Sunday, August 3, 2025, 5:45 p.m.
West 7th’s C.S.P.S. Hall was emptied out. Lights down, chairs and tables folded and put away.
The band was packing instruments and coiling microphone cables. The beautiful 140 year-old wood floor was being swept, polished.
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I just returned from outside Carl “Mr. Positive’s” St. Clair home. He is six months gone from the West 7th speck on the old earth ball.
His house is empty. There is a huge boxcar-size dumpster alongside his curb. Bright, canary yellow. Industrial. 10 feet deep, clean, shiney. You would need sunglasses to hold any gaze upon it.
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West seventh All-Star cab driver, William “Texan” Dubois is a happy man. Ever-wise, calm, alert and ready. Knows who he is and what he is doing.
Tex is happy… I’m pretty sure.
I asked Tex once if he was and he said, “You bet” and then he laughed hard. “I’m 64 years old, still standing, working. My elimination functions are under control. No debts. Nothing to run from.”
OK, good.
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I still grieve Mr. Positive, R.I.P. 12-18-25. Carl Lambert Bentson. Age 62.
I’ve driven or walked by his house most every day for 30 years to the clinic or West 7th. Both ways. 20,000 times I figure. Really.
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I asked real estate sale guru-friend Steve Sprafka if he had any famous clients or notable sales recently.
“Eric Clapton bought two 1969 Fender twin reverb amps last year. He calls me sometimes.”
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Ancker Hospital was St. Paul‘s “City Hospital.” Started in 1874 in the donated mansion of Dr. Jacob B. Stewart (Civil War hero, Stewart Avenue). It was built for the poor and various lost souls of the city. In 1883 the famed and feared Dr. Arthur B Ancker took over as hospital superintendent. He was city hospital 24/7 for the next 46 years.
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