NATIONAL ATTENTION

     The Kornerman is always excited to learn about "one of our own" being involved in something positive gaining national attention.
     Barb Buechler Fosdick, BHS-67, tipped us off about her '67 "best friend" being involved in a Christian movie, "Virginia's Calling."
     When asked about this adventure, Linda Rasmussen Nieman (Don) explained, "this project has been my passion and my life for the last year and a half. I've been volunteering more than full-time, and loving every minute of it. It started when I told my friend, Barry Lyons, that I'd organize a fundraising event for the film project, and before I knew it,  I was co-producer, co-director and co-writer. Filmmaking turned out to be a totally unexpected, yet perfect, fit for my skill sets."
     Here's how a preview describes the film, "a self-described "God-and-country conservative" and "momma bear," Virginia is also a natural teacher, a gifted leader, and a committed homeschooler. She thinks climate change doesn't involve me. Environmentalists are "left-wing nuts." Then, her home floods in a hurricane. In less than three years, Virginia goes from devastated homeowner raging against God to environmental educator and local authority on flood control. Today, Virginia is more devoted than ever to her faith and her family. And she is still conservative to the bone. But now, she expresses these commitments in new ways."
     The film, "Virginia's Calling" has been selected for this year's International Christian Environmental Film Festival and is due for release soon.
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     Gary Knox, UC-58, wrote, "your West Boone memories triggered several for me. My first real date was a blind date with a West Boone girl the summer before my sophomore year. She was younger than me and it was her first date also. My older neighbor had been dating her sister and talked me into double dating with them. We went to the Boone Drive-in, were both scared stiff, sat far apart and hardly said a word the entire night. I never saw her again but I went to the Boone yearbook website and found her picture and noted that she had passed away. I remember, as a senior, my future wife and I went to the Boone Drive-in."
     Gary added, "the other memory was of a used clothing store in West Boone on the north side of old Highway 30 downtown West Boone. Our family wasn't well-to-do. My mother took my sisters and me there for clothes when we were in elementary school. Once, I got a like new, reversible light corduroy jacket. I was so proud of that jacket I loved wearing it to church and school. When I outgrew that jacket, my mother gave it to my cousin to wear and when mom died, we found that jacket in her cedar chest. When I was a freshman, I was going to sing a solo for state music contest. My Jordan vocal music teacher wanted to give me experience singing my two songs in front of strangers. The Spanish American War Veterans met in the courthouse and she arranged for me to sing for them. It was a room on the first floor. The men were quite elderly of course, yet, so dignified and they politely listened and applauded. And, of course, I took my driver's license test at the courthouse. We had to drive with a patrolman after we took the written test. Being a farm kid, I'd been driving tractors since age nine or 10 so it was a piece of cake. All I had to do was drive around the block and parallel park the car. I passed. I doubt anyone would be very interested in my West Boone memories but thought you might enjoy them."
     The Kornerman says, "hey, that's what we're all about......stories and memories and your recall prompted some memories I have of the very things you were writing about. I wonder whatever happened to that old green sweater, adorned by the big red "B," I had earned in some BHS sport?"
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     In the last edition, we had posed five West Boone business names and asked for idents.
     Tony Crandell apologized with an answer, "this probably isn't fair since all of them were on my paper route. Art Anderson had Anderson Hardware; Nancy Nicol operated Nancy's Cafe; Forest Thompson had Thompson Drug; Vern Whitmer had Whitmer's Jack Spratt grocery and Allie Kirkman was a dirt excavator and plumber. Allie and Claude Howard were the first two dirt excavator's in Boone. Both Allie and Claude had Shield Bantam machines which were invented and manufactured in Waverly in 1942. The Army bought a lot of them in WWII. Claude also lived in West Boone for a time. I think the term "Backhoe" originated with the Shield Bantam design."
     The Kornerman says, "here we go......now, Tony's reply has produced some more of the Kornerman's memories. I remember that my dad and his Superette grocery and Vern Whitmer were among many suburban Boone grocers trying to compete with the "big boys." So, my dad and Vern combined forces for the purpose of ordering more items together than they would individually. That "volume buying" cut down the cost a bit for each. Then too, I have these memories of Forest Thompson. Wasn't he a councilman at one time? Also, I believe Forest had married Mary Ellen's Dowd's mother and they raised Mary Ellen, BHS-51, and her sister, Patricia Dowd, BHS-48 in Boone. Mary Ellen has been Boone's gift to Broadway. In fact, M'el Dowd was a stage, musical, theatre, film actress and singer whose career spanned over 50 years. A highlight had to be a prominent role, as Morgan le Fay, in the famed production of Camelot on Broadway. Patricia passed away in 2003 and M'el died in 2012.
     Please tell me if I'm wrong on any of this.
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     BOONE CONNECTED DEATHS: Ron Tilley, 70, Granger/Boone. Born in Boone. BHS-68. Joined his dad working at Tilley Insurance in 1968 and in 1985, moved to Johnson and Sons Real Estate, where  he worked until retirement in 2016. Married Lynn Ann Behling in 1988. Was a Boone Little League coach for 43 years. Survivors include his wife, Lynn, and daughter, Amanda, as well as two sisters, including Sharon Engnell of Boone and a brother, Randy..........Joyce Abbott, 87, Creston. Survivors include a sister, Alice Shannon, of Boone.........Helen Osborn, 94, Des Moines/Fraser. Her parents were Viola and Peter Tabor. Helen retired from the Des Moines Public School District and moved with her husband, Hugh, to Fraser. The couple spent 59 years together. Survivors include two sons, a daughter-in-law, two brothers and two sisters.
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