Teeming, I tells ya!

Previously, your humble correspondent wrote about attending Waterloo's 49th Annual Wiener and Kraut Day festivities in 2008. In that post, I mentioned that the streets used to be TEEMING with people, back in the day. One might go so far as to say that there were more people than you could shake a stick at! I now have photographic evidence of some of that teeming. The below (very poorly scanned) images are from the 28-Sept-1978 issue of the Waterloo Courier.

In this first scan, you see a couple of nice ladies pouring drinks on the left. On the right is a view of the HOARDS of people lined up to watch a marching band down at the "four corners." (I can't quite make out what's playing at The Mode theatre, but gasoline is selling for about 59 cents/gallon.) Look! Look at them teem!


Here's a scan of a nice nun -- Is that Sister Rose? -- and a young person shopping at a bears and puppets table. On the right is Dean with his Giant Wiener. You can't see it very well, because this is a really inferior quality scan, but just behind the nun's head, there are dozens of other tables and booths set up, all of them with people buzzing around, shopping for deals.



This final scan shows some of the nice folks selling wiener and kraut sandwiches. On the right is a lady -- not sure what she's up to -- and below that is a man driving a very very small semi-truck.



Okay, so this last scan doesn't really show any teeming crowd activity, but that's okay, because the first two are chock full of people! I hope that Waterloo can bring back these kinds of crowds of people for their big Sesquicentennial Celebration this fall.

Dig those wieners and kraut!

Speaking of Wiener and Kraut Day...

Your sporadically posting humble correspondent attended the 49th Annual Wiener & Kraut Day last September 13, 2008, and was greatly disappointed at the turnout of both people and vendors.

Now I realize that it was a rainy kind of day, and that may have kept some of the wimpier people from venturing out, but still... there were maybe fifty people total hovering about the Wiener and Beer Tents, with random groups of two to three people walking the streets. These streets should have been TEEMING with people, milling about the shops, snapping up bargains and enjoying a fresh hot dog or two.

At least... that's how it USED to be, back in the day. You know, back when W/K Day used to fall on the FOURTH Saturday of the month where it rightfully belongs (Even if it might get a little hot every tenth year!) instead of on the 2nd Saturday of the month. Back in the day, all of the shops along Monroe and Madison streets had fantastic sales, and there were fun contests like "Guess the Weight of Dean's Big Wiener," and a mind-boggling mix of goodies in the drug store grab bags. Bargains galore at The Toggery! Back in the day, you had to fight your way through the crowds just to get in line for a hot dog. Back in the day, you could spend hours just slowly traversing your way from Monroe Street to Madison Street, north and south, east and west, and back around again, just checking out all of the interesting vendor tables that lined every square inch of the downtown area.

Back in the day, the various extra-curricular groups at the high school all had their own spot on the street. The Spanish Club selling tacos! The Track Team selling candy! The Senior Class selling t-shirts! Back in the day, the entire town turned out to celebrate! But apparently, that is no longer the case, as the total number of vendors lining the streets could be counted on one hand. The most popular appeared to be this white wagon on the corner, selling things like bubble-gum flavored slushies and fried cheesecake on a stick:

Perhaps this was just a fluke of a year. I didn't attend too many of the W/K Days once they moved it earlier in the month, so I don't know if they were all as much of a flop, or if it was a more gradual decline in attendance. But honestly? This was the most pathetic of all Wiener and Kraut Days that I have ever set eyes upon. Legend says that back in the day, one brave new shop-keep in town had the audacity to suggest that Waterloo advertise their Wiener and Kraut Day activities in towns all over the state, in order to attract a profitably large crowd. This idea was shot right out of the air because, as Legend says, they didn't want the doings to get too big. Too. Big. Well... I think they finally got their wish. Don't you?

I seriously hope that the turnout on W/K Day is not indicative of what to expect at this year's big Sesquicentennial Celebration on September 12-13, 2009. That would be really embarrassing... But hey -- that's several months away from now. Maybe Waterloo will decide to, oh, I don't know... ADVERTISE their celebration -- early and often! -- so that people know about it and can plan their schedules accordingly.

Also, Waterloo? You might want to give your shops a washing and a fresh coat of paint or something. The new roadwork looks all purty and everything, but the storefronts are still pretty shabby looking. I mean, geez... there's still an outline of the old Courier Building right out in the open.

Waterloo is old, y'all!

Speaking of Waterloo's Sesquicentennial coming up (that's 150 years, by the way)...

The Waterloo-Area Historical Society is now selling an 18-month Sesquicentennial calendar, with lots of photos of historical interest. (As of this posting, they don't have any information about it on their website, but I'm sure they will eventually.)



The calendars currently cost $10, and proceeds go toward adding restrooms and making the museum handicap-accessible.

Below is my brief review the calendar:

Overall, the calendar is very nicely put together. There are a lot of interesting photos included, that are placed well, according to the month. (For instance, a Big Wiener & Kraut Sandwich* and other Wiener and Kraut day photos appear on the September page, which is fitting, because that's when W&K Day occurs.) And the calendars are priced reasonably.

However, only the front and back cover pages are in full color (or full black and white, depending on the photo). The rest of the pages are more of an ivory or sepia-toned linen textured paper, which gives it a nice old-timey appeal, but my personal preference would have been to have all of the pages done in the full color glossy paper. Sure, the price would have been higher, but I think it would have been worth it.

Here is a sample photo of the Big Wiener and Kraut Sandwich, as seen in the new calendar:


Here is the photo, as seen on the front page of the Waterloo Courier, Volume 109, No 44, September 20, 1979:


*Speaking of Dean's Big Wiener, there is a typographical error in the caption of that photo. The caption in the calendar reads:

Jerry VanHolten, Merle Virchow (Chair), and Dan Blau at the 1979 Wiener and Kraut Day

The caption *should* read:

Jerry VanHolten, Merle Virchow (Chair), and Dean Blau at the 1979 Wiener and Kraut Day

So if you happen to purchase the calendar (Which you should! That place needs a bathroom and a lift!), be sure to note the correction.

By the way, the Waterloo-Area Historical Society is also selling a new book about the Waterloo Homecomings from 1905-1935, so be sure to check that out, as well!

One more thought to ponder... didn't Waterloo call their 125th celebration a Sesquicentennial? Hmm... will have to research that. I know those doings started on July 20, 1984, but I don't find any newspaper articles about it on hand.

History of Utility Poles. Where? WHERE??

Will someone please create a website already that has a history of utility poles (or telephone poles, or light poles, or telegraph poles, or electric poles, or whatever else people might call them), with photographs or drawings to illustrate?

I ask, because in the comments to my Mule Train, part the second post, there was some discussion on dating the Mule Train photograph by the telephone poles. While I did find one website that had some historical information on utility poles (Dating Old Photographs from Light Poles), it was for poles in Australia! Are poles the same throughout the world? I have no idea. Do you?

Here's another website about utility poles: The Unofficial Utility Pole Page (aka OldGreyPole.com) While this site does have a lot of information about poles, it doesn't go back in history as far as I'd like.

Surely there's some genealogy-minded lineman out there somewhere that will take on this task. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?