Happy Birthday, Dad!

It's my dad's birthday today.

I inherited Dad's love of writing and speaking; Dad - Bruce Berg - has a couple of books out, including "Common Ground", the story of Jamestown's venerable baseball park. He's actually had a much longer radio career than I have; for twenty-plus years, he's done weekly editorials at KDSU, the NoDak Public Radio station in Fargo, plus regular columns for the Jamestown Sun and the Bismark Tribune.

I did not inherit my sense of place from him, of course; I left Jamestown, ND as fast as I could after college. But Dad has cut an amazing swathe through that town; pretty much everyone from Jamestown has either had him in class, or their parents or kids did. Or both (although I'm not sure if he ever had any three-generation families). And with very few exceptions, most of them say Dad was the best teacher they ever had. Much as it pained me to say it as a teenager, I'd agree; I learned more of use in the three semesters I had with him (American Lit, Writing III and Speech) than nearly any other class in high school or college. And Dad is one of the people who make smaller towns such good places for everyone who does live there; he's been for the past thirty-odd years a leader in creating a thriving cultural scene - writing and producing plays and twenty-odd years of the annual "Comedy Night", and much, much more - which helps belie the notion that small towns in flyover land are cultural wastelands.

Funny story: In 1986, I was working at KSTP-AM. We were doing this gawdawful game show, a trivia contest from a bar in Bloomington. During a break, two guys walked up to the host. "Is this 'Mitch Berg' guy any relation to a Bruce Berg that taught high school English in Rugby, North Dakota (the town I was born in) in 1960?" The host didn't know, and called the studio. Yep, same guy...

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Dad! I'll call this evening.

And if you're a former student of Dad's - hey, would it kill you to call and wish him a happy birthday? Huh?