On the corner where the old southside neighborhood’s angled streets meet the squared off south end of downtown, there is a convenience store that may be one of the most diverse places in the city.  Although the university at large represents a number of nationalities and backgrounds, the focal point that is this store is most interesting. 

Right across the street is the homeless shelter; the police station is one block north entering downtown; 3 churches are on the same block, 2 of which face the parking lot; the large downtown high school, Grand Forks Central, is about 3 blocks away, many downtown businesses are closeby,and there are numerous law offices around the courthouse to the northeast.   In the late afternoon, this corner is filled with students, people from the shelter (many of whom have come to North Dakota from points around the country looking for work), businesspersons closing out their day, police officers getting coffee, and people from the neighborhood, like me, out for a walk or maybe to grab a simple grocery item.  Most everyone smiles, someone holds the door for me, and stories are shared as we all make our way. 

As I start walking the block or so to my house in the historic neighborhood,  I’m thinking of the nearby Forks of the Red and Red Lake Rivers, another more ancient junction near here, as a gathering place also in the near southside.  I’m thinking that then, like now, many different stories have lead here; some tragic, some hopeful, some more routine, yet all richly human in our passage.