International Falls Daily Journal - Heritage of Int'l Falls - Comments

So we were talking about

Thomas L. Johnson — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 21:57:47 -0500

So we were talking about heritage before everything got crazy, so I decided to go back to that distant place for a few minutes. Mando, Boise. Whatever you called it was the place that financed my four year college education -- and little else. In my five summers, I think I worked in enough areas to name the five worst jobs at the mill, and, by default, in the whole civilized world.
The bark auger in the Insulite on a night shift was the worst. It started like child's play -- pulling bark into an auger in the floor -- and ended like a nervous breakdown as morning came as you pulled the last bark in and then ran to find Shorty to turn it off before it burned up and you got fired.
Next, Salt and Lime man in material handling was devised by Satan himself. You came in at 3:30 and unloaded a car of lime with a front-end loader. Then another, until the heat of the day caused sweat and lime to become an active caustic. Finally you unloaded a car of salt, rubbing rough salt into fresh wounds, finishing up at 3:15. Twelve hours on; twelve hours off. This was the job they hid from OSHA.
The Insulite [RIP] was its own storehouse of absurd jobs. Sheet pulling was one job you could actually get better at -- but who'd want to? Then there was kiln cleaning. Some young college student would be put in a plastic suit, hooked to an oxygen tube, and sent up to spray acid in the crawl space above the kilns: "I'd never let my son do that," a veteran whispered. When I told my dad just smiled; it was tuition money.
Pople pulling in the old wood room was reserved for the big and stupid: that was my "look" in the 60's. {"You look big," Jack Strain would say,"I've gott sumpin for you in the wood room.") When the light came on, you used a pick to drag thick logs into a splitter box. Occasionally the pick bounced off and drove itself into your hand. If they were running four grindstones, the light might stay on for an hour. Only one guy died pulling pople that summer, and it wasn't considered a "lost time accident" because he only started to bleed after he hit his head on the way down.
I can keep going but I suspect that that is enough. I took a tour through the mill one summer not long ago. Every single job I worked has been replaced by some guy sitting in protective glass rooms. And those logs norpole liked to walk on -- gone forever, replaced by a pile of chips blown through long metal tubes. What kind of stories can you tell about wood chips blowqn through metal tubes?

Tammy, Call me stupid, "y &

roj2000 — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 18:26:49 -0500

Tammy,

Call me stupid, "y & o"?? I think I know what the "Y" is, but what is the "O" for?? Am I getting that old and dense??

Your 56 was almost as old as

sunshine — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:18:47 -0500

Your 56 was almost as old as you when you were cruising main and third. ;)

Rumor has it that because of

roj2000 — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:19:00 -0500

Rumor has it that because of Boise's discharge of waste, you can now walk on top of the water on the river!! Just kidding!!!!

Tammy, If my memory serves

roj2000 — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:17:20 -0500

Tammy,

If my memory serves me correctly, you are not far behind me. Maybe my 56 chevy was 20 yrs old when I drove it?

As a kid, we loved to swim

norpole — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 21:36:22 -0500

As a kid, we loved to swim in the Rainy River. It was something we did six maybe seven times a day or even night. We walked the boom logs that held the wood for the mills. You could once hop right over to the Fort and get a treat at the Dairy Queen. I guess there was no need for Homeland Security then! When I walked in the river from shore, I once bumped into something kind of solid. I thought it was a big northern or something, but it was a black pipe that somehow was about three feet off the bottom. I asked my dad what that was and he said it was the neighborhood sewer line. But it was Ok, that sewer water was good for my acne. I believed him!! Anyway, the things we used to do and the things we can do now or the things our kids can do are products of two very different worlds. I sure liked mine.

Roger, I told you, I knew

Tammy Hoffman — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 21:22:38 -0500

Roger, I told you, I knew you weren't Y & O

TLJ, Thanks for the

roj2000 — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 07:43:45 -0500

TLJ,

Thanks for the memories. I saw Coach Haglund and some of his friends at Barney's having their usual morning breakfast meeting of the minds. I asked him if I could call him "Bags" and his reply was, thats my name isn't it. I wouldn't dare call him that in H.S.! He was all bent over and starting to look pretty old, and it was hard to imagine that he used to kick my rear end. He was sitting with a retired Highway Partolman (Pontius??), and the patrolman recognized me after all these years. I guess he remembered that he made it an effort to try to catch me speeding in my 1956 chevy. I remember one day he caught me in one of his "speed traps", and said "I've been waiting all day for smart butt like you", of which I responded, "I got here as fast as I could". He then informed me that I would have gotten a warning ticket, if not for that comment. They may be getting old, but they sure have their minds intact.

The great part about

Thomas L. Johnson — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:55:07 -0500

The great part about heritage is that it doesn't end up in name calling. At least not usually. I'd like to do some name naming: those good people who are part of the heritage -- particularly those I've never told this too. I'll start with a few teachers.

Wayne and Wallace Haglund. I liked playing football for Frank Larson becaue we won championships, but I loved playing for Wayne Haglund because he let us have fun while we were doing it. Like the year we won the IRC and he let Larry Roche drop kick extra points -- something that likely hasn't been done in a Minnesota high school game since. I was never able to call him "Bags" but I'm sure he would have smiled if I had.
Wallace Haglund would have taught me how to do about as much as any human being on the planet if I had been smart enough to take more than one year of shop from him. As is, I learned mechanical drawing, basic electonics, shop skills and watched as my classmates learned to become ham radio operators. My parents still have a grandfather clock from the Clock Factory in their living room.
Jim West. I had one class from him and he forced me to be able to look at a painting and know its style, its period, and, very often, its artist. I am the least artistic guy on the planet but I married one and fathered one and I have been in most of the great museums of the world and realize he gave me the tools to marvel at a Van Gogh or to be able to "read" a cubist painting. And by the way, several Jim West paintings festoon the walls of the same room that holds the grandfather clock.

Enough for tonight.

Icesicle, Yes, I remember

roj2000 — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 11:29:45 -0500

Icesicle,

Yes, I remember sneaking away from school and buying candy there. Mrs Clark would threaten to call the school and report us. I remember buying pretzle sticks in a box with a clear wrapper over them, and sneaking them back into school. What about the rink in Ranier? I remember we would us a fire hose to flood the ice and it smelled like sewer water. Probably was! We would sometimes hop the train coming from Canada for a quick ride. I would have killed my kids if they did something so stupid like that.

You have brought back many

six-shooter — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 10:26:21 -0500

You have brought back many of the same memories from ******'s store and also Ness's Store in So. Falls. The old Holler school when the furnace would always go out. The Carson Lupie skating rink with the old warming house and walking home in the dark with frozen toes.

I recall Rauscher Brothers

Icesicle — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 09:55:27 -0500

I recall Rauscher Brothers Grocery where you would go in and the brothers would be wearing their white shirts, black ties, white hats and aprons. They offered groceries and you could get great cuts of meat. Shopping seemed much more personal and friendly back then. You'd walk in, be greeted with a warm hello, and, while looking over the cuts of meat be asked if there was anything special they could get for you. The meat lying in the case behind the glass, waiting to be selected for that "special" meal or particular recipe, then wrapped for you in butcher paper while you watched, not like today when it's packaged in plastic and foam. Then rung up on the "old" register with the round headed buttons you had to really type on. The Coffee Landing occupies that space today. How about Clarks Corner Market? Anyone remember that place? I think it was on the corner of 7th Street and 8th Avenue. Penny Candy, again, behind glass. Somehow anything behind glass seemed so much more appealing. Owned by Darlene Clark and her husband Beldon who were both very nice people. I remember being sent up to Corner Market for anything my Mom would need. Including cigarettes. Which I would be given after handing over a signed note. Many a missing ingredient for some baking event would be provided from Clarks and save the day. It had hardwood floors that had heaved and would slope up and down in different spots. They always welcomed all the neighborhood kids on Saturdays and after school who would come in with pockets full of change and take enormous amounts of time picking and choosing from the wide assortment of candy in the case. Purchases which were small to them and huge to us kids. The store that sat on the corner has been torn down, but the house still sits next to the empty spot and is currently For Sale. Every time I drive by that empty spot I recall some memory of a trip to their store. I also remember waiting for the Bus to the Beach - City Beach of course. Hot July days with my suit on under my clothes, towel in hand, a transistor radio in my pocket. That bus couldn't get there soon enough. Jump in the water and "aaaaaah". Buy something from the Concession stand they had. It didn't matter what, just as long as I bought something while I was there. Riding the bus back home with my friends, talking, laughing and planning for the next day that we might be able to come again.

Happy St. Urhos day to the

sunshine — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:11:50 -0500

Happy St. Urhos day to the local Fins. Happy St Pats to all the local Irish. This is a weekend of drinking so please enjoy yourselves and hand over the keys to your dd. Have a green one for me.

Macintosh's toffee is great

BPARS — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:38:53 -0500

Macintosh's toffee is great -- Ronnings used to carry it, but I heard it wasn't as good as the one from the Fort.

Some of my favorite memories of downtown were Falls (Rizzo's) Shoe Shop, Chicago Cafe (best malts) JC Penney's (women wear upstairs, white goods downstairs and everything else on the main level) Woolworth's (where you could buy everything - and when I look back -- CHEAP)Bridgeman's ice cream (by Super One) and the drive-in theater (where the RV park/Wagner's is)

Sunshine, Couldn't see the

roj2000 — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 10:57:17 -0500

Sunshine,

Couldn't see the date, it was dark in the room!!

Heritage of Int'l Falls

norpole — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 23:34:23 -0600

I am wondering if you have a personal story that shows the spirit of our city. It could be just about anything.