T A K I N G………. L a n e s b o r o

About the Book

Taking Lanesboro _____________________________________________________________________________________ A look at the simpler side of Lanesboro based on true stories. Some names and some events have been changed. Port Jefferson is situated along the north shore of Long Island, New York and was a nice place to raise a family, my family. I was a content child living there with my four brothers, two sisters, our dogs, cats and monkeys. In 1974 my happy world was turned upside down when my big family and our pets moved from the shores of the east coast to a small Midwestern farm town in Minnesota. The Hall family wasn’t ready for Lanesboro and Lanesboro wasn’t ready for us! This autobiography will take my reader back to simpler times when Lanesboro was in its originality, with true stories of humor (like chasing escaped monkeys) and true stories of nostalgia, like watching Lanesboro evolve from a tiny, close knit community into the most talked about bed and breakfast town in not just America, but internationally as well. Through these pages I will share memories of joys, memories of tears, and mostly some memories of Lanesboro’s legacies that we must never forget; like the steam engine that roared through town only decades ago, or when Little Norway was the quickest way to get to the Oxtrail, and the Arndt brothers ridding the town of many rattle snakes that at one time caused so much havoc. Lanesboro is an amazing town now, but was even more amazing then. These true stories should make you giggle and gasp. Enjoy! By Melody C. Hall-Swofford

About the Author

Melody resides in beautiful Northern Minnesota with her teenage daughter and her three Pomchis. She earned her BA and MA from the College of St. Scholastica and is currently writing Taking Lanesboro II, with more fun to read true life stories about growing up in Lanesboro before it became one of the most popular and most talked about small towns in America. Melody has lived a diversified life and experienced many cultures. She spent the first part of her childhood growing up on the shores of Long Island, New York with her large family, dogs, cats and monkeys. At the age of thirteen she and her family moved to Lanesboro, Minnesota where she learned to appreciate the small town comradery and the beauty of the Midwestern part of the United States. Melody also lived on the California coast for several years and overseas for seven years. She has had the opportunity to experience multi-national cultures which helped to enrich her appreciation for her life-long friends and her home town of Lanesboro. Melody is a ten year veteran with the Army Nurse Corp and the Army Medical Corp and was a devoted army wife for another thirteen years. She is working on a novel called Conspiracy of Silence which it is about her enlistment as a female soldier trapped in the Army’s circle of sexual misconduct and abuse. In this novel Melody divulges what the long term effects of MST (Military Sexual Trauma) has had on her life and allows her readers to walk with her through the agonizing treatments of intense group and individual therapy, hoping to help raise awareness. In her novel she reveals the truth about the ongoing conspiracy and cover-up of entrapment and molestation in the armed forces, how these predators compromise national security and breakdown core values, and the United States military echelon’s dirty secrets of tirelessly sweeping this issue under the rug for decades, and the reasons behind it.