Trivia

Hello everyone I have more Esmond Trivia and a few stories. My email isverck@srt.com if you wish to contact me.

A TRIP TO ESMOND
I motored down to Esmond to attend the funeral for Roy Gefroh. It was sad to say goodbye to Roy, but good to see friends and relatives. After the services, we went to the church basement for lunch. I gave all the older Esmond girls a hug. Agnes Grossman was there and in her beloved German accent she said, “I bed you wouldn’t efen know Ron now. He loogs like hees gonna have triblets.” Afterwards, some of us went up to the school and went inside to admire the progress on the Alumni Center. The trophies were collected in boxes sitting in the “shot room” (a.k.a. the teachers’ smoking lounge). I felt a sense of pride looking at those trophies. Then I imagined hearing the “voice” come over the intercom “Vernie Erck, please come to the office.” I probably heard that once or twice during my years at Esmond Public School and I probably wasn’t called there to get an award. When I left the school, I drove to my old stomping grounds on the south side of town. I drove down Ben Sabbe’s alley where we once knocked down a beehive. Those bees chased us for over a city block. They were mad. I also noticed that Little LuLu house was gone. The trees were thick around John Marthe’s abandoned house. Black’s house and the haunted house were gone. Around the corner was Clarence Jensen’s house. It had a #56 on it, so if you are wondering around in the middle of the night and come across a house with 56 on it, you are in the southwest corner of Esmond. On my way out of town, I stopped at the locker plant and bought some of that great smoked garlic German sausage for myself and for neighbors in Burlington. Good stuff.

BORED IN THE LIBRARY
One day I was hanging out in the library at school to pass the time. I was paging through a magazine and found an ad on orthopedic shoes. So I decided to sign Dean Black up to receive additional material about these special shoes. It didn’t take long and he started receiving info in the mail about orthopedic shoes. He couldn’t figure out why he was getting this particular sort of junk mail. I finally told him. So if you ever received strange mail and had no idea where it came from, who knows…I was probably sitting in the school library wasting time.

SCAREY THINGS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Elling Jensen had a dog named “Spike” that scared everyone in the neighborhood. We avoided that dog at all costs. Then there was Tilly Turtan. She was quite elderly and had a very wrinkled face. I had read Hansel and Gretel and felt a strong connection. Who knows, she was probably the sweetest lady in town, but there was no way she was going to put me in one of her cages. She had a very fine rhubarb patch right in plain view that went unscathed. I wasn’t going to go near it.

SUPER SATURDAY NIGHT
Firecrackers are on sale, 13 Ghosts is showing at the theatre, and there is a 25th anniversary at the hall. The six o’clock whistle has barely shut down and I’m preparing for all of the night’s activities. The show was so good last night wearing, especially the 3-D glasses we wore when the ghosts appeared on screen. Tonight we are planning on throwing a smoke bomb into the corner bar right after the show. If there is enough time left we will head over to the hall and sneak a glass of beer when Benno isn’t looking. Maybe James Keller or one of those other guys will be cruising Esmond and we can tease ’em and run like the wind. It is going to be a action packed night so I am here early to get everything ready to go. I have purchased the smoke bombs and now have to “sneak” a few pop bottles from behind Ann’s to get enough money for the show again.

The show is over now and every one is still scared. If I’m lucky, maybe I can hold a girl’s hand while walking to the bank area. We stop and plan our smoke bomb assault on the Corner Bar. The plan is to circle around by the park and come in from the south. Tim Wolfe will hold open the door, while Jimmy Bartsch lights the fuse and Vernie lobs the smoke bomb in. Then we take off into the darkness by the elevator and watch while the guys from the Corner Bar clear out. You can see blue and red smoke roll out when they open the door. Yes, another successful Saturday night.

Timeline: 2001
GETTING READY FOR THE REUNION
I arrived in Esmond shortly after noon on Saturday to help clean and paint the school in preparation for our 2001 all school reunion. A good crew had shown up to help and we had a great time. Some of the people in attendance for this fun were as follows: Diane Streifel Peyerl, Sylvester Hoffner, Mike Gilbertson, Terry Gefroh, Ed Lauinger, Wayne Jensen, Debbie Leier, Maxine Leier, Dean Black, Jerry Keller, Karen Syverson; Hank, Delores, Susan, Idonna and Jola Striefel along with spouses and kids; Art, Leroy and Arthur Lee Rice; Lori and Shirley Halvorson; Donna and Dessie College; Kevin, Mickey and John Hoffner; Jerry and Bonnie Johnson; Walter and Ann Streifel; Bonnie Rieger; plus all the ones I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Dean Black and I painted the ceiling in the old band room. As we painted we told stories. Everyone knew we were telling stories because they could hear our laughter throughout the building. We went down to the bar around 8 p.m. and closed it down. Jerry Keller let us stay at the old Jake Leier place, which Jerry’s father, Jerome, had bought. We went back to the school on Sunday and painted the floor gray in the band room. Janie Wolfe brought three pans of caramel and cinnamon rolls made from scratch on Sunday morning. They were delicious. Diane cranked up our school song, the Notre Dame Victory March, to fire us up. It ended up being more fun than work, especially after Dean Black and Jerry Keller showed up.

Timeline: 2001
BACK FOR A FUNERAL
When you come back to Esmond for a funeral you tend to see a lot of people in the church basement after the service. Jerry Keller, Dean Black, Larry Halvorson (Oswald), Jimmy Bartsch, and myself were standing around talking. A lady walked up to Jerry and he said, “Stella!” and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He introduced us to Stella Hoffarth. Jerry said, “We were the only two kids in our class in our country school until fourth grade.” I asked where this country school was at and he said out near Vincent Rieger’s. Jerry called it Stalingrad 3 and then said, “Stella was the queen of the class and I was the king.”

Timeline: 1969
MY DOG BUTCH
We owned a black and white terrier mutt named Butch. Besides our house, he also hung out at Regina Erickson’s and Ed College’s. He would follow me all over the place and eat and sleep at any one of the three above places. One day, we were up by the school and a big black lab got Butch by the neck and almost killed him. The lab finally let go when I hit it over the head with a shovel. When my mom moved and I lived out at Hoffner’s farm, Butch took up residence with Baw Jensen. Baw was very good to him. I would stop at Baw’s and visit Butch when I came in from the farm. One day I got the call that Butch had died. I walked up to Baw’s from downtown in the winter and there lay Butch out behind in the evergreens. I said goodbye and walked down to our old house and sat on the step and cried for him. Now I was all by myself in the city.

Timeline: 1966
BEATLE BOOTS
I wanted some Beatle boots real bad. You know…the kind the Beatles wore. Rumor had it that there was a store in Harvey that had some. I think it was Gary Bergsrud and I that headed to Harvey to fulfill our dreams of being the coolest guys around. We found the store and they had some alright. However, they were three sizes too big for this young Beatle-wanna-be. I wanted them so bad though, so I kept trying them on until I convinced myself that they would do. I gave the lady my $13.00 and proudly walked out of the store. I wore my new Beatle boots with the zipper on the side everywhere I went. I even tucked my pants inside the boots so everyone would be able to admire them. Well one day I was in the pool hall and someone says to me, “Hey, are you going skiing or something?” Wow, that deflated my ego.

Timeline: 1965
THE CIGARETTE WITH A BANG
I was cruising around town and the six o’clock whistle blew, which would make all the dogs in town howl. That meant it was time to go home for supper. I quickly ate supper and whistled back to the downtown district. It was one of those small town summer evenings. You could hear the clanging of horseshoes being played by Martin Peterson and Rochus Leier. Rochus had his car windows down and had the radio playing. I could hear the sounds of the Minnesota Twins playing baseball between the clanging of the horseshoes. After watching the guys play horseshoes for a bit, I rambled across the street to the cafe owned by Dennis Schneider. This one wasn’t around for long, but was located between Ann’s Café and the Corner Bar. As I’m sitting there, I can see Greg Truax cruising around main street. Now every town has those kids that start smoking too young and don’t have the means to get cigarettes and will take whatever they can get. Greg was probably one of those. Dennis had loaded up a cigarette with a firecracker and said to me, “Go get Truax.” So I did and Greg lights up this cigarette. Just like that it went KABOOOM! There was Greg with the biggest shocked look on his face and tobacco stuck way up his nose and all over. I don’t think he ever borrowed another cigarette from Schneider.

Timeline: 1968
MEMORIAL DAY
It’s Memorial Day and I’m checking out the white crosses that have been set up in honor of those that have given their lives for our freedom. I’m absorbing all the German and Norwegian names like Sebastian Hager and Orville Guttromson. A few minutes later, the men from the VFW pull up. They have been making their rounds to area cemeteries in honor of local military that have died for their country. It has been a busy morning and they may have had a drink or two along the way. The men line up and they look impressive with their white gloves, uniforms and guns. I’m like “wow this is great.” Dan Marthe is in charge and gives the command. “READY. AIM. HIGHER.” Then BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM…all the guns go off. Then I hear with my own ears Dan Marthe holler, “DAMN IT. I SAID HIGHER NOT FIRE.” Boy, did that one get some laughs from the townsfolk.

Timeline: 1967
DON’T MESS WITH MY CLASSMATES
One day, Keary Riser cornered Donavon Burgard in the boys’ bathroom and made him stay in there until he sang “Mellow Yellow” by Donavon. That poor kid was so red in the face by the time he got done. Well, nobody does that to our classmate. After school, Dean Black and I bring along a huge eraser to boys’ basketball practice. It wasn’t just a 25-cent eraser; it was the huge 89-cent one. When we were doing laps, Dean throws it at Keary Riser as hard as he can. We couldn’t help but snicker while Kerry tried to figure out who would dare do this deed. It left a mighty fine red mark on Keary’s back and, of course, we told him that we had nothing to do with it.

BOY SCOUT MEETINGS AT THE VFW
We had our Boy Scout meetings at the VFW hall. It was a nice place for a meeting and the old boys from the VFW had stocked a little beer along with the pop in the pop machine. In those days, they had one of those machines where the bottles slid to the right after you put your money in and you could pull it out. Well the ever streetwise Vernie and gang thought, heck we can just bring a bottle opener and a straw for the next meeting. So we did and we each had a bottle of beer instead of pop when we took a break. I don’t know why, but we didn’t even get into trouble for that one that I can remember.

Timeline: 1965
OUR SMELLY ADVENTURE
One lazy day, several of us were cruising on our bikes on the eastside of Esmond. We needed a snack and it was a well-known fact that Francis Rieger had the best crabapples in this area. We looked the situation over and “swoooooooosh” we drove under the tree, grabbed some apple and were on way. Of course, this wasn’t an isolated incident. In fact, one year Francis even tried to trick us by posting a sign that read “Poison Apples”. Aw heck…we knew better. They tasted just fine.

We continued our cruise around town and stopped at George Gefroh’s where he was talking to Reinhart Reierson. George thought he might have skunk or two under his shed in the backyard. We lit right up. We had trapped gophers before, so we figured we had the experience to rid him of these skunks. George and Reinhart chuckled a little and we headed off to get our traps. The traps were set by the exposed holes entering the north side of the shed and now it was just a waiting game. Bingo! The next morning, we had a big skunk in the trap. We had thought this out carefully (sure we did) and had brought two bows along to take care of the problem. We loaded up the bows with arrows and started shooting. This big old skunk was not real happy about being hit by a zillion arrows and he started spraying like you wouldn’t believe. It smelled terrible. Finally, the arrows got the best of him and our job was done. There wasn’t much us boys couldn’t take care of back in those days.

Timeline: Winter 1965
NORTH SIDE SNOW FORT
Our south side intelligence believed there was a huge snow fort being erected on the north side of town, across the street from the Ivan Thompson residence. This was enemy territory and the fort must be attacked. The north side would certainly have to defend their fort from our attack. That meant tough guys like Tim Wolfe, Roy and Kerry Georgeson and many others from the north side. We made our plans throughout the week and decided a Saturday attack would be the most effective. Saturday came and we headed north. It was a well-made fort complete with tunnels, so we had to attack with fury. The walls were crumbling under the heavy attack by us south side guys. Finally, Christ Schloss had enough of the pillage and war and announced, “If you don’t get the hell out of here I am going to call the cops.” Of course, me with my big mouth hollers back, “YOU AIN’T GOT A PHONE.” Well, don’t try to pull that one on me, because I know who has phones and who doesn’t, because of hanging out on those party lines. You can’t pull the wool over my eyes in my town.

Who were the two Esmond men who “set pins” at the bowling alley? One of them was almost hit by a flying pin and the other shouted a warning, “LOOK OUT MIKE!”…followed by, “TANK YOU BENNY. TANK YOU BENNY.”
(That would be two Esmond favorites: Benny Marquet and Mike Fritel)

Timeline: 1965
PLUM WAR
I was clearly the established leader of the south side of Esmond and led my gang into many a battle on the north side of town. Just like the Civil War a century earlier, the north was more industrious and mightier. But that didn’t mean we didn’t attack with vigor. We would attack their wooden fort on Bunker Hill. They had the sophisticated “slings” made of rubber pieces from inner tubes that shot plums thru slots in their fort. Boy, let me tell you those plums were effective and really stung. We charged the fort and almost got up through their trap door before they pushed us back. We had to retreat, but would return another day to attack.

Timeline: 1965
ONE-RING-A-DINGA…TWO…WHOOSH!
One afternoon, I wheeled downtown on my bike looking for some action. I had one of those old bikes with no fenders at all. When it rained, that rear tire would put a mud stripe up my back so fast. But I didn’t care, cause ma would wash it up for me. It wasn’t raining yet on this particular summer day, but it was hot and sticky. Kerry Georgeson was uptown, which was unusual because he worked so much. We drove around on our bikes and stopped kitty corner from Leander Hoffner’s Mobil station and scoped things out. The plan was to run over the hose bell as many times as we could before we got caught. Nobody knew the town and it’s players like me. Man, I was good at this stuff and I could always escape. We made one test run over the bell – ding ding ding ding – and back into hiding across the street. We did that a few zillion times and it got them riled up over there. Bob Ness and Leander were going back and forth between the garage and the station thinking customers were at the gas pumps, but no one was there. This was way too much fun, so we charged the hose again and just as we drove over it…WHOOOSH! They each threw a giant bucket of water at us and washed us off our bikes. Guess I got caught that time, but wow that was fun and the water felt really good, too.

Approximately 1967
NEW MEANING TO “STICKING YOUR NECK OUT”
One day we were mixing it up and playing with the kids on the north side of town. For lack of anything else to do, we dug a hole just north of Roger Schloss’ house. Well, this hole was big enough to fit a human being in. So we said, “Hey, Kerry (Georgeson)! Why don’t you just kneel in this hole and we will cover you up with dirt all the waaayyyyy up to your neck.” He said, “Okay.” So Kerry jumped in and we packed him in real good. So there was Thermopolis (our nickname for Kerry) with just his head and neck sticking out. Boy, it was the funniest thing I had ever seen since Kim Bengson fell face first in the mud puddle outside the show hall. It was funny enough to see Kerry’s head sticking out, but we had even more fun taking a run at him on our bikes and slamming on our brakes about three feet from his head. You should have seen how big his eyes got. I will never forget that one.

Timeline: 1965
RACKETEERS? MAYBE NOT.
By this time, Duts Gefroh, a few others and myself were pretty well in control of Main Street. We knew all the rackets. When modern technology brought pinball machines to Esmond, we found another one. Paul Steiner always had a couple of pinball machines by his barbershop. It didn’t take long before we figured out how to cut through the thin plywood on the bottom of the machine and manipulate a wire right up to the target that controlled free games. Because the machine made such a loud noise when it earned free games, we would usually wait until Paul went over to Ann’s Cafe for dinner. While he was gone, we would rack up a bunch games. When Paul came back we’d say, “We are really on a run here, Paul!”

Timeline: 1960s
BARBER SHOPS AND BEAUTY SALONS
One of the first barbershops I remember in Esmond was in the basement of the bank. I don’t remember who the barber was, because I never got a hair cut there. These were the days when someone in town would start cutting family and friend’s hair and would become known as a haircutter. Entire families would go there to get their hair cut. And believe me, some of those backstreet barbers (or beauticians) could mess up a nice head of hair. Thank goodness I was never looking at getting a perm, because that could be a real nightmare for some lady if it didn’t turn out quite right. The person who cut my hair would jokingly say, “Should we put the bowl on your head and cut around it?” Just as well could have, because that’s what it looked like when it was done.

Timeline: 1960s
ESMOND GANG – THE HAWKS
We had two main hills we slide down on the south side of the tracks. One was a small one between our house and Merton Reierson’s. The other was the big hill adjacent to Dennis Goetz’s house. (Superintendent Zimmerman lived in there prior to Goetzs.) In order to have better control of these hills we formed a gang called the “Hawks.” Most people were given free passes. However, if you from out of town and showed up at the hill you were probably ran off the trail once or twice just so you knew who the bosses were.

Timeline: 1964
ROSE’S VARIETY STORE
I was ten and it was a beautiful Esmond summer morning. I sat in the sun on our cement steps that faced south and listened to the morning doves singing their morning song. It was a good time to be alive. There was a jingle in my pocket that morning, so I jumped on my bike headed downtown with the wind flowing through my golden hair of summer (isn’t that poetic?) I propped my bike up against Rose’s Variety Store and in I went. The store sat between the west bar and Horner’s U-Save grocery store. When I walk in, everything seemed so shiny. I could see the Wurlitzer Juke Box sitting there. The jingle in my pocket told me to walk up and play some songs. I had enough for two selections and I chose my favorites, Roses are Red (my Love) by Bobby Vinton and Wolverton Mountain by Claude King. Boy, they were worth every penny (10) spent. For you guys and girls that remember that last song, I will bring the Wolverton Mountain CD with me to the reunion this summer. We can all sing along.

Timeline: 1966
UNIFORM TIME ACT of 1966
When I was twelve, it seemed cool to hang around the theatre before the show started. We stood outside just observing, chillin’ out and seeing who would show up for the movie this week. Maybe there would be some cute girls from Fillmore, Balta or Maddock. When people started filing in we also entered the lobby to get our tickets, popcorn and pop. Tickets were 25¢ for kids and 65¢ for adults. Popcorn was a nickel (a dime if you added butter), candy was a nickel and a bottle of pop was a dime. A kid could have a night on the town for 50¢ or less in those days.

Lillian Jensen sat in the ticket office and took tickets. Susan Streifel made popcorn. Anton Hanson took tickets and always sat to the left just as you entered the theatre doors. Anton’s son, Arnold, ran the projector. Arnold would always come down a couple of steps with a story or a joke to tell us. This particular evening, he showed us both of his wrists. There was a watch on each. Arnold said in a joking reference to daylight savings time, “I’m wearing two watches tonight…one for the old time and one for the new.” As I gave Anton my ticket he said, “Thank you Luther!” Without fail, at some point during the movie, pop bottles would start rolling…making lots of noise as they rolled down the isle. If we got too loud or crazy, Anton would come down and shine a flashlight in our faces and then sit behind us until he thought things had settled down. As soon as he left, we were up to our old tricks. We loved that great old Esmond “Showhall”.

Timeline: 1966
OTTER TAIL BASKETBALL COURT
It was late autumn and we were in need of a basketball court. We pounded up a wooden backboard, rim and net on a telephone pole across the street and southwest of the Congregational Church. It didn’t take us long to pounded down the grass on that uneven so-called court. Hank Peterson pulled up, leaned over, rolled down his passenger side window and said, “Sorry boys, but Ottertail won’t allow that,” i.e. slamming a basket on an Otter Tail Power Company pole. As Hank drove his 1953 white-over-green colored car away, the game went on. We weren’t worried…we pretty much had control of the southside of Esmond.

Timeline: 1965 Summer
THE GREAT BB GUN FIGHT
Southside baseball, clothes lines, rhubarb, mean dogs and WAR
School was out and summer had started. A sandlot baseball game was taking place just north of Gene Reierson’s on the “vacant lot”. Dogs were barking, Gene drove by, the sun was high in the sky…life was good. If you put one over Marie Leier’s fence or in the air into the evergreens it was an automatic home run. I was nearing the batter’s box when Dean Black came running towards me from the west. He said, “Vernie, we need your help. Raymond Arnold is up in the old Ness house and we have a big BB gun fight going on.” I dropped my bat without hesitation and proceeded to my house to get BBs and my trusty lever action BB rifle. This was not the pump-up BB gun with lots of power, but a leg hit could make a person whine! I proceeded up the hill past the lilac bushes and westbound. I ran through my friend Regina Erickson’s yard. As I passed through I could smell the fabric soap from her freshly laundered clothes. When I hit the alley, I took a short cut and dove under the rhubarb bushes in Ben Sabbe’s yard. This was my territory; I knew every square inch. I observed that Flash, Black’s dog, was not engaged so I could head into Black’s driveway just south of John Marthe’s place. I was proceeding up Black’s driveway when I started being fired upon. My legs stung just as they had in previous BB gun attacks. Jerry and Bobby Black hollered, “Over here! Get under cover!” We jumped behind Black’s 1947 Plymouth and began returning fire. Raymond was firing from an 18-inch circular hole in the Ness house. Battle continued. Finally, Raymond got hit above the eye and was bleeding. In Raymond fashion, he came out laughing. He had that big hearty laugh, teeth showing and all, that no one will ever forget. We all loved Raymond and we said that long before the TV hit “Everyone Loves Raymond.” It was fun days like this that made us closer friends.

Timeline: 1966
ESMOND CINEMAX THEATRE (SHOWHALL)
As a result of this 1966 Universal movie feature at the Esmond Showhall, ticket taker Anton Hanson laid one of many nicknames on me. The nickname Anton gave me after this movie was “Luther”. Don Knotts starred in this movie. What was the name of this movie?

Timeline: 1969
John Marthe was the manager of the Esmond Equity Elevator. Who were his two main workers?

Timeline: 1960-61
ESMOND SHOWHALL
For this 1960 movie, audiences were provided with cellophane glasses. The red filter intensified the ghost image on the screen, while the blue filter removed the ghost in the movie. This was known as illusion O. In those years, that was our version of 3D, HD etc. What was the name of this epic thriller that showed in Esmond in the early sixties?

Timeline: 1966
FREE DIXIE CUPS at GEORGE GEFROH’S
It was one of those nice summer nights in Esmond. I was standing in front of the Esmond Showhall, just kind of waiting for other kids to show up. I looked to the north and there was George Gefroh sitting in front of his house playing the accordion. Something he did often and one of those great Esmond memories. At that point, some unsuspecting farm kids started getting dropped off at the Showhall. Their hair was still wet from their Saturday night bath. I, being the little wiseguy city slicker, got this idea. I said to several kids that pulled up, “Hey, George Gefroh is giving away free dixie cups tonight before the show.” Of course, they took off with great excitemen to George’s house. A free Dixie Cup was a good deal. I followed just close enough on my bike so I could hear what George would say…”Free Dixie Cups! What the hell are you talking about! Get outta here.” Gotta love George.

Timeline: Summer of 1965
WISEGUYS vs. REDNECKS
We were still in the elementary wing at Esmond Public School, but the playground equipment brought us near the boys’ bathroom. There were always, what we called, the high school rednecks hanging out smoking cigarettes and bantering back and forth with us WiseGuys. We had nicknames for several of them and we knew how to light those boys up. When the rednecks came into town on the weekends with their fancy suped up cars the war of words would continue. One night, Larry Neis come idling thru with his blue Dodge and one of the gang (or maybe it was me) flipped him a friendly middle finger. Later, James Keller drove by and someone hollered “SQUIRREL.” They kept circling waiting for an opportunity to get back at us. A short time later, about five of us started following James southbound on our bikes. We were following 20 yards behind at about 15 mph. Between the Corner Bar and the bank, as we were taking a right towards Ann’s Cafe, I was looking back toward my boys when James hit the brakes. I flew right on to the trunk of his car. Quickly, I abandoned my bike running north between Ann’s and the beauty shop. I didn’t stop running until I hit Harley’s Service Station. Guess the rednecks got the last laugh that night!

Timeline: 1970
What did these three men have in common?
Herman Brenno
John Volk
Gene Reierson

Timeline: 1973
TREEPULLERS
It was an early fall Sunday evening in Esmond when this particular gentleman wanted to try out his winch. He and two others pulled down a big branch, which happened to fall over Marvin Grossman’s car parked in his driveway. The next morning, Marvin pounded on one of the culprits door and said, “Open the door you !@#* tree pullers!” Who were the 3 gentleman involved in this Sunday night pull?

Timeline: 1970
3:45 MEETS THE 351 – Don’t try this at home!
Another nice fall days in the Esmond and we were looking for something to entertain ourselves. No one had made it as far on the tracks with a car since Duts Gefroh went across the trestle west of Maddock on top of the car! So we deflated the tires, honked the horn and we headed eastbound on the tracks from Gene Reierson’s bulk gas apparatus. Normally, we would honk the horn when we went thru Hesper. Well, this particular day we were only about 1/2 mile east of Esmond near the current dump ground (the old dump ground was about 3/4 mile south of the city), when we saw the light of the 351 (Northern Pacific) coming our direction. A timely decision was made to derail and abort the planned excursion eastbound. Good thing we had enough guys in the car to rock it, get it off the tracks and abort the mission by backing down the south slope of the RR tracks. I was in the front passenger seat with the door open backing down the ditch off the tracks. Not having experienced this before, I kept the door open while directing the engineer in our vehicle to the safety of the ditch. About half way down the ditch I hear this eeeeeeeech. The corner of the door caught the ditch, consequently, ripped right off. I did ride in the 351 again but not on the NPRR…just on the streets of Esmond! Who was the engineer of the 3:45?

Timeline: 1969
Hamburger at Ann’s Cafe – 25¢, cheese 5¢ extra
Gasoline at Harley’s Standard – 33¢ per gallon
New Firebird – $3,250.00
Used Firebird – $1,800.00
Sigfred Dihle burning out the clutch – Priceless

Upcoming Events

• Moon over Esmond
• The priest, the sheriff and the outlaw.
• My dog Butch
• Which girls saw elephants tied up on the southside of the tracks?
• Frank Manning and the copper colored coffin

Timeline: 1965
This man was the municipal judge in Esmond. He lived about 1/4 mile west of Esmond and his first name was Billie. What was his last name?

Timeline: 1968
This lady lived across the street from Alfreda Haugen. (Alfreda was an older, unassuming lady that did janitor work at EHS.) Alfreda’s nieghbor’s first name was Alice. What was her last name?

Timeline: 1964
BUFFALO LAKE in PIERCE COUNTY
The Esmond Sportsman’s Club used to sell beverages out of a water tank with big chunks of ice floating in the water. Everything from rootbeer to Hamm’s, Grain Belt and Schlitz beer were floating in there. It was a tough sell, because they would have to watch very closely if a 12-year-old came up thirsty. Who had the biggest eagle eye at this tank? Did they think Vernie would accidentally grab the wrong beverage???

Timeline: 1964
PAYING OUR RESPECTS
Harry Peirson ran the locker plant. I’m not sure where he came from but one of his daughter’s was named Garnet and Cameron, their son, was one year younger than me. Cameron used to make the best peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. One night in early winter, we were outside in the front yard facing south. Art Wheeler, the undertaker from Maddock, pulled in with the hearse. He backed up to the funeral home and unloaded a casket. We were curious, so we looked thru the partially blocked window and saw a man lying in this casket. We had never seen a dead person before. People started filing in to pay their respects to this man. Cameron and I didn’t know this man, but went in anyway. We went up to the casket and said a prayer just like the people before us. We had holes in the knees of our pants, snot running out of our nose and weren’t exactly dressed for the occasion. We left with our hands folded and looked at Mr. Wheeler on the way out. He looked at us like these are the two most reverent kids I have ever seen! We went back to Cameron’s trailer home and nothing has ever been said about this until now.

Timeline: 1966
THIS BAR IS SMOKIN’
We drove our bicycles south past the Corner Bar. As we did, we could hear the drone of the window air conditioner facing east out of the bar. The usual smell of cigarette smoke and stale beer emitted from the conditioner and it dripped water onto the sidewalk. It didn’t really bother us. Nothing fazed us at this time of our life. At that time, Albert Horner’s grocery store sold all kinds of fireworks. An annual tradition with us kids was to throw “smoke bombs” into the Corner Bar. And yes, the old boys would come flying out of there looking to kick our ass. But we were long gone and over by the unloading dock by the time they came out; knowing those old boys could never catch us.

Timeline: 1967
CHEAP ENTERTAINMENT
The carnival didn’t stop in Esmond very often and we didn’t get to the State Fair every year, so we made our own rides. Our rides consisted of going to the Laundromat and putting a dime or two in the big dryers. We would take turns going in, bracing our selves and taking a nice little ride. We were actually bright enough not close the door, so none of us would get cooked from the dryer heat. Rather, we just held the button near the door closure. One day we decided to up the ante a little! We went over to Ann’s Cafe and each of us drank a glass of buttermilk before the ride. The point was to see we could stay in there the longest and without throwing up. I don’t ever remember anyone ever getting sick from that. We were tough kids.

Timeline: 1965
5th GRADE
This was the year we waited for, because in Esmond it was the time you could sign up for “grade school basketball.” The drawback was 5th grade to 8th grade were combined! Now this included 8th graders who had failed a grade or two! These monsters looked like they came from the ice age in comparison to us. We would cower in the corner when dressing and undressing. On the first day the coach handed out uniforms. We would be huddled in the back hoping for trunks that wouldn’t hit the floor. You see, in 1965, baggy trunks weren’t cool. We took whatever we got and put them in our duffle bags. Then it was off to Albert Horner’s Grocery Store were they sold jock straps back then. Imagine that. He never ordered smalls, just medium and large. Yea right! So in grade school, our jock straps were always bigger than our kneecaps.

Timeline: 1966-1973
DEAN BLACK
In grade school, Dean Black was very skinny kid that did all the traditional things like sports, band, etc. To his detriment, his mother taught 7th and 8th grade classes to all of us. It’s not easy being the teacher’s kid. Mrs. Black was a nice lady though, as was her husband Fabian. In fact, they were great people. One day, Wayne Wolfe grabbed Dean and said, “Black, I am going to !@#*^” and stuck Dean up against the brick wall. It was something about wearing golashes, a warm winter coat on and walking into the dreaded high school wing. Dean told me, “Vern I am tired of getting sand kicked in my face.” When he said that, he meant it. Wow, did this guy excel after that. It was like he left school at the end of the school year as a skinny kid and came back the next year all bulked up. Football might have had a little to do with that. He kicked ass in so many counties he’s even forgotten them all. I remember seeing Dean in the Esmond High School marching band. My how he had changed. The clarinet he was playing dwarfed in comparison to his pipes (biceps). He looked good.

Timeline: 1966
THE WILD BEAST
We had just ingested our 15¢ caramel roll at Ann’s Cafe. I made my way to the south side of the Esmond locker plant. Rochus Leier and one other man were chasing an animal into the chute for slaughter. So I stopped and jumped up on the two by tens that faced north. I crawled up on the solid north wall. This black bull or cow was mad! He kept putting his head down and charging. All of the sudden he came towards my position and busted right through the 2×10’s. I was going backward as fast as I could, trying to stay clear of this beast. I almost soiled my pants. I ran as fast as I could and hid between the southend of the John Deere building and Bill Steven’s house. Later, I heard that they had caught this wild cow near the Carlson farm about 1 mile east of Esmond. After that, I always went inside and caught the action “after” they had put ’em down.

Trivia Answers
The 1966 movie which prompted Anton Hanson to give me the nickname of “Luther” was The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, starring Don Knots.

John Marthe managed the Esmond Equity Elevator in the late sixties. His two main workers were Ed College and Virgil Simonson.

The name of the epic thriller in the early sixties movie where we wore special glasses to accentuate the ghost or eliminate the ghosts from the screen was called the 13 GHOSTS.