Thirty Rooms To Hide In

Insanity, Addiction, and Rock'n' Roll in the Shadow
of the Mayo Clinic. A memoir by Luke Sullivan

“The Shining... but funnier.”

That's about the best way I can describe Thirty Rooms To Hide In. It's the story of growing up with my five brothers in a big house in Minnesota. Yet even with winters raging outside and our father raging within, our mother's protection allowed us to have a wildly fun, thoroughly dysfunc-tional time growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s.

Movies

Top video tells the overall story of Thirty Rooms To Hide In. (And, yes, the book is better than the movie.) Below, other home movies from chapters in the book. BUY THE BOOK

Picture
Albums

In addition to being a great surgeon, my father was an excellent photographer. Pretty much every good photo in the files below is likely one he shot and developed. BUY THE BOOK
'30s and '40s
  • Thumb 1Grandma Rock & Dad (1928)
  • Thumb 1The Rock & Dad again (1930)
  • Thumb 1It’s the Rock! (ca. ’30)
  • Thumb 1Roger (ca. ’30)
  • Thumb 1Mom in Florida (1940)
  • Thumb 1Mom outside home in Fla.
  • Thumb 1Roger & Myra, coeds (ca. ’41)
  • Thumb 1Roger & Myra (Xmas 1942)
  • Thumb 1In Truman’s Navy (1942)
  • Thumb 1Myra (ca. 1944)
  • Thumb 1Medical School (ca. 1944)
  • Thumb 1Roger & firstborn, Kip
  • Thumb 1Jeff, Myra, Kip at Farm (1952)
'50s
  • Thumb 1Millstone gate light
  • Thumb 1Myra, Luke at Millstone (1955)
  • Thumb 1Seen from the back yard
  • Thumb 1Looking in from front gates
  • Thumb 11st Millstone Xmas (1954)
  • Thumb 1Family, living rm (1956)
  • Thumb 1Chris, Kip, Dan music rm (‘56)
  • Thumb 1All 6 on dining rm table (1957)
  • Thumb 1Jeff, Kip, Myra (Xmas ’57)
  • Thumb 1It’s The Rock! (1960)
  • Thumb 1Professor Longstreet
  • Thumb 1Low Forty BBQ (1956)
  • Thumb 1Luke, Dan in kitchen (1956)
  • Thumb 1Thanksgiving (1956)
  • Thumb 1Dan, Luke (1957)
  • Thumb 1Jeff’s “TV Man” (1957)
  • Thumb 1Myra & 4 youngest
  • Thumb 1Football in front yard (1961)
Early '60s
  • Thumb 1Deep Winter
  • Thumb 1Myra studying Greek
  • Thumb 1Dan, Myra, in the living room
  • Thumb 1It’s The Rock! & Collin (1960)
  • Thumb 1Kip, Collin, Jeff (Oct., 1962)
  • Thumb 1Jeff, front yard (ca. 1963)
  • Thumb 1Kip, Myra, Chris (1963)
  • Thumb 1Myra and Chanty (1964)
  • Thumb 1Xmas Eve 1963
  • Thumb 1Jeff, Dan, Chris, Luke (1964)
'60s and Beyond
  • Thumb 1All 6 of us
    (ca. 1963)
  • Thumb 1Tony Lund on his houseboat
  • Thumb 1Dr. Tony Bianco
  • Thumb 1On the house-boat
  • Thumb 1Chris & Kip (Xmas, ’62)
  • Thumb 1Old RJL in Fla. (1964)
  • Thumb 1Dentist, face ½ numb (1964)
  • Thumb 1The Famous Portrait (1965)
  • Thumb 1C & L Monopoly on boat (1964)
  • Thumb 1My cool brother Jeff (1964)
  • Thumb 190 min. from an incident (1964)
  • Thumb 1The Pagans
  • Thumb 1The Pagans at Clinic party
  • Thumb 1Pagans get some press
  • Thumb 1Pagans in concert (1965)
  • Thumb 1Pagans record 45rpm (1965)
  • Thumb 1The Last Picture
  • Thumb 1Luke on top of Millstone (’66)
  • Thumb 1Myra, finally free (1969)
  • Thumb 1Myra on farm (1974)
  • Thumb 1Myra & Jupiter (2006)
  • Thumb 1Kip (2006)
  • Thumb 1Jeff (2006)
  • Thumb 1Chris (2006)
  • Thumb 1Dan (2006)
  • Thumb 1Luke visits Millstone (2008)
  • Thumb 1Collin (2006)
  • Thumb 1The Millstone in 2009

Audio

In 1965 my brothers’ rock & roll band, The Pagans, cut a 45rpm. You can play it here or buy at iTunes. Track #3 is an “interview” of Myra by Roger in 1962. BUY THE BOOK

Letters

Much of the book comes from the diaries and letters of my family (as well as from psychiatric reports, police reports, and my father’s final confusing medical records). BUY THE BOOKD
  • First Date1951 - 1953Brother Chris’s polio,
    a miscarriage,
    life on the Farm
  • First Date1954 – 1956Hired by Mayo,
    a fifth son, moving
    into Millstone
  • First Date1957 – 1959‘50s culture/news,
    a sixth son, and early
    ominous signs
  • First Date1960 – 1963TV culture, space
    flight, fallout shelters,
    the assassination
  • First Date1964The Pagans, things
    get really bad, breaking
    up the family
  • First Date1965Money issues,
    moving back to ‘Stone,
    the fist fight, salvation
  • First Date1966False hope, fired,
    circling the drain,
    final letters & diaries
  • First DateProposal LetterSweet letter from
    Roger to Myra’s
    father, 1942
  • First DateFrom RehabRoger writes about
    treatment experience
    so far, Nov. 1965
  • First Date“The Letter”The incredible last
    letter he wrote before
    disappearing forever

Note from the Author

I started writing this book in 1992, after the birth of my first son. I wanted him to know what it had been like for me. At first I had trouble deciding whether the book was about my mother or my father. For awhile I thought it was about growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s; about Marvel comics and the Beatles. And some days it was just about the house; about its loneliness in deep winter, its quiet in high summer. Now after 12 years of working on the manuscript, I’m satisfied I’ve figured which one it is.

I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please gush about it online somewhere. BUY THE BOOK

Photograph
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