Rummikub, cubed

"March 22, 2002:  Another "blah" day -- felt like I was getting a cold.
March 23, 2002:  Nancy and I to Winside.  Had corned beef and cabbage for dinner at Greta's.  Played Rummikub in the p.m.  Had Omaha Steaks for supper and then more Rummikub.  I slept in Lester's recliner.
March 24, 2002:  Palm Sunday -- went to church.  At noon went to auditorium for a pork sandwich dinner put on by a new 4-H club.  Played Rummikub again.  Left for Lincoln at 4:00.  Started to snow at Valparaiso.  Snowing pretty good when we got to Lincoln.  Had a grand weekend."

Either Grandma wasn't getting a cold after all or she pulled herself together to have a pretty busy weekend.  I really like the word "grand" used in the way she used it.

My project from the Winside history book ended up being bigger than I thought, so I'll have to crunch it down for this blog.  There is a listing of the different businesses/occupations in Winside by decade from 1886 to the 1940's.  I put them all on a grid to see how businesses came and went.  While it is interesting (to me, at least), it takes up four and a half, legal-sized sheets of paper so I really cannot scan them and use them as my "photo of the day".  I'll just list the different businesses I found:

Winside had, at one time or another, the following as listed in the book:

Agent* (I assume this was something with the railroad)
Bank
Barber
Beauty shop
Billiards
Blacksmith*
Cafe
Contractor/builder
Cream station
Dentist
Doctor*
Drayline
Drug store
Dry goods/groceries
Elevator*
Feed store
Filling station
Garage
General merchandise
Hardware*
Harness shop*
Hotel*
Ice
Implements*
Lawyer*
Library
Light plant
Livery stable
Liquor store
Livestock, grain & coal
Lumberyard*
Lunch counter
Mail carrier
Meat market
Notary
Photo studio
Picture show
Planing mill
Plumber
Postmaster*
Produce station
Radio
Real estate
Restaurant and rooms
Rooming house
Saloon
Section foreman
Shoe shop
Special police
Tailor shop
Tire repair shop
Trucking
Undertaker
Veterinarian
Winside Roller Mills
Winside Tribune
Winside Watchman

*Indicates those having an entry for all timeframes listed.  There was a newspaper during the entire time, but first the Winside Watchman and then the Winside Tribune.

The photo is the first I came upon that had both Mom and Nancy in it, and since they were both part of the grand weekend, I thought it appropriate to feature them.  You can both thank me later.

Matter settled?

Since this is of such a burning importance, I will not even use anything new from Grandma's journal today.  I truly want to get to the bottom of the Valentine's Day Mystery.

Above you see a copy of what Grandma wrote.  Nancy says she is the one that took Chinese food to Grandma on Valentine's Day -- that it was their 'thing'.  She recently wondered aloud if I had mistyped and should have put her name instead of mine.  I acknowledge that that certainly is a possibility, but as it turns out, not on this occasion.  I do not remember taking Chinese food to Grandma on Valentine's Day in 2002 so I am not prepared to argue that my memory is better than Nancy's. 

Grandma called me Nancy sometimes, I do not know if she ever called Nancy by my name.

Grandma wrote just my name and then later added Mitch and Anna.  I do not know if that means she meant to put Nancy but some time later when she saw just my name, she assumed I would have brought the kids and she added their names.  I simply do not know.

So, I do not know that I have helped with the mystery, or just made it more complicated.

Hmmmm

Well, Grandma's journal must be at the house after all.  I may have put it somewhere ridiculous during cleaning, but hopefully I can lay hands on it tonight.  So, there is no news about 2002 for today and the mystery of whether Grandma mis-wrote or I mis-typed regarding Valentine's Day will have to remain a mystery a bit longer.

Restaurants, schmestaurants

"March 19, 2002:  8:45 appointment this a.m. at Bryan Hospital to have circulation in feet tested.  Nancy took me.  At noon Mary took me for my weekly shampoo and set.  In the evening to Delores's apartment and played Rummikub.
March 20, 2002:  Mary came at noon for lunch.  Tom came in evening -- we ate -- he did the laundry -- I took a shower and then we played Rummikub.
March 21, 2002:  Loafed around all day.  Called Myrtle in the morning.  Tom came at 7:00 and we went to Grasanto's, an Italian restaurant -- good eating!!!"

I just have to poke a bit of fun since the restaurant was actually Grisanti's.  But, Grandma was close.  Much closer than Aunt Irene when she was trying to think of Tony & Luigi's and instead asked if we could go back to that one place . . . Anton & Frank's.  I still giggle about that one, but only because Aunt Irene did once we figured out where she was talking about.

I am going to work on a little something from the Winside history book to see if it is as interesting as I think it might be.  If it is a "go", I'll include it in a later post.

Speaking of Aunt Irene, here's a very lovely photo of her with some greatgrands.  I think we all look very cute in our 80's attire.

Some crazy running around

"March 16, 2002:  A 9:30 breakfast in the Party Room for St. Patrick's Day.  Mitch and Anna here in evening.
March 17, 2002:  Nancy brought pizza for our dinner.  We played several games of Rummikub.  I took a shower while Nancy vacuumed.  Talked to Greta in a.m.
March 18, 2002:  Merilyn left yesterday to go to Tacoma.  Maria is scheduled for back surgery this week.  Played Seven Up this evening."

Pretty normal stuff from Grandma.  So, it's Winside history again.  This article does not have a source, so I can't say who wrote this piece.  Not that we would know them, but it might shed some light on any biased reporting.

1927 Foot Race

December 25, Irvin Leary, better known to his friends as "Farmer" and Louis "Butch" Ehlers seemed to have difficulty in deciding upon the price to be paid for two calves that Farmer wanted to buy.  They were still about $10 apart when the thought of running it off was suggested by Butch.  At first they thought 100 yards was long enough but it was finally changed to about a mile and a half.
Butch only weighed about 225 pounds while Farmer was built along the lines of Nurmi or perhaps Hahn or Ritola, but Butch's confidence was supreme and the race was going to be run.

They started from the crossing near the Winside cattle yards and after starting out at a brisk dog trot, tired and fell into a walk until they reached the Frank Dangberg farm.  From this point both decided to make one supreme effort for victory, the finish of the race being on the summit of the steep hill south of the Dangberg place.  Both dashed forward about the same time, Farmer gradually leaving Butch in the rear.  It appeared that both might collapse before they reached the top, so groggy from exhaustion were the two principals, but Farmer was not to be denied and kept pressing forward until he crossed the line, but he could not have gone much farther as he had nothing left.  Butch was game but about half way up the hill, he fell from sheer exhaustion and lost the race.  Farmer won but insisted afterwards that no more disagreements will be settled by the "Marathon Route" as far as he was concerned.

Okay, so I had to look up Nurmi and Ritola and Hahn.  I didn't find a Hahn that had the proper birth year to be considered, but Nurmi and Ritola can both be assigned to Finnish runners who were alive and running in 1927.  Both were slender guys.  So, I am thinking that Farmer was a big guy and Butch was most definitely not, which does add quite a bit to the story if you visualize the race that way.  They sure knew how to have a good time in Winside back in the day.  I wonder how many spectators there were.

The photo is of Ville Ritola.

A wild time in the old town

"March 12, 2002:  Mary took me for my weekly shampoo.  Julie will graduate so I'll have a new girl next week.  Deloros called this evening and I went to her apartment to play Cribbage.
March 13, 2002:  Nancy took me to the doctor for a 10:00 appointment.  He increased one of the pills to two a day.  Home in time for Mary to come for lunch and I had my shower.  No Book Club meeting tonight.
March 14, 2002:  Myrtle called this a.m.  A "blah" day.  In evening Deloroes called -- she came and we played Scrabble.
March 15, 2002:  Another "blah" and dreary day.  I sorted a little of my accumulation of "stuff"."

I added a fourth day in this post when I normally have been using just three.  I saw that Grandma described her day on the 14th as blah and I felt badly that she had a blah day.  But the 15th seems to indicate she was probably remarking about the weather, so I didn't want to leave a different impression until tomorrow for my dear readers.

You will note that Grandma's friend's name spelling changes from post to post.  I seem to recall it was spelled other than the usual Delores, but since I do not remember how she spelled it, I am just going with whatever Grandma has.  I bet we get it right some of the time.

Continuing my Winside history theme, here is another feel-good story.

Armistice

November 11, 1918 -- Germany Signs Armistice -- Winside "tore loose" about 4 o'clock Monday morning, when the news was flashed into town that Germany had signed the Armistice offered them by the allied nations.
Never again will we live to see such a spectacle in Winside.  Bells ringing at the three churches, at the school house, the fire bell and the fire whistle, linked with the hum drum of pistols, guns, gongs, tin pans and a score of other noises.  Nearly 300 men, women and children were on the streets by 5 o'clock and they passed back and forth on Main street, flooding forth the joy that welled up within them, because the great war was over and the Kaiser and his evil powers lie in abject surrender at the feet of the world.

In the afternoon the Home Guards did some drilling at the town hall square and then headed a parade through Main street.  Rev. J. B. Wylie and Rev. Wm. Smith then gave talks from an automobile.  In the evening the crowd delighted themselves with fireworks and the burning of boxes -- and of course the shot guns and revolvers were in for their share of the celebration once more. -- Winside Tribune.

I don't think much more needs to be said about that.  I think the Winside Tribune did very well for itself.

Here's Anna enjoying(?) some 4th of July snakes some 80 years after the big day in Winside.

Winsiders (?) are clever

"March 9, 2002:  Clear and sunny this morning but only 14 degrees.  Anna and Mitch here this evening.
March 10, 2002:  Nice day.  Nancy came for dinner.  I took a shower and then we went to Diane A.'s home (Allen's wife).  Saw Diane's 13 birds -- all had names -- parakeets and cockatoos.  Nancy and Diane went over the names of those attending Allen's funeral.  The largest cockatoo called, "Mom! Mom!" when Diane left the room when we were going home!
March 11, 2002:  Nine people played Seven-Up this evening."

I am thinking Nancy remembers this day.  Since we aren't "bird people" in our family, I imagine Grandma got a kick out of seeing all those birds.  Her exclamation point rather makes my case, I think.

I am enjoying the Winside history book, so here's some more.  I had the pick of a fire, some gruesome murders, or this story.  I picked the happier one.

Stored Oats -- 1895

In 1895 everyone had a fair crop of corn and an exceptionally good crop of oats.  Oats being low in price, R. R. Smith, the manager of the P. V. Elevator Co., stored 5000 bushels in the bin for higher prices.  Later when the oats were still in the bin, Mr. F. H. Peavy, the president of the company came down to see Mr. Smith about it as it did not sound reasonable that he could possibly have that much oats in a bin of that dimension.  The Bonding Company and the Insurance Company representatives also came into town and asked about it, figured, stormed around, told the town people that the man was crazy.

Mr. Smith, (commonly known as P. V. Smith, as there were several Smiths here at the time) had been studying up on elevators and equipment from magazines and books and had come across a device a man had made to measure oats in the bin without removing them.  He went over to Frank Tracy's Hardware and had him make a funnel device that could be run down in the oats bin, which was about 18 feet deep and very little head room above, that would take a test of the oats.  This was done by using pump rod in short sections and added as the test device went down into the bin.

Mr. Woodard, the superintendent under Mr. Peavy, was here at the time, and he donned overalls and went with Mr. Smith to the top of the bin that was to be measured with this "new idea".  They spent about a half a day testing in different spots, going down to the floor each time and placing the samples that they brought up in a test measure.  This was taken down and weighed, upset on a paper and examined for sand and dirt.  There was no sand or grit in the oats and it weighed 48 pounds to the bushel.

A little later this oats was shipped out by rail to the Great Lakes for European export and it weighed the same amount, 48 pounds to the bushel.  -- R. R. Smith.

One must note that the author of this submission to the history book is R. R. Smith, the same Mr. Smith in the article, or a relative, so there may be a teensy bit of bias in the reporting, but I do not care.  I love this story and I think Grandpa would have gotten a kick out of it.  (Perhaps he read the same history book and knew this story.)  I can somewhat visualize the suspicious company folk and the calm, mild-mannered Mr. Smith getting the job done in spite of them.  I think I may watch too many movies . . .

But I digress.  The mention that R. R. Smith was known as P. V. Smith (from the name of the elevator, obviously) put me in mind of family talking about nicknames for people back in the day, again because there was more than one person with the same first and last names.  The only ones I remember are Whistle Pete (who whistled), Fiddle Chris (who played the fiddle) and I believe Forty Pete (who owned 40 acres).  Gotta love it.