Goodby Charlie

I first met Charlie Long in late 1971.  He was working at Clarinda Elevator in Clarinda, IA and we had bought some feeder pigs and were getting feed from Clarinda Elevator.

On January 1st of 1972 I went to work for Clarinda Elevator, as an outside salesman and assistant to the Manager.  Charlie was driving the auger feed delivery truck.  He came in off a delivery run one morning and said  "I know where you live--I just ran over your mailbox"  I thought he was joking, but was not sure until I got home after work that night.  He and I were both at the elevator until I left in October of 1974 to go to Coin, IA to manage the newly acquired Coin Grain Corp. that was bought from the Whitmore Family.

I don't recall exactly when Charlie came to me and asked if he could come to work for me, and leave Thaine at Clarinda Elevator, but probably in 1975 or so.  We grew in number of employees, I think as high as 9 one time.  Charlie Long, his brother Rodney Long, Bob Miller, Mark Beery, Duane Graft, Rusty Orme, Larry Guthrie, Phyllis, and myself.  We often hired extra people at harvest time.

We sold off our extra feed store in Clarinda and the fertilizer portion of our business in 1989 and cut back on employees.  As business slowed before we finally sold out in 1994 we gradually reduced employees; Charlie was with us until we closed the doors in September of 1994.  Charlie went to work for Pella Window factory for some time and when health problems arose he s pent years salvaging iron and spending a lot of time with his family.

We kept in touch over the years, though with our going to south Texas for the winters and traveling with the RV most summers we didn't often see each other.

Following some health problems, Charlie passed away last Sunday at the Clarinda Regional Hospital located across the street from our Clarinda home.  Charlie was a good man; he spent lot of time with his kids and grand kids.

Good-by Charlie

Employee Duane Graft died several years ago.  Though we owned the elevator outright by the late 1980's, there were five owners when we started the elevator in Coin:  Kenny Ripley, Bob Olenious, Thaine Cabbage, J. C. Mecom, and myself.  All those other owners have passed on; I am the lone servivor of the owners and the old employees are passing on.  Feeling old.

Later, Lynn