MY BOOK............... LILAGCS B2 - 8

Monday May 21, 2012

continue........

Going to Grade School

Second and Third grades

Second Grade (Miss Martin)

I entered my second grade year and discovered from my mother that the same teacher (Miss Martin) was her second grade teacher when she was in school many years before.

There were three major things that happen to me in second grade that have always stood out in my mind: a baseball cap incident, running into the side of the brick school house and a girl with pig tails named Helen.

I had a baseball cap that I wore all the time and one day one of my male classmates took it from my head as I went by and he tossed it into the girls’ restroom.

I was very upset and before thinking, ran into the girls restroom to retrieve my cap, Well, as you might guess there was a lot of screaming and commotion from the girls.

Well when I got back to my seat in the classroom, I was asked, By Miss Martin to come up to her desk. Some of the girls who had witnessed my entry into the girls bathroom had told her. Miss Martin then proceeded to explain to me that under no circumstances should I ever go into a girls bathroom. If something like that happens, I should come and tell the teacher so the teacher can get my cap. That was the last time I ever entered a girls bathroom again.

The second event that sticks out in my mind was the time I was playing out side at recess and one of my little girlfriends started chasing me. I ran and was not paying

any attention to anything except how close she was getting to catching me. The next thing I knew BLAM! I ran smack dab into the brick wall that held up the south side of the school building.

The force of the impact was so great that it knocked me down and I remember seeing some stars as I picked myself up and regained my composure.

I was then taken inside the school to my classroom where after looking at my bloody face I started to cry. I can remember Miss Martin comforting me and joking with me that next time I should watch where I was going.

The last story also has to do with my encounter with a girl classmate. I sat directly behind a girl named Helen that had pigtails. One afternoon I was tugging on her pig tails to get her attention when she jumped up and said in a loud tone of voice directed to Miss Martin that I was pulling on her hair.

Miss Martin new that she was rather cantankerous so she asked us both to come up front to her desk where she made the comment that maybe I was doing the because I was fond of her. We both turned a shade of red and returned to our seats.

Third Grade (Miss Kruse)

I must admit I was in love with my 3^rdgrade teacher Miss Kruse. I thought she was very attractive and she would always let me go and get the milk for our afternoon “milk time”. There was an incident that happened this year that would follow me to high school and on into college.

I had gone to a Halloween party to a friend’s house where we really had a good time. I was attracted to a third grade classmate that started at the party. The attraction continued into the next day and culminated when I kissed this girl on the cheek in the rear of the classroom in the clothes closet where we kept our coats. The girl’s first name was Caye and she lived in a house on the way to my grandmother’s house on East 4^th street. I remember that we would meet at the movie theater on Saturday afternoon from time to time. I don’t know what ever happened to her as we never met again until we were in high school and coincidentally met at a Methodist church camp at Okoboji. I will cover that later when I get to the high school stories.



MY BOOK...............LILAGCS B2 - 7

Saturdat May 19, 2012

Going To Grade School

Kindergarten thru 1st Grade

 I will now go back as far as I can remember to share with you my grade school years.

 The East school was the one that I would attend. It was also referred to as Reynolds School. I remember that Mom told me that she had also attended Reynolds school when she was a little girl, except it was a different building when she attended.  It was a wooden building. Sh e told me that one night she had a dream that the school burnt down and the next day, it did burn down!

I can definitely remember my first day of Kindergarten. I remember the classroom as if I was there right now. The teacher was very nice and very pretty. I recall that my mother came with me the first day of school.

     I wasn’t afraid and remember taking my rug to nap on and that is about all I remember about what I took to school. I remember that there was a special door that we would go out when it was recess time. I didn’t remember the teacher telling us that we would need to return through that door when recess was over.                                                                                                                                                    

I remember playing that first recess on a lot of the things there on the playground. The biggest thing I remember is that when the bell rang to go back in, I followed the crowd and when in the door that all the “big kids” when in and not the Kindergarten door. I remember being petrified and remember everything looked so big. I eventually was discovered and taken back to the Kindergarten classroom.

     During Christmas that year I had my picture taken by a lady from the Spencer Daily Reporter. That picture was run in the next issue showing me and a couple others of my classmates. We had some really neat building blocks to play with and lots of other toys. I can’t remember much more that resting on our rugs, going out for recess and playing in Kindergarten.

1^st Grade Year

My First grade year was interesting. The teacher’s name was easy to remember because her name was Miss Reynolds, the same name as the school.

I was excited when I was able to go to the first grade room. I recall being so amazed at the neat pictures and the alphabet cards placed on the top of the chalkboard. Miss Reynolds was so helpful to me it seemed. I don’t remember too much about doing anything except when it came time to learn to read. We had our books and the main characters were Dick and Jane plus their cat “Puff” and their dog “Spot”

My experience reading was all right. I was able to learn word by word the stories. They were short stories and I didn’t have too much difficulty pronouncing the words after Miss Reynolds pronounced them first. I would copy her speech.

I always enjoyed when we had our milk time. We took turns passing out the milk cartons, everybody got one. When it was parent visitation time, I remember mom came and sat in the back of the classroom. I would perform extra special when she was there. I delivered her milk when it was milk time. We also had art time and we drew different things, many times it was related to the stories we were reading at the time.

As I reflect back, we never had any pronunciation drills of lessons. Everything was done by sight. I remember I had asked to sit closer to the front so I could see better.

Each day when class was over, I would walk with Miss Reynolds on her way home. She lived in the same general direction that the Fire Station was so I could walk almost to her home before turning to go to my home.

Each time we got our “Report Cards” I was always excited. I most always got A’s in all my subjects that made me very happy and proud.

At the end of the year, Miss Reynolds announced that we were going to have our eyes tested. We were instructed to cover one eye and then the other and position our arm in the direction that the picture card in the front of the room was placed.

Discovered My Sight Problem

I remember that day after school when I went home I said to mom, “Mom, they covered up my good eye!” As it turned out I was examined and it was discovered I was almost blind in my left eye, I only had 19% vision and had to go to a medical doctor to get fitted with glasses. I remember it was Dr. Collester who worked with me; was also the doctor that originally delivered me when I was born.

I started wearing glasses at the age of 6 and really didn’t have too much trouble wearing them.

I was promoted to the 2^nd grade and later in life mom told me that Miss Reynolds told her that I was going to be a straight A student, she said I was very intelligent. Well that was only the beginning of my education and as I progress each year became more difficult.

M BOOK.............LILAGCS B2 - 6

Friday May 18,2012

Editor's note: This portion of My Blog Series "My Paper Route" Will end here. The next part of my LILAGCS Blog will go through my Grade School years at Renolds School (the East School) in Spencer, Iowa.



******************

Last Section about my Spncer Daily Reporter Paper Route

Returning home was always a good feeling and I enjoyed my paper route because of all the really neat people I met along the way.

Delivered the Spencer Reporter by airplane

There are a couple of things I want to add that were very interesting parts to my job as a paperboy. First, The Spencer Daily Reported decided to publish a Sunday edition while I was delivering and it was an extremely cold job in the winter. Secondly I think, not sure exactly of the date that the newspaper officials decided to deliver the Sunday paper by airplane. Yes you heard me correctly, by airplane.   This was to the rural farm areas. They would swoop down and drop the newspaper in a plastic bag to the ground below.

I was able to substantiate that event from one of my future bosses at Wallace’s Farmer Magazine where I worked in the 1980’s.

Mike Ford, my Wallace’s Farmer supervisor)said he remembered the airplane dropping the newspaper. He lived on a farm in rural Laurens, Iowa. He definitely remembered when that happened.

I also remember delivering the “Fair edition of the Spencer Daily Reporter.” It was over 1 inch thick with all the inserts and advertising. I would get my cousin Webb Summers to help me deliver the papers that we placed in my little red Flyer Wagon to pull the papers in. It would more than fill the wagon to overflowing.



MY BOOK................LILAGCS B2 - 5

Thursday May 17, 2012

Another favourite place next to the Spudnut Shop was the Bandbox movie theatre (an old Bijou theatre) that played mostly movies for kids. I remember I saw almost every Roy Rogers, Durango Kid, Gene Autry, Lash LaRue, Rex Allen, Johnny Mac Brown, and you name it western movies ever made.

In addition to the western movies (Cowboy shows as we called them) were the weekly thrilling serial of Superman and Kit Carson that would lure us to come back next week for the next episode.

I don’t remember the next few businesses but I remember another restaurant close to 2^nd street called the Johnson cafe. I remember it because while I was sleeping one night there was a fire alarm, which I slept through, and the Cafe burnt down. I missed seeing the whole thing and was very unhappy.

Then next was another interesting business, Yate’s Harness Shop. Mr Yates liked me and would tell me stories of his life back in Kentucky before coming to Spencer. He could and would twirl a rope around himself like you see cowboys do in movies. He would actually get out in the middle of the street and twirl the rope in a very large circle.

My next customer I will never forget either. Maud Smith. She was an old lady that was confined to her bed. I never did find out what her problem was, but she always wanted me to come in and talk to her for a little while. I did and her caregiver always gave me a piece of liquorish to chew on.

After Maud was the Yellow taxi cab garage and office. I would leave a paper on the desk and usually nobody was there. The Elks club was the next delivery. I would put the newspaper in a mail box slot in the door.

The Ford Garage was the last business on that block run by John Hart. I knew his name because he was a very popular Spencer Cardinal baseball supporter. Spencer had a semi-pro baseball team and a stadium south of town.

Remember My Grandma’s friend at the BeeHive had a grandson I use to play with all the time? Jamie West was his name, well his dad, Dick West ran the concession stand at the Spencer Cardinal baseball stadium and I was able to work at job selling popcorn and peanuts at the ballgames for him.

From the Ford Garage I went back across Main Street to the corner of Main and 1^st Street. On that corner was a Standard gasoline station operated by a good older friend, Stew Mackie. Stew was a fireman and also a pitcher on the Spencer Cardinal baseball team. He also would play catch with me all the time when he wasn’t busy.

One more business before I reached my home, the fire station. It was the Spencer Sewing Machine Company owned by a man that became very instrumental in helping my mother and I start our sewing machine lettering business while I was in college. Gil Gresslin was his name and his friend and later wife were very good friend of my mom and dad also.

MY BOOK..........LILAGCS B2 -4

Wednesday May 16, 2012

After I finished delivering the paper at the BeeHive I headed north again to Twettins (not sure of the spelling) Furniture Store. The next place I stopped was above the Fraser Theatre to deliver to an elderly lady, Mrs. Fraser.

Story about Mrs. Fraser

.......I have to pause and tell you a very interesting story about Mrs. Fraser and one time when I was collecting for the delivery of her paper. I remember being very apprehensive about knocking on her door but I did anyway. When she finally came to the door I told her that I was collecting for the newspaper. She handed me a paper bill and said you may keep the change. (She owed me about $3.50 as I recall)

I didn’t look twice at the money and stuck it directly into my money bag I always carried to put my money in...... (Jumping ahead to when I was counting my money at the end of my route) ......I all of a sudden discovered I had a $50 bill in my bag of money. She was the only one that had given me a bill that I didn’t look at before placing it in my money bag so I figured it must have been hers.

I return directly to her apartment to return the $50 bill. When she answered the door again she asked me in her usual gruff voice what I wanted. I showed her the $50 bill and said I thought she had given it to me by mistake. She grabbed the bill from my hand and after a few seconds hesitation looked at me and said she had thought it was a $5 bill. She all of a sudden got a big grin on her face and complimented me on my honesty and handed me a $10 bill and said it was my reward for being so honest. I never forgot Mrs. Fraser.

Now back to my paper route. I left a paper at the K & D Bootry Shoe Store next and then one at the Lynche’s drug store at the end of the block.

I then had to back tract to west 4^th and Main Street where I had left off before crossing Main Street. I had a few deliveries to make west down 4^th street at, like Medlar Studio, a Bowling alley, the Gambles store and a large grocery store (Council Oak Store, I think it was) all on the south side of the street. Then back to Main Street.

The Farmer’s Trust and Savings Bank was on the corner and above the bank and on the second floor were some doctor’s offices. Actually both my own doctors had offices there; Dr. Collester, who delivered me and fitted me with my first pair of glasses and Dr. Jones our family doctor who removed my tonsils when I was 5 years old. I left one paper at the desk in the reception area.

My next delivery was at a lady’s fashion shop, Ellerbrocks next door south of the bank. I think my next delivery was Spurgeons department store before getting to one of my favourite places, Miller’s Hamburger Shop.

Time for another Editors note:

Miller’s Hamburger Shop was introduced to me by my father. Millers were famous for their “Homemade Baked Beans”, not their hamburgers like their name might suggest. Their hamburgers were also very good and, at that time, very inexpensive. They were only 15 cents and that included all the trimmings.

On Saturdays, my folks would give me 35 cents and send me off to stop for lunch at Millers and then go to the movie (almost every Saturday this happened). I would spend 15 cents for the hamburger and 5 cents for a bottle of orange soda for my lunch.Back then I could go to the Bandox movie theatre just up the street, for a dime and get a box of popcorn for 5 cents. I was in seventh heaven with all that. Then I would walk to my Grandma and Grandpa Logan’s just down the street west from the theatre to visit my Great Grandma Austin and have some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and listen to her “wisdom talks” (I will share more about her later).

My next stop was at a tavern next door to Millers. I loved going in there even though it smelled bad (like beer). My Grandpa Logan would be sitting at a card table with some other friend playing cards. I would go over and greet him as usually one of his friends would whip out a nickel and ask me if I had any extra newspapers. The man counting out my newspapers most all of the time would give me an extra newspaper as a “bonus”.

I would sell the man a paper and be on my way again. My next stop was another grocery store. It was a small store called the Clover Leaf Grocery store. I was now at the corner of Main Street and West 3^rd street. I was very familiar with this corner because my Grandparent’s (my dad’s parents) apartment house was just a few places west down the street on the south side of the street.

On the corner was a western saddle shop and directly below in the basement level was a barber shop that I went to from time to time. Next to the saddle store was another tavern and then a store owned by Ben Shine and very nice Jewish man. I would go up some stairs to apartments above his store and always smell cabbage cooking from outside the apartments that he and his family lived. I had a number of other apartment customers up there. When I returned to the street level I was at a place I loved to smell, the Spudnut Shop. Boy they were good! I am told that they are still sold at the Clay County Fair in September.

MY BOOK..........LILAGCS B2 -3

Tuesday May 15, 2012

continued ..........LILAGCS B2  part 3

Mr Howe sold me a new bicycle, (a Murray as I remember that I used to replace one that I had worn out). I sometimes used it to deliver my papers. I also recall that I paid $2 a week from the money I earned from my paper route to pay for it. I think it cost $49.95.

The next customer was Bjornstad's Drug Store. I was able to pass through a door at the Hardware store to enter the rear of the drug store. This, I might add is the drug store where the 1931 fire started from a boy lighting sparklers that ignited the fireworks on display in the drug store. The fire destroyed many building on both sides of the main street in that location. It was that fire that caused fireworks to be banned in Iowa.

I heard many stories from the firemen when I was there living in the fire station. The stories I remember best were the stories my mother told me about her experiences with the fire. She was 12 years old and she and her sister, Imajean, were attending the Spencer Theatre when the fire broke out. She told me that someone came running into the theatre and told everyone to leave immediately.

Mom said that she took Imajean by the hand ( she was a few years younger than my mom) and started for my grandfathers auto repair garage located on 1^st avenue east directly one block east of the theatre.  She said that when they arrived at the garage the fire had spread so fast that sparks were floating through the air.

She said that grandpa instructed her to take Imajean and go home which was east of there and away from the downtown area. She then added that grandpa took an old bed mattress he had in the garage, soaked it with water and took a garden hose to the roof and proceeded to extinguish the sparks as they landed on his roof. He put the sparks out so they would not set is building on fire.

Another story I remember hearing was that the fire fighters had to pump water from the Little Sioux River just south of where the fire station was located because they were running out of water from the city source. A number of surrounding towns were called and responded to the fire call as far away as Sioux City, Iowa.

Some of the Spencer firemen who shared stories and pictures with me were: The fire chief Oscar Stouffer, Leo Parks, Cliff Hodges and George Franklin to name a few.

After delivering a newspaper there at Bjornstad's Drug Store, I crossed Main Street to the East side and delivered back north starting at the Rexall drug store on the corner of 4^th street east and Main Street. There were a number of apartments above the drug store and the next business, the BeeHive. Grandma had a good friend that worked in the fabric depart in the BeeHive, her name was Bessie West and Bessie’s grandson, Jamie was a good friend that I played with

MY BOOK...............LILAGCS (B2) 2

MY Parer Route Part 2

(continued  from Part 1)     

Somewhere next was a restaurant called Stub’s. It was the forerunner to the Stub’s cafe at the Clay County fair and also there was a Stub’s Ranch kitchen out south of town on the east side of highway 71. (My Grandmother’s use to love eating at all of them) One interesting note about the Stub’s I delivered a newspaper to was that one of the waitresses was the mother of one of my close Cub Scout friends, Kenny Harris. Mrs. Harris I think had worked there for a long time and she didn’t even have to write the orders down on a pad, I remember I was so amazed at her ability to remember the orders so well.

Here I am going to take a trip to my Cub Scout activity that I thought about when I mentioned it in the paragraph above. I attended Reynolds school (that was also known as the East school. In third grade I was old enough to join the cub scouts along with some of my other classmates. The other classmates that I recall were: David Polzin, Kenny Harris, (as I mentioned above), Hugh Tate, Kent Nelson and Kent Rozean. There were 6 of us and Mrs. Polzin, the other David’s mother, was our den mother. The Polzin’s lived right across the street from the school and made it very easy to walk there after classes was finished.

Now back to my paper route. After Stub’s cafe was a paint shop. It was owned by a man named Art Loats which also bore his name. Hanson’s Men’s Clothing Store was located in there somewhere as was the Spencer Music Store that I delivered a paper to.  Then I think there was small grocery store and then another cafe called Peterson’s Cafe as I continued south.

I remember Peterson’s Cafe because I would purchase small container of peanuts and in the small container would sometimes be a prize of money. The most I ever found at the bottom of the small containers was a 25 cent piece. (That was always an exciting find!)

I finally arrived at the corner where a department store where David Polzin, my Cub Scout friend’s dad worked called Davies. My friends dad’s name was Henry Polzin) I think Davies was on the corner of 5^th street and Main. I would then turn west down 5^th street and deliver papers to a couple of customers between the Main Street corner and the post office. I crossed the street south and I delivered a paper to Dr. Fair’s office. He was an optometrist and the one that fitted me with my first pair of 20/20 glasses.

Walking back East to Main Street put me on the corner where the Singer Sewing store was located. I had some customers up above the Singer Store and Leuthold and Crouse Men’s Clothing Store was located south next to the Singer Sewing Store.

The next delivery that I recall was in the basement level of a department store called Feldman’s. Feldman’s was unique in that it had an elevator and I use to love to ride the elevator down to the basement level to deliver a newspaper to the lady customer down there.

Continuing south after Feldman’s is a bit foggy. I know that there was a bank, Nelson’s Jewry Store in there somewhere before I got to the next customer that I remember, Bjornstad's Hardware Store. There was a very nice man that was neighbors to my Grandma Niemand on East 4^th street and his name was Bob Howe. Mr Howe had two boys and a girl that were close to my age that I use to play with when I was at Grandma’s house.

MY Book...............LILAGCS (B2) 1

My Paper Route

Sometime around my 6^th grade I become interested in having a paper route. I remember a couple of brothers from school got me interested in having a route. I am not sure how I got so lucky, but I was given a route that totally covered the business district of the town. To start with it was mostly on the West side of the main Street of Spencer. I say to start with, because as I will explain later I eventually got both sides of the main business district.

I started at the Spencer Daily Report’s office and went South to where I lived, the Fire Station.

I will start when I picked up my 121 newspapers in the basement part of the Spencer Reporter building and counting them I started my route. My first customer was a small print shop in the basement of the Tangney Hotel. I found the printing business to be an attraction to me. Back then all of the type in that print shop was lead type and it was all “handset”. You pretty much had to think backwards when placing the type in the type holder and guess what, for a dyslectic that was a natural thing.

I ended up working in the printing and publishing business later in life (Wallace’s Farmer Publishing, Farm Progress Publishing, Garner Publishing and my own printing and sign painting business in my future career days.

From the small print shop I found myself going up some steps to a Barber Shop directly above the print shop. This was interestingly enough the first place I was taken for my first haircut by my dad and mother about 11 years before. I was about 12 ½ now.

Now let me point out something, I am not able to remember all of my paper customers but I will try to recall as much as I can as I walk down Main Street to my last customer....the fire station and my own home. The next delivery that I remember making as I walked south along the West side of Main Street were some law offices and below the law office was another barbershop.

I remember there were two men with the last name of Green who were brothers to the barber that had cut my hair in the Tangney Hotel shop. There were three Green brothers that were all barbers. (Funny what I remember! sometimes I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast some mornings) I used the last comment I took from a very good friend, Kelle Hoskins) Kelley was my locker partner for all our high school years in Sac City.