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Catching Up: A Decades-Long Friendship (with Dennis Tkach) · Hangin' Out with Bob

• 0:07
  OK, welcome to “Hanging Out with Bob,” a podcast
• 0:10
  hosted by me, Bob Edholm. Thanks for joining
• 0:16
  us and let's get started. You know, producing
• 0:23
  this podcast over the last couple of years has
• 0:25
  served as an unexpected bridge to my past. It's
• 0:29
  allowed me to reconnect with several childhood
• 0:32
  friends from Columbia Heights, some of whom I
• 0:34
  hadn't seen or spoken to in years, even decades.
• 0:37
  And bringing these familiar voices onto the show
• 0:40
  has, in many ways, transformed my perspective
• 0:43
  on where I grew up. Listening to their stories
• 0:46
  and sharing our shared history has given me a
• 0:49
  much deeper appreciation for the people and places
• 0:51
  I'd forgotten about or overlooked for much of
• 0:54
  my adult life. So, what started a couple years
• 0:58
  ago as an attempted creative audio project—this
• 1:01
  podcast, in other words—has become a fun journey
• 1:03
  of rediscovering my roots and the community that
• 1:06
  shaped me. Columbia Heights. The Heights. And
• 1:11
  on this episode of “Hanging Out with Bob,” I'm
• 1:13
  pleased to have with me one of those Heights
• 1:15
  guys I've known since junior high school. He's
• 1:18
  Dennis Tkach. That's T-K-A-C-H. I spelled
• 1:23
  Dennis' last name only for the sake of listeners
• 1:25
  who aren't from the Heights, because I'm pretty
• 1:27
  sure every baby boomer from the Heights would
• 1:29
  know how to spell Tkach. Dennis, you see, has
• 1:32
  a million friends, and I'm only slightly exaggerating
• 1:35
  that figure. He's a graduate of Columbia Heights
• 1:37
  High School's wonderful class of 1972 and anyone
• 1:41
  who knows Dennis knows he is the class of 1972's
• 1:45
  ultimate community connector, keeping lifelong
• 1:48
  friendships alive with things like Facebook updates
• 1:51
  and by continually organizing formal reunions
• 1:54
  and more casual get-togethers at some of the
• 1:56
  local restaurants around here. So Dennis, thanks
• 2:00
  for taking some time to be here and welcome to
• 2:02
  “Hanging Out with Bob.” Well, Bob, thank you for
• 2:08
  having me today. It's going to be fun to reminisce
• 2:10
  a little bit and talk about our past together
• 2:12
  and from junior high on up. That sounds good
• 2:15
  to me, too. Dennis is retired. He was for years
• 2:19
  a business educator, a trainer for a variety
• 2:21
  of companies and trained a variety of different
• 2:24
  things to workers from all over the United States,
• 2:26
  all over the world, for that matter. He and his
• 2:29
  wife, Patty, they've been married to be 42 years
• 2:32
  in November of 2026. That's correct, Bob. Yep.
• 2:35
  They live in Anoka. They've been there for about
• 2:36
  a year or so. They lived in Coon Rapids before.
• 2:39
  But I know they love to travel across the country
• 2:42
  and even around the world. I've seen some of
• 2:43
  your Facebook posts from Europe and places like
• 2:46
  that. So he's living a good life. We've just
• 2:50
  been lucky enough to be able to travel and get
• 2:53
  a chance to go from Canada to Mexico to Europe
• 2:55
  and beyond. That's great. That's great. In this
• 2:58
  podcast, we're going to cover four key chapters,
• 3:01
  if you will, of Dennis' life. The first chapter,
• 3:04
  we'll just call it “Early Life,” about Dennis growing
• 3:06
  up in the Heights. Next chapter, let's call it
• 3:10
  “Education,” Dennis' high school and college years.
• 3:13
  Third chapter, we'll call it “Music.” Dennis plays
• 3:16
  a “mean” trombone, or he did, for over 40 years
• 3:19
  with the Tkach Band and some other bands before
• 3:21
  that. And then the fourth chapter, let's call
• 3:24
  it “Community Involvement.” Dennis's tireless efforts
• 3:27
  to bring the Heights class of 72 classmates together.
• 3:31
  Sound good, Dennis? That sounds great. Okay,
• 3:37
  “Early Life.” As I mentioned earlier, Dennis, you
• 3:40
  and I have known each other since junior high
• 3:42
  school. I was a grade ahead of you, but my brother
• 3:45
  Dave was in the same grade as you were, the Heights
• 3:48
  graduating class of 1972. And you lived literally
• 3:51
  across the street from Columbia Junior High,
• 3:53
  as I recall, the late, great Columbia Junior
• 3:56
  High School, which was located on 41st Avenue,
• 3:59
  just a block west of Central Avenue. That must
• 4:01
  have been kind of nice being so close to school.
• 4:04
  Well, it was great in the respect that Columbia
• 4:06
  Elementary was on 41st and Central. So I went
• 4:10
  there and we'd go to school there and I'd come
• 4:12
  home for lunch, as a matter of fact, because
• 4:14
  they'd allow the kids to leave and come back
• 4:16
  and have lunch. And we did leave for a while
• 4:19
  with the Valley View because there were the transition,
• 4:22
  you know, when they were building the senior
• 4:23
  high and they had to have the elementary school
• 4:26
  and the junior high kind of combined and they
• 4:28
  split that time there. And then I was in that
• 4:30
  junior high from sixth grade through ninth grade.
• 4:33
  So I was pretty lucky. It was just walk across
• 4:35
  the street and I was home in 30 seconds or in
• 4:38
  school in 30 seconds. Unlike me and my brother
• 4:41
  Dave, we had to catch a bus and all that stuff.
• 4:43
  You could sleep in a little longer because you
• 4:45
  only had to cross the street. That's right. Nice,
• 4:48
  nice. Now, how many siblings did you have? It
• 4:50
  seemed like there was always a Tkach in the school
• 4:52
  district system back in the 60s and 70s. Yeah,
• 4:54
  I have seven brothers and sisters. I have four
• 4:56
  other brothers and three sisters. Okay, okay.
• 4:59
  And let's see. So you said you went to Columbia.
• 5:02
  That's where you first started. That was the
• 5:04
  original old school right in the corner, right?
• 5:06
  41st and Central. That is correct. And then the
• 5:09
  other school in the Heights that you went to
• 5:10
  was Valley View? Yeah. Okay. During the transition
• 5:12
  when they're doubling up where they had the high
• 5:15
  School, going in the morning and the junior high
• 5:17
  people going in the afternoon, kind of a six
• 5:19
  to 12 and then 12 to six type thing where they
• 5:22
  split the schools up. We were, we bused out to
• 5:24
  Valley View so I was there for second through
• 5:27
  fifth grade. Okay, okay, okay. No, no, I take
• 5:29
  third through fifth grade. Okay, okay. A great
• 5:31
  time but didn't like riding the bus so much.
• 5:35
  Right, right. So what, of the two schools, which
• 5:39
  was your favorite? I mean, which did you like
• 5:42
  or have the fondest memories of? I would say
• 5:44
  it would have been Columbia because of the proximity
• 5:48
  and then the teachers where I had there were,
• 5:51
  a couple of classics because Lohman was kind
• 5:55
  of second grade and she was kind of mean and,
• 5:57
  I should say stern, let's put it that way, right,
• 6:00
  and then the other one she was, I can't remember
• 6:05
  Hickok or, what was her name, but she was just
• 6:08
  one of these teachers that loved the kids, dressed
• 6:12
  up wonderfully every day. I remember in all of
• 6:14
  her fancy dresses and ruby red lipstick and she
• 6:17
  had beautifully coughed. Hawkinson was her name.
• 6:21
  Okay. Coiffed hair and that stuff. But a great
• 6:23
  teacher. She always loved her kids. And one thing
• 6:26
  we enjoyed about it is that Columbia had on the
• 6:30
  side of the building, there was a fire escape
• 6:32
  coming out of the nurse's office. I don't know
• 6:34
  if you remember that. I don't. You weren't there.
• 6:36
  So as little kids, we'd kind of climb up there.
• 6:38
  And then there was a pole that was at the top
• 6:41
  of the stairs that we'd climb over the side slide
• 6:43
  down two stories. And it was just kind of, oh,
• 6:46
  they frowned upon that. They thought it was just
• 6:49
  a little bit dangerous. I remember the school.
• 6:54
  But I think when I was going to Highland in the
• 6:56
  60s, The school really wasn't operating. It was
• 7:00
  there, but it wasn't being used, I don't think.
• 7:02
  And then when I was in seventh grade at Columbia,
• 7:04
  they were using the school again for a while.
• 7:06
  I can't remember exactly the story behind it
• 7:09
  Because, like I said, I was more paying attention
• 7:11
  to junior high. They were kind of separating
• 7:13
  them out to the older schools and then the new
• 7:15
  school was North Park and Highland was also being
• 7:19
  used at that time. So they just slid us because
• 7:22
  the two sixth grade classes, the people that
• 7:25
  used to go to Silver Lake. We're in one room
• 7:28
  in the junior high and the other people. So it
• 7:30
  was basically split east side, west side. So
• 7:32
  if you're on the east side of Central Avenue
• 7:34
  and went to Silver Lake, you were in one classroom.
• 7:37
  And if you're on the west side of Central Avenue,
• 7:40
  then we went to the other room, and that's where
• 7:42
  we started. It was kind of scary, though, because
• 7:45
  when we were little kids going down to the lunchroom,
• 7:47
  we'd be walking down there, and those kids were
• 7:49
  so big. And I remember Rudquist and Klecker were
• 7:52
  walking down the road. Duke Rudquist. Oh, yeah.
• 7:54
  He's a big guy. He kind of leaned against the
• 7:59
  wall with your back so he could pass by and he
• 8:02
  kind of laughed at us all the time. That would
• 8:03
  be intimidating to be that young going to a junior
• 8:06
  high with this kid so much bigger than you. Yeah,
• 8:08
  it was. Interesting. Well, once you got to Columbia
• 8:11
  Junior High, the late, great Columbia Junior High.
• 8:14
  Which kind of activities were you involved in?
• 8:16
  Sports, music, what kind of things did you do?
• 8:18
  Yeah, we were, the one thing that we were involved
• 8:20
  at that time, I played in band at that time,
• 8:23
  so Jerry Carlson had a, all the band and the
• 8:26
  choirs were early morning, so that is seven thirty
• 8:28
  or seven o 'clock or something, so we'd have
• 8:30
  to do it before classes started. So I was involved
• 8:33
  in that. And then when I was during the normal
• 8:36
  school year, I was involved in football and basketball
• 8:39
  and then did some of the high school or the class
• 8:42
  plays and things of that nature. You were really
• 8:44
  involved in sports music plays. The one thing
• 8:47
  I really enjoyed, well, what was nice about it
• 8:50
  is that the football field and everything was
• 8:53
  right across the street, like when we were really
• 8:56
  young in the elementary school, then the high
• 8:57
  school games were still being played. Under the
• 8:59
  lights too, right? Under the lights. So we always
• 9:01
  loved to come there. And I would look out the
• 9:03
  window and see the ticket booth being put up
• 9:06
  on the corner there by the junior high. So I
• 9:08
  knew a game was that night. And it was just packed.
• 9:11
  Or if a basketball game during the winter season
• 9:13
  was there, the streets were always packed. And
• 9:16
  one thing I always enjoyed about the football
• 9:18
  games, we kind of pulled up the fence and sneak
• 9:20
  under the fence. Not like my brother, Vlad, who
• 9:23
  would run in with the opposing team like a water
• 9:26
  boy or something like that. That's clever. It's
• 9:28
  one way to get in. Now we loved it over there
• 9:30
  because we used to run over there and especially
• 9:32
  after the games on the Saturday mornings, we
• 9:34
  would come out there and come below the bleachers
• 9:36
  and you always found money and coins and all
• 9:40
  sorts of things. Oh wow, I never thought of that.
• 9:41
  Yeah. So that was a lot of fun doing that growing
• 9:43
  up too. Oh yeah. But junior high was fun because
• 9:46
  of the plays and the music and that. The one
• 9:49
  thing I really enjoyed in that era growing up
• 9:51
  was that the community really supported the sporting
• 9:55
  events like at football games and it was, you
• 9:57
  Know, you think of the homecoming parades down
• 10:00
  central avenue we have every store painted their
• 10:04
  windows people were all on the street and then
• 10:07
  during the game this the bleachers were packed
• 10:09
  we had a very nice stadium for that era, and
• 10:14
  it was just great support from the community.
• 10:16
  And then the other thing I remember is the concerts,
• 10:20
  be it the fall concerts. I especially remember
• 10:23
  the winter concerts for Christmas. They called
• 10:26
  them Christmas concerts, and then they'd play
• 10:27
  traditional Christmas music, and the choirs would
• 10:29
  sing traditional Christmas songs, and it just
• 10:32
  seemed like people really sang along or participated.
• 10:36
  Was this in the auditorium? That was a really
• 10:39
  nice auditorium. Yeah, they added that section
• 10:41
  on and that was beautiful because they had two
• 10:43
  gyms. They had a “crackerjack” gym. They called it
• 10:45
  the “girls' gym” and then the other gyms. So we
• 10:49
  played many a concert there and basketball we
• 10:52
  played in there and it was just a fun auditorium,
• 10:56
  and then during school we'd have classes in there.
• 10:58
  Upstairs, they had in the balcony, they'd pull
• 11:01
  down the screens so you'd have your Driver Ed
• 11:03
  shows and stuff like that. I remember that. I
• 11:06
  remember, yeah. But it was just great. We just
• 11:09
  enjoyed it. And then also, at the end of the
• 11:11
  year, we'd have the awards. They'd give you all
• 11:15
  the certificates for being in the football, the
• 11:17
  basketball, the games. I do kind of chuckle sometimes
• 11:20
  because I always think of the, they give perfect
• 11:23
  attendance awards. And because I'm involved with
• 11:26
  the reunions, we do have copies of those certificates
• 11:31
  and those awards. But I remember when I was in
• 11:35
  ninth grade, there was a classmate of mine, Jeff
• 11:38
  Krekelberg. And a lot of the guys loved him,
• 11:41
  and he was just a great guy. And all I remember
• 11:44
  is that the day that we would have the awards
• 11:47
  for perfect attendance, he was Catholic, and
• 11:49
  he always went to church earlier in the morning.
• 11:51
  But he got sick, and he missed the award ceremony.
• 11:54
  So I always felt bad for Jeff for perfect attendance
• 11:57
  except for that one day. I remember Jeff. My
• 12:02
  grandmother and grandpa lived on Jackson Street,
• 12:05
  and he lived just a little, like, a block south
• 12:07
  of them. Like on 38th, or something, and Jackson.
• 12:10
  So yeah, I remember Jeff. Cool. Cool. Yeah, good
• 12:13
  years at Columbia Junior High. I was going to
• 12:16
  ask you, we'll get into this more later, but
• 12:17
  when did you actually start taking trombone lessons?
• 12:20
  Did you start in grade school? Well, actually
• 12:21
  what happened was in junior high I played cornet.
• 12:28
  We had a family cornet we kind of passed down
• 12:31
  the lines. My sister used it and then she went
• 12:34
  on and she went and played French horn in the
• 12:36
  high school. So I took up the cornet. Okay. So
• 12:39
  all of our brothers played, the brothers played
• 12:42
  instruments. David played drums. I played, well
• 12:45
  in junior high I played cornet, but then I switched
• 12:48
  to baritone, and that's what I played throughout
• 12:51
  high school, too, and into college, too.
• 12:55
  I guess I'm thinking of the Tkach Band,
• 12:57
  because I always thought you played the trombone.
• 12:59
  Yeah, when I was in high school, that's when
• 13:01
  I got the trombone, so I could play in the rock
• 13:03
  bands. I got it earlier in high school. And then
• 13:07
  like another brother played, my brother Dan played
• 13:10
  French horn, my brother Tim played... he played
• 13:13
  flute in the band. My oldest brother Vlad played
• 13:16
  clarinet so we kind of had everything from woodwinds
• 13:19
  to almost lower brass and that stuff. That's
• 13:21
  a good transition to make the music in your family
• 13:24
  because I understand your family actually started
• 13:27
  B Sharp Music right? I mean I know Lopes was
• 13:30
  the guy when I was in junior high and high school,
• 13:32
  but they actually started the B Sharp Music
• 13:34
  store right? That's correct. It was just like
• 13:37
  the third store, and if you can think of Central
• 13:39
  Avenue on 41st and Central, there was the post
• 13:41
  office. Yep. Then the Dairy Bar Store, and then
• 13:44
  it was B Sharp Music. So in the early 60s, my
• 13:48
  father started the business. And his focus was,
• 13:51
  at that time, on the local high schools, junior
• 13:55
  highs, and so forth. So he focused on concert
• 13:57
  bands and getting them their instruments, getting
• 14:00
  their oils or reeds and things like that to keep
• 14:04
  the people going. So he knew Wilke, Carlson,
• 14:07
  Sturm, and all those guys, and the local musicians.
• 14:10
  And then what we did at the actual B Sharp Music,
• 14:13
  we also gave lessons. So we had piano or keyboard
• 14:16
  lessons. And that's how Jim Lopes got involved.
• 14:20
  My dad, he played guitar, and he knew people
• 14:22
  in the Twin Cities. And Jim Lopes, at that time,
• 14:27
  was an exceptional accordion player. Oh, wow.
• 14:30
  I didn't know that. And most people don't. And
• 14:32
  so he hired Jim to come in, and Jim... gave lessons
• 14:37
  at the store there and so after a period of time
• 14:43
  we started incorporating guitar and basses and
• 14:47
  drums and things and that and electrical and
• 14:50
  then my dad, I don't know why, there was a situation
• 14:52
  where he decided he was going to get out, and
• 14:54
  maybe Jim made him an offer he couldn't refuse,
• 14:57
  and that's when Jim Lopes took over B Sharp
• 15:00
  Music. Now what's interesting about B Sharp
• 15:03
  Music is that we lived right across the alley
• 15:06
  from it. So it's like the junior high in a way. It
• 15:08
  was so easy to walk to. And the other thing is
• 15:11
  everyone in the family kind of worked in the
• 15:14
  store too. So like my mom, Mary, she named the
• 15:18
  store. They were trying to figure out the name
• 15:20
  of the store and what do we want to call it?
• 15:22
  And she says, well, let's call it B Sharp, it
• 15:24
  really means C, but she said, let's just call
• 15:26
  it B Sharp Music. Oh, that's a catchy name. That
• 15:28
  was a perfect name for a music store. And that's
• 15:30
  how that came about. And all of them worked in
• 15:33
  there. My brother and my sisters, they worked
• 15:35
  the counters. I was a little too young for that
• 15:37
  at that time, but they all worked in the stores.
• 15:41
  And we just had a nice time. These actually do
• 15:44
  concerts there, too. In the Christmas time, the
• 15:47
  kids would, you know, we gave all those lessons,
• 15:49
  so you'd always have to give a little recital.
• 15:51
  Sure. So we'd come in there and have a recital.
• 15:55
  Because we're a family, we were always kind of
• 15:58
  required to be there. Yeah. So they had an audience.
• 16:00
  But it was always a lot of fun because it was
• 16:02
  right in the front of the store. People could
• 16:04
  see it walking by. And it was just a great time.
• 16:09
  You got to remember, those 60s a little bit different.
• 16:11
  There's a family structure is different and that
• 16:13
  stuff. Nowadays, you probably have a lot of accordion
• 16:18
  recitals and things of that nature, or piano,
• 16:21
  but it was always a lot of fun. So that really,
• 16:25
  that, you know, being working there and then
• 16:28
  seeing all the instruments and being involved
• 16:30
  and understanding and being in contact with the
• 16:34
  band directors and then also the choral directors
• 16:36
  too, because my sisters and a lot of them sang
• 16:39
  on the choir and that stuff. So we just... Just
• 16:42
  had a connection with the music, and that's what
• 16:44
  led us toward our future job. Yeah, no wonder
• 16:46
  your music, it was in your blood, so to speak.
• 16:50
  Oh, that's cool. That's cool. Let's move on to
• 16:55
  your “High School and College” years. When you were
• 16:59
  in high school, how many different bands were
• 17:02
  you in? I know there's, like, the concert band,
• 17:03
  they had pep bands and they had marching bands.
• 17:06
  What did you do? I just really focused on the
• 17:08
  concert band all three years and I was in it
• 17:11
  all three years and then when I was a senior,
• 17:14
  I was the president of the band at that time.
• 17:16
  And then, knowing William Wilke, he was the band
• 17:21
  director and that stuff and he'd been around
• 17:23
  a long time. He was actually a neighbor near
• 17:25
  Us, and our parents knew him really well in that
• 17:28
  nature. So it was a great guy to talk to and
• 17:32
  he had a lot of history in Minneapolis because
• 17:36
  he was an orchestra director down there before
• 17:38
  he came to the Heights. I just enjoyed playing with
• 17:42
  him at that time. I wasn't in choir, I thought
• 17:46
  about it, but the problem, like in junior high
• 17:50
  and high school is... the choir and the band
• 17:52
  met at the same hour. Oh, yeah. So you had to
• 17:54
  make a choice. Right. And because I was a horn
• 17:57
  player and that, we just stayed with the bands.
• 18:00
  My sisters were singers, so they were all in
• 18:02
  the choir's house. Do the concert band I know
• 18:04
  you performed for the school, obviously, because
• 18:06
  I can remember assemblies we'd be playing and
• 18:08
  you probably had concerts in the auditorium.
• 18:10
  But did you ever go to other schools to play?
• 18:13
  At that time, they didn't do a lot of traveling.
• 18:15
  We did a couple of once we had kind of like a
• 18:18
  battle of the concert bands. I remember senior
• 18:20
  high school, it's kind of a weird thing. We went
• 18:22
  over to, like, Edina High School, and there
• 18:24
  Were, like, four bands that played. And we all
• 18:27
  got about a half hour to an hour to do stuff.
• 18:29
  And they kind of split the gymnasium up so that
• 18:33
  the bands could come in and go out. And we played
• 18:37
  that. And then when I was a senior, we did one
• 18:39
  thing where we actually went down to Mankato.
• 18:43
  Oh, okay. We played a concert at their college
• 18:45
  down there, and that was kind of like the big
• 18:48
  one-day trip where we went down there and then
• 18:51
  on the way home we ate at the Hot Fish Shop, which
• 18:54
  was pretty famous at that time down in that Mankato
• 18:57
  area. The Hot Fish Shop? Yeah, so it was kind
• 19:00
  of a fun day to do that, but it's not like when
• 19:03
  our kids were in bands and stuff like that where
• 19:04
  they travel they go out to Michigan or they go
• 19:06
  to a bowl game. Yeah, I just wondered, I think I would
• 19:09
  have remembered if I heard that the band got
• 19:12
  to go all over the country to play, and I don't
• 19:14
  remember hearing that, so that's why I wondered
• 19:16
  what the extent of that involved, you know. We
• 19:19
  did do some playing once in a while outdoors
• 19:22
  because I remember my last concert was down where
• 19:25
  the U.S. Bank Building was located on about
• 19:28
  4th and Marquette or whatever. There's an open
• 19:30
  square down there and that was where our last
• 19:33
  concert was. We played outside because there's
• 19:35
  a seating area there. The concert band was set
• 19:38
  up and we played over the lunch hour. That was
• 19:40
  a really fun time. Nice, nice. Now in high school,
• 19:42
  were you involved in sports? Did you go for basketball?
• 19:44
  Yeah, I played basketball for the three years
• 19:46
  and so forth. I was going to play football but then
• 19:49
  I decided not to, and I focused more on because
• 19:52
  I think at that time we were starting to change
• 19:54
  a little bit in respect of I was going to maybe
• 19:56
  play in the more music. Sure. In a band and basketball
• 20:00
  was just kind of the sport I really enjoyed it
• 20:02
  could possibly excel and have fun. So that's
• 20:05
  where I focused Well, it sounds like you were
• 20:06
  busy enough as it was. Were there any other activities? Were
• 20:09
  you in a German club or no? Well, I was in plays.
• 20:12
  So what happened is I'd get in plays and because,
• 20:14
  like, in junior high, I was involved in some of the
• 20:16
  plays down there. and in high school I was, like,
• 20:18
  in the mute I think was in, like, The Music Man, and
• 20:21
  I was involved in a couple other things where
• 20:23
  I just, I had minor parts, I just, you know, I think
• 20:26
  once I played in the pit band, too, in that.
• 20:28
  Oh, sure. So, you know, if there was a way to
• 20:31
  get involved a little bit, we would. And it was
• 20:34
  just part of the fine arts. Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:38
  Was there anything in high school where, you'd
• 20:40
  mentioned choir, that you wish you could have
• 20:41
  done, but just with everything else going on,
• 20:44
  you just couldn't do it? Sounds like you did
• 20:47
  a lot of different things. Yeah, playing and
• 20:50
  acting and that stuff. I would have liked to
• 20:52
  have been in the choir, but it just, again, the
• 20:54
  timing wasn't correct and that stuff. When you
• 20:59
  grow up and you kind of wish other things, the
• 21:02
  one thing you kind of wish you could have done
• 21:03
  is maybe play golf, because that's one of my
• 21:06
  favorite. Sports is an older person now. I can
• 21:08
  continue to play but at that time and I didn't
• 21:11
  have clubs and that I mean I had in high school
• 21:14
  and, and I would have loved to been on the golf
• 21:16
  team in the spring. You know been fun, but it
• 21:18
  was real The team seemed to be fairly small.
• 21:21
  I remember a friend of mine, Chuck Morin, who
• 21:23
  was the drummer in the band, played in there.
• 21:25
  And he said it was kind of like they had four
• 21:27
  or five guys that were the lead guys, A team,
• 21:30
  and then the other guys were just kind of...
• 21:32
  So it was a very small team and very selective.
• 21:35
  So I don't even know if I would have been able
• 21:36
  to play, but I wish I would have at least thought
• 21:38
  about it. What's your, I think, maybe one or two
• 21:43
  of your favorite memories of high school, whether
• 21:45
  it was an activity or a certain event, I mean,
• 21:47
  when you look back. 50-plus years but yeah memories
• 21:50
  of high school. I remember, like, my senior year
• 21:53
  when the team was like the conference champion
• 21:55
  they were like. Football team? Yeah, the football
• 21:57
  Team, and they were a great team and a lot of
• 21:59
  my friends were on that team and I think about
• 22:01
  that team and a lot of great fond memories and
• 22:04
  kind of. Too bad in the end of the year they had
• 22:08
  had so many injuries in that because they could
• 22:09
  have done really well. I mean, you lose your whole
• 22:11
  starting backfield plus your center. You know
• 22:14
  all those guys are all-conference players that
• 22:17
  it's hard to win games but that was a fun team
• 22:20
  to watch. The other thing is I enjoyed the, I mean,
• 22:23
  I enjoyed basketball. We were, the problem with basketball ess
• 22:26
  when we were juniors and seniors, juniors, they
• 22:29
  had, I think it was the Anoka team had all, they
• 22:33
  won the state when I think we were juniors and
• 22:35
  then when we were seniors, Mounds View won the
• 22:37
  state. Or was the other way around. I mean, Mark
• 22:40
  Landsberger was playing with Mounds View, and he
• 22:42
  played and went on to play with the Gophers and
• 22:44
  we played those guys. And the Lakers. Yeah. And
• 22:46
  he was a heck of a player. Yes. And the Anoka
• 22:49
  team, I remember playing them, and what was interesting
• 22:52
  about them is their, their smallest guys were
• 22:54
  the six-five guards. I mean, we had one person
• 22:57
  who was, I mean, Joel Svensk was six-eight,
• 22:59
  But, I mean, he could jump about four inches,
• 23:01
  but it was it was a fun time playing there. And
• 23:04
  then one of the other things I really remember
• 23:05
  is that near the end of, like, Christmas and stuff
• 23:08
  like that, they allowed us to have kind of like,
• 23:10
  it was kind of the end of the school year and
• 23:13
  they are the end of the, you know, well, it was
• 23:15
  the end of the Christmas season there. So they
• 23:17
  gave us a day where they had like a little showing
• 23:20
  or a conference or not a conference, but a, all
• 23:24
  the classes came together and that stuff made
• 23:26
  a little show But then they also allowed bands
• 23:28
  to play and we were one of the bands that played.
• 23:30
  Fun. And I remember being on the stage and because
• 23:34
  we were up there to start the show and so as
• 23:37
  soon as it was done, they said to start playing,
• 23:39
  and I remember start playing from the stage looking
• 23:41
  onto the basketball court. Yes. Seeing, yeah, the
• 23:44
  whole group. I mean, you know, all those kids
• 23:47
  coming down on the dance floor and dancing and
• 23:49
  then other bands playing and that was just, just
• 23:53
  a great, a great day and fun. This is a winter
• 23:55
  type thing? It was a winter was just for Christmas
• 23:57
  break, we're getting ready for Christmas break.
• 23:59
  And I can't remember why they did allow us to
• 24:02
  do it. But it was just like the rest of the day
• 24:04
  they gave to us. And I think maybe at the end
• 24:07
  of the day, we had to go somewhere to call it
• 24:09
  a day or something. Nice, nice. That was a lot
• 24:12
  of fun. Now, after you graduated from Heights
• 24:14
  in 72, you went to Anoka-Ramsey (Community College). A-R. You were there
• 24:18
  for a couple of years. A couple of years. I graduated
• 24:20
  out of there, yes. Okay, okay. And then you went
• 24:23
  to a couple of different colleges and you went
• 24:24
  to River Falls in Wisconsin for a while. Yeah,
• 24:26
  I was at that time after I got my AA from...
• 24:29
  Anoka Ramsey I was going to go into teaching,
• 24:31
  and that's why I became a trainer because I thought
• 24:34
  I could be a teacher but at that time I was going
• 24:38
  to River Falls and I was attending, but then I
• 24:40
  was hurt in a pickup football game and I wrecked
• 24:42
  my knee and I couldn't drive, so I had to drop
• 24:44
  out and after I came back after surgery and then
• 24:47
  I decided just to go to the University of Minnesota.
• 24:50
  And that's where I ended up going to school and
• 24:52
  then getting an undergrad and then later on my
• 24:54
  master's in education and so forth. So that was
• 24:57
  your undergrad to education was your major? No,
• 24:59
  it was actually my undergrad was in sociology.
• 25:01
  We had a degree in statistics. Oh, wow. It was
• 25:04
  interesting back then because you had to have,
• 25:06
  like, a minor. Right. And, uh, and I, you look
• 25:08
  at back there and this is, you know, you're talking
• 25:10
  about (19)74 or 5, or something like that. And
• 25:13
  they had a choice. You want to go into a language
• 25:15
  minor, or do you want to go in this like some
• 25:17
  kind of a business like statistics? So I thought.
• 25:19
  Well, I could get a statistics. I could probably
• 25:21
  use that better than, I mean, who's going to
• 25:23
  speak Spanish? Who would know a few years, decades
• 25:28
  down the line, all those languages became much
• 25:31
  more prevalent. But that all helped out and it
• 25:35
  helped out statistically because when you're
• 25:36
  in training, you have to look at how to train
• 25:39
  and how to look at things and what, you know,
• 25:41
  when you're creating surveys and things of that
• 25:43
  nature. And that's what led me later on after
• 25:46
  I worked for Honeywell, Online Tech Systems, that's
• 25:48
  the one I went for my Masters at the University
• 25:50
  of Minnesota. And that's when I went to Masters
• 25:53
  of Education. Okay, certificate human resource
• 25:56
  development again, that's for helping people
• 25:59
  understand or helping businesses, Yeah, You know,
• 26:01
  understand their business and or how to train
• 26:03
  the people once they figured out their business
• 26:05
  programs and so forth You must have really loved
• 26:07
  that I did it for 40 years. So it was great.
• 26:11
  I worked for a lot of great companies As a consultant
• 26:15
  or as a trainer in the company So I had a great
• 26:17
  career and just enjoyed it. Now when you were
• 26:19
  going to the you were you like a commuter? Like
• 26:22
  I was. I mean, you didn't live on campus. You
• 26:25
  didn't live in a frat. No. The only time I went
• 26:28
  to frats was when the band played in the parties.
• 26:31
  Sure, sure. I remember going to some parties,
• 26:33
  but I never belonged to the... those fraternities.
• 26:35
  I remember just going, you know, because I knew
• 26:37
  somebody that knew somebody or something like
• 26:39
  that. So you know, I commuted and did a lot of
• 26:42
  my undergrad was on the West Bank, because sociology
• 26:44
  was over there. Okay. And then the West when
• 26:48
  I was in my human resource or my master's program,
• 26:50
  a lot of that was on the St. Paul campus. Oh,
• 26:53
  St. Paul. That's a nice little campus. Yeah,
• 26:54
  it's much easier to navigate. Oh, yeah. It's
• 26:57
  like going to a small college when you're there.
• 27:00
  So I always felt it was a challenge to be on
• 27:02
  the East Bank and then have to go, go to the
• 27:04
  West Bank to get to a class on time. I remember
• 27:06
  walking real briskly across the Washington Avenue
• 27:09
  Bridge. Even with that shelter, it was still
• 27:11
  cold. I just remember the chance to do so. So
• 27:15
  you did get a chance to go away to school, just
• 27:17
  that you got hurt. Because like I said, it, was there
• 27:20
  a school that you had dreamed about going to
• 27:23
  or wish you could have gone to, looking back?
• 27:25
  Well, I think that I would have enjoyed finishing
• 27:28
  up at River Falls because it was kind of like,
• 27:31
  it was far enough away where you couldn't come
• 27:34
  home. It was an hour and a half from home and
• 27:36
  that stuff. But if you had to come home, it was
• 27:39
  great. And it's well-known for, well, it's a
• 27:42
  farming school, but it's also a teaching school.
• 27:44
  So I would have had a lot of opportunities. Plus
• 27:47
  with music there, they had a great music program
• 27:50
  that a lot of my friends have gone through and
• 27:54
  friends that I still have today that actually
• 27:56
  graduated from River Falls have music degrees,
• 27:59
  and some of them are still playing and so forth.
• 28:02
  in the metro area and so forth, and directed.
• 28:05
  I wish I could have finished, but it just wasn't
• 28:07
  in the cards. Yep, yep. Let's go on to “Music”
• 28:14
  then, the next chapter I want to cover in your
• 28:16
  life. Talk about your time in the Tkach Band.
• 28:19
  I Googled “Tkach Band,” and in the overview that
• 28:22
  I found, it stated that your band was, quote,
• 28:25
  “A popular seven-piece variety dance band from
• 28:28
  Columbia Heights, Minnesota, featuring four members
• 28:31
  of the same Tkach family,” unquote. That's true.
• 28:35
  So what happened is that, when I was in high
• 28:37
  school, there was one band that we started off
• 28:40
  in. So when I was a senior, I'm going to back
• 28:43
  up just a little bit, because this is the band
• 28:45
  that formed Tkach. There was a band that we created
• 28:47
  called Progress. And we had, I mentioned earlier
• 28:52
  that I was the president of the concert band.
• 28:54
  So every year they'd have a mixer at Jax
• 28:57
  Cafe where the choir and the band would come
• 28:59
  in in September and they'd kind of have fun and
• 29:01
  Wilke and Sturm and Carlson, the directors would
• 29:04
  come on in and all the band and choirs would
• 29:06
  have a fun night. When I was a sophomore and
• 29:09
  a junior, they had a jazz trio play, Stu Anderson
• 29:12
  Trio. I don't remember. Oh yeah, he was my speech
• 29:14
  teacher and critical thinking teacher. Yeah,
• 29:17
  great guy. But I thought, man, maybe we should
• 29:19
  have a band play for it. So I asked Wilke if
• 29:23
  it would be okay, and he said, sure. And so over
• 29:25
  the summer we put together, we had a seven-piece
• 29:29
  band. Six were actual concert band members because
• 29:32
  they were horn members and guitar, bass, and
• 29:34
  that. But we needed a singer so we got Duane
• 29:36
  Kuss from the choir. So we had to have one singer.
• 29:40
  And from that, Dan, my brother Dan and Bob Holin,
• 29:43
  who was a guitar player, they started singing
• 29:45
  too. So we, that band formed. Progress. Progress.
• 29:49
  And then we played for about three to four years.
• 29:52
  Okay, we played lots of high schools, fraternities,
• 29:55
  weddings, and so forth. And then we also did
• 29:57
  a lot of club stuff. We used to play in the Twin Cities
• 30:00
  and the clubs and tough job because when you're
• 30:03
  playing anywhere from four to seven or six nights
• 30:05
  a week, you didn't have much of a social life.
• 30:07
  Yeah, so sooner or later, we just got kind of
• 30:10
  burnt out and decided to get out of it. So in
• 30:12
  the, what happened is in the summer of 76, my
• 30:16
  brothers, Dan, Tim, and Barb and I said, let's
• 30:19
  put the band together again. And that's when
• 30:21
  we formed the Tkach Band. And what we aim for
• 30:26
  is just to say, let's go to the State Fair and
• 30:30
  play, and then try out for the Minnesota State
• 30:32
  Fair talent contest. This was an annual thing
• 30:34
  they did every year? Yeah, every year the talent
• 30:36
  contest was on. And we thought it'd be fun to
• 30:38
  kind of play that at the State Fair. So we practiced.
• 30:44
  Marty Banas was the sophomore one. He was the
• 30:47
  heights guy. Don Murray was the drummer. Marty
• 30:48
  Banas? Yeah, Marty Banas. His sister Gina was
• 30:51
  in my class and Marty was a couple years younger
• 30:53
  than us. And then Don Murray, who was again a
• 30:57
  couple years younger, was the drummer. So we
• 30:59
  came in and we played and we formed the band.
• 31:03
  And we decided, well, we should do a warm-up
• 31:05
  job before we play at State Fair. So we went
• 31:07
  to the Anoka County Fair. You know, they always
• 31:09
  have talent contests. So we said, well, let's try
• 31:12
  the three-piece number that we're going to do,
• 31:14
  because you have seven minutes. So we thought,
• 31:16
  oh, we'll try it out there and make sure we can
• 31:17
  go through it once. Played it, and then we didn't
• 31:20
  win that night. Another band from the local area
• 31:23
  won the contest. So we're a little disappointed.
• 31:26
  What did you play? I'm just curious. What we
• 31:29
  did was we started with “More Today Than Yesterday.”
• 31:32
  I'm sure. Yeah. And then we, we had “Color My
• 31:35
  World” in the middle and then we had one other
• 31:37
  song in there. Yeah. Yeah. And so we, we just
• 31:39
  put this three or seven minutes set together.
• 31:41
  And so we did the same thing at the State Fair
• 31:44
  on the major stage, you know, where the Gopher
• 31:47
  is in the space. It was a lot of fun. And we
• 31:50
  won the first night. And as a matter of fact,
• 31:52
  the band that we were against at the Anoka County
• 31:54
  Fair didn't place at all. So we were, we kind
• 31:57
  of chuckled a little bit. Yeah, we won a whole
• 31:59
  hundred dollars for that. And then you go to
• 32:02
  the finals and we played in the finals that night
• 32:04
  and we lost to a semi-professional barbershop
• 32:08
  quartet called the Roadrunners. And we always
• 32:12
  kind of chuckled about it because it's kind of
• 32:13
  like you have a barbershop court. They seem like
• 32:16
  typical barbershop quartet and then you had dancers,
• 32:19
  you have bands and it wasn't just rock bands.
• 32:23
  No, it was just it was a, it was, like, 10 acts
• 32:26
  and they were all different acts. I mean, okay,
• 32:28
  single people, singing piano players. Okay. And
• 32:32
  but it was just A fun night and what was good
• 32:36
  about that night is that there was someone from
• 32:38
  Sperry Univac who became Unisys, etc. Yeah, right.
• 32:42
  Was in the audience and they came up to us after
• 32:44
  we're done. They want to know would you play
• 32:45
  for our open house? And we said sure, we'll come
• 32:48
  out there and play and they gave us a date. And
• 32:50
  that's the way it started. So it was kind of
• 32:52
  like your first gig in the Tkach Band. Yeah. And
• 32:55
  then we went in and played. And then what happens
• 32:57
  is when you're playing those gigs and then people
• 32:59
  hear you, then they say, hey, you got a wedding.
• 33:01
  Word of mouth. Word of mouth. Yeah. And that's
• 33:03
  the way it started. And then we just started
• 33:05
  playing it. And like I mentioned to you earlier,
• 33:08
  we played probably about 2,500 gigs throughout
• 33:11
  our forty years. That's amazing. Some years we
• 33:14
  played a lot and other, you know, kind of like
• 33:16
  a grew and then we got to the point where we're
• 33:18
  playing like 60 times a year which and all of
• 33:21
  us are working once a week, yeah, and I remember
• 33:24
  one December we played like 14 times and that
• 33:29
  included from, you know, it was one of those weekends
• 33:31
  Sometimes, when you're a band you look at oh the
• 33:33
  first weekend is in like the first and the third
• 33:34
  and then so it gives you an extra weekend to
• 33:37
  play so we had a lot of extra jobs so we can
• 33:40
  have a couple extra jobs but we played 14 times
• 33:43
  in one month It was kind of like I'm surprised
• 33:45
  I'm still married. Just for the record, who were
• 33:49
  the original members of your band then? You and
• 33:52
  your brothers and your sister Yeah, my sister
• 33:54
  Barbara was in the band. Okay. She's a singer
• 33:56
  or she was a singer. Okay. Yeah, so in in the
• 34:00
  Marty Banas played keyboard. Okay done Marty
• 34:03
  was the original drummer, but then Chuck Morin
• 34:06
  came on. This is a 72 crowd, right? Yeah, 72
• 34:09
  crowd. And he played for us for the rest of our
• 34:12
  careers, basically, in Tkach. And then Daniel
• 34:17
  on bass, Barbara on vocals. Gary Hannah and Scott
• 34:21
  Savre. Gary Hannah was class of 73 and Scott
• 34:23
  was 72. We were sax, trumpet, and trombone. And
• 34:27
  then we varied it a little bit because as we
• 34:30
  changed and the people morphed and went on to
• 34:31
  different things, we always had a trumpet player
• 34:33
  in there. So we had a couple of different guys.
• 34:37
  It just kind of, for the 40 years, I think we
• 34:39
  went through about four different trumpet players
• 34:42
  during that time. And we never brought the sax
• 34:44
  back until the very end where we had some friends
• 34:46
  that would come in on stage and play, because
• 34:50
  they played. A cousin of mine, John Koziol, played
• 34:54
  in the band for a while, and so he knew a guy,
• 34:57
  or he plays with a gentleman, Steve Clarke, who
• 35:00
  is Steve Clarke and the Working Stiffs, that still
• 35:02
  plays in the metro and that, and Steve plays
• 35:04
  out at the airport, you know, those solo people
• 35:09
  that play out there in the airport, and still
• 35:10
  Steve plays there. And I'm going to see him in
• 35:12
  October up at Anoka. John and he are still playing,
• 35:15
  so we just... morphed and just kind of, but we
• 35:18
  kept that basic seven together. Yeah. And then
• 35:22
  what then Marty Banas, the original keyboards,
• 35:26
  he had an offering for a job out in California.
• 35:30
  So he went, but I was going to Anoka-Ramsey and
• 35:32
  I knew the keyboardist out of there, his name
• 35:34
  is Marty Bartel. So we kept with the Marty's
• 35:36
  for the keyboards. So he played with us a majority
• 35:40
  of the time in Tkach and then Marty Banas came
• 35:42
  back later too and did some playing with us.
• 35:45
  But it was pretty much the same group of people
• 35:47
  all that time. You weren't like Fleetwood Mac
• 35:49
  where you totally changed. No, no. The one thing
• 35:53
  we really believed in was that, because the Tkaches,
• 35:59
  we grew up in the Orthodox church and it was
• 36:01
  acapella, so our voices really blended well and
• 36:05
  then we wouldn't have to worry about bringing
• 36:07
  other people in, and then we just added the keyboards
• 36:10
  and we'd give them specific songs, like, to be
• 36:13
  the leads on or do the backup and stuff and it
• 36:16
  just worked out really well so over the years
• 36:19
  we could continue because you talked about earlier
• 36:21
  about a variety dance band. Our music was from
• 36:24
  the 40s, 50s, 60s, all the way up to about 2000
• 36:27
  when we were playing. So, I mean, you could hear
• 36:30
  anything from Glenn Miller to, you know, Bill
• 36:32
  Haley and the Comets. Did you do polka? Polkas,
• 36:35
  waltzes. We did. That was, you know, growing
• 36:37
  up in Northeast, we had that and we played so
• 36:39
  many weddings that we did polkas, waltzes and
• 36:43
  butterflies and all the traditional stuff at
• 36:45
  that time. And actually that's, that really helped
• 36:48
  a lot when you played weddings because yeah,
• 36:51
  you could tailor the music earlier in the evening
• 36:53
  for the older people that were there that could
• 36:55
  reminisce the big bands and the polkas and that
• 36:57
  and then that you knew they always kind of left
• 36:59
  around 10 or whatever right and then we'd shift
• 37:01
  more over to the rock and roll and do the Earth,
• 37:04
  Wind & Fire, the Chicago, and things like that.
• 37:06
  Doobie Brothers and that's a rock and roll that.
• 37:09
  Yeah, absolutely, like, I suppose it depended
• 37:11
  on the venue too, I think, your Flaherty's you're
• 37:14
  probably not doing any polka numbers? Well, we
• 37:16
  did actually. Oh, you did? Yeah, it was. I never
• 37:19
  saw you at Flaherty’s playing polka, but. Well, we did,
• 37:21
  because we knew that there were people, they
• 37:24
  had bowling leagues and the bowling leagues would
• 37:26
  come in and that's because you're five nights
• 37:28
  a week. So those people would come in and we
• 37:30
  would throw them in and it would pack the floor
• 37:32
  because people, they enjoy that style of music.
• 37:34
  For us, it was good too, because we kind of get
• 37:37
  bored if we were just playing the same style
• 37:38
  of music all the time. So we enjoyed playing
• 37:40
  that and we just kind of rotated songs. We had
• 37:43
  a, when I created the sets, I always created
• 37:46
  it with grouping. So I'd have a group of rock
• 37:48
  and roll, slow it down, transition to maybe big
• 37:51
  band and then polkas. And then I'd slow it down
• 37:53
  and I'd go back to a contemporary rock and roll.
• 37:56
  So it would have the crowd with an ebb and flow
• 37:59
  and so forth. But it was a lot of fun. Plus, on
• 38:02
  top of it, when we were doing Flaherty’s and the
• 38:04
  club scene, we had an actual 50s show. But a 45-
• 38:08
  minute 50s show where we dressed up and we had
• 38:11
  outfits on. Matter of fact, I had a one-piece
• 38:14
  silver jumpsuit and I changed my scarf so I'd
• 38:18
  have scarves on with different colors and all
• 38:20
  sort of, have our hair slicked back and we had
• 38:22
  a whole show and we just go right through the
• 38:24
  routine and they just flow from one song to the
• 38:27
  next and we have little themes on. I didn't realize
• 38:29
  you were that varied. I mean, a variety of different
• 38:32
  music styles and even your dress. I think that's
• 38:37
  what really helped us because talking about the
• 38:39
  dress later on when we focused more on the weddings
• 38:43
  and the company parties and that, we felt that
• 38:46
  our dress was important. So when we played, we
• 38:50
  had a band outfit in the 70s and the early 80s,
• 38:54
  we'd have kind of that disco type thing. So we
• 38:56
  had a vest and a silk shirt underneath. So the
• 38:59
  vest and pants are all black and different color
• 39:01
  shirts. And then later on, We just went more
• 39:04
  traditional where we had like a tuxedo shirt,
• 39:07
  suspenders, and we'd have, we'd have multiple
• 39:09
  color ties because based on what color the bride's
• 39:13
  dresses were, we would match the ties so it could
• 39:16
  be fuchsia. Oh, I'd be black, red, whatever you
• 39:19
  put a lot of thought into that. So we had a lot
• 39:21
  of fun. And, but we always wanted to be formal.
• 39:23
  Yeah, so that we, we never felt out of right out
• 39:26
  of sync with anything or look professional. That
• 39:29
  does get you in problems once in a while. And
• 39:31
  I'm saying problems in a good way, though. I
• 39:33
  remember we're playing at Interlachen for a wedding.
• 39:35
  So we had set up and we're standing out in the,
• 39:38
  the doorways and stuff like that, where the cars
• 39:41
  pull in underneath and cars are being parked.
• 39:43
  The guy gets out of the Cadillac and we're just
• 39:45
  standing there talking in our tuxes outfit. He
• 39:48
  thought we were one of the guys parking cars.
• 39:51
  He says, well, I'd like to take your Cadillac,
• 39:55
  but we can't. We're in the band. And he's kind
• 39:57
  of grumbled a little bit and guys came running
• 40:00
  out to park his car. Well, you know, from the
• 40:04
  times that I saw you play, I remember places
• 40:06
  like Flaherty's and I just remember how great
• 40:08
  you did covers. I can remember, you mentioned
• 40:10
  earlier “More Today Than Yesterday,” by Spiral Staircase.
• 40:14
  A lot of Chicago stuff. I remember a War cover you did.
• 40:17
  I can remember you doing “All Day Music.” And then
• 40:20
  I want to bring this up because I just remember
• 40:22
  this is one of the favorite songs I remember
• 40:24
  you doing. I think it was at Flaherty's, but
• 40:27
  it was in the 70s, probably around 73, 74. And
• 40:30
  you guys played a cover of a song, it was called
• 40:35
  “One Fine Morning.” It was from a Canadian band
• 40:37
  called Lighthouse. And I remember when I first
• 40:39
  heard that song on KQ, I thought it was just
• 40:41
  a brilliant song. It was upbeat and optimistic
• 40:45
  and that stuff. And you just nailed it. And I
• 40:47
  just thought this was great, you know. So did
• 40:50
  you have, like, favorites? You had so many different
• 40:53
  styles of songs, but was there certain songs,
• 40:56
  maybe two or three, that you just loved playing
• 40:58
  or just the crowd really seemed to love? Yeah,
• 41:00
  there was a, we always kind of, the last concert
• 41:03
  we played down in Columbia Heights in June of
• 41:07
  21, I purposely created the list playing our
• 41:11
  very first number when we were at Progress at
• 41:14
  Jax, and that was “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It
• 41:16
  Is?” by Chicago. We used that to open up a lot
• 41:19
  of the time because it would feature the horns,
• 41:22
  it would feature the vocals, a lot of harmonies
• 41:24
  and things and everyone knew those songs. So
• 41:26
  I always I started the night that way and I ended
• 41:31
  the night with the very first song we played
• 41:33
  in Tkach: “More Today Than Yesterday.” So that's
• 41:36
  the way we ended it. And as a matter of fact,
• 41:38
  I still have like video from the “More (Today) Than Yesterday”
• 41:41
  down at Huset Park, where we ended our, you
• 41:43
  Know. I think I've seen that, Dennis. There's
• 41:45
  a podcast you did a few years ago for Anoka County
• 41:47
  Historical Society. And there's a video attached
• 41:50
  to it. And I recognize that, that warming house
• 41:52
  or whatever, and you guys in front of that. So
• 41:54
  okay, I've seen that. Yeah, cool. And it was
• 41:56
  a lot of fun. It those kind of those songs were
• 42:00
  a lot of fun to do. We, I think the other thing
• 42:03
  is we did enjoy playing the more sophisticated
• 42:06
  songs or complicated in respect to like Earth,
• 42:08
  Wind & Fire. Oh yeah. Tremendous vocal challenges.
• 42:11
  What was the song you used to do? Well, we used
• 42:12
  to do “September.” That's my favorite song right
• 42:16
  now. Let's see, there was... “Groove Tonight.”
• 42:20
  I can't remember some of the other ones, but
• 42:21
  we enjoyed playing that kind of music because
• 42:25
  it was just a lot of fun. I think we focused
• 42:28
  more on any of the horn bands. If someone had
• 42:30
  horns in them, we'd like to play them during
• 42:32
  that time. In Chicago, naturally, it was a big
• 42:35
  one, Blood, Sweat & Tears. We did those groups
• 42:37
  and stuff. I mean, we used to do things. I remember
• 42:41
  we have some recordings where it's kind of like...
• 42:45
  We started with “Make Me Smile,” and then we went
• 42:48
  to “Color My World,” and then we kind of skipped
• 42:51
  between “Make Me Smile” and went into “Color My
• 42:54
  World” and we played to the end of the album.
• 42:56
  So we played all of the other instrumental things
• 42:59
  in the middle between “Color My World” to the very
• 43:01
  end of the album. And it was just a fun, challenging
• 43:04
  thing at that time. That's cool. That's cool.
• 43:09
  So you said all together, over the 40-plus years,
• 43:12
  about 2,500 events. Yeah. So you estimate that
• 43:16
  you played during the time… That's awesome.
• 43:18
  Yeah. And it really varied a lot. I mean, we
• 43:22
  did a lot of company parties. We did a lot of
• 43:24
  weddings. We did bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs.
• 43:30
  And then the other things we do is wedding shows.
• 43:33
  And the wedding shows were actually a lot of
• 43:35
  fun because it could be at the Minneapolis Convention
• 43:37
  Center. They could be in St. Paul at their convention
• 43:41
  center down there. Wedding shows meaning? So
• 43:45
  what happened is that the shows would have either,
• 43:48
  you know, people would come in with the brides
• 43:50
  and grooms and all that. And you see all the
• 43:52
  vendors and they'd have fashion shows. Oh, gotcha,
• 43:56
  gotcha. So what was really nice about that is
• 43:58
  that We would set up and play in the during this
• 44:03
  you know as the people were coming through So
• 44:05
  the bride and the grooms and everything they
• 44:07
  could see the band and hear the band and says
• 44:09
  hey, you know, we're DJ or I'm a booking agent
• 44:12
  and I have 30 bands here is the band and we always
• 44:16
  talked about it. This is what you see is what
• 44:18
  you get and so we had our wives out front and
• 44:21
  we would hand out literature and then as an incentive
• 44:24
  we would give them a discount that day if they
• 44:26
  booked us and so sometimes we would get 10 jobs
• 44:29
  just playing two hours and that's just you know
• 44:31
  you can't beat that because every time you play
• 44:33
  a job you always get a couple more out of it,
• 44:36
  so we did a couple wedding shows and we were
• 44:38
  pretty much set for the year. I hadn't heard
• 44:42
  of that concept or that type of gig. That's cool.
• 44:45
  What was interesting is we did a wedding show
• 44:47
  at the down at Orchestra Hall, and we had to
• 44:50
  come down there and play music for the actual
• 44:53
  where they were parading down the aisles there
• 44:56
  and so forth. And then the person controlling
• 44:59
  the show says, well, play a wedding waltz, so we
• 45:02
  can have them hear some traditional music. Simple
• 45:06
  wedding waltz is the “Anniversary Waltz.” Everyone
• 45:08
  knows the “Anniversary Waltz.” So we played the
• 45:10
  Waltz, and the people did their strolls down the
• 45:12
  aisles and that some came back and then I says
• 45:14
  don't play that. That's a gangster waltz anniversary.
• 45:20
  Okay. So we had to play something. It's like,
• 45:23
  uh, I don't, I'm just thinking and there was
• 45:25
  always a traditional song or something like that,
• 45:28
  that you could play. That was more of a waltz
• 45:30
  style for the rest of my life. I can't think
• 45:32
  of the name of the song right now, but. What
• 45:35
  was the most interesting or the coolest or most
• 45:39
  awesome venue you played at? You mentioned Orchestra
• 45:41
  Hall, which is a great place to play and maybe
• 45:43
  one of the most unusual events like where something
• 45:45
  bizarre happened or somebody didn't give birth
• 45:48
  during your band. It's kind of interesting when
• 45:52
  you play that there are a lot of the New Year's
• 45:55
  Eve parties were at hotels and different things
• 45:59
  can happen. It's nice that we're just alcohol.
• 46:02
  Yeah, there's a lot of alcohol. I remember playing
• 46:04
  at down in Holiday Inn off of 94 and White Bear
• 46:08
  Avenue area down there. Yeah. And some people
• 46:11
  got, were a little intoxicated knocked over our
• 46:14
  PA system. and damaged some stuff. And then what
• 46:18
  happened is we only had like, we had to go through
• 46:22
  the amplifiers of the guitar players and that
• 46:25
  stuff to have a PA. There's been times where,
• 46:30
  you know, one of our favorite places playing
• 46:33
  is John Murzyn Hall in the Field House. And
• 46:36
  we played hundreds of gigs down there, you know,
• 46:39
  the Athletic Club or the Lions Club and so forth.
• 46:42
  But I remember playing, and then in the middle
• 46:44
  of a song, all of a sudden, people in the dance
• 46:46
  floor are spreading apart. And we had to stop
• 46:49
  the music because we couldn't figure out what
• 46:51
  was going on. And there on the dance floor was
• 46:53
  a guy writhing in pain. And what he had done,
• 46:56
  and we don't know if he got caught on a child
• 46:57
  or whatever, he fell and he had a compound fracture
• 47:01
  sticking out his leg. And that kind of slowed
• 47:04
  things down. We had to take a little bit of a
• 47:06
  break there. But we've had things where we've...
• 47:08
  The, you know, you always have someone that's a
• 47:11
  little intoxicated a groom will jump on a table
• 47:13
  and fall off and, and, or in what there are the
• 47:17
  times there were fun times because we'd have
• 47:19
  the bride and the groom come on stage and they'd
• 47:21
  sing with the band or if the sometimes we have
• 47:23
  the father sing a song to the bride and so there
• 47:27
  are a lot of wonderful, wonderful, uh, times that
• 47:30
  we remember during that and um we just we're
• 47:34
  just so lucky I, I just think the, the most fun
• 47:39
  we had was playing either at, like, Murzyn
• 47:41
  Hall, or sometimes my brother would put things
• 47:44
  on at the old Fridley Knights of Columbus Hall
• 47:47
  where we'd have... Oh, it's 65 there. Yeah, we'd
• 47:50
  call it Tkach Hall parties, and we would invite
• 47:52
  family and friends, and we'd have two, three
• 47:54
  hundred people there. And that's the one thing
• 47:56
  we always liked about the... the Lions Club.
• 47:59
  We didn't have to worry about renting a hall
• 48:01
  or doing anything. They handled all the serving,
• 48:04
  they handled the door and everything like that,
• 48:06
  and they just pay us a flat rate. And so every
• 48:09
  year we'd love playing that job and people would
• 48:12
  come down. As a matter of fact, one year later,
• 48:16
  like our 45th Class reunion was in the afternoon
• 48:20
  Before, and we invited people to stay and play
• 48:23
  and you have a dance So they came in we had Tasty
• 48:26
  Pizza. Anyone hear of Tasty Pizza? chicken wings
• 48:31
  and all that, so they served all that, plus we
• 48:34
  had cakes and stuff like that and they just went
• 48:36
  right into the dance, so it was. I think I was
• 48:38
  at that one. You could have been. Yeah, I was,
• 48:41
  Well, Dave is in your class, and I went with him,
• 48:43
  and I remember I saw a lot of people from your
• 48:46
  class, which is great because otherwise I don't
• 48:48
  really see them that often. But to see them was
• 48:49
  fun. And then there was, then you guys played
• 48:52
  that night. And I remember seeing people from
• 48:54
  Columbia Heights and around that were just there
• 48:55
  for the dance. It was kind of a two-in-one thing,
• 48:58
  you know, a reunion. And yeah, I remember that.
• 49:00
  Yeah, we, we, I think the key for us was that we
• 49:04
  really enjoyed playing and we really wanted to
• 49:08
  focus on entertaining and getting our friends
• 49:10
  and our families together because that was the
• 49:13
  key for us. As we got older too, we started to,
• 49:17
  we played less, but then we also wanted to cut
• 49:20
  down on the time we played. Sure. It went from
• 49:22
  a four-hour gig, you know, the 9:00 to1:00 type
• 49:25
  stuff. And we started playing, you know, 9:00
• 49:27
  to 12:00 or 8:00 to11:00. Because as you're getting
• 49:30
  older, that equipment is still pretty heavy.
• 49:33
  It's not like today where you, you know, the
• 49:36
  PAs are different. Well, I've noticed as boomers,
• 49:40
  you know, as we're getting older, even some of
• 49:41
  the acts. I can't remember specifically who it was,
• 49:45
  but instead of starting a concert, say, at nine
• 49:47
  o'clock, they're starting at seven o'clock
• 49:49
  because they know their audience probably is
• 49:51
  tired up by nine or ten. They want to get home,
• 49:53
  go to bed and they're not going to stay up till
• 49:54
  one in the morning. Yeah. And then it's so true.
• 49:57
  And then the people that do stick around, you
• 49:59
  know, they used to do what they used to do sometimes
• 50:01
  at the weddings that we played for. They knew
• 50:03
  we were done at 11:00, but they were in a hotel
• 50:05
  or they went someplace where they had more entertainment
• 50:08
  so they could continue the party. Or in that
• 50:11
  hall, they bring the DJ or something like that.
• 50:14
  So we could get down and yet they can still dance
• 50:17
  if they wanted. Yeah, because the DJ doesn't
• 50:19
  take as much room up and that stuff and they
• 50:21
  could set up on the corner of the hall and move
• 50:22
  in later and so forth. So we just kind of went
• 50:25
  with the flow on those things. The Tkach Band
• 50:27
  is officially retired. Do you ever talk about
• 50:29
  doing a one-off thing every now and then? People
• 50:32
  have asked us to do that, but right now, it's
• 50:34
  a little bit harder to do. Yeah, it's kind of
• 50:38
  crossed my mind a little, but right now because
• 50:40
  I'm going out and I'm listening to, you know,
• 50:42
  in Anoka, what's nice about it is they have, and
• 50:45
  in Char Blu, which is across the river, they
• 50:47
  have entertainment two nights a week. So Anoka
• 50:50
  has a band concert in the park every Wednesday
• 50:53
  night and Char Blu has a, at their event center,
• 50:56
  has a, a band playing on Thursday night. So we'd
• 50:59
  go out and hear them and these are, and they're
• 51:00
  playing our music or hey that where you guys
• 51:02
  used to play that one, you know, and you hear some
• 51:03
  fun bands. But the hard part about it is my brother
• 51:07
  Dan who we can't play without Dan because he's
• 51:10
  the lead singer and he was a bass player so that
• 51:13
  that's essential. But all the other band members
• 51:15
  we can get my brother Tim did pass away, but we
• 51:20
  had other guitar player we know that we could
• 51:22
  come in and play it's just a matter. Could we
• 51:26
  do it because one, we'd have to have probably
• 51:29
  one rehearsal and two, we'd have to probably
• 51:30
  just do a real limited, maybe two-hour gig or
• 51:33
  something like that. And I don't know where we
• 51:35
  would do that. And, or, you know, I thought about
• 51:38
  it. I said, oh, you know, if the Lions Club did
• 51:39
  something or if I, I know other musicians and
• 51:43
  if they wanted to split a night, then you could
• 51:45
  say, Hey, let's see. We'll do the eight and the
• 51:48
  ten o'clock set. You do the nine and the eleven o’clock,
• 51:51
  something like that. Then we could do
• 51:53
  it because that way, see, the other hard part
• 51:57
  about that is, one, we'd have to get together
• 51:59
  and rehearse, but two, we don't have PA equipment
• 52:01
  anymore. So if the other band was playing, then
• 52:03
  we could get it, or we'd have to hire a guy.
• 52:05
  And we know guys that do PAs, but we just have
• 52:09
  to figure it out. But right now, there is nothing
• 52:11
  involved that I can think of. It's just kind
• 52:14
  of floating around in the back of my head there.
• 52:16
  It would be fun because I think I really believe
• 52:19
  that if we were to put something together, and
• 52:23
  then promote it appropriately, we probably still
• 52:25
  could get two, three hundred people to come.
• 52:28
  I have no doubt, and depending on where it is,
• 52:30
  if it's down in Heights, Murzyn Hall or something
• 52:32
  like that, no question that that would happen.
• 52:35
  Well, never say never. That's right, never say
• 52:37
  never. Okay, on to your “Community Involvement,”
• 52:44
  Dennis. I mentioned at the outset of this episode
• 52:47
  how hard you've worked over the years to get
• 52:48
  your class of 72 classmates together, using things
• 52:52
  like Facebook updates, which I see all the time.
• 52:54
  And then you're organizing reunions and some
• 52:56
  of the more informal get togethers too, which
• 52:58
  I think is a great idea. But what are some of
• 53:01
  the challenges that you face in trying to keep
• 53:04
  people, I guess, connected to one another? Well,
• 53:07
  I think one of the challenges for me is that
• 53:11
  how do you connect with them? I mean, we use
• 53:13
  Facebook. But I don't, and then Duane Kuss is
• 53:17
  involved in the reunions. Duane is from your
• 53:19
  class as well. Duane is, yeah. And what he does
• 53:22
  is I, you know, if I say like this one coming
• 53:25
  up on the 5th of October, I will send Duane
• 53:29
  the information and he has a contact list. and
• 53:34
  he sends that out on the, and I don't, like, he
• 53:36
  might do it on Facebook, but he also has an email
• 53:39
  account that he sends it on and so forth, and
• 53:41
  then I have a special email address where I have
• 53:44
  specific people that I know that are not involved
• 53:47
  with the school stuff or on Facebook and things
• 53:51
  like that, so that's the way we try to get the
• 53:53
  information on, but the hardest part is that we
• 53:55
  also, you know, when you grew up or you go to
• 53:58
  school in Heights or any school, you have groups
• 54:00
  of friends. And the key is to, for me, is to
• 54:05
  contact the right people. Let's like this group,
• 54:10
  say there was like a group of, I call them, they're
• 54:12
  from Central Junior High, Deb Novak, Mary [Burns?],
• 54:17
  Sue Syverson, and that's a group. But I want
• 54:21
  to always contact and give them information because
• 54:24
  they can spread it to their friends. Or I do
• 54:26
  it with maybe a Charlie Shear, who has a different
• 54:29
  group of friends, or a Jeff Ritzko or something
• 54:33
  of that nature. So I try to, what I try to do
• 54:35
  is connect with them and hope that they just
• 54:38
  say, get it out to them. Just pass it on because
• 54:41
  that's the key thing because everyone's going
• 54:44
  their separate ways. And then the other hard
• 54:46
  part is that some people, one, you can't contact
• 54:48
  them or two, maybe they're not as interested
• 54:51
  Anymore. Right. Because they, the high school wasn't
• 54:54
  their best time, and, and I think part of it is
• 54:58
  and I, and, and I understand if you don't want
• 55:00
  to participate and others, I invite them to participate
• 55:04
  because what, who Dennis Tkach was, was back
• 55:07
  in 1972 is not the same guy in 2026. And we can
• 55:11
  see over the years how all of these people have
• 55:14
  kind of melded together and they're, they're
• 55:17
  just friends. And they, and what's so much fun
• 55:19
  about the reunions and the minireunions, especially
• 55:21
  the minireunions, because I try to coordinate
• 55:24
  those two to three times a year where we just
• 55:27
  sit down, we laugh. We talk about the past. We
• 55:30
  see how we, each other, are doing. We help each
• 55:33
  other out. So if someone's ill, someone's facing
• 55:36
  really a health challenge, we can help them.
• 55:39
  People will send them cards. They'll get them
• 55:41
  food. They'll do things like that. And I think...
• 55:43
  That's the key for the community is that we continue
• 55:46
  those relationships. We continue to support each
• 55:49
  other. And they don't have to be from our class.
• 55:51
  I mean, take, take, for instance, Marv Eckman
• 55:54
  has a walking group that walks on Tuesdays and
• 55:57
  Fridays at the Bunker Hills. A lot of them from
• 55:59
  my class. Yeah. And they'll come and that's got
• 56:01
  two to three at least years of Heights people
• 56:04
  that walk up there. Right. And they support each
• 56:06
  other. And that's, that's their objective, one,
• 56:09
  to get the exercise in, and two, to help each
• 56:12
  other out or talk about what's going on and give
• 56:14
  each other help. So, and I think that's the key
• 56:17
  for me. And that's, and that's one of the reasons
• 56:18
  that motivates me to continue to keep in touch
• 56:21
  with these people. And because I just think it's
• 56:23
  helpful. And I think it's, like you say, it's
• 56:26
  giving back to the community. And that's what
• 56:28
  I want to do now, because it's kind of like a,
• 56:31
  almost a little bit like a legacy, but I think
• 56:34
  what it is, is it helps you to keep, to keep
• 56:37
  your roots, keep your understanding of how important
• 56:40
  it is to help each other out and to make someone
• 56:42
  else's life a little bit easier. Because all
• 56:45
  I know is I've been kind of lucky. I've been
• 56:48
  married, like you mentioned, 40-some years.
• 56:50
  My health is in pretty good shape. I mean, I
• 56:52
  have challenges like anyone else. But as long
• 56:56
  as you continue to keep in touch, I mean, like,
• 56:58
  your brother Dave, I always try to keep him in
• 57:00
  touch, especially in the summer, because I always
• 57:03
  try to sneak him out on the golf course. And
• 57:06
  in that way he comes out there and we had a great
• 57:08
  time when he was out, he played in the last month
• 57:11
  and we had lunch after. We do what we call dine
• 57:13
  and nine, or nine and dining. And then we had
• 57:18
  lunch and we sat around the table and we talked
• 57:20
  about all these different things going on and
• 57:22
  he would share contacts from people he was in
• 57:25
  touch or shares memories that, oh yeah, I remember
• 57:27
  that and how much fun that was. And I think that's
• 57:30
  the part that's fun and so forth. Well, I think
• 57:33
  it's great the time and the energy that you've
• 57:35
  invested to give your classmates a chance to
• 57:38
  keep in touch over the years. So kudos to you
• 57:40
  on that. Thank you. All right, Dennis, I want
• 57:50
  to share with you a couple-three memories
• 57:53
  of you and I and see if you remember these now,
• 57:55
  because we're going back a long way here. The
• 57:57
  first memory I want to share happened in the
• 57:59
  fall of 1972, okay? We were both at A-R, Anoka-
• 58:02
  Ramsey. You were a freshman. I was in my second
• 58:04
  year there. We both happened to be taking a speech
• 58:07
  class from the same teacher's name is Greg LaPanta.
• 58:10
  We weren't in the same period, but we had the
• 58:11
  same class. And I remember that we had to do
• 58:14
  what was called a demonstration speech or a “how-
• 58:16
  -to speech. And I'm gonna set it up for our listeners.
• 58:19
  We both... had the same idea we were going to
• 58:21
  show people how to shave in the morning how we
• 58:24
  shaved so what you got to do is you get a, you
• 58:27
  bring in a razor, maybe a little warm pail of
• 58:30
  Water, and some shaving cream. I did mine and you
• 58:33
  did yours, I guess. I can say the reason, the benefit
• 58:36
  of a how-to speech is everybody knows basically
• 58:40
  how people shave, but the idea was to give a speech
• 58:42
  where you're using your props. You got your razor
• 58:45
  blade and your shave cream and your warm water
• 58:48
  or whatever, and it kind of helps maybe provide
• 58:51
  a natural outlet for your, your nervous energy.
• 58:54
  Maybe you reduce your anxiety because you're
• 58:55
  moving your hands. You're not just standing there.
• 58:57
  And then for the teacher and for the class, it's
• 59:00
  fun for them because they're not just listening
• 59:01
  to you talk. They're seeing you, they get more
• 59:03
  Involved, they get your attention. So anyway, we
• 59:05
  did it. but I remember Mr. LaPanta had told our
• 59:10
  class, probably a couple days later, he said that
• 59:13
  he had a student that, that showed people how
• 59:15
  he shaved, but during the shave, he cut himself
• 59:19
  talking and explaining when you see a little
• 59:22
  bit of blood where it was, like, on your chin? Yeah,
• 59:25
  what, what happens in the demonstration speeches?
• 59:28
  You did everything up and then one of the key
• 59:30
  things is when you're talking they always want
• 59:32
  you to look up at your, your audience. So unfortunately,
• 59:36
  when I was raising my head to look up, I was
• 59:38
  also cutting my face at the same time. So I had
• 59:42
  the cream on my face. I think I cut myself twice.
• 59:45
  Because what happened is the foam was there and
• 59:47
  it was turning red from the blood. And then there
• 59:50
  was one under, on my chin, it was turning red.
• 59:52
  And you could just see some of the girls in the
• 59:54
  front row getting a little queasy and stuff.
• 59:57
  But I did finish the shaving. Yeah, and I did
• 1:00:01
  indicate them that you know that there is always
• 1:00:03
  Hazards, and you have to have like a little, you
• 1:00:05
  know, toilet paper to kind of dab on there. But
• 1:00:08
  I did that and then I can't remember what I got,
• 1:00:10
  but I remember I'd never want to do it again.
• 1:00:13
  Yeah, that was an interesting, memorable time,
• 1:00:17
  I remember. Okay, the second memory I want to
• 1:00:19
  share with you is something happened I think
• 1:00:21
  during our college years as well. You had invited
• 1:00:23
  my brother Dave and I and then some other guys
• 1:00:25
  in the Heights to play basketball in that gym
• 1:00:28
  across the street from St. Mary's Orthodox Cathedral.
• 1:00:31
  Yes. Right in the corner there on the 17th and
• 1:00:33
  5th, I think. That's correct. Was that part of
• 1:00:34
  like a... parish center or something? Yeah, that
• 1:00:38
  was their parish. St. Mary's Orthodox Church
• 1:00:40
  is on the corner. The Sunday School building
• 1:00:43
  and as part of that, and a nice large gymnasium
• 1:00:46
  in there with a big basketball court. So Sunday
• 1:00:49
  nights or whatever, you could open it up and
• 1:00:51
  you could just come on in there and just play.
• 1:00:53
  I think I only did it once, but I remember I
• 1:00:55
  was just so surprised because I had no idea that
• 1:00:57
  that even existed down there. That's a really
• 1:01:00
  nice facility. So if I just remember playing
• 1:01:02
  basketball at night, I don't know who else, what
• 1:01:04
  other heights guys were, maybe Mark Kalata
• 1:01:06
  was there, too. I don't remember, but I just remember
• 1:01:08
  it was fun. Wow, it's a great place. They still
• 1:01:13
  use it for those kind of events. Yeah. We played
• 1:01:16
  floor hockey in there. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's very
• 1:01:18
  nice to have that. And then the third memory,
• 1:01:20
  this was a fun one too. You and I went to see
• 1:01:23
  a Viking preseason football game at the late,
• 1:01:25
  great Met Stadium. It was a nice warm summer
• 1:01:28
  night, late August (1973). And Dave and I had the tickets.
• 1:01:33
  But he wasn't able to go that night. And just
• 1:01:35
  for the sake of our listeners, Met Stadium, where
• 1:01:37
  it was, it's now the Mall of America. And literally
• 1:01:41
  that stadium is where the Nickelodeon Amusement
• 1:01:44
  Park is now, that area. So anyway, we went to
• 1:01:46
  that game. We had seats in the end zone. That's
• 1:01:50
  where our season tickets were. But it was a nice
• 1:01:51
  night. And it was great because they were playing
• 1:01:55
  the Miami Dolphins, who the year before had won
• 1:01:58
  the Super Bowl. In fact, they went undefeated
• 1:02:00
  17-0. And they actually had won. had played
• 1:02:04
  22 games without a loss. So they had a long,
• 1:02:07
  unbeaten streak going. And what was great about
• 1:02:09
  this game was the Vikings came back to win. It
• 1:02:13
  was the end of winning 20 to 17. I'll just set
• 1:02:16
  up what happened in the game. I'm going to throw
• 1:02:17
  out some names that people remember. Well, you
• 1:02:19
  remember who our quarterback was back then. Was
• 1:02:21
  that Francis? Fran Tarkenton, yep. He led a fourth quarter comeback
• 1:02:25
  from a 17 to 3 deficit. He threw fourth quarter
• 1:02:28
  touchdown passes of 16 yards to running back
• 1:02:31
  Ed Marinaro, who went on to become an actor in
• 1:02:34
  Hill Street Blues, I remember. And then a 14-yard
• 1:02:36
  pass to a wide receiver named John Gilliam. And
• 1:02:39
  then what set up the win was a linebacker for
• 1:02:43
  the Vikings named Jeff Siemon. He had recovered
• 1:02:45
  a fumble, a Miami fumble, at the 37-yard line, the
• 1:02:49
  Vikings 37-yard line. They moved it down the
• 1:02:51
  field. And then on the final play of the game,
• 1:02:53
  kicker Fred Cox, he kicked a 25-yard game-winning
• 1:02:57
  field goal. So they won 20-17 and we're all ecstatic
• 1:03:00
  that that happened. And I just remember the crowd
• 1:03:03
  was just really fired up. And what amazed me
• 1:03:06
  about that game was it was a preseason game.
• 1:03:09
  It was intense. But they played it like it was
• 1:03:11
  a Super Bowl. I mean it was a big deal. Well,
• 1:03:13
  Miami was unbeaten anyway and just the Super
• 1:03:15
  Bowl champs. But I remember that game was as
• 1:03:18
  exciting as a regular season game. And now it's
• 1:03:20
  so funny because during the preseason now, a lot
• 1:03:23
  of times, they don't even play the starters.
• 1:03:25
  This is a chance for reserves to maybe catch
• 1:03:27
  on with the team. They only played three games,
• 1:03:30
  they played five back then. You remember the
• 1:03:34
  atmosphere? It was like a playoff game. It was
• 1:03:36
  just a really big deal. So it was a warm night
• 1:03:39
  and then we were in the end zone. Beautiful game.
• 1:03:42
  So anyway, I just wanted to share these memories.
• 1:03:44
  Like I said, the shaving demonstrations, playing
• 1:03:48
  basketball at your church's gymnasium there and
• 1:03:51
  then the Viking preseason. Yeah, remember the
• 1:03:53
  other thing we used to do is, the three of us,
• 1:03:55
  Dave, you and I, would drive together. I remember
• 1:03:57
  we'd alternate our weeks and then we'd drive
• 1:04:00
  up to A-R together. So we used to laugh in the
• 1:04:03
  car and talk. Oh yeah, listen to the radio, all
• 1:04:05
  the songs. I remember Steely Dan's “Do It Again”
• 1:04:08
  song. I'd hear that, like, every day. You know,
• 1:04:10
  I just remember that song driving up to A-R back
• 1:04:13
  then. Well, Dennis, we focused on you growing
• 1:04:20
  up in the Heights—your “wonder years,” if you
• 1:04:22
  Will; your high school and college years; your
• 1:04:25
  time with the Tkach Band; and your ongoing work to
• 1:04:28
  help classmates from the Class of 72 to keep
• 1:04:30
  in touch with each other. So I've got one final
• 1:04:33
  question for you, kind of a symbiotic connection
• 1:04:36
  if there is. How did your decades of playing
• 1:04:39
  in the Tkach Band, you know, across the Twin
• 1:04:41
  Cities and western Wisconsin, wherever you played,
• 1:04:44
  help you become an effective advocate or community
• 1:04:47
  connector for the Heights Class of 72? And then
• 1:04:50
  maybe flip that around. How did your lifelong
• 1:04:52
  connection to people from the Class of 72 help
• 1:04:55
  support you and the Tkach Band over the years?
• 1:04:58
  I think the key thing is, is that my skill set
• 1:05:02
  was being an organizer behind the scene. So for
• 1:05:05
  me, like with the band, I always organized the
• 1:05:08
  band and created everything. I was the manager
• 1:05:10
  and stuff like that. And that folded into the
• 1:05:13
  same thing with our class reunion. Originally
• 1:05:16
  I wasn't involved with the class reunions, but
• 1:05:18
  then after about the... ten-year (reunion) or something, I
• 1:05:21
  thought I'd like to get more involved because
• 1:05:23
  I wanted to kind of change a few things, so that's
• 1:05:25
  when I started getting involved, but I also enjoyed
• 1:05:28
  working, or I had a lot of classmates I like to
• 1:05:32
  keep in contact with, so again, the organization
• 1:05:35
  with the class reunions gave me access to how
• 1:05:39
  I could connect, or continue to connect, with my
• 1:05:41
  classmates so I saw that as working both ways,
• 1:05:44
  That, one, I could use my skill sets of organizing
• 1:05:48
  and not being afraid to get people together.
• 1:05:51
  And then the band thing was I had no problems
• 1:05:54
  talking to people because I was on stage, I was
• 1:05:57
  one of the masters of ceremonies. So it was easy
• 1:06:01
  to cross either way, be it to organize it behind
• 1:06:04
  the scene or being in front of the group and
• 1:06:07
  organizing or talking there. So I think it was
• 1:06:10
  just, it was just in my, you know, my little
• 1:06:15
  bailiwick of area of skill sets that I could
• 1:06:17
  do these things. And it helped me. It just, it
• 1:06:21
  just helped me keep in perspective what's important
• 1:06:23
  to me, what I felt growing up. You know, my culture
• 1:06:25
  was family, was friends. You kept that going
• 1:06:28
  and you respected them and you didn't have to
• 1:06:32
  agree. There wasn't any problem with disagreeing
• 1:06:34
  or anything like that, but you respected these
• 1:06:37
  person's position. You helped them when you could
• 1:06:39
  and you were always kind. That was the key for
• 1:06:42
  me. I think that's the key always for me and
• 1:06:46
  for the people I work around with is that we
• 1:06:49
  always are kind, and we're trying to be as tolerant
• 1:06:51
  and non-judgmental. And that always just was
• 1:06:54
  kind of the magic little formula to keep things
• 1:06:58
  going. Well said, Dennis. Well said. Well, this
• 1:07:02
  has been a blast, at least for me. Yeah, thank
• 1:07:04
  you for this opportunity. It's good to get together
• 1:07:06
  with you. And I'm glad you were able to make
• 1:07:08
  time to do this. So it's fun sharing old memories
• 1:07:11
  and getting your perspective on a lot of different
• 1:07:13
  things. So thanks again, Dennis. Thank you, Bob.
• 1:07:19
  And again, to our listeners, thanks for hangin’
• 1:07:21
  out with me, Bob Edholm, and my guest, Dennis
• 1:07:23
  Tkach. We hope you’ll join us for the next episode
• 1:07:26
  of “Hangin’ Out with Bob,” wherever you listen to
• 1:07:28
  your podcasts. And until then, bye-eee!