Bob Dylan / Klecko and Wife #1

God said to Klecko - Bake me some buns
Klecko said - God you must be putting me on
God said - No
Klecko said what - You can do anything you want but
The next time you see me - You better run
So Klecko said - God where do you want this baking done
And, God said down on Highway 61

Yeah, me and Bob Dylan have tons in common, both of us have lived in Minnesota. Both of us are master poets, and both of us used Hwy 61 as a metaphoric thread to be pulled through the body of our careers.

Dylan was said to have drove a big a** furniture truck up and down the 61, as a young man, with a love for geography and history, I'm sure he realized that if he didn't veer from this course....eventually he would end up in his promise land, the gulf, the Big E-Z, where slow emotion and fast times ran rampant.

Danny Klecko came to this destination by other means, you guessed it, a woman. This might confuse some of you who have heard the romantic story of Danny Klecko meeting Sue McGleno at bible camp as children, and eventually getting married, but there was a "Dark" period in Danny Klecko's early life.

As he and Sue McGleno reached their late teens, she wanted to settle down, but Danny Klecko wanted to go into the world, like Brad Pitt did in Legends of the Fall. So when I went into the world. I was going out with a girl named Wina, I was going to take her to the movies to see Mad Max at Thunderdome, so I went over to house to pick her up. She lived with her parents, and when I crossed their threshold, they informed me that she was next door "House Watching" for the neighbors.

When Wina let me in, she was behind schedule and told me she had to go upstairs and take a shower, while she did this....I still remember Laurie Anderson's "Big Science" album was playing on her stereo.

I really loved the "Oh Superman" song, but when it was complete I got bored.

When you are at peoples house you don't know, it is impolite to dig through their stuff to entertain yourself, but Wina's purse was on the kitchen table so I decided to dig through that. I found a little telephone book with her friends phone numbers, it was really filled. I'll bet she had a friend under all 26 letters.

To alleviate my A.D.D. I decided I would find the chick with the coolest name and call her, and possibly ask her out.

A-B-C-D-E-F-G.....they all offered nothing, but H....that's a different story. The second I saw Heidi Holmes, I realized I had to call her. When I called, an older woman answered. It was her mother. I asked to talk to Heidi, but she told me that she was at work. I mentioned I would need the number, but she was uncertain. She said she didn't recall ever hearing about me, but I told her I was a friend from study hall, and I was now in the service and would be shipping out the following day.

She gave me the number.

So I called and told her how I had come about getting her digits, then I asked her if she was cute. Her response was "Trust me, I am, and I am way out of your league.

When girls "fight back" Danny Klecko is head over heals. I applied reverse tactics and said "Save your tip money so you can come over to my house and take me on a date, not a regular date, but a date that will impress me."

She did, we fell in love, and the rocky road began there. She lived in Newport, which is about 15 miles SE of the TC's, and I lived in the western suburbs of Mpls. When the drive got to be a pain, we decided we should get married. I rented an apartment on the SW corner of Grand and Dale and for the first time in my life..... I began to explore Saint Paul.

I wanted to be close, and was at the age where I never possessed a reliable vehicle, so I decide to quit Shermann's in Bloomington and got a position at SuperMoms in Saint Paul. SuperMoms is located in Saint Paul Park which is just next to Newport, so often times I stayed over with Heidi and her family. They were nice, but conservative and never approved of our love (ahhhhhhh).

Saint Paul Park is home to a huge trailer park and this community has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Minnesota (per ca pita). The only thing people do in Washington county is "IT" and snort crank...LOL, I wish I were making that up.

We decided to get married like I said, but I ended up dumping Heidi because I just knew she wasn't strong enough to endure everything that come attached to "Klecko Love", and living with Klecko would simply kill her modest lifestyle. In many ways I think I dug her mostly because of her domestic qualities, she was sooo Ma Ingalls,

I dumped her right before Christmas, there was drama there, and then I had an epiphany....I was quitting baking and moving to Amsterdam. I had a job lined up with a Christian ministry and was all set. I sold everything, and I mean EVERYTHING I owned that didn't fit into my travel / duffel bag. But Polish Christ must be in control, a couple days before I was supposed to leave, I was stricken with chicken pox, what was I...22 years old?

So my plans got delayed, and I sat in my apartment, suffering, but even worse.....ALONE! Heidi Holmes caught wind of my affliction and came over unannounced, we hadn't seen one another. My resistance was down, and I was sad. I felt like crying, but I knew if I didn't kick her out.....my dreams of adventure would hit a road block.....

So there I am, an intersection of life moment, and you guessed it, knowing it was wrong, knowing their was 0% chance of success, I dove in head first. I didn't want to be alone with chicken pox LOL, 4 months later I was married.

So that's how Klecko was lured to the Capitol City, In a past post, I mention how on one fine day, on Saint Patrick's Day in fact, Heidi Holmes would hand me a Border Collie and leave for Saint Thomas.....for good. That was many years ago, in fact I wonder if I saw her today if I would even recognize her?

But, I guess it took Bob Dylan's HWY 61 and Blood on the Tracks to bring him to slow Train Coming and Infidels.

And w/o a brief marriage stint to HH, who knows, perhaps little Danny Klecko would have never become....the Last American Baker.