KEN ALDAG, MEL MURKEN CHECK IN

     Received a note from a good old northsider, Ken Aldag, BHS-54, with confirmation news regarding his buddy, Ev Hickman. Ken wrote, "there has been some question about Ev working for KWBG. Ev did work there during his senior year at BHS-53/54, announcing, reading the news and DJing. He arranged for the high school speech classes to, occasionally, produce and present shows on the station. When he graduated and started at Drake University, he would still come back to KWBG to DJ, etc. on Sundays. I was going to Boone J.C. that year and would meet him at the station and help select records and catch up on our lives. In May of 1955, Ev got his first job at WHO and his KWBG days ended. As we all know, he had a 40+ year career there. I had a recent communication with his daughter, Marianne. Due to COVID-19, the memorial service planned in Boone for next month has been postponed. The family may wait until next year when, hopefully, things will be back to something resembling normality.
K-----K
     Just had a call from old buddy, Mel Murken, BHS-59, who lives in retirement in Rippey.
     That little community is about 150 years old and they had a big celebration planned for next month. Unfortunately, now it has been postponed. It will be held June 5, 2021, instead.
     Mel, a real baseball  man, had been working for many months to make an old-timer's baseball game a key part of the celebration.
     Obviously, he's disappointed but as I told him, "now, we just have to live another year" to participate in that.
K-----K
     I know I bring this up quite often and the reason is.......a majority of Korner viewers are no longer in the Boone area and, in fact, most are out-of-state. Whereas those of us who live in central Iowa are well aware of the tremendous growth of the Des Moines suburbs, many KK followers would not be familiar with this surge.
     This info was contained in a recent Des Moines Register article and talks about increases since 2010.
     Waukee is the city's fastest growing city of more than 20,000 population with a growth of 74-percent and an actual count of almost 25,000 residents.
     Ankeny grew nearly 48-percent with a current population of 67,355, which is almost more than the 67,899 who live in West Des Moines.
     Johnston grew nearly 31-percent, 22,582, and West Des Moines grew by 20-percent.
     A little further away, Grimes now has a population of 14,804 and Bondurant is up to 6,958.
     Quite a change in the last 10 years.
K-----K
     On the Don Williams Park road, we got about a mile south of the east-west Pilot Mound road and noticed a business in a farmyard there......one of those trailer-types you see at celebrations hawking funnel cakes, corn dogs, popcorn etc. AND, they were busy......a line of cars waiting for their order.
     Have no clue as to their operational hours or how they let people know what those hours are. Interesting.
K-----K
     A reminder: Make it a habit to take a look at our Korner blog EVERY DAY as we institute our new policy of placing known and official deaths on the blog immediately, rather than holding them until Wednesday or Saturday.
     We are doing this to, more quickly inform viewers of area residents who have passed.
K-----K
     BOONE CONNECTED DEATHS: Mike Duncan, 63, Fraser. Born in Boone. Grand HS-76. Married Melody Sebring in 1979. Worked as an auto body repairman for over 35 years prior to retirement in 2016 due to illness. Served on the Fraser council and Grand school board. Survivors include his wife, Melody, of Fraser, daughter, Jessica Hicks of Pilot Mound, son, Joshua Duncan of Fraser, his mother, Mary Duncan, of Boone, a sister, a brother, Bobby Duncan, of Boone and  a sister-in-law........Jane Norris, 85, Marshalltown. She married David Norris in 1956 and the couple lived in Boone in 1959. She was a news correspondent for newspapers in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Dubuque. Her husband and two adult children survive........Larry Bell, BHS-66.
K-----K
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