Joseph Helgerson was born and raised along the Mississippi River. Catfish and river trolls were his early pals. During the flood of ‘51 he had to be evacuated from his home by a leaky rowboat. The first school he attended was a one-room country schoolhouse that overlooked the river near Queens Bluff, Minnesota. Today he keeps an eye on the river as it passes through the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, where he lives with his family.