Corky Ebeling, Director of Owatonna Parks and Recreation will receive the Clifton E. French Distinguished Service Award from the MRPA on Jan. 14. (Submitted photo)
Corky Ebeling, Director of Owatonna Parks and Recreation will receive the Clifton E. French Distinguished Service Award from the MRPA on Jan. 14. (Submitted photo)
Congratulations to Parks and Recreation Director Corky Ebeling on being named as the 2015 recipient of the Clifton E. French Distinguished Service Award from the Minnesota Recreation and Parks Association. This is the highest professional award given by the Association to one of its members. Corky has devoted his entire career and innumerable volunteer hours to Parks and Recreation at the local, regional and state level. His hard work, charisma, vision and leadership are second to none. He will be presented with the award on Thursday, Jan. 14 at the NRPA convention in the Twin Cities. Only one other Owatonna Parks and Recreation Director has received this award, that being Leo Rudolf.
Steve’s Cigar Store, a north Cedar icon
Steve’s Cigar Store, owned by S.I Kubiatowicz, was the most compact concentration of everything a red blooded American sports fan could want. The store was crammed into an area approximately 20 feet wide and 60 feet long. It was located about where the Ace Hardware store is now in the 200 block of north Cedar. Steve’s was where you went for a 5-cent cigar, a big town newspaper, the Farmer’s Almanac, dime novels and the Saturday Evening Post. At Steve’s you could buy Prince Albert pipe tobacco in the can and enjoy the best barbecue ribs this side of Smokie Joe Moran’s in Nisswa. A short beer cost a nickel and a tall one cost a dime, or you could get a pitcher for a quarter. A pack of Twenty Grands was a dime and two packs of Lucky Strikes were two bits. A cup of coffee and chips were a thin dime, a sack of Bull Durham was a nickel and apple pie with ice cream cost fifteen cents. You could get your Fourth of July skyrockets, cherry bombs and sizzlers at Steve’s.
Up until the mid-thirties you could get a two bit haircut at Steve’s by entering the left double door at the front of the store. Bill Fox and Norrie Skogseth manned two chairs in a glass enclosed barber shop that sat inside Steve’s front corner. In about 1935, Fox moved his shop across the street downstairs at Cedar and Vine under Mitchell Nursery flower store. Pinball machines and other expanding merchandise forced the move.
As you entered Steve’s, there was a pipe and tobacco counter on the right. There was a candy counter and another counter for shaving supplies. Next came a 15-foot-long bar made of heavy oak. On the back bar there were tall and short glasses neatly stacked in front of the traditional mirror and neon beer signs. Steve’s two sons, Paul and Don, were the regular bartenders who kept the glasses polished and the customers entertained.
The short order kitchen and lunch counter put out good hamburgers and shoe string potatoes, cole slaw and coffee. The counter was run by Eddie Kniefel and Minnie Zupke.
A full spectrum of society made up the clientele at Steve’s. Bankers Bob Evans Sr. and Sid Kinyon felt right at home there as did business magnates Vic Diedrich (OMC), Dan Gainey (Jostens), Rube Kaplan (OTC), Carl Dahlstrom (Bordens), Jack Jurgensen (mayor), and Mark and Don Alexander (lumber barons), M.C. “Mike” McGaheran (realtor), Carl Jolly (Jolly Mfg.), Clarence Olson (Bonded Gas), Alva Lindekugal (Chevrolet dealer), Jim Cashman (Cashman Seeds), and many of the more prominent and decorated veterans of World War I such as Gene Toher, Hugh Soper, Harold Nelson and Minot J. Brown.
Home to the baseball crowd
Steve’s Cigar Store was home to the baseball crowd. Veteran sports writer for the Daily People’s Press, Lefty Ringhofer, dropped by on a daily basis to visit with baseball notables from far and wide. Ringhofer, a former ballplayer, was known as the “Commissioner” of the famed Southern Minny League. He was the conscience of the league and was consulted on technical aspects of baseball administration by league officials and umpires over several Midwestern states.
During the heyday of amateur baseball in Owatonna, many great baseball players showed up at Steve’s Cigar Store including names such as Bob Bzoskie, Werner Jenke, Ken Fichten, Charlie Peterson, George “Brown” Krahulec, George “Whitey” Wavrin, Bill Guse, Bill and Seymour Erdman, Bill McGrann, Ernie Rosin, Al Bell, Fred Luedtke, Alvin “Goose” Arndt, Vic Olson and Dutch Ribbe.
Indeed the heart and soul of downtown Owatonna was contained in that compact 1200 square feet that was simply known as Steve’s. (Thanks to the late Norbert McCrady for contributing to this story.)
Tribute to the St. Clair’s team
In all the writings about the closing of the St. Clair’s For Men in Owatonna, nothing was ever said about the long-time personalities that greeted you when you entered the store which was also a North Cedar icon. Some of the first folks I remember assisting customers after I came to town included Bob Evans, Kay Fisher, Shirley Abraham (bookkeeper), Dave Wavrin and Bev Lysne. For over the most recent 20 years there were two sales clerks who provided the expert selection and fittings at St. Clair’s. Gene Knutson, who came to the Owatonna store when St. Clair’s in Waseca closed, was with the store for 29 years. Ray Langerud, who commuted from Albert Lea for 25 years, joined the store after Gildner’s in Albert Lea closed. Ruth Ann Priebe was the tailor for the store for 27 years. Krueger came to Owatonna in 1980 replacing Lee Heiden as manager of the Owatonna store. He bought the store from the St. Clair family in 1985. These folks all made up a familiar team at St. Clairs. We will miss them all.
When one enters Trinity Lutheran Church in Owatonna and views the beautiful addition that was built onto the east end of the church, it brings back memories of the congregation vote in 2004 regarding the proposal to build a new church at a new location in south Owatonna. In 2004, a recommendation from a building task force committee had been put forth to the congregation which proposed the purchase of 40 acres of land to accommodate the building of a new church. The nay voters far outnumbered the yes voters. The nay voters felt that more study should be made in expansion at the present site on Lincoln Avenue. Just look at the result of that vote. It was the right thing to do.
Remembering the Off Broadway Singers
A few columns ago I wrote some memories I had regarding Nova, a singing group made up of talented Owatonnans. There was another group that was a big hit many years prior to the Nova days. The Off Broadway Singers, a group of four talented vocalists, directed by Veta Alexander provided delightful show tunes for appreciative Owatonna audiences. The original and only members of the group were Lud Gillespie, Ann Lindekugal, Dale Torgerson and Norma Buxton. They were accompanied by Mae Lundquist and Veta was the reader. The group not only performed in their home town, but as the word got out, they were invited to other community’s events.
Recent contributions to the Owatonna Foundation came from the Straight River Archery Club who donated $1,000 and a $2,000 donation from Concepts and Designs Inc., a locally developed and grown company started in the home of Tom and Sue Peterson as a computer aided drafting business. Currently the company builds industrial and commercial HVAC equipment specializing in Desiccant Dehumidification. Susan Peterson said, “In honor of my father, Vern White, who loved the Owatonna community, we are proud to support the Owatonna Foundation.
I have heard that at one time there was a “Hobo Village” in Owatonna, somewhere by the Owatonna Canning Co. Anyone have any information? I only met one real life hobo that appeared at the fair decades ago.
Anyone notice the new look on Mayor Tom Kuntz? Yes, he’s entered the male fashion of the day by growing a beard! It’s in the early stages, so there’s no telling how far it will fashionably go. When I mentioned it to him, he just smiled and acknowledged the fact. Mrs. Mayor, who was with him at the time at a Rotary meeting, just rolled her eyes!
You’re invited to a 90th birthday party today for a very special lady. Helen Shimpach Musil will be the guest of honor. Come to Koda Living Community anytime today from 1-4 p.m.
The next Veteran’s Roundtable will be held on Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Speaker will be Dick Thompson of Kasson, a Marine Colonel and pilot of “Marine One”. He served two tours in Vietnam.
Good friend Vern Wilker passed along a couple of items to share with you as we enter the new year. The first is entitled the “Back Nine” and it is so true. See if you don’t agree.
You know, time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years. It seems just yesterday that I was young, recently married and embarking on my new life with my mate. Yet, in a way, it seems like eons ago and I wonder where all the years went. I know that I lived them all. I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams.
But here it is, the back nine of my life and it catches me by surprise. How did I get here so fast? Where did all the years go and where did my youth go?
I remember seeing older people through the years and thinking that those folks were years away from me and that I was only on the first hole and the back nine was so far off that I could not fathom it or imagine fully what it would be like. But, here it is—my friends are retired and getting gray. They move slower and I see an older person now. Some are in better while others are in worse shape than me, but I see great change. Not like the ones that I remember who were young and vibrant, but, like me, their age is beginning to show and we are now those older folks that we used to see and never thought we’d become.
Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day! And taking a nap is not a treat anymore—it’s mandatory! Because if I don’t on my own free will, I just fall asleep where I sit!
And so, now I enter into this new season of my life and unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability to go and do things that I wish I had done but never did! But, at least I know that though I’m on the back nine and I’m not sure how long that will last, that when it’s over on this earth . . . it’s over. A new adventure will begin.
Yes, I have regrets. There are things I wish I hadn’t done, things I should have done but indeed, there are many things I’m happy to have done. It’s all in a lifetime.
So, if you’re not on the back nine yet, let me remind you that it will be here faster than you think. Whatever you would like to accomplish in your life, do it quickly. Don’t put things off too long! Life goes by quickly. Do what you can today, as you can never be sure whether you’re on the back nine or not. You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of your life. Live for today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things that you have done for them in all the years past! Remember, “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver! Live happily in 2016!”
My joke of the week also is compliments of Vern Wilker:
An old country preacher had a teen age son and it was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession. Like many young men his age, the boy didn’t really know what he wanted to do, and he didn’t seem too concerned. One day, while the boy was away at school, his father decided to try an experiment. He went into the boy’s room and placed on his study table four objects: a Bible, silver dollar, bottle of whiskey and a Playboy magazine.
“I’ll just hide behind the door,” the old preacher said to himself. “When he comes home from school today, I’ll see which object he picks up. If it’s the Bible, he’s going to be a preacher like me, and what a blessing that would be! If he picks up the dollar, he’s going to be a business man, and that would be okay, too. But, if it he picks up the bottle, he’s going to be a no-good drunken bum and Lord, what a shame that would be. And worst of all, if he picks up that magazine, he’s going to be a skirt-chasing womanizer.”
The old man waited anxiously and soon heard his son’s footsteps as he entered the house whistling and headed for his room. The boy tossed his books on the bed, and as he turned to leave the room he spotted the objects on the table. With curiosity in his eye, he walked over to inspect them. Finally, he picked up the Bible and placed it under his arm. He picked up the silver dollar and dropped it into his pocket. He uncorked the bottle and took a big drink, while he admired this month’s centerfold. “Lord have mercy,” the old preacher disgustedly whispered. “He’s gonna run for Congress”!
Have a happy New Year!
Data included is taken from the Minnesota Department of Health Daily reports. Because all data is preliminary, the change in number of cumulative positive cases and deaths from one day to the next may not equal the newly reported cases or deaths.
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