Siouxland Life - September 2015

Flowers make every day special

Mom juggles kids, job and real estate

Hearse provides other transportation

A GUIDE FOR LIVING IN SIOUXLAND

DELIVERING RESULTS

RIDE ALONG WITH THOSE WHO SPEND TIME DRIVING AROUND SIOUXLAND

WHEN ARE YOU TOO OLD TO DRIVE? SEPTEMBER 2015

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September 2015

Siouxland Life

CONTENTS September

2015

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to spend your workday in a vehicle, we’ve got the issue for you. This month, we ride along with a host of people who deal with a variety of deliveries. They tell us transportation is just part of the job. So, fasten your seatbelts and get ready for a sweet trip around Siouxland.

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INSIDE SCOOP You can learn plenty from a porta-potty.

12 ON THE COVER Most of what we eat, drink or wear gets to us with a truck driver involved. Meet Moville’s Gale Heyer, behind the wheel for three decades.

Photograph by Tim Gallagher

FEATURES 4 HOME kid-friendly 12 DRIVING keep on trucking 14 DRIVING behind the scenes 16 DRIVING window of opportunity 18 DRIVING mom’s quest 20 DRIVING last ride 24 DRIVING catering a crowd 26 DRIVING animal control

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DEMO FUN Crashing cars has its privileges.

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DRIVING senior meals DRIVING on a mission DRIVING demolition fun DRIVING ambulance insight DRIVING a fragrant delivery HEALTH when to stop driving HEALTH medical answers PARTING SHOT

47 PARTING SHOT About that time I took voice lessons.

PUBLISHER Steve Griffith EDITOR Bruce Miller EDITORIAL Dolly A. Butz, Tim Gallagher, Earl Horlyk, Ally Karsyn, Michelle Kuester PHOTOGRAPHY Tim Hynds, Jim Lee, Justin Wan DESIGN April Burford ADVERTISING SALES Nancy Gevik ADVERTISING DESIGN Kayla Fleming ©2015 The Sioux City Journal. Siouxland Life is published monthly by The Sioux City Journal.

For advertising information, please call (712) 224-6275. For editorial information, please call (712) 293-4218.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

SEPTEMBER 2015

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HOME a

kid-friendly home

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SEPTEMBER 2015

SIOUXLAND LIFE

SIOUXLAND

HOUSE TOUR 10 THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT A MODERN, KID-FRIENDLY HOME

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Text by Ally Karsyn | Photographs by Tim Hynds

THE AVERAGE HOMEBUYER EXPECTS to stay put for 13 years before moving. Kim Perry, 33, wonders if her family will ever reach that mark.

Her husband runs a construction company, and the couple has been moving about once every two years. Their homes are like living showrooms, where Roy, 36, can take potential clients and let them see his handiwork before contracting R Perry Construction.

“It’s an adventure,” she said. “We always know that our house is on display for those people who say, can it be done?

What are our options? What are our possibilities? It’s just something we’ve adapted into our life and it doesn’t seem so strange to us.”

For them, it’s a fun journey. Designing their latest home in the Whispering Creek neighborhood, Roy and Kim asked, “What can we do to stay home and have it all here?” Since the birth of their son Jack, they’ve turned to a lifestyle that’s homeward bound but not boring.

1. OUTDOOR OASIS An expansive view of the Whispering Creek Golf Club in the backyard was an

attractive quality in the lot on Quail Ridge.

The resort-like setting provides a place where the Perrys can relax and enjoy the trees and hills of the countryside and the golf course without having to go anywhere.

2. TECH & FRIENDS The outdoor pool maximizes convenience and comfort. The lights and temperature can be controlled remotely using apps on their smart phones. Additionally, the pool house provides storage room for equipment without being an eyesore on the property – and that’s not all. It was designed as a multifunctional space, outfitted with a refrigerator for afternoon snacking and a full bathroom to wash off after going for a dip.

3. PERRY’S BAR Entertaining and family function were top priorities for the Perrys. The two work together throughout the house. Kim and Roy wanted to be able to stay home instead of going out since they have 1-yearold Jack tottering around. An in-home bar is an inviting feature for friends to come over and have fun without hitting the town.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

SEPTEMBER 2015

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4. Go Iowa!

Hawkeyes football – that’s a main reason why the basement is set up the was it is. “We are big Iowa fans,” she said.

“Jack’s got his own little Iowa jersey and he’s ready for football season.” They’ll watch NFL games but don’t follow one team in particular. It’s all about the Big Ten.

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September 2015

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5 5. Trial Style “This is the first house we’ve done modern,” she said. They went with a durable tile floor that imitates the look of driftwood. The couple’s Great Dane runs around and Jack rolls his Tonka trucks over the ceramic surface and Kim, a nurse anesthetist at Mercy Medical Center, doesn’t worry about dents or scratches.

“This is a great way to show contemporary functionality and it’s perfect,” she said.

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September 2015

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6. MOD KID Between getting furnishings from Mod House Interiors and Target, Kim created a transitional space for Jack. “He can play, but he can learn and grow,” she said. “It’s just his own little space. He can entertain himself for hours.”

“We are big Iowa fans. Jack’s got his own little Iowa jersey and he’s ready for football season.”

7. DREAM BIG Right now, the spacious master bedroom is sparsely furnished.

There’s no need to have dressers taking up floor space since they have a KIM PERRY large walk-in closet attached to the bathroom. And yet, there’s room to redesign and reconfigure the furniture arrangement to accommodate anything from a reading nook to a desk.

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8 8. TUB-LESS TREND The master bathroom registers as one of the top two favorite features of the home – perhaps only second to the pool area. The Perrys decided to forego a bathtub in favor of an oversized glassed-in tile shower with multiple showerheads. “It turned out so much better than either one of us thought it would,” she said. “It’s contemporary, but it’s still functional.”

9. SHINY CENTER It used to be that Roy and Kim could come and go as they pleased. It’s a little harder to get away and leave the house with Jack. Here again, they bring the food and fun to them. A stainless steel Thermador range with six burners and two ovens

became a centerpiece of the kitchen and much of it was designed around the luxury stove. “It’s amazing to be able to cook two things in the oven at once,” she said.

“Even when we have a big group, we can get things cooked up and done in no time versus waiting for a burner or cooking one thing at a time.”

10. JACK’S JUNGLE (GYM) “I think our best purchase ever was the couch,” Kim said. “It’s like a jungle gym for Jack. He runs from side to side and he can climb. That’s probably the greatest thing is just watching him still be able to be a kid but yet still being able to clean up and say, hey, this is what Roy does. This is his work.”

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SEPTEMBER 2015

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DRIVING keep

on trucking

Gale Heyer, 52, of Moville, Iowa, has been a truck driver for the better part of three decades.

Since 2003, he has driven for Kevin Lloyd’s KVLZ Trucking, Inc., of Climbing Hill, Iowa.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN...

AND AGAIN...AND AGAIN

m

Trucker keeps customers happy 135,000 miles per year

Text and photograhs by Tim Gallagher

MOVILLE, IOWA | GALE Heyer remembers hopping in a semi with his father, Robert Heyer, nearly 35 years ago.

They headed west with a load of grain.

“Back then, kids ran tractors when they were 11 or 12 or so,” Heyer says from his home in Moville. “Now they

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SEPTEMBER 2015

don’t let kids stand next to tractors.”

Heyer recalls taking the wheel from his father, allowing him to rest as they zipped west across a portion of South Dakota. Heady stuff for a high school boy from Anthon, Iowa.

It was a sign of things and miles to come. Millions of miles, most likely.

For much of his working career,

SIOUXLAND LIFE

Heyer has been behind the wheel of a big rig, delivering all sorts of products to facilities across the Midwest. The U.S. population, he says with conviction, owes much of its existence to the truck drivers of this country.

“If you buy it, eat it, drink it or wear it, there’s a pretty good chance it got to you with a trucker involved,” Heyer says.

Heyer had a little trucking background, thanks to his father, when he graduated from Anthon High School in 1982. Rather than hit the road right away, Heyer worked full-time for dairy farmer Jim Droegmiller, north of Cushing, Iowa, staying on the farm he served during his high school summers.

After working for Rasmussen Ford in Cherokee, Iowa, for a year in the parts department, the late Robert Heyer approached his only son.

“He told me it was time to get my chauffeur’s license and start driving truck,” Gale Heyer says.

Robert Heyer had trucked for years for small firms and small farmers, out of places like Correctionville, Danbury, Galva and Midway.

Gale Heyer passed the test, which he said amounted to “mostly common sense.” He began hauling livestock immediately. He liked the challenge and the sense of adventure that came with being out on the road.

He kept at it, even though he ended up taking a day-time job in Sioux City, working to clean and recondition used cars for Knoepfler Chevrolet. In the 16 years, Heyer worked for Knoepfler, he kept trucking on the weekends.

“I’d run with Dad and help him when he was tired,” he says. “I also worked on his truck when it needed any work.”

The road beckoned and the urge became too great to overcome in 1999, when Gale Heyer signed on full-time with a company named Double O out of Columbus, Nebraska.

“I had a route hauling corn germ from Marshall, Minnesota, to Blair, Nebraska, every day, 12 months per year,” he says, noting he’d have Saturdays off, but that was it.

“I’d work Christmas, Easter, you name it,” Heyer notes.

The 558-mile route took 12 hours and allowed Heyer the comfort of being home each night with his wife, Jackie.

“I’d leave about 4 in the morning and get back at 3-4 in the afternoon,” he says. “I liked it.”

Heyer worked the CB radio those days, earning a handle of “Wildman” from fellow drivers at Marshall, a name they hung on him for his ability to drive through Minnesota snow.

“I’d show up in Marshall and four guys would be sitting there waiting for the snow to taper off,” he says with a laugh. “I’d get the truck loaded and lead ’em out.”

Running in “packs” of four to five trucks was more commonplace 15 years ago. There’s a little more independence today, a little less of the fraternity feel.

Here are the controls of the 2003 Freightliner owned

by Kevin Lloyd of KVLZ Trucking, Inc., of Climbing Hill, Iowa. The rig is driven by Gale Heyer of Moville, Iowa.

18 WHEELS, 15 STATES Gale Heyer’s 18 wheels turn 120,000 to 135,000 miles per year. Heyer quickly counts 15 states he has trucked across, but the number could be greater. Here’s a short list: Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi and Montana.

“You’d run with people back then and talk back and forth and it was fun,” he says. “Now, it seems to be more like every man is for himself. The older drivers really looked out for one another. I’m not sure the younger drivers today do as much of that.”

Kevin Lloyd of KVLZ Trucking, Inc., of Climbing Hill, Iowa, hired Heyer in January 2003. Making the switch allowed Heyer to keep a truck about 200 yards from his residence. He got to stay with routes in the Midwest, but expanded his regular reach into Wisconsin, where Heyer makes regular runs from Le Mars, Iowa, to a town called Pleasant Prairie.

“I use 500 gallons of fuel per week, running from Iowa to Wisconsin with ground pork going out, frozen sausage coming back,” he says.

Heyer listens to classic rock and old country music as he cruises, shifting from gear to gear (there are 13 gears).

For a change of pace, he sometimes turns on old-time radio dramas like “Superman,” “Dragnet,” and “Green Hornet.”

Nobody likes a fresh cab like Gale Heyer, who, obviously, just adds to the pile every so often. Heyer has been a truck driver for the better part of 30 years.

“I’d talk on the CB, but, now, you almost can’t get anyone to answer,” he says.

In 2007, Kevin Lloyd presented Heyer with a certificate of appreciation safety award from Continental Western Group.

The framed certificate lauded Heyer for 1 million accident-free miles.

“The next week, I backed up and just barely caught a pole,” Heyer says with a laugh. “You knew something like that would happen!”

Fortunately, very little else has happened along that line. Heyer has been safe and content on the road, enjoying a career his dad directed him toward, taking satisfaction moving product and keeping customers happy with everything from sausage to corn germ to English muffins.

The paper this story is printed on, in fact, arrived to the printer via truck.

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SEPTEMBER 2015

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DRIVING behind

the scenes

Tom Lindblom, right, owner of Lindblom Services, opens a portable toilet to fill it with water as worker Danny Elenz prepares to drop blue de-odorizer tablets into them at Cottonwood Cove Park in Dakota City, Nebraska.

Lindblom was setting up portable toilets in the park for the city’s annual Cottonwood Days celebration.

CONFESSIONS OF THE

PORT-A-POT GUYS

d

Text by Earl Horlyk | Photographs by Tim Hynds

DAKOTA CITY, NEB. | Tom Lindblom sure knows how to make an entrance.

After all, not too many people drive into Cottonwood Cove Park, hauling 20 portable toilets.

“People seem to love the slogan on the back of our big truck: ‘Yesterday’s Meals-on-Wheels,’” Lindblom said with a laugh. “Yeah, you gotta have a sense of humor when you’re in this line of work.”

Since 1969, Lindblom Services has been responsible for portable toilets, urinals and handicapped-accessible lavatories at construction sites as well as outdoor festivals like Dakota City’s Cottonwood Days.

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SEPTEMBER 2015

“Cottonwood Days is actually one of our smaller events,” Lindblom said. “We also have the contract for such events as Saturday in the Park, River-Cade and (the outdoor concerts at) Hard Rock Hotel & Casino that keep us very busy in the summertime.”

Certainly no Johnny-come-lately, Lindblom, 69, came into the latrine business strictly as a sideline.

A longtime Sioux City firefighter, he actually began pumping septic tanks for residential homes.

“Back then, firefighters worked a schedule where they were on duty for 24 hours and then off for 48 hours,”

SIOUXLAND LIFE

Lindblom remembered. “That gave me plenty of time for a second job.”

Gradually, his sideline became his main job and, over time, he acquired nearly 500 portable toilets.

“It’s a dirty job but somebody’s gotta do it,” Lindblom added.

Assistant Danny Elenz joined Lindblom Services nearly four years ago.

“My friends always make fun of me when they learn what I do for a living,” Elenz said as he added water and deodorizing tablets to each portable toilet.

“They suddenly think I’m the Tidy-Bowl man or something.”

“When people give you a hard time,

Danny Elenz of Lindblom Services moves a portable toilet into place at Cottonwood Cove Park in Dakota City, Nebraska. Lindblom was setting up portable toilets in the park for the city’s annual Cottonwood Days celebration.

Tom Lindblom, owner of Lindblom Services sets up portable toilets in Dakota City for the city’s annual Cottonwood Days celebration.

tell ’em this is a hands-on job, not a hands-in job,” Lindblom wryly interjected.

Over the years, Lindblom said he’s noticed construction workers treat portable toilets better than festival attendees.

“You treat them better if you know you’ll constantly be using one,” he speculated.

Yet Lindblom said he’s finds more interesting things left behind following a festival.

“In general, we’ve found plenty of cellphones, keys and wallets left in portable toilets,” he said. “We return all of that to the event organizers.”

But Lindblom said he has also found beer cans, beer bottles, diapers and, even, bras left inside outdoor

Tom Lindblom, provides portable toilets for dozens of events in Siouxland.

commodes.

“You never know what you’re gonna find,” he said. “Let’s just leave it at that.”

As Lindblom and Elenz continued to unload the portable toilets, Elenz reflected for a moment.

“Before I started working for Tom, I never really thought about portable

toilets,” he said. “In fact, I never really noticed them.”

That doesn’t surprise Lindblom in the least.

“It’s only when you’re in the hot sun and have plenty of beer in you that you’ll be happy there are plenty of facilities around you,” he said.

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SEPTEMBER 2015

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DRIVING window

of opportunity

Amanda Beller, owner of Windows America, travels more than 42,000 miles per year on average.

ROVING

WINDOW WOMAN

a

LEAVES DESK JOB IN THE DUST Text and photographs by Ally Karsyn

A PETITE WOMAN GETS out of her little black car in a little black dress and walks up to a raised ranch house on South Lakeport Street. A man stares out a window, edged in tape, waiting for her arrival. Amanda Beller never really knows who is going to greet her at the door unless it’s a repeat customer.

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SEPTEMBER 2015

But by now, she knows quite a few people. After all, she’s been the owner of Windows America for more than a dozen years.

She swiftly measures 12 windows that need to be replaced in the rental property and tells the landlord a quote will be coming his way. Just like that, she’s

SIOUXLAND LIFE

bounding back to her car with her trusty tape measure tucked into a light blue messenger bag by a stack a brochures.

According to the color-coded calendar on her iPhone, it’s her last appointment of the day.

Earlier in the week, she started her morning with a presentation on positive

Beller measures one of 12 windows in a rental property. She often has multiple appointments in a day.

leadership at the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce, then went into the office to get the installers shuffled along. Between appointments, she confirmed an order, collected a payment and attended a Leadership Siouxland meeting over lunch.

In all, she had five appointments that day, which is pretty typical as the colder months creep up. It’s getting to be that time of year when personal and professional demands increase.

Another day, between appointments, she was registering her three teenage boys for school in the morning and meeting with the Sioux City Rotary Club at noon.

Beller, 43, tries to volunteer as much as possible and stay active in the community. As a small business owner, she can set her schedule to make time for those things and not miss her sons’ activities, either, whether it’s hockey, cross

Beller writes down the measurements of a window to put together a quote once she gets back to the office.

country or performances by the boys dance team at North High.

Last year, she retired the Honda Pilot from work and passed it on to her oldest son, Camden, 17. The SUV could hold and haul a lot more stuff compared to her new compact sedan.

She used to haul sample windows to appointments all the time until lugging those things around started to take a toll. Now, she’s more apt to encourage customers to stop by the showroom on Water Street to look at the selection of styles, colors and sizes.

So she swapped out her gas-guzzling SUV for a Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid that averages 42 miles per gallon, even with a lot of city driving.

She’s already logged well over 40,000 miles on the little black car.

“I can’t imagine sitting in one location all day long,” she said. “I just can’t imagine doing that.”

Her days by a desk are behind her.

She’s staring at them in her rear-view mirror. She worked in banking and marketing before opening Windows America with her husband, largely to gain flexible hours.

Now, she enjoys going out and meeting new people and sometimes pets.

One of the only drawbacks may be that paperwork piles up back at the office while she’s out roaming the city for appointments.

You could say she’s gone a long way from doing what she thought she would grow up to be.

Beller was a good student and liked to help people.

“I wanted to go into medicine, but I faint,” she said. “Friends getting casts off and stitches out, I’m just passing out left and right so that wasn’t going to work.”

Instead, she’s doctoring up windows and doors.

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SEPTEMBER 2015

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DRIVING

mom’s quest

From showing houses to CHAUFFEURING kids,

Realtor is on the go all the time

v

Text by Earl Horlyk Photographs by Tim Hynds

Vanessa Lefler-Larned begins most mornings with a predawn workout at a local health club.

That’s fitting since the Century 21 Prolink Realtor’s day probably won’t end until late into the night.

“Yeah, I like to keep healthy,” LeflerLarned said. “You have to be in good shape in order to keep up with my crazy schedule.”

When she isn’t driving around town for clients, the Sioux City woman is chauffeuring her daughter Holland, 13, to various theater events and son Phoenix, 16, to cross-country practice.

“Thank goodness Phoenix just got his driver’s license,” Lefler-Larned said with a sigh. “He’s been able to drive himself to practice and pick up Holland whenever she had rehearsal.”

A former stay-at-home mom, Lefler-Larned decided to get back into the workforce about five years ago.

“I loved being at home with the kids, but I still felt I was losing a part of myself,” she admitted.

With the encouragement of her husband Ken Larned, a track inspector for the BNSF Railway, Lefler-Larned earned her real estate license and hasn’t looked back since.

Still, it hasn’t been easy to juggle work responsibilities with family life.

“I’d be completely lost without my planner,” Lefler-Larned said, pulling out an appointment book filled with Post-It notes. “I’ll highlight Holland’s appointments with a pink highlighter, a blue highlighter for Phoenix and an orange highlighter for family events.”

Phoenix Larned, a West High School junior, can’t help but smile at his mom’s complex scheduling.

“Mom can be like a drill sergeant at times,” he said.

“But I’m a drill sergeant who likes to have fun on occasion,” LeflerLarned said, interjecting.

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September 2015

Vanessa Lefler-Larned and her children, Holland, left, and Phoenix, look over the family’s schedule calendar at their Grandview Park neighborhood home in Sioux City. Lefler-Larned, who works as a Realtor, spends much of her time getting her children ready for various events and appointments.

Holland Larned, a West Middle School seventh grader, said she tries to help out with cooking family meals.

“Mostly, I know how to make fried eggs,” she said. “I’d like to learn how to cook other things.”

Despite her family’s busy schedules, Lefler-Larned does think it’s important to schedule dinners together.

“Even if we’re eating out, we’re doing it together,” she said.

Getting ready for work, LeflerLarned said she and her husband divide responsibilities.

“Ken’s in charge of the grocery shopping while I take care of our garden,” she said. “I think we make a pretty good team.”

That is, whenever Lefler-Larned isn’t on her cellphone.

“Realtors are on call 24/7,” she said.

“We’re all benefiting from a very good real estate market.”

Siouxland Life

However, Lefler-Larned admitted what makes her a driven professional also has a downside.

“It’s hard to get away from it all,” she said. “Whenever we’re off on a trip, my husband has to remind me to get back into ‘vacation mode.’”

As he prepared to depart for crosscountry practice, Phoenix Larned said he’s learned to admire his mom’s work ethic.

“My mom’s a great manager,” Phoenix (who wants to work for the FBI when he grows up) explained. “I really want to know how she does everything that she does.”

Likewise, Holland Larned also has learned a lot from her mom.

“I’d like to be like her,” Holland (who wants to grow up and become a Broadway actress) noted. “But I don’t think I’d want to ever be as busy as mom.”

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September 2015

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DRIVING last

ride

Hawarden hearse can tell some tales

h

Text and photographs by Tim Gallagher

HAWARDEN, Iowa | Ric Porter drove to drive the funeral coach past a spethe silver Cadillac in Hawarden past cial place for a loved one,” he said. “I a group of workers digging a utility remember leading funeral procession line. The workers, who had traveled years ago at Ireton. We went to the elfrom out-of-state to work in the Sioux evator and the funeral coach made a County community, stepped from their circle through the business as the rest place at work and removed their helof the procession waited.” mets, paying their silent respect as PorOn the way to a local cemetery from ter slowly drove past, leading a funeral tiny Doon, Iowa, Porter remembered a procession from his spot behind the young driver passing several cars in the hearse’s steering wheel. procession before she realized she’d “Often times, peodriven herself into a ple will make a sign position directly be“Oh, they might of the cross with hind Porter and the their hand, or their hearse. have flags or flashing take off their hat,” “She passed the said Porter, who, hearse and kept her lights in cities where with his brother, eyes straight forward there’s more traffic. In Randy Porter, operas she passed,” he ates Porter Funeral said. “I think she’d fiHawarden, we lead the Homes in Hawarden nally come to realize and nearby Rock Valwhere she was.” funeral procession and ley, Iowa. “People are While there can people know to wait very respectful.” be rules in big citIt’s a little differies for funeral prorespectfully. Our local ent way to see the cessions, cultural police department is very norms are practiced road, driving slowly through a commuplaces like Hagood about helping direct in nity while carrying warden, where the a member of that 2006 Porter Funeral traffic if we need it.” town to his or her Homes silver CadilRic Porter final resting place. lac isn’t adorned Porter knows the with flags or flashpath quite well. He’s ing lights. the son of a funeral home director, the “Oh, they might have flags or flashlate Alvin Porter, who established the ing lights in cities where there’s more family business in Rock Valley decades traffic,” Porter said. “In Hawarden, we ago. lead the funeral procession and people “There are times when we’re asked know to wait respectfully. Our local

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September 2015

Siouxland Life

Above: This is the inside of the hearse used at Porter Funeral Homes in Hawarden, Iowa. Top: The 2006 Cadillac receives one oil change per year. Ric Porter sits in the back of the Porter Funeral Homes hearse in Hawarden, Iowa.

The family business has, for the most part, used a silver Cadillac as the preferred choice for a funeral coach.

Siouxland Life

September 2015

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Ric Porter sits in the back of the Porter Funeral Homes hearse in Hawarden, Iowa.

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SEPTEMBER 2015

SIOUXLAND LIFE

police department is very good about helping direct traffic if we need it.”

In May 2014, Porter idled the hearse as the family of the late Lawrence Ruhland requested that Lawrence’s son, Mic Ruhland, of Akron, Iowa, carry his father’s body to the cemetery. He did so in a wagon pulled by a tractor that was a family treasure.

“The wagon was perfect for it,” Porter said. “So we had no hearse that day.”

As Porter grew up in Rock Valley, he quickly learned that the family business had more than a hearse. Alvin Porter, you see, also drove the Rock Valley ambulance unit. That was the case in most small towns up until the mid 1970s.

“Dad had a Chrysler station wagon for an ambulance and he drove it fast,” Ric recalled. “He’d cut the back seat out and put a light and a siren on the station wagon.”

Porter remembers his father transporting three burn victims at once from an explosion at a grain elevator in Rock Valley in the 1960s. Two men sat in the front seat while a third lay on the cot in the back.

“One of the men up front couldn’t lean back on the seat because of the burns,” Porter said.

When a body requires moving a greater distance, Porter Funeral Homes uses a van. Doing so allows the driver to make a stop without drawing attention. Porter said it can be difficult to pull up to a stop in a town while driving a hearse.

“I remember coming back once in a hearse and I had a pastor with me,” he said. “We came upon a driver whose car was disabled on the side of the highway. We offered the driver a ride, but they declined. I told them we had room in the back.”

And while the Cadillac rides comfortably, it can take a little getting used to.

“We had an intern who wasn’t quite sure how long the Cadillac was,” Porter said. “She ended up back into something at the cemetery.”

Porter himself has experienced issues, at times. Mostly, they concern Mother Nature and the condition of roads in area cemeteries.

“I’ve been stuck a few times at the cemetery,” he said. “Some of those roads can be pretty snowy or muddy.

I’m always thankful if it happens after the funeral service.”

The family often gets a kick out of it regardless.

Porter laughed and showed a sense of humor shared by many. “I’ve heard things like, ‘Oh, Dad got stuck one more time.’”

Siouxland Life

September 2015

23

DRIVING catering a crowd

Dawn Heaton, owner of Heaton’s Catering, went from working at a hotel restaurant to being a school lunch lady before turning to catering full-time.

THIS CATERER JUST WANTED TO WORK FOR SOMEONE ELSE BUT

GOT HER OWN BUSINESS

d

Text and photographs by Ally Karsyn

DAWN HEATON HAS BEEN working in the food industry for more than 40 years, not always by choice. In fact, she didn’t want to own a business and never set out to be a caterer. She just looked for a job that put food on the table and health insurance on file.

She was a teen mom and married at 16. Her husband joined the military and the little family moved to Minot, North Dakota. The only job she could find was in a restaurant at the Holiday Inn, where a former caterer retreated after his business failed. As a curious youngster, Heaton asked him what happened.

“He said there’s a rule about that:

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SEPTEMBER 2015

never quit your day job. It doesn’t sink in to some kid. I just kept learning so much from him,” she said.

She already had some experience from working at a truck stop in high school. When she got pregnant, they sent her out of sight to cook in the kitchen.

Now, as the owner of Heaton’s Catering, she’s going into a different kitchen almost every weekend, sometimes sending out three vans strategically packed full of food and supplies.

On a Friday in August, she was getting ready for one of the last wedding receptions at Emma’s Event Center before it’s turned into a family fun zone, outfitted with trampolines, laser tag and other activities.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

The bride called earlier in the week wanting to know how long it would take for 300 guests to move through two lines: 56 minutes depending on how many children and elderly need to go through. That wouldn’t do.

The bride had a long video montage and wanted friends and family to be quickly seated. Heaton agreed to double the serving lines – and the work. Doing the math, now, she needed six chafing dishes instead of four, two centerpieces and six melon baskets.

Heaton usually doesn’t do four lines for parties under 400, but she knew the bride. Heaton catered her mother’s wedding 27 years ago.

Her business was built on wordof-mouth and that’s largely how it

Dawn Heaton, owner of Heaton’s Catering, holds up a melon basket that’s ready to be delivered to a wedding reception.

remains. “My website is awful,” she said, adding that she likes to talk to people on the phone and meet up to get a sense of someone’s style. Sometimes clients text her first. She calls them back.

Heaton, 61, still lives in rural Jefferson, South Dakota, sandwiched between her childhood home and a cemetery. Her husband jokes, “She was born down there, now she lives here and I think that’s her next stop.”

In high school, some of her classmates couldn’t wait to leave the “Podunk town,” but she loved her house and her parents and never wanted to leave.

When she did move away, it wasn’t for long. Heaton and her husband returned to Siouxland in three years to help on the farm after her father was killed in a grain elevator explosion in Sioux City. She transferred to the Holiday Inn in Sioux City, where they had an opening for a hostess and a waitress, but soon, she earned a spot in the kitchen working with the chef.

She liked the work well enough, but it required early mornings for

breakfasts and late nights for banquets, taking her away from her children. So she left the hotel to make school lunch.

With summers off, she had time to cater. Though, for a short time, she considered being a teacher but left the school system when a district merger meant job cuts. Her husband had good benefits through the United States Postal Service, where he continues to work as a rural mail carrier. She knew others didn’t have a spouse to fall back on for health insurance.

She quit and got more involved in catering.

“We started out where the church ladies left off,” she said. “They used to do the sandwiches and salads and stuff.

We work now. It used to be a thrill for those women to get out, get away from home and go do that on a Saturday.

Now, all of a sudden the thrill’s gone.”

It takes a lot of planning and preparation to feed hundreds of people at a time. First, there’s a delicate art to packing a cooler.

“You might have to grab an empty mayonnaise jar or something to put in there so it doesn’t tip over. Or you’ve got

blocks behind the rolling cart so they don’t go flying,” she said. “Everything’s got to be in there so tight. You just don’t pile stuff up, and then you move fast.”

Heaton’s Catering has eight employees and she doesn’t let the new ones load the van. When multiple events are going on in one weekend, it can be easy to grab the wrong thing and send it down the road. Everything gets labeled and separated into big Styrofoam coolers.

Then, the rest is all about timing.

The last thing she wants to do is serve cheesy potatoes with a crusted edge or vegetables that have turned to mush.

She has learned a lot about the food industry over the past 40 years. Some of the lessons were more intentional than others. She still remembers her first day as a cafeteria lady. She made chicken.

And a mess.

She looked around at the dirty dishes and asked, “What time does the cleanup crew come in?” The other ladies looked at her and said, “We are the cleanup crew.”

To this day, she keeps one rule above all others: Don’t make a mess.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

SEPTEMBER 2015

25

DRIVING animal

control Animal control officer Megan Lalk sits inside her truck outside of Sioux City Animal Adoption Rescue Center as she prepares to go on a call in Sioux City.

ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER

CRUISES TOWN FOR PET AND WILDLIFE WELFARE

s

Text by Michelle Kuester Photographs by Jim Lee

Animal control officer Megan Lalk patrols an apartment building in Sioux City.

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SEPTEMBER 2015

SIOUXLAND LIFE

SIOUX CITY | ANIMAL control officer Megan Lalk steps into the lobby of Sioux City’s Animal Adoption and Rescue Center and asks fellow officer Kenna Anderson if anything needs to be checked on that afternoon.

“We got a call about someone hoarding illegal snakes at an apartment in Morningside,” Anderson responds.

And with that, Lalk gets in the rescue center’s Chevy truck and heads off. After arriving and knocking on the door, it was apparent the renters weren’t home, so Lalk called the

landlord and left a message explaining the situation.

“Unfortunately, things usually don’t get sorted out quickly,” she says, as she drives away to patrol the neighborhood.

There are two officers patrolling every day and one every night, 365 days per year. The 12-hour shifts are split among six officers, including Lalk.

Summer is the busy season, says Lalk, with about nine out of the 12 hours of her shift spent in the truck driving around to empty live traps, catch stray animals and other miscellaneous jobs.

“As soon as kids get out of school, the busy season starts,” she says. “Kids are out walking their dogs, letting dogs out and they get away. Dog bites go up.”

Despite a large amount of time spent in the truck, Lalk helps out at the shelter caring for the animals, as well.

“You work wherever you’re needed,” she says. “If you’re called on the street, you’ll do that, but you might also work in the shelter.”

Being called out on a job can mean many things, and it’s hard to know what to expect.

“It can be someone with 50 cats or someone with four or five dogs,” she says. “You just never know until you get there.”

Lalk, who has been an animal control officer for eight years, took a week-long training seminar through the National Animal Care and Control Association in order to be certified for her position.

“I like working with people, but I love animals,” she says. “I’d much rather work with the four legged than the two, especially in this business.”

This is because people that get animal control called on them aren’t typically happy about it, often because there is some type of infraction taking place.

“People aren’t typically happy to see you pull up,” Lalk says. “If someone called you out there on someone else, when you leave you will have upset someone depending on if action needed to be taken or not.”

There are dangers to the job, most of which have to do with the animals.

“We’ve had a lot of people get bit,” she says. “When you’re dealing with unfamiliar dogs or cats or taking animals out of traps, it’s always a risk.”

Despite this, Lalk says she enjoys her job because she gets to be there for animals that really need it.

“It feels good knowing you are helping them out.”

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Siouxland Life

September 2015

27

DRIVING senior

meals

VOLUNTEER DELIVERS FOOD TO SENIORS FOUR DAYS A WEEK

s

Text by Dolly A. Butz | Photographs by Justin Wan

SIOUX CITY | FOUR years ago, when he retired from his job as a crime analyst for the Sioux City Police Department, Herb Kuehne decided to become a volunteer.

He donates his time to several organizations and agencies including the Siouxland Interstate Metropolitan Planning Council, Sioux City Public Museum and Sioux City Community School District.

Kuehne says most of his volunteer work involves “office stuff.” But four days a week he jumps in his red Ford pickup truck and drives around the city’s near north side for an hour delivering nutritious food to as many as 18 seniors with the Meals on Wheels program.

Meals on Wheels generally serves

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SEPTEMBER 2015

adults over 60 whose diminished mobility makes it hard for them to shop for food, prepare meals or socialize with others.

“If we didn’t have volunteers things would not get done,” Kuehne says as he waits in a small cramped entryway at Connections Area Agency on Aging on Pierce Street, before getting in his truck and heading west with two large lunch totes filled with taco salad entrees and an armful of Sioux City Journals.

“If you forget the paper, they let you know,” he says with a chuckle.

Kuehne stops at a red brick apartment house and raps on a door. He says he uses a “unique” knock to let the seniors know it’s him.

When no one answers, he opens the

SIOUXLAND LIFE

unlocked door and peers into the apartment before walking in.

“Food’s on the chair,” he yells.

Kuehne once arrived at a home on his delivery route to find a woman who had collapsed in the kitchen. He called 911. If he hadn’t arrived when he did, he says she probably would’ve died there on the floor. Another time he helped a nurse pick up a man who had fallen in his home.

Kuehne heads north, pointing to a house on the corner. He used to deliver meals to a lady there. He doesn’t know what happened to her. When he reaches

Herb Kuehne, volunteer at Meals on Wheels program, gets ready for a delivery in Sioux City, Iowa on Thursday, Aug., 6, 2015.

his next stop, he parks his truck in a back alley and walks to the back of the gray house. Down a musty staircase, Kuehne enters a quaint, dimly lit apartment.

“Anybody here today?” he calls out.

No one’s home.

He walks to the side of the house and hands the plastic tray packed with taco beef, pinto beans and Mexican corn, to a woman.

The meals, which are prepared by Valley Services, a nationwide food firm, at $6.75 a meal, Kuehne says, taste pretty good. The federal Older Americans Act subsidizes the cost of the meals and

WANT TO VOLUNTEER? Connections Area Agency on Aging, of Sioux City, seeks volunteer drivers for the Meals on Wheels program. Deliveries consist of 10 to 20 meals and each route takes one hour or less to complete. Meals are delivered from 10:30 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday. For information, call (712) 279-6900 ext. 2037. diners also contribute toward them.

At 17th and Summit streets, Kuehne parks his truck at the top of a hill and

grabs a meal and a newspaper out of the back bed.

“The hills in Sioux City are interesting,” he says.

In the wintertime, making it to all of the destinations on Kuehne’s route can be tricky. He says he can’t get his truck back up this particular hill when it’s snow- and ice-covered. He prefers to walk. The woman waiting for his delivery is glad he made the trek.

“People are always very nice and very receptive (of Meals on Wheels),” he says.

“It’s a good program. It’s a needy program.”

SIOUXLAND LIFE

SEPTEMBER 2015

29

DRIVING on

a mission

MoM’S ON A MISSION: THRIFT STORE

s

OFFERS HAND UP,

NOT A HANDOUT Text and photgraphs by Earl Horlyk

SIOUX CITY | TOM Lingscheit grabs one end of a bed while Robert Ehlers scoots it into the back of a delivery truck.

They will deliver this bed as well as other types of furniture to people transitioning out of homelessness or a women’s shelter or, even, the prison system.

Lingscheit and Ehlers are both volunteers for MoM’s Thrift & Referral Center,

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SEPTEMBER 2015

a nonprofit organization formerly known as Mission of the Messiah.

An outreach ministry started by the congregations of the Western Iowa Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, the organization also sells secondhand furnishings, household items and clothing at 2803 Correctionville Road.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

“When people see our truck, they’ll flag us down, hoping we’ll take their old furniture,” Lingscheit says. “Sometimes we’re able to help them. Other times, we simply can’t.”

MoMs’ board president Bob Kistler said the organizations work locally with organizations like the Council on Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence (CSADV), Dismas Charities, among others.

MoM’s Thrift & Referral Center volunteers Robert Ehlers and Tom Lingscheit move a couch that will soon be delivered to a person or family referred to as needing assistance. In addition to large furnishings, the organization also provides slightly used clothing and household items.

“Often times, we’ll receive furniture from a person who is entering assisted living,” he explains. “So, one person making a transition is helping another person going through another kind of transition.”

A veteran of nonprofit organizations, Kistler is a believer of giving a person “a hand up, not a handout.”

“The people who request our help or walk through our doors may not look like us or talk like us,” he says. “Still, they are in need and we’re here to help.”

That help may come in the form of a bed (“you’ll need a good night sleep in order to look for a new job”) or clothing (“everyone needs a few pairs of pants or a few shirts”) to get them on their feet again.

Above: Although it still boasts MoM’s Thrift & Referral Center’s former name, Mission of the Messiah trucks are a common sight in Sioux City, according to driver Tom Lingscheit. Top: MoM’s Thrift & Referral Center board president Bob Kistler said his organization works with several social agencies, nonprofit organizations and churches.

DETAILS MoM’s Thrift & Referral Center, 2803 Correctionville Road, is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday - Saturday.

For more information or to volunteer, call 712-274-2803 or visit momsthrift.wix. com/momsthrift.

“People say the economy’s improving,” Kistler says, shaking his head. “It hasn’t improved for those in the lowest rung.”

Which is why his drivers keep busy by picking up donations and delivering them to designated applicants.

On a busy Wednesday morning, Kistler mans phone lines from people wanting assistance while taking care of customers in the thrift store.

Mission of the Messiah started in 2010 to help the poor by selling gently used clothing, household items and furniture at an affordable price. It recently got a new name thanks to a marketing class at Morningside College. Students helped with the re-branding in order to make it clear that the Correctionville Road building is an open-to-the-public thrift store, not a church.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

SEPTEMBER 2015

31

Started as Mission of the Messiah in 2010, MoM’s Thrift & Referral Center recently underwent a name change courtesy of a Morningside College marketing class. “We wanted to make sure everyone knew we were a thrift store, not a church,” board president Bob Kistler explained.

“We realized the thrift store needed to be run like a business,” Kistler says. “Poverty isn’t just an ELCA Lutheran concern, it’s everybody’s concern.”

He admits many of the thrift store’s best customers aren’t necessarily poor.

They simply like a good bargain.

Joan Kelly fits into that latter category.

She and “Teddy Bear,” her Dachshundpoodle mix, shop at MoM’s a few times a week.

“I love the shoes and the clothes here,” Kelly says, perusing the shelves. “Plus I love knick-knacks. I think I’ve redecorated my apartment from things I’ve found here.”

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Siouxland Life

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“We do what we can with what’s available,” he says. “It’s always a challenge. Whether people are making a change in their lives or simply wanting inexpensive things, we want to be there for the community.”

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Siouxland Life

September 2015

33

DRIVING demolition

fun

Clockwise from left: Mike Van Westen, of Sibley, Iowa, always wears a fire suit, fire gloves and a helmet (a requirement) when taking part in a demolition derby. He heads into action here at the Woodbury County Fair; Van Westen is shown prior to the demolition derby that helped close a successful 2015 Woodbury County Fair; Van Westen prefers to use a Lincoln Town Car or a Ford Crown Victoria for his demolition derby runs. The reason? Van Westen can fortify the doors with metal plates and can find plenty of spare parts as those models are popular. This door has the name of “Shay” on it, short for Shaylee Van Westen, Mike’s daughter, who likes to hang out at his shop; Van Westen trades paint and metal and smoke with other drivers in the demolition derby at the Woodbury County Fair in August.

DRIVER BREATHES LIFE INTO OLD CARS BEFORE

s

Text and photographs by Tim Gallagher

SIBLEY, IOWA | MIKE Van Westen drove from home to his job at a dairy farm each day this summer. He kept one eye on the road and one eye scanning farmsteads and groves for cars that, apparently, had been idled for some time.

“I was driving by a place near Sibley and finally just pulled in and asked if I could talk to a guy about a car,” Van Westen says.

The fellow at the farmstead asked, “What car?”

“I said, ‘That car that’s sitting out in the grove,’” Van Westen replied.

The two examined the old car. Van Westen offered a price that was a bit

34

SEPTEMBER 2015

north of what the owner would get from a salvage yard.

“I try to give salvage price plus a little bit,” he says. “That saves the owner the cost of having the car hauled away.”

The two men agreed on a price. Both were satisfied as the farmer got rid of an old clunker. Van Westen got the chance to breathe new life into the old car. It’s in his garage now, getting parts and metal plates, destined for new life (and maybe a short life) as the No. 14 car for Mike Van Westen, demolition derby driver.

Van Westen, 44, toils as a dairy farm mechanic by day. By weekend, he’s a demo derby driver, focusing on ramming, twisting, turning and colliding his way to titles and high finishes in

SIOUXLAND LIFE

derbies that play out on dirt tracks from places like the Osceola County Fair, the Nobles County Fair, the Pipestone County Fair and the Woodbury County Fair.

“I raced go-carts years ago, but then it got too costly,” Van Westen says. “I got into demolition derby and have really enjoyed it.”

Van Westen prefers to use a Lincoln Town Car or a Ford Crown Victoria for his derby entries. Those cars are common, which helps when he’s in search of something like the front suspension.

Those cars are also heavy and solid and can take a punch, so to speak.

“They’re heavy cars that can hold up to the older iron that’s out there,” he says.

SMASHING THEM Van Westen often spends up to $2,000 on this hobby, much of it in materials to make his car safer. He put metal plates inside the doors to help fortify the area. He’s invested in a fireretardant suit and gloves he dons before each race. The last thing to go on: His helmet, a must in this line of play.

Van Westen praises demolition derby officials who are serious about examining each car before the race. Fuel tanks are mounted in the back seat and must be bolted down. The battery must be bolted in place as well, another safeguard for drivers.

“I remember when you could buy a car on a Saturday morning, hammer out the windows and put chains or

Online See siouxcityjournal.com for a video cables on the door and you’d have a demolition derby car in four hours,” Van Westen says. “It’s not that easy these days and that’s a good thing. Safety is a huge concern.”

It takes time to wrench on a car, propping it up to pass the eye-test from seven to eight track officials who climb all over a vehicle before allowing it into a demo derby.

Those extra levels of security have kept Van Westen coming back. He never

has been sidelined by injury. The worst he’s suffered? A sore leg from a collision on the driver’s side door.

Van Westen has won the demo derby at the Osceola County fair twice.

He’s finished second and third a number of times.

The 26-year derby veteran has made the hobby a family affair. Wife Jodi Van Westen often takes daughter Shaylee Van Westen, 15, and son, Phillip Van Westen, 8, on the road ahead of Mike when they head to a county fair.

“I’ll load up the car and head to a fair with a friend, while Jodi and the kids go ahead and enjoy a day at the fair,” he says. “We’ve always got vehicles full. Everyone enjoys it.”

SIOUXLAND LIFE

SEPTEMBER 2015

35

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September 2015

Siouxland Life

DRIVING ambulance

insight

Brandon Pollema navigates an ambulance down Gordon Drive and he and Jared Drotzman go on a patient transfer call during their shift. The two are both paramedics with Sioux City’s Siouxland Paramedics Inc.

SIRENS, LIGHTS HERALD A

FLURRY OF ACTIVITY

s

Text by Dolly A. Butz | Photographs by Tim Hynds

SIOUX CITY | WITH lights flashing and sirens blaring, Brandon Pollema flies down South Fairmount Street from Siouxland Paramedics headquarters on Seventh Street, en route to Sunrise Retirement Community to transfer a woman suspected of having a stroke to UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s.

Most cars pull over to the right, letting Medic 5 pass on the left, but the driver of a red Lexus decides to race the ambulance, which is traveling at 50 miles an hour, as it approaches the intersection of Gordon Drive and South Fairmount Street just after 11 a.m. on a Tuesday.

“He’s allowed to go 15 miles over the posted speed limit if conditions are OK,” Jared Drotzman, a paramedic of six years, says of his partner as he sits on a bench seat in the back. The ambulance jostles

back and forth. Potholes in the road, Drotzman says, magnify the bumpiness.

Road construction, traffic and winter weather can make navigating Sioux City streets difficult for paramedics. This time of year, Drotzman says they avoid taking

Interstate 29 when they can. He says they try to arrive at their desired location within 8 minutes, but response time to the mall and the airport, he says, will be delayed.

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Brandon Pollema and Jared Drotzman, both paramedics with Siouxland Paramedics Inc., wheel a patient into UnityPoint HealthSt. Luke’s.

Siouxland Paramedics Inc. paramedics Brandon Pollema. left, and Jared Drotzman.

down to the truck stop; we’re not going to be able to take the interstate with road work,” he says.

Once at Sunrise, Pollema and Drotzman pull a gurney from the back and slam the steel doors. Rock music radiates from the stereo.

A few minutes later, they return with their patient.

“I’m going to put this on your arm and check your blood pressure. Relax your arm. You’re gonna feel a squeeze,” Drotzman says to the woman.

Wearing bright purple gloves, Pollema warns her he’s going to poke her arm to start an IV. “Sorry ma’am,” he says as he threads the catheter.

Imagine having to start an IV when the ambulance is flying down the highway at 80 miles per hour.

In a true emergency, Drotzman and Pollema have to be moving as soon as the patient is placed in the truck.

Drotzman explains there’s what’s known as the “golden hour” in emergency medicine. It’s the time period lasting an hour or less following a traumatic injury during which there is the highest likelihood that prompt medical attention will 38

SEPTEMBER 2015

prevent death.

Drotzman asks the woman if she is cold. He switches off the air conditioning in the back. He asks her if she’d like to see what’s going on outside the back window, then props the gurney up. He reports his patient’s condition over a two-way radio to medical staff at St. Luke’s.

After handing off the patient, Drotzman gets behind the wheel of the ambulance. Pollema, who has been a paramedic for a decade, hops in the back.

“I wanted to do it because I wanted to help people that needed help,” Pollema says as he holds a Styrofoam cup of coffee.

Securing a trauma patient’s airway, he says, is one of the more intense aspects of the job. Transporting sick children is difficult too. Pollema says you can’t be scared to talk to people in this line of work.

He reaches up into an overhead compartment and pulls out a Beanie Baby black bear. He comments about Medic 5’s stuffed animal stash being low.

“We always make sure we have something in here because there’s times we transport kids without their parents,”

SIOUXLAND LIFE

he says. “Sometimes that can be hard and intense when you have a really sick kiddo. You want them to trust you. We kinda try to make them feel a little bit more comfortable.”

Some patient transports can be long.

Siouxland Paramedics takes patients to Rochester, Minnesota, Omaha, Nebraska, and Iowa City and Des Moines, Iowa.

“Weather is an issue when you have a critical patient,” he says. “That’s why we love summer and sun shinning.”

Pollema recalls driving a patient to Iowa City during a snowstorm. The trip, which usually takes 10 or 11 hours to complete, took 16 hours.

Hearing the words, “Thank you,” after helping save a patient’s life, Pollema says, are rare. He estimates maybe one out of every 10 patients he encounters says, “Thank you.”

Drotzman no more than pulls into the driveway at Siouxland Paramedics headquarters when another call comes over the radio about a sick party at a fast food restaurant on Singing Hills Boulevard.

Pollema and Drotzman are speeding down the road again, lights flashing and sirens blaring.

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Siouxland Life

September 2015

39

DRIVING a

fragrant delivery

Ray Freese of Sioux City, who works at A Step in Thyme Florals, delivers flowers to Meyer Brothers Funeral Homes in Sioux City.

Freese has been delivering flowers for eight years.

THE FAST AND THE FLORAL:

s

MAN DELIVERS HAPPINESS ONE VASE AT A TIME Text by Michelle Kuester | Photographs by Justin Wan

SIOUX CITY | RAY Freese’s wife Julie might have struck gold when it came to picking a husband. After all, how many people get to say they are married to a flower delivery driver?

“I’ve delivered flowers to her many times,” he said. “I’ve done it so many times that it doesn’t really surprise her anymore.”

Freese, 70, started the job with A Step in Thyme eight years ago after retiring as a credit card collector for a bank.

“I just wanted something to do after retirement,” he said.

Freese said he arrives at 8:30 a.m. and delivers flowers all over the city and the surrounding

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SEPTEMBER 2015

areas until typically noon or 1 p.m.

“Usually I’m done early afternoons,” he said, “but sometimes it will go longer.

It just depends on the day.”

He enjoys the job because he gets to see people who are pleasantly surprised with a flower delivery all day long.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

“Most of the people, they get flowers, they’re happy,” he said. “Probably 95 percent of my deliveries are to ladies and they’re always excited when their husband or boyfriend or whoever sends them flowers.”

Freese also regularly delivers to funeral homes.

Being a flower deliverer isn’t all dealing with excited wives and girlfriends or dropping off flowers at funeral homes, Freese added. He considers dealing with other drivers on the road the worst part of the job.

“Probably the worst thing is the traffic or other drivers,” he said. “If you aren’t paying

attention, you’ll get hit. Thank God I never have been. There have been close calls though. I think they should ban cell phones on the road. People aren’t watching what’s going on in front of them.”

Despite this, he wants to continue delivering flowers for as long as possible.

“As long as my health is good and I can drive, I’ll be doing this job,” he said.

Freese drives about 100 miles per day and fills the gas tank at least once and sometimes up to three times per week.

“It really depends on where I’m going,” he said. “Sometimes all my deliveries are within 10 blocks of the store so it doesn’t take much gas, but then sometimes I’m doing deliveries in Jefferson (South Dakota) or Sergeant Bluff (Iowa) and that will take more gas.”

Fortunately, Freese enjoys driving, which is obviously important considering that is the main focus of his job.

“Driving doesn’t bother me,” he said.

“It’s just when you run into someone on the road who isn’t paying attention.

People need to realize they are driving potentially dangerous machines.”

It helps, though, when the car you drive is likely the best smelling car in town since it’s full of fresh cut flowers.

“Well, maybe,” he said with a laugh. “I guess you could say that.”

Ray Freese of Sioux City, who works at A Step in Thyme Florals, delivers flowers to Meyer Brothers Funeral Homes.

CHECKLIST FOR KEEPIN YOUR HOME HEALTHY A home is often the biggest investment you will make in your lifetime. It is also the place where families will raise children and you will spend many hours making lifelong memories. So it’s important to maintain your home in good condition and make sure it offers a clean, comfortable and safe environment for many years to come.

This checklist contains tasks you should complete at least on an annual basis to keep your home operating efficiently and to protect your investment.

• Check interior paint and touch up or repaint as needed.

• Inspect the attic insulation. Make sure the entire ceiling area is covered. Check that the insulation has not blocked vents in the eaves to prevent buildup of condensation and to allow proper air circulation. Insulation should also not be touching the underside of the roof sheathing.

Anytime during the year:

• Periodically check storage areas, closets, and the basement to make sure no oily rags, gas cans, painting supplies or flammable cleaning materials have been stored and forgotten. These items could be a fire hazard and should be discarded.

• Check all connections to your electrical system for possible hazards. Check cords and plugs of all electrical appliances for fraying or signs of wear.

Repair or replace as necessary. Do not overload extension cords.

• Test your smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detector and radon detector for proper operation.

Clean the units with a vacuum or cotton swab and replace batteries and light bulbs if needed.

• Have your heating and air conditioning system(s) inspected and cleaned. If your system(s) has a filter, replace it every three months to keep your unit working efficiently.

• Inspect all doors and windows for proper operation and a tight fit. Clean the window tracks, clean and adjust the door thresholds and check that the weatherstripping hasn’t cracked or torn.

Preventing unwanted outside air from leaking into your home will reduce your energy bills.

• Oil motors of appliances as directed in instruction manuals.

• Check that the alarm and circuits of your security system are in working order, inspect the sensors one by one, and check primary and backup batteries monthly.

• Inspect the roof for snow damage.

• Check for evidence of termites such as sagging floors and ceilings or dry, brown tunnels in the ground near the home’s foundation.

• Seed and feed the lawn and plant annuals, cut back perennials that need pre-growth pruning.

In the autumn: • Mulch perennials that need protection from winter weather and prune those that should be cut back in the fall.

• Rake and compost leaves.

• Remove hose connections and store hoses to avoid freezing.

There are many more tasks that you can complete throughout the year to keep your home in good working order. For more home building and home care tips, go to nahb.org/forconsumers.

• Inspect your stairs, steps and ladders for damage or broken pieces that could cause someone to fall.

Make sure handrails and railings are sturdy and securely attached.

In the spring: • Check the condition of glazing compound, caulking and exterior paint. Replace or paint as needed.

• Exchange glass and screens in storm doors and/or windows (also in autumn).

Rich Callahan President Heritage Homes of Siouxland

SIOUXLAND LIFE

712-255-3852

www.siouxlandhba.com SEPTEMBER 2015

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Health when

to stop driving

Amy Callaghan, a primary care physician and medical director of Siouxland PACE, talks with registered nurse, Victoria Hernandez, at the clinic at 313 Cook St.

Health problems affect driving as we age

s

Text and photographs by Dolly A. Butz

SIOUX CITY | As their age increases, so does the likelihood elderly drivers will be involved in a car crash.

Still, Amy Callaghan, a primary care physician and medical director of Siouxland PACE, said it’s difficult to get mom, dad, grandma or grandpa to hand over the car keys even though hearing or vision loss, dementia or even arthritis is affecting their driving ability.

“It’s something they’ve been doing for years and years. I don’t think they recognize that there’s 42

September 2015

any difference in their driving ability,” she said. “There is an increase of accidents

Siouxland Life

over the age of 70.”

Patients experiencing the following problems, Callaghan said, should speak with their family physician about having a geriatric assessment, a combination of physical and psychosocial tests that assess whether an individual can drive safely.

“You’re not a very popular person when you make a recommendation that they need a driving test,” said

Callaghan, who sees frail patients 55 years of age and older in the UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s program at 313 Cook St. “It’s so emotionally based.”

She recommends that family members discuss their concerns with their loved ones and accompany them to the geriatric assessment.

If deemed no longer fit to get behind the wheel, Callaghan said the elderly can still maintain their independence by utilizing the Siouxland Regional Transit System, walking, biking or riding with a friend.

She said there are steps individuals can also take to improve their driving abilities in an attempt to keep their driver’s licenses.

PROBLEM: Cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration become more common as people get older. These eye diseases and changes in peripheral vision, the part of vision that occurs outside the very center of gaze, can increase the risk of crashes.

SOLUTION: Vision deficits, Callaghan said, may cause drivers to need to check their blind spots more often. She said they should allow themselves additional time to get their destination and should consider requesting an earlier license renewal.

PROBLEM: Hearing loss can make it harder to notice a honking horn, a train whistle or emergency sirens.

SOLUTION: Callaghan said purchasing hearing aids or a hearing amplifier would be a good idea, as well as reducing distractions – cell phones, adjusting audio or climate controls, GPS – in your vehicle when you drive.

PROBLEM: Physical changes such as arthritis may make it difficult for older people to turn the steering wheel, step on the brake or look over their shoulder to check a blind spot.

SOLUTION: Physical or occupational therapy could help.

PROBLEM: Blood pressure, pain and diabetes medications can all impair reaction times, making it difficult for the elderly to drive well. Antidepressants, Callaghan said, affect clarity of thinking.

SOLUTION: Talk to your family physician and have them review your medications. Callaghan also recommends driving in familiar areas to reduce the risk of getting lost, avoiding driving during busy times of the day and on high traffic streets or interstates. Drive during the day on back roads.

Amy Callaghan, a primary care physician and medical director of Siouxland PACE, says most seniors don’t realize their driving ability has declined.

Siouxland Life

September 2015

43

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August 2015

SIOUXLAND LIFE

advice Medical

Answers

‘Doc, i’ve got a question …’ answers to your medical questions

I heard that pain relievers like Advil have some concerns.

Should I quit taking them even if I’ve had no problems?

Indeed, pain relievers such as Advil (ibuprofen), fall into the category of medications known as NSAIDs or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and can have some risks depending on one’s medical history.

Because of their main mechanism of action, NSAIDs can potentially cause problems with the gastrointestinal system including indigestion, peptic ulcers, and bleeding; the kidneys including the development of sudden-onset kidney problems; the heart including an increased risk of heart disease and heart attacks; and other potential problems within other body systems. Adverse effects from taking NSAIDs seem to be of more concern as we age because we often have more underlying gastrointestinal, kidney, and heart problems as we age. Also, the long-term use of NSAIDs seems to be associated with more adverse effects than when used only in the short-term. Other examples of NSAIDs include aspirin, Aleve (naproxen), Motrin (ibuprofen), Mobic (meloxicam), and Celebrex (celecoxib).

I would suggest that if you’re young and otherwise healthy, are only taking NSAIDs short-term (continuous use for no more than 10-14 days), and have no noticeable side effects, there is no need to stop taking them for the short-term management of pain or fever. However, if you are taking NSAIDs continuously for more than 10-14 days, no matter what your age, it would be a good idea to have a discussion with your doctor about whether or not longterm use of NSAIDs would be safe considering your overall health and risk for complications related to NSAID use.

Is it better for your feet to be barefoot during the summer?

Depending on individual circumstances, going barefoot during the summer

may offer differing benefits and risks.

I would say in general, in a young, healthy person, there aren’t any particular overbearing benefits or risks to going barefoot. However, good foot care is important as well, and going barefoot can introduce risks for the possibility of foot injury and damage that could lead to sprains, muscle strains, fractures, and infection. In particular, individuals with diabetes are at increased risk of foot damage and infection due to the disease course causing problems with sensation and identification of painful stimuli in the feet. On the other hand, in an

meet the doc Jesse Nieuwenhuis is a first-year family medicine resident physician at the Siouxland Medical Education Foundation in Sioux City, Iowa. He grew up on a farm near Primghar, Iowa, and chose to attend the University of Iowa and Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, for his undergraduate college education, graduating from Northwestern with a degree in biology and a minor in chemistry in 2009. otherwise healthy person, going barefoot once in a while may help keep the foot dry, which may decrease the incidence of fungal infections of the foot.

In general, I think that it is not necessarily better to go barefoot during the summer.

What kids of health questions do you have?

Submit your questions and they may be used in this monthly feature. Write to Siouxland Life at 515 Pavonia St., Sioux City, Iowa 51102.

The Home Builders Association of Greater Siouxland consists of quality builders, subcontractors, and suppliers. If you are thinking about building a new home or have a remodeling project, please contact the association for a list of reputable contractors.

Visit us online at www.siouxlandhba.com for a complete list of members or e-mail us at hbasooland@siouxlan.net 3900 Stadium Dr., Sioux City, IA

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September 2015

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46

August 2015

SIOUXLAND LIFE

parting shot By

i

Bruce Miller

My artistic past

I miss the days when college students took classes that had absolutely nothing to do with their majors.

I enrolled in a dance class my junior year and realized I had no business taking it. I wasn’t only uncoordinated, I also had no memory for movement.

A choreographed number to “Evergreen” (the song Barbra Streisand wrote for “A Star is Born”) looked like a devastating tornado had whipped through the Midwest. My arms and legs were everywhere and, let’s face it, I wasn’t cut out for a career on Broadway.

I was sure I was going to get an “F” in the class and, then, I happened to come upon the teacher and another student in a restroom and, let’s just say they were, um, doing more than just stepping out. When she realized who had caught them, she called me into her office and informed me I was getting an “A” in the class. She didn’t ask for silence, but I knew better. Two left feet don’t deserve an “A” no matter who’s doing the grading.

I took a class in jazz music, too, and lived in fear of “drop the needle” tests. The professor would pull out a dusty album, play a song and ask the students to identify the performer, the song, the genre and the year it was produced. Frankly, a lot of those musicians sounded alike, particularly during the 1930s.

Oh, sure, you could spot Miles Davis a mile away, but get into some of those obscure horn players noodling away and you might as well be at the Blue Note on “lights out” night.

The “drop the needle” tests came with such frequency it was easier to memorize the record labels than it was to remember who was “freestyling” on something called “Autumn 1937.”

An art history class was much easier because most of those people were into “signature” pieces. If you couldn’t tell a Mondrian from a Van Gogh, you just weren’t trying.

When, in later life, I actually got to see some of the stuff we saw projected on a cinderblock wall, I had the sudden urge to share my knowledge with folks next to me at the museum. It passed, but there was a part of me that just wanted to digress on brushstrokes.

The most bizarre class, though, was voice.

After hearing raves from friends about a teacher who had trained major opera singers (and a list of Broadway stars a mile long), I thought I needed to take private lessons. Granted, I just wanted to hear war stories, but it was still another step on my road to self-improvement.

Because he was quite in demand, I had to get two

professors and two students to vouch for me before he’d say yes. He also didn’t teach at the college. He had a studio over a jewelry store in Fargo, North Dakota. That meant bus time but, hey, I could go shopping after I was done, so it was a win-win, no matter how I looked at it.

Up a steep and very narrow stairway (as they sing in “A Chorus Line”), I reached the place where hundreds of careers had begun. Decorated with red flocked wallpaper, it looked vaguely like a bordello but I knew it wasn’t.

There, in the “music room,” were more than 100 paintings of Jesus. No matter where you looked, Jesus was staring at you.

Even worse, the maestro (as he preferred to be called) was not one to suffer fools. He asked plenty of questions about my past and my goals and said he could dismiss me from lessons any time he liked. If I wasn’t willing to put in the time, he wasn’t either.

“Do you have something to sing?” he asked. I didn’t have the heart to tell him no, so I offered to try “Evergreen” (the only thing I didn’t know about that song were the steps) and he shook his head. “No, we won’t be doing any of that trash,” he said and quickly led me to the grand piano where we worked on scales. For an hour.

Then, for a week.

Then, for a month.

I did quite well, but I wanted to be able to sing something – even if it was “Evergreen.” “Are we ever going to sing a song?” I asked. “No,” he responded. “That’s not what this class is about.

It never has been. It never will be.”

I turned to Jesus. Even He wasn’t ready to comfort.

As he pushed my voice even higher and lower than I thought possible, the stately teacher smiled.

“We’re getting somewhere,” he said. “Let’s try it again. But first, drink this.”

I took a swig out of a small glass and realized it wasn’t some throat soother. It was liquor.

One hundred-proof liquor.

And, yes, my throat opened up and I was able to hit the notes.

Over the course of a year, I got fairly good, had more drinks than I care to count and never sang one song.

“You have potential,” he told me. “You could be a fine opera singer.” Jesus and I, though, knew better.

The only time I’d get in an opera was if I caught the conductor in the restroom with the leading lady.

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September 2015

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September 2015

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