You run into old friends in the
most unusual places
By Gordon Garnos
EXPLANATION: More than one column
by yours truly have been written about the uniqueness of South
Dakotans. For example, in my column for the week of Sept. 17, I
mentioned "Sparky" Anderson of baseball fame, one of this year's
inductees into the South Dakota Hall of Fame. He declared, "No
matter where you might move to, once a South Dakotan, always a South
Dakotan." Another example of this uniqueness just happened during a
meeting of the Dakota Territory Chapter of the American Political
Items Collectors in Watertown. I ran into a childhood friend.
WHEN ONE THINKS about a national organization, he or she most
likely wouldn't zero in on the American Political Items Collectors
organization, let alone its Dakota Territory Chapter. But it just
happened to me in the last couple of weeks. The pin collectors were
holding a show, displaying all kinds of pins. Most of them were
political. Some were sports pins and others were of a whole myriad
of things.
Not being a pin collector, but with a more than passing interest in
both history and politics, I decided to see what the show offered.
There were E.Y. Berry pins, McGovern pins, Roosevelt pins, Gore pins
and Bush pins; thousands of pins that help tell the stories of both
South Dakota and American politics.
THE SHOW WAS AT the Watertown Senior Center. Being "nearly"
one I felt I could comfortably walk through the front door. I had
hardly entered the large room when I spotted Pastor David Johnson of
Sioux Falls. His collection was huge. He was our pastor in Watertown
for 16 years. He was the first one I recognized. Next was Dave
Kranz, the political columnist for that newspaper in that town near
Harrisburg, also an avid collector of pins, political, of course.
While visiting with the pastor and Kranz this older gentleman walked
up to us and asked me, "You're Gordon Garnos, aren't you?" I never
met the guy before in my life. Wrongo!
"I'm Jim Kineen. We played together when we were little kids."
Another look and I could see a little bit of Jim I knew so long ago.
He was from Omaha and was another collector. Jim's parents, Mr. and
Mrs. Roy Kineen, had the Gamble Store in Kennebec. His parents and
my parents were very close friends.
WHEN MY DAD drove our bread truck from Presho to Kennebec, I
often accompanied him. And while he was delivering bread products to
the Anderson Store, Ann's Cafe, Jim Abdnor's dad's store and another
one I can't remember the name of, I got to play with the Kennebec
kids. The whole town was our playground, except for a sand box, but
I don't remember whose yard it was in.
There was Jim Kineen, Pat McKeever (later a circuit judge), Tom
Burns (his sister, Kathy, was the prettiest girl I ever saw, I
thought at the time), the Moon boys and the White kid, I believe his
name was Eddy.
For the balance of the pin collectors show, Jim Kineen and I
recalled that past.
We may have been in some fights back
then, but I can only remember the good times Kennebec had to offer.
Jim maintained that it wasn't always good times there. He told of a
couple of murders that took place earlier in that county seat's
history. Other than that, we remembered just the good times until
1947 when the Kineen family moved to Hot Springs.
BY THE TIME the early '50s rolled around Kennebec was still
the place to go. I believe it was on Wednesday nights there was
roller skating on the second floor of the fire hall. Now that was an
experience! If we went one way around the floor there was little
chance of falling down the stairs, but when the manager bellowed,
"Reverse!" you had better be careful, especially if you were the
last one in the crack-the-whip line. It was a long way down those
stairs.
It wasn't just roller skating that drew
us to Kennebec in our teen years. There was basketball, six-man
football and such. It was probably in those years the Kennebec boys
found out there were girls in Presho and us Presho guys, likewise,
discovered there were girls in Kennebec.
In high school sports the two towns were bitter adversaries, but off
the court and off the football field I think we all had some good
friends. That friendship may have become strained when it was time
for those two schools, along with the schools at Vivian and
Reliance, to consolidate. Yes, running into Jim Kineen was for us
like looking through a window and seeing part of our past....
P.S. Speaking of
schools, isn't it awful they can't teach about Adam and Eve, but
they can teach all about Adam and Steve?.....
Gordon Garnos was long-time editor of the Watertown Public Opinion and
recently retired after 39 years with that newspaper. Garnos, a
lifelong resident of South Dakota except for his military service in the
U.S. Air Force, was born and raised in Presho.
