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It was Veterans Day, November 1997. I was on a cross-country trip with my brother in his semitruck hauling furniture for Mayflower Van Lines.
I had just wrapped up my college degree that fall and was looking forward to spending some time with my brother and family. We had been in Denver, Colo. and Omaha, Neb. and then drove northeast through Iowa and Lake Okoboji into Minnesota. After making a stop in the Twin Cities to pick up a load, we were staying a couple days in Minnesota to pick up a second load before heading east to the State of Maine. Then it was off to New York City and West Virginia before heading home to Oklahoma. We pulled into a truck stop in Southern Minnesota after our stop in the Twin Cities and there must have been a foot of snow on the ground. My first thought, “Who the heck wants to live in a place like this?” In Oklahoma, I might still be wearing a T-shirt and no coat on Veterans Day. Not in Minnesota or even Iowa. A few weeks later in mid-December 1997, I was riding in the back seat of Ford Focus on my way from Williamsburg to North English while being interviewed for the editor job at the NE Record. I had interviewed that previous fall for the Williamsburg Journal Tribune editor job and didn’t get hired. This was my second try with Marengo Publishing Company and a newspaper job in North English. I was hired on Christmas Eve and landed in Iowa on Dec. 28, 1997. And of course, it snowed my first week on the job. It’s not quite as cold and snowy in our neck of the woods as it is in Southern Minnesota, but the weather here can still be quite frightful at times. I witnessed some big snowstorms, ice storms and some 20 plus below zero nights. And I remember the time I parked my company Geo Metro on Main Street in North English and it snowed overnight. The next morning, my car was buried in a pile of snow and I had to dig it out with a snow shovel. I wondered why there was no parking on Main Street after 2 a.m. And the wind, it’s crazy how much it blows around these parts. There’s lots of wind in our Nation’s Capital and Iowa has lots of wind, too. No wonder we have windmills all over the place. Some folks love the cold and snow. I’m not one of them. I’ll trade a snowstorm for a beautiful spring day anytime of the year. And to make matters worse, not long after moving to Iowa, I discovered the road closing gates on Interstate 35 outside of Ames and further north. “What the heck,” I’m thinking. “If it gets that bad to close the road, that’s too far north. Take me back to the south.” I may have moved back south, but God had other plans for me. Not only have I enjoyed and continue to enjoy a rewarding career, I met my beautiful wife, Debbie, at the Iowa State Fair in August 2003. And she just happens to be from Montezuma. I once drove through Montezuma and stopped on the south edge of town to grab a Pepsi out of my cooler. I never knew that I would work at the Montezuma Republican, met and marry Debbie, buy a house and much more. Life is good! I am more than happy to send this winter weather north to Minnesota. They love it up there. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.
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Who remembers video games from the 1970s and 80s like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Pong, Mattel Auto Race, The Oregon Trail, Space Invaders and more?
I do! As popular as the video games were back in the day, my favorite was playing pinball machines. I wasn’t that good at it, I just enjoyed spending my quarters and playing the latest pinball machine. Some of the top pinball machines of the day were “Wizard,” “Evel Knievel,” “Harlem Globetrotters On Tour,” “Hokus Pokus,” “Bow and Arrow,” “Kiss,” “Star Wars,” “The Addams Family,” “Fun House,” “Travel Time,” “Crazy Race,” “Capt. Fantastic,” “Old Chicago,” “Eight Ball,” “Fish Tales,” and “Flip Flop,” a four-player flipper pinball game. These are just a few of hundreds of pinball machines. I would love to have a pinball machine. Maybe something fishing or bowling. I used to enjoy traveling to Dallas from Tulsa and while there would visit Dave and Buster’s Arcade and Sports Bar. I could spend hours playing pinball machines and arcade games there. Catty-cornered from my boyhood home was Cue City, a pool hall and arcade. I spent many days at Cue City trying to be cool. I even had my own cue stick. Like pinball, I did all right, but never really mastered the game. I was much better at bowling. As we all know, video arcades are somewhat a thing of the past. Like newspapers, they are around, but not like in the heyday. One of our favorites stops when at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri is Dogpatch Arcade on the Bagnell Dam Strip. They have what seems like 100 Skee-Ball machines along with video and pinball machines. I can play Skee-Ball for hours. Today, everything is on our cell phones. I enjoy playing Solitaire and just recently added a new video game to my phone, “June’s Journey,” a hidden objects game. I am able to earn points by finding hidden objects and have already masted a half dozen levels. It’s mostly an unproductive waste of time, but it sure is fun! According to one article I read, it said there are nearly two million apps on the iPhone. Another one said there are 4.567 million apps and games in the Apple App Store. I’m sure it is an always evolving business of keeping people busy. No wonder folks these days are distracted and buried in their cell phones. I would like to have a cell phone that cooks supper and does the dishes. All I have to do is drag the cell phone over the plate or piece of silverware and it cleans it like new. Now that is an app I could get into. Debbie wouldn’t have to encourage me to do the dishes. Wouldn’t it be great if our cell phones could cook supper? How about a sirloin and baked potato from the cell phone café? In my opinion, one of the best things we can do for ourselves is leave the cell phone on the kitchen counter or the bedroom dresser and take time to relearn the art of conversation. Visiting is good for the soul. I enjoy spending time talking to Debbie and figuring out life together. It’s fun! We need to have more gatherings with friends and neighbors where everyone sits on the porch on a nice day, drinking an ice cold glass of ice tea while catching up on old times and talking about the good old days. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always. Back in the day, Sears and Roebuck was known for its catalog sales and huge department stores.
You could buy about anything through the Sears catalog, including a house at one time. I wonder if there are any Sears homes in Poweshiek County? I saw an article the other day that it has been 30 years since Sears last published its Big Book catalog. It was as big as the New York City Yellow pages and could keep any kid entertained for hours. The giant retail store isn’t much more than a Skelton of its heyday. The store has been through bankruptcy and has been bought and sold by various holding companies. According to an article I read on the internet, there are 42 Sears retail stores left as of mid-January 2023. There is also the independently owned Sears Hometown Stores and other various outlet stores. I don’t know a lot about those stores or how many are in Iowa. It was much different when I was a kid in the 1970s. A trip to Sears was like eating a fried chicken dinner with all the fixings on Sunday after church. The Sears store at 21st and Yale in my hometown of Tulsa, which was closest to our house, had a huge candy and popcorn stand. The popcorn was the best. The store featured a restaurant and three floors of everything from bicycles to furniture and clothing. They had tools, paints, housewares, appliances and much more. There was also auto repair available where you could purchase tires and DieHard batteries at Sears. It was hard to beat a DieHard battery. I liked riding the escalators up and down the different floors. As a senior in high school, I worked briefly (six weeks) in the customer pickup department at the Tulsa Sears. I carried my share of fireplace screens, televisions and buckets of paint out the door. I won’t go into detail, but my career with the company didn’t last long. I’m thankful for the experience. My mom often bought items through the catalog on numerous occasions. The Sears on Yale had a huge in-store catalog department. One Saturday, Mom stopped at the store with plans to order something. There wasn’t a soul at the counter. She could see them milling around in the back but no one came to take her order. It upset her, so she went to the pay phone inside the store and called the catalog department to let them know there was a customer waiting to be served. Like an army of ants, here they came. That’s the best dime she ever spent for a phone call. I bought my first 10-speed bicycle at Sears, a red, white and blue Free Spirit model, in September 1972 using money I had earned on my paper route. I still have most my Sears Craftsman tools that I received in 1978 as a high school graduation gift. I also have a 70s model Sears shop vacuum that still works more than 40-years later. It needs a new vacuum hose. They don’t build them like that anymore. We also bought many items from J.C. Penneys and Montgomery Wards. There was a Montgomery Wards catalog outlet less than a mile from my boyhood home. My mom bought a gas-powered weed trimmer there for my dad in the late 60s. I still own a Timex watch that my great-grandmother bought for me when I was age 7 at Montgomery Wards. It still works. I bought my first VCR at J.C. Penneys. I still buy clothes from J.C. Penneys nowadays. Shopping on-line is handy, but I miss the days of the giant retail outlets. At least I still have the memories. And I can make a tasty batch of popcorn as I order on-line. Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always. |
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