Friday June 27, 2014
*********************
Tribute To A very Good Friend !
There are some of you that may remember Denny Wessels
Denny went to be with our Lord a short time ago and he will dearly be missed by his wife, Family and especial those of us that had the honor of knowing, working Playing and eating with him. I want to take this opportunity to reminisce some of the great things that he and I experienced together.
I went to work at Farmers Regional Cooperative as my first real job using my art degree from college. I started in the Advertising Department that was closely associated to the In-Plant print shop. Denny was the manager of the print shop when I started. The first day I was there I was pretty uncertain of myself, but Denny came up at the morning coffee break and invited me to join him for coffee. I jumped at the chance to visit with someone. Denny told me about a new house that he and his wife Ardith (Ardy) had recently purchased and moved into on the Northeast part of Fort Dodge, not too far from Felco, where we worked. I was all ears and so excited to hear all about his new home.
During the course of his explanation of his new home he informed me that he had purchased some shrubs and four or five small trees to add to the outside of their lot.He was hinting that he could use a little help after work in planting the shrubs and trees. I told him I was doing nothing and would be glad to help him out.
We went home to his new house after work that afternoon and his wife, Ardy met us in the front yard of their new house and expressed her feelings for him talking me into helping him plant the shrubs and trees. She said the least she could do was offer me supper with he famous German chocolate cake for desert. Well I look back now and remember why she felt that way. It seems that we had over 200 honeysuckle shrub seedlings to plant and four small trees.
We ended up planting by the headlights of his uncle Don’s pickup until well after midnight. We got it done but I will never forget that experience as my first encounter with Denny. Ardy and Denny never forgot either, we would kid about it from time to time. The German chocolate cake was a symbol of that night and we had it often when we would go over to their place.
Denny and I became very close friends and worked together at Felco as well. There were many other things that I remember doing with Denny. He took me to the first café (if you could call it that!) where I had my first “Coney” (hotdog with chili sauce on a bun). We went to a place that he took his daughter to when Ardy wasn’t looking! It was called “Mike’s” and it was downtown Fort Dodge on one of the side streets. It was very small with only about 8 bar stools and 4 sit-down style booths. Mike would prepare the Coney's as we ordered them from behind the counter, along with French fries many times. I always had 2 Coney's and Denny had at least 3 and sometimes 4. He was a big eater!
One thing I will never forget is that the ceiling inside sloped downward the closer you got to the back end. Mike had a fella that washed dishes, stooped over,cause he was to tall to stand up straight. He would also come out from his dish washing to mop the floor in the main part of the place and we would have to lift out feet to let him mop under our table many times while we were eating. We went there almost once a week. We never told Ardy how much we ate either, but I have a feeling she already knew!
Another eating experience was the pizzas at Pasqualies Pizza. When we went there, Denny would order a Large pizza and eat it all himself. I could maybe eat half a large pizza to try and keep up with Denny.
All our fun times had to do with food, it seems. We also had this place at the East end of the main Fort Dodge business district called Ethel’s. She mad the best eggs, hash browns and large sausage patties that I ever remember eating. We would sneak down there almost once a week and have our Ethel’s breakfast that really made the week for us.
There were many other eating events and also can’t forget the dance club that we joined and would go out after it was over for breakfast, usually about 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning.
Well I am sure if I think I could come up with many more “fun experiences” we had together. Like remodeling their basement and the water problem they had and he almost spent enough for a small city water plant for just his house and lot.
I also remember his fishing drive. We went up to Bemidji Minnesota to Legion Lake 3 or four years in a row and man did we have fun playing “spoon” and eating Maid Rites in Bemidji!!!!
I will miss Denny and will keep this Blog as a reminder of the many, many good times we had. I just hope his family knows how much I loved Denny and will always remember his smile!….Dave
No comments:
Post a Comment