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Move to MN?

June 7, 2003 |

Dear Mr. Keillor,
My husband and I have decided to move. We currently reside in the deepest of the Deep South, and our respective "hometowns" are not an option. I really like Minnesota, or at least I have during visits (including winter visits). He has never visited the state, and is convinced we'll all freeze to death. Any advice?

Thank you,
Stacee

Stacee, don't move to Minnesota unless your good husband has signed off on the decision. Bring him up for a test run in September, which is a golden month, and let him see it at its loveliest, and show him around St. Paul, a very seductive city. Take him for a walk along Goodrich Avenue or around St. Anthony Park or Cherokee Heights or Desnoyer Park. Visit the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and go to a play at Mixed Blood or Jeune Lune or the Children's Theater and catch a St. Paul Chamber Orchestra concert. A movie at the Uptown in Minneapolis. Music at the Cedar Cultural Center or the Dakota Bar & Grill. And get in a car and drive down the Mississippi River valley through Red Wing and Winona, or head up north to Sauk Centre and Fergus Falls and Moorhead and take a look at the prairie, which is the really magnificent scenery. There's a good life here for you, I'm sure, and if you want to meet people, you'll have to take the initiative: Minnesotans tend to be clannish. Of course you'll need good jobs to make the move, and if you find really good ones, then winters are more than bearable. It's work that gets us through. You can soften winter a little by living in an apartment in a high-rise and planning a February escape, but the real answer is to dress warmly: lightweight thermal clothing has taken a huge weight off our shoulders and changed the winter experience completely. It's actually a rather festive, busy, productive time. And conducive to sensuous pleasure, if you want to know the truth. You're brave people to make such a decision, and if you move to Minnesota, I hope we're worthy of you.

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