Globe-Post, 25 Feb 1957
Olla Podrida-No. 1007
“I have made this letter rather long only because I have not had time to make it shorter." ~Blaise Pascal
Several times in earlier writings I have mentioned that calls on the part of old friends at my place of business are always welcome. It could well be that at times I am unable to devote as much attention to my callers as I would like, but nevertheless the calls are deeply appreciated and I suffer no embarrassment because of these breaks in my daily routine.
-o.p.-
With that as sort of stepping stone to even greater wisdom, I acknowledge a visit on the part of Nick Thoma, former LeMars man but now living at 1212-21st St., Sioux City. Here with Mrs. Thoma, the couple managed to escape some of the Midwest winter by visiting in the home of daughter Connie and husband, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Tarrants in Anaheim.
-o.p.-
Nick Thoma was one of eight children born to the Anthony Thoma family in LeMars. The father, Anthony Thoma, a native of Luxembourg, was brought to Iowa as a child when his parents settled in Jackson county. As a young man, Mr. Thoma arrived in LeMars in 1880 and where he established himself in the grocery business and laters served as postmaster.
-o.p.-
First of the several Thoma grocery locations was one of the woodern store rooms across an alleyway east of the Dubuque House. At this time I am trying to recall. I was a student of about six years of age attending St. Joseph's school. With each pair of school shoes, a kindred line of those days, Mr. Thoma was giving away a school companion, a telescope tubular wooden box containing a couple of pencils, a small ruler and perhaps other trifles. I remember pestering my father to no end trying to convince him I needed a new pair of school shoes.
-o.p.-
As a boy, Nick Thoma served as an apprentice in the drug business in LeMars. In those days the course included a lot of mopping and floor sweeping, mortar and pestle washing, and not forgetting the tons of ice to be processed for use in the soda fountain. Along with the several others who took the same course, Nick moved on to greater things in Sioux City where he continues a success.
-o.p.-
And among recent callers, I am indebted to Carl Schneider and Reuben Fissel for the visit paid me the past week. Carl only recently returned from a three-month tour of the Orient. Rutz Fissel, to identify him by his perhaps better remembered nickname, is now a permanent resident of the Big Town. I took advantage of the opportunity to again thank Carl for the continued use of his two-volume History of Plymouth County. I use it so much in this written work of mine. I wonder how I could carry on without it.
