When I became a teenager back in the late 1950’s I discovered how much fun it was going downtown. Lots of kids stopped in at the Candy Box in downtown Oelwein, Iowa after school. I never would have thought we would offer Birko balance, Birko sport, Birko motion, and Blue heeled arch supports on our website www.lionfootweardirect.com. The Candy Box was operated by the Sadini family and it had many different kinds of candy for sale. Their speciality was their caramel apples and I liked them best with nuts on them. When you entered the Candy Box there were large display cases full of candy to the left and a soda fountain to the right. The booths were in the back and we would hang out and giggle and find out the latest about who liked who. The Candy Box served all kinds of fountain drinks and lemon and cherry phosphates were popular as well as Cokes. The Candy Box had a juke box with a selection and coin boxes at every booth so you could play your favorite songs of the day. You could play 5 songs for a quarter. The group, The Platters had a song “The Great Pretender” and it was played at lot on the juke box as were songs by Elvis Presley. We liked the music loud but Mrs. Sadini didn’t. If she thought you were causing trouble she would have no problem kicking you out and you would have to get her approval to come back in. The Candy Box closed when the Sadinis retired and we moved on to the Sedorff’s Cafe but it was not the same as the Candy Box and did not offer caramel apples or the phosphate drinks everyone liked. When I was old enough to drive we hung out at Luigi’s a new drive inn that was opened on the highway on the south side of town. Leo’s Tavern served great pizza and I found out real quick you better let it cool off. I made the mistake of trying to eat it too soon and when I bit into the pizza the hot cheese stuck and burned the roof of my mouth. I went out for sports in jr high and high school so I would miss going downtown but I had a knee injury when I was in 9th grade so I started going downtown again. I rode with my best friend Dick in his 1937 4 door Chevy downtown and soon I started smoking Chesterfield cigarettes that had no filters on them. Within two weeks of smoking Chesterfields I had a cigarette cough. Back then you could buy a pack of Chesterfields for 30 cents a pack. My folks did not approve of me smoking so I kept it from them even though my mother knew I was smoking. Where I live in Red Oak, Iowa they had the Green Parrott where the local kids went after school to socialize and have a Coke or a malt. Most small towns in Iowa had a place where the kids could socialize and have a Coke or a soda but times have changed and there is no place in downtown Red Oak for kids to hang out. The best place we have in town for the kids now is the Y.M.C.A. and it’s a good place for kids to hang out but it does not serve malts or sodas and does not have a juke box. We offer Free Shipping for Dansko shoes, Dansko women’s Professional, Rockport World Tour, Rockport Margin, Rockport Encounter, Rockport Dressport 2, Ryka Studio, Super Birki clogs, Birkenstock chef shoes, Birkenstock Tokyo, Sandro Moscoloni, and Ultimate Protein on our website www.lionfootweardirect.com.

Red Oak Iowa is where I have lived for over 45 years and I have seen a lot of changes come to this small town on the banks of the Nishnabotna River and Red Oak Creek. www.lionfootweardirect.com has the best prices for Birko balance, Birko sport, Birko motion, and Blue heeled arch supports. Early in the mid 1800’s Red Oak Township laid out the town square that is still here today and was the center of town life. The town square in Red Oak has survived fires, storms, depressions, and floods. The fronts of the buildings around Red Oak’s square were refurbished in the early 1970’s by painting and enhancing the decorative moldings around the upstairs fronts of the buildings. The upstairs fronts of the buildings on the square are like they were when they were built back in the 1800’s. Many different businesses have come and gone, but the upper portion of the buildings have remained the same. The park in the center of our town square is a source of pride for Red Oak. Many local volunteers take care of the plants and flowers located there. In the beginning this park was an empty lot where people left their horses and wagons when shopping in Red Oak. The pioneers who first settled in Red Oak Township came here with dreams of a better life and they built homes, churches, businesses, and farms here. Red Oak’s big break came when Hans Theilson, chief engineer for the CB&Q selected the survey that Col. Alfred Hebard had laid out with very lttle changes. Red Oak began to prosper and it is still evident today by the large victorian homes that are located here. When I moved to Red Oak in the early 1960’s the square was full of retail stores. I rented the north duplex in Faunceville as it was know then from Bertha Faunce who owned Faunce’s, a women’s clothing store located on the northwest corner of 3rd. and Reed Street. Mrs. Faunce was a very successful businesswoman who owned farms and was said to own oil wells in Oklahoma. The building is now an Ebay store. Red Oak had a J.C. Penny’s, Gambles, Coast to Coast, and Western Auto located on the square when I moved to Red Oak and they were replaced by other businesses. The retail business has suffered here in Red Oak since we are so close to the Omaha-Council Bluffs metros and it is only a 45 minute drive. A lot of the businesses on the square are service businesses. The building that JC. Penny occupied when I moved to town is now an investment and insurance business. The town of Red Oak and it’s square have endured through good times and bad and we are just getting started in the 21st century in the year 2010. We offer Free Shipping for Dansko shoes, Dansko women’s Professional, Rockport Margin, Rockport men’s Encounter, Ryka studio, Super Birki clog, Birkenstock Tokyo, Birkenstock chef shoes, Sandro Moscoloni, and Ultimate Protein at our internet store www.lionfootweardirect.com.

When I was growing up in Oelwein, Iowa back in the late 50’s my father drove Pontiac automobiles. He had a 1954 Pontiac he liked a lot and he used it in his work as a sales engineer for Green Colonial Furnace Co. Our internet store www.lionfootweardirect.com has the best prices on the internet for Birko balance, Birko sport, Birko motion, and Blue heeled arch supports. He travelled around northeast Iowa calling on dealers who had plumbing and heating businesses. He always wanted to own a Buick, so, in 1957 he bought a new Buick. It wasn’t a Roadmaster, but a cheaper model, and right from the start he had trouble with it. The Buick had a dynaflow transmission and it had a lot of slippage because it was supposed to be so smooth when shifting. The problem was, it used more gas and my father did not appreciate that. He was making a sales call in Waterloo, Iowa when he shut the Buick off and he noticed smoke coming out from under the hood. He opened the hood and found out that he had an electrical fire. Fortunately, someone had a fire extinguisher and put the fire out. He had other problems with it and he said he would never buy another Buick. He started looking at Nash Ramblers at a local dealer in Oelwein and bought a red Rambler in 1959. My father liked the gas mileage he got with the Rambler and he didn’t seem to mind that the car was slow and did not ride all that well. The Rambler had a manual transmisson in it and it was the car he had when I got my drivers license. My father did not like me taking his car out for the evening because he wanted to keep the miles off it since he used it as a salesman’s car. When he would let me take it I would pick up my friend Dick Steele and I would crawl under the dash and unhook the odometer cable so no miles would show on the odometer. We would drive his Rambler over to Waterloo, Iowa, a city that was 45 miles east of Oelwein and cruise around. We stopped at the first McDonalds I ever saw and back then they had real plastic golden arches decorating their restaurants. I would take the car back home after our joy rides and my Dad never found out how many miles we drove his Rambler. I never liked the Rambler as I thought is was too slow and unattractive. My dad had changed jobs when I was in high school and he was selling cleaning supplies to schools, hospitals, and commercial buildings. I was playing in a country western band my senior year in high school and I played for one year after high school .When liquor by the drink was legalized in Iowa this ruined the band business since people liked to bring their own bottle to dances. I needed to find a new job. My dad talked me into becoming a salesman for the same company he was working for and my territory was in southwest Iowa. I was going to need a better car than I had so we went to the local Rambler dealer and my dad bought me a 1959 Rambler American. This car had a small 4 cylinder motor in it and was very small. The car rode like a truck and had no air conditioner but it did get great gas mileage. I drove the Rambler American for several years until I felt I could afford a new car. I then bought a Rambler Ambassador station wagon that was loaded with equipment and even had an air conditioner. I drove this car for several years but never really liked it. It was not much to look at and I was happy to trade it off for a new black two door Pontiac Catalina that had Pontiac’s new wide track suspension. It was a great car and I drove it many miles before trading it off. I never considered buying another Rambler and a few years later they went out of business. If you need a good price for Dansko shoes, Dansko women’s Professional, Rockport World Tour Classic, Rockport Margin, Rockport Encounter, Ryka studio, Sandro Moscoloni, Birkenstock Tokyo, Super Birki clogs, Birkenstock chef shoes, and Ultimate Protein, check out www.lionfootweardirect.com and get Free Shipping on your order.

Dave Clark

The town of Red Oak, Iowa grew and prospered throughout the 1800’s mainly because of the Railroad coming to town. Hotels like the Evan’s House, Colonial Hotel, and The Exchange Hotel where salesmen and railroad workers stayed sprung up in Red Oak. Our internet store www.lionfootweardirect.com has low prices for Birko balance, Birko sport, Birko motion, and Blue heeled arch supports. These hotels were located on 2nd street just down the street from the CB&Q depot. 2nd street was the main artery into Red Oak for many years. A big game changer came to Red Oak when Thomas Dowler Murphy and Edmond Osborn purchased the Red Oak Independent newpaper that was one of three newspapers in town. In 1890 Murphy and Osborn had a woodcut made for the new Montgomery County Courthouse and it cost more than they had planned, so to pay for it they sold ads to be placed around the wood cut and added a calendar to the bottom and a new industry, the art calendar business, came to Red Oak, Iowa. This new venture became very successful and they expanded by building a new factory at 214 South 2nd Street in 1904. By 1906 the T.D. Murphy Calendar company employed 300 people and the factory was enlarged. The calendar factory was in operation in the mid 1960’s when I started making sales calls in Red Oak. The company had a very ornate lobby and a phone system that was amazing. I have never seen anything like it before or since. The T. D. Murphy Co. added to the growth of Red Oak and the factory still stands today. It was closed over ten years ago when a company from Ohio bought the company and moved the business to Ohio. As the years went by the art calendar became a thing of the past when they became too expensive and the business shifted to advertising specialties. Red Oak added some culture to the town when it became a stop for the Chautauqua movement that brought speakers and entertainment to Red Oak and a permanent structure, the Chautauqua pavilion, was constructed on Chautauqua Hill in 1921. The Chautauqua movement faded out and the building was left unused by the 1930’s. In 1968 they decided to raze the stucture but a Chautauqua Restoration Committee was formed and money was donated to save and restore the pavillion which is now on the National Register of Historic Places. It is used as a place to hold family reunions and many a picnic has been held there as it provides a place to get out of the sun and weather. The hill west of the pavillion has been used as a sledding run during the winter when enough snow falls and has been a favorite place over the years for kids who have grown up in Red Oak. Our home is about five blocks south of Chautauqua Park and our kids used the hill for sledding when they were young. In the early 1900’s the square in downtown Red Oak added many new businesses. The pictures in S.M. Senden’s book “Images of America” of the businesses located in Red Oak in the early 1900’s are spectacular! The drug stores had wonderful display cases full of interesting items offered for sale and some had soda foutains in them and were great places to shop. Red Oak had a cigar factory that made 150,000 cigars a year and had a cigar store that was open 24 hrs. a day. Frank Langford’s Barber Shop had five barbers cutting men’s hair and it was located in the Houghton Building in 1910, the year my mother was born. The Jukins House Hotel was opened in 1885 and was purchased by P.P. Johnson in 1890 and was renamed the Johnson Hotel. At Johnson Hotel in 1909 you could stay for $2.00 a night and $2.50 if you wanted a private bath in your room. The hotel housed a barbershop, bus depot, and Western Union in 1951. I made sales calls on the Johnson Hotel back in the 1960’s as it was still open for business then. In the mid 1970’s the Johnson Hotel was torn down and the Houghton State Bank was built on this location. In 1920 the Wilkin’s Bakery was opened in Red Oak and they had a fleet of five trucks delivering Everbest Bread to stores in southwest Iowa. These early years in the beginning of the 20th Century were exciting and interesting times for the little town on Red Oak Creek and the banks of the Nishnabotna River. We offer Free Shipping for Dansko shoes, Dansko women’s Professional, Rockport Margin, Rockport Encounter, Rockport Dressport 2, Super Birki clogs, Birkenstock Tokyo, Birkenstock chef shoes, Ryka studio, Sandro Moscoloni, and Ultimate Protein on our internet store www.lionfootweardirect.com.

Dave Clark

Things began to change for Red Oak Township when the railroad passed by Frankfort and chose the area around Red Oak Creek and the Nishnabotna River because if offered a more level grade. Our internet store www.lionfootweardirect.com offers good prices for Birko balance, Birko sport, Birko motion, and Blue heeled arch supports. Col. Alfred Hebard did the survey that selected the route through Red Oak. Hebard returned to live in Red Oak and built a brick home at 700 8th St. overlooking Red Oak. The Boeye family lives there today. A post office was established north of Red Oak and the postmaster’s wife selected Red Oak as the name because of the large amount of red oak trees growing along the banks of creek. The building of the railroad was delayed until after the Civil War in 1869. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his wife arrived by train to campaign for the presidency on November 5, 1879 and over 4,000 people showed up to greet them. The people who helped give Red Oak the reputation as a town in the wild west moved on and people started moving in to start businesses and move Red Oak forward to becoming a prosperous town. On July 4th, 1890 the cornerstone was laid for the new courthouse that was to be built after $75,000 was allocated for the construction. My wife Linda’s great grandfather Jesse Bishop was the foreman over the brick laying crew that built the new courthouse. Jesse Bishop’s picture hangs today on the north wall of the first floor of the Montgomery County Courthouse. George West built Hebard’s fine brick home and many other victorian mansions that are still standing today. Thomas Draper built Draper’s Grocery and General Merchandise in 1869 at 101 West Fifth St. which later became Broadway. It is one of the oldest buildings still in use today as Johnny’s Cafe. Thomas Griffith moved to Red Oak in 1869 and became weathy because of his real estate and banking businesses. He became the mayor of Red Oak. Griffith had better sidewalks and paved streets installed around the square in Red Oak. The house he lived in still stands at 602 8th. St. but has been empty for many years waiting for someone to bring it back to its former glory. In April of 1882 Red Oak Street Railway was opened and traveled from 6th and Prospect to west on Reed Street. The railcar was pulled down a track by a horse or mule. In 1902 the tracks were torn up so they could pave the streets and that put an end to the Red Oak Street Railway. Red Oak was growing and prospering and looking foward to the coming of the 20th Century and a lot of changes that were soon to come to the little town of Red Oak Junction on the banks of Red Oak Creek and the Nishnabotna River. We offer Free Shipping for Dansko shoes, Dansko women’s Professional, Rockport Encounter, Rockport World Tour Classic, Rockport Margin, Birkenstock Tokyo, Super Birki clogs, Birkenstock chef shoes, Ryka Studio, Sandro Moscoloni, and Ultimate Protein on our website www.lionfootweardirect.com.

I live in a lttle town on the banks of the Nishnabotna River and Red Oak Creek now known as Red Oak, Iowa. People who need more support for their feet will find good prices for Birko balance, Birko sport, Birko motion and Blue heeled arch supports at www.lionfootweardirect.com. It was thought by people who lived in eastern Iowa that southwestern Iowa would never be worth anything. A settler by the name of Pleasant Jones set up camp here in 1852 and James Shank filed a land claim in 1854. There were rumors that the railroad could be coming through here. It was not Red Oak that was selected to be the county seat of Montgomery County it was Frankfort. It all changed when late in 1853 it was decided to move the route through Red Oak Township because the grade was more level there. The stage coach ran through this area on an east-west route and everything started moving there. A group of men from Red Oak Township went to Frankfort and moved the one room courthouse to Red Oak. They tried moving the courthouse in a big snow storm and it ended up falling off the wagon into a snow drift and was not found until the next spring when the snow melted. It was finally brought into Red Oak and installled on the square. The building of the railroad was delayed for 5 years because of the Civil War. It was in 1857 that two men, Remick and Shanks pledged a total of 80 acres for a townsite that became Red Oak Junction. The first newspaper was put out in 1869. It was called the Montgomery County Express and it was printed in an office in Corning, IA. The editor installed a used press and type he brought in from Centerville, IA and set up a shop in 1869. The name was soon changed to the Red Oak Express and that is what our weekly newspaper is now called. There are more fascinating stories about Red Oak Junction to come. In the early days Red Oak Junction was compared to Deadwood as a wild frontier town. Red Oak creek still flows into the Nishnabotna River and at times we are still being threatened by floods. We have had two floods in the last five years. I have been looking at a book put together by S.M. Senden who is the director of the Montgomery Co. Historical Society in Red Oak. The photographs in this book of Red Oak’s past are absolutely fascinating. I have lived in Red Oak for over 40 years and enjoyed reading all the history about this area in southwest Iowa on the banks of the Nishnabotna River and Red Oak Creek. We offer Free Shipping for Dansko shoes, Dansko women’s Professional,
Ryka Studio, Rockport World Tour Classic, Rockport Margin, Rockport Encounter, Sandro Moscoloni, Super Birki clog, Birkenstock Tokyo, and Ultimate Protein at www.lionfootweardirect.com.

Dave Clark 2/19/2010

Well, here it is Friday, February 19, 2010, and another snow storm is hitting us here in Red Oak, Iowa with up to 5 inches of snow expected by Sunday. This has been the harshest winter I can remember and it’s not over yet. If you need more support for your feet, check out our website www.lionfootweardirect.com for Birko balance, Birko sport, Birko motion, and Blue heeled arch supports. Back in the early 80’s I had a friend that wanted to get a tattoo in a shop in Omaha, NE and wanted me to go with him. I had always thought about getting a tattoo but never did. When I was in high school in Oelwein, IA. I went with a friend to the Buchanan County Fair in Independence, Iowa, a town 17 miles south of Oelwein. At the fair they had a tattoo artist and I watched him tatoo a young guy. The fellow getting the tattoo was rubbing his head and wiping away a few tears that were trying to fill up his eyes. I could tell that the tattoo was hurting him and I thought to myself “I could take the pain!” I did not have the money then and I was not 18 years old and even if I did my folks would have grounded me for life if I got a tattoo. My friend and I rode Harley’s together and he wanted to get a flying wheel tattooed on his inside forearm. The tattoo shop was on 19th and Leavenworth in Omaha and was quite small. The tattoo artist had an assistant who was a cute young gal with a lot of tattoos. I believe he tattooed her when it was slow in the shop. While my friend got his tattoo of a flying wheel I checked out the panels of tattoos that were hanging in the shop. I saw a Lion’s head that I liked and I decided to get it put on the top of my right forearm. So when my friend was finished getting his tattoo I got in the chair to get the Lion tattoo. I noticed the tattoo artist was packing a pistol on his belt and he worked so he was always facing the door. While he was tattooing me a guy came in with a toaster and a mixer to sell to the tatoo shop owner and it came to me that he was a fence for stolen goods. When the buzzing needle hit my forearm I found out real quick that it HURT! Since he was working in a small area on my arm the pain soon let up a little because my arm started to go numb. He first did the outline of the lion’s head and then he added the color. It took about 20 minutes but seemed like an hour and I was glad when it was over. That night I got up in the middle of the night because the tattoo was itching and burning. Tattoos are extremely irritating to your skin and I have sensitive skin and do not have the ideal skin type for tattoos. I have mixed emotions about tattoos but it doesn’t matter because a tattoo is there forever unless you want to go through the pain to have it lasered off. I think you should give a lot of thought to what you are going to have put on your body because it is going to be there for the rest of your life. I sometimes watch LA Ink, a TV show about a tattoo shop in LA, California, and I am amazed at how good some tattoo artists are. They do some unbelievable art work on people. Don’t believe anyone who tries to tell you that tattoos don’t hurt! They hurt! We offer Free Shipping for Dansko shoes, Dansko women’s Professional, Rockport World Tour Classic, Super Birki clog, Birkenstock chef shoes, Birkenstock Tokyo, Rockport Margin, Rockport Encounter, Rockport Dressport 2, Ryka Studio, Sandro Moscoloni, and Ultimate Protein on our website www.lionfootweardirect.com.

In the mid 90’s we have played golf at Woodland Hills just east of Lincoln, NE. Woodland Hills is a very fun golf course to play. The fairways are watered and in wonderful condition. The club house was almost new and sold sandwiches and beer and the staff was very friendly. It was about the third time we had played at Woodland Hills when we arrived on a Fri. morning for a 10am tee time. There didn’t seem to be any rush to get us on the golf course so we sat around and had sandwiches and then we teed off. There was nothing said to us about an event that was to be held that afternoon. The golf carts at Woodland all have gps devices so you alway know how far you are from the green and hole. They also have an intercom system so they can contact you. We stopped at the turn for some refreshments and we headed out to play the back nine. Again nothing was said to us about an event. We were on the fairway for hole #12 when we got the announcement from the club house that we had to quit playing and return to the club house because an event was to start soon. We ignored the order and kept playing. They sent a guy from the club house to tell us we had to leave the golf course and return to the club house. We told him we were going to finish our round since we had paid for it. It wasn’t long before the owner arrived in a golf cart and told us we needed to vacate the course and then he said ” I told you before you teed off that there was an event starting this afternoon!” I told him he never said anything about an event to me and everyone else in our foursome agreed. I was getting a little hot about the lie he told and I said some things I can’t repeat in this article. We finally got him to agree to give us a rain check for 9 holes so we left even though we wern’t to happy about it. I have never been back to use my rain check and I don’t know what happened to it. Order Dansko shoes, Dansko women’s Professional, Ryka Studio, Rockport World Tour Classic, Rockport Encounter, Rockport Margin, Super Birki clog, Birkenstock Tokyo, Birkenstock chef shoes, Sandro Moscoloni, and Ultimate Protein from our internet store www.lionfootweardirect.com.

Dave Clark

There is a golf course west of Omaha, NE. near Ashland Nebraska known as Quarry Oaks. This golf course is open to the public and it was voted best affordable public course by Golf Digest in 1997. When it was first opened I had heard that is was a tough, picturesque place to play golf. When you drive to Quarry Oaks you have to watch for the entrance road to the club house as it is poorly marked. The club house is very attractive and has a wonderful pro shop that has a lot of clothing, golf clubs, golf shoes, and golf balls on display. The pro shop has golf balls, shirts, and hats with the Quarry Oaks logo on them. The club house has a bar and snack bar, dining room, and meeting rooms for events held there by companies. Many golfing outings are held there throughout the summer and you can find golf balls around the golf course with companies logos on them. Golfers who get golfs balls for free are not as worried about losing them. The golf course has no homes built around the fairways and you are not distracted from the great scenery around Quarry Oaks. If you do not hit the ball very straight you will end up in the woods that surround the fairways. The greens are large and fast so it is easy to three putt them if you are not careful. There is a pioneer cemetary between the third and fourth holes that has six small grave stones that date back to the 1800’s. There are several holes on the front and back nine that you tee off up hill and some of your shots are to a blind green you can’t see when you hit your shot. When you finish the front nine you have a few minutes to order a sandwich before you head to the back nine. Hole number 15 plays 175 yards across an old rock quarry and is the hole that gave the course its name Quarry Oaks. The 14th and 15th holes play along the cliff overlooking the Platt River. On Hole 17 you drive off an elevated tee to the fairway below and if you hit it too far to the left you end up in a pond. Even if you end up in the center of the fairway you have to play to a small green with the pond on your left and a hill on the right with a lot of trees growing on it. The 18th hole is a long par five that you have to hit onto a narrow fairway with a babbling brook to the right. There is a big tree blocking the green if you end up too far left on your third shot. I was behind it once and I hit a six iron over the tree limb hanging out blocking the green onto the green and sunk a 15ft putt for a birdie which was the only one I remember having when playing Quarry Oaks. Quarry Oaks is a wonderful golf facility and I never get tired of playing this scenic golf course carved out of the eastern Nebraska landscape. We offer Free Shipping and low prices for Dansko shoes, Dansko women’s Professional, Ryka studio, Rockport Allander, Rockport Margin, Rockport World Tour Classic, Rockport Dressport 2, Birkenstock Tokyo, Super Birki clogs, Birkenstock chef shoes, Sandro Moscoloni, and Ultimate Protein at www.lionfootweardirect.com.

Dave Clark

A long time ago back in the early 70’s I was hired by Hank to play drums in his bar, The Hanky Panky, on Friday nights in downtown Red Oak, IA. Our prices for Birko balance, Birko sport, Biko motion, and Blue heeled arch supports at www.lionfootweardirect.com are the lowest on the internet. Hank also hired Donny Duysen to play guitar and another guy to play bass. The Hanky Panky was a loud, rough place and had a lot of power drinkers for customers. The band was set up on a stage in the front window of the bar and to the right of the front door. We played current rock and country tunes with Donny doing the singing. The customers at the bar seemed to like the music and they danced alot and drank alot which made Hank happy. One night we had a customer give Donny a dollar to play a tune they were requesting. We all had a good laugh about how we were going to split up the dollar three ways. After I had been playing there a few weeks, when on a break, I was talking with Hank about how I used to play drums at the Gold Crown in Red Oak and how I was paid more to play there. Hank agreed on the spot to giving me a $10.00 a night raise in pay! I was saving everything I made playing band jobs for a trip my wife and I were planning to take to Bogota, Colombia, South America to visit her sister and brother- in-law so the extra $10.00 was welcomed as it got us closer to leaving on our trip. I was still playing my Ludwig Black Classic drum set that I bought back in late 50’s. I played at the Hanky Panky for one summer and then I moved on to play for other bands around southwest, Iowa. I did not miss playing the Hanky Panky as it was awfully smokey in the bar and the music was too loud because the place was so small. Hank’s health went bad and he sold the Hanky Panky to his brother John who moved to Red Oak from San Francisco, CA. John changed things by adding a kitchen and started serving food. His wife Laura was a wonderful cook. During the day it was a hang-out for the old power drinkers. They came to the bar because John poured a stiff drink and they liked the food Laura cooked up. At night it was a rowdy, you might get punched in the face, kind of place. There was no security in the place at night because Bud the night bartender would not protect you from drunken trouble makers. John and his wife ran the place for a couple of years until John’s health went bad and they sold the place. They new owner changed the name and he ran it for a couple of years. The former Hanky Panky is now closed and will soon be changed into an office complex for a school organization. There might be a few ghosts
hanging around inside the former Hanky Panky waiting for a double shot of Crown Royale. Our internet store www.lionfootweardirect.com has low prices for Dansko shoes, Dansko women’s Professional, Rockport Encounter, Rockport Margin, Rockport World Tour Classic, Rockport Dressport 2, Super Birki clogs, Birkenstock Tokyo, Birkenstock chef shoes, Sandro Moscoloni, Ryka Studio, and Ultimate Protein.