Saturday, April 01, 2006

April 06 Discussion

This discussion thread is closed. You may click below to read and catch up, but go to the current thread to continue the conversation.

27 comments:

  1. How about a chest chop from Ric Flair?

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  2. I LIVED IN MARCUS GREW UP THERE FOR
    THE FIRST 15 YEARS,SPEAKING OF HISTORY, WOULD LIKE TO KNOW OF WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OLD GREEN MERRY GO ROUND THAT YOU HAD TO PUSH
    AND PULL WITH YOUR ARMS AND LEGS
    HAD MANY OF HOURS OF FUN ON THAT
    THING,WHAT A GREAT COMMUNITY TO GROW UP IN AND RIDE YOUR BIKE WHERE
    EVER HAD PLENTY OF GOOD TIMES RIDING BIKE OR WALKING OUT TO THE CREEK EAST OF TOWN AND MESSING AROUND FOR THE AFTERNOON
    WISH I COULD GO BACK AND DO IT AGAIN

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  3. The old greem merry go round at the park ... what a great memory! You could get that thing spinning so fast that you would fly off if you weren't holding on tight. And then it was fun to lie down in the middle while the others did all the work. But I think there was one even older ... one that ended up with deep ruts where so many children had run round and round. Seems like one side dipped down so that you had this loopy spin that was really great. I remember the old swings too, with such long chain links, and some with these odd long metal pieces that were joined. Once you pumped yourself so high, reaching for the leaves on the tree limbs with your toes, you would come back with a jolt because you were past the point of no return. Never had the guts to jump out at that perfect moment... thanks for the memories ... whoever you are! But it would be nice to introduce yourself...

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  4. Marcus, did you get April snow?

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  5. Breaking in on the thread. Class of 1956 at Marcus High School --one of the best -- is having a reunion in connection with the Marcus Fair this coming August. Dinner on Saturday, brunch on Sunday, and.... Check with Bob Meyer at Bakmeyer@aol.com for more info. We are still looking for one member of the class. Does anyone have information on Eugene Ball.

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  6. Bob M.: A google search yielded an obituary for Eugene Ball. He passed away in 2004 in Missouri. http://www.lemarssentinel.com/story/1081158.html

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  7. Hello...can someone help me with some info..My husband and I are moving to Marcus in May, we have purchased a home on Elm St. Are there any service clubs in Marcus? Like Kiwanis or VFW? We are looking forward to moving day!

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  8. VC....What house did you buy on Elm Street? I grew up on Elm Street and trust it isn't one of the houses where we use to steal strawberries out of the garden patch!!!!!

    Phil Dorr

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  9. Speaking of strawberry patches......does anyone have any stories of borrowing the neighbors strawberries in the middle of the summer late at night????? If so who had the best strawberry patch that you recall?

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  10. You'll never believe I'm still going and doing....Lived in Marcus
    from l946 on for the next l5 years..Remember the train built by
    Boots...and the Supt. of schools,
    Don Wetter (dec.)I remember Marg. Dorr, Bob Reed, Don Peters and all
    the others from Church choir...Just
    starting to read the Blog...and will keep in touch in between "little bridge
    slams" and family here in Ankeny.
    betty wallin

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  11. I love the town of Marcus and I never lived there. Both my grandparents lived in Marcus and we visted almost every summer. I was born in Spencer and my parents moved to Texas when I was about 1 yr old.I have some very good memories of Marcus, my first love was in Marcus. Whatever happened to Greg Pallesen? One of my grandmothers worked at Nagles, as far as I know that is the only place she ever worked. Unfortunately both sets of grandparents have passed on and I havent been back since. Loved going to the fair.

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  12. Anonymous, where in Tejas do/did you live? That is one amazing state......

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  13. Right now I live in a suburb outside of Fort Worth called Richland Hills.

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  14. Hi Kurt,
    the explanation for posting clickable links is here: http://www.presby-book.net/marcus/post.htm

    Posting an image itself is not possible in the comment thread.

    Bb

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  15. Hi June :)

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  16. Thanks June for the update on Greg.

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  17. Bob R.: Tell us a story, as only you can. Time to breathe life into this Blogspot. Your first car, high school hijinks, prom at Marcus, where and how you met your wife, graduation memories, your military service, anything. You've created many addicts out here - we need a fix! Fred

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  18. Okay, Fred Dorr -- you twisted my arm.

    THE WORDS WE LEFT BEHIND
    Our grandchildren are becoming teens and have their own vocabulary. We have a hard time keeping up. But that’s okay. The experts have figured out that during the last century, the English language has increased by an average of 900 new words each year. Heavens to Betsy! Jumpin’ Jehosophat!
    Whatever DID happen to those phrases that were used in the good ol’ days in Marcus in the ’30s. Our older brothers and sisters drove flivvers and tin lizzies with rumble seats. They would put on their best bib and tucker and straighten up and fly right, talking about the bee’s knees.
    Everything was the cat’s meow as they danced at the Japanese Garden. And there were knickers and spooning and billing and cooing.
    In the ’40s, we cut a rug at the Youth Dance, down at the Municipal building, and later went necking and petting. There was a Lovers’ Lane near the cemetery where we watched the Submarine Races.
    We thought we were hip, but we intuitively knew we weren’t really hep cats, though we had poodle skirts and pageboys and reet pleats on our trousers and bobby sox on our feet. Hubba Hubba!
    Things were groovy and we seemed to be living the life of Riley. Milk started coming in cartons rather than bottles and we all had to clean our plates because of the starving Armenians (or Chinese or Indians—from India). Things were goin’ like sixty and were banned in Boston.
    But it’s your nickel (when someone phoned you up), or don’t take any wooden nickels and I’ll see you in the funny papers. The response for that was—not if I see you first! Solid! And beat me daddy, eight to the bar.
    Nowadays, stay-at-home moms have replaced homemakers, postmen are mail carriers, and tramps have become the homeless. Swamps are now wetlands, and firemen, firefighters. Are the new words considered NEW WORDS by the lexographers?
    No matter. We, who are of a certain age, can now wax nostalgic about the fact that we were once a part of a world in which new words were created and existed and had their hour on stage. They are the words we left behind.
    And our grandchildren are creating and using their own new words to communicate in their own new world. NEAT!
    What were YOUR words in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s?
    Bob Reed

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  19. Hey Greg how are you doing. Send me your email address. Ours is llmohning@midlands.net

    Lori M

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  20. Yes, no matter where you look,it is amazing how many words and phrases have been left behind and so subtly they slip our mind.

    The "Marcus Junction" is now starting to take shape on the southeast corner of what once was the Marcus "Y" or the "Mile Corner". The foundations and the floors are being poured. Memories of the Lone Eagle will no doubt cross some minds as construction progresses. It was a D-X gas station operated by the Marcus Oil Co. It was located on the same corner but was much closer to the intersection. In fact while your car was at the pumps, it would be only a few feet from Highway 3 (Highway 5 then) and gravel 143 running south. For a time someone would sleep there overnight just to cater to trucks traveling through the night.

    A special time for us kids was when our Dad would decide to stop in during the summer and pick up a case of pop, in bottles of course. Mr. Treinen or Mr. Miller would go down those steep steps to the cellar and carry it up and if we were really lucky, Dad would tell him to mix it up some. So instead of all Coke or 7up, there would be some orange and strawberry and root beer and cream soda (I never knew who liked that). Some will maybe even recall the Lone Eagle, a statue about 3 feet tall. He was a fine specimen but he has been gone for a long time.

    It will seem like a new century out there when that truck stop is completed and I guess it is. Irv Deichmann

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  21. Holy Name School Reunion Update:

    It is going very well. We have had an excellent response. We have heard from people we have never met and many we have not seen in 40 to 50 years. We have even heard from Grace Flanagan Collins who graduated in 1925 and she wants to attend. Yes that makes her 100 yrs. young. She still lives by herself and in a upstairs apartment.

    I know there are some that have not responded yet so if you are one please get in contact with me.

    I sure get a kick out of going to the post office each morning to see who I will hear from.

    As Irv said the Marcus Junction is taking shape. I have had some coming to the Reunion ask about the camping spots that will be there and I have been told they should be ready by the Reunion time There will be 6 spots with electric hook ups.

    Any questions on the Reunion please let me know.

    Jack Clarkson
    Box 543
    Marcus, Ia. 51035

    Phone: 712-376-2511
    E-Mail: jfclark@midlands.net

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  22. Kurt, we've got an RSS feed, I think. http://marcusiowa.blogspot.com/atom.xml

    However, it doesn't pick up comment postings, only the monthly threads.

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  23. Hi Lori and Lee. My email is gpallesen@awppw.org

    I've been pretty busy between work and buying a different house this year. I moved to Vancouver, Washington, about 40 miles away from where I was living. Good to hear from you :)

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  24. AnonymousMay 01, 2006

    My favorite teacher was Margaret Clark Dorr. She's aware of this because I've told her several times. Are you surprised, Kurt? Bonnie Morgenthaler

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  25. So now that ethanol is considered a worthy alternative, is this newest initiative to Mideast oil a good or bad thing for Iowa corn growers? Need I ask? Just wanted to hear some opinions ... seems like there's bias in this editorial ... why is corn-based ethanol a "regional curiosity"?


    Editorial
    Ethanol's Promise


    Published: May 1, 2006
    New York Times

    The political scramble to find quick answers to rising oil prices has produced one useful result, which is to get people talking about substitute fuels that could make us less vulnerable to market forces, less dependent on volatile Persian Gulf oil producers and less culpable on global warming.

    That, in turn, has focused attention on the fuel that seems to have the best chance of replacing gasoline — ethanol. President Bush mentioned ethanol in his State of the Union address. Entrepreneurs like Bill Gates have begun investing in it. And every blue-ribbon commission studying energy has embraced ethanol as a fuel of the future. One leading environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, predicts that ethanol, combined with other strategies, could replace all of the gasoline Americans would otherwise use by mid-century.

    Until recently, the only ethanol anyone had heard about was corn-based ethanol, a regional curiosity that accounts for about 3 percent of the nation's fuel and suffers from its association with the agribusiness lobby and with presidential candidates hustling support in the Iowa primaries. What the experts are talking about now, however, is cellulosic ethanol, derived from a range of crops, native grasses like switchgrass and even the waste components of farming and forestry — in short, anything rich in cellulose. A Canadian company called Iogen, a leader in the field, makes its ethanol from wheat straw.

    Like corn ethanol, cellulosic ethanol can be used in automobiles, so it is appealing as an answer to oil dependency. And both forms of ethanol are inherently superior to gasoline in terms of reducing global warming emissions, since the carbon dioxide they absorb while growing helps offset the carbon dioxide they produce when burned in a car's engine. Cellulosic ethanol is in fact much more useful than corn ethanol on this score, because it requires far less energy to produce and thus emits fewer greenhouse gases.

    In theory, hydrogen, which Mr. Bush keeps touting, could achieve the same purposes. But hydrogen cars are unaffordable, and a system for producing and delivering hydrogen is at least a generation away. An ethanol infrastructure is already in place, thanks largely to our experience with corn ethanol. Detroit makes cars that are capable of running on a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, and pumps can be quickly constructed. In time, all vehicles can be "flex fuel," capable of running on either fuel.

    And with oil at $70 a barrel, the price is right, too. Corn ethanol, which once required a subsidy, became competitive when oil hit $40 a barrel. Once the technology matures, cellulosic ethanol should be competitive at even lower oil prices.

    Daunting problems remain before cellulosic ethanol is available on a broad scale. The technology must be improved, farmers persuaded to cultivate cellulose-rich crops, commercial plants built. Getting all this up and running will require both private and public capital and sustained leadership. Iogen estimates that its first commercial plant, which it wants to build in Idaho, will cost $300 million. Mr. Bush has asked for only $150 million for research, development and production combined.

    Ethanol will not by itself end our oil dependency or global warming. We also need far more efficient cars and more efficient transportation systems as part of a larger smart-growth strategy. But given enough financial support and political will, it could be a huge first step toward ending America's oil addiction

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  26. Bob: Loved your slang review. Some words have changed, and many have just gone away.

    One of my favorite stories this past summer was told by a young teacher in the Chicago area. We attended her wedding. She told it on herself. It seems her superintendent put out a memo at the start of the year announcing the school's dress code. Prominently set out was a prohibition reading: "Girls will not wear thongs. The staff will be checking and sending home those who do."

    The supe was in his 60's. The female students were aghast. They came to the young teacher in dismay. Certainly no teachers were going to be checking their underwear!

    She advised she'd check it out. To her complete and utter humiliation she found out on approaching the superintendent that he, as most of us on this board know, was intending to ban "flip-flops".

    The teacher recounted how red in the face she was as she turned and slipped back out of the adminstrative offices!

    Ah, words, and how they change.

    In the sixties we were a cross between the surf craze, start of the drug culture and anti-war sentiment.


    "Fun" was a gas, or a blast. "Cool" things were cherry, primo, boss, far out, golden, groovy, hip, outta sight, or righteous.

    We "booked it" in cars which had been raked and outfitted with glasspacks and baby moons. Your parents' big car was a lead sled. We went cruisin' or drag racing. If you didn't drive you wanted to ride shotgun.

    Before The Beatles guys had ducktails or D.A's.

    Girls were chicks or foxes. Guys responded to "hey man" or cat. They wanted to avoid the Fuzz or The Man, especially when they were haulin' it or tooling around.

    We took our dates to the Passion Pit and made out.

    New threads brought on a right-on compliment.

    And when we said goodbye, it was -

    Later, Fred

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  27. AnonymousMay 04, 2006

    It's May! Can someone change the blog to May? Thanks

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