Signs Of the Times

Cedar Rapids, Ia. -- My family's tour the other day of this flood-ravaged city produced plenty of depressing snapshots, but a couple of others that were more upbeat.

My grandchildren got a big charge out of the sign identifying the restaurant they saw close to the place we used to call the "Starch Works."

The Starch Works actually was Penick & Ford, and it was where my paternal grandfather -- Vaclav Maly [Vaclav was Czech for Wesley] -- was a stenciler in the 1940s.

The place is now called Penford Products.

Nearby is a restaurant at 103 8th Avenue SW called the "Flying Wienie."

Everybody wanted to get a picture of the place, and the one I got is at the top of this column.

There wasn't any activity at the Flying Wienie the Sunday morning we were there. For all I know, there was water in the basement. I've never seen many wienies that like flying in floods.

Maybe the Flying Wienie needs a dose of Viagra to get up and running again, and certainly to fly, but I'll let the home office and Obama worry about that.

Taking a look at the Flying Wienie's menu, a customer should be able to leave the place well-fed.

Not only can you get a "Chicago dog topped with mustard, dill spears, onion, tomatoes, relish, sport peppers [whatever they are], celery salt, or have it topped 'your way' for $3.45, you can get a barbecue chicken or teriyaki sandwich whole breast marinated and charbroiled, including fries for $4.25."

Plus a lot more.

Heck, if the Flying Wienie had been near Riverside Park when I was playing baseball there so often as a kid, I wouldn't have needed to go to Lindy's restaurant so frequently for my hamburgers and fries.

An earlier stop in Cedar Rapids was to Novak's Sinclair at 2300 Bowling Street SW for gas. After my son pumped $49.50 worth of unleaded into his Dodge van, I went inside to pay with a credit card.

I immediately spotted a nicely-refurbished old gas pump that was on display.

The pump had "Polly" printed on the front, complete with a green parrot.

I asked the clerk what it was, but another customer -- who said he wanted to put air in his tires, but seemed to have lots of air in his head -- interrupted our conversation and said, "It's a gas pump."

I said, "I know that. I'm just trying to find out the history of the 'Polly' gas."

The clerk didn't know, and neither did the airhead.

So I did some research on the computer when I got home.

On the "sportomotoring.com" website it said, ["The history on Polly gas is hard to find and the few sources give conflicting information. One writer says Polly began as a chain of independently-owned stations selling gasoline in California in the Teens and Twenties. This source says that Polly became a part of Wilshire Oil of Los Angeles during the Depression. Wilshire was founded in 1910, according to two sources, and in 1919, according to another. In any case, Polly stations were a common sight on the west coast from the Twenties through the Fifties before and after the war. Around 1960, Wilshire was bought by Gulf and Polly stations became Gulf stations."

The photo I took of the Polly pump at Novak's Sinclair is at the right.

Now that we've got the Flying Wienie and Polly gas covered, have a great weekend.

*

REGISTER COULD BE CUTTING ITS NEWSROOM STAFF AGAIN

The Des Moines Register may cut its newsroom staff again. That and more on my recent twitter posts:

The Register writer going to Finland and Canada is Linda Lantor Fandel. Nancy Stockdale and sports editor Bryce Miller are headed to the Olympics.half a minute ago from web

Register may cut staff (again), courtesy of Steve Buttry: http://tinyurl.com/6mvpmg 18 minutes ago from web

I think it's 10 days from now that the price of the daily Register rises from 50 cents to 75 cents. I've seen nothing about it in the paper about 2 hours ago from web

Duffy and other newspaper cartoonists should read the following item. It'll ruin your Friday, if not your entire weekend. http://tinyurl.com/5sact6 about 2 hours ago from web

The Hawkeyes and Cyclones are shut out in the coaches' preseason football poll at www.wesleyvaclav.blogspot.com about 4 hours ago from web

Read about the Flying Wienie restaurant and the old Polly gas pump in Cedar Rapids in my column at www.wesleyvaclav.blogspot.com about 5 hours ago from web

Brewers' skipper Ned Yost said he didn't like it that Cubs' fans had a four-day party at Miller Park. Blame yourself, Ned, old boy. about 21 hours ago from web

Manny Ramirez winds up with Dodgers, Ken Griffey with White Sox. I like the Griffey deal, I hope Ramirez falls on his ass. about 22 hours ago from web

Bottom line is that the Cubs cruise, 11-4, to open a 5-game lead over the Brewers. Start printing Chicago World Series tickets anytime now. about 22 hours ago from web

Late-inning highlight: Brewers' Gagne throws pitch behind Edmonds, gets ejected. That's giving lots of respect to old-guy Edmonds. about 22 hours ago from web

So it's Edmonds 5, Milwaukee 0 as the Cubs go for a four-game sweep at Miller Park. That'll drive those Brewer fans to the bar early today. about 24 hours ago from web

Hey, delete what I wrote about Jim Edmonds. He's already got 2 home runs--one a grand-slam--for the Cubs in the first 4 innings today. 02:19 PM July 31, 2008 from web

Make sure you read the guest column authored by Gloria & Glenda -- Ron Maly's editors -- at www.wesleyvaclav.blogspot.com 09:33 AM July 31, 2008 from web

As night turned into day, I had a baseball question: Is Milwaukee still in the league? 07:28 AM July 31, 2008 from web

Moranville's childish Datebook Diner writing can't hold a candle, or a peanut butter sandwich, to what Mossman did many years ago.. 07:20 AM July 31, 2008 from web

Without naming Josef Mossman, Moranville is critical of the Grumpy Gourmet's approach to food writing. Very foolish by Moranville. 07:17 AM July 31, 2008 from web

Bring back the Grumpy Gourmet. Please. I can't stand W.E. Moranville anymore. 07:15 AM July 31, 2008 from web

Gartner is the poster boy for a lousy Board of Regents, and should be made to use money from his horribly-inflated No-Name Ballpark prices. 07:13 AM July 31, 2008 from web

The price of the probe is a ghastly $250,000. Frankly, I think Iowa should find some way to get Mike Gartner to pay the bill. 07:10 AM July 31, 2008 from web