One of the things that I enjoy doing from time to time is driving around our city and reflecting on some of the memories that I have of my earlier years. It is fun to look around and remember what the town had in years past as far as businesses and places that I frequented as a kid growing up in Freeborn County and then see what it is like today.

A couple of weeks ago, Ed Shannon had a nice article about the many things that were manufactured right here in Albert Lea. My grandfather, Albert Herfindahl, worked for the American Gas Co. and Ed mentioned that business in his article. The pictures that appeared in the paper looked almost identical to the Coleman products of the 1960s and ’70s. I had just gotten into camping in the early ’70s and you couldn’t be a real camper without the famous Coleman lantern. I also had a green metal cooler that was made by Coleman and bore a strong resemblance to the Kampcold cooler.

My folks had a Kampcold cooler that I believe got thrown out after living in my cellar for a few years. It’s funny how what a person sees as junk at the time may be a collectible later on. If you ask my wife she’d probably say that I haven’t thrown out anything in the last 41 years.

When I was in Viet nam, we had our generator go down so we broke out an auxiliary lantern. When I pulled it out of the box to my surprise it was made by The American Gas Co. in Albert Lea. I was pretty excited about this because it kind of gave me a connection with home in a place that I felt was about as far away from there as you could possibly get at the time.

There were a lot of pretty neat businesses around when I was growing up, and almost every neighborhood had its own little family-owned grocery store. I can remember riding my bike into town from home and going to a little store on the corner of Minnesota and Johnson streets; I’m not sure what it was named but we called it Russell’s Store, maybe because that was the grocer’s name or it was actually named that. That store had, beyond a doubt, the best selection of candy and ice cream treats in town. I also liked to go to the Albert Lea Creamery and buy a sundae — my favorite was chocolate marshmallow, which was chocolate ice cream with creamy marshmallow topping.

In those days I never got an allowance so I would use my paper route and lawn-mowing money on anything that was considered frivolous. I could usually get my mom to give me a little change when it came to buying fishing tackle, like hooks and sinkers, but if I wanted a lure I was pretty much on my own.

I can remember going into Simonson’s sporting goods store where you could buy fishing tackle, live bait and even get the old Johnson Outboard motor repaired. The store was located on Clark Street right around the corner from Interstate Power. I would love to go into that store just to look around even though I usually didn’t have enough money to buy anything. I do believe that I bought my first Daredeville spoon there, and I still have a jointed lure that I think was made by Mirro-Lure that I had purchased there.

I was excited about that lure, and I just knew that it was going to catch fish. The only thing that lure has actually ever caught is the kid that bought it. I still have it hanging up in my basement with a few of my other old lures and my most prized possession — the old Shakespeare Marhoff reel with a fiberglass rod. When I was about 10 years old, my uncle, Ben, had talked to my dad and told him that I should have a good rod and reel. My dad agreed that he would pay for it and Uncle Ben purchased it. I can still remember the day that they gave it to me and how happy I was. I don’t think that I fully realized at the time the sacrifice my dad had to make in order to buy because we didn’t really have a lot of money to spend on extras. Once I had that reel, I spent hours in the backyard casting at a tire swing in order to get accurate and avoid getting the dreaded backlash.

Thinking back to that sporting goods store and outboard motors brings back memories of the old five-horse Johnson that my uncle Ben used to have. The smell of the gas fumes that old motor emitted was what fishing was supposed to smell like. I still can hear that old motor putt-putt-putting along as we cut through an early morning fog on a northern lake.

In my youth there were only two ways that I would ever get to go up north fishing. One way was to read about it and then lean back, close my eyes and picture in my mind the fishing adventure that I had just read about. The other was when Uncle Ben and Aunt Marcie would invite me along on a fishing vacation to northern Minnesota.

In those days a trip north or even to Minneapolis was a pretty major undertaking.

On those fishing trips we would head north on the highway past Lake Mille Lacs and along the way would stop at Hickory Lake where there was a little wayside rest and some picnic tables. Aunt Marcie would pack a picnic lunch which consisted of potato salad, cold meat sandwiches and, of course, everyone’s picnic favorite, Van Camp’s Pork n’ Beans. For some reason I don’t think I have ever tasted a picnic lunch as good as that one. Maybe it was actually the food, but I really think it was all about the time and the place.

Yes, memories are precious, but in this day of rapidly changing times they are a great way to slow things down and forget about your everyday problems. When I was in the service there was an observation that some of us made: Eventually you only remember the good parts and the bad parts fade into the background.

Until next time do a little fishing, take a little time to relax and get out and make a few memories in our great Minnesota outdoors.

Please remember to keep our troops in your thoughts and prayers during the coming year.

Dick Herfindahl’s column appears each Sunday in the Tribune.