Waterloo, N.Y., claims the official title as birthplace of Memorial Day, but down South, a feud about the holiday’s origins still simmers.
Birthplace Bragging Rights
May 28, 2012Nugent Hardware
May 27, 2012
© karen e. titus | all rights reserved
Waterloo, New York
This business hasn’t traveled far since opening in 1887 – it started two doors up the street from its current site, according to owner William B. Velte Jr. It moved to this spot in 1932.
Velte bought the store in 1965. Apart from a 28-month stint in the service, starting in 1950, he’s been a steady presence. “I love to fix screens and windows,” he says. Velte started working in the store in the winter of 1948, right out of high school, earning $26 a week. The first thing his boss told him: “If we have another Depression, you’re gonna have to take a cut in pay.”
Velte says the secret of his success is simple. “Work. 60 hours a week. I clean the streets, I clean the parking lot, I don’t take coffee breaks.”
Though he appears to sell everything in his store, it’s not quite the case. At one point his daughter (who began working at the store when she was a 4th grader) came by with a customer. She told her dad, “He’s looking for a propane fogger.”
Not even bothering to look up from the screen he was repairing, Velte replied, “That’s not us.”
Like this:
Hard Bargain
April 21, 2012
© karen e. titus | all rights reserved
Shipshewana, Indiana
Shipshewana claims to be home to the Midwest’s largest outdoor flea market. It’s also a place for the van-driving set and the buggy-driving set to do a little business.
Giddyup!
March 19, 2012
© karen e. titus | all rights reserved
Le Grange, Illinois
The Pet Parade in La Grange, Ill., which takes place on Route 20, has been putting paws on the pavement since 1946. Categories for participants (from the official registration form) include:
• Dogs & Pals: “You and your dog walking!”
• Pets & Pals: “You and your pet that is not a dog or a stuffed animal or just come in costume!”
• Pals on Wheels: “All of our friends on wheels! Bring your bikes, skateboards, scooters or rollerblades!”
The parade clearly welcomes diversity – a nice reflection on Route 20 itself in this part of the state, where the road is also known as La Grange Road, Mannheim Road, Highway 12, and Route 45.
Git Western!
March 5, 2012
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Helen Davis
Burns, Oregon
“Either of you named Jan?” A short, sturdy woman bounded out of the Harney County Historical Society building and headed to a station wagon parked in the small lot in front.
I got out of the car and acknowledged I was indeed Jan. “Good. I’m Helen,” she said. “Git your stuff and come with me. Take everything you need – we’re getting lunch and heading for the BLM.”
Helen Davis commandeered us with her energy and strength over the next 10 hours. Neatly dressed in a white blouse, a bow tie under her pleasant but determined face, wearing a lavender polyester pantsuit, she looked like a high school counselor and spoke like a woman of the West.
“Your letter came to the Historical Center. They tossed it to me and wondered if I’d like to follow it up. It intrigued me. I even looked to see where Highway 20 ends – found it in an old book, ending at the Naval Yards in Boston.”
She drove with purpose, outlining the places we would see that day: the Bureau of Land Management to meet Mark Armstrong; the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, to talk with Gary Ivey; the lava beds; the round barn erected by Peter French, once the area’s most successful rancher (until he was shot dead); the P Ranch and the Diamond Hotel.
But her first stop was the supermarket, where she went in for our lunches. Scanning my notes on Route 20, I could find none of the places she mentioned. Were they on the highway? Maybe she knew something I didn’t.
Like this:
What’s in a Name
February 27, 2012
© jan albers | all rights reserved
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Boston, Mashachusetts
© jan albers | all rights reserved
In Boston, Route 20 either begins or ends, depending on which direction you’re facing. Speaking historically, however, Boston is part of the road’s beginning, where it was originally called the King’s Highway. Later the name was changed to the Upper Boston Post Road, when it became part of a colonial mail route between Boston and New York. The road roughly follows the Old Connecticut Path, a Native American trail that extended from Massachusetts Bay to the Connecticut River.
Like this:
End of Road, West
February 14, 2012
© karen e. titus | all rights reserved
Newport, Oregon
The Yaquina Bay Bridge, opened in 1936, is on U.S. Route 101, the north-south route at the far western edge of Newport. Route 20 comes to an abrupt end at 101, with no fanfare whatsoever. The view of the bridge offers a nice coda at the end of the accidental highway.
Meeting Place
February 6, 2012
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Coffee Cup Cafe, Hay Springs, Nebraska
This is the story told to us about the restaurant by Selma Kudrna, who owned a tax services business in town and who was volunteering the day we stopped by, in 1991:
The owner, Blanche de Haven, is a farm woman. Two young fellas bought the cafe, coming up with the cash with Blanche’s help – she cosigned on a loan. The business was going well until the sheriff came in one day and arrested one of the men, who had a prison record and had been stealing money from the business – and who’d cosigned on the loan.
Blanche, who’s in her late 70s, then took over the cafe herself. She gets up every morning between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. to do her farm chores, then heads to the restaurant, where she works until the afternoon. She’s helped by folks in town who volunteer at the restaurant one day a week to keep it running.
They don’t mind helping. One patron sums up the community spirit neatly: “Along here, we own our towns.”
They did mind when Blanche raised the price of a cup of coffee from a quarter to 30 cents – especially since the senior center across the street sells a cup of coffee for only a quarter.
Like this:
Open Road
January 27, 2012
© jan albers | all rights reserved
© jan albers | all rights reserved
Wyoming
Like this:
Happy Anniversary
January 23, 2012
© jan albers | all rights reserved
North Ridgeville, Ohio
(Uncle) Fred and (Aunt) Mandy Stobe, on their 50th wedding anniversary. Fred took her out to dinner but refused to pay 50 cents for a cup of coffee afterward, so they came home and made a pot of their own.
