Attribution: Randen Pederson from Superior, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, thinks that by now the keeper should be accustomed to seeing the destruction and replacement of the many things he remembers being built—shopping malls, huge business complexes and roads and bridges, like the Blatnik bridge connecting Superior and Duluth where President Biden recently visited.
Sixty years ago, when the original Blatnik was in its early introductory days, the keeper’s father—known to his friends as “Shorty”, and dad’s friend Pete were driving up to Ontario’s lake country on one of their many ritualistic fishing trips. A friend of theirs who knew of their trip was on the bridge construction crew at the time and as they approached the just-opened Blatnik they were surprised to see a big hand-lettered cardboard sign attached to the new bridge that read “Good luck Shorty and Pete.”
As the “old” is relentlessly destroyed and replaced by the “new,” within the keeper’s lifetime, he hopes there is room for personal touches and acknowledgement of the importance of such things as fishing trips to Canada.
Photo by Bill Stokes