August 25, 2009
Dear Duluth,
I am sorry to have to let you know this way, but seeing your name is in the title of this website I thought it would good place to contact you. I have spent the last year thinking about our relationship and living situation and there is no easy way to say it but I am leaving you.
It is not that I don’t love you, I do. And most of the past dozen years have been good, but I have to admit I am attracted to other cities.
I want you to know that of your group of close friends you’re a shining star. Eveleth, Gilbert and Virginia–I am sorry to say–I find boring, and they depress me. And as for your sister Superior, well, she is a drunken, dirty whore.
Though there are many things about you that I enjoy, like your beach, your urban wilderness and your downtown, the truth is that you are just so cold most of the time. Sure, when you are in a good mood you are almost perfect, but seeing you that way for only 5 or 6 weeks a year is just not enough to fulfill my personal desires any longer.
I would love to tell you where I am going next but I honestly don’t know. I think I will wander for a while and visit old friends out west. I hope we can still be friends and I will come visit you in the future.
Take care and much love,
Me
P.S. I am stopping to have a three-way with Minneapolis and St.Paul on my way out west. You know I have always had a thing for them. Good times.
A commenter to the post about the house being torn down for construction of the new Laura MacArthur Elementary asked the question, “Who is Laura MacArthur anyway?”
Laura MacArthur was an elementary and junior high school teacher and principal in West Duluth for over four decades.
Born in England, she came to the United States with her family at around the age of 10. She attended high school in Wooster, Ohio, and graduated from the College of Wooster.
She came to Duluth in the spring of 1896, where she was assigned to teach Latin, algebra and civics to ninth graders at Longfellow School.
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