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Michael Skubal
Letters from the bench

There’s nothing like talking to an old bull to get the memories going. And that’s one of the things about sitting on the bench in front of Leo’s Sporting Goods, an old bull will show up to chew the fat. It’s sort of like a construction site, everyone stands and looks into the pit and offers their take on the world.

Don Schueler, former owner of City Lumber, came by with a couple of donuts and a sack of memories. We started out talking about oilcloth. This is not Grandma Gustafson’s oilcloth. She couldn’t say linoleum. She would stammer and try to say lin... linomeum... loleleum. Finally she would stop and say she needed some new oilcloth for the floor.

Schueler meant oilcloth. Leo Sokup, the owner of Leo’s, came from Park Falls originally, had a variety store that sold oilcloth. That’s how we got on the subject. From there we got on Lawn Boy lawn mowers. Larry Skochil used to work for Leo.

He would uncrate the mowers and get them running and always wanted to bet on whether or not he could start the machine with just one pull.

When spinning reels first came out, Larry would toss a hookless lure from the rear of the store all the way to the front just to show you how accurate and easy the spinning reel worked.

According to Schueler, Larry sold quite a few spinning reels that way.

Leo gave out small mirrors with a thermometer and a picture of a deer for Christmas one year. Schueler still has his. What he doesn’t have is his left hand, lost in an accident at City Lumber. When it happened people would stop and commiserate and say things like “you’re lucky it wasn’t the right one.”

They’d want to know what it felt like. Schueler didn’t have a good answer until Pete Terzynski described the burning sensation when he lost his leg.

Schueler helped Terzynski deliver turkeys to needy people on the north side. When asked where he got the money for the turkeys, Terzynski would only say some guys donated.

From then on Schueler threw in $20 to help.

That story got us on to one about Pete playing basketball for the Shorty’s team at the Armory.

Some out of town girls watching the game gave Terzynski a hard time for wearing long pants until Schueler told them he was playing with one leg. Enough said.

Then Schueler mentioned the Muni League and the Mint Bar team he played on with Penny Drivas and Red Marquardt which got us on the place to go for small parts for machines, Matt’s Gun Shop in the cement block building behind Madsen’s Chiropractic offices.

These conversations are not straight lines.

From Matt’s Gun Shop we veered to the restaurant with the coffee pot on its roof. It was on Highway 47 north. Rumor has it that pictures of the coffee pot restaurant were on the wall at the Blue Heron. We got to talking so much we needed a soda pop and that led the conversation to P&M beverages, Pekor and Miazga, who made their product in Gene Shepard’s old house.

That got us to pranks. Bones Dalton had a little bar behind Glenn Gary’s clothing store. A woman came in with puppies for sale and Bones told her that Glenn would take all five of them if she would take them into the store.

Bill Cleveland, the Rhinelander Boat Works, Frank Laduha the plasterer who worked for Iver Johnson, Doc Gager, and the Palais Royale Restaurant will have to wait for another round of coffee and donuts.

I’m going to stop there because I’ll have to give Schueler the byline for the column if I steal any more of his stories. Leo’s, 17 West Davenport. There’s always a fish in the box and a light in the window. Don’t forget to vote.

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jane metternich carlson wrote on Nov 3, 2008 12:35 PM: " i really enjoyed this article. i must be older than dirt to remember these people, places and things. thanks for the memories. i will look forward to more. " The comments above are from readers. In no way do they represent the views of the Rhinelander Daily News.

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