Northfield, Minn., is a college town. The desk clerk who checks us in at the Country Inn goes to St. Olaf’s and loves it. And one of the barristas at my new favorite coffee shop, the Goodbye Blue Monday Coffee House, loves Carleton.
And I make new friends on my run--at the morning coffee klatch outside the coffee house, where about eight gentlemen are sitting out on the sidewalk chatting away. They’re so cute, I want to take their photo--and they let me, as long as I pose with them. Sounds fair to me! And the other thing I like about them is that one has a huge handlebar mustache, which make me hope that he is preparing for Northfield’s Defeat Jesse James Day, an annual three-day event commemorating the day the townspeople foiled a robbery attempt by Jesse James and his gang.
Every Labor Day weekend, the town re
stages the robbery as part of a three-day event that includes tractor pulls, bike races, fun runs, parades, a carnival and an award named after the man who did the most to help foil the robbery--Joseph Lee Heywood, the acting cashier. He paid for his heroism with his life. He left a small daughter who ulimately went to Carleton College. According to one version of the story, both schools had money in the bank and many believe neither would have survived the loss of their funds (this was before the advent of FDIC insurance) had the robbers made off with the money.In a classic example of Midwestern sensibilities, each year, the town holds a memorial ceremony to hone the two men who died--Heywood and town resident Nicholas Gustavson, whose limited English meant he didn’t understand the shouts to take cover.
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