Congratulations to Hank Whitehead and the Whitehead-Rhoden Chevrolet-Cadillac company for deciding to enlarge their business in town.
Groundbreaking was held last week at the site at the north edge of town. The new auto dealership will be next to the former Nebraska City Iron Works and will be completed in January.
Larry Rol, building contractor for RFD Systems (one of our regular advertisers) said the building will have 15,000 square feet . . .
Mr. Whitehead said in addition to adding more show and service spaces, the new building will have about three times more space for the parts department.
The auto dealership will be neighbors of Town and Country Mart which is moving from South Eleventh. That business has been operated for many years by Mr. and Mrs. Larry Nuss. Town and Country will be in the former NC Iron Works (the blue building). Workmen are painting and doing all kinds of work in that building now.
If I know Larry and Jean Nuss, you'll be hearing more about "the businesses at the NORTH end of town."
Best wishes and much success.
And speaking of cars.
The economy bug has hit Detroit in a big way. The little car is not a funny item; it's big business and General Motors is into it.
Hank Whitehead will soon be showing the Chevette, the newest thing in the little car. It's a four cylinder, 57 h.ph. four-speed gas sipper, not gulper. It's designed for 40 m.p.g.
It's about half the size of the Caprice and has a price tag of near $2,900.
I had to look twice at the magazine article on the engine . . . 57 horsepower . . . that's the same size as the engines in the BMW's owned by the Rev. Tom Ozanne and me. (Yes, we get better than 40 m.p.g.)
While we're on this auto kick . . . Father Tom came across a winter project. (He's been looking at [illegible]he garage Dennis Burbee is working on at our house.)
It's one of those kit projects. In fact, I was going to suggest that Art Sackles get involved in the project because his son-in-law, Jerry Wright, is a foreign car buff and has two jewels parked in his garage in Los Angeles.
This kit is on an Alpha Romero. If you don't know anything about the Alpha, don't read any further. Father Tom and I are experts. I've ridden in one. No one offered to turn the wheel over to me. (Mebbe they don't like that "Crash And Burn" title).
Only, this Alpha is different. It's built on a Volkswagen chassis, like a lot of the smaller kits. The real difference is the year . . . a 1931 Roadster. It looks like something Eddie Rickenbacker drove in a race at the Driving Park (Steinhart park) many years ago.
Well, so far it's just plain talk. We'll probably end up like most people who build a garage . . . put so much junk in it there's no room for anything except a broom to sweep it out once in awhile.
Wayne Brown screened a number of slides for the Optimists the other dav on a trip he took some time ago to Spain.
The travelogue was interesting. He showed lots of people looking at many beautiful areas and paid particular filmed effort to the shopping areas.
We liked the last slide . . . yeah, you've guessed it — a large crowd shopping at Gambles in Nebraska City.
And speaking of stores on Central Avenue . . . there may be a couple of major changes coming up pretty soon in the way of expansion and new facilities.
We visited with some real estate experts the other day and.
We visited with some real estate experts the other day and they enlightened us: There have been 25 major property changes in the downtown shopping district over the last three years. They called that quite unusual.
The scout supplier.
We were pleased to read Bob McKone's ad in the paper the other day on scout uniforms. They're available from the J.C. Penney catalog.
We've been through the Brownie and Girl Scout years and know the interest mothers have on getting those uniforms. There's nothing with more beauty and pride than a whisper of a girl in her first Brownie uniform or a little shaver putting on his blue cub scout hat.
Those are mighty impressive years.
The snakes . . . y-e-e-i-k-e-s!
"I got him, dad," said the husky young man.
"Huh?"
"Charlie . . . I got him," was the answer.
No. 1 son does a bit of lawn mowing and has seen snakes on several occasions. Perhaps you've had a similar experience.
Well, anyway, this big black snake has slithered here and there and gotten out of the way of the whirling blade, and we might add caused a bit of excitement to the person with the lawn mower.
Not any more.
"I really got ole' Charlie," the young man said. "He's gone now."
This time Ole' Charlie, as No. 1 son nicknamed him, was a bit reluctant to leave his area until too late.
Perhaps not a very pretty story. But then, at least the property owner didn't see it, doesn't know about it and won't be frightened by the big black snake in his lawn.
We haven't attended a game this season at Memorial Stadium. We gave up a chance and attended the Iowa Shrine game in Sioux City. UNO walloped Morningside about 30 points.
The score was lopsided, but the playing wasn't. We watched the numbers and checked them against the program with the man sitting in front of us who kept us posted on the NU-LSU game. (That Nebraska game cost me a pizza.)
I was impressed with the running ability of a couple of players. This one fellow seemed awfully fast and yet not very large from our seat in the stadium. The program said he was 6'5" and weighted 230 pounds . . . no wonder the ball carriers stopped when he got into the path.
Another was a UNO player who zipped around like Guy "The Fly" Engles of the Nebraska team of a few years ago. The UNO back was 5'6" and weighed 155 pounds . . . and he scored two touchdowns . . . guess I'll never understand football.