This song makes me thankful for the organ.

It's the cheery soundtrack of my summer days living in Minot, North Dakota, at 5 or 6 years old. Up there on the tall hills of the northernmost American Plains, under an omni-sun, we had a fun, outgoing community. People filled the city parks, and I remember happily walking under these rare collections of cottonwood and oak, past everyone tossing frisbees and kicking hacky sack and bullshitting. The state fair is held in Minot rather than larger towns in North Dakota, I assume because Minot knew and continues to know how to have a good time. Maybe it's a coincidence, but it's also one of the most diverse towns in North Dakota due to the presence of Minot Air Force base. When I moved down to state capital Bismarck, ND, at 7 years old, I was bummed by how their parks, larger than Minot's, tended to sit empty. When I moved on my own to Minneapolis, a city with the best and most-beloved parks on the entire planet, full of souls, I felt I had again found home.