A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Lois & I are in Concordia, MO, for my St. Paul's College High Class of 1971 50-year reunion. On THU afternoon, we visited both the St. Paul's Lutheran cemetery in Concordia & Zion Lutheran cemetery in Corder. My dad & mom's graves are in the St. Paul cemetery. Lois has relatives buried in the St. Paul cemetery. In the Zion cemetery we visited the graves of her parents, paternal grandparents, paternal great-grandparents [born during the Civil War!], & sister Beverly, who died at age 10 from a tractor accident. We also visited the farm site outside Corder, where Lois grew up [The pond is still there, only bigger. Her house & other buildings are long gone.]; also the house in Higginsville, where her family moved to when Lois was 16. Also in Higginsville, we visited the site of Dog 'n Suds, now a Chinese restaurant, where I gave Lois her engagement ring. And we passed the swimming pool--the closest swimming pool to Concordia--where we often went swimming in the summer. I took swimming lessons there, too.

This afternoon we strolled down Main Street. Some of the buildings that were there when I grew up are gone. Some have been re-purposed. The grocery stores have been re-purposed into other businesses. So has the library where my mom worked. The Concordia Bank is still there. Legend has it that a member of Jesse James' gang robbed the bank, & a shot from his gun clipped the statue of an eagle inside the bank. You could still see that chip when I was growing up. Lois' Grandma Lohman lived in an apartment upstairs in one of the buildings downtown. Can't tell if it's still an apartment or not.

On the way back we walked down a side street, maybe Bismarck? We passed the old public grade school. When I was playing BB as an 8th grader at St. Paul's Lutheran School, I made a lay-up, ran into the wall behind the basket, & chipped a finger. After I saw that my finger was at a 45-degree angle, I probably shouldn't have pushed it back into place.

We passed Central Park. The bandshell is still there. When I was growing up, there were still band concerts there in the summer, performed by the town band. The 4th of July concert was a highlight. Occasionally they showed movies there in the summer, too. The annual Fall Festival is still held in Concordia, & there's a beer garden in the park. There's also a caboose, where our kids used to play when we visited my Dad & Mom in Concordia.

We walked by Dad & Mom's 2nd house. Our original house was on Main Street, next to the parsonage, which was next to the church. They tore down the house a few years back in order to add parking for the church & school. I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that my class met in the St. Paul school gym before proceeding to the baccalaureate service. I played a lot of basketball & had a lot of gym classes in that gym.

Being in the church for baccalaureate brought back some great memories, sad memories, & at least one scary memory. Our grade school program was held at church on Christmas Eve. The church was so packed that chairs had to be set up in the aisle. My dad & mom's funerals were both held there. And the scary moment was Questioning Sunday, always held during the church a week ahead of Palm Sunday, when we were confirmed. I say scary, because we were questioned by Pastor Wollenberg in front of the whole congregation. He went right down the row--there were 29 cofirmands in my class--& asked questions from Luther's Small Catechism, also the Bible verses from the catechism, that we had learned & presumably memorized for confirmation classes. Let's just say that I was kind of a slacker, so I spent the day before Questioning Sunday in the house, cramming for those questions. I only biffed on one answer. Of course, I was only asked on question.

After we got back to Biltz, Lois went for another walk. She found the house where her Grandma & Grandpa Lohman lived. Her Grandpa Lohman was a World War I vet. He was in very poor health, because he got gassed during the war, & died fairly young. I never knew him. She also walked down to Southside Park. We had a Lohman family reunion there one summer. We used to take our kids there to play on the playground equipment when we visited my Dad & Mom. The ball field there was where I played Little League for 2 years. I don't mean to brag [actually, that's a lie], but I was chosen as an all-star that second year. We also played our grade school softball games at that park.

For lunch I picked up some sandwiches at the world famous Creemy Freeze. I think Lois & I will go back there to get food for an early summer. In the summer we used to walk down there & get hot fudge sundaes. 

One more thing. Yesterday my classmates & I had a tour at the 1832 Concordia Distillery, which has only been open for 2 years, I think. If you know Concordia, it's located behind the Hardee's, which is no longer open. Yes, Mark & Carolyn, there's a distillery in Concordia.