John and Diana Robeson were married on November 22, 1969, and so were the Jacksons.
All of us are Cubs fans, which means our parents never saw a Cubs World Series win, place, or show.
I invented a cloaking device in chem-physics, but no one noticed.
John and I went to Plymouth Congregational Church, pre-school, and ended up as lab partners in chem-physics class. I am in that photo - my uncredited cameo. John and I earned PhDs and became university professors. There was another eventual PhD in that class, but that was just in rocket science.
Christina and I had our anniversary photos taken at Penney's. John and Diana's children and grandchildren have hair the color of bright, red pennies.
Our son is in this photo with my father, but he looks exactly like his son at that age. See Batman below.
My wife Christina was trained to be a German teacher at Augustana College, and she lived in Germany to learn more and become especially fluent. Later she earned a master's degree in German literature at the University of Waterloo, a tough program where all the reading was in German - and so were most of the lectures.
I was one of her first students. She thought I should learn German, and I took plenty of courses at Augustana in German, and she took Greek - based on my suggestion. I was not a natural in languages, but I thought they were important to learn, so I took Greek and more Latin.
Every mother is a teacher, and Chris devoted herself to teaching our children all the time. She gave her language abilities to our son, and gave our daughters a special love for conversation and laughter. Bethany and Erin Joy could not talk, but they spoke with their eyes, laughter, smiles, and tears. Story time was so important we even phoned up story time from a special number.
All three children heard stories, listened to books read, and enjoyed group lovey time. There are many ways to teach.
My wife Chris decided that learning itself was good, not something received at a school, even though she substitute taught at various schools. Learning happened all the time, which is how we talked her into an Atari game computer - for education. "They have all kinds of programs to teach math and everything else."
That little game computer turned into a career. Today, we had the best time talking about the latest advances.
I remember Chris driving Little Ichabod to the community college for classes, very early, as I mentioned before. We home-schooled, which was a great experience. I got to tutor him in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and he tutored his classmates in Latin and Greek.
My wife and I love literature, so we had a home full of literature, classical music, and hymns. When I read stories, I insisted on junior editions of literature or classic children's stories, like Wind in the Willows. We read Tolkien and Lewis too.
The wonderful thing about a wife and mother working at home is the astonishing amount of education that comes from that experience. During Fiddler on the Roof being played on the record player, the young groom sang "Miracle of miracles, God gave you to me." At that point our toddler ran over and kissed his mother. During the "Fifteen Birds in Five Fir Trees," song from The Hobbit record, he danced. I was in my office downstairs and heard the song and the feet thumping - so much fun.
Chris was always looking for ways to get the best education for LI. Various opportunities worked out, and we found ways to work around the drones and drudges in education.
I had to say at one school, "It is better to deserve honors than receive them." That was where the school secretary controlled the principal and decided on giving awards to the dumbest - truly a practical education in how the world works, even in putative Christian schools.
WELS had some excellent teachers in Shakespeare (Oxford), math, and science. Chris was 100% for that, since we thought an education was valuable in itself, not a way to earn a ton of money. A great liberal arts education is now The Thing in careers, because people with a broad education are better at thinking through problems and solving them. And they can articulate ideas in good English, a real bonus today.
Teaching mothers become teaching grandmothers, which means enrollment in a mutual admiration society.
John and I went to Plymouth Congregational Church, pre-school,
ended up as lab partners in chem-physics class.
I am in that photo - my uncredited cameo.
John earned a PhD in math.
Now they have an abundance of red-headed grandchildren.
Chris and I took Team Jackson to see Yakov Smirnoff in Branson, giving the comic
his own t-shirt and one for his mother.
Our team t-shirts, with Lady Liberty on them,
caught the attention of the Food Channel and increased our modest fame.
After the Smirnoff show, we went for ice cream -
and the rest is cinematic history.
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.
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.
I remember when this photo was taken in class and finding out I was not named in the newspaper caption. When John and I connected again on Facebook, we discovered a common wedding anniversary, same day and year, different locations.
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! He 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 ofmoften 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. Dairy Queen was a welcome alternative to a bottle of milk.
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.
