Southside Reunion

On July 27, 2013, an acquaintance invited me to the "Southside Reunion" to be held at the VFW on Main Avenue.  My family moved to Brookings in 1949, almost two years before I was born.  They lived at 124 South Main, about two blocks south of the train depot.  For a couple of years, my dad ran the little grocery store that was just across the street.  I have no recollection of his store or the house that we lived in.  However, many pleasant memories of my younger days involve time spent in that area.  Foremost is the ball field there.  As a young boy, Southside Park (and also the Central school ballfields) was the site of my baseball education.  Many others also gained much experience there.  Some names that come to mind are Tom and Walt Osterberg, Jerry Moad, Lonnie Herron, David Hansen, and Randy Larson.  An older sister and brother also played many softball games there, and not of the slo-pitch variety (that came a few years later).

In the winter, the city flooded the area on the south end of the park, just beyond where the fence would be, for a skating rink.  Some of my older siblings learned to play hockey there.  They tried to teach me to skate, but those efforts were in vain.  Skating was not part of a "balanced" lifestyle for me. 

When we started playing little league in 1959, the fields were moved to South Medary, near their present location by the high school and Medary Acres.  At that time, they were on the edge of town.   The fields were previously located at Pioneer Park.  That year, just after we completed second grade, so many boys in our age group  (8-10 years old)  wanted to play little league that they created two new teams.  One of those teams was the Phillies, of which I was a member.  We struggled that first season.  Many of our players were either playing their first year, or were taken from other teams that had an overabundance of players.  Of course, those teams were not going to give up their better players, so our team was comprised of boys whose skill levels (and mine especially) needed a great deal of work.  If memory serves right, we won 3 games and lost 11.  In the first game of our season, I was chosen to pitch for the first three innings (because of our young age, 3 innings was the maximum one could pitch in a game).  We played the Yankees, a very good team, and they beat us mercifully.  I think their whole team batted around three times--in the first inning (my pitching was terrible).  We could not get anybody out.  The highlight of the season was the league tournament.  The championship would be played at Southside Park.  Not only was the fence farther away than the fields we played on, but the field had lights.  The game could go into extra innings and we could still keep playing, and not have the game called on account of darkness (there was no daylight saving time back then).  The 8-10 year olds would play the early game, while the 11-12 year olds would play the second game.  The goal of every team was to get the chance to play under the lights at Southside Park.  We could not play at Hillcrest Park because that field was set up for the older players (the distances between the bases and pitcher's mound and home plate were longer there than at Southside). 

In those five years of Little League, the team that I was on never did get to play for the championship under the lights at Southside Park.  But we (Aurora Body Shop) did play many slo-pitch softball games there while we were in college.  With apologies to those whose names I am omitting, on the team from our class were pitchers Dave Johnson,Walt Osterberg, and Dan Liebing, catcher Harry Rossow, first basemen Jim Kortan and Tom Bozied, second basemen Brad Rufer and Craig Derscheid, third baseman Jim Kessler.  In the outfield were Lee Colburn, Bernie Hendricks, Jim Egeberg.  My position was shortstop, but some of us also played other positions if someone was unavailable because of work or other conflicts.  Tom Hoffman (Paula' s brother), also played in the outfield.  Please let me know if I have omitted anyone from this roster. 

Our first game was similar to that first little league game mentioned above.  We played Spies, a perennial powerhouse back then (Tom Osterberg played for them when they were winning numerous state titles).  They beat us something like 44-5.  But we got better during the season and during the next three summers.  We were capable of giving them a good game eventually.  Don't know that we ever beat them, but we came close.  We played a number of games at Southside Park during the summers of 1970-73, and had a great deal of fun.  The tournaments, especially, were enjoyable, particularly those out of town.  Many thanks to Dave Johnson and Aurora Body Shop for sponsoring us those first three years, and to the Townhouse for sponsoring us that final year.

When we were younger, it was common to earn some spending money by having a paper route.  My first paper route was on the southside, between Main and Medary.  At that time, the edge of town was about fifth street south.  There were very few houses south of 5th St. South.  Some were on south main, and a few of them were my customers.  The farthest south on my route was Mrs. Flitte, whose farm was on 8th street south, which was just a gravel road back then.  Between 5th street south and the Flittie farm was the Ward house, about where Medary Elementary is now.  To the east was the Christensen house on Medary, right across from the little league fields.  Between the Ward house and Christensen house was farmland.  In the summertime, if corn was planted there, it was a long bike ride to go from one residence to the other.  Some years, though, it was alfalfa, and it could be possible to ride a bike through there, often scaring up a few pheasants. A couple of customers lived at a little apartment house (maybe only four or six units) just north of Southside Park.   One name that sticks out is Fortune.  Does anyone remember Bobby Fortune?  He must have been in some of my grade school classes.  He may have had an older sister named Donna, perhaps a year or two ahead of us in school.    Right across the street from the park, on the north side, was a small (20 x 20?) stucco or brick building.  I can't recall what is was used for, but one winter, it was jammed practically to the ceiling with what looked like jackrabbits.  Just happened to be riding my bicycle there the other day, and a crew was putting a new concrete driveway down, so it must have some use still.

Another favorite memory of long ago is the miniature golf course that was located just a block west of Southside Park.  It was only there for a short time (maybe a summer or two?), but it was good way to kill an afternoon.

Incidentally, Emmett Earley of our class was named to the committee for next year's  Southside Reunion.

Later that evening, ran into Mike and Brenda Andersen at George's Pizza.  We had a nice conversation, and wondered if anyone had information about our 45th reunion that is coming up next year.  The class of 1979 has already reserved the weekend of the Arts Festival for theirs, so we may have to find another date.  There probably will not be very many motel rooms available during that weekend.  Does anybody have any information or ideas about what we should do for our 45th reunion?