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Alas, Lincoln's Russell Stover plant next door closed more than 30 years ago. Tonja remembers it quite well though, because her mom worked the chocolate packing line. During her sophomore year (when we started dating), she dropped her mom off at work at Stover's, dropped her dad off at Pete's IGA, took her little sister to Culler Junior High, then drove herself to Northeast High School. Hard to believe, but less than a generation ago a nice family of four with a successful small business pretty typically shared a single car, which fit neatly into one-wide driveway and a single stall garage in a suburban ranch style. As we were reflecting on this, I also mentioned that our perch in Lazlo's was actually inside the Russian Inn, which was about the only place a foot patrol officer assigned to Beat 1 on third shift could dine during my rookie year on the police force. Tonja knew we were in the Russian Inn, the same spot her mom had her lunch break. So, here's my question: anyone else out there (other than this poet) who remembers the Russian Inn?
21 comments:
I don't remember the Inn, but I remember S&H Green Stamps as advertised in the window of Pete's IGA. (Also Blue Stamps, and Gold Bond Stamps)
Russell Stover doesn't make my favorite kind of candy.
Pete's at 31st and U when everything you need was contained in a thousand square feet and you could walk to the store because every neighborhood had one.
I don't recall that name from circa 1963, but the greasy spoon there was an interesting mix of cops and the local low-life at 2:00 AM.
One of the more interesting but hopefully untrue rumors regarded the source of the liquid that occassionally dripped onto the flat-top grill.
Clean
And BTW, being a night watchman at Russell Stovers was a dream job for anyone who likes candy as much as I do. Ten hours of walking the entire building (except for the basement boiler room and chocolate storage rooms) with nothing to do but hit the Detex clock and sample the candy on the production lines that Tonja probably worked on years after.
And - I got to wear a cheesy tin badge before I got a real one for the LPD. (Well, even back then the LPD badges weren't that great, but they were real, anyway.)
Clean
My mom worked at Russels Stovers and frequently brought home boxes of their candy (seconds I suppose). I fell in love with their "turtles", but I also liked the haystacks (crispy coconut drenched in chocolate).
My mother worked at Stovers too. ONE day is all, then went on to Dorsey Lab which started in the old LPD place (233 bldg) she did 34 and a half years working in the lab. Now called Novartis, today few company's have the great people and such. When I asked her today about Stovers she remembered it as a day in hell.
Only very special people can do the candy job I guess.
Brought back memories today Director. The old Pete's IGA still looks a lot like it did in the 1970's but a Real Estate management company uses it as an office now. Do you remember where Trixie's IGA was at about the same time? The old Trixie's and Pete's looked like they were made from the same cookie cutter. I remember hauling quarters of beef into the small cooler at Trixie's. I don't know how I managed it but I remember putting ten carcasses (40 quarters) in that small cooler during a big beef promotion they had advertised. I just got back from a grocery shopping trip and I had a difficult time walking up the stairs with two bags of groceries. Oh to be young again.
Gun Nut
Gun Nut
The building is still there, (though vastly changed in appearance) on the northeast corner of 13th and K. Trixie's was the only grocery store in town where you could buy beer--through some odd grandfather clause. Other IGA stores of that era included Demma's, Mr. B's, Reifscheider's, Klein's, B&R, Bill & Tony's, and one in Indian Village and one at 70th and O whose names escape me right at the moment.
Tom:
Don't forget Leon's in Rathbone Village (originally 13th and South).
Steve,
Of course, Leon's! Was it Town & Country at 70th and 0 in the building now occupied by Walgreen's? It was two words, I remember that.
Tom:
I don't know. 70th and O was about half way to Omaha when I was a kid! :)
The one at 70th & "O" St in about 1970 to 1974 or so was a Jack & Jill maybe? I delivered a lot of quarters of beef to it whatever it was named.
Gun Nut
Seems to me 23rd & D Street had a corner market in the early 1970's however the name escapes me.
D Street Market, on the Northeast corner. Building is still there. By the mid-1970's is was a pinball-foosball arcade.
I lived in the neighborhood of 23rd & D for several years and that building was a landmark. That building used to have a pair of Lion statues out front. After Vandals smashed those Lions the property just kept going downhill. I hope they caught the vandals.
Gun Nut
In the 40's I visited my grandmother a lot in the north bottoms. There was Reifschneiders, of course, but around the corner from Grandmas was a little store in the back, I think, of a garage. All I know the lady sold for sure was candy, but I think she also carried a few staples like milk and bread. Anyone remember that? The building was still there the last time I was down there.
5:27,
I suspect there were several such "micro stores" around town. There was a tiny store with bread, milk, and candy in a garage of a house at 63rd and Fremont when I was in high school 1968-71. Some of these small ethnic shops that spring up around Lincoln today remind me of the past.
Clean,
Little different then The French Laundry?
Google Earth says it's 1600 miles from the French Laundry to Lazlo's, but it's a lot further than that from the FL to the Russian Inn. (I've never been to Lazlo's, but it sounds good on-line.) Even ignoring the time difference, they would be a galaxy apart. But a box of seconds at Russell Stovers (about 2.5 lb) was $1.00. And if you want more info about the French Laundry, it's firstname@lastname.com.
In 1972, during college days...we also went to a grocery store in the basement of Brandeis or was it Gold's?
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