Standing in my son’s back yard pushing my granddaughter on her swing, she instructs me, “Higher Grammy! Higher!” I’m facing north, staring at the former Sunrise Motel at the west end of Main Street between RCO and the old Ripley gas station.
The motel is being remodeled by John and Vinnie.
It’s one of those “top-secret, right out in the open” sorts of operations. They are doing something, but no one knows exactly what. Cars, trucks, trailers and contractors have been coming and going to the job site for weeks. John and Vinnie are often seen working late into the summer evenings — but what the heck are they doing?
(I graduated with John and Vinnie. People have been wondering what the heck they are doing for 40 years.)
One thing I love about small town living is how over time people, events and locations intertwine.
My husband and I spent our wedding night at the Sunrise Motel. It was July 19, 1986. Having never been good at planning, we left our wedding dance southwest of Luverne at 2 a.m. with no place to go. The sign at the Sunrise Motel flashed “vacancy” so we took them up on the offer.
Earlier that day my mom had used a thread and needle to secure an unpredictable zipper on my wedding dress. That night at the Sunrise Motel, my husband used a pocketknife to cut me out of it. He always carries a pocketknife and he’s been getting me out of tight spots ever since.
About 10 years after that I became friends with the Sunrise Motel owner who was an avid art promoter. She convinced me my flower photography was actually art and I sold a few prints. “Photographic artist,” is now a line on my resume.
“Hey Brenda.”
It was Vinnie himself calling from across the lawn. Being the (former) investigative journalist that I am, I carefully crafted a question.
“What’s the deal?”
Vinnie answered by guiding my granddaughter and me through the construction site. The plan of the current owners of the former Sunrise Motel, an entity called Good Clean Living, is to create two, two-bedroom apartments on the north end of the building and eight efficiency apartments on the south end.
The goal is to have 10 rental units available for next year’s expected influx of workers.
“It won’t be a motel,” Vinnie says. And, for the record, he adds, “This is all being done with private money.”
The three-year-old is not impressed with affordable housing or forward-thinking, privately funded housing developments. She wants to swing.
And so we return to her side of the property line. She touches her toes to the sky and says, “Higher, Grammy!” and a hammer continues to clamor away at the site of the former Sunrise Motel.