Mary Thoemke, Writer
Mary Thoemke, a lifelong resident of St. Paul, lives in the North End neighborhood. Now working as a freelance writer, Mary is retired from the St. Paul Public Schools. She also served as editor of the North End News, a community newspaper.
BOOKS | "Subterranean Twin Cities" and "Opening Goliath": Two books with deep meaning
Subterranean Twin Cities by Greg Brick and Opening Goliath by Cary J. Griffith, two books about caves and what lies beneath our feet, were published this spring. Both books make for very fascinating—at times, spell-binding—reading. Both contain history and science, along with the telling of a good many stories. Subterranean Twin Cities is somewhat like an interesting textbook, while Opening Goliath reads more like a novel. MORE »
I don’t remember her name, but I’ll never forget her
She was twenty something and very pretty, well groomed, and soft-spoken. I don’t remember her name, but I’ll never forget her. She worked part-time at a Caribou coffeeshop. While she had a place to stay, she had no place she could call home. She was living with the mother of her ex-boyfriend and she knew that would not work much longer. MORE »
The Greatest Generation of all at the Minnesota History Center
“It was terrible. Everything was disarrayed — the wind and the artillery,” said Ed Haider of Roseville. A paratrooper during World War II, he was describing the scene in 1943 when he and 27 others stationed with the 82nd Airborne parachuted into Sicily. Of the 28 who jumped, only three survived. Following the jump, Ed was captured by the Germans, shelled with artillery, and wounded. Ed was held as a prisoner of war (POW) in a small prison camp in Capau in Italy until VJ Day in September 1945. MORE »
BOOKS | Unlocking a family's dark history in Norah Labiner's "German for Travelers"
In local author Norah Labiner’s German for Travelers, Lemon Leopold is a young Hollywood actress in search of her family history. She travels to Berlin with her cousin Eliza, who writes romance novels. The two of them set out to unravel the secrets of their family’s history. While in Berlin, they uncover the mysteries never before known to them, beginning with the life of their great-grandfather, Jozef Apfel, a Jewish psychoanalyst in Germany during the early 20th century. MORE »
Raingardens benefit the environment
After a long and dreary winter, spring is really here. The grass is green, trees are leafing out, and it’s time to get the garden going. One type of garden that is growing in popularity is the raingarden, which is a shallow, depressed garden that can catch rain or stormwater runoff and is environmentally and economically friendly. Raingardens can provide beautiful landscaping in areas where grass does not grow due to flooding or soil erosion. MORE »
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