October 11, 1987
Here is a joke you may have heard, but it will bear telling again. It seems an elderly Presbyterian couple came to town years back to buy a car. They settled on the price and the couple went to the buggy to get the money. They brought back a five gallon cream can full of quarters. Both parties counted and they were a dollar short. The gentleman looked at his wife and said, “Mother, we brought the wrong can.”
Last week brought a lot of visitors to town to the class reunions. This weekend will be a repeat. There were other visitors too. Mick and Evy Chandler were here visiting Bill and Elgin Stuart. They seemed fine in every way. Mick is the brother of Freddy Chandler living here, and both are sons of Fred Chandler. The Chandlers were famous for their horses and Freddy still raises horses and makes the big horse shows.
A lady was in wanting information about her father who lived in Williamson years ago. There were ten children in the family and the folks needed help. All but two of the children were sent to the Mooseheart Home in Mooseheart, Illinois. Scotty Brown was the father and this daughter wanted some information about him. I called Stella McDowell who said for this lady to call Alvin Hochart or Steve Grgurich. Hocharts were not home, but she met Steve and found out what she wanted to know.
A lady from San Diego writes that she found a little amber-colored candy dish at a flea market. On the bottom was etched “Compliments of Joseph Brothers, Chariton, Iowa.” This lady remembered being over to her neighbors sometime before and seeing a Chariton paper that her daughter had sent her from Denver. This neighbor lady lived in Chariton years ago, but didn’t remember Joseph Brothers. She suggested the lady write to me. Joseph Brothers had a store right where the gas office was for years. They sold a little bit of everything. Charles Joseph referred to the place as a PeeWee department store. She said the dish cost ten cents, but turned out to be a collector’s item because of the type of glass. I talked to a man yesterday who was a blacksmith in Albia for years. This brought to mind the Campbell Blacksmith Shop here in Chariton. Blacksmiths were not unionized, but barber shops were, and every time barber shops closed, Campbell closed his shop. He just wouldn’t be outdone.
Several people reported seeing a string of twelve or fifteen deer come out of Grimes Cemetery and cross the highway during busy traffic. Not one was hit, but cars did some fancy driving.
Saw an empty coal train coming from the east on the Burlington Northern Railroad with two new electro-motor engines. Counted 209 cars with a Japanese conductor on the tail end. That is railroad slang for the little black box on the back end instead of a caboose. They are made in Japan and tell the crew just about everything. This makes a string of cars about two and a half miles long. Again, in railroad slang, that is called a real drag. Ed Mumford tells me he has never known game to be so plentiful and the food for them to eat so bountiful. That includes deer, squirrels, rabbits, turkeys and even a small bobcat has been sighted.
The subject came up in a group about what is heaven like. One thing for sure is that no one knows, only what the Bible tells us. When my wife died, the most soothing words, about heaven that I received came from an old retired minister. He said, “I don’t know what it is like in heaven, but rest assured it is all right.” I have thought of those words hundreds of times and they are comforting still.
Over the radio we hear there is a shortage of pumpkins in Iowa. That certainly isn’t true in Lucas County, as pumpkins are in evidence most everywhere.
The shortest quotation I have seen in the little book of favorite quotations of Chariton people is: “Hold your tongue.”
Remember when Henry Ford said you could have any color car you wanted as long as it was black? In 1925 the country was ablaze with red and white billboards announcing the thirteen millionth Ford had rolled off the assembly line. In later years Ford made the Edsel car, which was a flop because of the front-end design. It resembled a horse collar and was practically joked away. In 1923 they offered a car with a body design that didn’t prove popular. It was a hard-top car with what was known as a California top. The top could be removed and the body had only one door on the driver’s side in the middle of the car. You stepped in and up to the divided front seat or to the back seat. There was one here in Chariton but the design didn’t go over. This car belonged to Anna Laura Copeland.
Our ride -
George Dunshee, Charles Prior and myself left Chariton at 2 p.m. and got back at 6:15 p.m. Went down the Cinder Path. Colors are not the best as yet, but was a lovely cool day. We came back by Last Chance Church area to locate a place where a black family lived in 1906. We are closing in on this story and will write an article on this family and the beautiful church in the next week or so.
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