Saturday, July 16, 2022
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Al was one of a kind. When he and his brother Art got together, they could get me laughing till I had to leave because my cheeks were getting cramps from laughing at them so hard. Al used to work part time as a bouncer in Scanlon at a place I'd stop for the rock 'n roll and blues music - I don't remember the name of the place. I saw the interaction between Al and the people coming in and out, and the ones that knew him liked him and you could see the respect they had for each other, even though Al was the bouncer. I was proud he was my cousin. Some of the people during breaks wanted to take their drinks outside with them to get some air and a smoke, but he'd stop them in such a nice way; it wasn't allowed. But then he'd offer them a plastic cup, so they could pour their drink in that and take it outside. So nice. I've never seen anyone else do that.
When we were little, we'd see each other at family get togethers in Gheen or Buyck. They were a little older than me, and all they'd want to do all the time was fight and wrestle. (Not in a mean way.) My mother would get crabby if I got my clothes dirty, because often we had to look nice to go somewhere. And I wasn't a very physical boy anyway in those days. But there was no stopping them - they loved to wrestle. Especially Al! So finally one time I decided, OK, I'll let them beat me; maybe they'll be satisfied. Nope! So the next time I decided, even though they were bigger and older, I would fight so hard that I'd beat them. Even though I finally did it, they didn't care if I beat them or not. They just liked to wrestle! I give up! I had been planning to come visit Al just about the time I heard he'd passed away. Boy, I miss Al, and Art, and sister JoAnn.
I don't know if all this is appropriate here or not, but I also wanted to add a story about Art, because I wanted to say it at his funeral, but was too shy to do it. I don't think Al would've minded today. I don't know if you can talk about one twin without the other. One day I was coming through Cloquet and stopped at Sammy's Pizza for a quick supper. Art happened to stop in, so we visited quite a while. He had told me about being police chief at Esko, and some stories about the young people there he dealt with. He'd do some nice things for them. One day the city council was meeting to disband their police department, and contract with the sheriff's department instead. A bunch of the young people from the high school got together to speak at the city council meeting, to ask that Art be kept on. He meant that much to some of them. And the council did what the young people asked. I could see the pride in Art's face as he told this story.
In the 1940's and 1950's there was a cartoon strip called "The Katzenjammer Kids" about twin boys who always got into so much mischief. I think they even had a younger brother or sister, like JoAnn. We used to call Al and Art the Katzenjammer kids.
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