Albert the Bull

We all know who Albert the Bull is don't we? He's the big cow standing at the south end of town with his butt in the face of all those summer swimmers enjoying pool, right? And we're all aware that he was named after banker Albert Kruse who founded the T-Bone days festivities that celebrated Audubon's cattle industry. Al knew that the folks in Audubon could throw the bull**** as well as anyone else and he wanted to make sure that the rest of the mid-west knew it.

So he lined up a bunch of cattle cars, loaded them with some fat, corn fed, moo moos and shipped them off to Chicago to become grilling material. That in itself was a great promotional idea. But Al knew how to make it even more of a successful event. He added another cattle car and filled it up with a bunch of cigar smoking, card playing, booze drinking local boys and sent them along to the Windy City to chaperon the four legged critters. It was this stroke of genius that led to the infamous saying, "What happens on the T-Bone train, stays on the T-Bone train".

The wives and girlfriends who stayed behind to defend the Audubon home front welcomed the boys back in town and wondered how all of them could have contracted the same strange flu strain in such a short time. At least, that was the explanation Al had for all the red eyes, hoarse voices, and lethargic movements demonstrated by the boys as they stumbled off the train. Had they been shipping hogs into Chicago instead of cattle, this could have been the first reported incidence of Swine Flu. Regardless, the trip was deemed a huge success and a major coup for the Audubon beef industry. This despite the fact that the bar tab for the trip consumed the profits of one fourth of the cattle sale.

The impact of T-Bone Days was also felt back in Audubon as several big events took place locally. There was a big parade that consisted of Jimmy Blake riding a fire truck, some boys scouts sitting in a canoe attached to a hay rack, six tractors, two dozen horses, and the high school band. The parade went great and was a crowd favorite. But one of the Wahlert boys who played the tuba suggested that in the future, the band should march ahead of the horses instead of behind. There was also the big T-Bone dinner dance featuring salmon, chicken breast, and pork chops held in the Memorial building. The place really got hopping when Sammy High and his High Jinks band cranked out the tunes. Things were really swinging up until almost 9:30 when most of the men decided it was time to go home and hit the sack. It seems they hadn't quite fully recovered from the "Chicago" flu that they picked up on the train.

I am bringing up this little bit of T-Bone trivia as a way of tweaking your interest into this major part of Audubon history. I am including a link to a fact page about Albert the Bull. You can read all about the big guy and maybe rekindle some special memories that you have. Were you there for the dedication? Have you ever pitched a tent and stayed in the campground? Do you remember the first time you went up and hugged old Albert's jewels? If you can't connect to the website by clicking on the link, try copying and pasting it to your address bar. Otherwise, just google Albert the Bull Audubon Iowa.




http://www.worldslargestthings.com/iowa/albertfactsheet.htm

Recognize Anyone

I thought I'd try and post a couple of pictures on this thing. I realize that there might be someone out there who doesn't want their pic sent out into cyberspace. But there really shouldn't be anyone looking at this site who isn't part of our group. This was 20 years ago.

Hey guys,

After sending out an e-mail to my "Reunion" contact list, I've been hearing back from a few of you. I got a nice reply from Terry & Norene Baier and she reported on the recent ice and snow that they've had in Audubon. Here's what things have been like in good old Audubon recently:

 Hi Clark,
Good to here from you and looking forward to the class reunion and the hot
and humid days of August.
This week has been a nightmare from!@#$%^&*(). It looks like a battle zone
at our place, so many trees damaged and down will take many days to clean
up this spring, but at least there won't be snow and ice on the ground
making it impossible to walk.  The plus side is that we do have
electricity now.  Terry and I spent quality time together wrapped in
blankets with our dog Molly and cat Chessie, reading, eating by
candlelight and watching a movie at night on a 7" portable DVD player. Our
son and his family live up by the Audubon/Carroll county border and
haven't had electricity since Wednesday. He is a mechanic and worked on
some of the utility trucks that came up from other states to help. They
thought it could be a week or longer before they get it back up. Luckily
they have a generator to keep things going.
Is Spring coming soon?????????????????????????
Looking forward to seeing everyone in August.
Terry and Dorene Baier
>

Reunion Planning

Hey everyone,

Greetings from one of your old AHS classmates. I'm putting this site together as a way of planning and coordinating our upcoming 40 year reunion. I'm hoping everyone will use this site to respond and offer information about themselves and their activities since we last got together. A word of warning! I'm no computer geek and this is a huge learning process for me. So I'm not sure how all of this will turn out. We'll play it by ear and see what happens. No matter how I set this thing up, it will only be successful if people utilize it and get involved. My idea is that our classmates will contribute information, pictures, or anything else that they want to share leading up to our actual reunion on August 7, 2010. As with anything related to the internet., I wouldn't recommend posting anything that you don't want the rest of the world seeing. But I envision that the only ones who will be viewing this blog are classmates and their families.
I'm working on the design for the site and will making some changes as I go along. In the meantime, feel free to throw something out. I'll also be needing to update my mailing list, both for regular mail and e-mail. So I'll be asking many of you for help in locating some folks.

That's it for now.

Clark