Shari Stiver Archives

September 8, 2015

Wimpy’s As We Remember It

A couple of young newlyweds stopped by the house to talk about buying Mother’s 1977 Datsun pickup truck. Mother would tell us that she could count on two or three lookers a year for as long as it’s been parked there, but she’d always tell the prospective buyers that she was going to be buried in it. When the time came, we measured the truck, then we measured the available plot and decided that it wouldn’t work.

Anyway these kids were real Datsun fans and promised to restore it for actual driving as opposed to cannibalizing it for parts. Mark, David and I said we’d consider selling it to them on the condition that when it was in running order they’d drive by the cemetery and give Mother and Dad a couple beeps to let them know it had found a good home. But, more about that later if and when it’s a done deal.

Another visitor showed up

While the kids and I were swapping Datsun stories (I can’t remember if I owned three or four of them), another car pulled into the driveway. It was Terry Rose Crowell, from CHS Class of 1965. She asked if I was going to be in town Saturday, September 19.

I’m getting to the age where I don’t feel comfortable making plans that far in advance, but I allowed as how the possibilities were good.

She asked me how many tickets to the Wimpy’s event I needed. I said the only Road Warriorette close enough to go with me was Friend Shari in St. Louis, so I wouldn’t need more than two.

(When I called Friend Shari, she said she wasn’t sure if she could make it. Something about washing her hair.)

Lewis family to cook from original recipe

Here are details about the event that were posted on the Centenary United Methodist Church website:

Save the date for Wimpy’s night at Centenary and open house. On Saturday, September 19 from 11:00am to 2:00pm, the Lewis family and Centenary will be bringing back the original recipe, hometown favorite hamburgers. $10 will get you two classic Wimpy burgers, fries and a drink. Spread the word, bring your friends and family, then take them on a tour of our newly renovated campus. Volunteers are needed. Please contact Terry Crowell at 573-382-1123 for information.

The CHS 1960s email list said you could also contact Billy Sisco at Sisco’s Barber Shop (573-335-3545) for tickets. I saw somewhere else that only 600 tickets will be sold, so you’d better get yours while you still can.

I might have prints available

If I can find someone in Cape who can make some prints at a reasonable price, I may bring some to the event. I’m thinking of an 8×10 composite print of Wimpy’s as it looked in 1966. I won’t know a price until I find out how much they cost to produce.

April 24, 2015

World Book Day

I was driving down the road this afternoon when someone on the radio mentioned that this was World Book Day. That caused a flashback to some photos of the side-by-side offices Dad and I had in the basement.

This was my desk, which is uncharacteristically neat and clean. I’m normally a stacker. The radio dial is set somewhere to the middle, so I was probably listening to KFVS, which I think was 960. It’s doubtful I could have picked up my favorite stations: WLS out of Chicago, WLN out of New Orleans or KXOK out of St. Louis.

The reference books I still have on my shelf nearly 50 years later are to the left of the radio. The Olivetti portable typewriter followed me to Ohio University and points beyond. I passed it on to Brother Mark at some point, and he still has it.

My darkroom equipment was eventually set up behind me on a table and Dad’s workbench. These photos must have been taken before I bought my enlarger and other stuff.

Shari saving me from Algebra

Maybe I cleaned up my desk because Girlfriend Shari was coming over to try to drill algebra into my skull. If you blow it up big enough, you can see a hand-scrawled note on the wall that says, “When I’m right, nobody remembers; When I’m wrong, nobody forgets.”

Dad’s side of the world

Dad had a real office where he did most of his book work, but he’d also work on things at home. There’s a blueprint on the left side of the desk. That lamp hanging down is still in use, and the fan is still there. The book shelves gradually filled with books, mostly about Scouting, but there are still a lot of Pinewood Derby cars and wooden neckerchief slides gathering dust. There is a stack of aluminum film cans containing our 8mm home movies to the left of the light.

Getting back to World Book Day, I’ve always been surrounded by books and magazines. When we lived in a tiny house trailer that Dad pulled from job to job, there wasn’t a lot of storage space, so my comic book collection was housed in a wooden seat with a hinged lid back in my bedroom. When you are an only child (at the time) and living out in the boonies, your books become your closest companions.

Dad and my grandfather liked murder mysteries

I asked my grandfather, who lived with us, why he liked Earl Stanley Garden and Perry Mason books and not the fishing magazines I subscribed to.

“Because I can read a mystery without wanting to kill someone, but if I read a fishing magazine, I’d want to go fishing,” he answered.

Our family subscribed to The St. Louis Globe-Democrat in the morning and The Southeast Missourian in the afternoon. We must have gotten at least half a dozen magazines. If nothing else was available, I’d read the cereal box.

When I finally got a library card, I checked out as many books as I could carry. I made a tiny mark inside the books when I finished them. A few years back, I prowled the aisles of Cape’s library until I saw some old friends that still had the marks in them. If any of the book police are reading this, I hope they will forgive my youthful transgression.

March 29, 2015March 29, 2015

Gadsden County, Florida

Friend Shari, like most of my Road Warriorettes, likes to take the backroads. Part of it is that you can see more than on the Super Slab; part of it is that they may not want to be seen with me.

After going through the central part of Florida, we decided to take 90 across the Panhandle outside of Tallahassee rather than I-10. I was somewhat familiar with this part of the state from earlier stories – I documented U.S. 27 from Little Havana in Miami to Havana, Florida, on the Georgia line in 1990 – but I had not been to Quincy.

The homes and landscaping were striking.

“Our Fallen Heroes”

The city square was dominated by the county courthouse with a large statue to “Our Fallen Heroes” in front of it.

Click on the photos to make them larger.

Those are Confederate soldiers being honored

In case you missed the crossed swords and C.S.A. on the front of the monument, the back spells it out directly: “Sacred to the memory of the Confederate Soldiers from Gadsen Co. Florida who died in the defense of their country. Erected by the ladies of the Memorial Association of Gadsden Co. Florida, April 26, 1884.”

I asked myself, “How would that monument make a black man feel when he was being hauled into that courthouse in 1910?” Or somebody with New York license plates pulled over in 1965?

World Wars I and II

On the east side of the courthouse is a monument erected in 1950 by the American Legion “In Memoriam – Gadsden County men of World Wars I and II who gave their all that the world might have peace.”

All other wars

By May 25, 1998, the county commissioners decided that wars were coming so fast and furious that they’d lump them all together with a marker on the south side of the courthouse: “In memory of Gadsden County veterans who gave their lives during the Korean Conflict, Vietnam Era, Grenada, Lebanon, Panama, Persian Gulf.”

They were optimistic not to leave any space for future wars.

Domestic violence memorial

There was a surprise waiting on the west side of the courthouse: Two stones dedicated “In memory of victims of domestic violence in Gadsden County – 1990 to present.”

There are 19 names listed. One of them is Allen Dixie, born 1917; died 1996. Victoria Yon was born in 1936 and died in 1999. The year 2004 must have been a particularly bad year for Gadsden residents: four died that year.

Either people are behaving better now or interest has waned in keeping the list updated. The last entry was from 2005.

Big money in shade tobacco

Gadsden County’s website said the county is often associated with shade tobacco, Fuller’s Earth and Coca Cola. That echoes what someone told us down the road: “A lot of those old homes came from tobacco money.”

Only two places in the United States were suitable for the growing of the crop that was used to wrap cigars: the Georgia-Florida Shade Tobacco District, comprised of Gadsden and Madison counties in Florida, and Grady and Decatur counties in Georgia, and the Connecticut River valley in New England. In 1946, the website says, those two districts were producing 95% of American-grown wrapper leaf, and they represented a $100 million industry, of which $25 million was invested in land, equipment, barns, packing houses and operating capital in the Georgia-Florida area.

Fuller’s Earth and Coca Cola

Fuller’s Earth, a form of clay, was discovered by accident in 1893. It was originally used to clean and bleach cloth, but today it is also used in refining petroleum products and in kitty litter.

The website said “The bottling of Coca-Cola was begun in the county at the turn of the 20th century but its real value to the area came through the purchase of Coca-Cola stock. Many legends circulate about the personal fortunes gained from Coca-Cola investments. Miss Julia Munroe Woodward, daughter of banker M. W. “Pat” Munroe says, “Daddy liked the taste and he figured folks would always have a nickel for a coke.” Prices have gone up but “Mr. Pat” encouraged family and friends to invest in the stock before the beverage attained its world wide prestige. The increase in value resulted in a good many “Coca-Cola millionaires” residing in the county. One estimate says that there were 67 of them and another says that at one time, more Coca-Cola stock was held in Gadsden County than throughout the rest of the country. Whether that is legend or fact, Coca-Cola is the drink of choice of many families in Gadsden County.”

March 23, 2015

A Football Upset

Road Warriorette Shari and I rolled into Cape early Sunday evening. The 1,311-mile ride was pretty unexceptional most of the way: weather was good except for some heavy rain Saturday evening and light rain for a couple of hours Sunday morning. We DID see three unusual things Sunday afternoon.

Just south of Nashville, I saw a vehicle pulling a travel trailer slowing to a stop, so I passed him with plenty of room. Just as I got even with him, I saw flames shooting out of the left rear trailer wheel. It took 100 yards or so for me to stop and back down the shoulder to see if he was going to need an extra fire extinguisher. It turned out that he had a wheel bearing lock up, causing the grease to catch fire. Luckily, he noticed it before the tire started burning. The fire went out without us having to do anything; he called for roadside assistance, and I went on my way.

Brake lights and smoke

Near Paducah, I saw brake lights come on, a cloud of smoke and cars swerving. A minivan had blown a driver’s side tire. He, too, made it to the shoulder safely.

Not 30 minutes later, I was passing an 18-wheeler and saw sparks and smoke coming from under the trailer. I slowed in front of the driver, turned on my four-way flashers and motioned for him to pull over. It turned out that his spare tire had come loose and was dragging the ground. The rim bouncing up and down was causing the sparks, and the friction was causing the tire to smoke.

What does this have to do with football?

Actually, not a thing. I scanned this photo just before leaving West Palm Beach so I’d have something to post if I got in tired and late. I’m both.

This shows how the same photo can look entirely different depending on if you run it pretty much full frame, like at the top, or cropped in tight. The picture won prizes in Missouri and Ohio press association contests, but I don’t remember anything about what was happening here. You can click on the photos to make them larger.