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From the miscellaneous drawer - Homeless

Lead Summary

Times are indeed changing. I’m grateful to live in a place that is warm, quiet, peaceful and in the woods.
I also appreciate being able to work at a job where I am in contact with many people and I am useful answering the phone and staying in touch with subscribers and readers.
It wasn’t always that way for me.
In my youth, though I had a family in the States, there came a time when I was homeless in Rome. The circumstance was due to some basic funds not arriving because of a mix-up in the postal system. It was an awakening as to how vulnerable I was.
Fortunately, a kind American military family, stationed at the embassy in Rome, Italy, took me in and offered me the tiny room sometimes occupied by a maid or other servant.
From that experience came the expectation that it might not be the last time I would be homeless. Events beyond one’s control are a reality for many.
My time and/or ability as a maid, waitress or floor mopper-upper has long passed, so this current job is easy!
* * *
In the Ely Echo newspaper of November 23, 1977, forty years ago, the headlines were:
• Ely considered for national Legion Baseball Championship Tournament;
• Search and Rescue: Whose responsibility?
• Doug Smith leaves Echo for Int’l Falls Daily Journal;
• Marcia Kauppi wins Echo Horseradish Contest;
• Copper-nickel survey to show economic impact;
• Bachar files for re-count;
• MP&L unable to build sub-station.
As deer season wound up last Saturday, this young buck bedded down in my back yard and feasted on garden remnants.

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