Muscatine

Miss Iowa,

I do remember lots of these but there are a few that standout,  Mac's Bargain Mart, anything and everything at the Maid Rite, the rocking chair, roller skate tent on the riverfront, and excusion boats.

 Maid Rites have have always been my favorite but for me they have to be a little juicy with, mustard, pickles and lots of onions and that is all.  No ketsup.  I never ate any pies there.

Mr. Wolf was my sixth grade teacher and I skated regulary at the tent on the riverfront.  I even helped the young ladies put on their skates and for that I was allowed to skate free.

 I remember the Avalon docking in Muscatine and enjoying the cruises locally on the river.  The Calliope and the sounds it made were special for anyone who took one of the trips on the river.

Now for the Rocking Chair Story .........I know this one quite well.  There was an old lady in the southend of town that enjoyed sitting and rocking in her rocking chair.  Every evening you would find her sitting and rocking if you stopped by for a visit.  I never knew her so I can only report what was in the news.

 She eventually died and a funeral was held for her.  After the funeral, her family returned home.  Later that evening, her rocker started rocking and no one was sitting in it.  It stopped later that night and was silent all the next day until the evening time when it would begin to rock.  This made the local and national news until some investigators showed up to try to determine why it would be rocking at that time of day.  There was a lot of speculation.  On theory was that there were vibrations from passing traffic that caused it to rock, particulary if the rocker was perfectly balanced.  Eventually it was loaded aboard and freight train and shipped to Chicago to be examined there.  During the trip, someone broke into the box car and broke the rocker into pieces.  It was returned to Muscatine all broken up.  It was put back together and later, that same day, in the evening, it started rocking again.  After that report, I never heard anything about it.  I was unaware that the family chaged anyone to observe it rocking so I know nothing about that.  As far as my story is concerned, I am reasonably confident that my version is pretty accurate.  I have  been tempted to contact the Journal to check their archives for verification and may some day.

Toyland at Battersons every Christmas.

Warm popcorn just popped out in Kreske's and Woolworth's on 2nd.

Trade Home shoes.

The cab stand.

Frankenstein, Wolfman, and the Mummy visiting the Palace theater live on a special horror movie weekend. Snuck down the aisles and scare everyone.

The Woolworth candy counter.

Muscatine Power and Water office burning down on Sycamore and Third.

The coin-op gyrating ponies with those cool black saddles outside the Sun Mart stores.

Benner's.

Crick's Lounge.

Weed Park zoo and Snake House. Candy the elephant.

Kitchen Klatter on KWPC. Maryann Templeman and George Volger.

St. Clair bottling works-cream soda.

"You can trust your car to the man who wears the star"!

Roach and Musser's fire on Grandview Ave.

When the Elms was just a few hundred feet outside the city limits.

Acri creature feature. Jim King. Bill Gress at WOC.

Faron Young appearing in concert at the Uptown theater. Buddy Rich and band appearing at the old Muscatine High auditorium.

"FWOP-FWOP"- the sound a car made as it drove over the Iowa State Trooper speed sensor hose stretched across a highway.

Henri's Hamburgers.

Elder and Vauple.

Lamp Rehwalt store.

When downtown parking meters were enforced by the trike-Harley cop.

Down by the Elms, on the opposite side of the hiway, was a large red barn with a junk yard in front. Someone had a still in the barn. He got busted, shutting off some of my kin's 'shine supply.

Henri's burgers had a lot of business until someone found all those empty dog food cans in their trash.

Somewhere in the little league complex used to be an artesian well back when that all was Smally's pasture. A pipe came up out of the ground and water gushed out all the time. An old bath tub was there to catch water for cows to drink. Dad and I would drink from the pipe when we were fishing there. A good, cold drink too.

Anyone remember Wiskey Holler and The Big Timber? We ised to go nuttin every year there and looking for mushrooms. We used to only go for the Moreals and walnets and Hickory Nuts what fun.