My Book………………..LILAGCS (30)

December 21, 2010

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Events I remember while I was working at Felco

I remember that Sharon and I moved into our new apartment that we had furnished with things we had purchased at a store in Lakeview, Iowa. I believe the name of the store was Parkinson’s.

We had purchased most of the basic things we would need to set up house keeping. The only “luxury” item was a console stereo radio and record player. Sharon had a few things like a TV and I had really nothing to add.

I remember coming home from work the first day after we had moved in and there were boxes and stuff scattered all over the place. Sharon was not there and I panicked because I thought she had left to go back to Dysart. Just a few minutes later she walked in the door and I really told her that when she went somewhere to leave me a message. We were both 26 years old and had been on our own for quite a few years, especially her.

We lived there in the 7 room apartment for a couple of years until a close friend from Felco, where we worked together invited me to meet a friend of his that had built his house and was a contractor.

I was able to negotiate a deal with him to buy a house in Northeast Fort Dodge. He had just started building the house and with my construction experience I was able to get the house at a lower price because I was going to do all the house finishing , painting, floor covering and the yard work.

We worked at getting all that done and when we had enough finished to be livable , we moved into the house at 21st Avenue North in Fort Dodge.

    

1st House in Ft. Dodge               21st Ave. North           1st House in Ft. Dodge

We had made many friends while we lived in Fort Dodge. I had transferred my Army Reserve location from Cherokee, Iowa to Fort Dodge. We made friends with a couple with 3 children that were also friend of Denny and his wife Arty, the friend that I worked with at Felco. Jim and Sharon Nevins became good friend there in Fort Dodge. Jim was a paper salesman from a paper company that we purchased most of our printing paper.

                  

Jim and I attended Army Reserve meeting together and I will devote a section of this book to the Army Reserve  experience sometime.

Jim and Denny, their wives and Sharon and I started going to a dance club that was held at the

      

Knights of Columbus hall in downtown Fort Dodge. We added a few more couples to our group and had a very good time. During the course of our Dance Club days, we ended up taking our turns at being President, Vice President and Treasurer of the dance club.

The Vice-Presidents job was to find and get bands to play at the dances. I remember the names of a couple of the bands were “The Jane Russell Trio”  and a band called “Four Jack and a Jill”.

We usually danced until midnight or sometimes later, but after we finished dancing, we always went out for early morning breakfast to a restaurant out in the Fort Dodge Mal area.

                 

I remember so many things about our times together with Denny, Arty Wessels and Jim and Sharon Nevins that I would take a lot of space reminiscing al of them. Here is where I might get to rambling.

I recall our summer vacation family fishing trips to Legion Lake close to Bemidji, Minnesota, many summers. We would not only fish, but we would get together in each other’s cabins in the evening and play a traditional game called “Pig” It was a simple kids game, but we made it into a fun time for adults.

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Rules for the Game of “Pig” also called “Spoons”

To play the Spoons version, you also need one spoon for each player except one. EXAMPLE: With 8 players, you need 7 spoons. For Pig and Tongue, no extra equipment is needed.

Goal

To be the first to collect four cards of the same rank. If an opponent beats you to that goal, to not be the last to realize it.

Setup

For each player in the game, you need four cards of the same rank from the deck. For example, with 5 players you could use the Aces, 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s.

Shuffle the cards and deal them to the players. Each player will have four cards.

If you're playing Spoons, put the spoons in the middle of the table so that every player can reach them.

Gameplay

Players simultaneously choose one card from their hands, pass that card to the opponent on their left, and pick up the card they've received from the opponent on their right. Each player can never have more than four cards in his hand, so it's illegal for a player to pick up a new card before passing one to the left.

When a player collects four of a kind, he does one of the following actions, depending on which version of the game is being played:

• Spoons: As subtly as possible, take a spoon and place it in front of yourself.  (We used plastic spoons and they got broken!)
• Pig: Quietly place a finger on the tip of your nose.
• Tongue: Quietly, but visibly, stick out your tongue.
When one player does this, every other player must do likewise as quickly as possible. The last player to grab a spoon, touch his nose, or stick out his tongue is the loser.

OPTIONAL: While playing Spoons or Tongue, players who either take a spoon or stick out their tongue can continue to pick up and pass cards, making it more difficult for other players to realize what has happened. (The player who actually collected four cards of the same rank must always pass the card they just picked up, because passing any other card would break up their four-of-a-kind.) This option is not available when playing Pig, since one of your hands will be occupied with touching your nose.

Scoring

The last player to grab a spoon, touch his nose, or stick out his tongue is the loser and is eliminated from the game. Remove a set of four cards from the deck and play another round.

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From time to time Jim and Denny and I would drive into Bemidji and tell the girls we need to get some fishing lures. This would give us an opportunity to visit one of our favorite spots … the local Maid-Rite Café. One time we went in to Bemidji after tell the girls our usual excuse and I remember Denny had 3 maid-rites and Jim an I both had 2 maid-rites plus we all had French fries and Pepsi drinks.

                                  

What we were not aware of was that the girls got suspicious and discovered from somewhere what we were doing.

When we got home late that afternoon we were dumfounded to find that they did fixed a complete dinner of Rubin sandwiches

                                        

with all the trimmings. Well, to say the least, we didn’t want to reveal what we had done so we sat down and ate another meal that left all three of us so sick of eating that we never snuck off again.

There were many other events during my time at Felco from 1966 through 1974 that I remember and they were definitely a part of my life. I will just list some of them below:
 
A. Planting a hedge at Denny and Ardy’s place    when we first met
B. Going out for breakfast at a place downtown in Fort Dodge for Ham & Eggs and     Hash browns. The name of the spot started with an “E” like Edith’s.
C. Going to “Mike’s (downtown Fort Dodge) for Mike’s famous Coney Island hot dogs with French fries.

                                    

This was a real small “Hole-in-the-wall” place with only a few booths and the round bar stools at the counter. The dishwasher would come
            out and mop the floor while we were eating.

My Book………………LILAGCS (29)

December 17, 2010

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5 years ago today We got Married

Yes, I will take a couple of days break from writing this Blog to celebrate our 5th Wedding Anniversary.

We don’t have any big plans and will probably celebrate it on Saturday, this next  weekend. Our youngest boy’s (Jairus) birthday was the 16th (yesterday) and we usually celebrate his birthday and our Anniversary on the same day when it works out. (We will do that on Saturday the 19th.)

My Book…………………LILAGCS (28)

December 16, 2010

 

My Job at Felco Regional Cooperative

When I was out building the family business one of my stops in Fort Dodge was a regional cooperative called Felco. I wasn’t sure what sort of lettering they might need, but I thought I would check and inquire.

I was directed to visit with a man in their advertising department. His name was Larry Nelson and told me that most of their lettering needs were met by the company where they purchased their uniforms. They also had large quantities of their “Felco” emblems produced. It was interesting because I explained my background and formal training in graphic arts. He then asked me if I was interested in a job. I told him that I was building a family business and I wasn’t interested. I then continued to call on other possible customers.

The reason I told you the story above is because when I decided to go out and find another job after working at the bank for a couple of years and the fact that my “wife to be” was earning more money teaching than I was at the bank.

I remembered the job offer that Larry Nelson at Felco had made. I went to Felco as the first place I decided to try to get a job.

I asked for Larry Nelson in the advertising department but instead I was directed to a man named Bill Turner. Bill was the head of the Communications Division and he sent me directly to the personnel department to be interviewed by a man by the name of Don Renquist ( the Director of Personnel).

After I had my interview with Mr. Renquist I was taken back to Mr. Turner’s office. I was asked a few more questions and then came the question that I know gave me the job. Bill asked me why I wanted to work for Felco.

I told Mr. Turner that I had no previous experience but I had a large desire to work for this company. I am convinced that my honesty and asking for the job allowed me to get hired. I found out later from Bill that it was, indeed those things are what convinced Bill to give me the opportunity to prove myself.

I remember thinking “what in the world  would a feed company they need a graphic artist” ….”designing feed bags or something!” Well surprisingly enough my first job was to redesign a new rabbit pellet feed bag.

I worked designing feed bags but also I was involved with helping design brochures and animal feeding guides used by the salesmen in selling the different feed, chemical and petroleum products offered by Felco.

After about two years Larry Nelson was promoted to a position as marketing services manager.

I had been drafting a projected new job that I saw a great need. A liaison person between the product managers and the advertising function.

I presented my written ideas to Larry Nelson and he smiled, and took a paper out of his desk and he had also been drafting a similar position. He asked me if I would like to be the new advertising coordinator. I said yes and I was the new advertising coordinator.

Our Advertising Agency

We worked very closely with a one-man advertising agency in Des Moines, Iowa. The Rex Weitzell Agency was the name of the advertising agency that I coordinated all of the print, radio and television advertising programs for Felco.

About two years into my job as advertising coordinator Felco merged with another Regional cooperative from Nebraska, Statex (Farmers Union State Exchange). We combined the Felco logo and the Statex logo to form a new temporary Felco/Statex logo that was a monster to use. It was long and narrow. It worked great on a petroleum transport truck but was not made for a feed bags.

My experience working with Rex Weitzell was a great experience and I learned a lot about agricultural advertising. Rex was a true expert when it came to communicating with farmers. He forgot more about agricultural advertising than most agency people ever knew about agricultural advertising.

Probably one of the most interesting and educational jobs I worked with was the creating of television commercials for the yearly state girls basketball tournament. I was directly involved with the preparation of over 25 television commercials and worked with the television directors and producers first hand. Northwest Teleproductions was the name of the Minneapolis television production company we worked with to produce the  television commercials for Felco.

During the basketball game, Felco also sponsored a hospitality room where the elevator managers and their wives from the small towns where the participating girls basketball teams came from could go and relax and enjoy free snacks and refreshments compliments of Felco.

I spent a lot of time helping out in the hospitality room. I also went between the television cameramen and the directors located in a portable control room in a large semi truck out side the auditorium.

Working with the television production and all of the other areas in the advertising area gave me a great deal of experience. After about 2 more years I began wanting more responsibility but Larry, my supervisor, was blocking me from going any further there at Felco. He was very good at what he did and gave me a good education of how to work with agricultural advertising and looked like he was going to be there for a long time ( he and I were the same age).

Editor’s Note: Larry Nelson ended up getting killed in a tractor accident about two years after I left Felco

In my frustration of wanting to progress I started keeping my eyes open to other job possibilities.

It was during my time of searching for a job that I discovered an ad in the classified section of a Sunday newspaper for an advertising coordinator for a large banking and equipment company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

My Book………………..LILAGCS (27)

December 13, 2010

Editors Comment: I have been having a difficult time trying to figure out how I will remember things about my first marriage. I have decided to insert into the regular Blogs items about my first marriage and just tell you at what point in time the events happened.

First Marriage

I will now pick up where I left off in Blog (26) where I called my first wife-to-be from a friend’s house.

Two or three days passed by and then I decided to call the girl (Sharon) that I had called from my friend John’s house and introduced myself as the Sac City Welcoming Committee Representative and tell her the truth. I called Sharon and apologized for my first call and explained to her why I had called her as well as I could.

One of my classmates happened to be home there in Sac City and I told Sharon that maybe I could introduce her to my classmate (Carmen) so she would have someone to visit with sometime. I don’t know if she ever called Carmen.

I then went on with the conversation and eventually ask if she would like to go out for a cup of coffee. She accepted my invitation and we had our first meeting together like a date.

The only problem was that when I picked her up at her apartment it was after 10 PM and there was nothing open in Sac City at that time of the day where we could get a cup of coffee. I then suggested that she come with me over to my house where I told her my parents always have the coffee pot on.

So our first date (if you want to call it that) was a trip to meet my parents at my house. It was a somewhat strange beginning but, nevertheless, that is where it started.

After that first meeting we were together all the time almost every day. We seemed to be attracted to each other. We dated for almost a year before we decided to get married. We got married on June 5, 1966 in her hometown of Dysart, Iowa.

In March of 1966 I had decided to leave the bank and got a job at a regional cooperative in Fort Dodge, Iowa called Felco. I started working a little over 3 months before we got married and I lived in a hotel (the Warren Hotel) in downtown Fort Dodge.

Just a few weeks before our wedding I was able to find a large third floor apartment close to the downtown area that I rented so we would have a place to live.

Sharon got a job teaching in a small town close to Fort Dodge and I went to work at Felco. I will stop here and go to my job at Felco next. Then I will come back to my first marriage and recall when we adopted our two boys after 5 years of marriage.

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My Book……LILAGCS (Extra 12-11-10)

December 11,2010

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An Extra from the Past

Most of these “Extras” I will try and keep short and they will provide a break from my regular LILAGCS Memory Blogs. I will be writing things that come to my mind as I sit here and reminisce.

My High School years were  very much fun even though sometimes they got challenging. I thought I would just list some of the things I think of as I sit here. They won’t have any significant place in the history, but they were definitely things I remember as a part of my high school years.

How to be Popular

I recall early in my high school life when I went to my mother and asked her what I could do to be “popular”. She told me I could either play the piano or dance. I could do neither one but one evening after a basketball game I went to a “sock-hop” (that was a dance on the gymnasium floor where we had to remove our shoes so as not to ruin the gym floor. They would play the latest music (beginning of Rock and Roll) and everyone that knew how to dance would get out on the floor and dance.

The girls would line up on one side of the gym and the boys on the other side so they were parallel and facing each other. Many couples where already dancing to the music being played and I noticed a couple of my male classmates were out dancing also. One of my friends from my class, Paul Laughin came over and stood beside me in between one of the dances and was trying to encourage me to go ask a girl to dance. I told him I didn’t know how to dance. Well that was the beginning of my dancing days. Paul taught me some of the basic steps in the two-step and fox-trot dances and told me to just “fake” the rest.

That was the start on my dancing that would lead me to really liking to rock and roll dancing. I told Paul, not too long ago that he was the one that got me started dancing that earned me the reputation of a good fast dancer. I really never had a specific dance step or pattern, I just danced to the beat of the music.

We would Practice Dancing

I ended up dancing with lots of my female classmates as well as others. One particular classmate that I spent a lot of time dancing with was Mary K ( Her mom was our English teacher)  We discovered that we could use the excuse that we were studying our English to practice dancing in her converted garage recreation room. We would study for a while then spend the rest of the time just practicing our dancing routines to 45 records . Over time we won quite a few dance contests in high school at various dances like the Saddle Club dances at the local saddle club  that we held every so often.

The Frosting on the Cake

One particular interesting event was when some of us went up to the “Roof Garden” ballroom at Arnolds Park, On Lake Okoboji in northwest Iowa. They had a dance contest and we ended up in the finals against another couple that could really dance well, especially the fella. He appeared to be Asian (maybe Hawaiian) We had 3 “dance-offs” before they finally won. 

The next February I was watching the Lawrence Welk television program and Mr. Welk introduced the National Rock and Roll Champions would perform. To my utter surprise, the male partner was the same fella that we had danced against in the dance contest at the Roof Garden the past fall.

My Book ……………….LILAGCS (26)

December 10, 2010

Second Job at the Sac City State Bank

About 1964

 

                                 

After Mom and I started DaLe Monograming & Signs, our family business,

Editor’s Note: I will come back after I am finished with the Sac City State Bank section and tell you about how Mom and I started DaLe, our family business. It is a  pretty long story.

I worked at helping build DaLe and took no pay out of the money we made. We both reinvested everything we made from the sale of our lettering and sign painting back into the business.

Apparently there were people noticing that we had a good business but we were not spending anything foolishly. Mr. George Pingrey, our neighbor and member of the Methodist church we attended, must have been one of those people observing our business methods because he approached me one day.

He said that one of his tellers at the Sac City State Bank, where he was the president, had been drafted into the army and was going to Korea.

Mr. Pingrey ask me if I would like to fill in for him until he returned from his tour of duty. Mr. Pingrey emphasized that I could get good experience and would learn to meet people there at the bank.

I talked it over with mom and we agreed that I could work at the bank from 8 AM until 3PM, then take a 2 hour break and go back to work at the family business from 5 PM until midnight or later plus I would have Saturday and Sunday afternoons free to do my sign painting. So I told Mr. Pingrey I would like to work at the bank and started working at the bank the next week.

I was assigned to start in the bookkeeping department to familiarize myself with the basic banking procedures. I soon became acquainted with all of the other employees there at the bank.

There were two other men working there at the bank besides the president, Mr. Pingrey and the rest were females. I the receptionist, three tellers and two other ladies worked in bookkeeping with me.

Keep in mind that this was what I called BC (Before Computers) and all of the bookkeeping functions were preformed manually with the help of some simple calculating and posting machines for the most part. We did have 2 electronic posting machines and other basic calculating machines to assist us in our work.

The process was to handle each check that was cleared through the bank and record the transaction on each customer’s account card. The amounts and all other information was inserted by manually pressing the correct key in the posting machine.

The figures were double checked then the processed checks were canceled and filed in the customer’s account file.

I worked in this bookkeeping area for a few months and when I had learned enough about the basic procedures I was promoted to be a teller.

I was assigned a teller location and had what I called my own window. This was where walk-in customers would walk up to the teller windows to perform what ever transactions they wanted . It was usually either depositing money into their personal or business account or withdrawing money.

We also sold Savings Bonds and checked on whatever they wanted us to check on concerning their account. All loan payment we processed but a loan officer was the only one that could authorize and process a loan.

I will never forget a couple of the employees that became very good friends. One was a teller right next to me on the teller line and the other was the receptionist.

Susan, the  teller next to me was very crippled from polio she had when she was a young girl  and had some difficulty getting around, but her sense of humor and attitude went far beyond anything else. She and our receptionist, Nelda were good friends and were always clowning around.

When I was getting close to needing a haircut, Susan would start calling me “Rinny” (after Rin-Tin-Tin the famous TV dog character). That prompted me to get a haircut as soon as possible

Once she and Nelda went shopping in Fort Dodge and when Nelda went up to the cashier to write a check for her purchases Susan went over and looking over her shoulder  commented. “Your not going to write another one of those are you?”

Nelda , of course, didn’t know what to say, was embarrassed  and they soon got the situation corrected after explaining to the cashier they worked together in a bank and what was going on.

One time I recall during our afternoon coffee break I got into trouble with the other employees. Each day we would take turns bring “treats: (donuts cake or something). I had a cherry cheese cake that my wife had made and it was one of my favorites.

                 

After the morning coffee I took the half of the cheesecake that was left home. (that was back when we went home for lunch)

When it came time for the afternoon coffee break they were looking for the cheese cake! Susan never did let me live that episode down.

Meeting my First Wife

I was always being teased about being single and kept being asked when I was going to get a girl friend. Well it was during my time at the bank when I met my first wife.

I might mention here that I borrowed $600 from the bank to purchase my first car, a 1960 push button Plymouth Valiant.

             

One business customer that always came to make her deposit at my teller window was an employee of the city telephone company, Jo was teasing me one day about a new teacher that had just started teaching a summer class in the high school there in Sac City.

I tried to tell her that in a small town like Sac City you don’t just call a girl out of the clear blue  …besides , I said, I don’t know her phone number. That was the wrong thing to tell someone that worked at the telephone company. The next day, Jo presented me with a slip of paper with her name and phone number.

I slipped the note with the phone number into my pocket and went on about my business.

That evening I had gone over to a young friend’s house, John Keir, upon his request. He was the brother of a girl that I had dated a few times. While we were sitting in his living room talking, I was trying to be the “Know it all about dating” and reached into my pocket as I was telling him that he needed to be calm and straight forward about talking to girls
(I really didn’t know what I was talking about) there was the note I was given that afternoon with the new teacher’s phone number. Her first name was Sharon.

Welcome Wagon Representative

I went over to his telephone, (without thinking) and started dialing the number on the note. It rang a few time then was answered by a very gruff female voice. I introduced myself as a local “welcome wagon” representative and was making everything up as I continued. We talked for just a few minutes and then I said thank you for your time and hung up.

That was my first encounter with the girl that was to become my first wife. I will need to continue my writing of this part of my life in the next LILAGCS Blog memory next week.

I will probably fill in this weekend with some “Extras” to take a break from the Memory Blog but the item I will write in my extras will pick up some special events I don’t know where to put or things I forgot to mention in past Blogs.

 

My Book………………LILAGCS (25)

December 9, 2010

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Most of you have been informed that I have not been sending out Blogs here at LILAGCS for a while. We experienced a shutdown of our Internet from November 22 until a few days ago. I have been working at getting back on-line with my thoughts and answering some of your emails. I ended with my Memories from High School and will now start with writing memories from the many jobs I had. You will find that some of these will overlap, but I can’t think of any other way to write about them. You will also find that I will not include too many pictures in this section. It will be mostly narrative. I will include photos where I can.

 

Life and Jobs I had Before, During and after College

 

I am now going to go through the jobs I had. (This will take several Blogs) You might find that some of the material may overlap and some may be repeated so just bear with me.

The first job I had was working at the filling station where my dad headquartered his Mobile tank wagon truck waiting for customers to call requesting gas or fuel oil delivery.

Norm was the manager of the station. My very first responsibility and job was to keep the men’s and lady’s restrooms clean and washing the station’s windows.

         

You might say my first job I started at the bottom and worked my way up.

After doing a good job at that, I was allowed to come out and wash the car windshields that pulled up to get gas.

                                       

Back in the 50’s they still had “Full Service” which meant oil checked, windshields washed and tires checked. Then it eventually went to mostly all “Self Service” and you had to pay extra for the “Full Service” treatment. (Does that mean we were going forward or backward?)

I enjoyed the job and had some very interesting experiences working at that job. I think I earned 50 cents an hour.

One of the most embarrassing experiences happened during the 1955 Sac City Centennial celebration. Most all or the men had grown beards and many the ladies wore bonnets when they went out.

                               

One day a car pulled up to the gas pumps to get gas. I was out to wash the windows right away. I noticed that the men in the front seat were wearing black suits and all had black hats and also had beards.

The ladies in the back seat all were dressed in colonial type dresses and wore bonnets. I glanced at the license plate and noticed they were from out of state. When the driver went in to pay for the gas, I made the comment “Oh! I see you are having a centennial too.”

He looked at me and smiled. I then went out and discovered the state they were from was Pennsylvania. They were Quakers, Mennonite  or Amish people. I was embarrassed to say the least.

                       

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Now the next real job I had was in the construction business.

Wilber Winchell Contractor

First Real Job

When I was still in high school about a Sophomore, we had moved to a new house on the corner of 13th and Gishwiller in Sac City.

                               

The new house was built by a contractor that Mom and Dad had gotten acquainted with a year or two before.

After we were moved in to the new house, dad noticed that Wilber (that was the contractor’s first name) was in the process of building another house a few blocks north on 13th street and dad  approached Wilber and asked him if he could use any additional help with the construction of the house.

Wilber said that he usually hired school age kids to help him but the one that had been working in the past was not home from college yet.  He said that I could help him by painting the outside of the house so that is when I got my first job.

       

Wilber was an interesting man. He always had a pipe hanging out of his mouth so it was very difficult to understand him when he spoke. I always had to say “Huh?” To everything he said. That is why I formed a habit to say “huh” to anything anybody said and still do to this time.

I had not worked too long before the other boy finished his year at college and joined us. His name was Jerry and we got along very well.

After the painting was finished outside, Wilber had be try my hand at doing finishing work like cutting and applying the wood trim around the doors and the other placed that required wood trim on the inside of the house.

       

Before I knew it I was working everyday from about 6AM until dark which was sometimes as late as 9PM. I forgot how much I was paid, but it was around $1.50 and hour, I think. It was more than $20 a day usually.

After we finished the house I had started to work with, Wilber had already started another house. He did that all summer.

He would get the houses framed up and Jerry and I would usually take it from there. I got a lot of construction experience that would stay with me my entire life. We also shingled a lot of houses.

        

Wilber had one bad habit other than the fact that every other word that came out of his mouth was a swear word. We always had a pipe in his mouth.  

                                                 

It made it very hard for me to understand what he was saying and I would always say “huh?” to every thing he said. I got into such a habit that I still catch myself saying “huh?” to things that others say to me.

Wilber actually did everything except dig the hole for the house’s basement. He did the brick laying for the basement, the electrical work, the plumbing and yard finishing work.

        

I got a very good education working for Wilber.

The beginning of the third summer Wilber was very slow at contacting me to work for him. That is the summer I started painting signs.

My dad was president of the Sac City Little League Association. The Association had gathered funds to build a wooden outfield fence and planned to have advertising painted on the 4’ X 8’ plywood panels to help finance the fence.

 

They had hired a local sign painter, “Buzz” Corderman to paint the signs. They soon discovered he was not going very fast. He would paint one panel then disappear for a few days.

They soon learned about his love of wine and that was when Dad approached me and asked me to try painting the panels.

By then I was an art major at the University of South Dakota. That is when my sign painting business started and I will cover it in more detail when I write about the family business mom and I started in 1962...The Story of DaLe Monogramming & Signs. By the way I picked up the nick name of “Buzz” from my sign painting episode.

My Book……………….LILAGCS (24)

November 22, 2010

High School Years

 

12th Grade – Our Senior Year

Here it is Saturday morning, already 82 degrees outside on the 20th of November. I just sent out my Blog (23) and decided to try and write the final Blog in my High School memories. So far my mind is a blank but I am sure, as usual, if I start thinking of even one event I will begin to remember some things.

I remember we had “Senioritis” pretty bad. We wanted the year to go fast so we could graduate and go on with our lives. Most of us except two in our immediate group went on to college and they decided to go to California (I will tell you more about them later on in this Blog.)

I think I will focus on our basketball team. I have a photograph that I received from Elaine Cook on a CD of the classes in Sac City.

It showed all of the photos of each class way back as far as 1935, From there on back there were no pictures, only the list of students in each class way back to 1986 I think it was. Plus there were selected yearbook photos from various classes through the years.

The photo below was of our basketball team. I wasn’t one of the starters, but was the 6th man. I would normally get to be the first substitute when coach Long would make a substitute.

Coach Long was a graduate from Iowa State and was an excellent basketball player there at ISU. I remember when he graduated the player that took his place was a player by the name of Gary Thompson from Roland, Iowa and he ended up an All American basketball player and went on into a  sports broadcasting career.

  

There was one game that stands out in my mind and I am pretty sure it was a game we played when we were seniors.

The game was against Harlan. Looking at the final score above I know it was our senior year because the score of our first game against them was Sac City 30 and Harlan 32. It was a very low scoring game.

Harlan had a very tall team and was beating everyone they played . Coach Long came up with a strategy that almost helped us to win. But we ended up loosing by one basket.

Harland had 3 of their starting players that were 6 foot 5 inches tall or taller. I think the tallest was 6 foot 8 inches tall. Our tallest player was 6 foot 3 inches tall.

Coach Longs basic strategy was to slow the pace of the ballgame down to make them play “our” game.

You could see the frustration on their faces as we were able to do just that. I think the half-time score was something like 14 to 16 and we were ahead.

Well that’s about all I remember about that game except we really felt like Goliath defeating the Giants and had a good feeling even when we lost by 2 points to them. We certainly won a moral victory.

Boy, my mind is pretty blank to any other events other than graduation night in the auditorium. Our featured speaker at our graduation ceremony was Ray Puge, I did remember that. I don’t remember what he was or if he later became famous.

Oh, I was going to tell you that the two classmate from our group that decided to go to California were Kelley Hoskins and Paul Laughin. They both went on to very successful careers and college graduates and are now a couple of my best supporters of these Blogs!

Well I think I will close out this section on “High School Days and move on to the next section. If you can think of anything you might want me to mention please don’t hesitate telling me.

 

My Book……………….LILAGCS (23)

November 20, 2010

High School Years

11th Grade……Junior Year

Going into 11th grade meant we were only one year away from our last year of high school. We had a very unique class. The class was made up of 58 students and we had 13 straight A students. This was unusual to have that many straight A students in one class of that size.

It made it very difficult for me especially. I was in the top third of my class in Spencer but when I started at Sac City I was struggling to stay in the top half of the class. When teacher’s graded on the curve it mad it especially difficult for me because most of the straight A students were in the classes that I was in. The classes would range from 20 to 30 students. So figure it out yourself. I was always fighting to stay in the grade “C” level when the grading was done on the curve.

With my way of learning, I managed to figure out ways to overcome that challenge.

Our class was a very strong academic group and we were also very conceited about it . We were good and if you didn’t believe it just ask us and we would tell you that we were good! (That was a joke that I made up, it might not have really been true.) But we were a very strong academic class for the most part.

Some of the instructors that I remember were; Mrs. Farmer, our English Literature teacher, Lowell Perry, our History teacher, Dana Wall, our English grammar teacher, Mr. Wallinga, our science teacher, Mrs. Earheart our math teacher, Mr. Ole, Our Civics teacher to name a few.

I’ m not sure if I got all of their subjects correct and some of them we had in both our junior and senior years.

I remember Mr. File, our vocal music teacher and Mr. Marshall our instrumental music teacher. I had trouble playing a record player so I was not in the instrumental music classes but I did like to sing.

I remember that each Thanksgiving season we had the opportunity to try out for “All State Choir”. If we made it we got to go to Des Moines over the Thanksgiving vacation and participate in the “All State Choir Program”.

Well I really wasn’t that good as a singer, in my opinion, but I tried out with 3 others I remember I was the bass, Dick Schram was the tenor, LuRay Sharp was the soprano and I can not remember who was our alto.

This was the tryout which was an honor just to get selected. I remember singing in front of the judges and I was standing next to LuRay. I started shaking so bad she had to help steady the sheet of music I was holding. We were not among those selected to go to “All State”, but it was fun to say that we got to try out.

I think our junior year was the year that I was selected as president of our science club. I remember that David McCauley and I made Lithium by electrolysis. We took Lithium oxide, I think it was, and by electrolysis we created a very small amount of pure Lithium. Now that might not mean too much unless you realize that Lithium is more volatile than either pure sodium or potassium. If you throw pure sodium of potassium into water, it literally explodes. That is definitely something I remember.

Now talking about exploding has triggered my memory to another event that had an explosive result.

I always has a chemistry lab, I called it, down in the basement. During these days of school you were able to purchase at the local drug store, all of the chemicals to make gun powder. Charcoal, Sulphur and Potassium Nitrite.

Needless to say, I was experimenting with those chemicals to produce fuel for a small rocket ship I was building.

I took a “spent” skyrocket tube and with the nosecone of a plastic model airplane and some balsa wood wings I formed and created my rocket ship. (Keep in mind, this is just a short time before they outlawed making your own rocket ships using solid fuel like gun powder.)

I had this rocket ship all ready to launch and my parents were not home when I had a small accident. I was testing my gunpowder formulation and I accidentally caught my backup rocket ship on fire and it streamed across the basement where I had my chemistry table. It ended up in the corner where our fuel oil barrel was located.

Fortunately I was able to get it extinguished before any more damage took place. I think the smoke came from the fuel that had too much Sulphur in its mixture created a total smoke screen in the basement.

I opened the basement windows to get the smoke out and found out later that our neighbors noticed the smoke coming out the windows and almost called the fire department. They didn’t, however because they knew I was experimenting with the rocket fuel.

I was more careful after that. I did continue on to launch my home made rocket. I took a common doorbell button ,connected it to a dry cell battery and hooked the wire ends to a flashbulb (That was back when we used flashbulbs for the portable light source when taking photographs.) I made the wires

I connected to the flashbulb long enough that I could get down behind a barricade for safety  when I launched the rocket.

I placed a pencil down the center of the spent sky rocket tube and packed my home made rocket fuel down around the outside of the pencil and the side of the sky rocket tube. I made a fast burning fuse from the gun powder mixture and placed the fuse down the center of the rocket tube after removing the pencil. I then positioned he rocket ship over the flash bulb so then the flash went off it would ignite the fuse to the rocket.

I knew I needed a witness so if I recall correctly I talked Tom Wellindorf, a fellow classmate over to witness the event.

I had a stop watch ready to time the rocket as it left the ground and hoped I could track it to see where it landed. I knew there was a physics formula that I could use to determine how high it traveled if I knew the time it left and the time it hit the ground coming back.

Two things I forgot to do. I forgot to install a parachute for its decent and I didn’t think about where and how fast it  would come down.

Well Tom and I got down behind our barricade and started the countdown. We came to “0” and I hit the doorbell button….there was a short pause after the flash bulb went off and “swish” off went the rocket. I kept track on my stop watch, Soon the smoke trail went out of sight. A few seconds later we saw the smoke trail come down as the rocket returned to the ground. (We estimated it went over a mile in the air)

There was one big problem. The rocket came down about 2 blocks from where it was launched and it came down in the yard of a family with 6 kids all out playing in the yard.

I located the rocket stuck about 4 inches in the ground less than 5 feet from the side of their house.

I wasn’t long at all after that launch that home made rockets of that nature were banned.

The only other thing that stands out in my memories is the junior/senior prom when I was asked to be the master of ceremonies. There were some things that happened there that I can’t really share with you, but I made a big Boo Boo in my trying to be humorous.

My Book…………………LILAGCS (22)

November 19,2010

High School Years

10th Grade (Sophomore Year)

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editors note:  There are not too many photographs in these High School Blogs because I didn’t have many to use because I lost all of my High school yearbooks in my move to the Philippines.

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Going into 10th grade meant I was going to be a Sophomore in high school. I am racking my memory to try and place some things in order. I remember specifically that I was a Sophomore when mom and dad purchased our first television. I think I talked about that in a prior Blog when Kelley Hoskins sparked my memory about the TV set.

I am not sure what part of the year it was, but mom and dad also purchased our first house when I was a sophomore.

                               

                                               Our first house in Sac City

I also now remember that I was active in our MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship) and about 6 of us decided to go to church camp located up on West Lake Okoboji.

It was our local Methodist church camp (the one we attended) and my grandfather’s sister, Matilda (aunt Matilda, I called her) owned a small cabin that was located with in the camp’s area. She would allow MYF students to occupy her cabin during the summer camping days.

A previous Sac City Methodist Pastor before I moved to Sac City also owned a small cabin in the same area of the camp as my great aunt Matilda. He had moved to Eagle Grove, Iowa from Sac City.

As we prepared to travel north from Sac City to the camp on Okoboji we were all excited because there were going to be three towns that would be sending MYF students to our same cabin. They were from Eagle Grove, Algona and Sac City.

      

                                       Views of Lake Okoboji

We arrived there at the cabin first and waited for the ones from Eagle Grove and Algona. The 2 cars caring the kids from the other two locations arrived.

                       

As they filed from the cars into the cabin, one of the girls caught my eye as someone that I knew. She came directly up to me and said; “ Do I know you?” I replied without blinking an eye; “Yes, I kissed you in the cloak closet in 3rd grade at Reynolds grade school in Spencer, Iowa.”

I was correct and we became inseparable the rest of the time at camp. We were always together during the classes and at meal time. In the cabin, the boys slept in the converted garage and the girls slept in the cabin. There was always the pastor and a girl’s chaperone present.

It was very difficult when camp was over to say goodbye. I remember my grandmother came up to the camp from Spencer to pick me up to take me back to her house in Spencer. The girl, Caye, and I wrote letters back and forth all the time. I became very stressed because I had no transportation to drive to Eagle Grove to see her.

One time, we attended a dance at WOI-TV in Ames, Iowa that was patterned after the national dance telecast “Bandstand”.

               

                                           Betty Lou McVay

It was called “Sixteen” and hosted by Betty Lou McVay, ( also she was originally Mary Lou Varnum, a previous family name) a kids program called “The Magic Window”  and Dick Green another WOI-TV program host. We danced and people back in Sac City watched us on television. We had a great time.

That was the only time we managed to get together until I finally had to quit writing to her because it was starting to affect my school grades. That is when I met Father Tolan, the little league baseball coach that I use to dread because he was always talking loud and hollering at the players.

                                     

Father Tolan use to spend a lot of time watching us play basketball at the high school gym and we actually became good friends. He gave me lots of tips about how to be a better basketball player.

He came out of his parsonage one afternoon as I was walking home from school. His home was very close to where I lived and I would walk past it on the way home. He saw I was really troubled about something and came up and ask me what was wrong.

                                  

I broke down and told him the whole story right there by the fireplug on the corner near his place. We became close friends after that.

As I mentioned above I had actually gotten acquainted with Father Tolan through my basketball playing in high school. There were 4 or five of us including one Jewish boy that use to go over to Father’s place after Friday night basketball games instead of out carousing around like some of the others. We would verbally replay the games at his place and watch his color TV while having Pepsi and popcorn.

                

Father taught me a lot about growing up. He had sayings like “The Road to hell is paved with good intentions” and always made sure we showed respect when somebody did something nice to us like taking us out to eat.

Father was very ecumenical and didn’t ever mention anything about religion except that we should go to our own church and Sunday school every week.

My brother Jim played baseball for him and we attended most of the ball games. After every game Father would always come over to our house for strawberries and ice cream. He would come over in his T-shirt and just really enjoy himself.

                          

My dad was always pretty straight forward about everything and ask him one time why a catholic priest would come over to a protestant’s home like he did all the time. Father answered by telling dad that at our house he didn’t’ feel like he had to be a priest. (whatever that meant).

Father was the first one to ever take me to a fancy restaurant. I remember he took two other boys and me to “The Gold Coast Restaurant” in Fort Dodge, Iowa one night. I had never been to a restaurant like that before.

He would also take us to basketball tournament games in Carroll, Iowa at the Catholic high school.

         

                      Our trip to the Blackhills of South Dakota

One time he took another protestant boy and myself on a trip to the Black Hills where we met my blind uncle that was a chiropractor in Bella Fourche, South Dakota and stopped  at Father’s aunt’s farm near Wall, South Dakota. Father never did anything to make me disrespect him, ever.

I must say that I had some challenges with my dad’s mother, Grandma Logan. She was very narrow-minded when it came to Catholics. She wouldn’t even walk on the same side of the street as the catholic church she was so narrow-minded.

One weekend afternoon after on of my brother’s little league games Grandma Logan was visiting. Our phone rang and I answered. It was Father Tolan and he asked if he could come over for strawberries and ice cream. I had already told him about her narrow-minded attitude toward Catholics but he insisted. He ask me, however, if he should wear what he always did (T-shirt etc.) or his priest’s habit. I told him that it was up to him.

About 15 minutes, the front doorbell rang. (Usually Father always came in through our side kitchen door). It was father in his black habit and white collar. I opened the door and he made a bee-line right to my Grandma Logan who was sitting on the couch across from the front door.

He started taking to her and before the strawberries and ice cream were done they had discovered that both he and Grandma and some of her widowed lady friends all went down to the same place in McAllen, Texas about the same time in December and that the following December they were all going to be there at the same time.

Well there was a turn of events and attitude, to say the least. Father took Grandma and her friends out to eat and from that day forward you didn’t say anything bad against Catholics in front of her again. I don’t know what they talked about, but he had changed her narrow-minded attitude.

Father had advised me to forget about the girl in Eagle Grove which I was able to do without too much trouble and my sophomore year ended.  I was relieved to have gotten out of the girlfriend situation and my grades started getting better as well as my attitude.

Remember last year as Freshman we had won the “Red Jug” at homecoming  for the best homecoming skit? Well we won it again our sophomore year.

Next Blog I will pick it up in our Junior year…….