Behind the Lines: by David Heiller

David Heiller Alex Westberg is my nephew, and he’s got a couple good traits, as this photo shows. Alex from the newspaper photo: Cig and sucker... One, he’s a good fisherman. He caught this white sucker on the fiver a couple weeks ago. It weighed about seven pounds. Turns out the state record is 9 pounds, one ounce. We didn’t realize that at the time or we might have kept it. But Alex let it go. He likes to do that. He’s got a good heart, at least of the figurative sense. I’m not so sure about the physical one. Alex is a smoker as this photo also shows, and that’s his other good trait that I’ll mention here. I never used to think that smoking was a good thing, but in encouraging it every chance I get, and I thanked Alex every time he lit up a coffin nail. Smokers are funding our schools in good old Minnesota, and they are helping pay for the Minnesota Care health insurance program. Don’t try to figure out the logic behind this. Our governor proposed a 75 tent ‘fe...

David Heiller Last week was a special one for me. I’d like to share it with you, in hopes of having you attend something similar. Last week I took a two-day banjo workshop. It was offered by the Minnesota Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Association (MBOTMA), as a kickoff to their annual music festival. The lessons were held at Camp In the Woods, which is near Zimmerman, Minnesota. That is where the MBOTMA festival is held every year. Music was a huge part of David's life. He was never shy about getting in and trying.  He is playing here with Bob Bovee and Gail Heil, and Sara Lubinski.   I am the music appreciator in the group! It had been about 25 years since I had taken any banjo lessons. I’ve played the instrument for all those years, but it seemed like I never really got better. That didn’t bother me. I like to play music for fun, with friends. I’m not a professional, and probably never will be. Still, it’s nice to make improvements in whatever you ...

David Heiller It was a weekend to remember, what with the Twins and the Turtle. FIRST THE TWINS: I’ve got a hunch that any Twins fan who was listening to last Saturday’s game will remember it for years and years. It will be one of those baseball memories that gets etched firmly into a certain time and place, where you’ll remember who you were with, what you were doing. I can still remember a dramatic Harmon Killebrew home run against the hated Yankees in 1965. A bunch of us kids were playing on the rocks in downtown Brownsville, and someone had a transistor radio going. The Killer was up with two outs, two on, and the Twins down by two. It was almost like Casey at the Bat, only this time it was Killebrew, Mr. Clutch, who clouted a three run homer to win the game. Someone started yelling, “The Twins won, the Twins won!” It seemed like the whole town exploded. We jumped off the rocks and danced and yelled all the way home. I can still remember that. Saturday was like...