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.