Photo: Manu Padilla/Shutterstock

13 Little Things You Will Miss When You Leave Minnesota

Minnesota Student Work
by Abby Bobich Jun 1, 2015

1. War of the Roses

If there’s one thing Dave Ryan did well, it was starting War of the Roses. If you don’t remember Stoner Nick, you were probably a little too high yourself.

2. Hot dish

Why all meals aren’t put into a casserole format, I’ll never understand. Bonus points if it’s tater tot-themed, deep fried, and on a stick (looking at you, Ole & Lena’s).

3. Walleye

Pretending that cod is an appropriate substitute for fresh-off-LOTW walleye is downright blasphemous and not acceptable in any way.

4. Responding to adorable things with, “Oh, fer cuuuuuute!”

Oh geez, oh fer fun, oh fer the pete’s sake. Nobody outside of the state will ever understand your Northern Minnesotan mother’s response to something cute and cuddly.

5. Surly furious

No hangover will ever compare to a Surly hangover. Wait, maybe that’s a good thing.

6. Walking/running/biking the Chain of Lakes

The best people watching always came from wandering around Isles, Calhoun, Harriet and — if you’ were really ambitious — Nokomis.

7. Connecting with people while waiting in line at Target

Talking about the weather today. The weather yesterday. The weather in 1991.

8. Up north

There was always an inexplicable feeling you got when you reached the McDonald’s on the North side of Mille Lacs. The air was a new kind of fresh, the bars more frequent, and the trees swayed with a certain North Country swagger.

9. Meat raffles at the VFW

Easily the highlight of many a week, you always knew to get there early to get tickets from the Meat Girls. Things tended to get rowdy when the tickets started to sell out, and you couldn’t miss your chance for some quality beef tips.

10. Homegrown festival

It is a lesson every music and beer lover must learn: once you go Homegrown, you’ll never go back. The whole month of May just seems vacant and boring without it.

11. Stone arch selfies

The Stone Arch is prime selfie material: sunset behind the MPLS skyline, the glow of the Guthrie sky deck, flowing river. #nofilterneeded

12. No sales tax on clothing

No matter how many times you leave the state, it still never ceases to surprise and annoy you when a cashier actually charges you sales tax.

13. Michele Bachmann

Ha. Just kidding.

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