It's not the miles, it's the memories
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By Bill Wundram | Saturday, December 01, 2007 |
ALWAYS, when this old month ends, my mind takes a rapid rewind to Cary Grant. It is 21 years since Grant died in Davenport at the age of 82. On Nov. 29, a stroke felled the matinee idol who is rated — after lo, all these years — to still be the No. 2 film star of all time, next to Bogart. So says the American Film Institute.
The other day, Dave Holden and I reminisced. He was a police sergeant hired as escort-protection for Grant and his wife, Barbara. Holden smiles, telling of a ruse to prevent the media from getting a photo of Grant being carried out of the Blackhawk Hotel to go to the hospital.
“I called for two ambulances and told the one going to the alley entrance to put on the siren. The news people would think we were taking him out by the alley’s freight elevator. The other ambulance was to quietly park at the lobby front door on Third Street, waiting for Grant’s gurney. One of your photographers didn’t fall for it. He was waiting in the lobby and got a photo.”
What is old, puh-leeze?
Gosh, Marj, when you’re young, anyone 10 years older than you is a “senior.” Marjorie Stierwalt of Bettendorf questions a headline that read, “Elderly woman pleads guilty to crack dealing.”
That woman’s age was 64.
“Omigosh,” asks Marj. “I’m 62 — what constitutes elderly?”
Maybe that “elderly” woman — at the ripe age of 64 — needed some extra moola until she could get Social Security.
One of those moments
“I had one of those senior moments,” says Ernie Huling, police chief in Morrison, Ill. “I’m 53; that isn’t senior, but in my work it is — especially after 32 years of service.
“One morning I got in my patrol car and drove to work, about 1.5 miles. I couldn’t help but notice cars pulling over, especially at the traffic lights. When I got to work and looked, I realized I had accidentally turned on my overhead red lights when I left home. I made the mistake of telling my experience to my officers, some of whom hadn’t been born when I became a police officer.”
Meandering down memory lane
At this time of year, Petersen’s, with its animated windows in downtown Davenport, was our Disney of its day. Up on Main Street, the kids were boggled by the Christmas watchmaker’s mechanical devices doing all kinds of tricks in the window of Plank & Co., jewelers in the Putnam Building. Parker’s toy corner at 2nd and Brady never had a chance against its competitor, Petersen’s.
“I always marveled at how someone seemingly pushed a button to go downtown and see all the lights and windows on weekends like this,” says Monte Weidenfeller, Davenport.
On December Saturdays, Milt Troehler, the pudgy-cheeked manager of the RKO Orpheum (now the Adler) brought in extra ushers and booked three Tom & Jerry cartoons.
He used to say, “My movie house was baby sitter for hundreds of kids while parents shopped.”
Old age? Not until …
Rev. Bob and Marilyn Hamilton of Davenport say that you’re not really old until you pick up the remote control, hold it to your ear, and wait for a dial tone.
Bill Wundram can be contacted at (563) 383-2249 or bwundram@qctimes.com. Comment on this column at qctimes.com.
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