
I think the nhl since put an official one elsewhere. Bc let's face it. Eveleth is top 10 rust belt shlthole. Immigrant mining community.
Per capita? Might be the greatest pro hockey launch pad in the world. Ponds and outdoor rinks scattered through the fields, empty lots.
My dad knew many on the 80 Olympic team. Went to school with the parents & uncles.

My dad was a hockey fanattic!

Every now & then, he'd find this channel up near Calgary he could pick up on the vhf. Half snow & scrolling screen. Black & white replays late night.
He'd wake me up out of bed ... Danny, come watch hockey with me.

In 81 his brother overnighted vhs tapes of the northstars playoff run. Lost in 5 to the Isles.
Pops purposefully avoided the sports page.
I had just moved out, my 1st place!
Next door neighbor to the church and the priests record literally 12 feet from my door. Watched all those games with my dad.

Even went next door, asked Father Daniel to pray for my dad's dream to come true. Pops was still bathing in the glory of those range boys doing good in lake placid.

Alas. Upstart isles, friggin expansion tam pissed in the cheerios.

91 the list I. 6 to the pens. I was in Alaska. Live tv feed for hockey up there! All dem Minny-zo-thans, eh hozer.

Pops called during intermissions... I think it was USA network that carried Stanley's cup back then.


At least- my dad witnessed lake placid. Mark Paveluch dad went to eveleth high with my dad.
Hey knew the Verchota family, Buzz Schneiders mom, My mom had baby sat John harrington, pops also knew broken, Harrington & Baker family from the hockey circle that was also hanging around eveleth back when it was a boomtown( 40's 50's).

6-8 of the gopher 12 on the Olympic team had roots on the range. And eveleth was back then the center of the American hockey world. Herb Brooks was a regular in eveleth for many years. Hunting rangers to come to play gopher hockey. My dad used to brag about herb, loading up on polish sausage from the meat market my dad learned to be a butcher at. Wrapped And chatted herb. About this kid & that. Paulie Ostrovs meats. Herb always came in, every for that polish! Gotta say. I miss my dad's sausage something fierce. Herb was right. My dad made the best. Pops wound up gaining enough notoriety on the range. He opened his own shop in Aurora. 15 mi North East of eveleth. Country Squire meats.
I can see it when I close my eyes. Smell the smoke house. 1958 was pivotal. Country Squire burned while the volunteer fire dept looted the place. That was early spring. Snow clinging after a heavy snow winter ... And the Walter Cronkite. Telling my parents bobby & milk were shot dead weeks apart... In between reports of the summer of love and the hippie convention at Monterey pop.... 6 months later we were living 40 miles from Golden gate park
My parents had decided. The hippies had the right plan. Peace, free love, community and nature. Fresh air. Clean water. Enjoy the beauty of mother earth I stead of participating in the hate that had ended Camelot.

What a crazy beginning I had on this blue marble.
I look back, like the Sinatra songs.... And now, the end is near.... When I was 21, it was a very good year... It's all so very surreal now.

These memories haunt me. The many wrong turns that brought us here.... All of them beyond our control.
I screamed and yelled. Knocked doors for McGovern, Jesse Jackson... All for naught.
I begged people. Sent money... Tried all my meager effort.
We have still wound up exactly where my young self feared we would. The antichrist in his blue suit & red tie. Scorching our earth. Selling out our country. Grinding out any remaining memories of Camelot. I'm so thankful my parents didn't live to witness these last 10 years. God tried to spare me. I defied his will. Beat stage 4 & toxic sepsis both.

My bad. I didn't know🫤