Austin seems to becoming a vinyl community, like the vinyl siding that makes its way down the block and characterizes new housing.

Tuesday, March 28, 2000

Austin seems to becoming a vinyl community, like the vinyl siding that makes its way down the block and characterizes new housing.

To me, it’s a metaphor as to how Austin deals with life. If anything isn’t just right we cover it up and if it looks "bad" to begin with, we tear it down. We don’t want to do the hard work. Many of the affordable homes for people of limited income are no more. Over time they have been bulldozed to the ground.

Maybe this is one of the things that makes Albert Lea more appealing to me these days. In Albert Lea there seems to be housing for every level of income.

To see Albert Lea as appealing hasn’t always been the case. Growing up in Austin Albert Lea was our "arch enemy" so to speak in sports. The origin of that may have grown out of the Hormel’s vs. Wilson’s, both meat-packing companies.

In my youth, Austinites always thought of themselves a bit above the people of Albert Lea. It wasn’t easy to let go of that.

My first encounter as a visitor to Albert Lea came when my mother dropped two of my friends and me off at a varsity football game. We were in seventh grade then.

Following the game we were joyously making our uncertain way to the prearranged pick up spot. Heading there we fell in behind three local Albert Lea girls. Judging from their size and level of sophistication we figured they were in tenth grade. I think sophomore was a word that hadn’t reached our vocabulary yet.

You all know how clever and witty junior high students can be and how they talk to the opposite sex dazzling them with their pitiful comments.

Excited with the wit of my barrage of words – turning to one of my friends to seek his approval – I failed to notice in the dim light that one of the trio had stopped in front of me.

I only had a fraction of a second to see her up close before her fingernails – well sharpened mind you – cut a swath across my left cheek…

In high school we would make occasional, almost rare appearances, driving hurriedly up and down Broadway and then a quick exit.

Back then Austin’s license plates were 1C or 1D. Albert Lea’s cars were 1A or 1B. Easy to identify the intruders.

Our senior year we spent the night in the Albert Lea Hotel on Broadway thanks to a snow storm that hit during the basketball game at Southwest, closing school in Austin for the only time in my twelve years there I tell my children.

I grew closer to Albert Lea when I practice-taught there. Years later I subbed in the school system, worked for the Private Industry Council and later yet worked in a day treatment program at the junior high and high school.

In so doing I grew to appreciate Albert Lea. They have a real lake. And they have been a diverse community through the years.

Also, for the past six weeks, I along with Joanne Fox, Cameron Davis, Carrie Parker and until a extended family death, Sarah Lenn from Austin, spent almost every day working on the play "Little Women" directed by Lori Ness.

This provided a splendid opportunity to meet others from the community. The outcome was much more enjoyable then my Albert Lea debut as a teenager.

Between the final shows on Saturday I joined a few of the cast at the Lakeside Cafe for an early supper. The walk there, first down an alley to the Constant Reader, my favorite bookstore in the world, and then along the lake to the restaurant and back I once again realized how picturesque Albert Lea really is.

And somehow they have managed to do this without $5 million in assistance. They did it, I would guess by working together in a community that doesn’t have the same resources we count on here in Austin for "the good life."

A few weeks back when I sat in on the Apex committee meeting it was said once again by one of them how much better Austin was then Albert Lea. It sounded faintly like "haves" vs. "have not’s" – It didn’t sit well.

I was reminded of Albert Lea again Sunday as I listened to Dr. Patricia Larson from the ELCA World Hunger Appeals describe their work in third world countries where they operate with limited resources in what they refer to as "Bubble Up" not "Trickle Down." With limited resources they generate more growth working with the women who are more apt to spread their growth around knowing that big money, which they don’t have, passed into the hands of power tends to trickle away.

Albert Lea didn’t have an Apex Committee with millions to spend but they do have a community action agency – and less vinyl.

Bob Vilt’s column appears Tuesdays