Transcripts

SPEAKER 1: Hi, sir. May I help you?

SPEAKER 2: Can I get a cheeseburger?

SPEAKER 1: Just a cheeseburger?

SPEAKER 2: Yeah.

JIM BICKAL: This Burger King near the corner of Main and Ferry is constructed on the site of Anoka's first store, which was built in 1853. In those days, Anoka was a popular place for fur trading and lumber milling because it's located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Rum rivers. In 1865, the Anoka Union newspaper was founded. In 1866, it was purchased by Granville S. Pease. His grandson, Archie Pease, is now the publisher of the paper and the author of a weekly column called Pease Porridge.

SPEAKER 4: At one time we were an isolated-- isolated spot here. We were, I think, probably called isolationists at the time because there was nothing between us and Minneapolis. Now it's built up all the way down to Minneapolis. When you got to go, you go from Anoka to Coon Rapids to Fridley and into Minneapolis.

It's more today of a bedroom community than it ever was before, because we've got a lot of people that work here, but we got a lot of people that don't. We've got a lot of people that work in Minneapolis and in Saint Paul and various places in Hennepin County.

JIM BICKAL: A lot of attention is drawn to Anoka every year because of its weeklong Halloween festival. The town claims it's the Halloween capital of the world. It all began in 1923, when local businessman George Green organized a Halloween parade in the hopes that it would cut down on the amount of vandalism. Arch Pease remembers participating in some Halloween mischief when he was a teenager in the early 1920s.

SPEAKER 4: We had a lot of outhouses here. We used to tip them over on Halloween. We had one policeman. His name was Jim Haley, and he was chief of police. He wasn't a bad guy. He was not afraid of anybody or anything, but he was out in this privy, back of his house. When we decided to tip it over, we didn't know he was in there. We tipped it over the wrong way so that the door-- he couldn't get out. And we got out of there fast because you should have heard the noise inside.

JIM BICKAL: Pease says he's gotten into some political battles over the years. He recalls that during Prohibition, there was an effort to get the city council to change the name of the Rum River.

SPEAKER 4: The Volstead Act was an act of prohibition. So they decided to change the name of the Rum River to the Volstead River. I was involved in this because I don't like change for the sake of change. I like change for necessity. But I could see nothing wrong with the Rum River because I like a rum cooler once in a while. And I think the Rum River is nice. So we got out of campaign, and we just beat the living hell out of them. They never got a change. The vote was something like 7 to 1.

JIM BICKAL: Unlike most of the surrounding suburbs, Anoka has a central business district, a real downtown with about six solid blocks of stores. Thurston's Furniture opened up in downtown Anoka in 1887. In those days, it was a combination furniture store and mortuary. The furniture business tended to be strong in the summer, and the mortuary business was strong in the winter. Current owner Peter Wojciechowski says the downtown businesses face increasing competition from suburban shopping malls.

SPEAKER 5: This store has had like three generations of people that have continually shopped here, and we have Colburn Hilton on the corner. They're older than we are. We're 101 years old. I think they're 105. So there's a lot of older businesses here. And we're not a snobbish type like on the south side of the Twin Cities, where it's just a little bit different over there. Their lifestyle is different and this type of thing. And so-- we're a little more laid-back, I guess, is what I'm saying. This a little more casual-- a little more conservative here.

JIM BICKAL: Wojciechowski says the shopping malls have changed the way people think about shopping. He says parking is one example.

SPEAKER 5: In a shopping center, granted, they got acres and acres, but the thing that never ceases to amaze me as a businessperson. Is that a consumer or customer, bless their heart, will go to a shopping center and park two, three, four blocks away to walk into that shopping center. But yet, if they can't park right in front of our store or a half a block away, not all of them, but some-- they'll complain that they have no place to park.

JIM BICKAL: And the competition is about to get even stiffer. Construction of a new 168-store shopping mall in Anoka is scheduled to begin this spring. I'm Jim Bickal reporting.