Trip to Albert Lea

For reasons I won't go into here (because they are mired in the everyday minutiae of life), I had a chance to bring my family to Albert Lea. Of course Katie's been there several times, but the boys haven't been in a couple of years, and, frankly, they slept through the trip last time. Megan remembered some of it, but not much.

We started our trip south of town at Halverson Elementary School.

This is the door I remember going in every day after the bus dropped us off.

This is the door the teachers came in. It looks like this is the main entrance now.

Then we went to the farm. The new owner appears to be doing some major renovation.

Notice the power line has been moved, as has the front door. Hmm, good for him/her.


Here's Southwest "Middle" School, in my day known as Southwest Junior High. Not much seems to have changed, except it's a middle school now.


And finally, to finish the school pictures, we went to the High School. Here is where the high school used to be. It almost brought a tear to my eye. Photo is taken from the parking lot. It's going to be an auxiliary lot for the Albert Lea Medical Center.


Here is the Post Office. Nothing different here.


Just check out the state of disrepair the Broadway is in. Think of all the movies you saw there! What a damn shame! I waited in line to see Star Wars there. And Mandingo! And Popeye. Broadway sucks now. Most of the shops have something in them, but it's easy to see that it's not the city center anymore. Hasn't been for 20 years I imagine.

I'd love to hear from some of you native Albert Leans on this. Has anyone else been there lately? Oh my god, it's really sad. My kids do have a better appreciation about where I grew up, but wow, what a difference.