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Editor’s Note
My Favorite Car
M
y first car was a 1972 Chevrolet Nova that I bought from my Dad for $1. It was orange — flame orange — with a black roof and black vinyl interior. You could say it was distinct. I had a lot of adventures in that car. One summer, while I was still in college, my boy friend and I went to the Minnesota State Fair. We were driving home at midnight when we heard an unnatural rattle and the “check engine light” came on. We pulled off the freeway and found a phone booth. (This was pre-cell phone days.) We were two hours away from my parents and 30 minutes away from his parents. He refused to call them for assistance. I was furious. Finally, frustrated beyond speech, I called my parents. My dad talked me down and told me I had to insist that my boy friend call his parents. By 3 a.m. I was finally settled in their spare bedroom. My mom always said that was the beginning of the end for that boy friend. By far my greatest adventure involved the radio in that car. It had a radio antenna embedded in the front windshield. At some point along the way my dad had the windshield replaced. After that the radio never worked properly. No doubt you can imagine how the conversations went with my dad: Me: “The radio doesn’t work.” Dad: “Of course it does.” Me: “No it doesn’t.” Dad: “It never worked.” Me: “Yes it did.” Dad: “The radio has gone bad.” Me: “It went bad at the same time you replaced the windshield?” Dad: “It never worked in the first place.” Me: “Yes it did.” And on and on.
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Business Central Magazine // M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 1 5
PUBLISHER Teresa Bohnen MANAGING EDITOR Gail Ivers ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dawn Zimmerman CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
One day, while I was interning at the St. Cloud Hospital, I noticed a Harmon Auto Glass store on my route. That was where my dad had gone to replace the window in my Nova. I drove over there and explained my situation to the service advisors. I assured them that I did not expect them to replace the window. I just wanted to prove to my dad that I was right about the antenna. They understood and found a matching window. They unplugged my antenna, ' plugged in the new antenna and Voila! Music flooded into my car. Ha! A sweet “I told you so”. You may think that this was my favorite car because it was my first. Or maybe because it was a Chevy. (No doubt Christy and Grant Gilleland of Gilleland Chevrolet would like to think that’s the reason! See their story on page 40.) Or maybe because it was orange. Not so. This is my favorite car because the antenna didn’t work. Because the antenna didn’t work I took the car to Harmon Glass in St. Cloud to prove a point to my dad. One of the men who waited on me that day invited me to go to the Benton County Fair with him...and later to spend my life with him. That was 32 extraordinary years ago. And that was one special car. Until next issue,
King Banaian, St. Cloud State University
Gail Ivers, St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce
Bill Blazar, Minnesota Chamber
Tracy Knofla, High Impact Training
Whitney Bina, St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce Teresa Bohnen, St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce Sharon Henry, St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce Dr. Fred E. Hill, St. Cloud State University
Jocelyn Kortan and Joe Westerlind, Mahowald Insurance Betsey Lund, Lund Sauter, P. A. Mary MacDonell Belisle, mary macdonell belisle wordingforyou John Pepper, Freelance Writer Greg Vandal, Vox Liberi Dawn Zimmerman, The Write Advantage
ADVERTISING ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/SALES Wendy Hendricks, Hendricks Marketing AD TRAFFIC & CIRCULATION Yola Hartmann, Hazel Tree Media ART DESIGN & PRODUCTION Yola Hartmann, Hazel Tree Media COVER PHOTO Joel Butkowski, BDI Photography ACCOUNTING Judy Zetterlund WEBSITE Vicki Lenneman CORPORATE SPONSOR
110 Sixth Avenue South P.O. Box 487, St. Cloud, MN 56302-0487 Phone (320) 251-2940 Fax (320) 251-0081 www.BusinessCentralMagazine.com FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION CONTACT Wendy Hendricks, (320) 656-3808
PS: In the interest of full disclosure... this is not an actual picture of my car. But it could be!
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