Lady Bulldogs

continued from Page #4 aym of buttonhooks is found ting blades, corkscrews, drills on multibladed eir size is that of the glove an emergency they could unpleasant task was finding the buttonhook, which was to everyone’s consternation, often misplaced. Fortunately for collectors, they are easy to find today

They were made with a variety of handles in many types of materials, and even the hooks themselves show variation, since some are small for gloves, others are husky for heavy shoes, and some are not hooks but oval-shaped loops that served the purpose of getting the button inside the buttonhole Tiny hooks measuring 1 inch in length were made for children’s and dolls’ shoes

Many buttonhook handles were made of the same steel from which the hook was made, but some were of brass, silver, gold, pewter, ivory, bakelite, celluloid, bone, horn, mother-ofpearl, oak, ebony, maple, or mahogany. Many buttonhooks were once a part of dresser sets that contained glove hooks, combs, brushes, and mirrors

The use of these hooks was not limited to shoes and gloves They were also used to fasten spats, dresses, starched shirts, and collars. They were such an important dressing tool that buttonhooks as well as shoehorns were, at one time, found in the rooms of all good hotels e in a variety of shapes and ind thousands of plain ones e stores Many of these hooks bear the patent dates 5 to 1916 By 1916, the need for buttonhooks had diminished but a few were made as recently as 1930.

My favorites are those hooks that advertise for local shoe and general stores. Finding a local store advertising button hook is quite a coup Has anyone ever found one for any of the general or hardware stores in Howe? It would be a great addition to the historical display at 101 East Haning!

ONE MONTH FROM NOW, ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7, A SPECIAL EVENT WILL OCCUR IN HOWE THE “SAVE THE CHURCH” $10 ALL YOU CAN EAT BARBEQUE AND AUCTION MORE THAN 200 ITEMS WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR SALE PLEASE PUT THIS ON YOUR CALENDAR AND PLAN TO ATTEND AND SUPPORT THE RESTORATION OF THE 122-YEAR OLD FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH BUILDING. TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE HOWE

Old church

was devastated and had no immediate direction in mind With time on my hands, I started scanning some of the old Howe Enterprise newspapers. The more I read my grandfather's work, the more I thought that I might be able to do the same thing, besides, he was a one-man operator With the advent of the Internet, there was really no reason to print, which eliminates the need for a subscription to subsidize the paper portion. Having spent my 20's in radio advertising sales, I knew that I could transition that method "free radio subscription" to "free readership subscription" and feed my family via advertisers

I met with my old boss Bill Harrison who used to own KLake and KMKT and told him of my business model and he gave me an overwhelming pat on the continued from Page #4 back as if I had just sold a $25,000 advertising package to a local car dealership. But the final decision was made when I talked to my dad. His exact words were, "If anyone can do it, you can " That was it That's all I needed to hear I was going to give this thing a shot The very first thing I did after making up my mind was to contact Dale and Lana Rideout and seek their blessing to do this. With their approval, The Howe Enterprise was back!

Living the life of my grandfather and attending school board meetings, city council meetings, selling advertising, writing news stories, and all that comes with small town news, I found myself getting to know the key players in the city. I also did stories on local successful businessmen and found out that the common denominator in all of them was commercial real estate. That led me to make the riskiest move of my life in purchasing an old downtown building That's a story of a testament of faith, but for another day

Being able to get to know the key figures in the city and they getting to know me, directly led to my job offer to work for the city on a part-time basis and now, of course, full-time

None of this would have happened without that trip into that old church To me, there's no question that God's hand has been behind this whole thing. So when you see me pushing to restore the old church, there's a deeper story.