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.