Is Don's Done?

Yesterday's Register was highlighted by a front-page article on Dennis Kruse, an esteemed members of the BHS class of 1969, and the present owner of Don's Body Shop.  As Dennis states in the article, his father Don worked for other shops in town before starting his own business.  This website   http://explore.digitalsd.org/digital/collection/Norby/search  has numerous pictures of businesses that have been in Brookings since the early 50's.  If you have some time, you may find it enjoyable to browse these pictures and see if you can recall many of them.  There are numerous connections to members of our class, as our parents owned some of these businesses or we may have worked there.  Below is a picture labeled  Dale's Alignment Service and Don's Body Shop mechanics, Brookings, South Dakota

 

 

 

Don Kruse is the man standing under the hood (if it appears that part of the picture is cut off, left-click on the image and it should show up full size.  The same applies to the other pictures, also.  Doing so will make it easier to read the newspaper article below about Dennis. To return to the blog, click on the  white  X  in the upper right corner.).  Their shop was located on South Highway 77, perhaps half-way between the Purple Cow and the Sioux Drive-in.  Below is a picture of their location in the late 50's. 

When we were in high school, there was a softball jersey found in our house that had the name Dale and Don's stitched on the back.  One of my older brothers played on that team in the late 50's, early 60's. At that time, fast-pitch was quite popular in the area. Those were enjoyable nights watching those games at Southside Park.  What was intriguing (and distracting) to me as a little kid was the numerous moths that were hovering around the lights when it was dark.  There surely were a lot of them. 

I hope I am not violating any copyright laws by showing the following pictures.  I was unable to find a link to the story on the Register webpage, so the article about Dennis is copied below. 

 

 

As Dennis state in the article, their present location just east of the airport was built in 1967.  Prior to that, I believe they were on 6th Street West, out by Pioneer Park and Sandy's White Spot.  They had to find a new location because construction was being done to widen and re-route somewhat Highway 14, which was also 6th Street.   Mr. Rykhus had a blue 1959 Chevy when he was our Jr. Hi science teacher (I used to walk by it every day when I went to school, as it was usually parked in front of the Courthouse).  One day, there was a good sized dent in the hood. He naturally took it to Don's out by Pioneer to have it fixed because his wife Shirley was Don's sister.  Don's brother Gordon worked at the Post Office with, among others, the fathers of Stewart Linn and Teresa Steen.  He had a Suburban-type vehicle that they used to deliver packages.  During the summer of  my employment there (1968), they let me use it to deliver catalogs such as JC Penney's, Sears, or Montgomery Ward's.   

 

Congratulations on your retirement, Dennis.    As Mr. Bell may have said, "You done good!"  We are confident that you will enjoy your leisure time fishing, hunting, and camping. 

 

Procrastination

Have been meaning to post about this for a while.  However, other important matters seemed to have taken precedence.

It was about 50 years ago this month that we had much reason to celebrate.  We were getting quite comfortable in our new high school, and we celebrated it in grand style by winning the State "A" basketball title.  What a fitting tribute for a new school and a new coach. 


A couple of other "firsts" that come to mind  during that school year are the introduction of an all-school play to replace the junior and senior class plays, and the production of "Oklahoma," the first musical in the school's history. We had a new language lab that improved our communication skills, although a little bird told me that said communication was not always approved by the teachers. There was also a new scheduling system, with some classes only meeting 20 or  40 minutes, while others met for the full hour. 

For some of us, those memories may be faint reminisces of days long past.  As someone once said, "If you remember the 60's, you weren't there."  However, that reference does not seem to refer to activities that had the blessing and sanction of the local authorities.   An achievement as worthy as a state championship is a life-long dream for many, and the result of much hard work and practice.  That attitude symbolized our entire class.  While it is true that it seems that athletics receives more publicity than other school activities,  our class and the class of 1968 also had numerous students equally skilled in areas that receive little public notice.  A quick look through the 1968 Bobcat would prove the truth of that statement.

It has been a profound experience perusing the old Registers with others and recalling all of the accomplishments of the BHS students and their families during that school year of 1967-68.  While many of those events are probably forgotten,  they undoubtedly helped shape us into the people we are today.

Sadly, there have been a few  members of our class who have been dealing with the loss of a loved one.  On February 26, the mother of Stan Skubic passed away at the age of 94 (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=94258197_MSkubic).  Stan had come back last summer for his the 71st wedding anniversary of his parents.  He had brought along one of his daughters, and Jim Kohler and his wife had them (and yours truly) over for a barbecue.  It was not only an enjoyable visit, but also educational.  We learned much about his daughter, as she  was very gracious to us and reflected well on her parents. 

 

Stan's mother, as her obituary indicates,  was quite active in church activities.  Below is a picture from the 1960's of the teachers at St. Thomas More.  While it may be difficult to read the names, some of them were mothers of our classmates: Mrs. Shirley (Debbie); Mrs. Iverson (John); Mrs. Wakeman (Jim); Mrs. Skubic (Stan); Mrs. Bates (Patsy); Mrs. Sturdevant (Diane); and Mrs. Kellogg (Cecilia).  Several other teachers were parents to those who were a little older or younger than we were.  They include Mr. Bechtold, Mr. Cole (anyone have him as a teacher in Jr. Hi?), Mrs. Patt, Mrs. Serlet, Mrs. Kosse, Mrs. Finn, Mrs. Porter, Mrs. Quass, Mrs. Walta (I believe she and Mrs. Quass were sisters), Mrs. deBoise, Mrs. Kenner, Mrs. McAdaragh, Mrs. Foerster, and Mrs. Gill. 

Another classmate saddened by death of a family member was Emmett Earley.  (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=14852830_REarley).  Rich was a few years younger than we were, and was a fine basketball player while in high school.  His sons were students of ours.  In fact, his oldest son Austin could almost be Rich's twin. 

A third classmate who lost a family member was Jim Kessler, whose sister Susan passed away on the same day as Emmett's brother Rich. (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=53345310_SBartscher).

A couple of other name that may be well-known to us also passed away recently.  Bob Reimers (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=30497401_RReimers), who helped start KBRK in 1955, passed away on Feb. 7.  We all may have heard him numerous times reading the news on the radio, but he, along with Grant Peterson, also announced the Bobcat basketball games when we were in school.   They would often ride along on our away games.  If the trip took longer than an hour, we usually were on a chartered Jackrabbit bus.  The chairs in the middle could turn around, and a table then could be set up between the facing seats so that the occupants could play cards.  I seem to recall our coaches and the radio announcers doing just that on virtually every trip. 

Another well-known resident, Roger Carpenter,  passed away on March 9 (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=09099381_RCarpenter).  While he was about 10 years older than we were, he was still active in some recreational sports even after we graduated from high school.  In city league basketball, for example, he played into his 30's.  I believe Tom Osterberg played with him while Tom was in college.  "Carpy." as he was known, could be a force to be reckoned with.  Mr. Walder, our junior English teacher, and he would have some fierce battles when they competed against each other.  Both liked to get rather aggressive, and tempers could easily flare when those two went head-to-head.  I seem to recall in his younger days that "Carpy" would frequently play on an independent team against the college freshman team (Bunnies) before freshmen were eligible to play on the varsity.  If SDSU played a team that came in from a distance, they would not bring their freshman, so the Bunnies would play a local amateur team.  Some of those independent teams were quite good.  "Carpy" was also known as a fine fast-pitch softball pitcher.  When fast-pitch died out in Brookings, he took his talents to Sioux Falls.  At his visitation, there was a picture of him and his teammates after they earned a trip to the national tournament.

"Carpy" was also a fine bowler, and there were several pictures of him and his bowling teammates and their trophies on display at the visitation.

A couple of other pictures at his visitation caught my eye.  There was picture of his junior baseball team that won the city championship in 1951.  Also on that team were my two oldest brothers.  Another picture showed him fishing with a man named Iver Iverson, age 83.  Iver was a cousin to my father. 

Our condolences, thoughts, and prayers are with their families at this time.