oz in the night
- stephen hadeen
- Apr 14
- 6 min read
“lately, i have been wondering if there is time left for daydreaming in this 21st-century world of constant communication.”
james thurber - "the secret life of walter mitty"
it was almost 9 pm and i was at gold medal park on the top of the hill. located between the guthrie theater on one side and eleven on the river condo on the other side in downtown minneapolis, it’s always been a bit of a whimsical park to me.
there are a couple of abstract sculptures in the park. two people can stand there, look at them and come up with completely different interpretations of the sculptures. it is that abstract.
a pergola resides within the boundary of the park. its columns are stacked with round slabs or pavers of sorts. a beautiful intricately wired lattice-type roof tops the four columns. intertwined in the lattice work are objects that don’t seem to have any relation to each other. some of the objects are various letters, a miniature ladder and a turtle among other things.
there is a monstrous power hub toward the back of the park that connects to its twin across the mississippi river. it is out of place and hulking in this otherwise beautifully designed park.
at night, the three dimensional “gold medal park” sign is lit a bright white. looking past that, slatted benches emit a soft bluish glow from underneath. it is accentuated by small lights embedded in the sidewalk climbing the hill that are also emitting a bluish glow. they are spaced roughly 5-10 feet apart and provide an ambient lighting source.
as you walk the sidewalk to the peak of the hill, it maintains a gradual curve and slope until you get to the top. the walk to the top is a full circle and a half, getting ever smaller as you continue the ascent. once at the top, the hill is flat with a concrete pad. in the middle of the pad is a large clumping of trees. i’m not a tree nerd so i don’t know what kind of trees they are though, if i had to hazard a guess, i’d guess that they are definitely trees.
once at the top, the view is quite spectacular. looking across the mississippi river, one sees the stone arch bridge in the foreground with st. anthony main lining the river on the other side. st. anthony main is, if i understand right, the oldest street in minneapolis. at one time, it was a flourishing four mill district in the late 1800’s. the a-mill building is a prime example of one of the many historic buildings lining that street. you'll see it in the first image below. it is in front of the other buildings and slightly left of center.
looking to the west side of the hill, the renowned guthrie theater stands proud with its striking modern architecture and vivid blue and yellow colors. it is next to the iconic gold medal flour sign, part of the historic mill city ruins and also a flour powerhouse back in the day. on the east side of the hill, a condo skyscraper built in the last few years towers above the hill. it is a beautifully designed building with an art deco feel. to live there requires an income that puts you in the upper echelon of wage earners.
not quite a month ago, i had the incredible opportunity to witness a fantastic northern lights event at como conservatory. i talk about that in my last blog. click the link to read about that story. i had a ringside seat and i was the only audience member to witness that event!
tonight, i had made the trek to gold medal hill in search of another place to try and see the northern lights from within the city limits. that is just not something that readily happens. light pollution within the city easily obscures most, if not all, celestial events. however, this event was predicted to be another powerful burst of incoming geomagnetic storms that would exceed normal KP indexes of 5 or 6. Those readings could bring visible northern lights further north under very dark skies. by way of reference, the northern lights i saw at como conservatory registered a kp index of 8+!
i had barely set up my camera gear and already the northern lights were on display! It never gets old seeing them but there is just something otherworldly when experiencing them visually within the city limits. with the naked eye, i could just make out the familiar ghostly outlines of movement in the sky. with each created image, the sky above the mississippi river and st. anthony main was lit up with a green hue!
at one point, i realized that there were some intense movements happening to my left. turning to focus my camera toward the guthrie theater and the gold medal flour sign, i composed the image and clicked the shutter. bam! along with the green hues, yellow, red and purple were joining the party! i later found out that this particular northern lights event hit a kp of 9! no wonder the colors were so vivid!
i continued to go back and forth from looking out over the mississippi river and then back to my left above where the guthrie theater and gold medal flour sign stood. at one point i looked at the young couple sitting on the grass that had been there since before I arrived. i was so overcome with exultation at seeing this vivid northern lights display in the city for the third time (yes, the third time…the second one is for another blog) that I felt an urge rising within me to sing to these young lovers! a spotlight shone on me from somewhere in the dark and rising out of depths of my soul came frank sinatra’s swinging version of “hello young lovers”…🎶 hello, young lovers…whoever you are…i hope your troubles are few… 🎵all my good wishes go with you tonight…i’ve been in love like you…
all of a sudden, the orchestra that was playing the melodic swing of “hello young lovers” began grinding to a stop while going down an octave before cutting out. i had been jolted back into reality when the young gal asked if i was capturing any northern lights. Walter Mitty has nothing on me when it comes to dreaming!
i cleared my throat and invited her over to check out an image i had created that was on my camera lcd screen. she was quite excited to see that, indeed, the sky over the mississippi river was glowing in green!
shortly after, the show started petering out. this, to me, was another one for the record books! seeing the northern lights over st. anthony main and over the guthrie theater and the gold medal flour sign certainly borders on the “yeah, right…sure…”. and yet, i had captured proof such an event happened!
hey! the spotlight is back on me! i prepared to sing as i packed up my gear and even threw in a quick fred astaire quickstep move. paraphrasing another tune frank sinatra made popular, i started to croon from the center of the light with darkness all around me… 🎵 “when i was so many years old…it was a very good night…. 🎶 it was a very good night…to watch the northern lights dance above the city lights….”
still in dream mode after gathering up my gear, i made my way back down the ever curving gray paved path. leaving “the city of oz” i had just witnessed on top of the hill, i began to whistle and do the occasional quickstep punctuated by the clicking of my heels. eventually i hit level ground and walked out of my whimsy dreams into urban reality. time to pay attention again to my surroundings!
that concludes another blog. i hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i enjoyed reliving it!
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