The Lobo Tank Busters; Ag Day March 15th
By: Stan Jordan
This picture was given to me by Oley McMichael, the date on the postcard was 1915.
The first partial building on the left hand side was a tin shop. I don’t remember just who that was, but I remember of at least three more tin shops in Antwerp. By the time of 1930 that tin shop was torn down and a Sinclair Gasoline Station was there. There has been a number of enterprises on that lot over the years.
That next building is now the Subway Sandwich Shop. Battershell Five and Dime store was started in the 1926.
The next building was the office of Dr. Caine, a veteran of WWI and a legend in his time. At the time of this picture, it looks like that next building was a barber shop, but I remember that as a jewelry store and clock repair by Fred and Mike Hertel.
The next small wooden building was a steam operated dry cleaner and pressing shop owned by Jim Sexton. It was torn down after WWII and was made a drug store by Frank Smith, now is the home of Petals and Vines
The next building is now Dan Fowler’s Insurance Agency. In the 1920’s it was a Chapeau or a ladies hat shop. Then in the late 1930’s it was a bar and grill owned by Jim Powers. After that, it was owned by a number of men.
The next building was the US Post Office until the late 1960’s when it was moved to it’s present location.
The next building was the Champion Hotel, it is now McDougal’s Firearms, that Marque was torn off sometime before 1930. The hotel had a very good reputation and was very close to the railroad depot, the main way of travel at that time. Then the telephone office was upstairs in that building. In the 1940 –41 Dutch Mickelson had an upholstery shop there until WWII.
The first building across the railroad is now the Law Office of Floyd Ramsier. We old timers remember it as the Busby Barber Shop and card room. It was built by George Busby in 1912, His son, Harry, was a barber for years.
The next tall building was the Berdan Co. of Toledo, it was torn down before my time and that was always an empty lot, until after WWII, it was built and named the H&H Cleaners.
That wagon in the center of the street appears to be a corn huskers wagon because of the bang board on top.
See Ya!
The Lobo Tank Busters
By: Stan Jordan
We had lunch while the crew filled up our planes with fuel and ammo. We are back up in the air heading to Bastogne, then out of there on one of the major highways that lead northwest to the Meuse River and then on into the big port of Antwerp.
We followed a busy highway that had several tanks on it, but we didn’t bother them. We slowed down to about 300 mph and flew right on over the Meuse River as the order of the day was, “No German tanks to cross the Meuse.”
We got to the river and we were a few miles north of where we were this morning. There was a pretty good bridge there and still in tact. Our job is to keep the German tanks off the bridge. We flew right on over the bridge, on to the other side where the allies were waiting. We went up to about a 1000 feet and looked around and discussed our plans.
We figured we would do about the same as we did this morning at the town called Savl (we left that town with the road blocked with burning German tanks, no tanks would cross the river there).
We made a big circle back over the river and over the highway with the German tanks on it. The first tanks in line were King Tiger Tanks. We have to knock them out from the rear because of the heavy armor they have in the front. I put a rocket in the rear of the first tank, but it went a little wide and blew away the right rear side of that tank. I went on across the river and grabbed a handful of sky. I looked around and my wingman said that he finished the job on the first tank. Burning pretty bad, the right tank track was about half gone. There was no way that tank could move.
We made another big circle and came up from the rear again. The number one and two tank were destroyed, but the third and fourth tanks were going to come up beside them on the other lane of the road. I fired two rockets at the first tank in the left lane and blew the right tank track completely off and the other rocket was a near miss. Lt. Barnes fired a rocket into his engine area and it started to burn.
I made a low circle and watched the other pilots do their thing. We used all of our rockets, but we had demolished four King Tigers Tanks and that road was blocked, so even a German Jeep couldn’t have gone through there.
We got a total of fifteen tanks today, but better than that, those two roads are blocked to traffic over the bridge.
See Ya!
Ag day march 15th
By: Stan Jordan
March 15th, 2016 has been deemed Ag Day. More people have never heard that, than those that have. I thought I would dwell on that day a little.
Farming is America’s most important industry. That is where we get all of our food and some to help feed the world. Our food, fiber and everything we get, comes from the soil or mother nature.
A farmer is a man outstanding in his field. He leans over and scoops up a handful of soil, dirt or clod, this handful of soil tells him a lot.. 1.) The ground is dry enough to work 2.) There is or is not enough moisture to nurture the seed or there is a good seed bed and a little hint of how deep to plant the seed.
At planting time, the farmer works night and day to get his seed into the ground. He must take advantage of every good day and night, because he doesn’t know how long the planting window is.
In America, there is only 3% of the people in agriculture, but these people farm a lot of acres in the time they have. The day of the two row planter, the five foot combine and the heavy disk are gone forever. We are in the time of forty foot combine, header and 48 row corn planters.
A farmer, now a days, has to be a fairly good mechanic, electrician, weatherman, bookkeeper, financial and marketer, along with a good knowledge of computers. This is because if he is going to make a living farming, he must farm a lot of acres and that requires bigger machinery as they go hand in hand.
One farmer remarked that he had a banker in his back pocket and a marketing man on his arm. Oh yes, the day of the two row planter is gone forever.
In this area, we raise wheat, corn and soybeans. Wheat is made into flour for our bread. Corn is made into feed for all type of animals for meat and is also used in making gasoline, whiskey and dog food. Soybeans are sold to the Asian people for food, it is also made into oil, plastics and a new product almost every year.
In agriculture we also have cotton, people raising sheep, chickens and other types of birds, fruits, vegetables, potatoes, grapes, farmers that raise cotton or other crops that are made into clothes, and if you are in the habit of eating food, you are into farming also.
See Ya!
