Iowa's oldest and only Tastee Freez has closed. Photo from urbanspoon.com.

One thing in life is constant. That’s the fact that things are always changing.

Sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it — the one thing in life that never changes is the fact that everything in life is always changing?

Depending on how it affects you, sometimes a particular change is good. Sometimes it isn’t. Often I can see both the good and the bad in a change.

One change I can’t find anything good about is the recently announced closing of a landmark drive-in restaurant in Davenport that was built in 1954.

The Tastee Freez at 3950 Rockingham Road was due to reopen from its winter hibernation in April, but it won’t. The signs have been removed from the building.

Owned by a franchisee from Moline, it was one of the oldest Tastee Freez’s in the country and the last one in Iowa.

A local nostalgia website, captainerniesshowboat.com, calls the Rockingham Tastee Freez an “incredible flashback to the 1950s, time warped as if you never left the decade. It remains an original twin-window walk-up drive-in experience. This is the way that all drive-ins originated, and it is unbelievable that it is still in existence to this day.

“When the store first opened its doors in 1954, it just served soft serve ice cream. A few years later they started serving pop, chips and hot dogs. Today it serves all types of sandwiches and side orders along with Tastee Freez soft serve ice cream.”

My favorite menu item was deep-fried mushrooms and the ranch dressing dip that came with them.

The website says the Rockingham Tastee Freez has had only three owners in its long history. The current owner, Tara Kirshenmann, had operated it since 1993. The owner before her had it for an amazing 38 years.

Located not far from U.S. 61 on Davenport’s west side, the Tastee Freez was a convenient stop for our family as we were driving by, and it was the perfect place to pause for a cool ice cream treat after a youth ballgame on a warm summer night in Davenport.

Customers there ate at one of a couple of picnic tables located outside in front or in their cars.

My wife and I continued to stop in now and then even after our children were grown and gone. The food was good, and the place was a comfortable reminder of times gone by.

I’ve been known to go out of my way to dine there when I was a second-shift newsman at WOC Radio.

One night a WOC co-worker questioned why I’d bought supper at Tastee Freez.

“It was Jumbo Day. You pay for the regular size of your food item, but they give you an extra large,” I explained as he broke into laughter.

He still teases me about Jumbo Day.

“It is one of the greatest pieces of Americana that there is,” captainerniesshowboat.com says of the Rockingham Tastee Freez. Now it’s gone.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”

Those of us who loved it have lost the Rockingham Tastee Freez.

Copyright 2012 by Phil Roberts, Creative Enterprises. This has been submitted as a column to North Scott Press.

You don't look forward to flying? Things may be getting a little better. Phil Roberts photo.

Friends:
If you, like me, fly now and then but always end up feeling taken advantage of and/or battered by the experience, some help is on the way. Following is an unedited DOT news release. Perhaps the friendly skies will now be a little friendlier thanks to some new regulations. To bad more rules are needed when a little common sense/fairness and good customer relations should have sufficed.
Phil
——-
Monday, January 23, 2012

New Airline Passenger Protections Take Effect This Week

New regulations going into effect this week will help ensure that consumers are treated fairly when they travel by air, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today. Among the new provisions, part of the airline consumer rule issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation in April 2011, are requirements that airlines and ticket agents include all mandatory taxes and fees in published airfares and that they disclose baggage fees to consumers buying tickets.

“Airline passengers have rights, and they should be able to expect fair and reasonable treatment when booking a trip and when they fly,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. “The new passenger protections taking effect this week are a continuation of our effort to help air travelers receive the respect they deserve.”

Also beginning this week, passengers will be able to hold a reservation without payment, or cancel a booking without penalty, for 24 hours after the reservation is made, if they make the reservation one week or more prior to a flight’s departure date. In addition, airlines will be required to promptly notify passengers of flight delays of over 30 minutes, as well as flight cancellations and diversions, and they will generally be prohibited from increasing the price of passengers’ ticket after it is bought.

The new rules also will make it easier for passengers to determine the full price they will have to pay for air transportation prior to travel. Currently, airlines and ticket agents are allowed to publish ads that list government-imposed taxes and fees separately from the advertised fare, as long as these taxes and fees are assessed on a per-passenger basis. However, sometimes the notice of these taxes and fees is not obvious to consumers. Under the new requirements, all mandatory taxes and fees must be included together in the advertised fare. The advertising provision takes effect Jan. 26, 2012 while all of the other consumer protections go into effect on Jan. 24 of this year.

In addition, airlines and ticket agents will be required to disclose baggage fees to consumers when they book a flight online. The first screen containing a fare quotation for a specific itinerary must show if there will be additional baggage fees, and inform consumers where they can go to see these fees. Information on baggage fees also must be included on all e-ticket confirmations, and for most trips the same baggage allowances and fees must apply throughout a passenger’s journey.

The new requirements are the final provisions to become effective from the Department’s most recent airline consumer rule. A number of new measures required by the rule took effect on Aug. 23, 2011, including requirements that airlines refund baggage fees if bags are lost and provide increased compensation to passengers bumped from oversold flights.

Also beginning last August, the Department set a four-hour time limit on tarmac delays for all international flights at U.S. airports, and extended the three-hour tarmac delay limit for domestic flights to smaller airports. It also required additional airlines to report their lengthy tarmac delays to DOT.

The Department is looking at other airline consumer protection measures for a possible future rulemaking, including requiring that all airline optional fees be disclosed wherever consumers can book a flight, strengthening disclosure of code-share flights, and requiring additional carriers to file on-time performance reports.

Twinkies are shown in production at Hostess Brands. Photo from hostessbrands.com.

I guess it’s partially our fault.

Hostess Brands, the maker of Wonder Bread, Twinkies, Fruit Pies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos and Sno Balls, is seeking bankruptcy protection.

News accounts point to several problems the company has: Rising labor costs, increased competition and healthier eating habits.

We’re responsible for that third problem. Yes, we’re not consuming as many Hostess products as we used to.

Many of us are eating whole wheat bread these days instead of white bread, and we’re eating healthy snacks instead of, well, you know, those Hostess items that shout “Buy me. Eat me!” to us and nearly propel themselves into our carts when we pass by them in the store.

When I worked in the produce department at a supermarket in the mid 1970s, we had a store assistant manager named Al who loved his Twinkies.

Once in the morning and once in the afternoon he’d announce, “I’m going on a Twinkie break.” And he’d sit in the break room and dive into a package of that delectable delight.

These days I’m guessing the Als of the world have been replaced by people snacking on yogurt or fruit – not Twinkies.

I’m sure of two things about Al: He died a happy man, and he died with the smell of Twinkies on his breath.

###

My wife and I recently had great fun with some friends while participating in a trivia competition that benefitted the Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department.

If you ever need a reminder of how much you don’t know or how much don’t remember, I urge you to take part in a trivia game.

Or you can just ask your children.

###

Bravo for John Deere!

Moline-based Deere & Co., the world’s largest ag equipment maker and Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer, is now in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Last November, Deere’s Project Can Do created a full-sized combine made entirely from food at the John Deere Pavilion in Moline.

It took more than 308,000 cans of 15 different kinds of food and more than 11,000 bags of popcorn, peas and beans.

Guinness folks say that is by far the largest sculpture ever built from canned food, more than doubling the number of cans used in the previous record set two years ago.

Deere’s sculpture, appropriately dedicated to America’s farmers, was 60 feet wide, 80 feet long, 16 feet tall and weighed about 170 tons.

It took 450 volunteers more than 1,800 hours to build it.

The sculpture was dismantled in December, and the food was donated to River Bend Food Bank, which serves food pantries in the Quad-Cities and 22 counties in eastern Iowa and western Illinois.

###

They say if you don’t like the Iowa weather, you should stick around because it will change in five minutes.

The snowstorm and mid teens cold snap that arrived Jan. 12 were in sharp contrast to highs in the mid 50s and the still-green grass that we enjoyed just a day earlier.

On the plus side, though, volunteer firefighters will no longer be called out to the grass fires that had them scrambling earlier this month.

Copyright 2012 by Phil Roberts, Creative Enterprises. This piece submitted as a column to The North Scott Press.

Most everything is under one roof. Phil Roberts photo.

Beautiful trucks and trailers are displayed in the store. Phil Roberts photo.

Not many stores have a wall of lights like this one. Phil Roberts photo.

Chrome is king in the Iowa 80 store. Phil Roberts photo.

The floor leaves no doubt where you've set foot. Phil Roberts photo.

Iowa 80 Truckstop (iowa80truckstop.com) bills itself as the world’s largest truck stop. Located along Interstate 80 at the mile marker 284 interchange, Iowa 80 is, indeed, huge.

It’s like a self-contained city within the city of Walcott, Iowa.
Truckers love the place for the Truckomat truck wash, CAT scale, game room, library, sleeping rooms, private showers, movie theater, washers and dryers, TV den, 24-hour service center and road service.

But you don’t have to be a truck driver to find a reason to visit Iowa 80.

The facility has fuel, restrooms, snacks, a food court, a restaurant and a 50,000-item store whose highlights are gifts and chrome items.

There are Sunday church services; a Dogomat pet wash; an embroidery, vinyl and laser engraving service; a Verizon kiosk; ATMs; UPS/ FedEx drop boxes; a fax/copy service; a mailbox; Western Union service; and pay phones. Oh, yes, there’s even a barber, dentist and chiropractor!

Since 1979, Iowa 80 has paid tribute to truckers two days each July at its free Walcott Truckers Jamboree. And you’ll find a huge collection of antique trucks year round right next door at the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum.

Perhaps the best part about Iowa 80 Truckstop is that it never closes.

Copyright 2011 by Phil Roberts, Creative Enterprises. This piece and the photos above were submitted as an attraction review to tripadvisor.com.

Sheraton Minneapolis Midtown Hotel. Photo from starwoodhotels.com

Note: My favorite travel website is tripadvisor.com, where I file an occasional review. One follows…

We stayed at the Sheraton Minneapolis Midtown Hotel, a Starwood property, in November 2011 because it is the only hotel near our final destination.

It’s in a neighborhood where, for your own safety, you won’t want to stray very far on foot at night. But the benefit of the property is that it’s centrally located, partway between downtown Minneapolis and south Minneapolis.

We found our room to be modern, clean and comfortable, just what you’d expect at a Sheraton. Employees were friendly. My request for a first-floor room was honored. Sheraton Minneapolis Midtown Hotel is not cheap, but we took advantage of an online special called Better Tomorrows. We stayed two nights in a room that had a king-size bed, big-screen TV and large work area. The first night was at the regular price of $129 plus tax. The second night was 40 percent off, $77 plus tax. There is a large parking lot right outside the main door, but you’ll pay about $8 per day for using it.

Next to the hotel, across a short stretch of Elliot Avenue South in a former Sears store, is Global Market (midtownglobalmarket.org). Take time to walk through it.

You’ll find quaint ethnic eateries — one place even sells a camel burger — plus shops offering meat, produce, baked goods, flowers, crafts, coffee, jewelry and gifts.

And, no, I couldn’t bring myself to try a camel burger.

Copyright 2011 by Phil Roberts, Creative Enterprises.

Doug Dahlgren and Anita Sundine. Dave Coopman photo.

Doug Dahlgren and Ed Zack. Dave Coopman photo.

Left to right are Doug Dahlgren, Ernie Mimms and Don Rhyne. Dave Coopman photo.

The WOC Club is a group of former employees of WOC AM-FM-TV (or, later, KWQC-TV and KIIK-FM or KUUL-FM) who meet monthly for breakfast and to share “war stories.” I have written about this group on this site before. You can do a search and read more.

Those in this “club” worked in all aspects of radio and TV. I, for example, did radio news on WOC-AM from 1997-2009. Others, too, were news anchors. Some were program hosts, directors, set builders and who knows what else.

Some of us left ‘OC for better jobs. Some of us were fired. And some of us retired. But we all have one thing in common — WOC/KWQC is a beloved part of our personal history.

You never know who might show up at a WOC Club meeting. Today, at the November 2011 gathering, Ernie Mimms (known by many now-grown-up “kids” as Uncle Ernie or, later, Captain Ernie) made an infrequent appearance. Thanks, Ern. Come back soon.

Showing up for his inaugural WOC Club appearance was WOC alum Doug Dahlgren, who went on to several larger markets but now is retired and living in Chicago.

Doug started in radio as a teen. If I was listening carefully, I believe I heard him say his first radio job was at KCLN in Clinton, Iowa. Then it was on to WOC-AM in Davenport as the afternoon drive deejay.

From there, according to www.440.com/namesd.html, Doug Dahlgren’s resume went like this:

WTMJ [Milwaukee WI] 1968
WMYQ [Miami FL] 1972
WDAI [Chicago IL] 1973
WCFL [Chicago] 1973
WIND [Chicago] 1975
WIRE [Indianapolis IN] 1980
KUPL [Portland OR] 1987
KWJJ [Portland] 1995
KEX [Portland] 1997
KAYO-FM [Aberdeen WA] 2000-2005

A note from Doug on the site says, “I’m retired and living in Chicago again. The Aberdeen, Washington, station you list (KAYO-FM) was actually in Olympia, with a local signal into Seattle; the city of license at the time was Aberdeen; it became a Bustos Media station in 2005 and since none of us spoke Spanish … well, you know…”

It was a pleasure meeting this well-traveled radio personality, and we hope Doug Dahlgren returns to our group of merry men and women. Thanks to Dave Coopman for taking and supplying the accompanying photographs of Doug and others.

Copyright 2011 by Phil Roberts, Creative Enterprises.

On Veterans Day, I’ll be thinking of my father, First Sgt. Ray Roberts (1920-2004), who enlisted in the Army at the start of WWII, served in the infantry in the European Theater and was wounded twice, earning the Purple Heart. He is pictured above, top.

I am named for his respected friend and company commander, Capt. Philip Ingraham, pictured above, bottom. He was killed in action July 4, 1944. As communications sergeant, my dad had worked at Capt. Ingraham’s side.

In his WWII memoir, which he wrote for his grandchildren, my dad wrote of Capt. Ingraham, “I had seen many guys killed, but when he went down, it really hit me very hard. He was so close that Phil was named after Capt. Ingraham.”

To his dying day, my dad never again celebrated the Fourth of July.

Copyright 2011 by Phil Roberts, Creative Enterprises.

Imagine catching a glimpse of this some night in a darkened room you thought was empty. Phil Roberts photo.

My wife Sherry has a death wish — for me.

Not really, but sometimes I do wonder. Here are some true stories to prove my point.

To say I don’t like snakes is putting it mildly. Our boys, when they still lived at home, had a realistic looking, 3-foot long rubber snake they played with. But I think Sherry got as much enjoyment out of it as they did.

Once I was walking through our garden and came upon the rubber snake at my feet, coiled among some plants. My heart nearly stopped. That was my wife’s handy work. Another time she had the snake hanging from a low branch in our maple tree in the back yard. Again, my heart went pitter-patter when I nearly walked into it, and she just laughed.

I’m also not a fan of rodents or spiders, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found a rubber mouse or spider on some route that I’m known to walk.

Then there was that shadow in the bedroom. In the early ‘80s, I came home and found that Sherry had already retired for the night. So I quietly slipped into our bedroom, which was lit only by a night light, so as not to wake her.

In the darkness, I could see her form in bed. Then, to my horror, out of the corner of my eye, I also saw the form of someone else sitting, not moving, in a chair in the room!

My heart pounding, I turned on the overhead light. What I found was a 6-foot tall, stuffed, pink rabbit Sherry had acquired. She had put the rabbit in the chair to get my attention. It certainly did.

The most recent incident occurred last night. I’m a night owl, and Sherry was in bed fast asleep as I headed to our bedroom after midnight. As I passed by it, I glanced into one of our darkened spare bedrooms and stopped dead in my tracks. I could make out the form of someone lying on his back in bed!

Again, my adrenaline flowed. I flipped on the bedroom light only to find a smiling, 5-foot scarecrow all stretched out. He’d been part of our Halloween decorations and was waiting to be carried to the attic for storage.

He could have been placed in a box or folded up and placed on the bed in a heap. But that obviously would not have won the desired result — to scare the life out of Phil.

I really don’t know why I go the doctor for annual physicals. I know I have a strong heart. My wife helps me prove it regularly.

Copyright 2011 by Phil Roberts, Creative Enterprises. Submitted to The North Scott Press as an “Everyday People” column.

Seated left to right are Terry James and Mark Minnick. Standing left to right are Nick Linberg and Phil Roberts. Jon Book photo.

Jon Book in the QCRG tech room. File photo.

Anyone want to hire some experienced radio veterans?

The four guys pictured together above represent the final news team that worked at WOC and the five other Quad-City Radio Group stations in Davenport, owned by Clear Channel. At one time, QCRG had five or six full-time news people.

Joined by former QCRG engineer Jon Book, also pictured above in a file photo taken in the QCRG tech room, the radio veterans gathered for breakfast Nov. 1, 2011, at the Village Inn on Elmore Avenue in Davenport to chat about old times and recent events in broadcasting.

In the group photo, taken by Book, shown seated left to right are Terry James and Mark Minnick. Standing left to right are Nick Linberg and Phil Roberts.

James, who was a news anchor/reporter, left QCRG in November 2006 to take a news director job at a station in Milwaukee. He left that station in June 2007 to become the news director of Nebraska Radio Network in Lincoln. He returned to the Quad-Cities in June of 2011 to continue his college education.

Roberts, a news anchor/reporter, was released by Clear Channel on April 28, 2009, and is now semi-retired, doing media-related work on a part-time or freelance basis.

Book, the engineer, was released Dec. 10, 2010, and is looking for employment opportunities.

Minnick, a news director/anchor, was released Feb. 15, 2011, and is currently retired.

Linberg, a news anchor/reporter, was released Oct. 26, 2011, and is considering his future employment options.

Copyright 2011 by Phil Roberts, Creative Enterprises.

Bonaparte Retreat is located in a former grist mill. Phil Roberts photo.

Our friend Dan contemplates his huge ribeye steak. Phil Roberts photo.

Bonaparte Retreat (bonaparteretreat.com) is a delightful restaurant located in the former Meek’s Grist Mill on the banks of the Des Moines River in tiny Bonaparte, Iowa.

That’s in Van Buren County in southern Iowa.

The historic mill building, constructed in 1878, replaced an 1836 structure that burned down in 1841.

Bonaparte Retreat is a casual place, and the authentic mill decor is a plus — some tables offer a view of the river — but the best part is the food.

It’s open for lunch or dinner seven days a week. We always go at dinnertime, and I order their specialty, a huge ribeye steak that covers much of my plate. I’m a big guy, but I always end up taking some steak with me in a “doggie” bag.

My wife prefers a seafood platter they serve. That’s also a bonus for my belly. One of the items on her platter is fried oysters. She doesn’t care for oysters, but I love them. So I am the lucky recipient of her oysters. Yum!

In addition to a salad and potato, dinners include a cup of homemade soup and croutons plus some pan-fried bread. You certainly won’t leave hungry.

Prices are reasonable, too, considering the amount of food.

With the possible exception of the Scenic Drive Festival, which draws huge numbers of people to the county and to the restaurant, service is good.

Allow some time, too, to walk the downtown area, which deservedly is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Our favorite store is the new Burns Gallery & Tea Emporium (burnsgalleryandtea.com), where you can sip on a cup of their custom-blended tea and purchase artwork and tea to take home.

Copyright 2011 by Phil Roberts, Creative Enterprises.