A Light Bulb Moment.

  Today, I plan to write off topic.  No house, no paint (although my hands are covered in primer again and the oil based stuff NEVER comes off!), no walls, yard, ghosts, nada.  Today, I want to talk about a light bulb moment like no other.

There is an old liquor store near uptown Minneapolis called Hum's.  It's a little dilapidated, and likely hasn't changed that much in the 40 plus years they have been selling liquor to the locals.  I think the neighborhood around it has changed and rotated from "up and coming" to "down and trodden" a few times, and likely many people have walked up and down it's aisles in search of something.  It looks like the typical old city building, a brick square with a flashy neon and bulbed sign that attracts the locals in.  Yep, there is no mistaking Hum's and it's longstanding history.

What's funny is that I never knew that Hum's was also part of my history.  You see, way back in the 60's,  my mom lived in an apartment above Hum's with her best girlfriend Randi and another girlfriend.   My dad lived down the hall with 2 guy friends, but they didn't know that yet. They were both in their late teens and living as large as you can above a liquor store in Minneapolis in 1969, or so.  The one great benefit to living above Hum's was not convenient access to Liquor though, it was convenient access to light bulbs.  My mom could climb out the apartment window, walk the ledge a bit, carefully unscrew the hot bulb from the sign, and voila, the apartment was filled with light once again.  From the looks of the sign pictured above, I'd say the tradition continues.
 Late one evening, during the age of Aquarius,  my mom went light bulb fetching and while precariously balanced on the ledge of the liquor store, saw my dad standing on the street below.  Some sort of romantic exchange took place (likely involving a "hey baby"- it was the 60's you know) and the history of their love, their we, and eventually me and my brothers, began with them sharing that light bulb moment.  Today, they celebrated their 43 anniversary.  Today, while I was talking about how they met, my mom mentioned that they all got kicked out of their apartments at Hum's due to an epic water balloon fight in the hallway.  Who are these people?  Love you mom and dad!