Magnolia

Ken’s Story
Also in 1962 Janice went to work full time at Magnolia Metal Company as a bookkeeper.

This was the first manufacturer in the state to use the new Nebraska Industrial Development Act (IDA) bonds. Auburn worked hard to land Magnolia. The Chamber of Commerce convinced the governor, Frank Morrison, to board a bus in Auburn with a delegation to meet Pierce Koslosky, president of Magnolia, at the airport in Omaha. They thought the governor’s presence would impress Pierce and help convince him to move from New Jersey to Auburn.

It worked, apparently, but that is not why the event sticks in my mind. The plane was about an hour late. So while we were standing around the airport waiting, the governor came up to me at said, “Ken, I know that World Herald reporter over there but I just can’t say his name.” Naturally, my head grew a hat size larger when the governor called me by name. But the pride was short lived. I happened to know the reporter. I identified him and I heard the governor call him by name, just as he had me. I followed the governor for the next hour and he repeated the process, learning one more name each time. When the plane arrived, he had called nearly everyone in the crowd by their first name. Politicians do have their ways.

Sam’s Version
The net effect of Mom going to work full time is that Kay and I had a long succession of rather colorful baby sitters. The Hedley’s, for example, were into yard art long before it was fashionable and when most of the neighbors thought of it as just junk. Mr. Hedley was the caretaker of a number of rural cemeteries. Now that was a lovely day outing for us, to go play in the cemetery while he mowed around the tombstones.