Pizza Inn Story
From Dick Johnson (68): Dunseith, ND.
Gary and Friends,
The story from Larry was great. He has a soft way of telling about
his devious past! The guy making and spinning the pizza crust was Ron
Beckman. He opened the first pizza place in Bottineau and it was a hit
with the college kids. I wasn’t too sure about eating some ‘foreign’
thing like that at first, but have become one of the best customers in
the country. A quick story about Ron’s Pizza Palace. One night in the
late 60s we were cruising town in Big Chip Johnson’s ’66 Bonneville and
decided to make a pizza run to Bottineau. It was Big Chip, Dave Tooke,
and me. Of course everyone who knew Chip Johnson knew when the big 421
Pontiac hit the open road it was on the floor at 140+ MPH. We were in
Bottineau before we left Dunseith, so to speak. We parked in front of
the Pizza Palace and went in and ate. When we decided to go home we
walked back out to the car and a front tire was flat. It was late and
real dark out but we proceeded to change the tire and that’s when I
heard Dave Tooke say, ” Chip, were you trying to kill us or what?” I
rolled the tire around to the trunk and noticed it was as bald as a
baby’s butt! Kids have some lucky days! Thanks Gary!
Message with Larry Hackman Jr.’s reply to his dad’s message posted yesterday:
From Larry Hackman (66): Bismarck, ND
Gary
I couldn’t resist!
I had to forward my sons reply on to you. It makes you homesick for the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota doesn’t it?
The Catholic Camp is on the property that you know about and I know well. It is on the farm that was owned by Bill Aasness, who is married to my cousin
Antoinette Dietrich. They are both gone now. There daughter Iris has four children and lives in Glenfield, ND. Bill’s farm was north across the road from Long Lake on the edge of Pelican Lake. We use to go their often to visit, play in that huge barn and catch fish. I don’t know if you know but just through the trees north of that barn he had a couple of docks and boats. We caught a lot perch off them docks as kids while the dads went out in the boats. I caught my first northern on Pelican Lake while trolling on Pelican Lake with my great Uncle Tony Dietrich, son of Tony and who also is my cousin and Godfather Joe Dietrich. Yes, I snagged about a 3 lb. northern and after that I was hooked on fishing.
The last conversation I had with Antoinette she had asked about a bunch of pigeons that my brothers and I had caught in the loft of that big barn and had taken back to Dunseith for pets. She was wandering if they had all died. I told her we kept them in a shed in our yard for about month. Dad made sure we kept them fed and watered. We would ride our bikes down to the railroad tracks by the grain elevator with a pail and scrape grain up from the ground. After awhile we grew tired of this and dad said if you don’t want to take care of them, then we had to let them go. We opened the door and they flew away. I asked Antoinette (Tony) if she noticed them back on the farm. She laughed and said no. I replied that they must not have been homing pigeons then. She laughed more, but she said when we took them that she was worried that they would die. I replied, that they did well as long as we had them, and I don’t remember any of them dying.
Isn’t it strange, how small the world is. My granddaughter is running around and enjoying the same area that I did as a kid,
Amazing isn’t it?
Larry
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2010 1:40 PM
Subject: RE: A Henry&Larry Story
Awesome story!!! Follow me boys!!!! I was up in the turtle mtn.’s on Sunday picking up Sadie from the youth camp. It’s the first time my kids have been up there since they have been older. They could not believe there grandpa grew up in such a beautiful place. Sadie had the time of her life, maybe because the Hackman spirits were with her showing her how to have a good time. She went hiking, canoeing, camp fires, The priest was from Harvey & all the kids were from all over (Rolla, Rugby, Esmond, Harvey, Bottineau). I told them we might have to make a trip up there this coming weekend to have a jumbo & enjoy the sites and sounds of the turtle Mountains (the hidden gem of North Dakota). Your sure welcome to come along & show us where you grew up & roamed the land. Camping?? Motel?? What do you think.
Folks,
I was going thru some old newspaper articles and found this. I debated long and hard whether or not to post it. After sleeping on it and thinking about it from a 3rd persons point of view, I decided I would. As you can see, I had a service number too, of which I still have memorized. It was shortly after this that they started using the SSN’s for service numbers. Kenny Nerpel, I’ll bet your service number is very close to mine. You may be one or two either up or down from mine. I was drafted, but I extended a year to become a Dental Specialist. At the time it was a knee jerk reaction signing up for that extra year, but as it turned out, it was one of the smartest moves I’ve ever made with a lifetime of benefits. I would have more than likely never joined and retired from the Army Reserves, following my active duty service, had I had any other MOS than Dental.
Gary
