Section 1 - Buffalo Center Tribune

BOB TALES
Introduction by Carol Dee
Heitland Maxwell.
My father, G. Bob Heitland, was
a man of few words. For years, my
sister, Doris, brother, Burr and I
knew very little of his family or
boyhood. We do know that he was
born in Chapin, Iowa, but later
moved to Wolsey, South Dakota,
probably around 1908. At age 17,
he and his parents moved to Buffalo
Center, Iowa where he remained
until 1957. Upon his retirement
from Jensvold Implement Co., he
and our mother moved to Ft.
Lauderdale, Florida where he
opened a Phillips 66 gas station.
However, after he suffered a massive
brain hemorrhage in 1964,
things changed. He was totally
paralyzed on the left side and was
in constant pain, thereby preventing
him from receiving therapy.
Consequent-ly, he spent the next ten
years in bed or a wheelchair. To
counteract boredom and despair,
he asked our mother to fix him a
board across the arms of his wheelchair
so that he could write. This
was the beginning of what I like to
call "Bob Tales."
HARVEST TIME - 1906
By G. Bob Heitland
The year was 1906, the hour
6:00 a.m. according to the alarm
clock on the shelf in our room. It
was not the alarm which had awakened
me, however, but a lot of noises
coming from the kitchen and
carried up the stairs through a door
which someone had forgotten to
close. Strange smells, too, came
floating up, and helped to awaken
me.
I stumbled sleepily down the
stairs and carefully peeked around
the door into the kitchen. The place
was full of women, and all seemed
to be working at something. They
had added boards to the kitchen
table. The now-very-large top was
covered with an assortment of pots,
pans, roaster, and kettles. Someone
spotted me, and I was quickly
pulled in. I was handed a milk pail
with instructions to go out in the
orchard and pick up the nicest
apples I could find, some that were
not damaged by birds or by the fall
onto the ground.
Outside the house I found Dad
building a bench about three feet
high and ten feet long. He was also
tying a clothesline from one tree to
another. Seeing my curiosity (as
any six year-old-boy is full of), he
explained this was a washstand and
a place to hang towels. Today was
the day the threshers were coming
and would soon arrive. No wonder
we had all those cooks in the
kitchen. This was a big day on the
farm. Everybody would be here.
All the neighbors for miles around,
and the kids too, generally came to
share in the excitement.
About this time, a shrill blast
from a steam whistle let us know
that the machine had arrived at our
gate. Running out to meet it, I saw
the big steam tractor coming up the
lane through the trees, making
strange noises and belching big
clouds of black smoke from its long
stack at the front end. Following
closely behind it was the big boxlike
threshing machine, with its
sides all clustered with varying
sizes of pulleys connected by belts
running in all directions. Behind
this came a team of horses pulling
the water wagon, which was a long
tank mounted on wheels and having
a seat at the front for the driver.
I ran quickly over behind this
parade to see what kind of tracks
this ten-ton monster was making in
our yard.
Then I followed it across the
yard and up the hill between our
barn and granary. It went through
the gate to the back farmyard where
the remains of an old straw pile
caused a problem. It was necessary
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for them to circle it to get in position
to make the new straw pile
right next to the old one. Dad came
out to show them exactly where he
wanted it. They maneuvered
around to the exact position that he
pointed out.
The separator man (the separator
was the big box-like machine
which did the threshing) got out his
spirit level and checked the
machine in both directions to see
that it stood level. This was necessary
to ensure a good job of cleaning
the grain. Now the engineer
backed up the big steamer until he
was about fifty feet away and facing
the separator. Here, he stopped
and ran over to the machine and
unrolled a hundred foot roll of canvas
and rubber belting. Then, with
the help of the separator man, he
put one end of this belt over the big
pulley on the right side of the
steamer while the other end was put
over a smaller pulley on the front of
the separator.
While this was going on, eight
of the neighbors' young men had
arrived with hay racks. They were
out in the oats field loading up the
shocks of grain. Now the first ones
returned to the yard with a full load
of bundles. The separator man
unfolded the feeder, which was a
long trough with a traveling apron
in the bottom which would carry
the bundles of grain up into the
machine. In its extended position,
this feeder was sixteen feet long. It
gave the boys a chance to pull their
loads of bundles along side and
made it easy to unload into the
feeder. With a load in position on
each side, the engineer climbed up
on his platform, gave three short
blasts on the whistle, and slowly
backed up the steamer until the
long belt between the two machines
was as tight as a fiddle string.
At the same time, the separator
man was turning a wheel at the
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Buffalo Center (Iowa) Tribune — Wednesday, June 1, 2011 — PAGE 2
Way Back When
The Woden Christian Reformed
Church, located five miles southwest
of Woden, will observe its
75th anniversary on June 2, 1971.
A span of 38 years was depicted
10 YEARS AGO
TRIBUNE FILES OF
THURSDAY, May 31, 2001
On the last day of the 2000-
2001 school year, students in
Kindergarten through grade 4 gathered
on the west side of the school
to hold a quick groundbreaking ceremony
between rain showers. With
the students, faculty, and staff gathered
in a half-circle, Supt. Larry D.
Hill shared with the gathering the
plans to demolish part of the building
and what was going to be built
in that space. As students returned
to the building following the ceremony,
they gave the old building a
“high five” because they would
never see the building the same
again.
Several Grant Gleaners 4-H
members and their leaders, Barb
Murra and Marilee Siemens, with
Robin Kettwick, were out in force
Tuesday afternoon to fill the circular
wooden planters set up along
Main Street with colorful flowers-
Buffalo Center’s official flower -
the petunia.
back of the machine which brought
the big pipe known as the blower
pipe up into position. He turned it
around so that it pointed to the spot
where Dad had told him to put the
straw stack. The engineer gave two
short blasts on his whistle and
slowly moved a short lever in front
of him. With a hiss of steam, the
big wheel carrying the belt began to
rotate. As the belt moved, every
pulley wheel on the separator
began to move at the same time.
Slowly it picked up speed, and a
low hum came from the big
machine. The apron in the bottom
of the feeder began to move. The
two boys started throwing bundles
into the feeder. The bundles were
carried slowly back to the opening
in the front end of the separator
where a row of large whirling
knives quickly cut the strings on
the bundles and gave the straw an
extra boost into the machine.
The engineer tossed a shovel of
coal into the firebox. A big cloud
of black smoke at once came out of
the stack and drifted lazily away.
The separator man stood on top of
his machine. He kept an eye on
everything, including the bundlehauling
boys, to make sure they
pitched the bundles into the feeder
correctly and not crossways or doubled
up. He could tell by the
sounds if everything was operating
properly. He would signal the engineer
to stop if anything was wrong.
The day's work had begun.
20 YEARS AGO
TRIBUNE FILES OF
THURSDAY, May 30, 1991
On Saturday, May 11, the
(Lakota) children gathered on the
sidewalk in front of the City Park to
get ready to go tree planting after
several rain delays. They represent
the 4-H Clubs and Girl Scouts.
They planted around 30 trees and
shrubs of different types at the
Maple Hill Cemetery, along the
highway from Richardson’s Body
Shop out to the Lakota sign.They
also planted a silver maple near the
Community Room at the park.
Residents of the Buffalo Center-
Rake and Lakota school districts
are urged to sign the Petitions for
Reorganization which are being
circulated in the two districts,
according to Ron Pilgrim, BCR
school superintendent.
30 YEARS AGO
TRIBUNE FILES OF
THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1981
Mel and Pauline Murray were
pictured at one of the tables in the
dining area of their new Mel’s
Supper Club, which recently opened
here. The Club is an extension of
the Murray’s Center Cafe, which
was remodeled and expanded to include
quarters for the supper club.
Lakota rural mail carrier, Edwin
J. Steenhard was honored last week
for 25 years of service to the
Lakota Post Office and the U. S.
Postal System. Steenhard was presented
a silver tie tac as his silver
anniversary award by Postmaster
Kathleen Ruby.
40 YEARS AGO
TRIBUNE FILES OF
THURSDAY, May 27, 1971
The Tribune introduces to our
readers this week Mr. and Mrs.
Mark Fellom who have rented an
apartment in the Lande Apartments
in making their new home in
Buffalo Center. Mr. Fellom, 24, is
the new police chief here.
in the lives and efforts of two
Buffalo Centerites. Larry Costigan
owned the pole vault record for
Buffalo Center high school for this
length of time until his mark was
broken by Mark Peters. Mark broke
Larry’s record of 10’3” at the Eagle
Relays in Eagle Grove when he
cleared the crossbar set at 11’0”.
Mark sported a cast on his left arm,
which he broke while attempting to
clear the cross bar at 12’6” in the
state track meet. The misfortune
occurred on his second attempt
after his first vault again cleared
12’0”.
50 YEARS AGO
TRIBUNE FILES OF
THURSDAY, June 1, 1961
Dr. Van Vasey, a graduate of the
Palmer School of Chiropractic in
Davenport with the Class of 1952,
last week purchased the Ralph
Wirtjes estate house on the east end
of town and will move his family
here and practice his profession in
rooms to be located in the home.
Mr. and Mrs. (Esther) Vasey and
their seven children- Autumn,
Junelle, Raina, Carla, Evanne, and
the twin boys, Blaire and Barth,
will move here shortly after June
first.
Cvggbmp!Dfoufs
Usjcvof
now available at
Norske Hus
in Rake
Hometown Market
in Thompson
Carm’s
in Woden
Paul Boock and KIOW Operations Manager Karl Wooldridge
Congratulations to Patio Pizzazz Grand Prize Winner Paul Boock of
Forest City, who registered at Digitallic in Forest City
Boock won a new grill, Patio Table and Chair set, Umbrella, and Fire Pit
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