I just finished re-reading "Main Street" this July 4 weekend. I had first read it as a high school student.

But in the intervening years I was fortunate to meet and become friends with Rex and Carole Wiederanders, whose life together bore some resemblance to that of Will and Carol Kennicott.

Rex was one of the main physicians in Williston, North Dakota; Will occupied the same position in fictional Gopher Prairie.

I once visited them in Williston for an extended stay and had the opportunity meet their friends and absorb the town's atmosphere. It was a genuine "Gopher Prairie" experience. I had dinner at the Kiwanis Club, went duck hunting, got a full dose of midwestern theology from the local clergy. Rex even allowed me to observe when he performed a hip replacement on an obese middle-aged farmer's wife. I'll never forget him slicing through the thick layer of fat and peeling it back so he could work.

Rex and Carole were conservative politically and, while not Bible pounders, made clear where their religious sympathies lay. They disliked long haired folk and rock music. Not to mention Indians (whom they thought shiftless). Possibly they hated Swedes as well. They were quite adamantly opposed to anyone who transgressed against their sense of the proprieties. Rex more so than Carole. Like many people who hold starched traditional views, they were generous in tolerating in their personal friends considerable freedom of action and thought.

They greatly admired art and artists--and here we found much common ground.

Carole developed cancer and required a mastectomy. Rex performed it.

Rex's young son, Carole's stepson, was murdered while away at college.

Carole died before Rex. Rex was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and retired to Arizona where he died around 2005.

Rex wrote some books, which will live after him in a manner of speaking until they disappear from the market place. Although, given the internet, that could take a good long while!

"Main Street" has forever changed for me--due to having known Rex and Carole.