I think this qualifies as another quirky example of something that seems to happen only on the Iron Range. The former employees of the Red Owl grocery store in Virginia held a reunion Sunday 20 years to the day after the store closed in 1989 (Mesabi Daily News).
I remember when the store closed because it was a big deal to my family when I was a kid. The 1980s was a time of watching the Iron Range population contract and for my generation to watch people leave and the economy sputter around without purpose. I talk about this in my humorous creative nonfiction book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range,” which is out now and won the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award. And yet, despite the obvious hardships, people still value the traditions, culture and eccentricities of the Range. I would include a defunct grocery store reunion in that latter category.
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