Under the Awning Book Signing
Jim Studer - September 14, 2025
Jim Studer's journey began in St. Cloud, Minnesota, in 1944. He passed through St. Paul's Elementary, St. Cloud Cathedral, and St. Cloud State College, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Language Arts. Later, he earned a Masters in Speech Communication at the University of Minnesota. Teaching stops along the road were in Albany and Maple Lake, Minnesota. Then it was onto Escola Maria Immaculada in São Paulo, Brazil, punctuated with a seventeen year stop at St. Anthony Village High in the Twin Cities. Jim has and is still coaching speech. In addition to coaching in his teaching stays, retirement found him as an assistant coach at Mounds Park Academy, St. Francis, Mounds View, and Blaine. He is approaching his forty-seventh year of coaching.
Jim Studer
A Reader’s Guide to Jim Studer’s Books
Two of the most common questions about my three books, The Road Taken, The Mystery of Tony the Goat, and Leah on a Leash, are: 1) What are they about? 2) Do you have any stories about ______? Fill in the blank yourself. Recently a woman asked if I had any baseball stories. She picked up The Road Taken and opened it to "Remembrance of Little League Past.” There are another five or six that have baseball in them or are entirely based on the game. “Boxcars and Beer” is an umpire story, “The Old Man Tells It Like It Was” is another baseball story, if you wonder if baseball is played in heaven, read the books.
World travel is the subject for many of my stories. Thirteen are set in or touch upon world travel. Some are travel logs; some are stories set in part or entirely outside of the United States. Travel to the Falkland Islands on to Machu Picchu and the Galápagos. Continue on for a look at Mount Everest by way of India and Kathmandu, Nepal. Keep your atlas handy.
Of course as a retired English/speech teacher and still an active speech coach, many of the stories are of the classroom. Read “The Pen,” “What to do with Astrid,” or “Jimmy.” Some of the stories are based on coaching speech or directing plays. Read about “Hog Hollow’s Delilah” or “All But a Broken Leg.”
Do you like old folgies? Six or seven entries feature old men or women. I wrote about fascinating elders I met as a kid or had read about, but never really got to know the story of who they really were. Those mysteries were solved by research or inventing their back stories; some have heartwarming endings; others end on a sad note. See “The Bench,” “The Mystery of Tony the Goat,” or “Gramps Strang.”
Some of the stories grew out of Minnesota folklore. Some of the yarns go back to the late 1800s and stretch into Prohibition and The Depression Era. Delve into “So Much to Pray For,” “Ancestry.Calm,” or “The Mystery of Tony the Goat.”
Are you interested in a twice removed dictator of Panama? How about a story about a nun that also has the earmark of another meaning of the word “nunnery?” Perhaps you want a poker player or a taxi driver? How about a story that takes place in a cemetery? “Cornucopia” features a dog named Digger. The story serves as a side show for classic automobiles, trucks and tractors.
Oh yes, if it is humor you need, read about a wacky woman in “The Road Warrior Bride.” Her wedding takes place in a Cadillac El Dorado convertible parked in a drive-in movie theater.
Come and visit with me.