The never-ending list
Iam happy to be able to report the names of the winners of the silent auction at last week’s Ice Cream on Pine celebration on behalf of the Lodi Historical Society. Joanie Finnegan won the watercolor painting of Hill House, and Dianna Colgan won the quilt hand made by Christy Lagomarsino and Karen Eichler. The announcement of their names ended a wonderful community gathering.
There was such a small town get-together feeling about the whole thing. People came and went as they wished, and the music attracted some Downtown strollers who came to see what it was all about and stayed. The sunset was beautiful, the weather was perfect, and Tony Segale and Mary Jane East and all the many volunteers are to be sincerely thanked and appreciated. Personally, I hope we can do this next year.
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Whenever one starts making a list of things from the past, there are always more to be added. I realized I had left out a bunch of my own favorite places: Lakewood Drugs, the Soup Ladle, Mike Kiley’s Dinner Theater , and the Tokay Players performing in the Pine Alley Theater and the lobby of the Hotel Lodi before it got refurbished. Other people reminded me of Schunke’s Men’s Store, Comartin’s freezer lockers, the Goehring meatpacking plant, the original Lodi High School main classroom building, and Crete’s and Weihe’s drugstores. (My, a lot of drugstores have come and gone in this town.) And, of course, we’d better add the Lodi Festival Queen and her court, and the Lodi Festival Parade with its decorated floats and its unofficial mascot, an elderly Chinese gentleman who walked proudly and sedately, clad in full traditional costume.
Looking back in time, I remember my first or second fall here when Lawrence Welk and his orchestra held a concert in the Grape Bowl on the first night of the festival, and I was reporting on it for the News-Sentinel. Pete Fountain was on clarinet that night and I was in seventh heaven. Very hard to go back to the newsroom and write!
I’m glad I was late proofreading this column because now I can add another item that has moved to the past, and that is the Lodi Field and Fair Festival. Sadly, the one hot air balloon left out of the several that used to rise early on Labor Day morning at Hutchins Street Square was unavailable this year, and so planners have decided to cancel the event altogether.
In a reverse move, the other night I was doodling through TV channels looking for something decent to watch, and I came across a reminiscing review of Laughs-In. Hosted by Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, it was one of the funniest TV shows going. Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin made their debuts here, as did Judy Carne, Ruth Buzzi, Jo Anne Worley, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Richard Dawson, Eileen Brenner, and Tiny Tim. Also, there are lists of well-known personalities who appeared on the show as themselves, such as John Wayne and Dick Cavett. And who could forget Flip Martin with his ”Here come de judge” and his performance as Geraldine. Many of these actors are still appearing once in a while, but, some are not. Sadly, I can’t remember what channel I saw this on.
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For all you Maeve Binchy fans out there, I hope you liked “Nights of Rain and Stars” as much as I did. I escaped to that Greek island right along with the other tourists. There wasn’t a sour note in the song of that book. Haven’t been able to get any more of MB”s books right now, so I am rereading a barely remembered Rosamonde Pilcher story, “Coming Home.” She’s another good one for companionable characters.
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Well, if you want nostalgia, here it is, big time: on Oct. 20 at 7 p.m., the American Legion Auxiliary, Lodi Unit 22, is presenting a sock hop featuring Jeremy Elvis Pierce, a well-known Elvis Presley impersonator. There will be a ‘50’s costume contest, and free root beer or orange soda float. The event will be in the Lodi American Legion Hall, 320 N. Washington St., and tickets at $15 per person will be sold at the door. To purchase tickets in advance, please call (209)367-3635 or (916)230-7513. Given the way time flies, October will be here before you know it.
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The other day I saw a bookmobile somewhere here in town — don’t remember exactly where, but it was in a residential area, I think. I didn’t realize we still had those around; I certainly hope so. What a good way to get books and reading out to people who may not be able to get to the library.
Please allow me a major expression of annoyance about three things: junk mail and phone calls (at all hours), news and ads on TV and in newspapers that require going online to finish a story or get a fuller version, and bills accompanied by more pages of information than one needs every month which end with a full page blank except for a few lines at the top. What a waste of paper!