Archive for October, 2021
Society of St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Shop
Something I Said By DWIGHT HOBBES Society of St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Shop is, in very good terms as the euphemistic parlance goes, a beast: the South Minneapolis operation has made it through the corona contagion thus far, the catastrophic 2020 riot and the ongoing economic climate which, stimulus or no stimulus, is in lousy shape. That rioting, supposedly in the name of George Floyd, absolutely devastated the very community it's alleged to have been for the sake of. Overnight - actually the course of a few days - the business outlets along Lake Street that it didn't shut down were flatout destroyed, depriving whole neighborhoods of affordable goods and services in an area where affordable goods and services amount to a godsend. Not to mention store staff glad to have a job with all the contagion-related layoffs and firings suddenly were left wondering how to pay their bills. Fortunately, more than a year later, much, in fact most, of Lake Street's thriving commerce has [...]
RETURNING CHAPTER 14: THE BASEMENT BUSINESS
By Patrick Cabello Hansel We usually expect a basement to be dank, cold and dimly lit. Not so for the one that our dear family found themselves in. It was brighter than day, with banks upon banks of fluorescent lights. There was a humming about the place: from above, from behind a steel door, it even seemed to emanate from within the walls. And even though it was inside, and there were space heaters blazing, it felt terribly cold. The woman who had been Cindy Keefe, onetime friend and now enemy of Luz, told them to sit down on some metal folding chairs. The chairs had once been painted with bright colors and words like “Harmony” and “Paz,”, but they were now graffitied over with garish images and words. Angelito sat next to his father, and whispered, “I don’t like this place, papi.” Angel squeezed his son’s hand slightly and whispered, “I know.” From a door that seemed to appear out of nowhere, a man stepped out. He was dressed in a black long sleeved [...]
