The last stage of the reunion book is an update on where we are as individuals. That will be up to each person to contribute.
I will contact each person through the reunion website messages, but you can also answer by writing to me at this email address:
gregjackson1948@qwest.net
What you contribute is up to you. Here are some ideas:
1. Personal and professional achievements.
2. Family information.
3. Favorite teacher or teachers in the Moline system.
I would like to list our own teachers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, business people, PhDs.
Do we have any great-grandparents?
I am going to put together a draft in a few weeks. Please check that for errors and omissions. The reunion book will be available to purchase in printed form or to download for free.
Kris Streed Crawford, Linda Nelson Pearson, Chris Jackson, Greg Jackson
enjoyed the gathering at Lagomarcino's.
My Moline
Apologies to George Hamilton IV, author of Abilene
Chorus:
My Moline, My Moline,
Humidest town I ever seen,
Folks down there don’t treat you mean,
In my Moline, my old Moline.
I Facebook alone most every night
Watch them cars drive out of sight,
Wish that they were carryin' me
To my Moline, my old Moline.
Men’s Chorus:
My Moline, My Moline,
Prettiest girls that we ever seen,
They no longer treat us so mean
In our Moline, our old Moline.
Lonesome city, no treats for me
Lago’s, Whitey’s, or Chicken Dee,
Told my spouse that I should be
In my Moline, my old Moline.
Women’s Chorus:
We often cry, again and again,
How about those Moline men!
We sigh about what might have been,
In our Moline, our old Moline.
Chorus:
My Moline, My Moline,
Humidest town I ever seen,
Folks down there don’t treat you mean,
In my Moline, my old Moline.
How I wish that day would come,
Take me back to hometown bums,
Take me where I come from
To my Moline, my old Moline.
Chorus:
My Moline, My Moline,
Humidest town I ever seen,
Folks down there don’t treat you mean,
In my Moline, my old Moline.
Jim Medd solo:
Dairy Queen, Dairy Queen,
Medd brothers discovered vaccine,
They invented the Blizzard machine,
In their Moline, their old Moline.
Chorus:
My Moline, My Moline,
Humidest town I ever seen,
Folks down there don’t treat you mean,
In my Moline, my old Moline.
Greg Jackson, Guy Johnson duet:
Franchise doughnuts rot the brain,
Krispy Kremes drive us insane.
Think we need a gourmet scene,
With Melocream, fresh Melocream.
Chorus:
My Moline, My Moline,
Humidest town I ever seen,
Folks down there don’t treat you mean,
In my Moline, my old Moline.
Future:
Outside my group home cold rain falls
Sit here drawin’ on the walls.
If I were home, I’d be so keen
Back in Moline, my old Moline.
Chorus:
My Moline, My Moline,
Humidest town I ever seen,
Folks down there don’t treat you mean,
In my Moline, my old Moline.
Seasonal verse by Barbara Dodd Hawotte:
My Moline, My Moline,
Best little town for Halloween.
Trick-or-Treat even if you're a teen,
in my Moline, my old Moline.
GJ - After working on some reunion photos, I fell asleep and dreamt that the group at Lago's was singing this, so I had to finish it. I always thought that the song Abilene cried out for a Moline version.
The people I know to be on Facebook are highlighted. Marsha Anderson Harvey - I overlooked her the first time. She is on Facebook too. She is in the sixth row, her late brother Dean below her and a bit to our right.
Ken Berry had a hit show in Mayberry RFD in the late 1960s. He said Mayberry was just like the town he grew up in - Moline.
In Hollywood he was known as the nicest guy in show business.
Andy Griffith launched the pilot of Mayberry RFD with Ken Berry.
Weirdness: Leonard Nimoy encouraged Ken Berry to get into Hollywood
when they were in the Army.
Sgt Nimoy - can you digest that?
Ken Berry came to MHS during our senior year and appeared in the Line O Type.
Some of us were discussing future gatherings, assuming a big one for our 50th anniversary gathering.
I asked the reunion committee to consider an informal gathering on an annual basis. A number of people seemed favorably disposed.
Many of us were happy to have a time when we could plan some small-group activities, such as a trip to Lago's, golfing, and a solo walk along the river.
The reunion committee, energized by their wildly successful 45th events, could set a date for 2012, like the 60th birthday party. We could have a picnic or whatever else is simple to set up. That way, people could plan to see a lot of their friends at once, since many of us travel a long way to Moline.
This assumes that not everyone could make it each year. Nor would everyone be expected to attend. But - with a fixed date, we can make plans for that and quietly encourage friends and relatives to avoid marriages, reunions, and crises during that time.
The annual gathering can easily be promoted with this blog, Facebook, and the MHS66 website. We might keep better track of each other with annual events, too.
One of our servicemen noted that his group's annual events drew together a number of wives in friendships. My wife had a great time this year and would not miss Moline reunions for anything.
Walt Karstens, Mark Bisbey, Stan Uskavitch, Brenda Gunnerson Uskavitch, Darlene Gabriel Katherman, and George Small's nose and arms..jpg
That could be Barb Warfield DeSmet's back.
Sharlene Carlson and Ross Blackburn are behind George's arms.
John C. Boland. Perfect Crime (www.perfectcrimebooks.com), $15.95 trade paper (350p) ISBN 978-1-935797-16-6
At the start of this superior science fiction thriller from Boland (Out of Her Depth), archeologist David Isaac arrives on Chesapeake Bay’s Ewell Island, once occupied by people driven out of the Maryland colony in 1670, to help his mentor, Noel Sprague. Sprague, the expedition’s leader, hopes to unearth three coffins containing members of one of the island’s first families, who were suspected by their contemporaries of being Satanists. Tragedy strikes after Roberta Gerson, a well-liked young scientist “developing a specialty in Colonial village life,” is lost in a suddenly flooded excavation pit. When the receding waters allow Isaac to go below, he finds evidence that Gerson’s death was no accident. Meanwhile, a dogged investigator from the National Institute of Science probes the organization behind the expedition, the shadowy St. Leger Foundation. Boland’s taut atmospherics, especially in the scenes set on Ewell Island, are top-notch, and the evolutionary themes he explores are easily accessible to nonscientists. (Oct.)
GJ,,
The Moline DQ references in this article, Mildred's ice creamery, was
owned and operated by my grandfather and grandmother, CR and Mildred Medd. The
store was across the street from Wheelocks Drug store and four doors up from
present day Casey's! The first DQ store in Moline was opened by CR Medd in 1941
on 4 th Ave. This store set the standard for the famous flat top DQ store
design. Medd's , Duke's, and Noble's were names spoken of often during the early
years, not much on McCollughs!
The Medd brothers, Dick, Ralph, Ronnie, all
from Moline, designed and have the patent on the Blizzard DQ machine and in
particular the mixing blade. International DQ found out about the candied malts
being made at the Moline DQ's when the brothers took the candied malt mixing
machine to the St. Louis, Missouri DQ convention in the mid 1970s. IDQ signed
agreements with the Medd brothers for the rights to use the machine, now being
built by Duke and Sons, East Moline. Also, the first mint Dilly Bar came from a
Moline DQ store in 1977/1978. Moline has history!
left to right - Homer Jackson, H. Noel, Candace, the Blogger, Gladys.
I date this around 1949, since I was born in late 48.
After a few years, however, Grandpa McCullough was still thinking about soft ice cream, and he convinced his son that they should find out whether or not the product would capture people's tastebuds. They asked one of their customers, Sherb Noble, if he would arrange a special offering of soft ice cream at his store in Kankakee, Illinois. With an advertisement of 'All you can eat for 10 cents,' the sale was held in early August 1938. Using an ordinary commercial batch freezer, the men put the soft ice cream into five gallon containers and then hand-dipped the product into 16-ounce cups. In two hours, Noble and the McCulloughs dished out over 1,600 servings. A short time later, another sale of soft ice cream was offered at Mildred's Ice Cream Shop in Moline. The response from the public was the same. With such overwhelming success, the McCulloughs began searching for the type of freezer that would make dispensing soft ice cream a reality. Funding Universe
---
Ice cream manufacturers have always known that ice cream tasted best when it was "soft frozen" at approximately 23º F. When ice cream was served at near 0º F, it would numb the taste buds, making the product less flavorful. Ice cream manufacturers also knew that if there was ever going to be a way to serve a "soft frozen" product to the public, a new kind of freezer would have to be invented.
In 1938, near Moline, IL, two ice cream manufacturers, J.F. "Grandpa" McCullough and his son, Alex, decided to find out how the public would react to a "soft frozen" ice cream product.
The McCulloughs enlisted the help of one of their customers - Sherb Noble who owned an ice cream retail shop in Kankakee, IL. They decided to have a sale. They called it the "All the ice cream you can eat for only 10 cents" sale. The sale was held on August 4, 1938. They dished out over 1,600 servings in about two hours, and people were lined up and down the block. The McCulloughs now knew that the idea of selling a "soft frozen" product to the public had a lot of potential. Now, all they needed was to develop a freezer that could continuously dispense a "soft frozen" product.
The solution to their freezer problem came when "Grandpa" McCullough saw an ad in the Chicago-Tribune which advertised a "continuous freezer that dispensed frozen custard". The ad was placed by Harry M. Oltz of Hammond, IN, who owned a patent on his machine. The McColloughs and Oltz got together and on July 31, 1939, signed the Agreement that would launch an industry.
The McColloughs obtained the manufacturing rights to the Oltz patent. However, the Oltz Freezer was crude and difficult to operate because it used ice and salt to freeze the ice cream chamber. The McCulloughs knew that a freezer needed to be built which would incorporate mechanical refrigeration. So, in the fall of 1939, the McCulloughs proceeded to have a prototype freezer built that would incorporate mechanical refrigeration.
In January 1940, the prototype freezer was ready and was installed in "Grandpa" McCullough's basement for testing. It was during this time that "Grandpa" McCullough discovered that "soft frozen" ice cream dispensed by this new freezer tasted best when it had only 5 percent butterfat rather than the standard 10 percent or more butterfat used for regular ice cream. In fact, this newly developed "soft frozen" product was not ice cream at all, but rather ice milk. The experiments also concluded that the new "soft frozen" ice milk would taste creamier, smoother, and would hold its shape best when served at 18º F.
By Spring of 1940, the McCulloughs had finished their testing and then ordered four freezers to be built to their new specifications. The first two machines were finished in May 1940 and were slated to go to Sherb Noble who had found a location in Joliet, IL, to start the new business which would serve the new "soft frozen" ice milk. The store was jointly owned by the McCulloughs and Noble but the new business could not open its doors until it had a name.
Since "Grandpa" McCullough had always referred to the cow as the "Queen of the Dairy Business," and consequently, referred to his "soft frozen" product as the "Queen of Dairy Products," it was decided to call the store and the product Dairy Queen. The Joliet store opened on June 22, 1940. The second store opened in Moline, IL, on April 1, 1941 and a week later, the third store (Sherb Noble's second) opened in Aurora, IL. World War II sharply curtailed the expansion of Dairy Queen. In fact, at the end of the war in 1945, there were only eight Dairy Queen stores in operation.
Today, there are over 5,600 Dairy Queen stores throughout the world. In addition to Dairy Queen soft-serve products, some Dairy Queen stores also offer the "Brazier" line of hot foods. However, Dairy Queen is still the largest seller of "soft frozen" dessert products in the world. (Source - Florida DQ)
---
In 1948, Axene arranged for 35 store owners and territory operators to meet in Minneapolis with the purpose of establishing a national organization. In December of the same year, the first official meeting of the newly incorporated Dairy Queen National Trade Association (DQNTA) was held in Davenport, Iowa. Organized as a not-for-profit corporation, with C.R. Medd as its first president, national offices were soon established in the city.
---
A very popular Dairy Queen treat today is the Blizzard Treat, which is ice cream with pieces of cookies, brownies or candy blended in. It has been a staple on the menu since its introduction in 1985, a year in which Dairy Queen sold 175 million Blizzards.[4]. The Blizzard was invented and copyrighted by Richard, Ronald, and Ralph Medd of Iowa. It is traditionally served upside down to prove the thickness.
This enlargement shows that while others were posing with a cone, I was pursuing it.
---
Brenda Roggendorf commented on your link:
"Hi Greg, H C Duke & Sons of East Moline are the makers of the Dairy Queen Machines. For years my son was one of the welders that helped make the machines. "
***
GJ - Jim Medd, MHS 66, worked at the family Medd-O-Lane. A classmate says he ran one before moving to Florida. Details are welcome.
We can be doubly proud of DQ's Moline connection and the Blizzard's origin in our fair city.
MHS Hall of Fame potential? I think so. Our family loves to go there and it is an American institution.
Moliner gets job Cubbage wanted
Posted Online: June 25, 1997, 1:00 am
By Leon Lagerstam
Staff writer
A Moliner got the job as school superintendent in Fort Myers, Fla., after all.
Bruce Harter, 49, an administrator from Corvalis, Ore., was chosen from among
five finalists for the superintendency of Lee County Schools in Fort Myers, as
reported earlier this month.
One of the finalists for the job was Diana Cubbage, who resigned as Moline's
superintendent in March.
Mr. Harter was born in Moline and grew up on 42nd Street and 20th Avenue. He
graduated from Moline High School in 1966.
"Life is full of ironies and coincidences,'' he said in a telephone interview
earlier this week from Oregon. "Unexpected things happen all the time. It's
all about living in the world. For example, you never know when you might run
into someone from your hometown or bump into someone you used to know.''
Mr. Harter and Ms. Cubbage met briefly at a school board meeting in Florida
during the hiring process.
"I threatened to sing the Moline Fight Song to her,'' he said. "She thought
it was pretty funny because of how ironic it was we were both in the
running.''
What would have been more ironic is if Mr. Harter would have replaced Ms.
Cubbage as the Moline superintendent, according to Kathleen Trevor, who
graduated from Moline with Mr. Harter and organizes the class reunions he has
been unable to attend.
"Bruce would have been a real asset,'' Ms. Trevor said Tuesday. "It's really
our loss.''
His success doesn't surprise her a bit, she said. "Bruce's personality was
always charming and outgoing. He was the kind of person who made you feel real
comfortable. He always involved himself in things and he treated everyone
equally.''
After graduating from Moline, Mr. Harter attended Gustavus Adolphus College
and later the University of Michigan.
He remembers Moline as a wonderful place to grow up and said the education he
received prepared him well. "However, the only work I could find was painting
fire hydrants for the public works department in the summer of 1970,'' he
said.
Instead, he became a teacher for an inner city school in Detroit. "I soon
found out I was in over my head and took a year or so off and worked in
hospitals,'' Mr. Harter said.
He returned to education in Michigan, where he taught, coached football and
wrestling, and eventually moved into administration. His career in education
has taken him to Iowa, Colorado, California and Oregon. Florida is next.
He said he may have considered applying for the Moline superintendent position
if the timing had been different.
When Ms. Cubbage was hired about three years ago, Mr. Harter had been in
Corvalis only a couple years and did not think the timing was right. It might
be hard to be superintendent in your hometown, but it would have been fun, he
said.
Instead, he will start his job in Fort Myers July 21. He was given a
three-year contract with an annual salary of $100,000. He will oversee 51,000
students attending 67 schools in the Lee County district.
Mr. Harter is married to Lee Anna Hedges, whom he met in California. They have
three kids, Dan, 20, Susie, 16, and Kyla, 8. Although his parents moved from
the Quad-Cities to Arizona several years ago, he still has many cousins,
aunts, uncles and friends in the Quad-Cities.
He said he's noticed wherever he's gone that young people always complain
about having nothing to do. "And nobody seems to want to be around their
hometown, until they realize the importance of the foundation it provides.''
Front Row: Denise Hoover; Judy Marsh; Sue Dunlap; Jill Welch; Marie Holevolt. Second Row: Susan Conrath; Linda Marks; Maryann Grimes; Carolyn Roberts; Bev Briesch Third Row: Linda Mize; Linda Hensley; _________;
Peggy Hoobler; Jackie Wood. Back Row: Joyce Brown; Linda Walline; Judy Bergstrom; Dawn Woodard; Sherry Kelly; Barbara May; Cindy LaMarr; Sheryl Morris; Peggy Gillette; Cathy Combs; Janice Noble; Linda Marshall; Madolyn Lyman; _____; _____; Ann Irwin; ________. Back Row right side - Ruth Durham, Marilyn Rue, Ann Irwin.
Standing on Ann Irwin's left is the teacher, Eileen German.
Back row: Cynthia Christopherson, Alan Hoffman, Debbie Mitchell Gahan and her twin in the mirror. Foreground, starting on the left: Beverly
Epplin Wagner's back, Kathy Colburg, Pam Nystrom Sims, Barb Dodd Hawotte, and Kris Streed Crawford.
Linda Nelson Pearson and Chris Jackson's hands.
Beverly Epplin Wagner (l.) and Kym Dennhardt Whatley
We had a great time at Lagomarcino's - my first time inside. Fortunately there were no initiation rites to endure. This was a great idea, and I hope we have many more small group gatherings at the next one.
I am voting for a 65th birthday party in two years.
Lulu.com changed their approach, so this is an e-book or PDF that will cost $1.24. The free PDF at Lulu.com is the old version, so do not bother to get that one.
Thanks to John Robeson, I have a way to link the second version for free.
This version has all the reunion photos that I had on hand. I am happy to include more if you send them to me or post them on my Facebook page.
I improved the captions, but we still have a few unknowns. Let me know and I will fix those captions.
The third version will include what you send to me to publish. I will send everyone an email via the reunion website. I will include those responses and improve the pictures and captions as much as possible.
I expect to finish this in about two weeks, depending on how fast people respond. If I do not hear from you soon, I will assume you do not want updates posted. Nevertheless, I can fix the final version easily, correcting errors and adding information and photos.
