I ARRIVED IN MANKATO with a canary yellow 10-speed bike, a simple orange backpack, my Sears portable manual typewriter, a clock radio, a quilt stitched by Grandma Ida and a suitcase filled with clothes. The year was 1974, the beginning of my freshman year at Bethany Lutheran College, high atop a hill in this southern Minnesota city.
I was only 17, nervous, but ready to leave my childhood farm home some 85 miles to the west. I met my roommate, Rhonda, a beautiful high school cheerleader from western Wisconsin. She was well-traveled, outgoing, vastly different than me, quiet and shy. And she had a stereo for our cozy fourth floor corner dorm room. We were set. Despite our differences, we got along splendidly.
As I settled into the big city (Mankato’s current population numbers around 45,000), big for me when you come from a town of 362, I began to feel at home. Not only on campus, but also in the community. Happy Chef became a go-to destination for conversation and for warm loaves of bread glazed with powdered sugar frosting. A Christian coffee house also drew me off campus. I wasn’t in to the bar scene.
For nearly four years, Mankato became my home away from home. The place that grew me educationally and as a person. I earned an associate of arts degree from Bethany, then only a two-year college, before moving on to Minnesota State University, Mankato, to study journalism. I worked at the college newspaper, “The Reporter.” In the winter of 1978, I earned a mass communications degree with an emphasis in news/editorial. Soon thereafter, I started my career as a newspaper reporter and photographer. Years later I returned to work for “The Mankato Free Press,” heading up the paper’s St. James-based news bureau (me living and working from my apartment long before working remotely became a thing).
Why am I sharing this with you today? Because of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, now the vice presidential candidate on the DFL ticket. He lived in Mankato, where he worked as a social studies teacher and football coach at Mankato West High School. Walz, likely unfamiliar to most Americans up until recently, has put our state, specifically Mankato, on the map. As a life-long Minnesotan, I am proud to see my state, considered by many to be fly-over land, in the spotlight. No matter your political leanings, such publicity is good for Minnesota.
Like Walz, flannel shirts hang in my closet. I am wearing one as I write on this cool August morning. Flannel truly is a Minnesota thing, no matter political affiliations. We like our hotdishes (not “casseroles”) and the Minnesota State Fair (although not me; too many people), our cabins Up North. We claim musicians Bob Dylan and Prince, the Coen Brothers (of “Fargo” movie fame) and other notables like vice presidents Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale.
I cannot imagine living elsewhere, even if I don’t especially like the frigid cold and snow of a Minnesota winter. I loved winter as a Redwood County farm girl. Minnesota is home. I live 40 miles northeast of Mankato, a city originally inhabited by the Dakota. Mankato is a river town, a college town, a regional shopping hub, a community with a rich (but not always “good”) history. It is home to many creatives. I’ve been part of that with poetry showcased on signs through the Mankato Poetry Walk and Ride.
My connection with, and appreciation of, Mankato all started in that fourth floor dorm room with a roommate who was nothing like me. Despite our differences, we connected, forged a strong friendship, together grew and matured. We were on the cusp of our lives. Young. Open to new ideas and learning. The future held endless possibilities. For me, the 17-year-old with the canary yellow bike. And for Rhonda with her stereo system.
© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
audrey, i love the story of you coming to the ‘big city’ to begin your college journey and the path that this set up for you. what an honor, well-deserved, to see your words displayed publicly, for all to see and enjoy, written by someone who knows of what she speaks. so glad every day for tim walz, who seems like a very kind and decent human being, just the kind of person who would help to run the country with compassion and joy.
Thank you for appreciating my writing and my governor. I feel the same as you about Tim Walz.
Yes, Walz getting the nod as a VP candidate has put Minnesota on the map. Now a few more people know we’re not a province in Canada or a county in western Wisconsin. I expect the New York Times cooking section may soon start gushing with hotdish recipes! And people in LA will start wearing flannel! Wonderful! 🙄😁
I’m laughing, not at you, but with you. Minnesota is rather a hidden treasure. I remember on a visit to the East Coast for my son’s college graduation the reaction I heard from people upon learning I was from Minnesota. “Oh, it’s really cold and snowy there.” Yup, it can be. But there’s so much more to Minnesota than our noted weather. I’m happy to have you and the Dear One living here.
My hometown is Windsor, Ontario Canada. We used to watch Little House on the Prairie faithfully as a family. The town “Mankato” came up frequently in the stories. Even though Windsor is just across the Detroit River from Detroit and a bit further south than most Canadian cities we had huge amounts of snow in my childhood. I am 59 now. We don’t get as much snow but we get plenty of ice.
When I think of Minnesota I think of the Mary Tyler Moore show as I believe it was supposed to be set there. I also remember the Minnesota North Stars hockey team which had one of the classic green and gold jerseys with a huge N and a star on it. There is movie from the seventies with Paul Newman in it called “Slapshot.” It’s a cult favourite amongst hockey fans all over North America. Many of the players/actors in that film were said to come from small towns in the State of Minnesota with minor league hockey teams.
From everything I’ve heard in the news Tim Walz would make a fine Vice-President. His background reminds me a bit of former President Jimmy Carter. Us Windsorites consider ourselves honourary Americans as we cheer for Detroit’s teams, shop in their stores and spend countless hours in the summer looking out on the skyline of Detroit on the Detroit River.
Thank you for appreciating Minnesota, the North Stars, Mary Tyler Moore (yes, set in Minneapolis), hockey movies and Tim Walz. Yes, he would make an excellent vp.
I didn’t realize you were a Bethany alum. Me too, but I came after serving in the Navy and working for a couple of years. I grew up a couple blocks from Bethany also.
I loved Bethany. Such an incredible college, where I forged some deep friendships and grew my faith. Two absolutely fantastic years of my life! Thanks for sharing that you are a BLC alum.
What a fun story to hear about your move to Mankato, and what a great way to highlight this Minnesota town…and the great state of Minnesota.
Another place that I have never been to but have to put on my bucket list. I love the art work on the grain silo’s.
Mankato definitely has plenty to see starting with those silo murals, then the Dakota memorial, Betsy-Tacy house, Sibley Park Zoo, bison at Minneopa State Park, Sculpture Walk, Poetry Walk & Ride, etc.
Mankato is often mentioned by Charles Ingalls (Michael Landon) in Little House on the Prairie.
You’re correct on that, although I don’t recall Mankato being mentioned in the books. The TV show was not always an accurate depiction of the books, of life, of setting. But then again, it was a well-loved series and grew interest in Walnut Grove and all things Laura Ingalls Wilder.
My younger sister used to read the books. The show brought back memories for my mother who was born in a small village in Croatia. Many of the aspects of life in “Walnut Grove” went right back to Hrastovec, Croatia. Darning socks, raising wheat, corn, ploughing fields and houses with no electricity. It wasn’t really that romantic for my mother as she was the second oldest of six and she had to look after her younger siblings and carry out much of the housework as her mother and father were working in the fields.
Thank you for sharing that info about your mother. Life was hard back in the day without modern conveniences, electricity. I have no doubt your mom worked hard and holds no romanticized view of life back in the day.