Paperboy Memories

I was looking at a Wikipedia entry of my old high school, which noted some of its most famous alum. (Richard Dean Anderson and Loni Anderson for example.) I'm not there, yet...

Missing from the list was a classmate of mine, and, coincidentally, fellow Alexandria, MN native, Peter Krause. Peter was a terrific guy to have known in junior high and high school, and even work with for a while after high school at the old Har Mar Cinemas 11.

The Wiki entry was for Roseville Area High School. In fact, I and the three others above went to the former Alexander Ramsey High School, back when Roseville had two high schools, the other being Frank B. Kellogg.

Anyway, also missing was probably the most infamous graduate, Ming Sen Shiue, who kidnapped a former teacher of his, as well as her daughter. He also allegedly murdered a young boy, apparently because he had witnessed the kidnapping. A recollection from Shiue's attorney can be found here.

The two would escape from his Roseville home, which was on my paper route. On the afternoon of their escape, there were news reporters and cop cars around the house. This was back when St. Paul had both a morning and afternoon paper. He wasn't a subscriber.

I recall on a previous day, while hanging out at a nearby friend's house, Shiue and friends were running motorcycles (or maybe just one) very loudly. Other than that, at least in the days leading to the escape, the house seemed almost vacant. We would of course learn why.

Shortly after the incident, his mom moved into the house, and became a subscriber. She was a very sweet lady whom I felt very badly for.

Don McLean wrote the hit song "American Pie" about delivering papers with bad news about the Buddy Holly et al plane crash - "the day the music died." That afternoon jn Roseville was my Don McLean moment.

Perhaps someday I'll write a song about it. Or at least a boring blog entry. Wait...