“I was born in 1939, grew up in Robbinsdale. My father had a sister who lived in Osseo with her husband and family, on a farm. Back in those days that was a Sunday trip for us. My mom would pack a picnic lunch and we would stop and eat at Graeser Park. I loved to go to there as a child and also as a teenager. We grilled hot dogs in the beehive fireplace, and I remember the benches and rock gardens.
As a teen in the early 1950’s we would pack a lunch and meet with friends and just sit around and chat or lay in the sun with blankets on the grass.
Again, when I was a young mother, I took my daughter to Graeser Park. She was born in 1960, and we would picnic while my husband would wax his car. We went on to have three more children. My daughter turned 60 this year and the others are all in their fifties. Spent a lot of time at Twin Lake Beach Park and Graeser Park. I even taught my oldest son at that time how to fish, when he was about three years old. We fished in lower Twin Lake. Lots of good memories.
Now blessed with 13 grandchildren, nine grandsons and four granddaughters. Six great-grandchildren, three boys and three girls, and another on the way. Expecting several more as ten of the grandchildren are still single.
I still have lifelong friends from when I went to grade school at Sacred Heart Catholic School and high school in Robbinsdale.”
Submitted 4.15.20