Community Calendar
Other Community info can be found at these websites:
Sept. 22 10am-3pm at Poor Farm: Fall Harvest Festival
Sept. 25, Tuesday at Center Inn, 4:30-7:30: READLYN CHRONICAL FUNDRAISER - Spaghettie and Pizza!
Sept. 27th: Happy Birthday Esther Wittenburg!!!
Thursday, Oct. 25th, 4:30-8:30pm at the Center Inn: GRUMPTOBERFEST!
Please contact the Bank if you'd like your event listed:
319-279-3321.
THE LEGEND OF THE OLD GRUMP
Grump Days is a wonderful combination of tradition and innovation, with quirky events in between; but what are the origins of Grump Days? This is a question shrouded in mystery. Though 2011 is just the 22nd year of The Grump, the grump story goes back much further than 1990. There's an old saying in Readlyn Town - and indeed its part of the Readlyn Chronicle Journalist Credo: "I don't know what the truth may be, I tell the tale as told to me." That said, there is a tale, sometimes told in hushed tones in the dim nooks of the Center Inn. It is a story that goes back to the younger days of our nation and to the birth of Readlyn Town, circa 1904.
An old-timer - a "rider of the rails" they called his kind - was wandering his Country. Some say he was a soldier of the Civil War, originally from Ohio perhaps, who was on Sherman's March to the Sea (1864). Others say he was but a simple vagabond from who-knows-where. Anyway, the story goes The Old Grump was but a young man then when he jumped his first train. "He road them rails for 40 years," goes one telling. From California to the New York Island, from the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters, our weary traveler saw nary every inch of America.
Just about the time the railroad came to Readlyn this mysterious soul arrived town; by now the young man had grown old and grumpy. He walked the town with his hickory cane, his tired spirit impervious to the happy greetings and smiles of the 857 Friendly People who never did begrudge him his grumpiness. "Too bad for the reason," they'd say, "but he's our neighbor now," and so they were all the friendlier to him. Nobody knew his name, nor did he tell it, so they just called him The Old Grump.
"Good morning, Old Grump!" they'd say happily and sincerely. "How's The Old Grump this afternoon?"
Also what the people didn't know is why The Old Grump got off the train that day and decided to stay. The simple reason is that he loved Readlyn. Never before in his old life nor in all the places he visited had people been so friendly to him. His face was frozen in a frown but inside The Old Grump was happier than he had ever been.
It took him a whole year but then one fine morning in mid-June a miraculous thing happened: The Old Grump smiled! And laughed! They say this sudden smile lit up the town like fireworks and his laughter burst like a marching band in a parade. Some say that he smiled and laughed at his first sight of a child riding a bicycle: a curious sight at the time. But others said it was just that it took a whole year of Friendliness for his heart to finally thaw out. And he lived in Readlyn happily ever after. The End.
-A.G. SEXTON
THE GRUMP 1990-2010
Sam Sickles 90
Arlin Matthias 91
Bud Rommel 92
Dr. Carl Venske 93
Ellen Staack 94
Delbert Wittenburg 95
Bob Ungs 96
Wes Sauerbrei 97
Doris Seydel 98
Lavern Brase 99
Harold Meier 00
Erv Fortsch 01
Ruth Steinbronn 02
Janice Heineman 03
Burton Thies 04
Loren Reiher 05
Roger Deterding 06
Don Billhorn 07
Lou Fortsch 08
Ron Leistikow 09
Verdeen Pavlec 10
MISS READLYN 1990-2010
Tracy Heinemann 90
Sarah Zimmerman 91
Tricia Moeller 92
Tonia Hesse 93
Heather Bailey 94
Shannon Hartman 95
Bobbi Jo Meyers 96
Jill Brandt 97
Amber Matthias 98
Alicia Cox 99
Roseanna Traeger 00
Chelsea Matthias 01
Jessica Kleitsch 02
Heather Boevers 03
Kira Matthias 04
Elizabeth Macken 05
Rachel Rathe 06
Ashley Kleitsch 07
Kalais Kuhlman 08
Jaime Leistikow 09
Tarissa Hagenow 10
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