Hanging out with the rich kids at Washburn High School in the 1970s, Minneapolis, Minnesota


I grew up in Minneapolis, and lived at 48th Street and Bloomington from 1964 to 1977. The high school that I went to was Washburn, which was very far away (and yes I walked through the snow uphill, both ways), as our house was right on the edge of the cutoff line for the other high school, which was Roosevelt. But today I'm thinking of my high school, Washburn, which is in the 1932 picture at the top of this post. The photo shows the construction of the track, which was between Washburn and Ramsey.

My memories of Minneapolis are pretty vague, as you would imagine, and sometimes I wonder if the kids who live on the Parkway, or in Tangletown, are still considered "the rich kids". When I went to Washburn I remember the distinction. I wasn't poor, but I sure wasn't one of them, although they let me hang out with them.

There was always a particular air about the "rich kids" at Washburn. They tended to wear much nicer "high tech" cold weather clothing, and they'd often leave the lift tickets from their latest skiing jaunt on them. They tended to also have suntanned faces in the winter, except for where their ski googles had been. Since nobody in Arizona, or California, would be able to see the fine distinction between me and the other kids, I usually imply that I was one of them, you know the Country Club set, as if I were playing golf all of the time, and was on the tennis team. I wasn't.

The photo at the top of this post shows the high school that I went to, Washburn, next to a neighborhood called "Tangletown". The wonderful curving streets and the large lots, accentuated by sidewalks to the front door that seemed to go on forever, impressed me. Everywhere else the land had been used in a more regimented way, and it seemed as if everything had just been squeezed together, on a rigid grid. That's what my neighborhood was like. In fact, there was a duplex next to our house on Bloomington that was so close that my mom commented that we could "pass dishes between the houses". Not so in Tangletown, where they had the luxury of space. I had a friend in high school who, believe it or not, had the entire third floor all to himself in one of those houses. He also had an elaborate sound system, with nothing but the finest components (if I recall correctly a Pioneer receiver, a Technics turntable, and Bose speakers), I shared a room with my brother that literally had no floor space at all, just two twin beds, and a couple of feet between them. Don't get me wrong, we weren't poor, just plain middle class, and I set out to give the illusion that I was on a higher economic scale.

But wait, it gets better. Because as much as I admired the wealth of Tangletown, the really rich kids lived on the Minnehaha Parkway. I had a couple of friends who lived on the Parkway, and there were times when I would just stand and stare at their houses - which were BIG! There I saw things that boggled my mind, like balconies, and huge garages.

Like I say, I have no idea if this is how kids at Washburn feel nowadays. I know that it would have preceeded me, as those big houses on the Parkway go back to the turn of the century, built by people who had lots of money. The wealthy folks preferred lakes and scenery to being crushed together in a tight grid. Go figure!
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