Apache Plaza – Valerie's Voice

My childhood friend and I have exchanged the same birthday card since 1979. I know I’ll hear from her in March, and a card exchange at Christmas, but only occasionally during the rest of the year.

So, when I saw a text come through from her last week I was delighted, but curious as to what she had to say. She told me about a new luxury apartment complex that was built in St. Anthony, Minnesota.

I don’t have many photos of the house where I grew up. My dad built the house in 1953, the year I was born.

The back story is my mother, Ruby, lived in the house my dad built, the house where I grew up in NE Minneapolis, for several years after my father passed away. Eventually she moved in to a townhouse, not more than a mile away from the house. It was newly-built, and well-built, small complex of townhomes, and a wonderful place for her to live for the next 20 years. After the townhouse, she moved into a senior apartment complex and enjoyed a few years there before she died in 2009.

For twenty years we would visit my mother at her townhouse in St. Anthony, across from the old Apache Plaza Mall, which is no longer standing. Office units and strip malls with a big grocery store took over the space.

Diane, my friend, texted to tell me about a new luxury apartment building that was built in that space across the street from where my mother lived in the townhouse. And she went on to write, “I thought you’d like the name…The Ruby Apartments!”

The photo Diane sent me of the brochure for The Ruby Aparments.

What fun! It made me smile.

And I like the logo…the capitol R in Ruby has a rectangular ruby stone as part of the letter.

A few weeks ago, a friend dropped off a gift for my birthday. It was a bag of Turkish Delight. I have been reading the Chronicles of Narnia so I’m not sure if that is what prompted the idea for the gift. In the book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Edward is enticed to go with the wicked White Witch because she offers him Turkish Delight, which he cannot resist.

I had never tasted Turkish Delight before. It’s good… sugar-covered nougat with pistachios. My train of thought from tasting the candy was as follows: it started with the gift, to the book series I’m reading, to nougat candy, to candy stores, to Apache Plaza where my friend Diane and I would go to the Fanny Farmer candy store and buy a quarter’s worth of almond bark! What a crazy thought pattern.

I grew up in northeast Minneapolis, in a wonderful neighborhood filled with a lot of kids to play together. My two best friends lived across the street: Donna & Diane. A few blocks away, past a section of woods where we would often play, then across a couple busy streets, Apache Plaza was built, in 1961. It was the second enclosed mall in Minnesota, Southdale Center being the first.

Our moms would let us girls walk up to Apache Plaza together (neighborhoods were safer back then). I remember the layout of Apache well. We usually entered through Murphy’s Department Store. After looking at all the trinkets we’d go into the plaza and walk around. JCPenney’s was an anchor store, as was Montgomery Ward.

In addition to buying a quarter’s worth of almond bark at Fanny Farmer, we would sometimes go to the soda fountain at Woolworth’s and order a coke and French fries (I’d like to do that again!) I bought records (45’s or albums) at Musicland and spent hours in Minnesota Fabrics looking at sewing patterns and fabric. There was Brown’s Photo where our family had film developed, a pet shop we always walked around in to see the animals, and downstairs was a bowling alley. Apache Plaza was damaged by a tornado in 1984 and demolished in 2004.

The Turkish Delight was a delightful, simple gift given, that brought back such fun and crazy memories, especially a quarter’s work of almond bark!