Bound to the Earth

The odometer on Carl’s bike reads 7,000 miles. His old bike finally wore out when it got to 76,000 miles. The bearings, shifters, and gears all gave out and it was time to get a new ride. His current model is a big bike, a Schwinn Worksman industrial tricycle, the heaviest duty model. He ordered it from a catalog at Boehm’s bike shop on Selby Avenue. It’s the kind of big tricycle that mechanics at large industrial plants and aircraft hangers use, with a platform behind the seat to move toolboxes around the workplace. Carl has customized his for comfort and safety. In addition to the 20 lights, there are more than 40 reflectors, a windshield, radio, three fans, four mirrors, weather gauges, and a canopy made by a shop that works on convertible car tops. There are bumper stickers, including a green Wellstone sticker. “He’s for the little guy,” Carl remarked before the fatal plane crash. Carl turns on some of the lights even on the brightest days, including the light on his helmet, and wears reflective clothing.

Minnesota winters only slow him down a little. He bikes wearing orange coveralls and two hats. It’s his means of transportation and he’s proud of it. Carl rides slowly compared to the Lycra-clad cycling crowd he frequently encounters on the road. But as any long-distance cyclist can tell you, it’s all about maintaining a steady pace and Carl is rock-steady, averaging 8-10 miles an hour. When he’s in a hurry, he can get up to about 20 mph. Carl uses the storage bin behind the seat to hold spare clothes, batteries, maps, tools, a snow shovel, first aid kit, groceries, and other items. Going down hills with all that weight behind him, Carl can get the trike up to 50 mph.

One place Carl likes to ride is to Woodbury, to see his “grandma,” Vashti Risdall. Vashti doesn’t recognize Carl when he enters her room at the nursing home, even though she raised him like her own child. She can’t see well and asks who it is. She spends a lot of her time listening to the radio with headphones on. Vashti just turned 100 years old. (“Don’t ever wish to live to be one hundred,” she says.) She looks frail, but radiates a palpable aura. Her own life is a tale of great giving: At her home in St. Paul, she and her late husband took in more than 160 foster children, including Carl when he was four years old. Carl’s biological parents in southern Minnesota had given him up to a state hospital, and when the facility closed, Vashti took Carl in. He stayed for 23 years.

Carl is big on cleaning and picking up. It’s
a personal as well as a professional calling. He is a janitor in the same St. Paul school from which he graduated in 1984, the Bridgeview School near the old Schmidt brewery. He began working at the school immediately after graduation, and has been there ever since. The school principal, Bill Burrington, recalls that on Carl’s first day on the job he was given the task of raking leaves, and a short while later was spotted outside shaking trees so he could rake the leaves that hadn’t yet fallen. Given the job of picking up trash on the school grounds, Carl would continue down the nearby railroad tracks until called back.

This diligence continues today in his neighborhood. Carl owns his own home, and he’s not only self-reliant and self-sufficient, he helps others maintain their property too. He was honored with a Community Service Award several years ago for all the work he’s done for the West Seventh Street neighborhood. He’s been hired by 18 homeowners to mow lawns, do yard maintenance, and blow snow.

Visiting Carl at home is like going down the rabbit hole into wonderland. There are strings of holiday lights that Carl leaves up year around, and rarely turns off. In the window is an American flag made of lights, and decorative lights around the door and windows. At any one time, there are lights and decorations celebrating numerous holidays. And there are hundreds of plastic flowers inside and outside the house. In his kitchen and dining room, Carl keeps the tables set with dinnerware at all times, as if he’s expecting a party of 20 to come through the door at any moment. On the walls are pictures of the automobiles he loves, mostly of the classic cars of the 50s and 60s. And everywhere, lights.

Some of that light is now reflecting back on Carl, in the form of klieg lights. Documentary filmmaker Mike Hazard is working on a film about Carl, with help from Ken Burns. The working title of the film is “Mr. Positive.”


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