CATCHING UP

     Boone's Arnie Braland passed away the other day and news of his death, as well as the nightly sound of roaring engines, pretty much coincided with the start of the Boone Super National championships here this week.

      Thanks to the late Vern Carman and some others, Boone has hosted a Speedway track since 1967. And, then beyond, in 1988, the Super Nationals found their home here. For close to 40 years now, that event has made thousands of race fans, from all over this country, aware of Boone, Iowa.

       Arnie, of course, was not THE only great driver that participated in the races. Through the years, I covered many others.......Arlo Dorenbush, Freddie Van Cannon, George Barton and Greg Davis come to mind and I know I've missed some others who provided local race fans with lots of excitement on hot summer nights.

        Peace Arnie.....and thanks. 

 K-----K

     Interesting memories from Jerry Manriquez, BSH-57, regarding his history with Redeker Furniture. He provides lots of names and places but for some of them, I'm having a problem solving the timeline. From what I've been able to piece together, there have been four Redeker's locations. The original store was on Story Street between seventh and eighth streets. Then, a move was made to a Keeler street location followed by the old South Story store and in most recent years, the newest store east and south of Boone.

     Some of the names Jerry mentions, all former Redeker employees, are Ron Hopkins, BSH-59; Jerry Gilliam, BHS-48, Jim Bridges, BHS-46; Ben Pollard, BHS-59 and Glen Forster, BHS-60. Then, of course, there were the upper echelon, original owner/operator Fred Redeker; Stan Redeker, BHS-44; Stan's wife, Maxine Erickson Redeker, BHS-46; and Bill Currell, BHS-47.

     On the Story Street location there were three floors plus a basement and freight elevator. Jerry recalls that living room furniture was placed on the first floor; bedroom furniture on the second floor with kitchen furniture and hope chests on the third floor. A warehouse was part of the third floor and the freight elevator was operated by pulling a cable and to make a stop, you simply held the cable so it couldn't move. There, apparently, was luck involved if  the elevator floor became level with the store floor.

       Jerry laughed that "carpet, linoleum and used furniture occupied the basement and at Christmas time, Stan would invite postal employees to play cards there and he furnished the refreshments."

     In 1960, Jerry had returned home from naval service and worked at Redeker's while attending Boone Junior College. He had worked there earlier during his junior year at Boone Sacred Heart school.

K-----K

     Former Des Moines Area Boone Campus baseball coach John Smith was very proud of his recruitment of Corey Koskie, who spent two years on his Bears team. Koskie went on to have an excellent major league career until some injuries sidelined him.

     Earlier this season, Koskie was inducted into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame which I'm sure provided a smile for John who passed away earlier this year.

K-----K     

      Ann Onymous is at it again. He/She wrote, "why is Majorie Michelson still on your obit listing after about five years?

       Easy answer.......its because it has never been deleted just like all the others since we began this journey on March in 2010. I admit I've never really checked it out but I assume ALL the obits from that date on are still being listed. 

K-----K 

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